My Ability to Obsess Knows No Bounds

So, first a quick update and then a moderately humorous story about this weekend.

Update: the doctor's office called and nine of our 15 eggs have fertilized...some may start to tomorrow as well.  We are cautiously optimistic!

Story...so once the pressure of 'will we or won't we cancel this cycle' lifted, I found myself distinctly lacking anything to obsess over.  Fortunately, I believe it is the job of weather people to scare the living jeebus out of all of humanity, so I quickly found a replacement anxiety...tornadoes!  Before I go any further in the story, let me say - I am so glad that the tornado this weekend in Witchita didn't cause any fatalities but I'm terribly sorry for the damage it, and other tornadoes around the country did.   I am not making light of any of those situations.  Tornadoes are truly scary and as we saw in Joplin last year, devastating at times.  The point of this story is to, well, illustrate how my craziness knows no bounds...not to make light of the seriousness of the situation.

That said, I think we can all agree that any possibility for extreme weather does seem to get the weather folk hyped up into a near frenzy...Al Roker was practically foaming at the mouth...this weekend's severe weather outbreak was no different.  All I heard for 48 hours was "potential for massive tornado outbreaks", "major hail and wind damage", and "dangerous lightning".   Then, they started referencing 'emergency kits'. 

My only real experience with emergency kits is the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips I keep in the pantry for uncontrollable chocolate cravings, but I quickly realized this was not the same thing.  Words like 'weather radios' and 'rations' were bandied about.  And of course, this winter has been completely bizarre...so all of this information added up into my head to...must make emergency kit to survive (surely) impending tornado.  I don't really know what it was in me that decided this was Doomsday-worthy, but I hightailed it over to RadioShack to pick up a weather radio.

Apparently, along with all of the rest of Kansas City.  The sales clerk glared at me (I waited until 3pm on Saturday to freak out...I guess the rest of the city was ahead of my own personal Impending Doom Clock) and informed me that all she had left were the non-'wake you up' weather radios.  I told her I wasn't even aware 'waking me up' was an option but since I can't sleep through my cat yakking on the carpet, I didn't really foresee this as a problem.  She showed me to the pile of picked over weather radios and began to catalog the various differences (Solar powered but not battery powered!  Hand crank powered but not solar powered!  Charges your cell phone!  Flashlight!  Performs minor surgeries!).  Not wanting to appear ignorant of the important features in a weather radio, I did what I typically default to in shopping situations.  Which is the prettiest at the best price?  I'll take that one.

And so, I took my weather radio home (after having bought an insane amount of batteries, as well) opened it up and stuck some batteries in.  I felt better already!  Smugly, I looked down the street at my neighbors...surely, THEY didn't have weather radios and mentally catalogued which neighbors I would have to inform of Impending Doom.

Next, I needed to create an emergency kit.  I scoured the house looking for emergency kit worthy items, which included:
-bottles of water
-Kashi granola bars
-a half empty bottle of hand sanitizer
-Clean clothes and a spare pair of shoes for myself (I allotted Nick some space in the kit for his own clean clothes but he grunted at me...a kind of grunt that seemed to imply I was WASTING MY TIME)
-Extra hair ties
-Baby wipes
-Extra cat food and cat food dishes
-Medicines
-Wedding photos
-Folder with our important documents in it
-Flashlights
-Extra cell phone charger
-Extra cell phone batteries
-laptop
-toilet paper and paper towels
-camera

Frankly, for a spur of the moment emergency kit, I was quite pleased with myself.  However, this did take up two duffel bags...and I quickly realized I would also need to grab the cats and head to the basement along with the bags.  I practiced a couple of 'cat grab and bag grab' maneuvers down the stairs and timed myself...about 45 seconds (would have been shorter but Ernie got away from me - I ended up sticking him in the back, zipping it up.  I left his head out - don't worry!).  I had forgotten in my calculations that the other cat, Zoe, ALWAYS heads to the basement automatically during the storms so I wouldn't have to worry about her.

I felt pretty content with my last minute preparations and settled down with Nick for a quiet evening at home.  As luck would have it, my preparations were completely unnecessary, as the storms missed us almost completely.  Unfortunately, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas were not so lucky, but I thank my lucky stars that we were missed this time.   In all seriousness - I don't know why I've never really given much thought to emergency preparations, but I think I'm going to work on creating a 'real' emergency kit given our location in Tornado Alley.   There are some great lists on Pinterest that break up the items you need to purchase by month or week so it's not such an up-front cost.  Plus, it's exactly the type of activity to distract me from embryo-update and pregnancy-test waiting.  :)

This Sauce Will Change Your Life

Maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but it has changed my life.  Readers...I introduce to you...Mandarano Balsamic Glaze.  (cue the angels singing)

What is it?  Other than a life-changing sauce, it is...

• Ketchup's older (according to the website, the recipe is 400 years old), much more sophisticated Italian cousin
• A balsamic vinegar reduction in a way-too-convenient bottle
• What has been on my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for days

I love making a balsamic reduction...but it requires a great deal of time and patience.   Essentially, you just poor balsamic vinegar into a sauce pan and literally let it 'reduce' over heat.   And I would say of the times I've made it, 1 out of 3 three times I look away for 10 seconds too long and ruin the reduction.  So, when I discovered you could buy this delicious and luxurious sauce in a bottle, I knew I had to try it.

To date, I've had it on:

• Fresh mozzarella (a classic) and goat cheese
• Granny Smith apples
• Strawberries
• As a garnish on caprese chicken (chicken breast marinated in balsamic vinegar and garlic, then sauteed  and topped with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato...or in my case, some roasted red peppers I needed to use up)  Nick proclaimed this dish Top Chef worthy (he's easily fooled by presentation).
• Scrambled eggs
• A spoon by itself

If you're interested, you can buy it here.  Anyone want to go in on a case?

I can't remember how exactly I came across it, but I know it started in one of those Pinterest wormholes where you start looking at one pin and then that takes you to some new website which takes you somewhere else and then, voila!  You're ordering balsamic glaze at 4AM.  Not that I did that or anything.

Oh, P.S.  I started the Lupron injections today.  I forgot how much fun it is to stick yourself with a needle every day.  Luckily, my trusty Nate the Needle coffee mug was there to keep me company.

P.P.S.  It's probably a sign of how laissez-faire I am about this cycle that only 5% of the words in this post were dedicated to IVF.  Very Zen.