8oz pasta of your choice (I went with the gluten free Ritoni pasta)
2 Cups Beef broth or 2-3 bullion cubes
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
Brown beef on low/med heat and drain
Add water, beef broth, milk and pasta
Simmer for about 25 minutes or until pasta is soft to your liking
Add salt and pepper to taste
Optional: the original recipe suggests adding some “squirt” of flavor like soy sauce, ketchup or Worcestershire sauce. I oped out of this, as I wanted my hamburger helper like Ma always made it.
Serve with some bread and butter.
*The ground beef: I used some organic, free range, super natural, hippie ground beef. Seriously, I think the cows wore tie-dye and multi-colored beads.
Happy Birthday, I miss you and wish you were still here with us today.
So much has changed since we last talked, and I think you would be proud to see me today; my daughter, my career.
I often think of what our lives would be like today if you hadn’t have passed to the great beyond. Would we still be together? What would you be doing for your career? Would you have started playing World of Warcraft with me? Would we have raised kids together? Would we have gotten divorced? I bet you would have played a Night Elf Druid :p and then when we switched to Horde, you would have rolled a priest (or maybe you would never switch to Horde!?)
You gave so much to me during a time at which I was angry with the world. You gave me the stability and assurance and love which I never really had before. I miss you a whole heap these days, but it’s a different kind of “missing” someone. I miss you and wish we could have had more. Now I am in love with my daughter and my life and am loving every day I get to spend with her and grow in my career.
I found the first drawing you gave me, it’s amazing! I hadn’t seen it in years and it brought a smile to my face I thought about the writing on the back and admired your beautiful handwriting and artistic ability. I also remembered that song I sang/played for you when we got back together in high-school. I miss you.
I have only wanted to quit smoking a few times since starting 6 years ago. I watched my grandpa die at an early age of lung cancer and grandma die from emphysema. Somehow those sad and preventable events never influenced my decision to continue with this filthy habit.
After my daughter was born I cut back to about 1-2 smokes a day and was doing all-right until I started drinking again, which as we all know goes together like Facebook and Farmville or Twitter and tweets.
Recently I have been considering how my presence in my daughter’s life is one of the things that motivates everything I do. I also find myself considering mistakes I have made un the past. I often think of that “oh s#!t why did I do that” feeling you get when you realize you could have stopped your bank account from being overdrawn or your engine from burning up from lack of oil. I think of these things and put myself 30 years down the road and imagine sitting in the doctors office…
“We have your results”
Silence on my part.
“We have found a cancerous growth in each one of your lungs”
The “oh s#!t moment” hits my heart like a brick and anxiety floods my veins.
I think “Why the hell did I smoke all of those years? I have to pay for each and every puff, drag and hit I’ve taken from a cigarette.”
I will face numerous cancer treatments and daily fear of being away from my family and dearest baby girl. I will regret every day that I enjoyed a smoke outside on a porch, on a crowded bar patio and in Perkins with Bobby (when you could still smoke in there). Needless to say I don’t look forward to that day.
My dear reader, by now you’re thinking “just quit you numbskull” and I agree with you. However we all know quitting smoking is extremely difficult and often not successful. My motivator is my own life and being present in the lives of my loved ones. It is ensuring that the “oh s#!t” moment never occurs due to smoking my lungs and throat away.
I have a plan thought up, I’m considering how my personality works and how I deal with difficult issues in my life. For that my dear reader, there must be another blog post.
RT @scottjohnson: Steam age checker thinks I was born Jan 1st, 1901. I like to think they see me as barely hanging on to my final breaths b…
3 days ago
(or maybe you would never switch to Horde!?)