Friday, January 20, 2012

The Glass Is Half Full... With A Crack In It

So my glass is half full, with a crack and a lipstick stain because it never got washed.  In case you can't tell from that sentence I'm a pessimist, and a bit sarcastic.  Most days I keep the pessimism in check but other days I embrace it and let it out full force.  Today is already one of those days.  Mike dreads those days because I will probably nitpick everything he does and give him a long to do list.  I see it as the pessimism pots gets a little more full each day and eventually has to boil over.
So why did it boil over today?  A couple of reasons (usually the case).  The first is our shower.  The glass door has a plastic piece along the bottom that seals the water in.  That piece began to break about the time Ayla was born and finally broke off the week that Mike left on a job out of the country for a month.  Why is this a big deal?  The water is now funneled through that broken spot straight onto the floor.  Giving a great place for mold to grow.  Did I mention I'm allergic to mold?  As in, have asthma attacks?  This should be simple to fix.  Just call the handyman and get it replaced.  Yeah, sure.   It took the handyman a week to find the piece.  Then three weeks of excuses before replacing it.  And because he was going off of the old part to measure he cut off the piece that blocks the water flow.  So now I have a new part that sticks, funnels water out of the shower and it only took about four weeks to come to this point.  Ugh!
My second reason happened last night.  Mike and I have been trying to have a weekly date night.  We did this before Ayla was born and just started again two weeks ago.  We thought it would be nice to have dinner out at Cheesecake Factory.  Currently I am on a dairy free diet because Ayla is horribly allergic and the only way we could control it was for her to breastfeed and me have no dairy at all.  (That's a story all on it's own that will be told at a later date.)  So we called ahead  to make sure they have some dairy free options.  We were told since each order is made individually they would simply make my dish without dairy.  When we got there we asked the waitress what items were dairy free and she also said to just pick something and it would be made without dairy.  Well, some of their food would just not taste the same without butter so I went with what seemed a safe choice, wasabi crusted ahi tuna with rice and stir fry veggies.  That would seem dairy free, right?  When my meal arrives it is the rice and veggies as promised with a unseasoned (not a single speck of even salt, pepper, nothing), seared tuna and no sauce.  So I asked the waitress what happened.  And she tells me, "They leave off the part that has dairy."  The wasabi crust and sauce have dairy?!  Well, that changes the dish just a little!  She was able to find me a red pepper sauce with no dairy but come on!  If the main part of the dish has dairy could we maybe mention that before I get a really bland meal?  The things we will sacrifice so our kids are healthy...
Ahhh, I feel better now that that's out :)
On a more fun note I did add more cute pictures to facebook.  Ayla is sitting up now and so pleased with herself :)

4 comments:

Mary Child said...

Hey- long time, no post! Glad to see you're back in blog world. Although, I have to say, I almost NEVER am- and I comment even less frequently- so you should consider yourself special today!

I've always been a bit of a pessimist myself, so I can relate to the disappointment of a bland meal at Cheesecake Factory (how tragic) and a mold-growing problem in the shower is TRULY tragic.. yuck. But I have always been a bit more of a drama queen than you, and I have to say that I find it quite amusing that becoming a Mama means Jill finally has drama!!! ;)

I'll be sure to drop by again to hear more of your dairy-free adventures next month when I'm online again!

Give the kids a hug for us, and take care! We miss you guys!

Jill Child McGowan said...

I do have to say the waitress did card me so that felt good. I haven't been carded since before the kids.

Karen said...

Hey Jill...now that you've 'washed the glass', you can just put it to the back of the cabinet, use another, and move on. :) It is so much better to get it out, isn't it? Even when you're not sure that anyone is listening...lol.

How disappointing about your dinner. I know how you look forward to someone taking care of you when you finally get a chance to get out. But then, to be spoiled by a bad meal...that was really too bad. This am I was searching nutritional info on a Chinese dish, and one of the search results popped up P.F. Chang's nutri. info. As I scrolled thru the menu I reached some listings that were 'Gluten Free'. It wasn't until that point that it occurred to me that I can't think of much of anything in Chinese cuisine that would contain dairy traditionally. They do include the customary list of possible food allergens, however. Here is a link to their menu, for which they start out with a statement asking you to inform the manager of any food allergies, so it appears they take it very seriously. If you like Chinese enough to make it your date night, you might want to look over the menu before and even call the restaurant ahead to verify certain dishes you may be interested in, instead of doing it on the fly at the restaurant. Even ask which dishes would not be so flavor compromised, so you don't end up with a crustless crusted dish w/o sauce. :-( There is still one in the Falls...isn't there?
http://www.pfchangs.com/menu/nutritionalinfo.aspx

As for your 'handyman' dilemma (I have one just like yours, as you know).....Don't you sometimes question the 'handy' part of the title...lol? If not repaired at this point, some jobs are better left to experts. As I recall, there are several glass companies and/or tub/shower enclosure companies in the little industrial area across from the Falls (off of 87th avenue). You might want to give one of them a call. Just what you save on aggravation and health issues is worth the extra cost.

Anyhow...thanks for the blog post. Ayla looks so cute just sitting there. You are going to be running after her in no time! Sarah asked me how long she kept her headband on??! :-)

Queen of the Castle said...

I would also like to know why that meal would have so much dairy in it. It is super strange that they couldn't do the crusting. I don't think I've ever made a crust with a milk product that couldn't successfully be removed and why they couldn't make the sauce with out dairy. I think I would have been very upset as well.
I have a very good friend that has ciliac disease, so she can't eat gluten. I've been out to eat with her and wondered sometimes why restaurants seem to think that because you have a food allergy that you are okay with bland food. (Usually we ended up going to get sushi without the fake crab and she'd bring her own soy sauce .)
Karen is right about Asian food (except Indian, but that is usually just yogurt that you can avoid if the place is authentic and you know what you are ordering). Are there any reputable vegan restaurants in your area?
If we lived closer I'd make you some yummy vegan ice cream and eat it with you while we lament our lives.