A Mo'Rockin Good Time

Sometimes ya gotta stop and smell the ro...cks.

A step by step tutorial by Faith Lindquist.

First you wait for a beautiful day in March, when there's no snow on the ground. (Say what?)

 Then you put on your brand new, white tennis shoes.

 Next, you gaze in wonder about the weird, hard thing you just found on the ground.

Then you look back to make sure you didn't grab the wrong one.

 And you realize your short legs won't allow you to take that step without a sliver involved and you ask your mommy for help.

 You repeat this process 32 times, or as many as necessary, each time saying "Mo Rocks."

 Don't forget to look adorable and melt your mom's heart in the process.

 It didn't happen unless someone took a picture of you standing by said rock pile.

Dudes, stand back and admire your work.

Over a cold glass of -- chocolate milk.

The End.

Death by Google

Raise your hand if you've ever used your favorite search engine to diagnose yourself with Osteomyelitis.

....(still waiting for hands)

 Just me then? For those who don't know, osteomyelitis is when an ingrown toenail becomes so infected, it spreads to the bone, therefore causing an excess of pedicures and probably death.

Google is a good friend of mine. Just in the last year, I've used it to learn about

Bailey's Irish Cream
Curmudgeon (guessing I was looking up the spelling)
Famous Christmas song lyrics
Jennifer Nettles' husband (Google Images of course)
Ombre Hair
The Snotsucker (eww)
When Kids Should Use a Pillow
(and last but not least)
Yom Kipper (because why not).

And that's just my work computer. While it has been helpful for the above, Google, and especially Google Images, has never helped me in diagnosing a health issue, except to misdiagnose it via exaggeration. Leave it to me to convince myself a common cold is early-onset dementia.

You'd think I'd learn, but when Faith had a mild fever on Friday morning, followed by two bumps on her lip that popped up late Saturday and Sunday, I was sure it was a coldsore... or infantigo, or scarlet fever, or fever blisters, or symptoms from a cold, or (and this is the one I was leaning to) the end of the world.

Pretty sure Rob contemplates the big D every time Faith gets sick as I turn a molehill into the Rockies.

Enough was enough on Monday. I called the nurse line at our pediatrician's office because I wasn't satisfied with what the other nurse line told me on Sunday. (Rosacea or something? No. That wasn't nearly tragic enough.) After relaying Faith's symptoms, she told me a Dr. would like to see her.

The Dr. took about .024 seconds to look at her lip, and then a speck tinier than Whoville on her finger and diagnose Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease.

Do NOT. I repeat DO NOT go Google Imaging this thing.

But if you really want to, here's a link: DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YA!

Thankfully, Faith has/had a VERY mild case so it's just the two bumps on her lip that are visible to the normal eye. After learning there was absolutely nothing we could do for her, other than ice cream, we celebrated with dinner at Subway. The Lindquists go big or go home y'all. I was in the best mood of my life that night since I knew WTF "it" was. Lesson: don't visit Dr. Google...that is, unless you want to learn about:

ADHD in adults
Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti
Evil Knievel
Famous moms and daughters who look alike
Growth on dog's gum (there I go again)
and Nacho Toppings.

(courtesy of our home computer). 

What have you Googled lately?

Groundhogs Love Diamonds

It's three months in to my/Rob's by association New Year's resolution to run one race a month.

January's race was the Children's Therapeutic Learning Center (TLC) Groundhog Run in Kansas City.

 Dudes, it was underground, which meant we got to wear shorts and t-shirts for our January race. You'll see why this is so darn tootin' special here in a sec. This race was a 5k, so 3.1 miles. We had the opportunity to purchase our finish line photos, but when Rob informed me that mine looked like I was making Faith's "poop face" I decided against adding it to my shopping cart.

Nicole's Finish Time: 28:51, 9:29 per mile
Rob's Finish Time: 28:08, 9:16 per mile

For those not familiar with running, those are not fast times at Ridgemont High. But we aren't doing it to break records. I am hoping to beat Rob just once this year though!

February's race was the Love 2 Run 4 miler, also in KC.

For this race, for which the start time temp was predicted to be 7, I wore 5 layers up top, three layers over my bootay, two pairs of socks and 1 pair of gloves. It was colder than a fill-in-the-blank, but my hands finally warmed up at mile two. Here's our pre-race pic. It's a ritual, but only this one meets the low standards for posting.

And the results are in. May I have the envelope please?

Team - Faith's Mom and Dad Finish Position - 12

Team Score (times): 1:13:24.3

O'all  Cum.
   Place Bib No Name                     City                Gend Place  Place      Time
      1    318  Rob Lindquist           Council Bluffs  IA     M    61     61     36:31.9      
      2    317  Nicole Lindquist        Council Bluffs  IA     F    62    123     36:52.3  

 Since this was a Valentinesy race, we competed as a couple. While we finished 12th 

out of 15 in our age group, if we were a combined two years older, we would've placed third. 

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. At least our finisher's photos were better...

 Well, it's debatable. I could be making the "poop face," but it's too hard to tell.

In other news, there were two proposals.

Don't ever propose BEFOFE the finish line. Classic rookie mistake. And now for one of my favorite pictures of all time.

Moving onto March, we ran the Dash for Diamonds 5K in downtown Omaha.  The winners got real diamonds in case you needed an excuse to train.

Since the race turned out not to be USA Track and Field Certified and therefore not an actual 5K, our outfits --not our times-- were the highlight of the day. Check it.

I won't post our times, but I did place 17 out of 80 in my age group. Rob beat me again, but only by 22 seconds this time. I'm closing on him. Literally, look at my closing the deal here :)

So that, my friends is the story of how Groundhogs came to Love Diamonds.

Coming up:
April - Novartis 10K in Lincoln
May - Mud, Sweat and Beers 7K at Quarry Oaks
June - Dam to Dam 20K in Des Moines.

As I say to Rob before every race, "May the best Lindquist win!"

A Two Oreo Kind of Day

This post could also be called "White People Problems" (if you haven't seen that website, it's hilarious) as none of what I'm about to tell you is devastating. It's just about how my day Sucked. Yes, with a capital S.

It started with losing one of my diamond earrings. I knew I lost it either in the bedroom or bathroom. I half-heartedly looked for it (avoiding problems is my specialty) and reluctantly told Rob when he got out of the shower. He got back in the shower, lifted up the bathmat and found the earring and its back. I pointed out this was the second time he's found one of my missing earrings. His reply: "Yeah, because I don't wanna have to buy you new ones." Touche.

I dropped Faith off at daycare, only to discover three hours later when I checked my phone that I'd left in my car, I forgot to pay my monthly daycare payment. A voicemail informed me of my $25 late payment fee. Ugh. I would say "don't even get me started," but I've already gotten started. Why $25? Where does that $25 go? Why me? Rob suggested the daycare peeps have keggers at the end of each month with all the late payment money. They probably deserve it, so I really hope this is true.

Apparently some dude at the gym didn't get the memo that I was having a bad day. He decided to interrupt my bicep curls by asking if he could work back in using the bench I was setting my weights on. He hadn't been over in that area for at least a few minutes and there were no weights in sight indicating anyone was "working" anything. I felt like he was pushing me around because I was a girl lifting 12.5 pound weights. I rudely replied, "Didn't see ya there" before taking my ball and going home my weight and going somewhere else.

When I went to pick up Faith after work, the kids were outside. I dropped off my check (with late payment included - grrr) inside and then went to collect the girl I know and love outside. I rounded the corner and she was squatting on the ground by herself with no one in sight. After looking a little harder, I noticed a worker picking up toys on the playground in the background. Then I saw it. Dirt. On Faith's cheek. As she got closer to me I saw a little more. "I hope you haven't been eating it," I said. Well unless she found some Oreos buried in the ground, it was official. She was definitely eating dirt. Not very much, but definitely dirt. Dirt in your kid's mouth = one unhappy mama bear. Dumb daycare girl who will remain nameless because I don't know her name offered me a wipe. A wipe? Really? Yeah, how would she like to lick a wipe? Let's use our thinking caps here. I couldn't decide if I should laugh or cry. Rob laughed. My mom laughed. I'm still not finding the humor.

And if that weren't enough, Rob opened up a piece of mail of mine tonight and started laughing. "You got denied a JCPenney credit card," he cackled. The letter said, "insufficient income in relation to debt obligations." Really? I paid off my car loan in 2.5 years. I always pay the balance off of our Target card and believe you me that is saying something. And I'm not Richie Rich, but I wouldn't call my income "insufficient." We ran a quick, free credit report and saw no reason why JCPenney of all places would deny me. I started making phone calls. When I finally got to speak with a human, I dumped my story on him. That's when Rob brought me my first Oreo. I thought he was being nice to me, but now that I think about it, he used to be a customer service rep so he was probably hoping the cookie would help me be nice. Before we could find out if it worked, I got put on hold. This is when Rob brought me my second Oreo. It was a good thing too, because the man came back on the line to tell me it was because I had a mortgage. Are you kidding me? Who doesn't have a mortgage? That's when I did it. In a fit of desperation and wonderment at how I was being denied, I told him how much money I made and asked how that could not be enough for a JCPenney credit card. (In case you're wondering, yes, this was all about principle - I don't really shop there all that much and just applied for the card because I wanted the 20% discount). A couple seconds went by and then the poor man on the other end of the line said, "Oh. Well we have you down as making $12,000." Case cracked.

Not sure if anything else went wrong today, but even I'm sick of hearing me complain so I'll stop here. While Monday, March 5 most certainly Sucked, there were plenty of things to celebrate. Faith slept til 7. We are all healthy. Faith slept til 7. Nonetheless, it was still a two Oreo kind of day. Or maybe that's dirt in my teeth...

Smiling through it all...

Anyone know how to Photoshop a binky out of a kid's mouth?

Food post (and commentary): Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti

So, I know this isn’t typically a food blog (although, I think I did post about some food at one point or another), but I thought I’d share tonight’s meal. That, and the wife said I need to write more now that basketball coaching is in the off-season (never over). Oh, and with my over-use of parenthesis, try not to miss the actual meal!

*Quick side note: typically I would pick Faith up from daycare when basketball wasn’t in season, but Nicole made me a deal a few weeks ago. If I promised to run a little more, and have dinner ready when they get home, she would pick up Faith after work. Other than losing the extra hour of seeing Faith (and our Jeopardy time together), I think this is a decent deal. That doesn’t make me a bad dad, right? And along w/ Dave K. and Lizzy B., I think we’ve unofficially started a teacher’s running club after school. Check. And now, on to tonight’s food.

As we relaxed on the couch during Faith’s nap today, the only known for supper was some thawing chicken in the refrigerator. When pressed (not as bad as it sounds) I finally came up with trying to make some chicken cordon bleu (also, not as bad as it sounds). This was, of course, after Nicole had mentioned trying cheesy chicken spaghetti. Well… I bet you can figure out who won. And, after I saw a photo of it, I was glad to give it a shot. On to the recipe.

1 package boneless-skinless chicken breasts (cubed)

16 oz. package spaghetti noodles (cooked and drained, I used “thin”)

½ small yellow onion (chopped)

½ green pepper (chopped)

10.5 oz. can Cream of … Soup (I used mushroom)

1 ¼ cup chicken broth

Roughly 2 cups shredded cheese (be creative)

Generous amount of red wine (probably only need about ¼ cup for cooking)

4 oz. can of sliced mushrooms (I recommend, although I didn’t use this time)

The following instructions detail how I made the meal, but I’m sure there are better, more efficient ways:

Cook cubed chicken, onion, and pepper with wine in frying pan while noodles boil for 8 minutes (obviously, make sure chicken is fully cooked). Pre-heat oven to 350*. Drain noodles. Drain liquid from frying pan, trying to keep as much onion and pepper as possible (don’t worry, the chicken soaks up some of the wine. And by now, you have too). Return noodles to pot and mix all other ingredients (save ½ shredded cheese to top) thoroughly. Then, pour into a 9x13 baking pan that has been sprayed with PAM or other cooking spray. Add the ½ cup of cheese to top and bake for 30 minutes. While baking, finish off the wine (just a suggestion).

Let stand for 4 minutes and 38 seconds to cool so Faith’s mouth doesn’t burn, and enjoy.

I didn't get any photos of Faith scarfing this down, but she had three helpings. She happily proclaimed, "I want mo," many times.  I had two servings, and I'm sure Nicole had more than one as well. 


If you try it, comment, and let us know how it was!


~Rob