Super Tuesday Annual Bike Counts – Bicycle Network Victoria – Australian cyclists! Make sure you get out on your bike on March 6th to be counted.

Dinner Tonight: Primal Zucchini Lasagna
This is a good recipe for building up your freezer stocks. I used about six big fat zucchini, and that was more than enough. For the meat, I used half ground beef and half ground pork (with some extra oregano, fennel seed, and chili flakes to make it more like Italian sausage). I also opted for the mushrooms for a little extra umami. Here’s a tip: be sure to drain your browned meat if it’s dropped a lot of fat/water. I always skip that step, and it does make the final dish a little sloppy. (Mostly just an aesthetic issue though – it still tastes good!) And obviously this is a low-carb lasagna that will fill you up without pasta. 🙂

Our Kitchen
We have been talking about renovating our kitchen ever since we bought the house 4+ years ago. I mean, this? Pretty crappy. We replaced the cooktop and oven first, but that’s as far as it went. I’ve had a New Year’s Resolution for the past two years to Do Something About the Kitchen, and now the wheels are finally in motion. We made contact with three different custom kitchen places: two small companies, and then the big one (Harvey Norman Renovations). One of the smaller companies came out to measure and then never sent through the final quote. The other one measured and invited us to the showroom, but they wouldn’t give us a detailed quote without a deposit. We called Harvey Norman mostly on a whim, figuring that they would be expensive and crappy. But they were AWESOME. Not sure if it’s just the designer that got assigned to us, but Scott was fantastic. He was punctual, good with communication, friendly, and he had great ideas for our space. (He comes from an architect/designer background.) We spent 3+ hours at HN Alexandria on Saturday discussing options and appliances. The final quote for everything came in at a couple grand more than we’d hoped, but we talked it over with the Snook’s Dad and our feeling was that it’s going to be worth it. HN will project manage and handle everything, which we like. (We’re so not DIY.) The cupboards are going to be SHINY RED polyurethane. Scott also introduced some wood to create feature shelves over and around the sink. The countertops are going to be stainless steel. (Huzzah!) The floor is going to be black and white checkboard tile. And the best part? We are getting an enormous side-by-side fridge that is going to DOUBLE our fridge/freezer volume. I expect it to be LIFE-CHANGING. (We also got a new kick-ass rangehood, an integrated dishwasher, and a convection microwave.)

The only downside? Apparently we’ll be without a kitchen for THREE WEEKS during the build. (We’re having them strip it back to bare walls to redo the floor and wiring.) So that’s going to be a challenge. I expect we’ll try to get by with the microwave and barbecue as best as we can. Anybody ever survived one of these renovations before?

Custom Power Rangers Hoodies – Awww, sweet! But screw buying one; I’ll KNIT me a Pink Ranger hoodie!

Succulent Collection crochet patterns – These are actually really pretty and neat! I kind of want to make them.

I totally called it! Bunting is definitely a thing.

Dinner Tonight: Asian Pork Balls with Napa Cabbage
This is a recipe I found a few months back when I was looking for a way to use up some Napa cabbage from the veggie box. It’s pretty simple to make, but the flavours are great! I definitely recommend putting the sherry into the broth; it adds some nice complexity. I don’t bother with the step of thickening the sauce; we just eat it like soup. It’s got heaps of protein and very little carbs. It’s also fairly cheap, and it makes plenty for leftovers for lunch the next day!

This is fun: One of the project managers here got selected to participate in Google’s new Apps marketing campaign. If you watch that video, you can see our office! They’re also featuring her heavily all over the SMH website today. Go Karen!

New job!
Not a lot of blogging so far this week, just because my new job at Sitback is taking up all my focus! So far it’s going really well. I expected to spend a couple days finding my feet, but instead on day one I got handed a document and asked if I could make it better. And I realised I could! I’m not a green BA anymore; I actually know what I’m doing. I’m addin’ value, baby! Then yesterday I had a big client meeting to kick off a new project. I think I acquitted myself pretty well. The things that I’m doing and the work in the pipeline are confirming that this move was the right choice for my career. It’s an exciting time…

Oh! And since I’m using my laptop as my work machine right now (since I’m contracting), I realised that I can update my DeskCam more frequently. Here’s today. Of course, the Snook then immediately sent me this. “I don’t look like that!!!” Do I? 🙂

Ilsa Handlebar Basket Pattern by HemmaDesignPatterns on Etsy – Ooh, neat! Pattern to sew my own bicycle basket. Thanks for the tip, Tia!