Random Ramblings – Fourteenth Edition

Happy, happy weekend everyone!  I feel like I actually deserve to say that now that I am back at work….ohhhhhhh and it is soooooo good to be back at work.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it!  What are you up to this weekend?  The weather here I’m California has been C-R-A-Z-Y.  Can Spring just come already???  Anyway, this post is all about life lately, some projects I am working on for the blog, pictures and being back at work!  Read on for my ramblings….I warn you though. I am in a silly mood right now.

You guys!  I am SO EXCITED!  BOSTON!!!!!!!!!  I am leaving next week for my Boston trip with my sister and I couldn’t be more excited!  I haven’t been on a trip like this since…2010?  And never before have I been back east.  The farthest east I have gone is Ohio.  So I am excited for the food, history and the time spent with my sis!  My sister will be working (this is a business trip for her—I am a tag-a-long), and I plan to be a total tourist and check out The Freedom Trail and other historical points of interest, while Wendy is busy in meetings.  Make sure you follow me on Instagram so you can follow along and have fun with me!

If you have been to Boston, leave me a comment and tell me where I NEED to go and what I need to EAT!  I want the full Boston experience.  I hope I am prepared though.  Wendy called me the other day and told me to make sure I pack snow boots, gloves, scarves, warm clothes and a snow hat because it will be snowing and cold.  I was like ok!  Yeah!  Totally.  Then I hung up the phone.  And was like, “Shoot!  I don’t have any of that stuff!”  I live in Northern California hahaha.  So I bought the most outrageous snow boots I could find.  James thinks they are ridiculous…Ethan liked them (and that was his honest answer, because I threatened to pick him up at school wearing them, but Ethan was all for it).  I had been wanting a pair of Sorel boots after spending last winter in Denver, and seeing all the girls there wearing them.  But really I just wanted some boots with the fur…you know?!  Now I need some apple bottom jeans 😉

If you need some boots, shoes or anything of the sort, I totally recommend Zappos.  These boots literally showed up on my doorstep (or fell from the sky?) the day after I ordered them.  Unfortunately there was a cosmetic defect on one of the boots, and when I called customer service to try and come up with a resolution, Zappos customer service totally took care of me.  They even offered to ship a new pair of boots to arrive at my hotel when I get in to Boston hahaha.  I am sharing this with you because customer service means a lot to me, and since Zappos took care of me, I will be a loyal customer for life.  It worked out for me to just keep the boots, so at least I got one thing on my packing list!  Now I just need to go find my gloves.  Scarves I have.  Warm clothes???  A hat I will buy there if I need it.

I will take lots of pictures and keep track of where to eat and what to do, so I can write a Boston Travel post for you guys after I get back 🙂

BLOG STUFF!!!  I am super excited to start working with an awesome food website that sells specialty products.  Stay tuned for more details, once I get everything set in stone.  Also, next month I am participating in a #RecipeMakeover blogger event.  Kind of a fun project….a bunch of us bloggers are taking a couple of our recipes and making them over, to be healthier.  I have a couple recipes in mind already, but if you have a recipe you want me to “healthify” email it to me at kellymikolich@comcast.net.  And in case you missed it last week…Vain Extracts is offering my readers 10% off their online order AND free shipping!  Just go to vainfoods.com and enter promo code SWEET at checkout to score that sweet deal!  I love Vain’s extracts and have been using them almost exclusively in all my baking, and I can tell the difference.

And just an FYI…I don’t make any money off any of the links in these posts.  I just like sharing what I like with y’all!  Oh, and these are the Vain extracts I have been using…but there are so many more varieties I want to try!

And don’t judge on my extract addiction…yeah that’s a whole bucket of extracts and emulsions 😉

FEELING:  Like a brat.  I drive poor James nuts.  We actually argued this week about….walking.  Yep.  Walking.  First off, I walk too fast (according to James).  This is a trait I picked up from my dad and my sister, who also walk just as fast as I do.  Actually, I have a hard time keeping up with them!  I walk fast everywhere….in the grocery store, running errands, in the house.  James equates it to me leaving him in the dust, and refuses to participate in my fast walking.  I just see walking slow as a waste of my time.  Second thing we argued about….crossing the street while walking.  We take the dogs for a walk on the reg.  James is in charge of big dog, and I walk little dog.  Naturally when walking in the neighborhood, we come across streets that need to be crossed.  I stop and make sure the cars will stop first, but this town is nuts, and if you don’t at least start walking in the crosswalk, cars will never stop for you.  James thinks I don’t see the cars speeding by me and that I am going to get ran over, so I get the, “Kelly!  Watch out!  The cars aren’t going to stop!”  I keep trying to convince him that I know the outcome of car vs. pedestrian (hello….I am a cop!) and I have been safely crossing the street since I was a kid.  And I have yet to get hit by a car.

It was actually ME who saved James from getting hit by a car not too long ago (yeah I pushed him out of the way of a car that almost hit him…and yes I remind him all the time how I saved his life).  So we have this same fight about crossing the street every time we walk.  We went for a run yesterday and had to cross several streets.  So of course I was over the top yelling, “CAR!!!!”  “Whew…that was a close one!”  All said for cars that were not even close to where we were crossing.  Not sure why James puts up with me.  I should just be happy he is worried about my safety and isn’t trying to push me out in front of a moving vehicle, right?! 😉

WANTING:  To actually make it to Boston!  Last time I was supposed to go with my sister on a business trip (Portland), we got to the airport only to find out that the SouthWest Airlines computers had crashed and all the flights had been delayed or canceled.  That whole ordeal happened right before we got to the airport though, so at first the airline thought the flights would just be delayed.  But after waiting a few hours, Wendy and I decided it probably wasn’t going to happen and we left.  Which was probably a good thing, because even if we had been able to get onto a later flight, we would have ended up stranded in Portland because of all the subsequent flights being canceled, including what was supposed to be our return flight home.

WATCHING:  I am happy that the Spring Baking Championship is back on Food Network!!  One of my favorites!  The kids version is cute, but I like the adult one better.  Probably because I see the home bakers and dream about competing on that show someday hahaha.  I also watched a couple of movies on Netflix…The Great Gilly Hopkins with Kathy Bates.  It is rated PG…but you know how I love those sappy, family friendly, love story type movies?!  Yeah.  That movie was great for that.  Sometimes I just want to watch something that isn’t violent and full of profanity…I get enough of that in real life, at work!

CRAVING:  Bostonian Food!  Whatever it may be!  I am wanting it all!  Hahaha.  A cannoli though for sure 🙂

BAKING:  Lots of goodies for work….the scone recipes are out of control over here.  I made and posted my Rustic Apple Cinnamon Sugar Scones this week (which my friend Eric proclaimed to be the BEST scone he has ever eaten!) and have Peanut Butter Scones to share with y’all next week.  Also, I made something pretty crazy using a box of Girl Scout cookies…recipe coming soon!  Cupcakes for a birthday party next week, which means I need to knock out some fondant work before I leave for Boston.  I am working on some Easter desserts too.  Let me know if there’s anything you want to see on the blog!

I think I like making scones so much because I talk to myself in a fake British or English accent while baking them (it’s either or for the accent, because I am so horrible at faking the accent, who knows what I sound like).  But I am loving this new scone recipe I will be sharing with y’all next week.  It’s even easier than my go-to scone recipe and doesn’t require the heavy whipping cream I normally use!

Yay!! Back to work!  I have been back for two weeks now and it is going great!  I have kept up with eating lunch every day and doing what I am supposed to do, to maintain my recovery.  I intend on asking Dr. Knight to let me go back full time, after my next doctors appointment on the 3rd.  I am not back to patrol yet, so right now I am assigned to revise our Field Training Program book.  After trainees go through the police academy (and graduate), they go into the Field Training Program (FTP) for 20+ weeks at the department that hires them.  During that time, the new officers handle calls out on patrol, and we as trainers, have to sign things off in the FTP book, as the new officer handles them.  The FTP is a highly standardized program through Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).  POST informed MPD we needed to update our FTP book, because it had been two years since the last update.  So that’s what I am doing.  And since I am a Field Training Officer (FTO), I am making it as user friendly, and as easy for us FTO’s to get through, as possible.  It’s a lot of material…covering just about everything (laws, procedures, policies, handling crimes, case law, etc).  Here’s a peek at my chicken-scratch notes…I can read it, so that’s all that matters hahaha 😉

One thing I learned very quickly after becoming a cop, is that we are who everyone turns to when they don’t know what else to do, or how to handle something (you name it, I guarantee someone has called the police about it).  Don’t like how it smells outside?  Call the police.  The church bells ring too loud for your liking?  Call the police.  Someone is using their leaf blower and blowing leaves on your property?  Call the police.  A snake is loose in your house?  Call the police.  Couch or mattress in the roadway?  Call the police.  Homeless person looks cold and hungry?  Call the police.  Your kid is being a pain in the butt?  Call the police.  And I am not including the obvious reasons when people should call the police.  But we just tend to get EVERYTHING dumped on us.  You quickly have to learn how to do a lot more than just enforce the law.  But that’s why I love my job!

So I am loving being back at work.  And it’s good for me.  I do better with structure.  So getting up every morning at the same time, and putting on REAL clothes, and going into work, has been good for me.  Look….real clothes!  Ha!

Ok…well I need to wrap this up.  I have rambled on long enough…and I need to get my bootie to Muvz class at the gym 😉  Thanks for reading!!  Leave me a comment below and tell me what you are wanting, craving, baking, feeling, watching, etc!  Or just to say “Hi!”  I love hearing from y’all….and I need those Boston recommendations too!!!

XOXO,

Kelly

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