Mike and David's 9/11 Story

As I mentioned in my previous post about my account of the 9/11 attacks, I knew some people who were in the towers that frightful day. I would like to share the accounts of that day written by David.

I will warn you, it is a lengthy description of the day. Please click through to read.

11 years ago...We will never forget

Where to start? I have such a vivid memory of that day, which I assume everyone who witnessed it does. It is so hard to believe it was 11 years ago already, it feels like it was so much more recent. I suppose I will tell my account of the day. I find it interesting to read/hear about what everyone was doing or where they were that day.

Let's start here, I was a junior in high school, living in southern California. I used to get up early because I actually had a class (jazz band) before school. I got up, took my shower, and stumbled back to my bedroom, just as I had every morning.

I turned on my radio so I could listen to the morning radio personalities on my favorite station. They were talking about how some idiot had crashed into the World Trade Center building. This was before anyone knew what was happening, the first plane had just hit and none of the media knew it was a commercial airliner. They went on and on about how this must have been a private plane and they were trying to figure out how someone could be so stupid to not see a building in front of their plane.

With every passing minute they seemed to find out more and more information without actually knowing exactly what happened. At one point I decided to turn off the radio and put the news channel on in my bedroom as I continued to get ready. Things on the news seemed very chaotic already while the anchors tried to get more information.

Once I was ready for school I went downstairs and told my mom that a plane had flown into the WTC; she had not yet turned on the TV or heard anything. I turned on the TV downstairs and it seems like just as I turned it on the second plane crashed into the second tower. This was when I knew something was seriously wrong and to be perfectly honest I was terrified.

We watched the news for a while longer and then it was time for me to go to school. I left for school and when I got to my class (which again was before all of the other classes started) there were already a few students there. The room felt very eery, very somber. Our teacher said we wouldn't be practicing like we usually would, and allowed us to turn on the TV.

The atmosphere that day at school was a mixture of chaos and zombies. Some people were crying, but most were very stoic. No matter where you went on campus the tv was on and teachers weren't teaching; you couldn't get away from it. I have to admit it was sensory overload for me.

I did, however, have one teacher (my history teacher) that insisted that we do something other than watch the tv. He knew we were getting entirely too much exposure to it. I don't remember what we did but we didn't watch tv. He told us to remember that day because as sad as it was we were witnessing history.

Once school was over I went home and my mom had the tv on. Like I said, there was no getting away from it. We started wondering if they were going to try to hit something in California or what else these people were capable of. We could hear some of the military planes (out of San Diego) flying overhead, but none of the regular commercial air traffic that we were used to.

My dad was on a business trip in San Francisco and had been in the Trans America building (one of the tallest buildings in SF) earlier that day. We were hoping that they weren't going to try and target SF. We got a call from him and he said he was fine but he wasn't going to be able to get a flight home that day due to all flights being grounded. Eventually, he was able to get a rental car and decided to drive home from SF (about an 8 hour drive).

The following day things were still overwhelming but things seemed a bit less chaotic. My dad informed me that some of his friends (and coworkers), two in particular, had been in the towers. Luckily they both got out of the towers before the collapse. One of the guys (his name is Mike Hingson) is blind and he got out with his guide dog and the other guy (David). I can't even imagine what it was like for them. I was on the other side of the country when it happened and I was terrified.

I will never forget. I will never forget the way that day changed the US. I will never forget the overwhelming sadness of that day. 

Meal Plan Monday

Welcome back to Meal Plan Monday! I know I have slacked on this, but I plan to get back on track. I am changing my format on this just a bit. Instead of posting what we will be eating for the upcoming week, I will be posting what we made the previous week (Monday-Sunday). I haven't been real great at meal planning lately, but this way I will have something posted every week and I will be able to comment on what I made for the week. We try new recipes quite often and I will be giving a bit of a review on these as part of Meal Plan Monday.

Please let me know if you try any new recipes and how they were. I will try some of them out and they might end up a part of Meal Plan Monday.

Meal Plan 7.23.12 - 7.29.12

Monday
Spicy Basil Chicken w/ white rice
   - I have made this recipe several times now and it is delicious. I make it slightly different because we don't like to use the fish sauce. This is possibly my favorite dinner right now, it is easy and cooks quick.

Tuesday
Cheddar Potato Soup
   - We picked up a packet of the Shore Lunch Cheddar Potato Soup at our local grocery store. It was a just add water deal. We added some green onions and chopped up bacon to this. You could add just about any topping you want, we liked the onion and bacon to make it similar to a loaded baked potato soup. My only complaint with this soup is that it was overly salty.

Wednesday
Sloppy Joes w/ Baked Potatoes (regular potato for C and sweet potato for me)
   - This sloppy joe recipe (by America's Test Kitchen) is by far our favorite. For a while, C was asking for these every week. This week I used a 100% whole wheat sandwich thin as my bun and I must say, it was delicious.

Thursday
Grilled Chicken w/ Steamed Broccoli
   - Grilled chicken is a go to for us when we can't think of anything else to make. We used the Weber Beer Can Chicken Seasoning on our chicken and it is so good. I didn't have time to marinate the chicken, which is what we usually do. I simply steamed the broccoli on the stove and drizzled a bit of soy sauce on it when it was done.

Friday
Homemade Grilled Pizza w/ Mozzarella, Cracked Black Pepper, Green Onion, and Speck
   - We recently tried grilling our pizza and it is so good. Using the grill created a very crispy crust that you just can't get in a regular oven (even with a pizza stone). These toppings have become a favorite of ours. What are your favorite toppings on homemade pizza?

Saturday
Homemade Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
   - We have been making this recipe for years. We both love caesar salads but we ahve always been hesitant of using raw egg in our dressing. We substitute the egg for silken tofu and it works wonderfully. We simply grill our chicken with a little salt and pepper and put it on top of our salad.

Sunday
BLT Sandwich w/ Steamed Summer Squash
   - This one is pretty simple, just a BLT. We decided to spread some of the leftover caesar dressing we had on the bread instead of mayo. We bought some heirloom tomatoes and used the Costco pre-cooked bacon. I steamed some summer squash as a side dish for myself and C had a sliced tomato with his.


*Note: I am not being compensated for mentioning brand names, these are just the products I use and like.

Wedding Pictures

I have been a bad blogger, I haven't written since Halloween. The holidays always throw me off schedule. Speaking of the holidays, I created custom wedding albums in Adobe Illustrator for our grandparents and parents. I have been promising wedding pictures to my readers for a while, so I have included the layout of the pages from the albums I made. This should work well as an overview of our wedding and to show off some pictures to everyone. I hope you enjoy! Click to see more.

Meal Plan Monday

It's Monday again, which means it is time for meal plans. Last week's plan was pretty much spot on. As I mentioned I tried some new recipes and they were pretty good. The stir fry I made was really good but there was way too much sauce. Last night I tried a new meatloaf recipe and it was also really good. Instead of going out for dinner on Saturday night we decided to roast a turkey breast, make some gravy, and also roast some carrots. It was fantastic. 

This week's menu is not particularly exciting, but we are trying to get back on track with eating healthier. All but one of our meals this week are pretty healthy. We have decided to try to plan at least one meal during the week to be meatless. We tend to eat a lot of meat so we wanted to try some new recipes without it.

Meal Plan 10.31 - 11.6

Monday

Dinner: Potstickers

Tuesday

Dinner: Grilled Marinated Chicken w/ Potatoes

Wednesday

Dinner: Weeknight Bolognese

Thursday

Dinner: Salad w/ Balsamic Dressing

Friday

Dinner: Baked Mac and Cheese

Saturday

Dinner: Out

Sunday

Dinner: Baked Buffalo Chicken Bites and Vegetables (C is leaving for a week long business trip on Saturday night, so Sunday I am on my own as well as all of next week.)

Two Minute Tuesday

It is Tuesday and I am back to do another Two Minute Tuesday prompt. For those of you who didn't read last week's post what I do is, choose a theme/topic, set my timer for two minutes, and write down whatever comes to mind before the timer goes off. After posting last week's I had so many ideas for topics and wouldn't stop thinking about it. This week I am keeping with a childhood theme. 

Prompt: Favorite Childhood Food

My favorite food by far was mac and cheese. Sometimes my mom would ask me what I wanted for a "special" meal and I always anaswered with her homemade mac and cheese. It wasn't anything fancy but it was yummy. She would put sauteed onions and velveeta in it. Occasionally, she would add ground beef to it and it tasted like a gooey cheeseburger. Oh my gosh, it was so good! This is definitely a meal that reminds me of home.

It was a little easier this week, but the time still goes by so quickly. I am trying something new this week and making this a link up post. Take just two minutes out of your day and write about your favorite childhood food. I would love to read what you can come up with in just two minutes. (Submit your link below)

Meal Plan Monday

Happy Monday everyone. I'm sure you have all noticed my blog got a bit of an update. I am hoping that with this revamp I am more motivated to post. (I know I keep saying this, but I am really trying to get this thing going.)

Last week's meal plan went pretty well. I am finding what I have planned on the weekends tends to change because we don't usually know what we are doing until Thursday or Friday. I will continue to plan for these days, but they will most likely change. When I do my grocery shopping I usually buy for Mon-Fri and buy for Sat and Sun during the weekend. This works well for us because if our plans change I don't have food spoiling in the fridge. 

This week I am trying some new recipes. We are attempting to eat a bit healthier. I will link the new recipes I am using. Now on the this weeks plan.

Meal Plan 10.24 - 10.30

Monday

Dinner: Orzo Primavera (This is not a new recipe for me, but I make of version of the one linked.)

Tuesday

Dinner: Salad with Grilled Chicken and Balsamic Dressing

Wednesday

Dinner: C has a dinner for work so I am on my own. I will probably just end up grabbing Subway or something quick.

Thursday

Dinner: Citrus Soy Chicken Stir Fry

Friday

Dinner: Pizza

Saturday

Dinner: Out

Sunday

Dinner: Italian Meatloaf w/ Mashed Potatoes

Two Minute Tuesday

I know I am not so good about posting anything new (except my meal plans). Part of it is, I have many ideas, I just don't always know how to put them down into a post and feel good about what I wrote. I was doing a bit of research on how to open up as a writer and I found a blog called "The One-Minute Writer". I thought this was an interesting concept. A prompt is posted everyday and you write for one minute on the topic given.

I think I want to give this a try but instead of one minute I will do it for two minutes. I'm not sure I will use the prompts given there but I have looked up other prompts and hopefully come up with my own along the way. These topics will vary from memories to opinions and maybe even a creative story here and there. I am going to try to make this a weekly occurrence to get my writing.

Prompt: Childhood Memory - Everyone has early memories of their childhood, recall the earliest or most vivid memory. 

I was about 4 years old. My family was in San Francisco and we were near the Golden Gate Bridge. My parents bought me a pink sweatshirt with a picture of the bridge on it. I remember driving across the bridge and eating at a Chinese food restaurant. The sweatshirt was light pink with a zipper that went about 1/2 way down. I cannot remember anything else from this trip, but what I can remember is pretty vivid for a 4 year old.

Wow, that is hard. I thought I would be able to write so much more in two minutes. The time goes by in a flash. The only edits I made was spelling errors.

If you try this please leave me a comment with what you wrote in two minutes.

Meal Plan Monday

 Happy Monday everyone. I definitely have a case of the Mondays today. C was not feeling well this weekend and I think I might be getting what he has. I just don't feel great today.

Ok, enough of the pity party and onto meal planning. Last week's meals got shifted around a little but we stuck with most of the things. I am in a bit of a planning rut this week so I asked C what he wanted. Don't judge the plan this week, it was almost all his idea. You will notice there is a lot of beef on this menu, which I wouldn't normally plan.

Meal Plan 10.17 - 10.23

Monday
Dinner: Chinese Chicken Salad Kit (from Costco)

Tuesday
Dinner: Creamy Herb Pasta w/ Ground Beef

Wednesday
Dinner: Steak Chili

Thursday
Dinner: Hot Dogs w/ Garlic Fries

Friday
Dinner: Homemade Pizza

Saturday
Dinner: Out

Sunday
Dinner: Chicken Enchiladas

Let me know what you are having this week for dinners and maybe I will incorporate it into my meal plan next week.

Meal Plan Monday

I think I am finally back on track with meal planning. Last week we had some great meals. We made an awesome pizza last week inspired by one we had at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. It was a sauceless pizza with mozzarella, ground black pepper, garlic, green onions, and speck (a type of Italian prosciutto). I also tried a new pizza dough to make it and it came out amazing.

This week's meal plan is a little uninspired, but I am trying to use up some things we have on hand. Without further ado, here is our plan this week.

Meal Plan 10.10 - 10.16

Monday
Dinner: Ribs and Mashed Potatoes

Tuesday
Dinner: Sloppy Joes

Wednesday
Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie Pasta

Thursday
Dinner: Potstickers

Friday
Dinner: Pizza (No toppings planned yet.)

Saturday
Dinner: Out

Sunday
Dinner: Crockpot Pot Roast

On an unrelated note, I finally received our wedding pictures on CD from our photographer. I will hopefully post some of those this week.