just for fun

what a week

2008-10-10T14:18:00.001-05:00

we paid off the altima this week! that was planned.

i was promoted and got a nice raise! that was not planned, or at least not planned on for this week.

2008-10-05T11:43:00.005-05:00

since the war began, we have lost 609 u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. somewhere over nine hundred coalition forces. i don't know how many civilian deaths, but i'm sure a whole lot.

during that same exact amount of time, there have been approximately 1322 murders in just my city, fabulous las vegas.

a life is a life and all should be counted, no matter the location or nationality. but that isn't what you hear in the news. what you hear, is that there have been too many u.s. deaths and we need to bring the troops home.

i bring this up because andrew's national guard unit received the official deployment orders to go to afghanistan next year. it is too soon to say more, and there are a whole lot of different ways that it might all play out. but 609 versus 1322. i think he may be safer there than i am here.

rummage sale

2008-09-30T20:50:00.003-05:00

our church had a rummage sale/bake sale this past weekend. andrew and i slaved away all friday night making baked goodies (we didn't have anything interesting to donate to the rummage sale part). i made an apple pie. andrew made chocolate cookies with white chips. and i made my favorite cupcakes (which are actually brownie bottoms, cookie tops, and icing to layer them).

as much as i love making cupcakes, i really adore making little flags for them to wear. these, since they were going to the church sale, say: UMC (united methodist church), desert spring (name of the specific church), wesley rocks (wesley founded the methodist church), open hearts, open doors, open minds (our moto), and other methodisty sorts of things. i didn't stick around to the end to see all my cupcakes go to good homes, but i'm sure they did.

my nine names

2008-09-25T13:19:00.001-05:00

a coworker sent this to me and we sat around comparing names and sharing a few laughs instead of otherwise being very hard at work...

1. YOUR REAL NAME:

christen

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)

chrizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal)

gray cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME:( your middle name and street you live on/or neighborhood if it's a number)

martin charleston

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)

garch

6. YOUR SUPERHERO/CRIMINAL NAME: (Your 2nd favorite color, and favorite drink).

pink soda

7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your last name, 3rd letter of your dads name, 1st letter of a siblings first Name, and last letter of your moms middle name)

hargace

8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle names).

rae david

9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets).

black zoe

i've also seen equations for my stripper name (street you grew up on and your first pet? or maybe the other way around). what i'd really like to know is my pirate name.

mini hot browns

2008-09-19T12:19:00.002-05:00

From Wiki:

A Hot Brown is a hot sandwich originally created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. It was one of two signature sandwiches created by chefs at the Brown Hotel shortly after its founding in 1923. It was created to serve as an alternative to late-night suppers offered elsewhere. The Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich of turkey and bacon, covered in Mornay sauce and baked or broiled until the bread is crisp and the sauce begins to brown. Many Hot Browns also include ham with the turkey, and either pimentos or tomatoes over the sauce. After its debut, it quickly became the choice of ninety-five percent of the customers to the Brown Hotel's restaurant. The "cold brown" was baked chicken or turkey, hard-boiled egg, lettuce and tomato open-faced on rye bread, and covered with Thousand Island dressing. It is rarely served anymore.

so basically a hot brown is bread, turkey, bacon, all covered with a cheesy sauce and then maybe a tomato on top of that. it's bad for you. and a cold brown is a sandwich that no one really ever liked and most people have now never heard of or knew existed. we wanted to serve hot browns at the derby party in may but it is not really a dish that lends itself to finger fooding. what is it, necessity is the mother of all invention?

our cute mini hot browns:

ingredients:

french bread, sliced

deli turkey

already cooked bacon

jar of alfredo

roma tomatos, sliced

on a cookie sheet, layer your bread slices. pile on turkey and tomato taste. dribble on some sauce. place a bacon piece on top. broil until toasty. these were a hit because they are simple, tasty, and cute. enjoy!

have you been to an 'everything is 99cents' store lately?

2008-09-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

its the grocery section of the everything is 99cents store that is interesting. the rest of the store is mostly random cheap socks and household items. i was amazed at the number of truely random things that i found in the grocery section. also at the number of horrifying food items available for purchase. however, there were a couple of gems to be found. in particular this cute fella:

i also found a can of mangos. so with my can of mangos and my mango syrup, we made mango pancakes this weekend. i guess i'm a really cheap date. andrew and i had a great time on less than $2.

i can't tell you how much i miss minigolf

2008-09-05T08:07:00.000-05:00

i guess its just way to hot here to have minigolf. though you'd think that at least one of the strip casinos would have an indoor course.

a coworker sent me this link and while it's not the same as the real deal, it is quite a bit of fun.

online minigolf

wow.

2008-09-01T21:40:00.004-05:00

so there i was, no lie...true story...

i was driving along on saturday, minding my own business...when this pontiac bonneville passed us...

i have never in my life wished to own a video recording cell phone until saturday. i assure you, this vehicle was actually in motion on the highway, yes, with both a fridge and a wash machine somehow jammed into the trunk. i don't know what the owners of the vehicle did with the top of the trunk, nor do i know if they realized the number of cars that nearly wrecked into or near them as they were driving (hence the desire for a video recorder).

of special note, none of the devices have their actual lids attached. you can see inside the washing tub, so no lid there. you can see the fridge lid packed to the left of everything. and no one knows where the trunk lid might possibly be.

and it really just doesn't get less ridiculous the more you look at it...it's like an appliance turduckhen (which is an andrew type of dish, and while i like meat, i think it sounds absurdly grotesque).

what's better than chocolate?

2008-08-25T14:06:00.001-05:00

i am a big fan of biscuits and sausage gravy.

not everybody is...

...and i get that. not everyone likes meat and therefore would not enjoy meat byproducts. other people are health conscious and prefer not to eat things that are just pure bad for you.

while i am a big fan of sausage gravy, i'm also a very particular fan of it. years ago just after college, it was practically a weekend tradition to cook up a big pan of sausage, then fix a big pan of gravy and finally pile it all together with some heart stopping buttery biscuits.

as it turns out, there are many things in life that are not at all like riding a bike.

if you aren't in the habit of making meat gravies, they just don't turn out well. you've got to practice to get it just right. ten years later, the last couple of times i've tried, its been a flop. but my attempts are not nearly as bad as anything i've purchased here in this southwestern town. las vegas isn't exactly known for its homey fatty southern cooking so naturally no one here is going to do sausage gravy well.

but then i remembered a recipe a coworker shared with me a few years ago. it is not at all for sausage gravy, but its that sort of kentucky recipe that makes you feel at home on a saturday morning. it seems strange, i know, but it is for chocolate gravy and you really do put it on biscuits. the buttery the better! it's perfectly bad for you and delightfully warm and comforting in that way carby things usually are. my coworker explained that his mother, aunts, and grandmother, from the hills of eastern kentucky, had been making this his whole life. i was given a stern warning to not burn the milk and i'll pass that on to you, in all caps even . and while this is not sausage gravy, it will do very well for now until i can move back east and visit a bob evans restaurant.

chocolate gravy
by hannah newsome

4 cups milk
1 cup sugar
3-4 heaping tablespoons flour
3-4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla

pour milk into medium saucepan. cook milk on medium to med-high. DO NOT USE HIGH. DO NOT BURN THE MILK. while milk is warming, mix dry ingredients well, pour 1/3 of your milk into dry ingredients to make a paste. return paste to saucepan with remaining milk. stir continuously until it thickens. pour over biscuits, breads, anything really. enjoy!

fairground food

2008-08-09T11:53:00.004-05:00

i've tried fried twinkies. i've tried fried oreos. i've tried many of the odd things they sell on sticks. that's what going to the fair is all about, right? paying way to much for a corn dog, cotton candy and some random deep fried thing, then riding the tilterwhurl until it all nearly comes back up.

this week the today show featured a really odd new fairground food:

yeah. it's chocolate covered bacon. i just keep staring at it. the online poll (not scientific in any way) shows 34% would try it since they enjoy other salty/sweet combos, 45% would not try it since it sounds gross, and 21% don't know if they would try it because they are still sitting on their couches staring dumbfounded (possibly with an eye twitch even).

for complete article and info:

bacon makes everything taste better...even chocolate?

**post script: this is my 300th post! my how time flies.

this is not a derby pie

2008-08-07T06:18:00.001-05:00

officially, derby pie was created in 1950 by the melrose inn in prospect, kentucky. the restaurant's owners were a couple named kern, and they were helped in creating this pie by a pack of children. derby pie is more or less just a pecan pie with chocolate chips and maybe a little bourbon. the name "Derby Pie" was apparently chosen because, like a variety of other quarrelsome kentucky families, they all wanted to name it something different. i guess there were too many options to flip a coin or play rock/paper/scissors, so they put all names into a hat. i have no idea what the other name options were but derby pie was the winner. since then, they've gotten a little over protective of their stuff.

this is what wiki had to say about it all:

The name "Derby Pie" is a registered trademark of Kern's Kitchen, which registered the name in 1968. The company uses the name in the form "DERBY-PIE®" in official literature and advertisements. Kern's Kitchen diligently guards the trademark and secret recipe, which is known only to a small group of Kern family members and a single Kern's Kitchen employee (who actually mixes the recipe today). The company has filed several lawsuits over the years to protect its commercial rights. Because of this, others who make similar pies have had to alter their recipes slightly and/or use a different name (such as "Pegasus Pie", a reference to the Pegasus Parade at the Kentucky Derby Festival and May Day Pie, in reference to the First Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby).

on the one hand, i get it, whether its pirating movies or making your own derby pie. you've got a business and you want to sell your whatevers and you don't want everyone else to just be able to get that whatever without having bought it from you. on the other hand, i'm stuck out here forever far away from a derby pie store. so obviously, i don't know the official derby pie recipe and if i did know it, i wouldn't share it from fear of the kern family. what i'm going to share with you is a recipe for pecan pie with chocolate chips, and maybe a little bourbon.

pecan pie with chocolate chips, and maybe a little bourbon

crust:

do what you want. make your own from scratch or buy a premade one from the store.

filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
2 tablespoons bourbon

beat eggs with cooled butter. add flour & sugar. beat until mixed well. stir in pecans, chocolate & bourbon. pour mixture into pie shell. bake at 350° for about 30 minutes, or until set. serve with whipped cream (i'm sure fresh whipped cream is great but i don't recall the last time i tried it. that canned stuff is right up my alley) or vanilla ice cream, or both!

finding my place

2008-08-03T14:23:00.002-05:00

i think over this past year and a half, i've done everything i could subconsciencely do to make sure i didn't like it here and did not fit in. i haven't met anyone or done anything or gone anywhere. we moved out here thinking it would probably be for about three years. however, when we made that decision, i didn't know how little i would like it here. and now that we are about half way through this tour, maybe i'm ready to branch out a little. last month i joined a book club, and i went to a pampered chef party. this month i took a cooking class and learned how to make a spanish dish called paella. i went to the mall with some of the girls at work, and we got free makeovers at the makeup counters. i've joined a five week study that covers various christian disciplines (fasting, meditation, various types of prayer dating back all the way to the 2nd century church). and last night we invited another couple over for dinner and cards.

there is a guy in national guard with andrew who also happens to work at tsa with andrew (though not at the same shift) so we invited him and his wife over. i think it went really well. nothing disasterous happened with the food. conversation was really interesting, or at least never dragged. we never got around to playing any cards, so i guess we'll have to get together again, which i think works out well, since i'm really new at this whole having a life thing.

you know how embassies are technically property of their own government? inside the land and building of the u.s. embassy in wherever is technically u.s. land. if you are inside the embassy, you are inside the united states, even though if you step outside the door you are in mexico or south africa. i think i've felt that way about my apartment. not that the inside of my apartment is in kentucky, but that it is not in nevada. i step through the door and my apartment is my little safe haven that is just simply territory somewhere else, which allows me to live here without really living here. its a little odd that the time is halfway over and i'm finally starting to try to live here in nevada.

2008-08-01T08:44:00.002-05:00

would you believe that this memory stick still works??

zoecat was underfoot. i got all tangled up in the laptop cord and her tail and the three of us took a tumble. the laptop landed squarely on the memory stick, whose outside casing is bent out on both sides. i think the usb port it was in is no longer functional but the naked memory stick is still stickin.

benedictine isn't just for monks anymore

2008-07-31T06:38:00.000-05:00

this past spring, in preparation for our kentucky derby party, andrew and i went in search of traditional kentucky recipes. i wanted the official recipes for mint julips, hot browns, and derby pie. i found the recipes for several of those and more. my search reminded me of forgotten friends like fried green tomatoes, baked grits, burgoo, and chocolate gravy. and i discovered new wonderful treasures. for example, i had no idea that the brown hotel used to sell both hot browns and cold browns, but no one ever really liked cold browns, so we all only know about hot browns. over the next couple of weeks, i want to tell you more about some of these wonderful traditional kentucky recipes, starting with a new discovery: the benedictine.

Jennie Carter Benedict was a caterer and restaurant owner in Louisville, KY. she opened up shop in 1893, and served a delightful sandwich spread made from cucumbers. it can also be used as a condiment or chip dip. i liked this best as a chip dip and did have a hard time stopping eating it once i'd gotten started. its kind of like a ranch or french onion, but without the badbreath afterwards.

Benedictine Spread:

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and coarsely grated
8 ounces low-fat cream cheese (do not use nonfat)
2 tablespoons finely grated onion
1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons low-fat sour cream (do not use nonfat)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped dill (optional)

it was kind of odd grating cucumber and onion. i suppose you could coursely chop and then use a food processor, just don't get it quite to the point of puree. combine ingredients and chill before serving. enjoy!

summer reading list

2008-07-27T18:02:00.003-05:00

this summer i've enjoyed several nice books and muddled through a few horid books.

i was delighted to discover jasper fforde's thursday next series. i read the first two books (the eyre affair and lost in a good book) in the series and have been waiting patiently for andrew to finish the third book (the well of lost plots). i am afraid, however, that as the series continues, it make take more and more work on my part to suspend disbelief. its all getting more and more far fetched, but in a terribly wonderfully creative way.

i adore most anything by neil gaiman and recently read one of his newer books 'interworld.' i enjoyed it thoroughly despite its brevity. also in the scifi/fantacy genre, i read 'andromeda strain.' i read it about two weeks before i heard about the A&E miniseries. the only thing i regretted about the book was that i didn't get to read it about thirty years ago. science has just changed so much since it was written. publishing must be like driving a new car off the lot. its instantly a used car or dated technology. however, if you've never read 'ender's game,' you really should. it was also written about thirty years ago but i swear, you'd never know it. though i suspect that will only be true for about another five years.

i've joined a murder/mystery book club at one of the local libraries.

oh, oh! as a side note, i've never lived in a town with so many library branches! and everytime i'm in one of them, i'm so happy to see so many other people. of all the places that i ever dreamed might support a great library system, las vegas was not at the top of that list. las vegas was not even on the list.

well, last month with the book club, we read one of kathy reichs' bones books. the bones tv show is based on the leading lady of this book series, but with a lot of adjustments to the setting and other characters. 'bones to ashes' was in the middle of the series but i still very much enjoyed it. it was hard to figure out a couple of things, but only because it was in the middle. if you'd read all the previous books then you would have known more about so many of the people/backgrounds in the book.

but the book club is a bit hit or miss. the book bofore bones was mostly ok. the next book is dorothy sayers' 'clouds of witness.' published in 1927, its a smidge out of date. there is nothing particularly wrong with it, its just really dry and long winded.

i picked up a couple of books from the thrift store for a quarter and just could not finish them. 'mist of prophecy' was one. i thought it was going to be a historical mystery with a smidge of romance. i suppose if i'd read any reviews of it, i wouldn't have bought it. but since i paid twenty five cents, i guess i got my monies worth.

i also bought 'dashing through the mall' which was actually three christmas oriented love stories. couples meet, they overcome odds, and fall in love. however, since the story only has about a hundred pages, it was kind of like a disney movie. it ends right at the falling in love point, and therefore never has those tedious getting to know you parts, or discovering you are human beings with bad breath or gas parts, or that maybe love was hard work parts. i didn't know it was three in one when i bought it. i finished the first story and may eventually read all three, but only on vacation or in an airport. not for serious reading or real entertainment.

i'm somewhat burnt out on patricia cornwell at the moment. i read 'black notice' which is about the sixth or seventh book in the kay scarpetta series. and i started 'the last precinct' but the series has just derailed so much. i may not be able to finish this one either.

and i'm currently about to finish a fairly trashy novel, 'head over heels.' i didn't realize it was going to be so trashy when i selected it. one of the groups i'm a memeber of did a book exchange. i think i gave up books much better than i took home, but that's just my opinion. anyway, 'head over heels' has a bit of mystery. or at least there is a murder to solve. and lots of people fall into lust. maybe be the end it will be into love, who knows for sure. i've got about a hundred pages left, anything could happen.

and andrew is reading a book about the cold war. i keep meaning to read something that will teach me something but, well, i'm done with school, and i guess just looking for something fun nowadays.

what are you reading right now?

thinking outside the box

2008-07-25T08:24:00.006-05:00

our third anniversary passed about a month ago, late june. you may know that each anniversary has an associated gift. its actually two gifts. there is a traditional gift suggestion and a modern. first year is paper and clocks. second is cotton and china. third is leather and then crystal. the suggestions are a fun idea, but i don't really want to buy china and crystal for andrew.

so instead, we've both been thinking quite outside the box. while he was in iraq, i mailed him origami flowers and a countdown clock. it looked kind of like a pager and kept track of the weeks, days, hours until he came home. last year, i bought him a transformer toy that was made in china-so far no lead poisoning issues. this year, i took him to the movies. i scanned through the credits online until i found a movie that had at least one person named crystal - with any variation on the spelling. but i think he really trumped my ideas this year. he found the cutest cupcake pan (i adore cupcakes) and some rock crystal candy to decorate my cupcakes.

behold!

my 3rd anniversary model train cupcakes complete with crystal candy smoke:

zoe has some anger management issues

2008-07-10T09:09:00.001-05:00

the sweater monkey cat toy has been looking a bit worse for wear for a while...but look at what i found this morning!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

2008-07-04T09:05:00.001-05:00

i was going for a sort of dr seuss feel with these 4th of july cupcakes. each one has three layers: strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla.

go baby go!

2008-05-04T13:26:00.005-05:00

yesterday was fairly interesting: andrew and i threw our first ever derby party. apparently there is an offical registry for derby parties. we didn't know until yesterday. there were aproximately 7000 registered derby parties yesterday! if we ever throw one again, we'll make it official.

having an in home gathering was a great motivator to finally get around to finishing a couple of home projects. a good mix of people showed up; some friends, some coworkers, some national guard guys. i had been worried that there wasn't enough food or beverages but of course we have enough tasty leftovers that we'll not have to cook for days. i was also worried that since the party was from 2-5 and the race lasts a little less than 3 minutes, that we'd all be staring at each other bored to tears at 3:08. that was not the case, though unfortunately in part due to the terrible tragedy of eight belles. horses are just like so many other things in the world: fantistically strong and powerful yet so very fragile. my heart goes out to larry jones, her trainer, who, strangely, is the father of someone with whom i went to high school.

last year i did bet, and my horse won. i think i came home with about $20. i had casually guessed which would be the top three, but did not bet the trifecta. i seriously should have because i was right and would have come home with at least one more zero at the end of that winning amount. this year, i did not bet at all. we were cheering for big brown, but strangely, not because he was the favorite. we choose him for his name. andrew's roommate in iraq was brown. whenever brown calls, andrew answers the phone with "hey big guy." there are a couple of other members in the "big guy" club, but andrew and brown are the founders. so a horse named big brown is naturally going to be our choice. he did a fabulous job coming from the worst spot at the gate and finishing many lengths ahead of everyone else. it really looked like his jockey couldn't hardly get him to stop, like brown was just having such a great time that he wanted to go around again! it will be interesting to see how he does in the preakness and then belmont. there has not been a triple crown winner since the year i was born...

our derby welcome wreath:

me and my derby hat:

2008-04-28T08:10:00.002-05:00

yesterday morning i awoke only to discover i had turned thirty years old.

obviously i knew about the event before going to sleep the night before, but it was still very strange to wake up and be in a different decade. you expect to somehow feel different once you finally achieve sixteen, eighteen, twenty one, thirty...only to find out that you feel just the same as you did the day before.

successful midterm and book drive

2008-04-10T20:05:00.001-05:00

mi clase de espanol esta un telenovela = my spanish class is a soap opera

so i showed up to take my midterm only to find out that my professor had been fired.

sacked. canned. terminated. all happened over spring break.

not the sort of thing you want to discover on midterm day.

apparently, as an adjunct professor, he signed up to teach more classes than allowed. i'm sure there were more issues than that. there usually are. however, my old professor was solidly community college, could not have been more relaxed or laid back, and my new professor is kind of catholic school nun except not a nun.

since then, they haven't been able to retrieve grades from the former professor. maybe the stuff i did before spring break counts and maybe it doesn't. who knows!

the sad thing is that i'm completely not surprised. most everything about nevada has been wholly, completely, unbelievably amateur. a city that is barely fifty years old and suddenly finds itself with 2 million people is kind of like a six year old. except that you can often overlook a child's mistakes because he or she does not alway realize that there are people with experience who could teach them, show them examples, while this city, or maybe state, just chooses to ignore those with experience or example. our recent health care crisis is a good example. who doesn't know that reusing needles and vials is bad??? apparently the heath care workers in nevada don't know what most every fifth grader knows. everything here is trying to reinvent the wheel, and doing it badly. goverment, schools, roads, health care, etc are all amateur, practically preschool. so my professor is fired. my grades have vanished.

which is not necessarily a bad thing...i did miss a couple of classes, and now no one is the wiser!

oh, and i was a part of a book drive for the local cmn hospital. that shares this entry because i had to make a mad dash from my midterm to the book drive. it was a raging success and we recieved tons of boxes of books for the local children's hospital!!

deceptively delicious

2008-03-28T10:57:00.002-05:00

andrew gave me this cookbook for christmas: jessica seinfield's deceptively delicious. its all about how to trick your kids into eating more veggies. i like veggies. i don't require trickery. but sometimes i find it hard to get all my daily veggies or to do new and interesting things with them. we're bored with our same ol veggies.

so i adore the cookbook. its got a ton of great recipes and tips. we've enjoyed everything except for the mac n cheese recipe. it wasn't a problem with the recipe; it was a problem with me. turns out, i only like mac n cheese that comes from a blue box. also, and this is key, there are pictures of nearly everything. i don't understand cookbooks with no pictures. how am i supposed to know that i want to eat something if i can't look at it and say, "that looks yummy"?

i keep thinking about posting one of the muffin recipes. but the basic plan for the book is to make veggie purees and add them to recipes. for example, the blueberry muffins have a half cup of butternut squash puree, which is all well and good in theory but a big hassle for just one round of muffins. if you are going to follow her plan, then you get into the habit of making purees and freezing them and using them. if you aren't going to follow her plan, then you don't really want to try just the one blueberry muffin recipe. so just pretend that i posted another recipe and you glanced through it and thought, "wow that sounds yummy, someday i'll make that" knowing full well that you probably won't, which is ok, because i too glance at a great many recipes and do that same thing.

2008-03-27T16:19:00.002-05:00

i thought it would be great to take a class on saturdays. i would only have class once a week. i would have a whole week to prepare. it would not interfere with work. its all great except for the part of actually getting up and spending my whole saturday in a classroom. which oddly enough, i never want to do on saturday mornings when i'm all snuggly in bed.

and i had thought that my classmates were exactly the brightest bulbs in the pack. that is, until i visited another section of the class. for whatever reason, i needed to go to the tuesday/thursday night version. it was during those two (i needed to go to two to make up for one saturday class) that lasted from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, that i learned just how good i have it on saturdays. if for nothing else, the T-R people make the S people look like rocket scientists. though i would never have guessed, apparently a higher caliber of students take the saturday class, so i guess that's where i'm stuck for however long i decide to take spanish classes.

my midterm is this saturday. wish me luck!

2008-03-18T19:27:00.003-05:00

so the story starts on last friday.

one of my coworkers brought in duncan donuts and they were just terribly fun. she brought in donut holes but instead of being standard bite sized donuts, they were jelly filled donut holes. we all got to talking about how great an idea that was, and someone suggested bagel holes filled with cream cheese. and that seemed like heaven.

then i went home and in casual conversation mentioned to andrew about the idea of bagel holes filled with cream cheese. he agreed it was a fantastic idea. what i'd forgotten was how making bagels was on his rather long to-do list. suddenly what was his project became an our project and we spent most of sunday making bagel holes and filling them with cream cheese. it was a lot of fun, and we were both delighted with how well they turned out.

i knew i was going to be visiting one of our sites today, so i planned to take our little treats to them as a surprise.

i've never seen people sneer at free food like those people did today. you'd have thought i suggested they eat bagels stuffed with worms. i spent the morning all nervously waiting for andrew to call and ask me about how much they loved our treats and i felt so bad telling him how our efforts were rejected. i had thought about bringing them muffins on friday but you can definately cancel that.

at noon i stomped off to go get lunch and retreat to my office. i decided to dine at steiner's subtitled "a nevada style pub." i've seen several in town and thought fish-n-chips sounded like just the thing. only, once i got there, they don't serve fish-n-chips. how?!? how can you have a pub and not serve fish-n-chips??? isn't that a prerequisite to using the name "pub"? later on andrew reminded me that it does have nevada in the name of the establishment, which we've decided "nevada style" might be code for terrible. the waitress talked me into one of their burgers and it was fairly tasty. at some point in the meal, however, i dropped a big splatter of ketchup on my white shirt, left boob. how many times did she come to the table and not mention this?? the bus boy came by and took everything away, including all the napkins and even my drink, and he didn't mention the big blob of ketchup! i was on my way out the door when i noticed it. and its not like something stuck in your teeth, where you might not notice. it was a white shirt for crying out loud.

by that point, i'd already talked to my office mates and committed myself into stopping at the store to buy them ice cream. but of course, now i have ketchup on my boob and didn't exactly want to go into any public places. i bit the bullet and went anyway. everyone i saw had a silly smirk, which was annoying, but nearly as much as when the cashier haphazardly chucked all my change at me, i dropped half of it, and she said, "gosh, i guess you're just having a clumsy day..."

when i finally returned with the ice cream, we all feasted while i regaled them with my tales of woe. we all had a good hearty laugh over it. i tried to be cranky all afternoon, i really did. gave it my best effort, but every time, i would accidentally glance at the ketchup stain on my boob and start laughing again.

lipstick snafu

2008-03-16T17:33:00.002-05:00

i've really fallen for this 12 hour long lasting lipstick. well, i guess its lip gloss or something; its not a solid stick/tube of stuff. there is a wand and you apply the color. then throughout the day, you can apply generic shiny stuff, but the color stays all day. it doesn't smear off onto cups or forks or cheeks.

today i accidentally got it on my front teeth during the color application process. naturally i didn't notice at all. andrew noticed halfway during the first song at church. oddly enough, lip stick that stays on your lips for 12 hours doesn't really budge off your teeth either.

"small army of old ladies is determined to do its part to fight the global war on terror"

2008-03-11T14:29:00.002-05:00

this is worth reading:

Eldery enlist as coupon clippers to aid military

i liked this article for several reasons. in part because andrew is quite the avid coupon clipper; he's even so careful to cut perfectly on the lines. in part because i think so many more people would support the troops but don't really know what to do, don't have any concrete suggestions on how to actually support the troops. and mainly i liked it just because it was so very positive. we could also use a bigger helping of positive news, more stories about people who help others and fewer stories about prostitution rings and clinics using dirty syringes.

i am so very tired

2008-02-27T09:40:00.002-05:00

we spent all last week and all weekend moving. since it was only about four apartments down, we didn't really pack up anything. which is both easier and harder than normal moves. we had both apartments for a week, so that was a nice time frame. but for six days straight, all i did was pack up a box, walk down steps, walk over to the new place, walk up steps, unpack the box, and head back to the old apartment to do it all again. on saturday, after having watched us do this for a week, one of the neighbors yelled out to us, "how many more trips? about twenty?" i laughed and thought, "i only wish."

in the middle of all that, i've also started physical therapy. i don't remember if i told you that i was finally allowed to take off that awful brace. three months is too long to be wearing such a contraption. on the second day of pt, my therapist announced that she didn't think i got too much out of it the day before and was going to step it up a notch. i could barely walk out of there. and sadly, then go home to continue with the move. i didn't make too many trips that night.

i guess everyone needed to lounge after the move...

but that was all done as of sunday. monday morning, i got up way before dawn, hopped on a plane, and am currently in virginia. at least for a couple of more hours. i get to go home tonight; my plane lands at nearly tomorrow. i have pt tomorrow and friday at 7am. and then friday night i shall collapse. that is i guess if i can find the bed amongst the apartment moving mess.

on saturday, i have my first quiz in my spanish class. part of me absolutely does not care about the quiz. i'm completely not at all doing this for a grade. i'm doing it for the knowledge. however, i do think grades generally reflect knowledge. so i'm kind of in a conundrum of caring/not caring. andrew also has some tests coming up, so maybe we'll find some quality time to study together. seems like he might make a cute studybuddy. but i don't think there is an all night coffee shop in town and the all night video poker palance doesn't seem like it would be a good place to study...

2008-02-11T15:41:00.000-05:00

nothing particularly interesting has happened lately...but i have managed to snap a couple good photos of zoecat...

this one does not seem particularly remarkable unless you know that she pulled the pillow down on herself. i guess she was cold.

she has this food/water bowl combo and the water has a reservoir. for some reason zoe keeps trying to put her dry cereal into the water bowl. and she's not content for it to just be floating in the bowl, she keeps at it until the cereal is up inside the reservoir. what a gross thing to do?

and here she is learning spanish. my class is going well and i feel like i'm on top of the homework, except when she decides to take a nap right on top of everything. i guess she's learning by osmosis.

super weekend

2008-02-03T20:57:00.000-05:00

happy anniversary to zoecat! we adopted her the saturday before the superbowl last year. then she hid in the closet all saturday and all sunday until about the half time show. so right about now is when she came out of the closet and joined the garland family.

also this weekend i've decided i miss chili. we do potlucks at work on about a monthly basis and for a while now i've been campaigning for a chili day. but everytime i'm completely shot down by everyone except my boss, who's also from ky (northern ky, nearly cinncinati). then it occured to me that maybe no one else is a fan of chili because either they don't have a minor addiction to three way chili (if you are from greater cinci you know this means on top of spaghetti with a load of cheddar cheese on top. four way is with onions too. five also has red beans.) or because it doesn't really get cold enough here to justify big chili and soup fests. though the sad confession is that i've never actually made normal chili. i've got a great veggie chili recipe but i've never made real normal chili. so i found a recipe, i bought all the stuff, i've fixed it all up, and then i snacked all day on wings and chips and cheese sticks and leftover pizza. i'm completely not hungry and i haven't tried my chili that's been simmering away all day. it smells great though. and hey, chili always gets better the next day, right? i guess i'll let you know tomorrow...

quote of the day

2008-01-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

for a variety of reasons, this is fun...

"False ideas never die; only their supporters eventually snuff it." (Hervé This.)

2008-01-18T08:47:00.000-05:00

getting into the community college has been a trial of near epic proportions. all i wanted was to take a refresher spanish class. you'd think i was trying to get into harvard or oxford. last week, the local news ran a story on how admissions have just plummeted and the schools just don't have a clue as to why las vegans don't want to attend local colleges. since i'm about to the point that i might just burn the school down, i think i know why admissions have declined.

it took them three months to process my online application. apparently there is no actual processing. you fill out the form online, hit submit, and then absolutely nothing happens until you get extremely huffy and impatient and call the school. once you call the school, they check the box that says admitted.

then i had to go through the process of becoming an instate student. you get this automatically after having lived here 12 months, but there are other options if you haven't been here 12 months, like moving here for my job, which i did. so i filled out the forms, gave them my taxes, a letter from my work, a copy of my NV ID, and a copy of a recent utility bill. i want to be very clear that this was everything the form asked; andrew double checked my work and everything. i was denied. the denial letter said i had to bring in 12 months of bills. #$&*@. if i had 12 months of utility bills, i would just be a resident, having lived here 12 months and i wouldn't be trying to qualify under special less than 12 month circumstances. so i waited and gave them 12. i was approved, but the website, where you register for classes and then pay was not updated.

they told me it was ok. i wouldn't be dropped from my class as long as i paid something. the website was charging me nonstate tuition. i only needed to pay the portion that was real and eventually the rest would be removed, once the website was updated (i suspect this only happens like with admissions. after angry phone calls).

the website won't let you pay only a portion of your bill. you have to pay in full. so since i didn't pay, since they were still over charging me, i was dropped from early registration. more or less that means i had to go back to the back of the line. after everyone else got a chance, i got to register again. but with the same problem: i couldn't pay only a portion and therefore would just get dropped again.

yesterday the website was finally updated. today is the last possible day to register.

i have registered for my stupid refresher course. i have paid, though my confirmation email has not shown up yet. either my credit card did not got through and i'll be dropped, or my card did go through but by some fluke i've paid for fifteen hundred other people's tuition, or a meteor will fall on the classroom and the class will be cancelled.

its a good thing i'm not a huge basketball fan...

2008-01-15T11:11:00.000-05:00

...which is somewhat of a sin, what with being from ky, and having lived in lexington and attended uk and everything. i do always want the home time to win, but since this year's season is looking so terribly bad, i don't have to apologize too much for not being a big fan.

a coworker forwarded this to me:

HUGE CUSTODY BATTLE IN LEXINGTON
Lexington, KY (AP) - A seven-year-old Lexington, Kentucky boy was at the center of a Fayette County courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the degree possible. The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him. After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Kentucky Wildcats, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

feline herpes

2008-01-12T19:11:00.000-05:00

remember a couple of days ago when i said zoe seemed to have a cold? well, she has respiratory issues for sure and according to the vet, 80-90% of kitty respiratory issues are actually caused by feline herpes. she lived with several cats in her first home and then naturally was with several cats living with the adoption agency so she likely contracted it then. supposedly the first bout of respiratory issues are going to be the worst. her sneeze is so pitiful. we've got some medicines for her now; i had to take her to the vet all by myself. i wasn't her favorite person anyway, andrew always has been. but i think between the cat carrier, the car ride, the vet taking her temperature, and then me shoving down her throat medicine that looks like ear wax, i lost some serious popularity points.

she should be ok and recover well. she needs a more humid environment, which isn't likely to happen, though i have had the humidifier on all day. and she needs less stress in her little kitty life. i'm not sure how to destress a kitty; all she does is eat and nap. i don't think i'll send her to a day spa just yet, mostly i'm planning to leave her hidng under the bed. at least until time for the next round of meds.

women drivers

2008-01-11T12:53:00.000-05:00

i think i'm an ok driver, but ever since i broke my back, i haven't been a very good passenger. its just i knew i was already broken, so it seemed like any little thing, just the smallest fender bender would probably be the end of me.

i started driving myself on monday. its kind of scary. and then today i got on the freeway. yikes! obviously i lived to tell the tale, i mean, i am blogging, but it was still rather scary.

achoo!

2008-01-10T22:32:00.001-05:00

zoecat has started sneezing.

a lot.

its such a cute tiny sneeze, on account of her being a cute tiny kitty but she's sneezing so much.

and andrew instinctively calls out bless you everytime, which is also very cute.

so either she's coming down with a cold or her tiny black kitty soul is trying to escape. only time will tell.

always a bridesmaid...never a bride

2008-01-08T09:47:00.001-05:00

ohio state is probably going to develop some sort of complex about always coming in second, especially after having done it so many times in a row. i kind of think ohio's runner up glass ceiling is rather funny, though it would have been funnier if they'd lost again to florida, having lost to florida in both of last year's basketball and football championships. i'm not particularly an lsu fan and i don't just have it out for ohio. but when it all comes down to it, i'll support any sec team over anyone else anywhere so hooray for lsu!

i am compliant

2008-01-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

i had a great doctors visit today! and possibly also the briefest ever. i didn't think it was possible for dr lee to spend less time with us than previous visits but he really did today. it was amazing. just a whirlwind, a barrage of info, and then back out the door.

its been eight weeks since i broke my back. this was my second monthly visit. so he starts by saying that in three weeks, i can start to ween myself off of the back brace. he's going on about stuff like i'm a textbook, not even really asking me about how i'm doing. i bring up that i'm having some unusual and rather intense pains in my upper back/ribcage, not at all close to where i broke bones. i reiterate that its happening in the mornings, when i always have the most hurts. and he looks at me with such surprise, "you're still sleeping in the brace?" "well, yes," i say, "you told me to never take it off, ever ever...so, um, i haven't." he just sort of blinks at me and finally says, "i did say that."

since he doesn't really have a better answer than that, he starts looking at the xrays they just took. i am all excited because even i can see that the bones all look like bones and not cloudy blobs where bones should be. and then dr lee becomes overly excited. "i've never had a patient so compliant...you are healing so fast and so well because you have been so compliant, you can start to ween yourself off the brace in two weeks...and don't sleep in it anymore..." and then he said the word compliant about five more times and flew out the door on to the next patient.

apparently no one else follows the spine surgeon's rules? this isn't like the dentist; no one flosses like they should and no one really feels bad about that. or like glasses; i could muddle through my day without them. but, wow, i can't muddle through my day without my spine so i'm going to do exactly to the letter what the spine surgeon says. i didn't think i would be the exception on this. i mean, yeah, i did jump off a balcony, so i can't with a straight face say i don't take chances with my spine, but really, i don't take chances with my spine.

his choice of wording is also terrific. i called up work right away and told them over and over again about how he said i was so compliant. and of course, my compliance department teammates thought that was a hoot and a half. i mean that's what i do for a living, compliance. i am compliant.

2008-01-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

13 Haikus for 2007

January
monday mornings
my sleepiness is at odds
with boring meeting

February
the winds that blow here,
stirring up dust and debris,
make me static charged

March
cat sleeps on my shirt
leaving huge white hair balls there
where is the lint brush?

April
birthday one away
from turning point: three decades
still family baby

May
freeway overpass
blossoms in graffiti on
sun filled may mornings

June
i am prosperous
for love, kindness, and beauty
surround me always

July
weekend in flagstaff:
relief from las vegas heat.
final potter read.

August
take longest road trip
ever, until the drive home.
gas station snacks rule.

September
back to school as adult
appalling, frightening, sad.
standards here are low.

October
the morning paper
harbinger of good and ill
--stepped over most days

November
no cat burgler i;
cannot scale down patio wall.
sexy back brace? ha!

December
santa grabs an oat-
meal cookie as another coat
button starts to pop

New Year's Resolution
a few extra pounds,
frowns, clutter, email forwards:
things to get rid of

he's the patron saint of lost kitties

2008-01-01T16:58:00.000-05:00

we've had a guest recently. but the story is quite sad and i didn't want to post it until after the holidays.

wednesday
a couple of weeks ago, we went to the gym one morning, as we often used to do before i broke my back. randomly, it was also the same week that someone from the apartment complex's insurance came out to investigate the accident, to determine their liability. so we headed to the gym, me for the treadmill, andrew for the elliptical. the gym has a ton of video cameras, and i was sure someone in the apartment office was watching me get onto the treadmill and thinking aloud, "does she just have it out for us? is she trying to find ways to sue?" but i swear, my doctor said it would be great for me to get very extremely non impact exercise. when we returned, there was a small kitty sitting on one of the stairs leading up to our second floor apartment. i stayed on the ground while andrew tried to shoo it. the cat only seemed to want to go up the steps, closer to the door. finally on the top landing, andrew picked up the kitty, carried it down, and we went inside. a couple of hours later, when we left for work, the cat was still on the bottom step. normally people adopt cats but this one seemed to be adopting us. she was fairly small, big eyes, medium haired, brown and grey.

wednesday night
when i got home, i discovered andrew had thoughtfully set out a dish of food and water for the cat. i said "hum. we're not keeping, right?"

later wednesday night
while i'm not looking, andrew sneaks outside and builds a little shelter out of a cardboard box and some towels; you know, to protect it from the harsh las vegas winter. the cat begins to lounge. i remind andrew that we are only letting this cat stay until we find its owner. surely someone is going to put up signs soon. the cat is clearly comfortable around people and likes this area so it must have an owner. it has a collar but without name or info.

thursday
everyone in the office is congratulating me on my new cat, despite my persistence that this is just temporary. and just to further torture me, several hypothesize that this cat has shown up to have kittens. we don't actually know its a girl cat but somewhere along the way, andrew and i both decided she was a she. i think she had girl eyes. we also don't think the cat has eaten anything. andrew tries different cat foods. we never see the cat move but every time we check, she is in a different spot in her box. we've also taken to calling her the outdoor kitty, which i nervously concider just a small step away from our outdoor kitty.

one time, while going in or out, zoe happened to be sitting in the entry way and the two kitties saw each other. they both looked stunned. "you get to live inside?!?" "you get to live outside?!?"

friday
i'm starting to worry. the kitty definitely has not eaten anything. andrew gives the cat some milk, which she drinks, and then vomits and then drinks some more. the cat still does not move except when we aren't looking.

saturday
at lunch, i announce, to no one in particular, "that cat is going to die on our doorstep." we find the number for the people that we got zoecat from and give them a ring. i explain the situation and the woman on the other end says to take the cat to such and such vet. we get out the cardboard box that the stork brought zoe home in and prepare to put the new cat inside.

this is the point in the story that my heart breaks.

andrew picked up the cat, clearly still alive, but very much like a ragdoll. he put her in the carrier and she didn't move at all. we drove a bit too quickly to the vet, couldn't find the place, did several uturns, and eventually arrived. we told them the whole story, the vet took one look inside the box, and said, "oh, no, she's in bad shape." i began to cry and proceeded to cry the whole way home.

a couple of hours later, they called to tell us how the story ended. i made andrew take the call. the best they could figure, our new outside kitty had been hit by a car. she had a lot of internal problems but also was having strokes. that explained why she seemed ok at first, but clearly was going downhill. it was also why she didn't seem to act like most injured animals, scared and snarly. she obviously was not in a whole lot of pain as she was loosing brain function, but i was right, she was going to die on our doorstep. it turns out, andrew's nest building antics, which i thought were so silly, really did make her last days as happy and comfy as possible.

today turned out strange

2007-12-27T20:25:00.001-05:00

early in the morning, someone's fax machine tried to call my cell phone. i can't imagine why but it was clearly one of those machines that keeps redialing either until they get it right or reached a certain number of calls. for about an hour, every seven or so minutes, it would ring again.

but i can't complain. andrew went to the barber today.

the girl dropped the clippers and gouged out a huge section. in order to smooth it all out, she had to clip his hair about as short as its ever been. it might have been slightly longer at basic. it was definately nearly as bad the time in iraq that he tried to cut it himself.

the bright side is that guard weekend is still two weeks away, so he won't have to get it cut before like usual...

check out this naughty kitty

2007-12-27T10:11:00.001-05:00

someone waiting until after santa came and then completely distroyed the bookshelf. someone thought it would be great fun to climb behind the books and then knock them all out onto the floor...

happy holidays TT

2007-12-27T04:34:00.000-05:00

13 things about my christmas this year

1. it was a terrific holiday weekend

2. i pigged out on all sorts of tasty treats

3. the weather was quite lovely and we took several walks (to make up for such pigging out)

4. we attended four out of five advent services, only missing christmas eve due to some tummy issues.

5. apparently we weren't the only ones who wanted to order a pizza delivered on christmas eve. papa john's were so backed up that they weren't even taking more orders

6. my favorite gift that i gave to andrew was a magnetic dart board

7. my least favorite gift that i gave to andrew was some comic book stamps. i thought i'd done great but turns out i bought the wrong ones. oops.

8. my favorite gift from andrew was an anniversary edition of my most favorite childhood book: miss suzie.

9. my least favorite gift from andrew? none. he's terrific at always buying the exact thing i wanted.

10. i happily recieved my third set of penguin pajamas! i wore pajamas all christmas day long (2 different sets. one before, one after my shower)

11. we gave zoecat a new scratching pad filled to the brim with catnip and i think she's still flying high.

12. i somehow got suckered into cleaning the house. it was mostly my mess...and andrew did have a good point about how much he'd mess up cleaning my stuff if he had to do it alone once i went back to work...but still, cleaning on christmas?

13. we got so many cards from friends and family that we ran out of space to display them all!

its just not christmas without tamales

2007-12-26T16:17:00.001-05:00

normally i only tell you about the recipes that turn out well.

sunday was not one of those occasions.

i got it in my head that i would make tamales. i actually found the recipe in november, have since purchased the perishable parts a couple of times, let them rot, tossed them out, bought them again, repeat. and now i've finally made them. except it was a complete flop and all ingredients were chucked out.

but while i was making them, i called up my mom. mostly to brag about how i was making tamales (she's a spanish teacher). she told me about how this woman who used to attend their church always made tamales for christmas. before she died, mom used to see her doing her christmas dinner shopping and it always included corn husks (which i would not have thought you could buy in rural western ky nearly a decade ago). she once said that her kids felt that it just wasn't a proper christmas if their mom didn't make batch after batch of tamales. i can't help but wonder how that got to be their family's tradition. they weren't hispanic. i don't think they'd even ever lived in the southwest. but maybe one random sunday, years before her kids were born, she happened upon a tamale recipe, succeeded at making them, and just played it by ear from there.

maybe i'll get it right next year.

its just not christmas without cinnamon rolls

2007-12-25T16:07:00.000-05:00

for as long as i can remember, my mom home made cinnamon rolls on special occasions. its quite a big to-do and it just doesn't seem like the holidays if without cinnamon rolls. and so she made them when we were in ky having our early christmas gathering.

i have the recipe and have made it several times. but honestly, yesterday just wasn't one of them. we got some frozen things, baked them up, and they were remarkably yummy. just not my mom's. and truth be told, if i'd made them from scratch, they still wouldn't have been like my mom's, in that childhood memory vs real thing sort of way. buts its a very nice recipe and after one more confession, i'll share it with you. i don't actually know how to make bread. funny how i've made these several times and don't know how to make bread. i know how to set the bread maker on the dough setting. so i'm sure that when my mom gave this recipe to me, if was very clear on ingredient order and warming some of the liquids and whatever else you do for breads. my recipe is basically dump it into the machine (though definitely yeast first, then dry ingredients, then the wet stuff).

so this is your basic white bread recipe, passed from my grandma to my mom to me to you. you can do anything with it. cinnamon rolls. dinner rolls. a loaf. add some cheese or italian seasonings. really just whatever you like. i've never had it not turn out well.

mom's bread

1 package yeast
1/4 cup sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 t salt
1/4 cup shortening
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup water

once the breadmaker has turned this into dough, you can turn it into anything. if you roll it and shape it and play with it, you'll want to let it rise again. place in a warm spot for about 30 minutes. and then bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until golden brown. enjoy!

pedi party

2007-12-22T17:18:00.000-05:00

i've felt rather broken and awkward and ugly since i broke my back. while i don't really know what either actually is like, i feel like a combination of pregnant and menopausal. like a hotflashing beached whale.

i can't bend over. i can't touch my toes. none of my cute clothes fit. and i cannot control my temperature. my limbs are freezing. my core is on fire. the brace just doesn't let the heat out and how many pieces of clothing warm up everything except your tummy/back. its always the other way around. the brace makes me look very flat chested and i can't shave my legs. no matter what i do, i am completely lacking in grace. so because i can't touch my toes or do anything girly, i got a pedicure. i let someone else fancy me up.

2007-12-21T13:56:00.000-05:00

i've got a couple of somewhat crazy coworkers. only a couple, you ask?

one of them is terribly delightful. all year long, she goes to every casino and gets every free gift imaginable. and saves them up all year until its this heaping mass of free gifts. (you get free gifts by being a member of the players club for that casino or casino chain. they all have this and you don't necessarily have to gamble to get the gifts). and then on the last work day before christmas, she brings the whole heaping mass of gifts in and we draw names and pick gifts and have a grand ol time. i picked up two clinique make up/gift sets, a purse from dress barn, candles, off brand tupperware and a cd stereo system. there were several sets of dinnerware than i had my eye on but didn't get. and of course there were a couple of gifts that everyone passed up (a mit romney sippy cup, some beach mats, and several yo yos). i can't wait to see what shows up next year!

just add whatever you want

2007-12-20T17:12:00.001-05:00

we've tried this recipe a couple of ways. it is good with the chicken. its good with italian sausage instead of chicken. its remarkably good with just spinach and no meats, though you might want to put in an extra package to make up for the missing chicken. its kind of an add whatever you want sort of dish.

chicken spinach casserole

8 ounces uncooked rigatoni, or pasta of choice
1 T olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
1 (14.5-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 (8-oz.) container chive-and-onion cream cheese
1/2 t salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

prepare pasta according to package directions. meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; add onion in a single layer. bake at 375° for 15 minutes or just until tender. set aside. drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels. stir pasta, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in baking dish. sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese. bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

a good day

2007-12-19T18:32:00.000-05:00

i finally found the brown boots i've been wanting. they were waiting for me on ebay and i was the highest bidder. horray for me.

and one of the vendors at work brought us a whole crate of haagen-dazs ice cream bars. to make room in the freezer, we had to toss some of the old, fat free popsicles. there are two flavors: dark chocolate w/ milk chocolate coating and vanilla w/ milk chocolate coating. i have only tried the vanilla but wow. when you bite into it and get some on your lips and its so fatty that your lips kind of feel like you just put on chapstick, that's how you know its the good stuff.

2007-12-16T16:38:00.000-05:00

i was so excited to put up the tree this year. its been three years since i've decorated for the holidays. last year we were moving. the year before that andrew was in iraq and i just didn't feel like decorating. but this year, just minutes after finishing my turkey dinner, we tossed up the tree.

and i've finally gotten to use the 'our first christmas' ornament. i found several available on line and emailed the pictures to andrew in iraq so that we could still pick it out together and now finally its come out of its wee box and tissue paper and is hanging on the front of the tree.

terror in the skies

2007-12-15T15:40:00.001-05:00

we recently flew back home to see family for the holidays. the trip was great, though always too short. there was much debate on how the flight would be, specifically how i would manage to get through security with this brace. turns out, i didn't even set off the alarm.

flying to ky was uneventful. the flight home caused some panic attacks.

first off, i hate flying. i'm nearly terrified of it. not so much that i can't do it. just enough that i can sit through the whole flight white knuckled.

so half way through the somewhat turbulent return flight, the flight attendant cheerily walks up and asks, "if we had to make an emergency landing, and use the inflatable ramps on the emergency exits, would you be able to hop and slide on the ramps?" immediately the plane goes bump bump bump as we hit some turbulent air.

i was too stunned to swear. i was too panicked to breath. why would you ask someone that?? they didn't need to know on the first flight. and really, what's a good answer? no, i'm going down with the plane? surely if we make an emergency landing and the plane is on fire, i'll figure out, and probably do so quickly, how to safely get onto the emergency inflatable ramp.

and then i had to sit there for over two more hours just wondering if the plane was going to crash.

crab stuffed chicken breasts

2007-12-14T15:22:00.000-05:00

i recently hosted a christmas party. i've occasionally had people over for dinner, but i've never been the hostess of a small gathering. while the event was fairly successful, i don't think hosting is quite my cup o tea. the whole thing was intended to be a potluck, with andrew and i providing the main dish. for some reason i got it in my head that a stuffed something would just be perfect. the recipe below is remarkably easy, very tasty, the end results are fairly pretty, possibly very unhealthy for you, but the sauce does not reheat well. so eat it all up on the first round. we have made this both with whole chicken breasts and also tenderloins for smaller portions.

crab stuffed chicken breasts

2 chicken breasts, boneless/skinless
1/4 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. chopped celery
3 T butter
3 T dry white wine
1/3 c crab, canned or fresh or imitation , whatever your preference
1/2 c. herb seasoned stuffing
2 T flour
1/2 t paprika
1 env. hollandaise sauce mix
3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. shredded swiss cheese

butterfly chicken; sprinkle with salt and pepper. cook onion and celery in 2 T butter until tender; remove from heat and add 2 T wine, crab and stuffing. mix and toss. divide mixture among breasts; roll up and secure. combine flour and paprika; coat chicken and put in large baking dish. drizzle with remaining melted butter and bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 1 hour. for the sauce: blend sauce mix and milk; cook and stir until thick. add remaining wine and cheese, stirring until cheese melts. pour over chicken and serve. enjoy!

2007-12-06T12:34:00.000-05:00

my most recent dr visit went well, despite how completely appalled i am at the charges being submitted to my insurance. its all somewhere between ludicrously immoral and flat out criminal. some of the charges haven't been fully processed, so i don't know officially which catagory they fall into. for example, the hosipital bill is for three days. i was there not even a full 24 hours, and they never gave me a bed. i had to stay in ER because there was no more beds to be had. so while i'm gearing up for a dispute on some of the charges, i do seem to be healing fairly well.

we've also found a new way to terrorize the cat. a clear plasic flyer came in the paper and she's completely traumatized by its existance. i'm not really sure why because generally she adores plastics. however this one is clear and slides across the floor attacking her. i want to feel bad at how often andrew torments her with the thing, but she's so funny hopping backwards/sideways. i woke up in the night and heard something. andrew went to investigate and determined that it was zoe smacking/beating the thing on the floor. i guess she just wasn't confident that it was dead, so she just kept hitting it. too cute.

orangapaloza

2007-12-05T12:12:00.000-05:00

andrew is a huge fan of all things orange flavored. its a real shame that very few orange flavored items (like candy and soda) come in sugar free. we all remember the orangesickle/dreamsickles from childhood, but he practically has a shrine for them. and there are occationally this glimer of hope for recreating that flavor. the army has this one MRE that has orange dreamsickle flavored cookies that are really truly terrific. i even think so and its come out of a MRE! yikes. we've researched the company that makes them and they only sell to the army, so we can't go buy any of these delights. we did find an orange cake and cooked it all up for thanksgiving, instead of pumpkin pie. and then over the long weekend, i discovered this recipe. now, normally andrew is the breakfast captain while i am the one daudling about getting ready. but with this recipe, i told andrew to stay in bed and read comics while i would be the breakfast captain. i've never baked french toast in the oven but i think this turned out very well. i used splenda instead of sugar, part egg beaters instead of 6 whole eggs, and then for the syrup, i melted some sugar free orange marmalade into the maple syrup. it was an orange fest.

orange french toast

6 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup skim or low-fat milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 T grated orange peel
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 t ground nutmeg
8 slices day-old raisin bread
butter
confectioners' sugar, optional

mix beaten eggs, juice, milk, sugar, peel, vanilla, nutmeg. in a 9x13, place all bread evenly. pour egg mix over and turn, flip, wiggle until all bread is covered and all egg mix soaked up. bake 30 minutes, turning once, on a cookie sheet at 350. bread should be golden, but monitor it because you don't want it to burn. enjoy!

2007-11-28T21:10:00.000-05:00

thirteen problems with the flyer left on our car window(week #34) in the fifteen or so minutes we were in target, our car got flyered!

1. first off, we weren't in the store long enough to get flyered

2. the flyer was for a psychic. andrew and i had the same initial thought: if you are a real psychic, shouldn't you know which cars to put the flyer on and which to avoid?

3. the flyer had no business name

4. the flyer had no address for the business

5. since i am not a psychic, i cannot take the flyers advice and "come on in today" since i don't know where to go. i can't even look it up in the phonebook

6. the flyer had poor grammar: don't chance you life's fate

7. the flyer didn't mention anything about lifting gyspy curses

8. the flyer didn't mention anything about helping me to be a better gambler

9. it claimed to be rated #1 in las vegas, but #1 what? rated by who? rated #1 bakery by the diabetics association?

10. the flyer was placed on the passenger side, which makes it really unlikely that the driver would see it. shouldn't a psychic know there was only one person in the car?

11. the flyer promised to tell us the past, present, and future. well, i think i can tell the present. that's not tricky at all.

12. there were no prices listed

13. the flyer did say it was for lauren and that's not a good psychic name. she's not even madam lauren.

2007-11-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

i basically slept through my MRI. Apparently most people freak out a bit but somehow, i was cozy enough to snooze. i got to take off my brace and lay down, so i was the most comfy i've been in weeks. i had a pillow under my knees and headphones to block out the banging noises. i closed my eyes for a second and then all of a sudden it was over. i was truly surprised when andrew told me he had time to walk down to the 7-11 and buy a donut. but none of that really matters because i have to wait until friday before anyone reviews my test and tells me about the results.

open enrollment

2007-11-27T11:16:00.000-05:00

its that time of year again...the dreaded moment for filling out health insurance forms. i think i'm a reasonably intelligent person but every year, i'm half terrified of these forms. they are weird and complicated. and since we seem to change insurance carriers every year, i never have the chance to fill out the same for twice, to sort of get the hang of it. i fear that the people in my HR department are going to review my forms and think, "wow, that christen must be a real loser. why can't she fill out this simple form properly?" and i'm always afraid that i'm going to check one little box wrong and then not be able to have insurance until january 2019 or something.

and then later today i get to go have my very first MRI (paid for by the current health insurance).

3 weeks down, 9 more to go

2007-11-25T09:48:00.001-05:00

i have to completely ignore the fact that the first doctor said i would only be in the brace for six weeks (making me half done) rather than the current doctor who thinks twelve weeks (making me a quarter done).

for the most part, i am not in pain; that is the magic of the brace, it brings pain down a notch to just uncomfy. but i can't begin to tell you how uncomfortable i am. all the time. and based on how much i do hurt when i wake up in the morning, i assume i am uncomfortable all night long while i'm asleep. i would have to say that i'm uncomfortable about twenty three hours and thirty five minutes every day. and its somewhat disheartening because as long as i am wearing the brace (which will likely be another nine weeks) i am going to be uncomfortable.

but its like how when you haven't had something or done something in so long, when you finally do, it seems so much better than ever before. like dieters who finally splurge and eat that piece of chocolate cake. it tastes better than every other thing in the world because its been so long since they've eaten chocolate cake. so that moment when magically all the pillows are just right and when i finally get so cozy and relaxed, i am in heaven. i feel like i am more comfy than i have ever been in my entire life before. that moment is pure bliss.

"God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3

lazy days vs shopping days

2007-11-23T19:16:00.000-05:00

so we've spent the last two days being fairly lazy and i liked it.

other than eat, lay around, and watch tv, we really didn't do anything yesterday. i did spend quite a while online doing silly blogthing quizzes. for some strange reason (probably a stupor from the turkey), i found them quite fascinating. i did every name generator out there: what's your wrestler name, what's your biblical name, what's your pirate name, hooker name, vampire name, punk band name. and generally, just for kicks, i played my name, andrew's, and zoecat too. the very best, and strangely most accurate, was zoe's punk band name, the malcontent banana. she has a stuffed chew toy shaped like a banana which is half eaten from their epic battles up and down the apartment.

for the record, i am not a black friday shopper. i would much much much prefer to either buy items online or pay way too much on another day than to shop today. in general, i believe i married a man who agrees with that philosophy. but then he found a comic book shop that had a black friday super sale. i could have fallen over. first off, today's shopping is supposed to be about buying things for other people and i don't want anything for christmas from the comic shop. and second, wow, a comic shop having a super sale on black friday, i just can't quite wrap my head around that. 8am - 12am. lots of 10cent comics. and not only had he decided to go but he was determined to be there before the store opened. "gotta beat the crowds" (its after the fact and i still have a hard time saying that with a straight face). but when he arrived at 7:45, there were three other people already waiting. by the time the store opened, there were 8 including him. and while yeah, walmart had thousands, this shop only holds about fifteen people, so really its about the same number/ratio. and i don't know if that makes me feel better or worse, knowing that there are three comic book geeks in greater las vegas who are crazier than my husband and four who are only slightly less crazy (or live just a little farther away and hit all the lights wrong). my husband bought one hundred and fourty six tencent comics. he bought so many that he had to buy a new comic box to put them in. and at lunch, he's telling me this and just sitting there clearly filled with entirely too much glee. and the icing on the cake? he found a dime in the parking lot! he smuggly informed me that one of those comics was free!

2007-11-22T17:22:00.000-05:00

You Are Thanksgiving

You are a bit of a homebody who enjoys being in the company of people you love.

It doesn't take a lot to make you happy. You're enjoying life as it is. You have many blessings in your life, and you are grateful for each one.

You believe that life is about what you *do* have. You feel like you have enough of the good stuff.

What makes you celebrate: Family, friends, and the changing of the seasons.

At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The host of the party. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Spend so much energy preparing that it's a full time job

What Holiday Are You?

happy thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T12:03:00.000-05:00

this is actually the turkey we bought (but before we saw the ad for it)

it is time for turkey

2007-11-18T15:37:00.000-05:00

when i was back in ky in august, i stole a magazine from my mother (sorry mom!). it was a ladies' home journal from a november long since past and i wanted to try out the "turkey to remember." just a couple weeks later, i made a whole production out of sunday evening dinner. it was a guard weekend, and i generally like to have something fabulous planned for sunday dinner. it just seems like a nice gesture. andrew spends the weekend living in a tent out in the desert, eating army food and in general having a terrible 48 hours, he should have a homecoming feast.

but, this being my first turkey, it was a bit like stuart mclean's tale of dave cooks the turkey, though not quite as catastrophic. even though i didn't purchase the bird until that morning, i did manage to get it thawed without using either the hairdryer or the electric blanket. i was, however, horrified when i pulled it out of the plastic wrap. i had not purchased a whole turkey: it had no wings or legs. i thought i bought a whole turkey. when i picked it out at the store, it looked like a whole turkey (though clearly i didn't read the label carefully enough). it was just the breast but all still on the bone, i guess so you could stuff it. i was appalled. it was a terrible looking thing with no hands and feet. but onward i pressed.

it was also on this particular occation that i learned chestnuts are not the same thing as water chestnuts. the recipe called for chestnuts and well, that's not what i bought. unfortunately, all my learning happened after i added the wrong ingredient. but i just couldn't find any actual chestnuts at the grocery (though since i shop at walmart, that really shouldn't surprise you.) in later versions of the dish, i left both kinds out, still not finding any real chestnuts to buy, and andrew said he missed the water chestnuts. so i guess it wasn't too terrible a mistake.

the original recipe was a bit much. you needed to make your own turkey stock from scratch and it seemed like there were fifty billion steps. it also served 8 and there are only 2 of us. that's a lot of leftovers. since then i've remade the recipe into something much more manageable but i think just as memorable. my version makes about 4 servings, depending on how big a bird you buy. i've also added and subtracted items, just the normal tinkering that goes on in normal people kitchens.

roast turkey with apricot-rosemary glaze and sourdough stuffing

for turkey and glaze:

1 turkey breast, boneless and thawed
1/3 cup apricot preserves
1 t cider
1 fresh rosemary sprig

for the stuffing:

about a half loaf sourdough bread cubed
1/2 package (about 2/3 cup) mushrooms, chopped
1 T olive oil or 1 T butter or a whole lot of nonstick spray, your choice
1/4 pound sliced applewood-smoked bacon, crumbled (i generally use the already cooked maple flavored bacon instead)
2 large celery ribs, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 jar water chestnuts (or just chestnuts if you can find them, but i can't vouch for them being yummy in the dish)
1 cup dried apricots sliced
1 T chopped fresh sage
1 T chopped fresh rosemary
1 T chopped fresh thyme
2 cups turkey or chicken stock

once turkey is thawed, butterfly the breast. jeanie'o sells a great turkey breast in the freezer section. it is in a little carry bag and is marketed to be from freezer to oven. it comes with some seasonings and i usually wipe about half of them off and also pull out the pop out thing. preheat the oven to 350. i usually make this in a 9x13 pan, lightly sprayed with nonstick spray. lay the butterflied turkey flat and bake in oven while you are making the stuffing, about 30 minutes.

in a large skillet, using your choice or butter or oil etc, over medium heat saute celery, onions, potatoes, and carrots until potatoes are starting to get bitable, about 15 minutes. add mushrooms and continue cooking 2-3 minutes more until they are golden too. cook bacon in a large skillet or crumble up your already cooked bacon. in a large mixing bowl combine bread, sauted veggies, chestnuts, apricots, sage, rosemary, thyme, and 1 cup stock.

remove partially cooked turkey from oven, and very carefully stuff it with some of the stuffing. really this just means ball up some stuffing in your hands, lay it on half of the turkey, and fold the rest of the turkey back over on top. bake for about an hour and then smear glaze on top. for the glaze, melt preserves, cider, and rosemary together in a small sauce pan. bake turkey for about 30 minutes more, until juices run clear or your themometer reaches the right temp, you know the drill. if you need to cover with foil to keep the turkey from burning, do so. during the last 30 minutes cook time, finish up that stuffing. add the other cup stock and bake. i like to ball it up and cook in a muffin tin. this makes just the cutes stuffing muffins and more bits are crispy.

this can be a meal in itself since it already contains so many things but you can't go wrong with a big pile of mash potatos and gravy or a side item of roasted autumn veggies (i love butternut squash, brussel sprouts, and turnips all chopped up. sprinkle in salt and pepper, maybe some thyme or rosemary. knife in bits of butter, and toss in the oven while the stuffing is baking up). enjoy!

last chance movies

2007-11-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

13 movies on our last chance list
(week #33)

i am suddenly more of a homebody than normal. somewhat doctor imposed. somewhat self imposed. honestly, you would think that if you broke your back, they would give you more guidelines. the only thing anyone has specifically said is #1 wear the back brace at ALL TIMES and #2 do no lift anything over 5 lbs (though the discharging nurse at the hospital misread and said 51 bs at first and in her defense, the L did look like a 1) . so does that mean everything else is ok? i mean, obviously i need more guidelines; after all i did do something stupid that resulted in injury. since i'm kind of traped inside these four walls, andrew and i have tried to be as creative as possible in making our own fun. we've read. we've played board games. we cleaned out the sweater bin. we investingated what was currently living in the hall closet and underneath the bed. and now we are down to picking through the dvd shelves.

we picked through the dvd shelves and pulled out a bunch of movies to try and sell at the used dvd store. several pulls were easily agreed upon by us both. however, some were put into the maybe pile. maybe we hadn't given the film a fair shake. maybe we wouldn't mind seeing it just once more, but didn't necessarily want to own it forever. maybe one of us had never seen the movie, and so couldn't say for sure that we didn't want it anymore. so while none of these are on my least favorite list, i hope that none of them listed below are on your favorite list. they are all just maybe sorts of movies.

1. the rook.
2. ghost world.
3. the outsiders.
4. lost in translation.
5. panic room.
6. broken flowers.
7. american beauty.
8. gothika.
9. lady killers.
10. the good girl.
11. fahrenheit 911.
12. dark water
13. a bridge to far

view other thursday thirteeners

2007-11-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

"If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. " Ecclesiastes 4:10

i've felt very alone in this city all year. its been just me and andrew vs. everyone else. and then i fell. and i was alone when i fell. but it wasn't too long after that i realized just how not alone i really am. i'm simply overwhelmed by the number of people who have rushed to my aid. i've received so many cards and phone calls in the past two weeks, not to mention cakes, cookies, flowers, books, meals, and tons of other care package items. falling off the patio and breaking my back was not a near death experience for my body. but in many ways the past few months have been a near death experience for my soul. i suddenly feel alive like never before. i suddenly see how many blessings there really are in my life. i suddenly see so many people who are a part of my support system. i feel like i have a new chance to be a better me.

so that is the spiritual update. the physical update is pretty positive too. i've had a couple doctors appointments this past week and everyone continues to expect a full recovery sans surgery. for the most part my pain is under control. car rides are tough though. i felt good enough to take a walk over the weekend and i am trying to start back to work, haven't made it a full day yet, just baby steps. my clothing options are becoming interesting. there are only so many things that can go under, over, around the brace. and there is a small contigency of my coworkers who are plotting to tackle me and bedazzle me. everyone thinks the brace would be better if it had rinestones glued to it!

even the best plans can have life changing disasters

2007-11-05T20:46:00.000-05:00

try not to freak out, but i broke my back.

so there i was saturday afternoon, locked out on the second story patio. there is a railing. i climbed over. there is a drain pipe. i climbed down. i sat on the pipe. i crawled down to hang on it. the plan was to then get to the top of the railing on the patio below. while hanging from the pipe, it was quickly determined that i could not get to the railing. it was a smidge to far and a bit in, not straight down. since i was completely committed downward, there was no other option than to jump. and it wasn't that far but was on rocks with bare feet and there were bushes, so i needed to swing and twist. probably it was the swing/twist on impact but i completely shattered a lower something or other. i have an L2 compaction fracture.

obviously since i'm blogging, i'm not doing to badly. i did no nerve damage but there is a small broken piece that could be problematic. i have many more dr visits in my future and an exciting torso brace to wear for at least six weeks. i'll likely never do yoga again, might not jog either. there are lots of other interesting stories about the crawl to knock on the neighbors, the ER trip, my roommate in the hospital, etc but they will have to wait. for right now, i'm trying to be in the best possible spirits; i didn't break a nail and the brace kind of looks like i got a boob job.

calendars

2007-11-03T15:09:00.000-05:00

i buy calendars really only for the pictures. and i've been known to keep a couple of pictures from earlier years calendars simply because i really enjoyed looking at them. we currently have three calendars. we have a penguin one in the extra bathroom. this is fairly mandatory since the bathroom is decorated in penguins. we have a tori amos calendar in the office. we give to rainn so they send us a calendar. and then in the bedroom we have a russian calendar. for the past several years, we've had some weird, foreign, unreadable calendar and this year it was a russian one.

the story behind the foreign calendar goes back to kentucky. my old boss there, until recently, had never taken a serious vacation. when i say serious, i mean really no work. no emails. no phone calls. no work. he always managed to spend a part of everyday doing some work. then one year, his wife booked a cruise in the mediterranean. and on the ship, he was finally just all hers. the cell phone was out of range and the email didn't connect. it was probably just as much as excuse for him and it was for us, since we were also guilty of contacting him during vacation. and every year since then, they have gone on a cruise to some exotic destination. i'm sure with all the international phones they make now and wireless networks and stuff, that he probably could work during vacation, but once you've tasted freedom, you don't give it up.

my old boss and his wife are also in the dying breed of thoughtful and generous human beings. they always buy small gifts for everyone at christmas and birthdays. they always host wedding and baby showers. they always brought back presents from trips for the entire office. and usually those presents included some funky calendar. the first year, every week on the chart had ten days across instead of seven. the second year, there was a small picture in the top left so that every month, day 1 was positioned in the tuesday block. each month all the days were in a different position from what we think of as the week. this year, the week starts with monday so that saturday and sunday are together at the end. and of course, every year, the calendar is in another language. so they have all been completely useless for determining what day it was but the pictures have been simply superb.

i also am very strict about not looking at future months pictures until it is that month. yes, i glance at the back of the calendar when choosing, you've got to have a broad idea of the whole year's pictures or you might get stuck with a dud calendar. but other than that, no cheating and looking ahead. this is a very painful rule for andrew, though i'm sure he looks ahead when i'm not looking. except that maybe he doesn't because he's always super thrilled to get to turn the page on the first of the month. and here we are at the point of this story. today, november third, i discovered that all three calendars were still on october. i'm stunned. andrew practically sets the alarm for midnight so he can turn the page and see the next picture so why are they all still on last month?? since its a guard weekend, i can't ask him until tomorrow. it also means that i alone have viewed the new pictures! i realize this isn't exactly an epic achievement, but its the little things in life that get you through.

its friday. its pay day. its nearly the weekend so its time to laugh

2007-11-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

happy birthday

2007-11-01T19:26:00.001-05:00

my first tattoo is ten years old today! my how time flies...

i saw

2007-11-01T07:21:00.000-05:00

i saw several trick or treaters, but none came to our door. i saw an abbott, but no costello. i saw an uncle sam. and i saw what i would have guessed was a punky bruster, except i'm sure that the girl has never heard of her, so the outfit must have been someone currently popular on some horrible disney show.

and in unrelated news, i saw a four hundred pound man on a moped. it was just so terrible. he was spilling over every side of the poor moped; i didn't know how it could be scooting along. briefly i vowed to only ever eat rice cakes, but that didn't last long.

2007-10-30T17:16:00.000-05:00

someone broke a bottle of cheap men's cologne right next to my desk. its been about an hour but the smell is still about to knock me out and my eyes still kind of burn...

2007-10-30T11:31:00.000-05:00

on the radio this morning, the strange fact of the day was that the average person will go to mcdonald's approximately eighteen hundred times in her lifetime. that just seems crazy to me. especially since it doesn't cover trips to any other fast food chain. at first, i couldn't imagine the number of total fast food visits most people make in a lifetime. but then when i did the math, 1800 wasn't too bad. if you live to 70, then that is once every two weeks. as so many people get fast food for lunch nearly every weekday, and since so many people with kids go to mcdonalds way more than those without, i guess the statistic makes sense. its still a lot though...

a rant about china

2007-10-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

i've been simply appalled for several months about the numerous products made in china that have been recalled. some of the stories have been mundane, simple miscommunications, poor product specifications. some have been horrific, the stuff of you hope is only urban legend like this story: to speed up the drying process, they would lay the tea leaves out on a huge warehouse floor and drive trucks over them so that the exhaust would more rapidly dry the leaves out. the problem there is that the chinese use leaded gasoline, so they were essentially spewing the lead over all these leaves. according to an article on NPR, in the past year, the FDA rejected a higher proportion of food shipments from china than from any other country. the problem is, the FDA only inspects about 1% of food imports, so while they are catching a whole bunch of stuff, its really only the tip of the ice burg. and don't get me started on all the environmental issues. did you see cnn's world in peril stuff on china??

andrew and i have often gone on rants about chinese imports, their lack standards, and how they are basically killing themselves with all that water and air pollution etc. apparently zoecat has been listening and really taking this to heart.

we had a world map on the wall, but for the longest time, have only been using the back side of it. andrew has a blossoming ebay business and he needed a plain white background for taking pictures of items to be sold, his G I Joes, transformers, micromachines, clixs men, etc. so the map would usually get tossed onto the floor and zoecat loves to play with it, as it crinkles and she can hide under it, and other cat sorts of things. the map has been destroyed time and again, we just keep taping it back together. this last time, however, we noticed that she had pretty much eaten all of china. its just not on the map any more. since we still occationally need a blank background, you'll notice the white paper taped over where china used to be. now, i would never advocate that china simply be wiped off the map, i just find it funny that zoecat actually did it...

its nevada day weekend!

2007-10-27T10:01:00.000-05:00

nevada day is officially 10/31. its always celebrated on the last friday of the month so that everyone but me can have a three day weekend, and then there are also all sorts of parades over the weekend. its not officially celebrated on the actual day nor is it celebrated on just one day, so yeah, its nevada day weekend.

despite the fact that nothing in this town is hardly over fifty years old, nevada is 143. i guess she's like me, looks young for her age. the state animal is the desert bighorn sheep, the state bird is the mountain blue bird, and the state flower is the sagebrush. all of which are fairly nice representations of the state.

strangely, our state moto is 'battle born,' but only because we entered the union during the civil war. please don't be under the impression that we have fought with anyone over anything. nv guard hasn't even deployed to iraq. see, ft erwin in ca deployed to iraq and nv guard deployed to erwin. we adopted the moto in the 30s and i really feel, time frame aside, its about the most inappropriate state moto ever (though i don't know all fifty...maybe someone else has a worse one).

this year's official state parade, held in the capital, is themed: the mysteries of nevada...area 51. yup. we are celebrating our state's birthday by dressing up like aliens. thinking about that should make you laugh...and i don't mean a polite 'laugh with,' really, its ok to 'laugh at'...

i'm an official slumlord now...

2007-10-26T19:22:00.000-05:00

i've started a training program with my company and the first thing they threw at me was unit inspections. we have an audit coming up and the state wants to make sure we are building and maintaining high standards for our apartment homes. we want to make sure that if there are any problems, they are discovered and hopefully fixed prior to the audit. and that means, inspecting all the units.

my supervisor tried to scare me out of going on the inspections. "remember to wear closed toed shoes, there might be bugs" she said...but there were only two apartments, out of the eighty inspected, that had bug issues. and in one of those, i only saw the one roach, which i more or less killed in the stove top burner (i was testing to make sure the burner worked, and i guess he was being called into the light because he just hopped right into the flame).

our inspection team divided the different areas of the apartment and i got the kitchen. i checked the microwave light and vent, all four burners, the stove light, the kitchen light, garbage disposal, made sure both sink nobs worked and actual water came out, checked under the sink for leaks, and located the fire extinguisher. not a very large percentage of tenants clean their kitchen to the level i do, but i expected that. and really, i think i came out of the experience mostly unscathed. everyone sort of built it up to the point it seemed we were visiting somalia rather than apartment complexes, but at the end of the day, i don't need a tetanus shot and there was only one kitchen that i just couldn't bring myself to touch. given the number of kitchens i'd already touched, honestly at that point the level of germs already on my fingers was nearing CDC quarantine levels, you really have to think outside the box to imagine how awful this particular kitchen was.

the worst part was the smoke alarms. whoever was in charge of that inevitably managed to check the first one at about the time i finally got the third burner, on the gas stoves, to light. so every single time i just knew the whole building was bursting into flames. and also, after inspecting roughly eighty apartments, with three to four smoke alarms in each, my head really hurts.

gettin some learnin

2007-10-25T21:35:00.000-05:00

andrew is in grad school, might have mentioned that before. this is his first semester and so far, we don't think highly of UNLV. grad school there is about as challenging as our high school. sadly, really.

then andrew had his midterms last week. and came home crying. he thought his vietnam test was pretty hard and was very distraught that he might get...gasp...a B on the test. (please note my sarcasm and on the whole, not feeling really distraught myself about this).

all the tests were returned today. his lowest grade was a 92. and in the vietnam class? the possible B? yeah, he got a 98. well, technically he got an 83. the highest grade was an 85, so the curve was 15 points, making his 83 a 98. and as a very cheap shot, he signed his test srg. andrew garland (his teacher is a vietnam vet and they bore the class every week by swapping war stories together) so he got 2 bonus points for being a veteran. that's really what was written at the top of the page, +2 for being a veteran, and then also a smiley face. yeah, his official grade is 100%.

he has already magneted his tests to the refrigerator.

in case you missed this strange tidbit

2007-10-25T11:38:00.001-05:00

according to MSNBC:

GAUHATI, India - Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote northeast, a wildlife official said Tuesday.

Nearly 40 elephants came to a village on Friday looking for food. Some found beer, which farmers ferment and keep in plastic and tin drums in their huts, said Sunil Kumar, a state wildlife official.They got drunk, uprooted a utility pole carrying power lines and were electrocuted in Chandan Nukat, a village nearly 150 miles west of Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya state, Kumar said.

"There would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away," said Dipu Mark, a local conservationist. The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities in India's northeast. Four wild elephants died in similar circumstances in the region three years ago.

13 questions

2007-10-25T05:04:00.000-05:00

thirteen questions

(week #32)

there are questions that cannot be answered and questions that should not be answered. most of the ones in the first category only cannot be answered now or by me. i do not know the answer or no one knows the answer. just because science has not yet discovered the answer does not mean there is no answer. and other questions just should not be answered, either because the answer is not pleasant (or all the answers are wrong/self incriminating) or because the question is better, the asking more fun. some of these are questions that are asked by many people out there, and for some, i might just be the only one wondering...

1. why do hotdogs come in packs of 10 while buns come in pack of 8?

2. why do people try to pimp their toyota carolas or other similar non sporty cars?

3. why doesn't glue or honey or those sorts of things stick to the inside of the bottle?

4. if a store is open 24 hours, why are there locks on the doors?

5. what happens when an irresistible force meets an impenetrable barrier?

6. is it possible to collect all the cookie dough in chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and actually bake cookies from it?

7. is the universe infinite? it must end somewhere. but when it ends, there must be something on the other side...or some people say the universe is expanding, but what is it expanding into?

8. why do they put braille on drive through menus?

9. what hair color to they put on your drivers license if you are bald?

10. why does the glass have to be either half full or half empty? why can't people just pick a better sized glass for how thirsty they are?

11. why do i only splatter spaghetti sauce on white shirts? how does the sauce know what i'm wearing?

12. why does dealing with any type of government agency take so freakin long?

13. why are people so willing to run a red light but stop at a green light?

an overpriced mug at the overpriced coffee shop

2007-10-23T05:52:00.000-05:00

i met some friends at a coffee shop. it was a great time and the place was fairly cute, filled with little coffee nick nacks and such. for the record, the coffee wasn't anymore over priced that any other coffee shop/chain. i really wanted to buy this, but it was $13.99 and after having just paid a mint for the coffee i was drinking, i didn't have enough left for the mug. so instead i took a picture of it and maybe i'll paint up my own mug and fill it with my own coffee.

tv

2007-10-22T05:32:00.000-05:00

it has been years since i've purposefully watched a weekly tv show when it was actually coming on tv. i've watched a whole lot of tv only after it already came out on dvd. and i've watched a lot of random things on tv simply because it happened to be on the hotel tv and i felt like being entertained. but i think it might be since buffy went off the air in 2003 that i have kept up with and purposefully watched a tv show on a weekly basis on tv. and i probably wouldn't have ever started watching a show. i'm really not a fan of reality tv; sure, i'll watch the random episode of biggest looser or dancing with the stars or whatever. but i'm not going to follow the show or remember what time and station its on. i don't really care who wins in the end or the personal drama of any of those people throughout the season. there aren't too many comedies out there that just really make me laugh and we don't have cable, just bunny ears, and there are so many commercials and really i'm just starting to sound old. i never find anything good on because i believed before i started clicking that there wasn't anything good on.

and then a friend of ours mailed us the first season of heros.

we started watching on a wednesday and every waking moment not filled with work or school was spent watching until sunday when we finished. all this happened the week after this seasons first episode, so i'm a little out of the loop, but suddenly craving monday nights at 9pm on nbc. its completely unfair that i have to wait a whole week for a new episode and a whole year for the next dvd.

magic chicken

2007-10-21T16:16:00.001-05:00

i am not really sure why we came to calling this recipe magic chicken. it was originally called baked mushroom chicken, which doesn't really have a ring to it. we started making it back in the spring so this is my theory:

andrew needed to loose about 30 pounds in order to pass his PT test with national guard. he wasn't over weight by any stretch, but after getting back from iraq, we all baked and cooked and fed him extra cupcakes. returning warriors just need extra cookies. however, he got out of the army, so he stopped working out everyday, and there were all those extra cookies, and moving out here, and you know how this sort of thing goes. except that he also joined national guard and is up for promotion. in order to qualify for promotion, he had to pass the physical fitness test, which includes a weigh in. can you imagine going to your boss for your next promotion/raise and part of it is determined by how much you weigh?? yeah, i can't either. but we went on a south beach diet kind of regimen which got very old very quickly. in our branching out and googling for low carb recipes, we found this one and made it. and i guess it must have made us very happy, being new and different from the fifteen previous meals we'd eaten, so we started calling it magic chicken.

magic chicken (baked mushroom chicken)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup sliced, fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 cup mozzarella cheese
1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese

flatten each chicken breast to 1/4 -inch thickness. place flour in resealable plastic bag; add chicken, two pieces at a time. seal and shake to coat. repeat process for additional halves of chicken. in large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter. add chicken breasts, brown both sides. transfer chicken breast to greased 13 by 9-inch pan. in same skillet, saute mushrooms in remaining 1 tablespoon butter. add chicken broth, salt and pepper. bring to boil, cook for 5 minutes. spoon over chicken. bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. sprinkle with cheeses. bake 5 minutes longer or until the chicken juices run clear. this is great with faux mash potatoes made from cauliflower. enjoy!

PGA at TPC

2007-10-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

The PGA is here in las vegas, summerlin actually...and to be even more specific, next door to my office. at first thought that sounds like fun but then when you try to come into the office on a work day and suddenly have to fight with caddies for parking spaces, it becomes a little less fun. TPC is tournament players club, which is a fancy schmancy country club for all the rich crazies that live in summerlin, the newest part of town. everything about vegas is all about how much money you have, and summerlin is very much no exception to that. why is my office here? honestly, i have no idea. i think we bought the land a hundred years ago before it became expensive. i don't know if anyone good is playing here this weekend, but it all benefits shriner's kids. and the PGA tries to do a bunch of stuff for the military, which often just means giving away free tickets to events and passing out autographs, but i guess you gotta start somewhere.

here is a picture of TPC's first hole:

2007-10-11T20:38:00.000-05:00

thirteen worst smells

week #31

a few weeks ago, i did thirteen great smells, so i guess its time not for the flip side. to every ying, there is a yang.

1. wet dog

2. rotten potatoes and/or rotten potato peels

3. stale coffee, which is so sad because brewing coffee smells so good

4. i love texmex food, but fresh cilantro just makes me gag

5. burnt popcorn

6. fish. most all fishy smells except fish-n-chips.

7. cat pee

8. sweaty feet

9. dirty socks, which is like sweaty feet but still somehow smells different

10. stale cigarette smoke

11. mildew

12. diesel fumes. this is especially awful when i see the big cloud from the truck wafting my way. having time to brace for it doesn't make it any better.

13. pig farms

educational radio?

2007-10-10T09:38:00.000-05:00

on the morning commute, i learned that during the lifespan of the average shopping cart, it will travel approximately thirty thousand miles. after revealing this wonder, the big question from the radio people was how is this possible, especially since they all have one broken wheel and can barely travel from the store to the car?

leftist propaganda

2007-10-06T13:47:00.000-05:00

my uk wildcats lost to south carolina on thursday. that ended our winning streak which was a bit sad. however, the game was actually on espn and since its probably going to be the only one we'll be able to watch all season, we still had fun.

my trigg county wildcats won last night. going into the game, there were three undefeated teams in the state. the other two played each other last night, green county vs metcalf. donno which won, but either way, there are only two undefeated teams now. we nearly passed out from laugher listening to the game commentating. i think it was during half time, the announcers told us about the other game and whatnot. for some reason, one of the guys had driven through green county recently. he got off the exit, probably looking for a potty and a beverage, like everyone else, and couldn't help but notice all the farm gate dealerships. so the guy is going on about all he saw was bill's gate shop, joe's gate shop, big tom's gate shop...why does that county need so many farm gates? we couldn't believe that the country bumpkins of trigg country were seriously talking smack about how hick the people in green county must be!

then trigg county won, and we danced around the living room. we are 6-0, and for some reason, instead of traditional spirit fingers, i starting making sixes with my fingers and very quickly switching back and forth between hands (five on one hand, one on the other. one on the first hand, five on the other). then andrew tried to do that too, but really couldn't very well. he couldn't switch very quickly, would end up with both hands making five or both with just one. this clearly reinforces my belief that lefties are superior. i live in a right handed world, so i have to use my non dominate hand way more often than righties do.

in conclusion, my team won and lefties are better

2007-10-04T05:20:00.000-05:00

Thirteen cooking tips or how to avoid the fire department
(week #30)

1. don’t start dinner and then completely forget about it, whether that is a pot on the stove or a dish in the oven
2. if you want to blog, don’t multitask by making dinner at the same time
3. don’t drop the pot holder into the oven or toaster or grill master
4. unless you use really a whole lot, butter is not good nonstick items to fry chicken in. you’d be lots better off with a little olive oil or non stick spray
5. don’t forget to set the timer
6. if you are trying something new: do some research. Don’t just guess. Water chestnuts are not the same thing as chestsnuts and it might be nice if you know that before you are at the grocery store.
7. unless you are trained to do so (in a school or by your mom) don’t mix alcohol and fire. Flambé should be left to the pros
8. don’t try to grill items in your gas fireplace (this is also toxic. So really really don’t do it)
9. do not take a nap or go for a walk while you are cooking (unless you have a treadmill in the kitchen)
10. don’t add a lot of instaflame to the grill after it is already lit. I know, the grill isn’t heating up fast enough, you are starving to death hungry, but no, just don’t do it. only add it before you light that first match.
11. know when measuring is important and when its not. The six cups of water used for boiling mac n cheese, probably ok to eye ball it. the ¼ t baking soda in the cookies, maybe you should measure.
12. if you drop a bunch of food onto the burner, you might should move on to using a different burner, at least until you can clean off the first one.
13. you should not spray kitchen cleaner on said dirty burner either while it is still on or while it is still hot

view other thirteeners here

zoecat is insane

2007-09-28T12:24:00.000-05:00

for months, her favorite thing to lick has been the dvd case for i robot. i think i told you once about how she licks plastic. she's happy to lick most anyold plastic, but somehow, i swear, she knows the difference and especially likes the i robot case. until recently. now she's completely smitten with the apple cinnamon flavored garden harvest toasted chip bag. not the chips. the chip bag.

what a face she's making when i took the bag away...

2007-09-27T05:27:00.000-05:00

thirteen favorite smells
(week 29)

1. freshed baked cookies

2. when its about to rain

3. thai food. coconut and curry and stuff.

4. grilling out

5. clean. just how the apartment smells after a good cleaning, not like institutional/hospital clean smell

6. strawberries

7. bacon

8. pipe tobacco

9. piles of leaves in the fall

10. rosemary

11. minty fresh breath

12. just brewed coffee

13. andrew's cologne

view other thirteeners here

i've been on a soup kick lately

2007-09-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

i think i'm just ready for it to feel like fall, which its not really going to do here, even though it is technically fall now. so i keep trying different soups in attempt to fake fall. and of course i'm going to pick somewhat fruity soups, since i love to cook dishes that include fruits. this recipe comes via care2. the website offers a ton of green living tips and recipes. some of which are martha stewarty (in that 'who really does that anyway' sort of way. sure i'd love to grow my own carrots but since i can't, i'm ok to buy them at the grocery) but some are down to earth and great.

squash, cider, and apple soup

2 tablespoons
unsalted butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cups peeled and diced butternut squash
2 large apples (any kind), peeled, cored, and chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
¼ teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups fresh cider
2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Large pinch of ground cloves

melt the butter in a medium-size pot or large saucepan over moderate heat. stir in the onion, cover, and sweat for 10 minutes. add the squash, apples, stock, salt, and bay leaf to the pot. bring to a boil, reduce the heat to moderately low, cover, and simmer the soup until the squash and apples are very soft, about 20 minutes. remove from the heat. as the soup simmers, pour the cider into a medium-size skillet, bring to a boil, and reduce to 4 or 5 tablespoons. remove from the heat. remove the bay leaf from the soup, then spoon the solids into a food processor. process the mixture until smooth, then stir it back into the broth. add the reduced cider. reheat the soup, stirring in the brown sugar and spices. serve piping hot. enjoy!

we are setting ourselves up for a bowl game disaster

2007-09-23T15:25:00.000-05:00

i heart football season. all football.

i tolerate basketball, but not pro ball. i can watch the olympics, but only because, well, its the olympics and everyone likes the olympics. its more about torches and flags and underdogs than anything else. otherwise, not a sports fan. i do not enjoy baseball. i think nascar is ridiculous. i think golf and tennis are ok to play, but not fun for me to watch. so the months between march madness and the start of football are fairly dull. strangely though, i don't have a favorite team other than uk. you can't be raised in ky and not support the whole university of kentucky athletics department (though some fiends like university of louisville for some reason).

for the past month, we have only been able to check scores online for local ky football. i've been very pleased to check friday night high school and saturday college scores but we hadn't figured out a way to watch or listen to any games. until two days ago.

its like a lexus and olive tree moment. friedman's book, in very brief summation, states that there are two conflicting pulls on the world, the drive for prosperity (the lexus) and the need to maintain traditions and identity (the olive tree). often, people are able to maintain both pulls when they intersect at technology. friedman opens the book with a picture of an orthodox jew praying at jerualem's wailing wall. bearded and in traditional garb, he is deep prayer. in his hand, however, is a cell phone, which he had placed agains the wall so that a relative in france can also pray at the wall. naturally, all of friedman's examples are infinitely more poignant than my tale here, but i don't care. i moved out to vegas for my job (prosperity, the lexus) and friday night, via the internet, i got to listen to my high school football team (the olive tree), the trigg county wildcats, stomp on reidland, 42-0! who would have ever thought that the country bumpkins at WKDZ would be streaming live online. we are 5 and 0, neck and neck for first place in our division. its going to be a great season.

my saturdays will soon be filled with listening to uk football (also the wildcats). kentucky is known for basketball. we dominated ncaa throughout the 90s (and hopefully will again starting this year now that we have a new couch). we're the most winningest team. ever. but, um, our football team, well, we have one, more or less. and then last year, we managed to play in our first bowl game in about thirty years. miraculously, we won. then this year. we just keep winning. we beat eastern and kent state, managing to get ranked in the 30s (probably the highest we had ever been ranked). then we beat #9 louisville and got bumped up to #21. yesterday we beat arkansas. i am dying to know what are new rank is going to be.

so don't get me wrong, i clearly love to win. but the problem is, if we have a spectacular winning season, then we'll get into a nicer bowl game and there get stomped on by a real team. we need to get into a low enough bowl game that we can do the stomping. cause really, who remembers these things?? who remembers what bowl it was, whether it was the taco bell bowl or the cingular bowl? who remembers who we played against? no one does. but saying we won a bowl two years in a row, people remember that.

grand adventure

2007-09-22T19:46:00.000-05:00

today we went to california and it ended up being a much longer adventure that we'd planned. we headed out around 10am and only now just getting back...

our first stop: baker, ca. alien capital of the world. (its the area 51 exit). in baker, you can find several minutes of fun: a greek restaurant, many souvenir shops, and the 'alien beef jerky shop.'

then it was on to barstow, ca. the town nearest ft erwin. there we tracked down several thrift stores and army surplus stores. there was also supposed to be a comic shop but it was closed. and best of all, we turned in all our recyclables for cash. seven pounds of cans, eight pounds of plastic, 65 pounds of glass (we love diet snapple teas...i know what you are thinking but we honestly did not have 65 pounds of beer bottles...) equals $26.10

finally we headed over to ft erwin, ca. i thought it would be nice to be on a proper army post again; trips to nellis air force base are a bit lacking (except for having the only cap't d's fast food on this half of the country). and andrew has been wanting to shop at an army clothing sales for a good long while. he just can't find the right army stuff at the clothing sales on nellis. the trip onto post started off well; they actually checked our id's at the gate and made us get a visitors pass (security at nellis is a joke. really. tsa at the airport is more on top of things than the air force.) we got onto post and headed to the PX but unfortunately, it was being remodeled. we did also find clothing sales but they didn't have much national guard stuff either. so now we know. now andrew doesn't have to sit around and wonder and wish the drive wasn't so long and want to go to ft erwin to buy army stuff. and now i know what ft erwin is like since he spends the majority of his one-weekend-a-month-thing there. apparently the terrain there is spot on northern iraq.

sadly, the best part of the day happened at rainbow road super walmart, after we got back into town. we finally found the last license plate from our vacation's license plate game. you probably don't remember since that was the first of august and its not end of september, but we were missing rhode island (found on campus a day or so after returning), vermont (found last weekend at the san gennarro italian festival), and now finally west virgina, found last night. i wouldn't let andrew start over until we found all fifty so he's been just desperate to find WV. a few weekends ago, we even drove up and down every row at the BX on nellis. i think we might have spotted all 49 other states in that parking lot, leading us to doubt WV patriotic ferver. he's already started over and we are both mildly interested in knowing how long it will take to find all fifty just in this city (not to imply that we are a multicultural melting pot of a city, more like a noncultural pothole of a city, but that is a different rant for a different day).

so that was our adventure and now we are tired.

in other news, mary and drew were married today! congratulations!! absolutely best of luck on the longest adventure of your lives!

people who talk out loud during the show should be shot

2007-09-21T18:10:00.000-05:00

so the KA show wasn't as fun as i'd hoped. i think the sets, costumes, music, athletic ability was simply superior in O. but O was a water show, so maybe that's just hard to top.

i was also a bit moody because i didn't get dinner before the show and because the people behind me talked to each other at full volumn throughout most of the show. it was rather dark, so the most i can say is that it was a family/friends of about seven asians. i don't know if it was better or worse being mind numbing constant jibberish behind me or if it had been english. i think possibly better. if i could have understood them, then more of my mind would have been trying to listen to them rather than the show.

so after the show we toyed with the idea of going to the mgm grand buffet. until we got there and it was going to be $115 for the four of us. i think andrew didn't hear the woman, because he was about to pay it. i had to jump up and snatch the credit card back. i mean really, $30 a person, for a buffet? unless i get to take home a whole crate of champagne and crablegs, its just not worth it. we got some fast food and were quite happy.

now i'm just hoping for the most quiet of weekends.

2007-09-18T14:47:00.000-05:00

we went to the san gennaro italian fest this weekend. it wasn't quite as grand as i'd hoped. we had a coupon so it was only 2 for $10 to get in. and for that $10, i received...er, i was allowed into...um, nothing. there were rides that cost $3-5 per person to ride. there was food i could buy, all exceptionally over priced. more than theme park prices over priced. there were booths of people trying to sell me things, most of it were things i would not buy at a festival. things like king sized mattresses and water skidoos. aside from payment options, how would i get that home? and really, how would i get that to my car parked a half mile away? the food was tasty, so was the italian ice. and since i don't have kids, i didn't spend as much as my coworkers, so i guess i had an ok time, a better time than they did at any rate.

also, i was finally accepted into the local community college. i was actually getting worried about that. its too late for this semester, but i'm still planning on taking some spanish classes in the spring.

not too much other news. we have friends coming in tomorrow night. they'll be in town until friday morning, going to rent a car and drive to LA for a few days and then back to Vegas next tuesday, fly home wednesday. we are planning to see a cirque show at MGM this thursday. i'm the only one of the group that has already seen one; a few years ago i went to O at the bellagio and now we are seeing KA. we just discovered that with a military ID, we can buy up to four tickets half off, so i'm extra excited.

last but not least, its been getting below 80 at night here the past few days! can you imagine? temps below 80?? we've rehabed the patio in celebration. we bought new plants. swept the debris away from all the previously purchased, now dead plants. and most importantly, bought indoor/outdoor faux grass carpeting. yes, i put fake grass on my balcony patio. we've got shades that block the outside, grass on the floor, and all sorts of brightly colored flowering plants; its my new oasis. i'm planning to put up some little lights and maybe supplement the real plants with some fake ones so that its even more gardeny, without the let down of occationally killing them all. i built a table in the spring. it was meant to be a trial table in preparation of building a real one. well, i haven't built the real one yet but i'm on such i kick, i might just do that too!

boredom

2007-09-18T12:46:00.000-05:00

i'm so terribly bored at work and i keep having to ask for more projects. sometimes i wish i could be one of those slackers who is happy to be bored...

best ever oatmeal cookies

2007-09-16T05:36:00.000-05:00

i read a blog called 52 cupcakes. looking at the pictures just makes me so happy inside.

a few months ago, the writer made cupcakes using this cookie recipe. she made brownies in a cupcake pan (yeah! the whole brownie was all edges! nearly everyone's favorite). then gave a good dollop of icing. stacked a cookie on top, and then another dollop of icing. i've made these a couple of times since then, usually for special occasions at work, and they are always just the biggest hit. the cookies are also very very good all by themselves. the cookie recipe came from the washington post but the cupcake idea is from 52cupcakes.

salted oatmeal cookies

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
Sea salt, for sprinkling

using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for a few minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon, beating until the mixture is well blended. reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing until well incorporated. reduce the speed to low and add the flour and oats, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary and mixing just until they are incorporated. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least an hour before baking.

preheat the oven to 375 degrees. form the dough into golf ball-size balls and place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. sprinkle sea salt generously on top of each ball of dough, as you would sugar. bake 1 sheet at a time for 15 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and beginning to turn golden, being careful not to over bake. (the cookies should have a tender interior.) transfer the cookies, still on the parchment paper, to a wire rack to cool completely. makes 18 cookies

[this pic came from the cupcake queen's site, they aren't ones that i've made. mine don't seem to last long enough for me to remember to snap their pictures. i make shy cupcakes.]

www.simplydumb.com!

2007-09-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

one of my coworkers saw this new article on the local morning new show. she just assumed it was a local story but then when trying to find out about it to show us the picture, she discovered it wasn't local at all and that is when we discovered simplydumb.com. their slogan: all the news that's embarrassing to print!

this is the article from a couple of days ago. and i can't imagine why she just assumed this happened in my fair and wholesome town...

This sounds like a very uncomfortable situation. Can you imagine getting mugged, then the mugger demanding to “suck your feet?” ICK! Check out the picture of this crook. He looks as creepy as he sounds!
A Minneapolis man has been charged with robbery after police say he robbed a woman of her keys and cell phone then took off her shoes and licked her toes. The complaint said that the 24-year-old woman was frightened so she complied.

2007-09-12T16:37:00.000-05:00

thirteen reasons andrew and i are so compatible

(week #28)

1. we are both taller than everyone else

2. we both like cookies

3. we both love dvds

4. we both believe that if alka seltzer, tums, or nyquil won't fix it, it probably cannot be fixed

5. we both like to try new things

6. we both have very nice families

7. we both like plants

8. we both enjoy reading

9. we both like to learn about new things

10. we both want to pray before dinner

11. we both like to holdhands all the time

12. we both enjoy games and puzzles

13. we both like cupcakes

view other thirteeners here

2007-09-12T06:01:00.000-05:00

i don't think i've ever done so much christmas shopping this early in the year. its not like i normally wait until december 23rd, but this is a little strange. mostly, i just decided to keep an eye out for things that i thought people might like. and since i'm casually thinking about it, i have found a lot of good presents. i'm not purposefully hunting for christmas presents, just purposefully thinking and looking. except for andrew. as it happens, his birthday is also in december. and he's hard to buy for. on account of how he doesn't ever point to things and say, ohh ohh, i want that for christmas. and he has a habit of already having bought all the things he wants.

i've never been quite this off base, and he's never mangled one of my gifts, but still, i often feel like this:

2007-09-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

today i had a great dentist visit! i think this is the first time since i left for college that i've managed to get both visits into one year. i normally average about one visit every year and a half which results in a lot of plaque and cavities and stern looks from the dentist. but not today! today i got smiles and a new toothbrush.

good bye brown strappy sandals...RIP

2007-09-10T06:08:00.000-05:00

i decided to part with my favorite pair of brown strappy sandals. mostly because of how awful they had become. filthy dirty. visually shabby. a smidge smelly. they've been my sidekick for a few years now and i am a bit sad to say good bye. in tribute, i'll tell you about the day i bought them.

it was on one of my first work trips to vegas. i found a mall and was on the hunt for brown strappy sandals. i think to go with a certain skirt that i probably never wore all that much. you know how it goes with shoe shopping. after visiting a dozen stores, i found just the thing i wanted, and they were on sale. i went back to the hotel and tried the outfit all together and pranced around my room to break in the sandals. i stayed up late and didn't want to take them off but eventually decided that i didn't like them enough to sleep on top of the covers instead of inside.

so the next morning, i'm in a rush and when i get to the elevator lobby, i see the doors closing. i yell hold the door, and i put it into high gear. and then unspeakable embarrassment occurred. as i was entering the elevator, my shoe became stuck in that little space between the floor and the elevator. and because i was wearing sandals, i flew out of them and the shoe remained behind. all of course, in a skirt.

i pick myself up and try to retrieve my shoe. but it was completely wedged. and the elevator doors kept trying to close. and i'm pulling and pulling. finally the shoe comes loose, but only to see me flying across the elevator for the second time. in a skirt. and, for extra special fun, that's when i remembered that because it was a casino hotel, there were only about fifty security cameras in the elevator. i occasionally wonder if there is a u tube video on this out there.

so that is how it all began and the dumpster is how it ended. they weren't even in good enough shape to give to goodwill. good bye brown strappy sandals...

john's oyster bar

2007-09-09T09:16:00.001-05:00

every casino has an oyster bar and i'm fairly sure that every oyster bar has a pan roast. i have not tried them all but i've tried enough to know that not all pan roasts were created equal. i haven't found one here in town that was particularly memorable. however, i work in reno several times a year and i always make a point to visit john's oyster bar inside of john ascuaga's nugget. and while i enjoy it a lot, i've also thought it needed a bit of something. its mostly just broth and shrimp. i always thought that if i lived in reno, i would get the pan roast to go, go home, and add potatoes or peas. that would make a fine feast. then i found the recipe on line. the actual one from the chef at the nugget. i ran right out and bought all the stuff. i added my peas and potatoes. and it was just as great as i thought it would be!

with one exception: i felt like there was too much celery seed. its also the only spice that doesn't mix or dissolve so it felt like it was extra too much because all the seeds sank to the bottom of the bowl. i think next time i make this, i'll try to smash the seeds in my mortal/pestle. i think i'll use less since i imagine the smashed seeds will be more potent than the whole.

the recipe makes only one serving so there is going to have to be some math if you want to make for more.

JOHN'S OYSTER BAR PAN ROAST (with my alterations)
1/4 teaspoon each: butter, salt, white pepper, celery seed, paprika, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce
dash tabasco
2 tablespoons white wine
1 tablespoon cocktail sauce
1/4 cup clam juice
6 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined, or crabmeat, or a bit of both
1/4 cup peas
1 potato, cut into bit sized pieces, boiled until tender
3/4 cup half-and-half
Pat butter

in large pan over medium heat, melt butter. add salt, white pepper, celery seed, paprika, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, white wine, cocktail sauce and clam juice. add seafood and peas, stir and bring to a full boil. add half-and-half and potatoes and return contents of pan to boil. place pat of butter in bottom of deep bowl, pour in pan roast, sprinkle with paprika and serve. enjoy!

don't you just feel like this sometimes?

2007-08-31T13:24:00.000-05:00

[this picture came in one of the thousands of email forwards one of my coworkers sends me, so i have no idea who to give credit for this picture.]