My desk is a mess

I always used to roll my eyes at busy people who are all, "There aren't enough hours in the day!" And right now I'm realizing that I am - for the moment - one of them. Consequently, my desk (and my room in general) is a mess.

At least it's not a gross mess. No dirty laundry or dishes, just papers and books, and some huge boxes of stuff I am either 1) giving away or 2) packing for storage.

Aw, my dog is snoring! I wish I was asleep. (But not snoring, that's embarrassing.)

Friday, my one day off, didn't go as planned. I had to leave the house (wah) and didn't get much rest during the time that I was home. Yesterday was also pretty crazy, as after work (which I got out of late) I went out to lunch with Larry, then came home and did I'm not sure what... I remember taking a very brief, unsatisfying nap (which is probably the reason I can't remember what I did beforehand).

I went to bed right after "Cops" (how funny was the guy who was all, "I didn't wanna," when asked why he didn't pull over?) and slept so-so until waking up this morning at 4:00. Ugh, 4:00. I had a monster headache that Excedrin never really took away, but luckily it was really slow today at work. Slow enough for me to almost finish John Grisham's "The Runaway Jury." I know I saw the movie, mostly for John Cusack, but I don't remember much about it. The book is actually quite exciting though, much better than "The Client." (And I did read one whole book at work yesterday, too - Barbara Michaels' "The Crying Child.")

I feel like I have so much to do that I can't relax, but I'll force myself today. Apart from some tidying up, all I'm doing tonight is watching "The Sopranos," "Entourage," and then going to sleep early. Then it's back to the office tomorrow, and I have a haircut appointment in the afternoon. It's already getting hot, so I'm thinking something short (where short = to my shoulders) and cute.

Bad hot-weather-related-thing: Bees! I don't know if there is a hive outside my booth at work or what, but today there were hella bees (okay, five or six) hovering around the windows and doors. One came inside when I opened a window, which I pretty much can't avoid doing) and it took me fifteen minutes to get it back out. It took its sweet ass time flying over to the door, which I opened with my shoe, and it flew away. Whew!

I saw part of two great infomercials this morning: one for "Sheer Cover" makeup (like Bare Minerals, only with Leeza Gibbons and Alyssa Milano) and one for the CORDLESS Magic Bullet. I want that, even though I have to admit that I don't think I've used the regular Bullet I got on Christmas of 2005. Um, but I will someday! But what I definitely need to dig out is my Jack LaLanne power juicer, because my parents bought all this fruit and I need vitamins... yay for not getting scurvy... do people still get scurvy? I only have the vaguest idea of what it is, but I just think it's a fun word to say. Yes, I'm weird.

You'll never win cause she leaves when you think you're in

I'm pretty much totally amazed that it's already Thursday night. It seems like only yesterday, it was Monday and I was drooling over my latest hot guy list. Good times.

I have no idea where the week went. I know I spent a fair amount of it at work, where I have kinda-but-not-really started my new duties as webmaster. In spite of that, I've still found quite a bit to do. Today, I spent hours (well, four) playing around with different online survey websites, while listening to KWOD. Jimmy Kimmel was filling in for Adam Carolla today... sweet! I guess my job is cool sometimes.

What else have I been doing? Catching up on some movies ("Talladega Nights" was disappointing, but "Stranger than Fiction" was really cute and sweet) and TV.

And I've been writing a lot. How weird is that? I even skipped my cooking class last night (shh, don't tell) to stay home and work on a new story. I am definitely going back for the last class next Wednesday, but I just couldn't stomach the thought of it yesterday. Funny: I was talking to my parents about the instructor, who is (or rather was) the boss of this restaurant where my grandma worked for super years. If only this was a real class with grades, I could probably use that to my advantage somehow.

Tomorrow is my day off - yes, the only one - and no one is getting me out of the house unless they drag me kicking and screaming. Unfortunately, I've got a lot of moving-related stuff to do (cleaning and packing) but I took care of all my outside-the-house errands today. I paid my bill at Mervyn's and was actually helped by someone nice. I also went to Target to buy stuff, and spent more than I expected - I should really learn how to add sometime.

I am having that annoying problem with my credit/debit card again, where it will decline an amount that is available because another charge is pending, or a deposited check hasn't cleared completely. I thought I'd gotten around that by depositing checks into savings then making a transfer once it clears, but I am apparently not sneaky enough. There's this poor lady in Oklahoma City I bought something from for work who can't get her authorization; and on the flip side of that coin, this lady in Tulsa insists that they did get my money, even though the charge (from late February) isn't showing on my account anywhere. Le growl.

I went through the box of my old stuff again, and found a story I wrote in the fifth grade. It's cute and I was glad to find it, though I would have preferred getting at least one part of the series I started about a group of friends that was definitely a ripoff of "The Babysitters Club."

This story was obviously written for school but has no grade or remarks, only a big stamp on top that says "READ FOR CONTENT ONLY." Reading it myself, I can definitely tell that it was written by me. You know what I mean? Yeah, me neither.


"The Wild Girl"
3-31-1993

Once upon a time, there was a city girl. Her name was Corrie. She had always dreamed of being wild. On weekends she went on picnics in the wild valley. She liked this for it was peaceful. One day, she went there to swim in the lake. She walked there looking at teh sky. It was a nice shade of blue with no clouds.

Corrie set her belongings down when she finally got there. It was 45 minutes from her house. She lay down and swam until she was exhausted. She looked at the sky. It looked like it was to rain. But she stayed on anyway. When the rain started. She quickly headed for home.

Very soon she got soaked. When she'd walked for about 10 minutes, she stopped to rest. She was in a city, but not her city. Since she had money, she decided to buy an umbrella. But the power was out, and the people looked at her oddly.

This is what it's like to be wild, she thought. When she got home, she decided she didn't want to be wild. She would be a plain city girl.

I thought you always hated the lip-gloss girls you dated

Okay, I promised this post last week but just didn't get around to it until now. So, for your enjoyment... TV's hot jerks!

And yes, SoCal Sweetie - of course it has Julian McMahon! It wouldn't be a list without him. In fact, here's a preview. He looks really annoyed/annoying in this picture, which I figure fits into the jerk theme... right?





In other news, I have been eating Nutella by the spoonful. Oh my god, is it good!

You naive thing, your patience in time will tire

Sickness Update: I don't know what I have, or if I even have anything now; I felt like utter crap Friday night, okay early on Saturday, semi-crap Saturday night, and today... I feel really good! I went to bed last night at nine, fell right asleep, and then got up at four. That's only seven hours, but it must have done the trick.

Yesterday was a long work day for me, as the afternoon lady didn't show until... well, until today. I guess she had some issues with her truck, which I get, but why not call? I was afraid that she was gone for good and that I'd be training someone* but she's borrowed a friend's car to come today, and will hopefully have her own back by next weekend.

*I mean, why would I want to use work time actually working? Hee. As I was telling EC today, if you added up all the "actually working" time I do during my seven hours there, it probably only comes out to one-and-a-half or two hours. Seriously. Today I read an entire book (David Morrell's "Burnt Sienna"... eh), did hella crossword puzzles, and wrote some more of a new story that was partly inspired by my new work environment. I have decided to save my knitting kit for home, because I know I'll just frustrated with it and have a tantrum. And, tantrums are best saved for the ones you love. Or some crap like that.

I saw a Yahoo news article the other day about Pope Benedict saying that maybe there IS hope for dead, unbaptized babies to go to heaven instead of limbo. Isn't that nice of him? (End sarcasm here) We all know about my issues with the Church (or if you don't... lucky you), but that's one of the main things I have always found pretty ridiculous. But then I have to acknowledge my own hypocrisy here: If I have children someday, I want them baptized, like I was. Actually, just to be on the safe side, I think I'll get them baptized in every religion. Just in case.

Yesterday my mom put two boxes of old stuff in my room, mostly school things. To my delight, I found one of the comics I used to draw ("Bup," about this really bratty little boy). I need to scan that and put it here, because... it makes no sense whatsoever. I was hoping to find any old stories I might have written, but I only found book reports and such.

I also got my prom dress, and tried it on for a laugh. This was a custom-made dress (pretty plain, though) and I was at least 20 pounds heavier at the time than I am now, so as you can imagine it doesn't look so great.

Last week I made the mistake of trying to stay awake for the 9:00 episode of "The Sopranos" on HBO West, but now I know better - I'm so watching it at 6:00 on HBO East! I love how my cable company assists me in my premature old age.

Speaking of TV, this morning I saw the "Hip Hop Abs" one again - so great! And this neat-o one about knives, and it came with this injector dealy that you can use to inject stuff (like huge cloves of garlic, yum!) into meats. I totally drooled on myself.

I was sad, I went to Hollywood Video the other day, and they don't have "Pet Sematary 2" anymore! I guess, like almost all of their videotapes, it was thrown away or sold (though I can't imagine anyone but me actually buying it). Aw, nuts. That movie is so stupid that I love it. I could probably get it on DVD but... that would mean spending money on it. I got "The Last King of Scotland" (I saw it at the theater but my parents hadn't... it is even more disturbing on second viewing), "Talladega Nights," "Stranger Than Fiction" (I must be on a Will Ferrell kick) and I'm finally starting season 5 of "The Shield." That will probably be really confusing trying to catch up while still watching the current season, but it's my own fault.

Ha, that always reminds me of "The Simpsons" episode where Bart and Lisa are arguing about something, and get into a fight. Bart says, "I'm gonna go like this" (starts punching air) "and if you get hit it's your own fault!" And Lisa replies, "Well, I'm gonna go like this" (starts kicking air) "And if you get kicked it's your own fault!" So they get into the fight, and while Marge goes to separate them, Homer is left alone in the kitchen with a pie. And he's all, "I'm gonna go like this" (starts chomping the air) "And if you get eaten, it's your own fault!" And then he eats the pie. Yay pie!

She's looking at you, so maybe you're looking too

I'm hungry right now, and nothing sounds good. The fam is getting Chinese food, but I think I might go down to Jack in the Box and get something from there. I was having a mad craving for some of those cheddar potato wedges last night... mmm. I almost got some on the way home from a poetry reading I went to, but I just knew if I got something for myself and no one else there would be annoying blah blah blah.

The reading was fun. There was this one crazy guy who was almost like a performance artist (or maybe he is) who did two poems, one about killing the man from the electricity company for shutting off his power. It was really funny and great - I can't explain it. I didn't take any of my own poems, because as I was looking them over I realized they sucked really bad.

So I promised you food adventures, and food adventures you get! For dinner on Wednesday, I made a warm apricot chicken salad - so good! It had baby spinach, chicken, apricots, almonds, bell peppers, and ranch dressing. And for dessert, I made the individual trifles that we made the first week of my cooking class. There was crumbled cookies*, strawberries, walnuts, and Nutella mixed with whipped cream. They were somewhat sloppy looking, but tasted great!

*The original recipe had meringue cookies, which I couldn't find, so I used coconut macaroons instead. I also used walnuts instead of hazelnuts (I couldn't find any shelled ones at Raley's!) and strawberries instead of raspberries.

My second cooking class that night went pretty well. Our menu:

Appetizer: Mini-frittatas. The recipe was straightforward: Put everything in a blender, pour it into a muffin tin, and cook them. I would have liked these a lot more if they didn't have arugula, and if they'd had a more mild cheese. I think I'll try making these at home, but with spinach instead, and cheddar or jack. Chomp!

First course: Roasted red pepper soup. I ended up making this dish, in spite of my usual impatience for any type of soup. It ended up having a very good flavor, though (red peppers, obviously, scallions, and orange juice). But: I had to mince the scallions, and my hands still smell of onions. So gross!

Main dish: Pasta carbonara and pork loin piccata. So yum - pasta with pancetta and cheese, and the pork medallions came out super-tender.

Dessert: Chocolate hazelnut tart, which was good but so rich. It tasted like a dark chocolate, which I used to love but not as much anymore. It was served with an orange whipped cream that helped with the bitterness of the tart.

At this lesson, I actually took an apron! I bought it at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and it's super-cute. It is black and pink with a houndstooth design on the "skirt," and says "Domestic Diva." Because that's totally me, right? Then I got to thinking, what if the other new lady forgets to bring one - I don't want her to be the only one without! So I took an extra apron, which naturally led to her not showing up. Of course, of course.

My class is supposed to end at 9:30, but has gotten out early (9:00, 9:15) so far, and since my brother gets out of class at 9:50, I have some time to wait. I figured I'd go over to Best Buy and get something new to listen to** but it was closed! At 9:15? It felt even creepier when I went to Target and found almost no one shopping there. Well, way for Pittsburg to be a ghost town.

**I have been hearing lots of singles on KWOD that I like, and I am going to be brave and buy a whole CD without hearing anything else from it. I never used to do that - serious research always went into any music purchase. That's basically the reason I only have about 70 or 80 CD's (most people I know seem to have upwards of 200 or 300), and almost none of them are new. The most recently released albums I have are the "Rescue Me" soundtrack and Nina Gordon's "Bleeding Heart Graffiti," both of which came out over the summer of 2006.

In other news, I either am sick with something, or getting there. Because of my weekend job in addition to the office, I've been worried about wearing myself out, but I thought I was doing okay. I've been kinda sniffly the last two days, and I've been waking up with a dry (not really sore) throat for a week. But since the dryness goes away after a few hours, I'm wondering if it could just be the humidity in the house being "off" or something. Eh, what you gonna do? It would suck to be sick with all the stuff I've got going on, but I know I'll be okay as long as it's a regular thing and not some infection that I need medicine for, considering that I have no doctor right now.

Speaking of events, there is one you should look into: Denim Day, which is this coming Wednesday the 25th. I read about a local one in my newspaper, and did a bit of Internet searching. Denim Day (I wish there was a Wikipedia page about this) started in 1998 as a protest after the Italian Supreme Court more or less said that a woman wearing jeans cannot be raped, because they're hard for an attacker to remove without her help (WTF?).

So, Denim Day is now used to educate the public, men and women, of the truth about rape and what communities can do to support survivors and fight back against criminals. Unfortunately I can't find one site that lists events for several locations, so I urge you to do a "Denim Day" search within your own area. Here are a few links that you might find helpful:

CALCASA - Denim Day

Denim Day in Los Angeles

National Sexual Violence Resource Center

If you live in the CA east bay, Pittsburg is holding their Denim Day Rally at the Civic Center (at 65 Civic Avenue) from noon to 2 P.M. on this coming Wednesday, the 25th. And remember to wear jeans to show your support!

Things ain't been the same since the blues walked into town

It's nice to have "The Sopranos" back, especially since it's pretty much cracking me up. There's Sydney Pollack doing a cameo as a creepy doctor-turned-orderly after killing his wife (I know that doesn't sound funny but it was) and then the Monopoly game with Tony, Carmela, Bobby and Janice that started off bad (read: drunk) and went downhill from there. I thought I might die laughing when Tony changed the lyrics of "Under the Boardwalk" to make fun of his sister: "Under the boardwalk/with his schlong in Jan's mouth". Oh, good times.

So what have I been up to? I go to work, and then on the weekends I go to my other job. I did take Monday off, but I spent most of that day unpacking my room. I only have one bookshelf in my room now, so as you can imagine, I'm getting rid of a lot of books. I'll be sad to see them go, but good god, I have read them to death!

The weekend job goes okay, though every day it seems like there's some sort of problem (luckily none of them have been because of something I did - that would be embarrassing). On Sunday, I went in to find some terrible, high-pitched alarm going on and on... because it wasn't the "real" alarm the security company could do nothing to help me, but one of the guys came by after almost an hour (luckily I randomly had earplugs in my bag or I would've gone psycho) and figured out how to shut it off.

Seven hours sounds like a long time, but it's not as bad as you'd think. The first hour always goes pretty quickly as I get everything set up. I write my morning pages, bring a book, bring crossword puzzles... sometimes I can get enough reception to watch a kickass infomercial or cooking show on the mini TV. And there is some actual work done during the day, of course. I'm excited, I bought a beginner's sewing kit for a scarf* and it was delivered yesterday! I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

*It's this fuzzy pink scarf, with some of the proceeds going to breast cancer research. The kit also came with one of those self-breast exam cards that randomly (well, not really) reminded me of this video we had to watch in high school - junior and senior girls only, because apparently freshmen and sophomores have no boobs? Anyway, it was basically a video on how to give yourself exams, and I think it's a great idea, but man, did it look like a cheesy 80s porn. In fact, I'm still not convinced that it wasn't. After this assembly, we each got a mini gel boob that had a teeny-tiny tumor inside... which was kind of disturbing.

Oh! I had my first book club meeting on Sunday. Very fun, I recommend one to anyone who likes to read. A couple members were not there, but I think there were 11 or 12 of us who got together in one gal's home and discussed Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and Thrity Umrigar's "The Space Between Us." Amusing times about mostly depressing books. I managed not to be too quiet although I still was, you know, pretty quiet. I had a brilliant glass of wine - it was red, but it's somehow not considered a red wine, and it tasted like Snapple Apple juice. Yummy!

Speaking of me being quiet, there's a poetry reading tonight that I'm going to, and I was planning on reading something, but now that I go back through what I have, I don't know what or if I want to share! I still get nervous reading to my group that I've known for about a year now, how am I going to cope in front of hella strangers? Well, either I will or I won't, I guess. I have the rest of the day to decide, as I'm working from home. This is the last week I'm doing my usual stuff for the office, and there has been almost nothing to do. That isn't... well, actually, since I get paid by the hour, it is a complaint!

Tune in tomorrow to hear of my (mostly) yum cooking adventures as of late.

Disconnected is the way that I wanted it to be

Fair warning (that's one of my favorite phrases right now for some reason): this is mostly an obligatory post to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the planet. True enough that it's probably only gravity keeping me here, but anyway!

I worked at the office all week, with a bunch of other craziness happening. My parents got the house re-carpeted and there was a bunch of lovely (and by lovely I mean annoying) packing and re-arranging and barking dogs. I took advantage of this situation to switch stuff around in my room in a way that I think looks pretty nice - though I need some more storage space.

I got rid of the dinky corner shelf* that held all of my lotions/perfumes, and I'm only going to be keeping one bookcase. I did buy a smallish media shelf at Target the other day (that I put together myself! mostly) but I'll need one more - and I still need something for all my girly notions. Heh, I looked around Cost Plus World Market for some reason - I don't know why I thought I could possibly afford any furniture from that place. I did buy Nutella for a dessert recipe I want to make, though... yum...

*I found (not bought) this particular shelf on the sidewalk around the block from my grandparents old house a couple years ago. It never was the sturdiest of shelves, and I've finally decided to give it the boot.

I watched the most terrible Lifetime movie** today about a girl who cut herself. It was like:

1. She was so annoying, I was half-hoping she'd die (maybe she did - I didn't see the end)
2. One of her eyebrows was WAY higher than the other, giving her a constant sarcastic look
3. Her screen parents were so obnoxious, especially her castrating bitch of a mother, that I was annoyed that she didn't take after them with a rusty boxcutter, or car cigarette lighter

**I will undoubtedly go to hell for constantly making fun of badly written and acted, but well-meaning, often based on true stories Lifetime movies.

Eh, that's it for now. I was going to unpack more stuff tonight, but I think instead I will veg out in front of TV - I have to wake up early tomorrow (whine, whine), and after work I have the first meeting of my book club. I am somewhat nervous about coming off like an idiot, but I figure the worst that can happen is I get humiliated and run off crying. Or something. I'm so taking Monday off so I'll unpack then.

Also: I don't know what is prompting more people to comment lately, but keep it coming! I blogged for so long feeling like I was talking to an empty stadium (I almost said empty audience - what the hell is that?) that I greatly enjoy any comments. Except for ones from spammers - screw those guys.

"You're the man I want to want!"

I heard some chick say that on a commercial for "Gilmore Girls," and I think I threw up in my mouth a little. I mean, come on. Who talks like that, except for annoying women on badly written TV shows?

My second day on the new job went a bit more smoothly than the first. There were more visitors than I expected, seeing as it was Easter, and it made me sad - there was one family I had to send away because they had their dog with them. Aw! I wish puppies were allowed there, too.

We had somewhat of a barbecue when I got home in the afternoon, which was nice. I had this huge, delicious cheeseburger and then I couldn't eat again for the rest of the day. Wait, I'll be honest: I did have a piece of banana cream pie later on. It was so good, and painful.

I would have taken today off, but we had a conference call about a fairly big project... the binder of which I of course left at the office. Naturally, as it turns out, the only thing I said during the conference call was "Hi everyone!" I got a few hours of work out of going in, anyway.

People are coming on Thursday to re-do the carpet, so... I should really be packing my room up right now. I've already done a huge box of knick-knacks, and two super-big garbage bags of books. And, I've got so much left to do! There were two big boxes I accidentally left at work, so I'll bring them home tomorrow.

I'm sorry, I wish I had something interesting to talk about. I mean, there's stuff that interests me, but I'm boring. I don't even have any good TV bits. "The Sopranos" started again last night, but we recorded it, and I'm behind on "The Riches." I did watch the new "Entourage" last night. That show is so much fun, and even if it weren't, Adrian Grenier is so pretty to look at. Also, Jeremy Piven definitely tops the list of TV's Hot Jerks. That's what I'll do for you sometime this week - make a list of TV's hot jerks. Any nominations?

I've got my heart but my heart's no good

Today was the first day of my new job, and while there were some issues, the day went mostly well. There was some kind of issue with the cash register, but luckily it wasn't just me being a dumb-dumb. Whew, that's a relief.

They told me it would be quiet and boring, so I tried to prepare for that, but wasn't quite thorough enough. I took my morning pages journal, one of the discussion guides for my book club meeting next week (man is that coming up fast all of a sudden!), and a newspaper I had to go through for work, but that only occupied a few-couple hours altogether. I spent a lot of time looking out the window at the gorgeous surroundings and various wildlife, which included:

- Lots of orange butterflies... monarchs, maybe?
- Squirrels! This adorable fat one was laying (lying? damn weird-ass verbs) flat on this planter for the longest time, then sat up and scratched itself like a dog! I squealed out loud.
- Cows, many of which - I swear - stared right at me! I think they could have knocked down my booth if they wanted to.
- Bunnies! I wanted to hug them.
- This chubby bird who kept collecting little twigs. Aw...

Random: Before I left this morning, I caught some infomercial for some exercise program called "Hip Hop Abs." It actually looked cool, but then they talked to this guy who looked like a cracked-out (more so) David Lee Roth with a bad perm. It was traumatizing yet hilarious.

Also traumatizing: That "Save a horse, ride a cowboy" song... I got into a discussion about it with my mom and brother the other day, and I thought, wouldn't "Save a horse, kill a cowboy*" be a better song? Think about it.

*Disclaimer: This blog takes no responsibility for any of its readers who are now incited to commit acts of violence against cowboys. But I still totally encourage you to punch anyone involved in the writing, production, composing, singing, buying, selling, playing, or listening to the aforementioned song.

TV Bits:

- With "Prison Break" on break until August, Mondays are now officially useless - I will be crossing them off of my calendar, and suggest you do the same.

- Missing season five of "The Shield" left me slightly confused on tuning into the new season last week. My thoughts:

-- Um, when did Danny have a kid? Possibly with Vic, no less?
-- I miss Claudette's braids.
-- Is Julien still married to that woman, and trying to have a kid with her? Have they decided to totally disregard the "He's actually gay" thing?
-- Why is Forest Whitaker hella scary when he's well-dressed and polite?
-- How does Shane manage to become hotter even as he becomes more evil? I'm just saying.

- Unless they are just being cruel and messing with my head, FX will be bringing back "Rescue Me" again this year! I mean, I knew they were, but I was excited to see the commercial this last Tuesday. If you missed it, it's Tommy hanging on desperately to the back of a firetruck that is out of control. At the wheel? Also Tommy. Man, I hope they bring back his Jesus hallucinations too - that was good stuff.

- Speaking of which, Callie Thorne always has the hottest onscreen husbands/boyfriends. To wit:

-- Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) on "The Wire"
-- Jimmy Keefe (don't know the actors name) and Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary) on "Rescue Me"
-- Alex Mahone (William Fichtner) on "Prison Break"

Forget John Malkovich, I'll be Callie Thorne for a day! Or fifteen minutes; however long it is before you fall out onto the New Jersey highway.

I'll come home early from work if you say that you love me

I wasn't really planning on blogging tonight, but the episodes of "The Simpsons" that are on right now aren't good (ie, they're not old) so I thought, why not?

My week has been rather busy. I'd try to recap Monday and Tuesday, but I don't remember anything about them other than the season finale of "Prison Break" on Monday night. Though things look pretty shitty for our favorite (and not so favorite) escapees, at least it looks like Mahone will be back. Sweet! I hope he and Michael team up on breaking out of the evil Panama prison.

Wednesday was the first session of my Italian cooking class. It was kind of intimidating at first because four out of the six ladies there (that includes me) have all taken classes together and know each other, but they all seem nice. The teacher went over the recipes first, then we were in pairs/trios working on them. That night we had:

- Tomato and garlic crostini... basically "bread on bread," as the teacher called it. So good!

- The recipe I worked on - Grilled Portobello mushrooms on a salad of alfalfa sprouts, sliced mushrooms (you know, the white ones) and cheese. I thought I didn't like portobellos, but they were quite good. They were rubbed in olive oil, broiled, then splashed with lemon juice and red wine vinegar.

- Baked fettucine with asparagus, pine nuts and marscapone. I don't like asparagus normally, but this was good though it had a bit too much lemon. Eh, that's easy to modify.

- Individual meringue trifles, AKA heaven in my mouth! Hazelnuts, crushed meringue cookies, raspberries, a pudding/mousse made of Nutella and whipped cream... oh, I'm so making these for a dessert at my next dinner party or whatever. I'd make them right now if I had the ingredients on hand.

Speaking of dinner parties, last night's went pretty well. I made a quiche (broccoli, bell pepper, corn, lots of CHEESE) and twice-baked potatoes (potatoes, obviously, and even more CHEESE), and the girls brought a salad, fruit salad and a mini-cheesecake. A good time was had by all, and I had two yum drinks: a rum and coke (cherry rum) and then a brilliant drink that tastes like a Creamsicle or Dreamsicle or whatever it is - creme soda with orange rum! I totally recommend this to anyone.

Right now I'm going to pack up my stuff for work tomorrow (I'm getting up SO early), then have an ice cream sandwich and watch "Albino Alligator" which I bought hella weeks (okay, two) ago and still haven't watched. Please, a movie with Matt Dillon and William Fichtner? How am I not going to love it?

Oh, and I saw "Blades of Glory" today. I wanted an amusing, 90-minute escape from reality, and I got it! "The kids" (you know, darn punk whippersnappers) didn't have school today so there were a bunch of them at thea theater, but luckily no one annoying. I'm so used to going to the movies in the morning/early afternoon and being one of only a few people there.

Also amusing: I had went by the theater to get my ticket first, then went back home for lunch and to change, but when I was first there I ran into MB and her boyfriend. I am always running into her in the most random places, which is definitely not a bad thing.

My mom told me this amusing story last week or sometime, about when she was a kid and, one year, "The Brady Bunch" got canceled or postponed on Good Friday because of some special program. BB was her favorite show and she said, "I HATE GOOD FRIDAY!" and got yelled at. That's so funny, and cute! Which brings me to an important question: What is Good Friday, exactly? (This is where LS once again makes me a funny and true"Yvonne: Worst Catholic Ever!" picture.) I could Wikipedia that, but I'll probably forget as soon as I post this entry. Eh, what you gonna do.

I don't know what we're doing for Easter, if anything. I mean, I hope it's nothing. I'll have to work, and when I come home I don't want to deal with, you know, family or something like that. But I could definitely go for a Cadbury creme egg... or some of the egg-shaped chewing gum...

I ain't got the time, and if my daddy thinks I'm fine...

You know when you love a song, but it's too catchy and is stuck in your head for days after you hear it once? Right now that's me and Amy Winehouse's "Rehab." KWOD plays this song every time I am listening at work, and so I go around the rest of the day singing to myself, "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said no, no, no..."

Which is kind of funny, if you think about it, because if anyone who didn't know me heard me singing that, they'd probably think I was kind of really weird.

Having been completely bored with the majority of my culinary adventures lately, I decided to make dinner tonight. I picked up some Aidell's sausages (artichoke and garlic, yum), a loaf of garlic bread* from Raley's, and made some calavasas (sauteed onion, zucchini, and tomatoes topped with LOTS of jack cheese, yum!)

*Raley's garlic bread is okay, but not brilliant like the ones from Costco, which is studded with this delicious, soft chunks of garlic cloves. Mmm...

I'm also going to be cooking dinner on Thursday night for LS and JH. I am going to make some kind of quiche (so many possible ingredients!) and twice-baked potatoes. Between that, tonight, and my class on Wednesday, maybe I'm actually getting close to my cooking-a-lot-more goal!

This is going to be a short entry, as in, it's ending now. I have lots of stuff to do and for once I am ready to just jump in and do it!

Watch me fault her, you're living like a disaster

I know I never post twice in one day, but I have a few things I thought noteworthy:

1. I got the weekend job I wanted! Sweet.

2. I was looking over my web stats awhile ago, in particular at the "Used Bandwidth" section, and I saw:

December 1969 - 0.01 megabytes

Which I guess makes sense. I mean, considering that I wouldn't be born for another 13 years, and the website itself wasn't created for another 22 years after that, .01 megabytes is pretty damn good. Oh, not to mention the whole "There was no such thing as a web site" thing.

3. Sounds like Planet Claire may be, unfortunately, going out of orbit (or whatever) quite soon. So, I'd suggest you enjoy her rants, stories and quotes while they're still around. Claire, your hilarious, brutally honest observations will definitely be missed!

4. I have no note to put here, but I didn't want to end the note on an odd-numbered dealy... which is weird, because I like odd numbers better than even numbers. OCD much?

5. But now that I think about it even more, I would much rather end on #5 than on #4. I mean, what's so great about 4? 4-square, maybe. But 5 is much more attractive on a list; I don't know why. Yes, I'll go take my crazy pills now. HEHE!

Boys will be boys, girls can't avoid pretty boys

Is it really April already? I don't know if I appreciate that, seeing as I have gotten like nothing done so far this year.

I had an interview on Thursday that I think went very well. It wouldn't be an exciting job (but what is?) but it is full-time, seemingly bullshit free, and somewhat closer to home. One drawback: It's in this shady, scary, kinda hidden warehouse area... ew. I drove past it the first time, actually, and got there right when the interview was to start, but they were running behind so it worked out.

Other stuff I have been or will be up to:

- I have signed up for the cooking class I wanted to take that starts this week. Yay foody! I just hope it's better than the baking class my mom and I took a few years ago at the same place (with a different teacher). The guy was nice enough, but he used imitation vanilla in all the recipes, and didn't let any of the recipes using yeast (which was all of them, I think) rise. I wonder if I have those saved anywhere still; there was one cake with a sweet pudding-like frosting that was so delish. Mmm, must find...

- I worked yesterday at LL's store, and will most likely do so next Saturday also. It's going to be the last day the shop is open. Aw! My mom stopped by yesterday and got, among other things, these two cute owl dealies (one figurine, one small hand mirror) for my collection. Yay! I also bought a picture I have had my eye on since I first saw it. It's like this Victorian-looking drawing of a lady playing some stringed instrument (a lute?) under a flowering tree next to a lake. There is a small poem next to the picture:

"All to Myself" (Wilbur D. Nesbit)

All to myself I think of you;
Think of the things we used to do;
Think of the things we used to say;
Think of each happy yesterday.
Sometimes I sigh, and sometimes I smile,
But I keep each olden, golden while
All to myself.

Pretty, oui?

- The more I think about it, the more the idea of painting my room while we're redoing the floor sounds good. I'm sick of the super-cute border, and I'm thinking a nice light blue (on all four walls, not just one as my original idea was) would be nice. It would look well with all of my furniture (none of which truly matches, but anyway) except for maybe the magenta cabinet I keep all the computer stuff in. I'd paint that too, except I glued a bunch of plastic gems to the faces of the two drawers, and I don't have the patience to scrape them all of.

- LMC now has the fall 2007 schedule up, so I nerded out over that this morning. I always end up listing the same classes, but they are ones that I really want to take (just not all at once, because I don't think I have what it takes to be a full-time student again). My French teacher from high school is going to be teaching Italian, which is definitely in my top three choices.

- When I get bored, I often end up shopping and buying stuff I don't need. So, I've now decided that when I get bored and need to shop, I'll buy stuff for other people! Better to give and blah blah blah. Besides, I need to start my Christmas shopping, I'm behind! Okay, not really - I usually start xmas shopping in the late summer, when everyone else's birthday has passed. Seriously, I think 95% of my friends and family were born bewteen March and August. What's up with that? Then there's a small group of fall birthday people that includes me, and maybe two December people. Hmm...

- My mom and I finished watching "Invasion" last night, and she is annoyed as I that there isn't going to be a second season.

- Final season of "The Sopranos" starts next week! It's never been my favorite HBO show, but they had a lot of great characters and episodes. Did Lorraine Bracco ever win anything for her portrayal of Dr. Melfi? If not, then she should.

- Apparently, all of my notes will now be about television.

- I am considering watching "The Tudors" on Showtime, but the exploits of King Henry VIII might be a bit too historical for me. The "oldest" show I have ever liked is "Deadwood" which is at least in the 19th century. Even (actually, especially) in school, I couldn't get into any pre-WWII history.

- Season one of "Dexter" is supposed to be starting over on Showtime, but I would rather get my hands on the DVD. Is it out yet? Also, I need to read the Dexter books. I think I read one chapter that was free online when the show debuted, and I wasn't that impressed with it, but I'd like to read more before making a decision on that.

- There's no way I'm going to be able to watch season five of "The Shield" before the new season starts Tuesday night. Damn, I wish TV Without Pity had recapped that show! Why is that the best website ever? Which reminds me, I have to go read the "Prison Break" recap for last Monday now. OMG, season finale tomorrow night! I'm scared...