Root Beer Love

Harriet

2011-01-10T03:53:00.000-06:00

Maybe I'll use the new puppy as my excuse for being gone for a year. Just ignore the fact that we got her this April, and it will be fine.....

Jason and I had been talking about a puppy for a long time. We had decided on a basset hound! Jason loves the droop. What does that say about me?????

We found a rescue, and were waiting to see a puppy pop up available for adoption. Why a puppy, you ask? We have 2 wonderful cats, and seeing as how this dog was going to weigh more than bot of them combined, we thought we should give them an advantage at the start. Ha. So, my industrious husband was also searching petfinder every day. One day, a basset mix came up. It say he was a basset/ ST BERNARD. I'll wait while we are all wondering how that happens....

We went, and he was very cute, but as an adult dog, we were worried about cat prejudice. So, they brought in a cat, and that dog lost. his. mind. He needed to get that cat more than anything else in the world. That was not going to work for us. We prepared to leave, dogless, but not too disappointed, we'd just keep waiting for the right rescue. However, when we were walking though the kennels we had seen a large pile of cute, and had seen something about a basset mix litter that was at the shelter as well. The shelter worker suggested one of the 11 puppies from that litter. There were some with short legs, and some with long. She brought a little girl with stubby legs, a big puppy belly, and green eyes. It was over.

She ran right up and climbed into my lap. I'd thought we were getting the dog for Jason. After all, dogs LOVE Jason, they look at him differently than other people. I'm more of a cat person, I feel like I identify with them more. But at that moment, I fell in love.

We named her Harriet. We've decided now that she's a basset/austrailian shepherd mix. Plus whatever else. We know her mother was a basset, and she certainly has the basset body type, short legs and a long back. The color, especially they eyes, led us to the aussie conclusion. We hadn't even thought of that until one morning at puppy class, a new aussie puppy sat down next to her. Their eyes were identical, and they were the same red color.

I'll stop now, but I could talk about her for hours. We've joked that she's our practice baby. I had no idea that a puppy could be such a whirlwind in your life.

My temporary internet death, and brief thoughts.

2010-07-20T15:16:00.003-05:00

Not about briefs, I promise, but now I can't stop thinking of underwear.

Holycrap, it's been more than a year since I posted anything here. I'm just going to say that I'm back from the dead.

This past year, I have:

Moved!

Had every single appliance in the new house break, including the furnace. I'm sure I could tell some colorful stories there.

Painted the whole house. My hands still hurt.

Got a puppy. Wow. I hadn't had a puppy since 6th grade. I had forgotten (or never known, thanks to hard working parents) how much work a puppy was. She's adorable, but wow, I'm ready any time now for her to quit getting up in the middle of the night to go play cat.

I'm sure I've forgotten something else new that I've done, but I bet Jason will remind me!!!

Cedar Point

2009-11-02T12:56:00.005-06:00

It seems that there is a continuum of how much I like roller coasters. Here is a handy illustration.

By using this graph, you can see how much I would have WANTED to go to Cedar Point. I'm not a roller coaster newbie, and I'd never been. Jason assured me that it would be tons of fun. And, once I got past that first hill, it totally was.

We went during the last week of August. It was really really the perfect time to go. It was cool enough that we were comfortable, but it was still warm enough to enjoy the water rides (at least for a minute). We didn't wait in a line longer than 15 minutes, except once.

The best roller coaster, in my opinion, was , well, I was going to pick one before I got to this point in the sentence, but I really can't! Millenium Force was huge, and awesome and I have to innterrupt this blog post to tell one of the funniest things EVER.

When Jason is scared on a roller coaster, he doesn't scream, he doesn't close his eyes, he doesn't barf (thank God). Instead, he talks smack to the roller coaster. After the first hill on millenium force, I heard him yelling things like "is that all you got?" and "fun times! fun times!". I amlaughing out loud about it right now. When I heard him it was immediately added to the list of reasons I love him Reason 6,234,452,354: He yells at roller coasters.

I on the other hand, try to scream, and I fail. A long time ago, my cousin pointed out that on the first hill (if you refer to the graph above, a high fright level place) I open my mouth wide to try to scream, and nothing comes out. Yeah. After that I yell and I'm having fun. But I turn into a silent movie star when on that first hill.

We now return you to the sceduled blog post. Maverick was also awesome. When we read that the first hill was a 95% drop, we didn't believe it. As we were going over we both yelled I BELIEVE IT. It kinda knocked my head around, but was awesome.

Another aside, this is a video of the first roller coaster I ever went on. Thanks Dad, for riding with me, and singing "Get a Job" while we were cranked up the first hill.

Raptor. I love the raptor. It doesn't really scare me as much as others, maybe because I start high up in the air. We offended a ride operator by revealing this lack of fear. He responded that "the raptor is the 7th most intense coaster in the world" Sorry dude.

Thought Mantis was going to be my favorite since Jason doesn't like it. I loved it, but I really can't pick a favorite.

Ah, Magnum. Old. Hilly. DEATH. We didn't snap the lap bar down far enough and felt like we were going to fly out the entire time.

I noticed just now that I didn't talk about any wooden roller coasters in a positive fashion. I like wooden roller coasters, but they make me feel OLD. I don't remember Judge Roy Scream or the Texas Giant hurting that much.

So, I can't pick a favorite other than Cedar Point in general. It was great. Can't wait to go back next year. I leave you with this video of the Maverick.

Sporadic

2009-11-02T12:43:00.002-06:00

That's the nicest word I could come up with for my blog schedule. I wish I could pinpoint one reason that I don't update regularly. But, alas, it's not lack of inspiration, (I think oh, I should blog about that all the time), time, or desire. I think I'm just lazy. Yup. I'm feeling all squidgy today, because we're deciding whether or not to move. It would cost us more a month, but it would be a whole house, a lot more space, and most of all for me, a real kitchen. I think I'd enjoy that. There's a second bedroom for Jason to have a racing room (seriously his idea, I'm not about shoving all of his stuff where you can't see it) and a mud room for all of his fishing accouterments. (oooo good word). The house needs some work, but we're up to it, and we can make it our own. What would you do?

Hopefully I'll be back soon with some more thoughts on other things. But now that I've said that, it's a jinx.

Texas! Part 2

2009-09-28T10:36:00.002-05:00

We spent the next day with the fam, and I was really glad to. I like Indiana and all, but my family (extended and otherwise) is awesome, and having them live so many states away (and in other states as well) really stinks.

Jason has some things in common with my Uncle, and I'd never even thought of it before.

We visited Papa's house an got a nice tour of his studio. I don't know why he won't smile.

Papa said there was an armadillo living in one of his bushes.

I looked at about 10 different pictures of all of us together, and there's not even on where we're all smiling, or even looking at the camera.

The next day we were on our way to Palo Duro canyon. We stopped at one of the nicest rest stops ever, with the most frightening signs, EVERYWHERE.

We drove all day again, and saw an actual cattle drive. We also saw about a million wind farms. It was a long, fast drive. Mom had a great theory. The reason the speed limit is so high in Texas is that if you're going to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time, you'd better go fast.

W arrived in Canyon that night and were duly impressed. It was really amazing, the 2nd biggest canyon in the US. We stopped for pictures, then made our way down to have some dinner, and see a show.

The show was Texas, and it had been performed for 40 years at the stage in the canyon. You'd think that in that time, they could have made it awesome. Instead it was rather amateurish. My eyes didn't bleed, but it wasn't awesome either.

The real show was above us. Both in the amphitheater and on our way back to the hotel, I coudn't keep my eyes off the stars. It was truly amazing. If I've not said it before, I'll say it again, the sky really is bigger in Texas.

The next morning we took a jeep tour. The owners thought we were brave since, for them, they'd had a lot of rain the night before. To us, it was nothing, a few inches, and I remember 2 years ago 12 inches in12 hours, but they promised that if anything looked unsafe to pass, we would turn back.

The tour was really great. The guide was informative, and entertaining. The ranch he works for owns half of the canyon, and they use it. It's a working cattle ranch, even thought we only saw one cow. He looked kinda lonely. We got to get out of the jeep and walk around a little on interesting rock formations. There were lots of cacti. We saw a roadrunner, but failed to get an actual picture, he ran off. We looked over the edge. Jason wanted me to stay in the jeep.

After the tour we hiked just a little bit. Jason and I would really like to go back and camp overnight in the canyon. We saw deer, and more cacti. We drove back out of the canyon, and then we were headed home, but the long way. On the way to Indiana we stopped at a cheese place in Missouri that apparently no longer exists (we keep finding disconnected numbers) and we saw a tumbleweed. Jason says that it was just a weed, since it was stuck on a fence. :P

Texas! Part one

2009-09-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Jason, just to let you know, it's hard to type when you have to make an x with your hands.

Only a week after we came back from Florida with Jason's family, we were off to Texas with mine! My family is from Texas, and I spent many a summer there when I was younger. We all piled into the van it was me my brother my ma oh my pop and my little sister all jumped in the car. We headed downtown to the gallery mall.

WAIT. That's not even a meme. At this point it's just an old Will Smith Song. Extra points if you remember it too.

In real life, it was Jason and I, my parents, my bother and this:

My parents' new puppy, Penelope. She's a schnoodle. It took me 4 times to type that. She's half poodle, half Schnauzer and all teeth. But she's cute!!!!

We started our trip in Arkansas. I know that's not really Texas, but Mom's goal after retirement is to see all of the presidential libraries. Little Rock was just enough on our way to really qualify.

Penny, although cute was not allowed in the library, so we took shifts.

I has excited to see that there was a space exhibit there. I really do love all things space. If given the chance, I would 100% go into space. I wanted so much to go to space camp when I was a kid. Jason makes fun of me now because I saw a preview of the new show "Defying Gravity" and I said "OMG It's a show in space! It's a show in space!"

Anyway (I'm feeling awfully stream of consciousness today) in this exhibit there was part of Mir. As in the space station. It was a cool exhibit but something about the inside of that pod made you dizzy. Instantly. I went in around 4 times, and it never went away!

The rest of the Clinton library was kind of uneventful. There was a replica oval office, but we couldn't go in! I don't see the point of having the replica to see if we have to stand outside. Also, they knew I was coming, so they got out the Chihuly. For whatever reason, the docent that heard me say "look, a Chihuly" was really really impressed that I knew what it was. From Little Rock we were off to Whitesboro!

We drove and drove and drove (insert some more "droves" in there). And arrived at the hotel in the early evening. We checked in and invited my Aunt Dawn and Papa over.

Papa really is awesome. He's in his 90's and is completely independent. Not just independent, but a witty, sharp, extremely talented artist. He spends his days painting lovely things, and gave Jason and I a second painting while we were down there. It's really beautiful, of a beach in Cozumel (we didn't know that's where it was when we picked it, but more on that later) then we went to bed. Crash.

Don't Shoot!

2009-09-24T10:27:00.003-05:00

I'm not very consistent, but I am contrite. Sorry I haven't updated. I don't have ANY good reason. A certain awesome blogger emailed me, and it was like the wall of procrastination between me and the blog seemed short enough to climb.

I'm going to update again, soon. I promise. (okay, I already set something to come up tomorrow, ha!)

p.s. I love this picture, we went to see the King Tut exhibit at the children's museum, and it turned out to be Star Wars Saturday. I was admiring the R2 (love) and there were storm troopers everwhere. I asked for a picture. When it was taken, one of them had just told me "look scared". It's hard to look scared when things are so awesome.

Florida!

2009-08-27T18:16:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy summer. We had looong ago planned to go to Florida with Jason's family. We were going to drive down, and stay a week. Then gas prices went waaaaaaay up. So we thought we would fly. Then Jason took a pay cut. We just didn't see how we could afford it so we told everyone that we probably wouldn't make it. Then, as a last minute thing, Jason took a look online at flights, and lo and behold, we could get down there, and back, for about 300 total! So we called his family back and started to pack!

We were headed for Treasure Island Florida. I know that sounds very mysterious and islandy, but it's a town, on the gulf coast, so an island so much. It's a really neat little town that still has a lot of historic charm.

The only way we could afford to go down was to make it just a weekend, but the airlines were surprisingly helpful on that front. We could fly in really early on friday, and then leave late on Sun.

So, I coerced my wonderful parents to get us to the airport at 4:30 Friday morning. We arrived in Florida around 8:30 or so, and went to breakfast. We left our luggage at the hotel, and went on kind of a tour of the area. We stopped at the Don Cesar hotel, which was really cool. It reminded Jason and I a lot of West Baden in style. It was also very pink.

We then went to Fort DeSoto beach and played around at the pier. We saw rays and lots of little fish in the water. There were plenty of people fishing, but nobody catching. It was a realy beautiful day.

When we got back to the hotel, our room was ready. There had been some talk of an upgrade, but not really to us, just overheard between the staff. When we walked in, we realized it had come to fruition. The room was HUGE! It had a full kitchen, a living room, and the requisite bed/bath combo.

You know what? I'm just realizing that almost every hotel room we stay in ends up having one thing odd, or broken in it. Just this past weekend, we were in one that half of the light switches didn't seem to do anything in. Hmmmm. Well, in this room there were 2 oddnesses. One was the only clothing rack was only waist high (I'd brought 2 maxi dresses) and in the dresser, one of the drawers opened on it's own. Eventually I shut it hard and the handle fell off. Ooops. Lucky I know how to work a screw.

ANYWAY we got into the room and we changed into our swimsuits for a trip to the beach. We hung out at the beach for a while, and both Jason and I got beat up by the ocean. The water was rough that day. I managed not to get sunburnt! YAY!

I remember laying out as an activity. My skin wasn't always so sensitive. I used to bake in the sun all summer, but now I wear spf 70 when I go out and pray for shade. I guess it's better for me anyway.

That night we had dinner at my sister in law's husband's parents' house. How's that for a mouthful. I'm never sure what I'm supposed to call those relatives by marriage. We had some great chicken and rice and yummies out on the lawn which ended at the backwater. There was a dock and Jason fished. He wasn't having too much luck, but a hungry heron sure hoped he would.

He'd been fishing before we ate, and he put his pole down to come to dinner. We didn't want the heron to get hooked, so he left the hook (with a tiny bit of chewed over bait) in the water. As we finished eating, we all noticed that the end of his pole was curving quite a bit. While we ate, Jason had caught a catfish!

We all went down to sunset beach for guess what? A sunset.

The next morning we had a mission. Months earlier, Jason had suggested we go parasailing. I said very nicely that I would wave to him from the boat and that I hoped he had a good time. He tried and tried, and I was considering swallowing my fear, when several friends told me that it was fun, and I should definately go. So, here I was, Saturday morning, in my bathing suit, on a boat with a parachute that looked like a smiley face.

My fears were not so much allayed when the workers on the boat had marijuana leaf tattoos, and had what I feared was an ironic sticker about employee drug testing. Then, they turned on the stereo. Sublime. Nothing but Sublime. Hmmmm. (actually it was the perfect music for that morning)

Jason had convinced his sister and her husband to go parasailing too, and we had parents in the boat as well. They were going to take our pictures. The boat took off into a beautifully clear morning. I was really nervous, we were up first.

They gave us some very quick very simple instructions, and then asked Jason and I to come to the back of the boat with our harnesses on. Did I mention I was nervous? They hooked us on to the parachute and told us we wold take off sitting, and land standing up. I was, at this point, slightly more scared than a snowman in the sahara. The boat sped up, and I was instantly, incredibly, completely, at ease.

It was like floating. There was no sense of falling, it was as easy as falling off a log. Which we didn't. We went up the full 1200 feet and stayed there for 15 minutes, which was NOT long enough. Landing was just as easy.

After everyone who was planning to had gone, we managed to get Jason's dad and Carolyn to go too! They said they had a great time!

When we had all changed into some dry clothes, we headed off to Tarpon Springs to go to the sponge docks. We'd had fun there on our honeymoon and were just too close to not go again. Turns out that it was Christmas in June...

That night, Jason and I dressed up to go out to dinner which turned out be okay food at a bar. It was my choice. I should have let Jason choose.

The next day we got in some good beach time, cuban sandwiches, and shopping. We had ice cream at a really delightful place with writing on the ceiling and candy wrappers for wallpaper. We tried to see the shuttle launch, but it got postponed due to weather.

Our trip home was interesting, filled with delayed flights and running, but we made our flights, and so did the luggage. You go AirTranica.Why are the advertising to people who are already at their mercy?

Our next adventure would be longer, but less beachy. Until next time, Make Mine Marvel.

that was kinda odd, wasn't it?

More Failbread.

2009-08-12T18:33:00.000-05:00

I can't seem to bake. On your way home from Texas (maybe I should post about the trip), we stopped at an outlet store and we got this:

It's a cast iron pan with little holes in the shape of fish! We were going to play Lost and make us some fish biscuits. Jason asked me to make jalapeno cornbread, and being the ever bookish librarian, I found this recipe on the internet:

JALAPENO CORN BREAD

2 c. canned cream-style corn
2/3 c. vegetable oil
2 c. dairy sour cream
1 1/2 to 2 c. grated Cheddar cheese
1 (4 oz.) can jalapenos or green chilies, seeded and chopped
2 c. corn bread mix
4 eggs, beaten
1 c. chopped onion

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9x2 inch pan. Combine corn, corn bread mix, oil, eggs, sour cream, cheese, onion and jalapenos. Pour into pan. Bake about 1 hour at 350 degrees. Recipe can easily be halved.

I halved it, poured into the fish pan and the corn pan we already had (one is pre-cleanup, the other is post, can you guess which?) and put it in the oven. For an hour. Oh, BTW, because I learn lessons from the past, I greased both pans excessively, with butter.

After an hour, I took them out, and they still felt squishy. I put them in for another 5 min, and then another and then another, so on and so forth until I felt we were past the point no return. The fish were really brown. The corn was crispy.

I managed to get them out of the pans with a knife and some creative avoidance of had burning (this time). However, they never became anything I would call cornbread, or any type of bread. They weren't even bread-like.

I think something must be off in that recipe. While I was making it, I kept thinking that it was too much liquid, and I think that was my fatal flaw. So, while they look okay, it was more like a quiche or souffle than cornbread, the egg was the only thing holding stuff together. Not that tasty.

Jason says we should try a recipe form the Stubbs book next time. Hmmmm, Genius.

On the upside, I also made lemon bars that I stuck to each other, and some pretty good hush puppies. We didn't take pictures of them!!!

Zucchini Cakes

2009-08-10T18:47:00.004-05:00

I grow GIANT zucchini. I was unaware that you were supposed to pick them when they were young for best flavor and least seeds until a few days after I picked these specimens.

I know there's not that much for scale in there, but it's about as long as my forearm (minus hand) (I mean, I still have hands, just the zucchini isn't that big) (of course you know I still have hands, how would I be typing this otherwise?) (well I guess I could have a Stephen Hawking thing and have it talk for me without using all of my hands) (or I could dictate)(but then every post would be about kangaroos)

ANYWAY I had 2 big ones. I decided to make another Pastor Ryan recipe, zucchini cakes. I shredded one up, and I had to add 3 eggs, and another quarter cup of bread crumbs.

I fried them in the cast iron skillet, and kept the finished ones warm in the oven. Starring in that picture is my other new friend, a lodge cast iron enamel baking dish. It's blue. It was on clearance at Bass Pro Shops. AWESOME!

We had them with pasta and vodka sauce. I thought the vodka sauce went great with the zucchini, better than ranch!

These were definately yummy, and I'll make them again!
next up, stuffed zucchini. I've also got more cucumbers than I can handle. Anyone know some good recipes for those???

Pot Christening

2009-08-08T14:21:00.003-05:00

I've decided that I'm going to attempt to make Pastor Ryan's (via PW) Chicken tikka masala in my new apple pot. I know, I know, it's not really anything that requires a dutch oven, but that's what I want. It's my favorite Indian dish. Except, it's not really Indian, it's English. I'm not going to make it until after we get back from Cedar Point next week, but I'll post pictures then! Thanks so much for all of the suggestions...

New Toy

2009-08-05T08:56:00.000-05:00

I love kitchen toys. I saw this months ago, and just recently, I got an Amazon gift card for my birthday. My wonderful husband knew just what we should get. Yup. He's a genius. This is what I got for my birthday (via amazon)

It's a 3 quart cast iron enamel pot. I couldn't get over how cute it was, all apple like, and green. It's HEAVY, but it's a piece of cookware that I hope will be a really nice kitchen addition.

Here's my dillema.

I love this, I went through 2 to get one without chips (the chipped one pictured above was replaced with ease by lodge) and it has a great place in the kitchen. but....

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO COOK IN IT!!!!

It seems like it would be great for all kinds of things, but I don't want to make canned soup in it first time out, or something that boring.

If there's anyone still out there, what suggestions do you have? What can I make in the apple?

SO LAZY

2009-08-03T13:31:00.003-05:00

2 months. I swear I have things to say, but when I think to say them, I just feel like I'm out of steam. Real stuff coming soon...

BIG WORDS

2009-06-04T08:21:00.004-05:00

If you read here, you have to know, I use a lot of big words. I really love big words, and I always have. Someone stupid once told me that in order to ever find a husband (or boyfriend at that point) that I would have to stop using big words and talk down to them. Wasn’t that terrible advice? Well, this misguided evil person wouldn’t have felt the need to ask me to talk down is she’s ever built her own vocabulary with a site like vocaboly.

Vocaboly is a great vocabulary builder for SAT prep, English class, or if you just want to be cool like me. I was playing a game last week, and knew the definition of hirsute. I think that’s an easy word, but my opponent did not. I let her know that you don’t get the 3^rd grade nickname “The vocabulary teacher” for nothing.

I was asked to take a look at this product, and in all honesty, I can recommend this style of learning for anyone, and I think it's great for kids.

I mean, how old am I?

2009-05-29T14:40:00.003-05:00

I hope someone understands why I've titled the last two posts the way I did.

So we go to see Star Trek. We had planned on seeing it in the IMAX, but it was sold out! I guess there were other awesome mothers out there after all. We sit down and get ready.

At this point I'm not sure at all what to think. I'm back to being torn. I want to see new Star Trek Things, but this? It looks like a "summer blockbuster" that just happens to have the name Star Trek plastered on it. The rest of this review will be delivered in "real time"

Ooooh it's getting dark in here

Ugh ads. Why do I have to look at these. I'm not going to buy a Jaguar.

Previews, I like previews

Okay, star trek.

Wow, I didn't really realize how much I was used to the Next Generation theme. This is really nice tho.

Who are these people???

OH

The CGI really does a whole lot for this. There's really interesting aliens, and they look good, but no green girls.

That kid can drive a stick waaaay better than me.

Cool

Wow

Nevermind about the green girls.

Oh no.

Oh no

OH YEAH

YEAH

YEAH

THAT'S AWESOME!!!

The end

So, I thought that they got the characters just right. Everyone had their little pieces of the original characters, but they really did well and didn't seem constrained by the enormous amount of history. I'm really trying not to spoil too much. I think that there was a magic bullet included in the play. This magic bullet, in my opinion, excuses the filmmakers to ignore all complaints of continuity or history. I laughed a lot, and I almost jumped out of my seat several times. My favorite re-vamped character was probably Uhura. She was just as smart and frankly, sexy as she was in the original.

Go see it. I loved it. When the last movie came out, I was begging people to go see it so that they'd make another, better, one. Well, here we have it.

I give the movie 10 out of 10 phaser blasts. On kill.

I should get a life.

2009-05-28T13:58:00.005-05:00

Even though I've written so infrequently on here lately, if you've read some of the things I've written in the past, you may have realized that I'm just slightly off of the norm. I've always identified myself as somewhat of a geek, if you will, a dork. I've applied the following labels to myself over the years:

Questie
Moonie
Browncoat
okay, so right here I realized that I can't find a special name for someone who likes the following (if you know it, tell me):
Farscape
Battlestar Galactica
Star Wars

I think the first name I could apply (if I go by how much I loved a thing at an early age) would be Trekkie. I don't think I should be called a trekker, or any other name that some people fight for. I don't think there's anything shameful about being a fangirl, a trekkie. Two of you asked me to write a movie review, and Rachel, as hard as I thought about the bombs I've seen lately, there was one movie that stood out that I just had to talk about.

Star Trek

Now, I've said above that I'm a trekkie. Maybe not quite as hard core as some others. For instance, I've never had a burning passion for the original series. No doubt, I know the characters, really liked the movies, and still laugh like crazy when I think "Don't call me tiny", but Next Generation and the following series were/are really my thing. I have my own names for several of the episodes (the gross one, or the cake one, or you know that one?), and I have an odd Pavlovian response to the theme.

All that strangeness being said, I had mixed feelings when I heard about the new movie. New Star Trek movie? AWESOME! Directed by another person who doesn't know much about ST? Yuck. Oh, that person is JJ Abrams? Cool! It's not Next Gen, but TOS?? GRRRRR. Sylar as Spock? ODD. Speaking of odd, there's the whole odd/even good/bad thing.

I was upset more than anything about it not being another next generation movie. I was one of those who didn't receive nemesis well. Yeah, it was not as good as it should have been, but MAN! I want to see those characters some more. I still think that it is almost unfair that TOS got 6 1/4 movies and NG only got 3 3/4 so far. (I had to split generations).

But I got over it. I decided that since we were going to see it, I was going to do some review. The site listentoamovie.com is awesome. I embarked on a mission to listen to each one of the previous movies before seeing the new one.

I knew I wanted to see it. With each new preview, I knew that I wanted to see it more. I knew I cold probably drag Jason along with me to see it, but did anyone else want to go? I should have known better. I have the most awesome Mom, and she wanted to go see it on Mother's day.

I'll be back soon to post the actual review, but I'll leave you with a re-tweet of myself. The problem with listening to the movies online is that I don't speak Klingon.

p.s. Blogger insisted I capitalize Klingon.

Where have I been?

2009-05-19T09:18:00.002-05:00

I don't really know. I just haven't felt the need to blog for a while, and I don't have much to write about, I guess. Not that what I wrote before was breaking news... Any suggestions?

Random Photo Plus

2009-04-23T16:13:00.002-05:00

Here's the plus. I'm turning 30 tomorrow. This is not easy.

Spy Photos

2009-04-22T11:43:00.003-05:00

In our backyard, right now...

It has been rainy and cold here for the last few days

She must feel like the smartest bird on the block, her nest is nice and dry.

I didn't die

2009-04-15T08:27:00.002-05:00

I promise. I just haven't felt the inspiration lately. The seeds are still growing, it's yucky and rainy here ALL THE TIME, and I just haven't felt bloggy. I'll be back soon, but today, here is my rant:

Dear Japan,

Stop it

Sincerely,
Annemarie who just finished Battlestar Galactica.

cryptic enough?

Today, a random VIDEO!

2009-04-02T08:18:00.001-05:00

And the one at the sound board kinda LOOKS like the little guy from Rammstein.

WARNING: Probably German cursing....

R?

2009-03-26T08:47:00.000-05:00

Jungle Jim's!

2009-03-25T07:51:00.001-05:00

This weekend we made a trip to Cincinnati. There were two places we wanted to go. One, Bass Pro Shops. As you have seen before, this is quite often a destination. Second, we were out of Bove's Vodka Sauce. This is not an ad, or paid for in any way by Bove's, but hey, if you want to, you can pay me in free vodka sauce. It is seriously, the best pasta sauce ever. If you've never had vodka sauce before, don't judge it until you try Bove's. If you've had it before but didn't like it? It's because it was a different brand. Seriously, this stuff is awesome. Just the right amount of tomato and cream, with a great spiciness. Wow, I'm almost drooling thinking of it. Maybe we should have ravioli this week.

ANYWAY, we were out of Bove's. It used to be that you could get it just about anywhere. Then it disappeared. Now, it's back, but $6 a bottle at kroger. At Jungle Jim's in Cincinatti, it's $4 a bottle. Yumy savings. So, this and the desire for food insanity took us an hour and a half east. You'll have to pardon the great lack of good pictures throughout this post, as there is a sign on the front door of Jungle Jim's prohibiting photography.

Jungle Jims is like no store you have ever seen. It's like they took all of the grocery stores in a state and smushed them all together. Then gave the unholy creation some steroids. Then set me loose inside the beast. When you walk in, you see a drug store type area, as big as some whole dugstores. As you pass that you are engulfed in the cheese. There is everything. Saturday was sample day, so we tried some goat cheese, and some that was coated in cocoa. I almost bought some baked mozzarella. It looked delicious. Then you can get lost in a liquour store and a half's worth of alcohol, but we went to the bakery. To get there I had to pass every kind of gum ever made. There's a huge meat section, ginormous produce, and then you get to the fish. Some of them are still alive. Swimming about in tanks. Can you get any fresher?

There's a firetruck lording over a house of hot sauce. We got a grenade filled with almost pure capsacin. Then there's the international section. This section is as big as an entire Kroger itself. If you want authentic food from another country, look here. It's really amazing.

Possibly the strangest thing about this place is that after all of that, it's also just a normal grocery store. You can get your hamburger helper, or peanut butter, or milk there too. It's really fun, check out the pictures on their site: http://www.junglejims.com/

There's a ton I've missed. There's too much to write about, so I'll just leave you with one last thing. The first time we went was on a Sunday evening. It was just right. There were so many people there on Saturday, that it was really hard to make your way through. So, think of crowds...

Argh!

2009-03-24T18:47:00.001-05:00

I promise I'll be back soon, insanely busy. Nothing huge, just a billion little things...

For now...

Would You Rather Weekend!

2009-03-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

Walk through a cemetery alone at night?

or

Swim in a large pond that has snapping turtles in it?

Hmmmmmm...

OMG!!!! RRRRRRR

2009-03-19T07:06:00.000-05:00

I realized that in my frenzy to blog every day, I missed random Thursday last week!!!

Tortilla Pizzas!

2009-03-18T08:20:00.006-05:00

You may have noticed, around our house, there's a lot of pizza. It's good! It has many major food groups! So, a few weeks ago, we went to the boat sport and travel show. We saw a presentation by the "paddling gourmet". He talks about camp cooking without a cooler, but good. He made all kinds of deliciousness, but one of our favorites was the pizza he made using a flour tortilla. It was really, simple, in a frying pan, and great! So I decided that we should try it ourselves. Now what do I do with any simple recipe? I complicate it. So here's what I did:

I decided that if one kind of tortilla pizza is good, a bunch of kinds are better. I had ingredients for a regular pizza, white pizza, bbq pizza, and buffalo pizza. Here they are:
I hope you also enjoy seeing my lovely kitchen. If you think the color on that wall is bright, you haven't seen the living room.

There was hot sauce, marinara, alfredo and bbq sauce. Once again, I used Famous Dave's rich and sassy.

This was a great way to get rid of all of the little bit of cheese that I had in the fridge. There was an italian blend, 2 cheddar/jack blends, regular mozzarella and regular cheddar.

To go on top we had pepperoni, chicken, green onion, green pepper, celery, red onion, mushrooms and jalapenos. Oh yeah, not pictured are some fried onion strings.

I used a 2 skillet method. Doesn't that sound like I know what I'm doing? I browned the tortilla on one side (some of them got puffy!) and then we put the toppings on that side.

Then We put the tortilla in another skillet with a lid to melt the cheese and cook the toppings a little. I used the 2 skillets so that I could keep things going, but as time wore on, it took a whole lot longer to cook the "pizza" than it did to brown the tortillas. Also there was a little adjustment to prevent burning. The cast iron skillet in which I was browning was on medium heat, and the cooking skillet was on medium low. So that we didn't continue eating standing up in the kitchen, I turned the oven on to warm, and used it to hold the finished ones until the rest were done.

It was really good. Our favorites were the buffalo chicken and the bbq chicken. On the buffalo went hot sauce (we both used meduim) chicken, red onion, celery, mozzarella or italian blend cheese and ranch dressing. On the eaten too quickly to photograph bbq chicken was bbq sauce, chicken, green onion, cheddar cheese, and onion strings. They were great!

New Blog Love

2009-03-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

The Omnomicon. I came to it through stumble. Ahh, stumble, I gave you up for lent. This is already very hard. I stumbled on to another blog talking about the Rainbow cake. This piece of fabulousness, I like very much. Then I got further into the site and realized that I want to make almost everything on there. Check it out and see if you don't feel the same.

Seed Update

2009-03-16T12:32:00.004-05:00

HI!
I'm a beefsteak tomato seedling! You can just call me Bob. I'm here to show you all that while growth has slowed down a little, we still have new friends all the time!

I would rather

2009-03-16T11:38:00.002-05:00

I'm totally in trouble. I didn't post yesterday. I was busy, okay? We melted a spatula and I had things to do. Okay?

Really, I had Battlestar Galactica to watch.

This week's question comes down to one detail for me. If my husband could come with me to live in the middle of no-where, well, that's actually what we want. It doesn't even have to be a mansion. But if he can't come, I'm all about tiny apt with 10 friends, as long as he's one of them.

Would You Rather Weekend

2009-03-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

This week:

Would you rather have a mansion in the middle of nowhere or an apartment with 10 friends?

Watchmen

2009-03-13T18:54:00.000-05:00

Let me start this post with an apology. I have not yet read The Watchmen. I am next on the list to get it. Wanna hear the worst part? I ordered it, for the library. In fact I ordered all of the graphic novels for quite a while. I love comics, graphic novels, manga, but I hadn't read what many call the best graphic novel of all time. Shame on me.

That being said, I was excited to see the movie. We bought our tickets a few days early for a 10:30 showing at the IMAX. Yay. We don't' see movies regularly on the IMAX, but thought that this one would be worth it. The theater was full. The ushers kept asking us to move in to make room. This was a little scary when Jason went to get popcorn. The usher then let us know that there weren't any previews.

I think I've said it before, I'm one of those people who like previews. I don't fast forward though them at home, and I like to see them at the movies. The usher said the reason was the running time of the adventure we were about to jump into, but I wondered.

You could describe the plot in two ways: One, they didn't waste any time getting into the action, or they spent 90% of the time on backstory and only 10% was plot. I see it this way. The backstories of the characters ARE the plot. The Watchmen is an epic, not an episode. If we didn't hear all of those back stories, it would have been 10 minutes of detective work, and 30 seconds about nuclear war.

I had no trouble understanding the movie, but I've heard that people who hadn't read the book had difficulties. Maybe I've got a mind that just works that way. There is one thing I feel compelled to address:

The nudity. An unexpected form of it, for the uninformed. Full frontal MALE nudity. Yeah. There's a lot of it. The middle schooler in me came out, and I wanted to giggle a bit at first. After I got over that, however, I thought it was good. Not good, like bow chicka wow wow, but good as in it fit.

It contributed quite a bit, in my opinion to Dr Manhattan's complete otherness. If he'd worn, let's say, swimming trunks the whole time, he would have looked silly. If he'd worn anything else on Mars (oops, spoiler), he would have looked too human. So, while I totally couldn't stop looking, I think it did actually add to the character, which is more than can be said for a lot of female nudity.

My favorite character, (my decision slightly influenced by the friend I saw the movie with) was Rorschach. He was so cool! At first, you think he's just psycho, but you realize that he's the truest hero of all of them. He never gave up, never quit. The part that surprised me the most was what he looked like under that mask. Which, speaking of, how did that work? How did it move? So much of the rest of this world is pretty strictly reality based, but that... It was awesome anyway.

The sound in the imax was great. This was the first movie I'd seen in imax that didn't make me look around all of the time. I thought it was really suited. I enjoyed the action scenes, and I thought that overall, the movie could be described as geek bliss. It didn't pull punches. It made the hard decisions, and I loved it for that. I'm terrified of writing spoilers so I'll end there. I give it 9 out of ten blue hot dogs.

Seedlings!

2009-03-12T08:14:00.003-05:00

So, this blog is behind, I planted the seeds on Saturday. On Monday night I had these!

Onions and Cucumbers! Then Tuesday night,

Zucchini, roma tomatoes, and radishes!

Seeds!

2009-03-09T18:35:00.005-05:00

Curious? That is what green onions look like when they are only seeds.

I bought and planted seeds for my garden this weekend! I got a nice little greenhouse, and now I'm waiting for green!

The kit came with little peat pellets. I really wish I had thought to take pictures earlier, because the contrast between what they looked like at the beginning and what the look like in this is HUGE.

The cord hanging out is to the heat mat that goes in there. I hope this really gets the seedlings going!

I think they kind of look like Alien eggs. I'm not putting my face near them until they have little green sprouts and I know they are safe.

I planted:

Sweet 100's cherry tomatoes
Roma tomatoes
Beefsteak Tomatoes
Green Onions
Radishes
Broccoli
Cucumber
Zucchini
Parsley
Dill
Jalapeno Peppers
Long Red Chiles

I'll keep you updated! Everyone out there cross your fingers for them!

Victory!

2009-03-09T18:23:00.005-05:00

This weekend, I felt victorious. I finished my first non dishrag, it turned out the way I wanted it, to knitting project.

What was it you ask? (O.K., you probably don't ask that, because I bet you can see the pictures already.

Anyway, if you DID ask... I like this pitcher. But, as many pitchers do, it drips. It drips drops of crystal light (or if we had anything else in there) onto the pitcher, and they run down onto whatever the pitcher is sitting on. Eeeew. So, my quick solution, I tied a dishtowel around the neck. Then one night, I was sitting there, and thought, Hey! I can knit something for that! So I made this little band to go around. I used straight needles, and sewed the strip together on the pitcher, so if I want to take it off and wash it, I'll have to sew it back on, but that was the easy part!

So it works wonderfully. I feel like I can tackle something bigger now. Anyone got tips for teh knitting? I seem to have a problem casting off and keeping it from unraveling. I also have the super ability to add stitches when I don't want to, but I seem to be keeping that one at bay.

p.s. there's a cat in that picture. He was unaware I was photographing him (as was I), so he did not have time to pose as he usually does. He threatened me with a length of pipe until I typed this disclaimer.

This week, on General Blogspital

2009-03-09T11:57:00.002-05:00

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Or All My Blogdren, or our personal favorite, Blogs of our Lives.

First the results! Thanks, for your guesses, and thanks for the explanation behind the guesses. The band I guessed so incredibly wrong, was Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Yes, I was that wrong.

I planted seeds this weekend! Yay! The beginning of my garden.

I also finished the first actual knitting project I've ever done. It's very small.

That and more to come on my whole 2nd week of posting every day.

Smothered Chicken

2009-03-04T11:11:00.006-06:00

There's a little place in Speedway called Dawson's on Main. They make smothered chicken so delicious, that we had out rehearsal dinner there. The only problem is that we live around half an hour from said chicken. So, I decided to try to copy it. Here's what goes into it:

Chicken Breasts
Bacon
Mushrooms
Green Onion
Dijon Horseradish Sauce
Shredded Cheese Blend (Mine had cheddar, jack, and something else, but it's up to you)

I think that's all, so I started with the chicken. I grilled two chicken breasts until they were cooked through but not overdone, because I knew I was putting them in the oven. You can totally slice open the tops of the breasts because we're covering it all up later. I didn't do anything to the chicken this time, but I think next time I'll pound the chicken to make it a little thinner. It didn't take so long to cook, but it would have been easier to eat.

Cook the Bacon. If I have to tell you how to do this, I'm a little scared. Put it in a pan...

Then Saute the mushrooms in a little olive oil. They should get just a tiny bit brown.

Ahhh, the sauce. It is a delicious thing. I'd looked up a bunch of recipes to make it online. I was shopping for the ingredients, when I saw this:
I know, premade, who know's what's really in it, but it tastes great, and it was guaranteed to work out, whick the homemade sauce was not.

Break up the bacon and get your other ingrdients ready, it's time to stack.

Put the chicken in an oven safe pan, or on oven safe plates.

Layer on the dijon sauce, and don't be afraid. It's really good. I have no measurements at all, because I just kept putting it on there until it "felt right". I would suggest doing the same.

Then the bacon. I considered just slapping the whole strips on there, but I broke it up in the end so it would be easier to cook.

Then mushrooms. I really loved these mushrooms. I think they have had a little bacon grease in them, because I only used one pan, and I don't know how well I did draining it, but wow. I really piled those on.

Then green onions. I dont' know if the original recipe called for those, but boy I love them.

Top it all with cheese, and put it in the oven at 350 until the cheese is melted.

Consume.

I would rather

2009-03-04T11:02:00.003-06:00

This is my answer to yesterday's post, if you haven't seen it , look down. This week's would you rather was: Would you rather be 7'9" or 4'1"?

I think I'd go for 7'9" because then at least I could reach everything out in public places. Sure, some places would be a tight squeeze, but I think most places you could go. I'd thing the health issues involved with either end of the height spectrum are probably equally severe.

I do wonder if I could fit into movie theater seats, which if I were 4'1", wouldn't be a problem. I couldn't go on amusement park rides with either height, and driving is car is complicated either way too.

But, do really tall people have a convention? I've watched "Little People Big World", and I've seen what huge community they have. That would be nice. But, and this is shallow, we tend to admire really tall people, and degrade short people. So, my shallow decision is to be super tall.

Would You Rather

2009-03-04T09:06:00.004-06:00

It's the return of the great weekend post!

Would you rather: Be 4'1 or 7'9"?

I'll post my answer tomorrow, in the meantime, let's hear yours!!!

POW!

2009-03-04T08:53:00.003-06:00

No more guesses on the band name??? Come on peeps!

Great Band names

2009-03-03T11:16:00.006-06:00

Night before last was LONG. Jason was out getting a friend from the airport until 4:30. I kept waking up wondering when he was going to get home. During one of these groggy moments, an idea occurred to me, as they ate wont to in groggy moments.

You know what would be a great band name?

Fines may be doubled

Wow, yes, this is what my mind said to me. When I remembered that this morning, I remembered a great thread on a message board that Jason frequents, and I visit from time to time. It was guess the band name. One person would post a picture, or series of pictures and then everyone else would guess. It was like rebus. However, I was not that great at it. I saw a series of pictures similar to these, the big difference being that the third picture was a man turning a hand drill against his temple (okay pretending to):

I yelled out "Couch Baby Crank Horse!" This is not, has never been, and will never be the name of a band. However, at that moment, I knew what I would call any bad I would ever be in. Including my guitar hero band. That one kinda got abbreviated, Couchbabycrankhor, but that was still awesome. So, can anyone out there guess what the band ACTUALLY was? I'll give you one hint. The guy in the original drill picture looked insane...

Garden planning

2009-03-02T13:28:00.006-06:00

This week I'm working on planning my vegetable garden for this year. Last year it did okay despite the flood above, but I think it can be waaay better.

First, fewer cucumbers. They really overran the whole garden last year, and I didn't eat that many. Second, more tomatoes. I really liked the ones we got, but there weren't enough. Our corn didn't grow very tall, thanks to, I think not enough sun. Next, no lettuce. It was the bunny favorite, and therefore we didn't get much. Also casualties of the lupus were broccoli and peas. So this year:

Structure

I'm staying with the same shape, and the same cages for the tomatoes. I'm also going to see if we Jason can build or buy me one of these to grow the cucumbers on. (Surprise Honey!)

I want to wrap the whole thing in chicken wire. I really didn't want to do this initially, but everything go SOOO eaten last year, that I don't feel like I have much choice. I'm putting at least 4 stakes in the ground and making the fence around that.

Planting.
Last year I used mostly pre-sprouted plants. This year I'm trying to start from seed. I'm buying one of those seed starter greenhouses, and I'm going to put it on the front table in the living room. There's a dome to prevent cat eating. Wish me luck. I figure if it turns out really badly, I can just buy plants later.

Content
Here's what I want to plant:
Tomatoes 2 of each
Sweet 100's (cherry tomatoes)
Heirlooms of some sort
Beefsteak
Broccoli
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Radishes
Jalapenos
Parsley
Chives (I've already got some)
Green Onion

Has anyone out there got suggestions for me on what to plant where? The whole garden gets part sun, there's nowhere in our lawn that gets full, but this was a pretty sunny place. Any other suggestions?

One Year (only a month late)

2009-03-02T08:32:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it. Time flies when you're having fun, and boy did it fly by in Jason and I's first year of marriage. On Feb 2nd, we celebrated the first of I hope many milestones. It's really been great, and I love him more every day. I know this is all supersap from the sappy tree in sappyland, but I really never thought it would happen. So, I'm happy about it. We know that we'll only have one first anniversary, so we decided to do it up big. We'd been saving since October, and were going to West Baden Springs.

I'd heard of this place before, honestly mostly in ghost hunting circles. I think it was discussed when the re-did West Baden and French Lick Hotels, that there was a reported haunting. This is NOT why we went there. Remember back in October, when I posted about our camping trip to Patoka Lake? On the way down, we passed West Baden. I'd never seen it before in person and it was AMAZING. We stopped in on the way home, and made spur of the moment reservations for our anniversary.

On Friday the 30th, we made our trip down with only one little stop at Bass Pro Shops. It was huge.
As we arrived at West Baden, there were 3 small deer foraging right in front of the hotel! It was really cool, especially for me, who had never seen a live deer until after I met Jason. When we asked about them at the desk, it turned out to be an extremely common thing.
The whole hotel was really amazing. One of my favorite things were these statues. This hotel had fallen into extreme disrepair, at the worst time one wall was missing. In pre-restoration pictures, one of the only identifiable things were the statues.

We checked into our beautiful balcony room. The room was wonderful. It was elegant and comfortable. The furniture was really pretty. The fronts of the dressers were inlaid with a picture of the hotel. The bathroom was huge! That afternoon we went swimming. That night we took the shuttle over to the French Lick hotel and had a look around. We were glad to be where we were. There was live music under the dome every night, and it was just amazing.

The next day I had a Spreudel bath in the morning. These hotels had been built to take advantage of a mineral spring whos water was said to be a cure all. I wanted to do something in the spa that I couldn't do anywhere else, so I chose the bath. I wish I could have taken the list of minerals that were in it with me, because, it was scary. It smelled a little funky, and had turned the tap black. But, it was a realxing bath, and I thought it was neat. Plus, it cured my scurvy.

We went to French Lick winery for lunch, and had a good pizza. I tasted the wine, and decided that I've been spoiled by Oliver. EVERYTHING at Oliver is good. After that we went to the casino. Neither Jason nor I had ever been to a casino. We were excited. We each took $20, and were going to leave when we'd spent it. It was mostly slot machines, and nost of those were penny slots, so they only took one or two cents. Nevertheless, in around half an hour, I'd lost mine, but Jason had doubled his! So, we broke even. Both of us could see how people could spend all day there, but we also agreed that it was kinda boring. I think I'd want to see how somewhere like Vegas would be before I ruled on the entertainment value of gambling.

That night we went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our Anniversary. I dressed up, and we went to the fancy steakhouse, It was good, and our table was very nice, very private. I had a ymmy martini, and we ate the biggest asparagus we'd ever seen. We went back and had dessert under the dome. There was a jazz trio there that night, and we danced on our balcony.

It was really a great trip. every inch of that place is amazing. It was a great memory to keep.

It's March

2009-03-01T11:52:00.002-06:00

And at our house it's the first ever week of clean out the freezer meals. Our freezer is so full, stuff falls out every time it's open, and I can't fit anything else in it. This includes freeze ahead things that I like to make, like chicken spaghetti (PW!) and other things.

With that being said, I have a confession. I'm a freezer addict. If I have it left over, anything, I'll try to freeze it. I have tried to freeze buttermilk. Yuck. I freeze refried beans (works well)! I freeze corn (not so good). Thing is, there's only two of us, and I don't want to be wasteful. So, instead of throwing it away then, I freeze it, then end up throwing it away later. I could probabl fill that walk in, but it reminds me of The Shining. It's a sickness.

I've decided, in order to avoid this delayed waste, I'm going to do something completely revolutionary( I know, I'm really leading the world into something new here). I'm going to plan meals weekly. This week's theme is make room. Althought I won't subject you to this every week, in the spirit of making myself really do this, I'm publishing this week's menu.

Monday: Frozen Pizza, I know, creative, but I work late.
Tuesday: Mexican, Tostadas (not bbq chicken), and taquitos.
Wednesday:Chicken Fingers and fries, and a veggie
Thursday: Popcorn Shrimp and mashed potatoes and a veggie

Every night we have a salad with whatever else. This should clear out enough room in the freezer for me to make a few new and interesting things.

You know already!

2009-02-26T08:01:00.001-06:00

Who can you Trust?

2009-02-24T13:13:00.003-06:00

So, I, like everyone, am worried out the economy. We're renting now, and would like to buy a house, but obviously now's not the time. Jason's had to take a 10% pay cut, and now gets no overtime.

Because of my worry, I check the news online every day. I usually start at CNN, but I also read indystar.com, and msnbc, and, of course, fark. Today, Bernanke made a speech. Everyone heard the same speech, but gave their audience widely differing interpretations. Now I've read all three of these articles, and they say just about the same thing. How were these headlines chosen?

CNN: Bernanke: Recovery will take years

MSNBC: Fed chief: ‘Severe contraction’ Bernanke hopes recession will end in ’09, but sees significant risks

Indystar.com:Bernanke: Recession may end soon

The indystar article is from USA Today, but they run the headline: Econ outlook full of 'ifs'

So, who decides the tone of these very different headlines??? I think the lesson here is to get your news from more than one source. I shudder to think what fox news has to say on the matter.

Facebook is a black hole.

2009-02-23T18:31:00.003-06:00

My life is being sucked into it. Today, I even posted as my status "I need to blog more". But, there's wordscraper, and catbook, and northwest trail. Not to mention pop answers or just staring at my friends' profiles for hours on end. Seriously, does this happen to anyone else? I think it must. Even light cannot escape the pull of facebook. I'm struggling to stay one this side of the event horizon. Is that enough science for everyone? Good. Cuz that movie scares me 3/4 to death.

I want to blog, at least I think I do, but in coming here tonight, I accidentally typed in google instead or blogger. Is it the g and double letters? Is it my subconscious keeping me away from here? Who knows.

I've got all kinds of good stuff to write on here, about our anniversary, and a mystery that I'm tring to solve, and valentine's cod, and a really terrible doctor, but I've failed to do so! Please, bear with me, I'll try to be back, In fact, I am trying, for the month of March, to blog every day. Ambitious, but possibly rubbish.

Random Thursday

2009-02-12T08:25:00.001-06:00

And a preview of things to come. Sorry I've been away so long. I'll be back soon.

lsngoigworkjn'na'

2009-02-05T14:21:00.002-06:00

Random

2009-01-29T10:19:00.001-06:00

I remember, doing the TIME WARP

2009-01-27T18:21:00.002-06:00

You may have seen my tweet about it, here is is. Also it appears I'm on another video kick.

Alphabet Meme!

2009-01-27T17:14:00.003-06:00

Okay, here's what's up: Leave a comment on this post and I will assign you a letter. Write about ten things you love that begin with said letter. Post the list on your blog. When people comment on your list, you assign a letter, and the game continues. If you leave a comment, but don't want a letter, no big, just say so!

The lovely Marlene over at Country Girl on the Chesapeake Bay, assigned me "L"

1. Love. I love being in love. It's really changed my life. i was just saying to Jason the other night that the time before I met him seemed like a completely different life. This one is much better.

2. Libraries. I'm a librarian, and while I started out as a Children's librarian, I've found that I really love working with teens. I enjoy doing the programming, and I've come to really like the actual teens too.

3. Listening<--- Ha! I love audiobooks, and I rarely listen to music in my car anymore.

4. Lungs, mine. I couldn't breathe without them. That counts as love. Right? This is really hard.

5. Law&Order. We now have a regular DVR, which only has a little Law and Order on it. We used to have Tivo, which thanks to me hitting that thumbs up button was simply rife with CHUNG CHUNG!

6. Launch. Kinda roundabout, but I've always been fascinated with the space program, and I will watch a shuttle launch for an hour after you can see the shuttle and we're all looking at this tiny dot. I've always wanted to go to Space Camp, and Jason recently discovered that they actually do space camp for adults. Now we just need thermal curtain failure. And Darwin. If you get that, you rock.

7. Lake. We had a really great time this fall at Patoka lake. I caught a fish, and it was a great getaway.

8. Laurell K Hamilton. I started out simply adoring everything she wrote. Then, somewhere in there, the Anita Blake series went a little more ummmm, let's say, blue. Adult. Graphic. While that's all well and good in moderation, I don't pick up her books to read nothing BUT that. I grab each new one as soon as possible, hoping for a little more plot. I'm still enjoying the Merry Gentry series.

9. Love again. This time giving it. I truly believe that each of us has unlimited love to give to our world. Why spend time hating anyone. It costs me nothing to love. Why not give it away. Side note on this one, I struggle with it, like anyone would to love those who have wronged me or others. But I'm trying.

10. I love my lips!

Tax Time!

2009-01-24T08:10:00.003-06:00

If you were around last year, you know I'm a big advocate of free e-filing. If you made under $56,000 in 2008, go to http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

You'll be able to e-file for free. Once again if you live in Indiana, you'll be able to "i-file" for free no matter how much you make. www.in.gov for that one.

Last, but not least, if you have a tax question, you can go to hrblock.com and have it answered for free until Jan 31st. We all hate doing it, but knowing these tips might make it a little less painful.

But R!

2009-01-22T09:17:00.001-06:00

Not S

2009-01-15T16:28:00.002-06:00

I hate snow

2009-01-14T14:08:00.003-06:00

Those of you who are my husband, and possibly any of the 3.26 of you who read this stuff know that I hate snow. I could possibly be quite happy sitting inside and ignoring it, but that's never how it goes down. I've always got somewhere to be, and snow to drive through to get there.

One day, a long time ago, at an old library job, I was really angry (okay, just slightly put off) about the amount of snow that was falling. I said to myself, self I said, I really hate snow. I wonder if there are other people who hate snow too. So, I typed into my internet browser "www.ihatesnow.com".

Time stopped. There I was, at the public desk in the public library with my co-workers standing next to me. We were all looking at what had come up on my screen. It was women. And horses. I don't think I need to explain further. In what I can only assume was slow motion, I grabbed the mouse and drug the cursor's almighty heft to the upper left hand corner and closed the window. Then I died. The end.

p.s. I checked, against my better judgment, and it now takes you to a much less offensive website, with some video. I haven't watched it, so follow at your own risk.

not Q

2009-01-08T13:18:00.000-06:00

Hey newlywed bloggers!

2009-01-05T11:23:00.004-06:00

I read quite a few blogs from newly-or kinda newlywed, or just weds, and last night I had a moment. I guess I have quite a few of those, but this kind of moment has only happened in the last 11 months or so. Here it is:

Last night, Jason refilled the washer fluid in my car, and filled his too! When he came in and told me, I had this moment. I don't know how else to describe this moment other than it felt like "marriage". It's a dumb, small thing, filling washer fluid. But it's the kind of mundane, every day caring thing that makes me happy. I've had that moment other, more traditional times, like when I'm introduced as his wife, or making dinner. However, they happen more often when I least expect it, like the washer fluid.

It's a completely wonderful feeling. It's like realizing your dream has come true, or it's finally real. There's an excitement to it, like the rest of your life opening up before you, and realizing that you're going to spend it with this amazing person.

So, here's what I'm asking you out there: Do you have these wonderful moments? When? Tell me all about it!

Obligatory

2009-01-02T10:24:00.002-06:00

Year in review post. How to sum up such a year? There was both good and bad, and I think more good. But, as to leave on a positive note, I'll list the bad first.

This year I:
Wrecked the Sonata
Lost my dear Diana
Panicked about my financial future
Got several bruises, and broken nails, I'm sure

I also:
Got married to the most amazing man, I am more in love with him every day.
Went on a fabulous honeymoon, and didn't fall off of the cruise ship.
Discovered a real love of cooking
Planted a successful vegetable garden, unless you count the rabbit eaten peas
Got the awesomely purple fit!
Worked in a job I love
Calmed the panic, took action.
learned (kinda) to knit
took a sewing class

So, overall, I think, pretty dang good year! Certainly better than last year, and the year before (okay, just the end of that one)

Hope the same is true for all who read this!

RRRRRRRRRReverse

2009-01-02T10:14:00.004-06:00

Because, see, it was supposed to be yesterday.

Friday Fiction, the return!

2008-12-26T10:28:00.001-06:00

Chapter 6

The sand was just as hot as it had been the day before. At the first shady place, Bel sat down. She would have to do something about her feet. But what? All she had was this damn purple shirt. After a while, Bel said to herself, I guess it will have to do. She tore at the seams with her teeth until she was able to tear the shirt in two. She wrapped a half around each foot, doubling it up, so there was some protection. When she stepped back on to the hot sand, it felt warm, but no longer burned her.

Bel felt exposed without her coverup. But, then again, who was there to make fun of her stomach? NO one! Not one judgmental soul was there to see her brown and turquoise tankini So, she thought, I’m just going to concentrate on finding those coconuts.

“What the hell kind of palm trees don’t have coconuts” Bel screamed at the ocean half an hour later. She’d walked down the beach, and up the beach, and looked everywhere, but couldn’t find anything. She didn’t want to get to far from the place where she had washed up, that was probably where the boats would go by, so she carefully watched her trail of footprints making sure they didn’t stretch out too far. She walked back to her original starting place and flopped down in the sand.

About five feet from where she had stopped was a big leaf. On the leaf, was a slimy looking pile of seaweed. It was almost in the same place as the one she had kicked yesterday. She looked at it with disgust, and tried not to think about how hungry she was. What, she thought does this stuff wash up all the time? Could some takeout please wash up next?

Bel wondered if she could catch a fish. People do that, right? It can’t be that hard. But, she thought, there would be a few problems. First, she wasn’t sure if she could kill the fish if she caught it. Second, how would she cook it? She didn’t have a fire, didn’t know how to start one, and it was hot enough that it sounded unpleasant to have. So, great raw fish. Sushi.

On second thought, that didn’t sound so bad. She like sushi in the normal world. Boy, what she wouldn’t give for fish and veggies and rice all wrapped up in seaweed. Wait. Seaweed. That’s edible, right? She crawled over to where it was and looked at it more closely.

It sure smelled that was for sure. But past the briny smell and the nasty odor there was a green smell that reminded her vaguely of grass. When she reached out to touch it, she decided that it wasn’t all that slimy. She tentatively picked up one long piece and tore off the end. She placed it in her mouth.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T14:39:00.002-06:00

We're headed off to my parent's tomorrow night and then Jason's sister's for Christmas! I know I'm not going to be able to carry on the absolutely constant and regular schedule of blogging that I usually adhere to. Yeah. So,

Merry Christmas to all, and I hope you have a great time!

State Farm fini

2008-12-23T14:29:00.002-06:00

So, he called me this morning, not, as promised, yesterday. The long and short of it was that he couldn't/wouldn't change anything. We canceled effective the 8th. He was unsympathetic and incredibly rude. I won't go with state farm ever again in my life, and I'll tell anyone who asks to avoid them like the plague. They lost a customer of over 14 years. Some highlights of the conversation:

EIA (evil insurance agent): "I don't know why you wanted to talk to me"

I wanted to talk to him because he's the head of the agency and his name's on the front door, and his picture on the envelopes.

EIA: "well, he married someone with an accident"

In response to why he lost his good driver discount.

He hung up on me when I said cancel, and then called right back. I saw who it was and I gave the phone to Jason. He said he needed to get Jason's authority to cancel, because, get this:

I WASN'T ON THE POLICY. I promise you all that's what he said. So the rate increased for someone who "wasn't on the policy".

We're going with progressive for both of us, and it's a lot lot lot cheaper.

What I did this weekend

2008-12-22T12:33:00.004-06:00

Now, for something completely different. I'm a homemaker. Jason got me a really neat gingerbread house kit this weekend. So, I made our gingerbread dream home. Okay, I really just made the only house you can make from that kit. Check it out!

Pictures without flash, too dark, with strangely bright. Ugh.

We also went to see the Liesure Kings again this weekend. It was teh awesome, as usual. And hilarious.

State Farm

2008-12-22T11:56:00.003-06:00

You all know I was in an accident earlier this year. What you may not know, is that my husband, car enthusiast, has a perfect driving record. Not one speeding ticket, never an accident (okay, a woman rear ended him once, but it wasn't his fault) and the only claim he's ever filed is for a windshield.

Me, not so much. I'm a reformed speeder, and I've been in accidents. I think I may have expressed my extreme pleasure with my insurance company, Progressive. They not only took great care of me after the accident, they gave me more for my car than I was expecting, and they didn't raise my rate one penny. This is because (I guess) I've been a customer for a measly six years. I am very happy with them.

So, can anyone explain to me, within reason, why Jason's insurance rates went up? He's been charged a surcharge and lost his good driver discount for MY accident. I know they want me on there just to make sure it's all good. But this is ridiculous. He's been a customer of theirs for longer than I have been with Progressive. I dont' think he's EVER had insurance elsewhere. I called to discuss this with them on Thursday, and very nicely, they informed me that they were taking my risk into account. I'm expecting a call back from the head agent, but I'm not holding my breath.

There's no word for what they're doing. It's immoral, it's not fair, and it's making me really angry.

Plus, we've suffered through at least 3 letters a week from that office that are thinly veiled insults. Bumper stickers that say "please don't hit me, I'm not sure about my coverage". Not to mention the trees they waste sending Jason a billion statements each month. You know what? State Farm? I'm more sure of my coverage with Progressive now than I ever have been before.

Camcorder!

2008-12-20T09:47:00.001-06:00

Check over at I never grew up for a great camcorder giveaway. I sure want to win! Check it out and cross your fingers! The contest ends Jan 2nd.

What does a pirate say?

2008-12-18T12:45:00.001-06:00

Christmas Present

2008-12-15T13:32:00.005-06:00

That one sanctuary? For me, it's books. Look over there to the left. I'm a librarian by profession and I love it. I think one reason I love it so, is that I know the wonder of books. When I'm reading, I can be completely transported to somewhere else.

When I started writing that last entry, I was feeling down about losing a child-like aspect of myself. I never really thought I'd grow up, and I guess it snuck up on me. I think what I still miss is being so easily pleased. The feeling of utter joy in those $1 surprise bags that really held some junk and a yo-yo.

I think that much of this IS in fact something that's it's appropriate to let go of. I don't need those things to make me happy anymore, I have more important things, like my husband, that make me even happier.

And those books, well, they'll never let me down.

Christmas Past

2008-12-15T12:23:00.004-06:00

Do you know what I miss? Probably not, unless you're inside my head. It's something that I never thought I'd be parted from. It's something that we've all had. It's something that you may be able to fuzzily guess from the title of this post. I miss.....

Toys. I don't really miss particular toys, though, I'd like to still have some of my My Little Ponies, or the kitchen set. I don't miss having toys to play with, if I wanted to, I could go out and get anything I really wanted. What I miss is the concept of toys. I miss seeing a commercial for something simple (say, a water gun, or a new doll) and seeing in that moment the potential for fun. Thinking, WOW! I miss playtime. Getting so lost in a fantasy about something so minor that you don't hear your parents calling you for dinner, or see the street lights go on.

You see, I miss the promise of toys more than I do the actuality of them. There was a time in each of our lives that some piece of plastic, or metal, or wood, something simple held so much. They were to be sought after, shown off, and shared. These real, physical, easily attainable things were goals for us. They were huge parts of our lives. They were what we wanted instead of a house, or a new car, or an iphone. As we grew, so did the costs of our desires.

I guess what it really gets down to, is that I miss pretending. I miss the time when my imagination was rich enough to turn a sneaker into a car. The water from a garden hose into a river, or my crossed ankles into a mermaid's tail. I think that the real shame is that adults don't pretend as much. We're not allowed to. It's childish. Some adults turn to things like drugs and alcohol to achieve this kind of escape. I want it back. I want to pretend, but somehow, now it seems difficult. Like I'm trapped now in the real world, and my way out shrank to a hole that I can't fit through anymore. It seems life is so complicated now that nothing comes without strings. If you want that new house, there's maintainance. iPhone? Contract. Huge TV? Satellite. Even our hobbies carry strings like that. If I want to take up knitting, I have to buy all of these supplies. If I decided to play golf? Clubs, green fees, etc. Maybe this is something only temporarily gone. Maybe this is nothing that I should mourn the loss of, maybe it's simple materialism.

I want a toy. One, simple thing that I can make into a thousand complicated ones. I want to be able to turn the cubby under the stairs into a castle again, and the swings into airplanes. I want to be the childlike empress with a pearl necklace around my head, and it to be fun, not hard. I want to toboggan.

p.s.
I've decided something while I've been writing this. There is one sanctuary of pretend left for us adults. Know what it is? Post it in a comment, and I'll let slip soon.

r

2008-12-11T20:21:00.001-06:00

Australia

2008-12-09T18:40:00.004-06:00

This weekend's movie of choice was Australia starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Directed by Baz Luhrman, this film has been getting a lot of hype as an Oscar contender. I had seen the previews and I was interested even before I knew who was directing, but once I saw his name, I was really excited. If you like sweeping, and over the top and sometimes strange, Baz is your guy. Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, all great movies in my opinion. So, with an almost 3 hour running time, I settled into the theater for something I knew I was going to like. I was not disappointed.

The movie is set just before the US entered WWII, in, obviously, Australia. Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman) is going to Australia to force her husband to sell a failing business venture, a cattle ranch in central Australia. She arrives just as he is killed, apparently by an aboriginal man named King George. She is ready to sell the place when she meets Nullah, a half Aborigine child fathered by her husband's ranch manager, who is also a really bad guy. Nullah tells "Miss Boss" (Lady Ashley, Kidman) that the manager has been stealing cattle. The manager of course denies it, and tries to take it out on Nullah. Lady Ashley strikes him with a horse whip and he leaves, vowing revenge.

Miss Boss decides to drive the cattle to sell herself. She hires the Drover (Jackman) to help her push cattle. Romance ensues. I'm not going to go any farther, because if I did, I wouldn't stop until the end, and this post would take 3 hours to read.

The cinematography for this film is nothing short of epic. The land is beautiful, and plays a starring role. This film readily calls to mind others like Gone With the Wind, or, forgive me, Titanic. The CGI was, in my opinion, seamless. There were many times that we wondered how much was real and how much was computer.

The acting was wonderful on all sides but Brandon Walters (Nullah) really stole the show. He was so charming, it was heartbreaking. He played perfectly the mixture of wild and cultured Australia that his character embodied. Plus, he has eyes the size of dinner plates.

Last, but not least, if anyone out there disagreed with the appointment of Hugh Jackman as the sexiest man alive, they had not seen this movie. They need to.

This film was a western, an action flick, a war movie, a comedy, a romance and more. Despite the long running time, I didn't want it to end. The costumes were also superb. Lady Sarah Ashley was impeccably dressed throughout the film, and her dress really represented her character. In the beginning, her clothes were tight fitted, neutral colors, and very stuffy. The look changed and developed through the film and evolved as her character did.

I could go on for hours, but I'll leave you with this tacky cliche. I laughed, I cried, I grabbed Jason's hand really tight.

I give this movie a raging 10 out of 10 fat cheeky bulls.

_R___

2008-12-04T08:36:00.002-06:00

Asleep at the keyboard

2008-12-01T18:34:00.008-06:00

Thanksgiving was great, but I'm a failure. Not because I screwed up the food, not because I broke all the china, not because I got into a knock down drag out argument with another shopper on black Friday, I didn't do any of those things. I'm a failure, because I promised you pictures of everything, and I didn't do it! I forgot to take pictures and it looked gorgeous. Dagnabit! I'm sooo tired, I feel like I need to sleep for a week. We did Thanksgiving up big!

We got to the 'rents at around 9 and put the turkey in. We have pictures of this, but who knows when I can post them, because they were taken on Mom's camera, and that's all still over there. In about an hour it was already brown and on it's way. We chilled for a while, and then Jason's sister and her Husband arrived.

They brought their adorable dog, Edmund. I could probably find you a picture of him, but it wouldn't do him justice. He was really fun. Jason's Dad and Step mom arrived moments later. We took Edmund to the park, and when we got back, the turkey was ready! Okay, so I promised you pictures, I didn't have the camera, so once again, we have these artist's (not necessarily a good artist's) renderings of the food.

It has black on it because that's what color it turned on the grill. It sure tasted good. I then set about making the rest of the food. I did the acorn squash first because it takes longest. As I was cutting them in half, I ran the knife into my finger. So yeah, there was "special flavor" in those, okay not really, I didn't get any blood on there. There's butter, brown sugar and salt in there. Isn't the representation lifelike?

I sliced potatoes next. Miraculously, I didn't cut my finger on the mandolin. Anyone out there know if I pronounce the cooking tool the same way as the instrument? These potatoes were far from healthy, but delicious. Thanks, P Dub!

Mom made the green bean casserole. mmmmmmmm. The mystery artist must know of my love for this dish, as you can see by the lines of yummy emanating from it.

Jason's Sister brought stuffing. It was great! Very flavorful, and a really good texture. I don't really know why the artist decided to draw this one from the side.

I also made rolls, if you can call smearing butter on frozen bread and throwing it in the over making. The artist seems to have great love for spider man.

We also had cranberry relish, mmm, apple and banana salad, yum, and other boring things the artist didn't have time for. BUT, after dinner we had blackberry cobbler and pumpkin pie.

With vanilla ice cream or cool whip. It was very good, and didn't look nearly as sketchy as what this obviously horrible amateur artist did here. In fact, I think he's lost his chances at any further illustration for this blog. No wonder he's starving. I'll try to dig up some actual pictures, I promise. Now I've got to go teach that artist a lesson.

Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T08:34:00.003-06:00

It's tomorrow. We're having the WHOLE family over to my parents' house. And when I say whole family, I mean it, well kinda. It's all of my immediate family and all of Jason's too! We thought we should call it the Wafer family Thanksgiving. So, that 9 people, and I'm cooking. Here's the menu:

Turkey (duh) but smoked on the grill by Jason. It is currently sloshing about in its brine made from apple juice, oranges, salt sugar, garlic, ginger, cloves and bay leaves.

Acorn squash: I made it a few weeks ago for just Jason and I and it was delicious. mmmm.

Green Bean Casserole: I had a dream last night that I forgot it.

Stuffing!

Potatoes: a la P Dub. I think they look great, and I'm looking forward to a new thing that I shouldn't know how to make. By that I mean, if I know how to make it, I will and Richard Simmons will have to come cut me out of my house and weigh me on a truck scale.

Cranberry Relish!

Dried Corn: I've never had this before, but I'm all set to make it! I hope it's good!

Peas and pearl onions: Daddy's favorite. Hard to find every year.

Apple and banana salad!

Gravy!

Rolls!

Pumpkin Pie: I can't claim any control over that one, we got one at the store...

Blackberry Cobbler: I can claim this one, yum.

To drink, white wine and mulled cider. YUM!

We have alternate drinks as well, I don't think I'd want to drink those exclusively. I'm just now realizing that I had a dream about Thanksgiving dinner last night, and I don't think it was good. Boy, I guess I AM nervous.

I'm going to try to remember the camera tomorrow and take pictures, then I will share. Wish me luck!

BBQ Chicken Tostadas!

2008-11-21T09:50:00.006-06:00

I like tostadas. I make them with some regularity. I don't know what they would really be called in an actual Mexican home, but here's what I think a tostada is: Crispy corn tortilla with stuff piled on top. Usually what I pile on top is just plain chicken, cheese and jalapenos. I decided to mix things up a little and this is what I used:

2 chicken tenderloins (I started buying these because the frozen chicken breasts were so enormous, that I could have used half of one in a recipe, and it's hard to cut it in half frozen!)

Famous Dave's Rich and Sassy BBQ sauce

Corn Tortillas

Green Onion

Lettuce

Jalapenos

Sour Cream

Shredded "taco" cheese. It's a mix of cheddar and something (jack I think) with spices. I use it all of the time.

I sauteed the chicken in a pan, and then pulled it all apart using two forks. Then I dumped in the sauce, not a whole lot, but until it was covered.

I let this rest for a while. This is important because by letting it rest, it soaked in more, and was less wet. If I dump it on the tortillas wet, it makes for soggy. Eeeew. Once it's nicely rested, (I gave it as much time as it took me to set out the tortillas) put some chicken on each tortilla.

Cover it with cheese and jalapenos. Bake it in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is all melty-licious.

Top with lettuce, tomato (if you have it, I didn't, but wished for some) green onion, and sour cream.

They were delicious. I'm going to make more.

p.s. Guess which plate is mine? Guess which is my pepper loving husband's?

R!!!

2008-11-20T09:41:00.001-06:00

Not a mouse

2008-11-17T18:45:00.005-06:00

Lat week, or the week before, we saw a mouse (or so we thought at the time) in the bedroom. Being the proud owners of two fully capable cats, we paid it little mind other than to comment that it was going to be gross when they put it on our pillow.

In reality, our cats are majorly useless. They looked at the tiny dark shape running about the house, but made no real effort to catch it. I couldn't stand the thought of it running all over our stuff and making it's little home in one of our cereal boxes, so once I determined that the cats were not doing their share, I bought a mouse trap. It must have known, because I didn't see or hear it for days. Then, this weekend, the whole situation came to a boil.

It's one brave little stupid thing! You know what it had been eating? Where it had been spending all its little time? Where it had left all of its little presents? THE CAT FOOD. Yes, it was eating out of the cats' bowls. It was on. I baited the trap with peanut butter and left it near the cat food overnight.

In the morning, the trap was askew, but not tripped. I left it there, hoping to get it, when we saw it dashing around Jason's desk. Tabby actually TOUCHED it, but didn't seem to think any further action was neccesary. We lost it.

A while later I heard it, under the stove crunching cat food. That was the last straw. I pulled the drawer out from under the oven. I didn't see the dang thing. So, I pulled the oven away from the wall. It ran under the refridgerator. I pulled the fridge out. HA. It was nowhere to be seen. I was on my hands and knees cleaning out all of the dust from behind there when I saw the little bugger run from under the fridge to the oven where I was.

Let me take a moment to describe how I was feeling. I'm not a bug squisher. If I find a fly in the house, I'll shoo it out before I swat it. I'll trap a spider in a cup and put it on the wood pile. I've had a mouse in the house/library before and they don't scare me. I just didn't particularly want this one in my house. The trap we bought was a humane trap. The mouse runs in and the door shuts. Then you go let him out somewhere else. So, that being said, you must picture this:

Danica and I are both under the stove, because the drawer is pulled out. I have Jason's brand new great big flashlight in my hand. I keep catching glimpses of the "mouse" but can't get it. At this point, my brilliant idea was to put the lid for the crock pot over it and figure out what else to do later. It was by the sink, okay?

Here I am half under a large appliance, with a cat, and I see the thing. It's running toward my face in a little channel under the stove. I say to Jason: "That's not a mouse". It has a looooong pointy nose and no ears to speak of, and doesn't really care when I shine the light in it's face. I try to get it, and so does Jason, but it's off.

It runs across the room in a bold move not seen since the days of the library mouse running from a group of children. I runs... ...toward the trap. I chase it , and herd it into the trap with the flashlight. The trap closes. I pick it up and start saying, get in the truck get in the truck get in the truck, because it is fighting like crazy. No mouse could have made this trap move like it did. If i had not held the lid down, it would have been out in a heartbeat.

We did in fact get in the truck and we drove a few blocks away to an empty place, and sent him on his way. At this point, I thought it was a baby mole. It was no bigger than a mouse, but I didn't know how little moles might be when they first set out into the world. Then I remembered possibly imaginary pictures of tiny pink baby moles, they didn't have hair when they were that size. I thought, could it have been a shrew?

I had never encountered a shrew other than in discussion of owl pellets (you know you dissected one in school too) and the taming of. So, the good librarian I am, I googled it. It was a shrew. A short tailed northern shrew to be specific. Here's what I learned and why I didn't sleep that night:

Shrews are vicious. They will eat mice and take over their burrows. They have red teeth. They are the most common mammal in Indiana and Illinois. They use echolocation, and THEY ARE POISONOUS. Yes, their saliva poisons and paralyzes their prey. It makes me kind of glad that the cats didn't catch it. Because although I'm sure they don't have enough poison to hurt the cats, it might have put up quite the fight.

It's gone, and hopefully for good! Has anyone else had a shrew??

R!!!

2008-11-13T10:15:00.003-06:00

I promise I took this one myself:
Passin side<--------------------------------------------------------------->Suicide.

hilarious

The Lie Revealed!

2008-11-13T10:08:00.002-06:00

And, the lie is #2!!!!!!!

The facts/lies were:

1. I'm the oldest child in my generation of my family.
2. I have visited 48 of 50 states
3. I hate radishes

I am the oldest. Indeed, I am wise beyond my years, likened to a crone whose knowledge is sought by people everywhere, the Stephen Hawking of Indiana, or not.

I do hate radishes. And this is awful, because Jason loves them. He keeps getting me to try them and it's yuck every time. They never taste any different.

I have not visited 48 of 50 states. Not only have I not been to Alaska or Hawaii (if anyone out there really want to fix this, I'm open to the possibilities), but my travel has kind of been in a line from Indiana to either Texas or Florida. So, all those states in there the most. I have been to new england briefly, and of course a few other states, but there's this HUGE gap of my presence in the northwest.

So, there I am, revealed as a terrible liar to the blogsphere. I used a strange word.

Catching up

2008-11-11T17:20:00.005-06:00

I've been so gone lately! I'm very very sorry. To the three of you who read this...

Last week was pretty crazy. I was off, there were big meetings and Mom had surgery. I'm pleased to report that she is home and as long as she's not lying to me, doing really well, very little pain. The big meetings were boring except for the smores part. Isn't it fun to be cryptic?

The week before, I don't even remember, It is all a haze. And, you know, looking back just now, I hadn't really been all that gone, I guess. It just feels like it. I messed up my metrics with the new scheme so it looked like my blog had been abandoned. You know, dusty streets, shutters waving in the wind, an empty old saloon with swinging doors where my blog used to be. At least, on my end.

This past weekend was nothing interesting, in fact it feels like it never even happened. We got lego star wars and not only has that developed in to a black hole of time (though I love it), we also watched the whole original (better) trilogy on Sunday. Yeah.

Lies

2008-11-11T12:47:00.002-06:00

I was tagged last week by Sarah, and i was so out of it that I didn't even notice until today!!! I'm so sorry! It was strange week, I'll update you all soon.

The rules...
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 2 true facts about yourself and 1 lie.
3. Tag 4 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Have people guess which one out of the three is false.

The facts/lies are:

1. I'm the oldest child in my generation of my family.
2. I have visited 48 of 50 states
3. I hate radishes

Hmmm, I know one reader who will pass this with flying colors.

I'm tagging

Jason
Charlotte
Kara
There Are No Words

YOU GUYS BETTER PARTICIPATE!

Scariest pumpkin ever.

2008-11-10T12:25:00.002-06:00

One of the links over there to the left is to Jorge Garcia's blog. I like Lost, it's a good show, but Jorge is hilarious. He's one of those people who you feel like you would like them if you met them in person. But, I digress. He has, posted on his site right now the scariest pumpkin carving that I've ever seen. Pumpkins, no matter how you carve them, aren't in general scary. But, he's taken my favorite painting to be scared of (not look at, goodness no, I can't look at it for that long, or it will get me) and carved it into a pumpkin.

That painting (click the link above to see it, but beware) is called Saturn Devouring His Son. I remember the first time I saw it. It was in art appreciation class and I had to turn my head away. It's a brutal topic, but it isn't the blood that ever got to me. It was and will always be the eyes. Goya captured so perfectly utter madness. A place past all rationality and beyond anything most of us have ever seen or experienced. There's desperation there too, the look of a being that is terrified by its own actions but is powerless to stop it.

It's the scariest painting I've ever seen. And I like my art disturbing.

ANYWAY, head on over to Dispatches From The Island and check it out.

Secrets that you keep

2008-11-08T08:32:00.002-06:00

Here's an interesting tidbit. I talk in my sleep. I'll even answer Jason when he asks me something sometimes. Here's something that you might know, especially if you've been reading my twitter (called little bitties, over to the left there). I saw Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog in it's entirety the other night. It was wonderful. This leads me to what my hubby told me this morning:

Jason: Did you roll over last night, and look at me and say "balls"? You know, like from Dr Horrible?

Me: Ummm, no.

Jason: Yes you did! And when I asked you about it later, you admitted it!

Me: Really??

Jason: Yeah!!

At this point I started laughing so hard, I nearly cried. I guess I'm dreaming about Dr Horrible now.

P.s. if you get the title, you win a gold star.

R

2008-11-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

Sorry so absent this week...

Fiction on Friday Chapter 5 part 2

2008-10-31T09:00:00.001-05:00

Bel turned her head as she heard a quick lapping of water. There, in the water, the calm sea was broken by a shape. Was it a rock? No, she’d heard it move. She strained her eyes to look closer but it was gone in a heartbeat. Ripples marked the place where it had been.

It had been roundish, and wet, and really that’s all she could have said, other than she got the distinct feeling that it had been watching her, and something still was. She sat down on the sand and watched until the sun rose.

As it crested the horizon then sun dazzled the water into a field of sparkles. Bel felt a little hopeful. She was still sure that her boat was on its way. By the time the sun left the horizon, she was beginning to feel a familiar grumbling in her stomach. I’m just going to wait, she thought. I’m sure they’ll have granola bars or something on the boat.

As the sun rose in the sky, it began to shine harsh rays down on the beach. Bel’s olive skin didn’t burn easily, but just to be safe, she decided to sit in the shade until the boat came. Wait! What if the boat can’t see me back here? She wondered, and emerged back out into the sun once more.

By the time the sun was high in the sky, the grumbling in Bel’s stomach had grown to a full on growl. There was no denying it any longer, she was starving. What do people eat on an island, she thought. Coconuts. She was going to find some coconuts, and then she wouldn’t be hungry anymore. Then, she thought, the boat would come.

Stud Earrings

2008-10-30T13:33:00.002-05:00

So, I've been surfing the Bloggy Giveaway. I was going to give something away, but time went too fast and I was unprepared when it started, but I'm totally entering this contest. How cute are the fries?

R!!!!!

2008-10-30T12:09:00.001-05:00

Patoka Lake!

2008-10-29T13:49:00.004-05:00

We went camping this weekend! Crazy you say? Too cold you say? HA! We laugh in the face of cold, we dance on the grave of rainy. Maybe we are a little crazy. BUT we went anyway. We packed up and headed down to Patoka Lake on Thursday. On the way Jason surprised me and we stopped at Oliver Winery. It was beautiful! I got to sample much and my favorite by far was the mulled hard cider. It was so good, I got Jason to try some and even he liked it. I also likes a white wine that started with a T , and sounded French. No matter what I type as my guess of the name, I’ll be wrong, and I know it. So, yeah. We ended up getting a bottle of the hard cider, some mulling spices, and a bottle of blackberry wine that would make a great sauce. Mmmmmm. Then we drove on and on and on until we realized that AAA had no idea where we were really going and relied on maps. We should have just skipped the AAA. No offense AAA, but you have been out-done with google maps, easily.

This is our actual campsite:

Finally, we arrived at the right place, and found that we had the entire campsite to ourselves. We promptly picked the best site, it was on the lake and beautiful, and set everything up. I’d say, before bed, it was the nicest night weather wise we had there. It was warm enough, we had a little fire with the wood we could find nearby and we were so full from lunch we didn’t eat any dinner. We didn’t have to pay to get into the park, there was no-one at the gate. We probably didn’t even really have to pay for camping, but we put in our little envelope. When we went to deposit that envelope, we saw two deer. One was at the gatehouse to the campgrounds. The other was a little farther down the road, and when it saw us, it froze. Like, well, a deer in the headlights. Jason Turned the lights off, and it took off, but the front feet ran in place for a few paces before the back feet figured out that it was time to go too. They were both pretty.

We were glad we had put the rain fly on the night before because in the middle of Thursday night, it started to pour. A lot. I had fixed the tent where it had ripped before, but that didn’t stop a seam with a pocket from dripping on our heads, and water getting in a gap in the door zipper. We survived however, and after it stopped pouring in the morning, we made a trip to the “camp store” to get wood. They were closed for the season. Blech. So we went to the visitor’s center, and they told us to go to the gas station just outside the park. Well, we have a ton of wood at home and hadn’t brought any because of the emerald ash borer. If we’d known that this was going to be the way it turned out we would have just brought wood with us.

The visitor’s center was interesting. I don’t usually like taxidermy. It’s just creepy in general. But all of the stuff there had been very carefully and seemingly tenderly done. It all looked extremely lifelike. It was interesting, plus from 8-4 every day there was a modern restroom contrary to the pit toilets at the campground. We got wood, got back to the campsite, and almost instantly after I got the fire going again, the skies opened up and soaked us again. We gave up, went back into the tent and went to sleep. We woke up because something was burning our faces. Wait, it was the sun!!!!! YAY

The rest of the day was beautiful. Jason and I each caught a large mouth bass. That night we had hot dogs and marshmallows, which was very different from the way we usually cook when we’re camping, but still good.

It sprinkled just a little that night and was amazingly clear the next morning. Jason went out on the Tube and had a good time. I fixed us some delicious breakfast and I started a book, which I’ll review when I’m done. For lunch we made pita pizzas on the propane grill, and they were great too! A downy woodpecker came and hung out with us for a while, and made us think that it must really hurt to be a woodpecker. Once again, we weren’t hungry for dinner, so we had some roasted nuts and marshmallows. Mmmmmm. The first batch got a little too done, but the second turned out just right. They were spicy, and tasted like chex mix without the chex.

The STARS! They were amazing. There were so many that I couldn’t really see constellations. It was really nice to look at them and the lake even reflected some. It was really amazing.

The next morning we got up and packed up and headed home. We booked a hotel for first anniversary too, I’ll tell more about that soon too. The par was HUGE and we saw some cool stuff. Lots of reason to go back!!!

I've been gone so looooong but.

2008-10-29T13:05:00.001-05:00

I'll be back very soon so:

I'm it!

2008-10-20T12:25:00.003-05:00

Charlotte over at Owl Love to Stamp has tagged me!

The rules...
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

1. I'm a Lost addict. I know *bad pun ahead* many of us have "lost" our way, but I really enjoy it still. Over there, on the left side of this stuff? The link "Dispatches from the Island" is Hurley's blog. Okay not really Hurley's but it's Jeorge Garcia's.

2. This is hard.

3. Contrary to poor Charlotte, I love scary movies. But, not as much strictly gory movies. I want to be SCARED, not grossed out. My favorites of all time are The Exorcist and The Shining (yeah, Stanley Kubrick version, I adore his insanity). A few more recent favorites have been Descent, The Ring, and The Orphanage. I'll watch bad ones until I'm blue in the face though too. One of my favorite bad ones is called American Gothic. In Jr High and High School my best friend and I would rent terrible scary movies almost every weekend.

4. I'm a renaissance woman looking for a few good hobbies. Among the stuff I've been trying recently is cooking, knitting, sewing, gardening, carpentry assistant, and writing. I'm not really great at most of these, but I'm trying to learn. My strongest so far are cooking and maybe gardening.

5. An addendum to that, I can't bake. I like cooking because I can make it up. I can mess around with a recipe and still have it turn out well. I've never "cooked" anything I really didn't like. I'm always criticizing, thinking what I'll do the next time, but it's not ruined, or inedible or bad, just not as good as I know it can be. My baking history, however, is riddled with abject failure. I've tried to make sugar cookies and ended up with one big gross, uncooked pancake. You've seen the failbread. Last night I tried to bake a cake and added four times as much milk as I was supposed to. It actually turned out edible. Shocking.

6. I have a bachelor's degree in English. I know you wouldn't know it from the sloppy typing spelling and grammar here. I think it's like a teacher once said (she was complaining about my sloppy handwriting) my hand(s) can't keep up with my brain. It's coming out faster than I can get it written down. Blargh.

7. It's very hot in the library today. The air circulation system is broken and it's just awful.

Who shall I tag? I can't tag Charlotte, she tagged me! I think I'll Tag,

Blog of DOOM!
Fishing Around
Wasting Time
I Don't Know Squat
Country Girl On the Chesapeake Bay
Supposed Newlywed Bliss
Momstravaganza!

None of these people have ever done anything like this as far as I can remember, but then again, neither had I! So even if they don't post, check them out, I do.

New background

2008-10-19T15:15:00.003-05:00

What do you think? Too hard to read? Should I go back? Edit and keep the background? Do tell.

I really couldn't resist.

2008-10-17T09:31:00.001-05:00

I saw this on another blog, and I couldn't stop laughing.

Chapter 5, Part one

2008-10-17T09:14:00.003-05:00

Short this time, I know.

When Bel woke it was dark. Not the city kind of dark she was used to, where there was still enough light to see some things. No, this was an all encompassing, blotting out all hope kind of dark.

The only light is coming from the moon, reflecting from the water. Bel drug herself from the deep darkness and into the moonlight. The ocean was relatively calm and the stillness was almost eerie. It’s a little better out here, she thinks, but a wave of hopelessness crashed over her as she recalled her predicament. Here she was, stuck in the middle of the ocean for all she knew on an island that might as well be deserted, and all she had with her was this stupid purple t-shirt (okay, and her bathing suit underneath, but that didn’t help any either).

As Bel walked alongside the ocean, she thought about what she could do. How could any one person be expected to cope with this? Her only experience with anything like this was watching that movie Castaway, and even Tom Hanks had more supplies than she did. Surely, she thought, when morning came, there would be boats that would pass by and see her. There would have to be. That’s it, she thought, If I just make it to morning, someone will be here to rescue me.

R!!

2008-10-16T08:20:00.002-05:00

City of Ember

2008-10-15T09:29:00.005-05:00

It's been so long since I've written about boring, everyday stuff! So, last weekend, I was off Friday, and I went flying!! With Jason's Dad. We had gotten him a gift certificate for a flight at the airport near our place. It was a tiny plane, the interior was smaller than my car. You guys know how small my car is. It was fun, and it had been sooooo long since I had been in a plane that size. You know, come to think of it, last time I was in one that size may have been in Jr High, and I got to fly it. Not take off or land, or do barrel rolls or anything like that, just keep it in a straight line in the air. Then we went to lunch, and I went home. We gave my Dad the same gift, and he needs to get up there too!

That night we went to see Margaret Cho!!! Jason had bought me surprise tickets, and we were in the front row. I mean, you could touch the stage. She was really fun, but not really up Jason's alley, so he's the most amazing man for taking me.

The next day, I worked, blah. Then on Sunday, we tried the scary church and went to see City of Ember. I had really liked the book, and I was excited to see the movie, but sadly, it didn't live up to what I expected. Do they ever? Bill Murray was very good, and I really liked the actors who played Lina and Doon. I'd read reviews that didn't like Doon, but he'd never been a really likable character at that point. I think the movie could have really done better if they' spent more time developing the atmosphere and less time wit giant bugs and moles. Overall a give it 7 out of ten cans of hoarded pineapple.

The Great Wallace Church Search continues

2008-10-13T18:23:00.002-05:00

Okay, so at least we can cross one off the list. We went to the other church close to us (geographically) yesterday. Wow. It was unlike anything either of us had been to before. I was really convinced that the preacher might bring out a box of snakes. Not for us, to say the least.

A big message I got was to dislike several groups of people. Jason disagrees, he didn't get that, so it may just be me. BUT the scripture he chose to preach on was a strange and hard to swallow, heavily interpreted verse. I'm not going to get into it, but it really didn't come off as a good message. I really want the church I choose to believe as I do, that I have all the love in the world to give others, and there's no reason to leave anyone out of that. I don't have to approve, or like what they do, but I don't have to hate them. So, other than that, here's the lowdown:

The congregation was about the same size as the first.

The congregation was about the same age (overall) as the first.

The building was even approximately the same size as the first.

This church did have what seemed to be a more active church life, based on the bulletin.

4 people came up to us before the service, all associate pastors of some kind, and asked us for detialed contact information. All of these people seemed less interested in meeting us, and more interested in upping attendance numbers.

The strangest thing, was, during part of the service when we greeted those around us, one woman came up to me and said "please come back". But she didn't say it in the tone of a welcome. Honestly, she sounded desperate.

We were trying to give each church three chances, but the message there was so off-putting that I think we're done there. On to the next! We'll go back to the first one and give it another try. Thanks guys for all of your great suggestions, and we're open to trying anything! Okay, maybe not a voodoo church (they have those, right?)

R!

2008-10-09T11:59:00.003-05:00

The Great Wallace Church Search

2008-10-09T08:30:00.004-05:00

Jason and I are looking for a church. Both of us grew up in church and since my father retired, neither of us really had a place to go. Lucky for us, the denominations we are familiar with are pretty similar. So, we're looking churches in both, and possibly outside our familiarity entirely. What we are looking for is a church that has:

An active church life i.e. groups, get togethers, non-Sunday things happening

People our age

A minister we like (duh)

A congregation who is nice (double duh)

So far, we went to a church right down the street from us. The minister was really nice, although he kind of scarily reminded me of my Dad, and the congregation was welcoming and nice. BUT everyone there was over 50 or under 5. There were maybe 2 other people there around our age. And, I didn't see a lot going on during the week. DOUBLE BUT, we're giving each church 3 chances. Maybe there are more people our age on other Sundays, and maybe I just didn't see the right bulletin board. So, we've got a few other places that look interesting, and we're starting as close to home as possible, just for a shorter drive. Wish us luck!

Internal Struggle

2008-10-08T15:10:00.003-05:00

I'm having one. Jason and I live in a lovely little ( little being the operative word) half double. It's a great little place, good location, good landlord, big backyard, but, it isn't ours. If you've read from the beginning, you'll know that I did have a house, and I don't anymore (if you haven't read that look at posts tagged evil, and the big b). This brings me to my struggle and stress. We would like to buy a house, someday. Someday meaning in the next few years. With the economy going in a swirly pattern, I'm really concerned that this will be a real problem. We're working to pay off other debts, but we really don't have many. Just the cars, and one big student loan with my name on it( I worry about that one too). I may have found a forgiveness program for part of that, but I don't know yet. I'm just really worried that we won't ever be able to buy a house. I'm worried that this will de-rail the rest of our lives. I worry about it all the time. But then, sometimes, I get that little feeling, that maybe, just maybe things will work out and we'll be fine. I'm not at all sure though. We don't want a mansion, just a house. Something not in a subdivision. Something that has potential to be our family's home. And I feel sometimes, that through student loans and bad economy, it won't happen.

Chapter Four

2008-10-06T18:34:00.001-05:00

I must have fallen asleep on the basement floor again, Bel thought. The grainy scrap from her sculpture scratched her face and arms. Mom’s going be mad that I made such a mess on the floor. I must have left the lights on too, but I don’t remember them being so bright! Bel was shocked awake in a second. She was lying on soft, tan sand, not her dirty basement floor. And that was no light, it was the sun! Guessing from its height, it must be close to noon. It all came back to her in a flash. The party, Jonathan’s assumptions, Brianne’s treachery. She had fallen from the boat, but they had been nowhere near an island, so where was she now? She couldn’t have swum there, she had never been any good at it, no matter how many times her father threw her into a lake.

Bel sat up slowly. She had to admit, the beach was beautiful, and, unfortunately, deserted. The water was a perfect turquoise blue, and she could see to the bottom for a long way out. Colorful fish darted between rocks and brilliant coral fans waved in the distance. The sand was indeed soft. The softest she’d ever felt between her toes. The beach stretched a long way both to her right and left. Behind her, there were large palm trees that grew into a thickly forested area. She could see nothing past those trees into the forest. Still, the sun shone down warmly, the waves made a beautiful sound and, if she hadn’t been insulted, ridiculed, and then thrown from a boat, she might have been glad to be there.

If she’d been asked what she would want on a deserted island, it wouldn’t have been her swimsuit and this damn purple t-shirt. She looked to her right and discovered on the sand beside her, a large leaf. On the leaf was a pile of slimy looking seaweed. Bel stuck her tongue out and got up. She kicked it onto the water, careful not to let any of it touch her foot. This place might look deserted, she thought, but through those trees there might be a road.

Sand burrs stabbed her in the toes as she made her way to the tree line. She wished she had some shoes, at least sandals. When she made it into the trees, no doubt, the ground would be rougher. Hopefully that road was right ahead. She made it to the trees, parted some brush, and stepped into the cool shade.

The forest was dense. Unlike any forest she had seen in girl scouts, vines grew thick through the tops of trees. At her level, there was very little room to move. Plants covered every space. The sunlight that filtered through the trees dappled leaves of every size shape and shade of green imaginable. Ants marched in single file over fallen branches. Bel took a few steps in, but she couldn’t see where she was putting her feet. Scared that she might step on something sharp or poisonous, she returned to the beach.

The sand that had been so soft just a minute earlier now seemed like hot coals on her feet. She ran to the water as fast as she could and didn’t stop until she was ankle deep in the cool blue. When it didn’t feel quite so much like she was standing on the stove, she backed up and sat down on the sand. With one foot in the water she massaged the burnt sole of the other. She switched and rubbed the other one. She collapsed backward onto the sand and blew out a long breath.

I’m completely screwed, she thought. I can’t make it through the forest, and it’s too hot to stay on the beach. She glanced up at the sun. Its rays were becoming stronger as the afternoon went on. She knew she would be even worse off if she let herself get sunburned on top of everything else. She decided to retreat to the shade at the back of the beach and think over what she was going to do.

In the shade, the cool, soft sand greeted her like the Egyptian cotton sheets on her bed at home. Just thinking about it made her tired. She tried not to go to sleep but in less than a minute she was out like a light.

Root Beer Love

Harriet

My temporary internet death, and brief thoughts.

Cedar Point

Sporadic

Texas! Part 2

Texas! Part one

Don't Shoot!

Florida!

More Failbread.

Zucchini Cakes

Pot Christening

New Toy

SO LAZY

BIG WORDS

I mean, how old am I?

I should get a life.

Where have I been?

Random Photo Plus

Spy Photos

I didn't die

Today, a random VIDEO!

R?

Jungle Jim's!

Argh!

Would You Rather Weekend!

OMG!!!! RRRRRRR

Tortilla Pizzas!

New Blog Love

Seed Update

I would rather

Would You Rather Weekend

Watchmen

Seedlings!

Seeds!

Victory!

This week, on General Blogspital

Smothered Chicken

I would rather

Would You Rather

POW!

Great Band names

Garden planning

One Year (only a month late)

It's March

You know already!

Who can you Trust?

MSNBC: Fed chief: ‘Severe contraction’ Bernanke hopes recession will end in ’09, but sees significant risks

Facebook is a black hole.

Random Thursday

lsngoigworkjn'na'

Random

I remember, doing the TIME WARP

Alphabet Meme!

Tax Time!

But R!

Not S

I hate snow

not Q

Hey newlywed bloggers!

Obligatory

RRRRRRRRRReverse

Friday Fiction, the return!

Merry Christmas!

State Farm fini

What I did this weekend

State Farm

Camcorder!

What does a pirate say?

Christmas Present

Christmas Past

r

Australia

_____________R_______________

Asleep at the keyboard

Thanksgiving!

BBQ Chicken Tostadas!

R!!!

Not a mouse

R!!!

_R___