Thursday, April 27, 2006

2 much 2 do

between:
  • work hours, which have been non-stop meetings for two weeks, on top of all the other stuff that needs to be accomplished in a day;
  • my new lappy, which desperately needs configuring and cleaning of all the pre-loaded crap;
  • coming up with new meal ideas for white beans;
  • coordinating for my fabulous weekend get-away to the deschutes; and
  • a general hodge-podgery of exercise, doctor appts, house cleaning and whatnot
i am much too busy for my liking. must find way to set boundaries to work sanely at the office and the house and still feel i have time to watch the fisher family on six feet under and knit.

what's a girl to do?

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

itshereitshereitshere!

lappy has arrived, and he's thin and silver and beautiful! how, oh how will i get any work done with him sitting in his little box behind my desk?

Monday, April 24, 2006

one more thing

ps: dinnner tonight was egg, toast and cereal. as you can tell, we're cleaning out the breakfast items. bye bye cinnamon toast crunch. i heart you.

the laughs keep on comin'

i've recently been reading with sick fascination the trials and tribulations of one congresswoman cynthia mckinney of georgia. most (ok, 99 percent) of what i know comes from wonkette, which is my favorite website this month. this woman cannot catch a break. today's PR gaffe is a page out of PR 101: what not to do. after she walked out on an interview (in which they were railing her for abusing a capitol hill cop), she kept her microphone on whilst insulting her staffer. all her insults were caught on tape. if that's not enough, she went back to the interviewer and tried to explain exactly why they did not have permission to use the clip on air.

just who is this woman's PR person? have they never heard of media training? christ -- i went through it as a sophomore in college thanks to john guiniven, who no doubt trained bob byrd during his stint as the statesman's press secretary. not that i'm volunteering for the flack's job -- good god no. i'm just saying, i love validation that i am better at PR than someone else.

and, by the way, i wonder if KQ or angeler think congresswoman has taken graduate courses in condescension from the j-school? her tone with the journalist on the video rings slightly of, "while i appreciate you feel you have rights to use this audio track, actually, you don't."

(if you're unfamiliar with the mckinney saga, the archives on wonkette are highly entertaining. it's like a little bon bon treat to see what new this woman is up to every day. bwahahaha...insert evil laugh here.)

Sunday, April 23, 2006

spring cleaning

i am a hoarder of pantry items. my cupboards are stocked with crap that i keep buying at the grocery store which i never end up cooking with. recently, after cleaning out one cupboard i decided that i'm done buying groceries until i use up what i have in my pantry. thus, i've commenced operation kitchen clean-out.

here are the rules: i am only allowed to cook with the food i have at the house. grocery trips are allowed only for purchasing vegetables, staples (eggs, milk, coffee/tea, cheese -- hey, it's a staple), and if needed, one or two ingredients that will allow me to make a meal out of the ingredients at the house. for example, to use up the flour and other baking goods i have, i can buy a packet of yeast or some brown sugar. but, i'm limited to one or two new ingredients only.

this past two weeks, some sample meals we've prepared include:
  • soy "chicken" nuggets and french fries
  • spaghetti
  • beans and rice with leftover turkey cutlets diced up
  • homemade chicken stock using a random chicken carcass i'd frozen months ago
  • pizza using homemade dough and sauce (three times in one week)
these may not be odd combinations, but due to the rules i've established, what this means is that it's going to get pretty creative around here meal-wise as the pantry gets empty. i have a lot -- i mean a LOT -- of dry white beans, and the day could come where all we have to eat are white beans. thus, i need to start thinking ahead about the meals so that i don't leave myself stranded with only some crappy beans and some hot sauce in the fridge.

the good news is that yesterday i had a party for some girlfriends, so i bought some new veggies and ingredients for the meal i was making for the party. mickey and i (plus toots, who's joined us this weekend for a slumber party) are loving the leftovers, and are especially happy we've put off one more day of eating white beans!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

reason number 1 today for not exercising

my shoes and socks are damp with orange juice from breakfast. what a debbie downer. oh, well, i guess i'll go eat lunch instead.




Monday, April 17, 2006

i'm finally joining the 21st century of PC technology

in my last post i lamented on not being able to get the drivers for my digital camera to work with my laptop. i'm sure this is purely due to user error. however, i'm holding a shred of hope it's also because said laptop is actually the property of my employer.

but, as of tonight, i am the (almost) proud owner of a new, shiny, pretty, happy lappy of my very own. it's currently being built just for me by lovely people at dell. while i realize i will get much razzing from semaphoria and other mac people that i didn't purchase an i-book (blahblahblah, i'm not buying a mac, so stop it), and while i was really against buying a dell at the beginning of my lappy search, i'm convinced i've made a good purchase. even CNET says so, and they would know. the truth will be known when my new friend arrives at my doorstep 3 to 5 days after april 25th.

ohgeezohgeez, how will i face this waiting game, this torture?

not only will my little lappy have XP on it (not a novelty, i realize, but i will finally be able to use my stupid mp3 player [which is NOT an ipod -- ENOUGH already] which requires WMP10), but i'll also be able to plug the system into my teevee. this, dear friends, means that i can watch all the rugby and baseball i want online, through the comfort of my basement entertainment system. oh, yes, dear friends: this is big news. no more schlepping projectors back and forth from various sources; no more sitting in the home office to watch grainy video on a wickedold CRT monitor.

if i were a cat, i'd be this excited

but since i'm not a cat, here's me excited



Sunday, April 16, 2006

hunting for more than easter eggs

Note: updated today with photos....

on sunday, after a massive breakfast, some booze, an easter egg hunt around the house, and some lame-ass pinochle hands, mickey, willie, toots
and i were slight bored. we'd just broken the boys' easter toy (the velcro ball and mitts, which we ruined in less than 20 minutes). it was getting desperate. thank god someone suggested a scavenger hunt (ok, it was me, because i've been wanting to do one after reading about platial's geo-scavenger hunt a couple weeks ago). we made our list of items, paired up into teams, and hit the neighborhood.

the first list was pretty basic: find ten items in the neighborhood, be back at the house in 20 minutes for the first round of drinking. toots and i ran frantically searching for a lava rock, a dogwood flower, some easter candy, a matchbook and other random items. after successfully finding 8 out of ten bits, we regrouped with willie and mike, reviewed the booty, caught our breath, had a cocktail and made the second, more aggressive list.

our "something random" finding from round one: a slightly freaky easter bunny, sqeezing the hell out of some kids

the second list comprised 20 more complicated items: a garden gnome, a crazy mailbox, food on the street, shoes on a phone wire, a doolie truck, a statuette in a yard, tulip bed, tiki torch, bottle of beer on a porch. the rules this time: we were on the honor system, so rather than bringing each item back with us, we were to write the address where we found all the items. in 20 minutes, we were to meet at the mock crest tavern. toots and i made it with 7 seconds to spare, and with only three or four items we'd not found. mickey and willie had had similar luck, so the contest was a close one. upon arrival at the mock crest, we found they were having an easter egg hunt in their back garden, a perfect match to our theme for the day. while everyone else found candy in their egg, i found a golden egg in mine, which meant i won...


over round two of cocktails we discussed the third and final scavenger list. in 35 minutes, we were to find 20 more items: three cars parked in a driveway, a car parked on the lawn, cat on a porch, tv on in a house, christmas lights, a crazy easter decoration, sidewalk chalk drawing, sports flag, and still that damn garden gnome, as none of us saw one in round two. within the time allotted, we were also supposed to make our way to sagittarius for the third cocktail break.

toots and i busted out of mock crest, walking as fast as we could through neighborhoods we thought might have the items on our list. with about 30 seconds to spare, we'd just found the beware of dog sign (next door to the beware of cat sign, which we were prepared to cheat and say was good enough), and walked into sagittarius, me with a foot cramp, toots with a busting bladder, both of us sweaty and exhausted.
waiting patiently for the boys....

the boys waltzed in 3 minutes late, and were penalized for the delay. while i hate to admit we won on a technicality, toots and i accepted the win gracefully (ok, the alcoho
l was talking at this stage).


i love this blurry setting on my camera. i also love vanilla vodka and coke.

it was the perfect way to spend a day -- lots of exercise but with a nice distraction to make it enjoyable, and a cocktail or three at the end to keep us moving. all i gotta say, though, is that no-po is not representing -- are all its residents gnome haters? we found none. so sad.

PS: flickr's got more evidence of the day, if'n you're interested...

Thursday, April 13, 2006

i guess i need more iron in my diet

i was just eating some dal soup that i made at home the other night. i took a bite and chomped down on something hard. i thought, hmm, it's probably a stone that i missed in the lentils.

nope, not a stone. it was a screw.

i broke the juicer tool while adding lime juice to the soup. apparently a screw from the tool fell in.

by the way, this is the second one of these i've bought and had break. and, by the way, i don't have super-human strength. i think this says something about fine quality craftsmanship used to make these things.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

ole!

last night i was roused from my peaceful slumber by mickey, who whispered, "you gotta get up! wake up!" in a disoriented, grouchy state, i fumbled for my glasses on the nightstand, and rolled over to get up. i asked, "what's wrong?!" thinking, the house is on fire, mickey cut himself, the cat is puking, something.

mickey's reply, "nothing's wrong! there's just a mariachi band at the next door neighbor's house and i thought you'd like to see it."

sure enough, when we ran downstairs to look out the kitchen window, there was a mariachi band serenading the next door neighbors. at 11:45 at night. full costume. trumpets. the works.

now, how could i be grouchy anymore? a mariachi band!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

priorities

big day in the news today. for starters, two top headlines in the NYT. the first details an interesting refute to popular beliefs about the biblical figure judas's role in the crucifixion. and, evolution proponents got a boost when scientists found in the arctic a fish fossil that had begun to grow leg-like appendages and digits.

also, tell me, dear readers: didn't w say he was going to fire anyone directly related to the leak involving valerie plame? i can't remember his exact words. nevertheless, it seems our fearless leader's got some 'splainin' to do.

but i can't let these get me worked up because there are more important and more stressful things i'm focusing on today. no, it's not that meridith viera is joining 'the today show.' i want to know why the hell can i not figure out how to knit a frigging cable?! i am doomed to forever follow basic patterns for flat, one-dimensional items.