Yearbooked Myself

I was on Pioneer Woman's website the other day and found out about the website yearbookyourself.com.

I couldn't resist trying it out for myself.  It's fun, you should try it.  Here's me with hairdo's from the 50's,60's,70's,80's,90's....  

If I must say... I think I would look pretty damn good with this hairdo below.  

How well do I know him?

CB over at I Heart Food 4 Thought posted this "How Well Do You Know Your SO" quiz on her site and I just had to play along.



How well do you know your significant other (spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, domestic partner)?

1. They are watching TV….. What are they watching?
My guess: Sports
His answer: Lost
WRONG

2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing do they get on their salad?
My guess: Some kind of fruity vinaigrette
His answer: "This could go two different ways... a vinaigrette or honey mustard. Probably honey mustard."
MOSTLY CORRECT

3. What’s one food this person doesn’t like?
My guess: anything overly sweet
His answer: sweet potatoes
KIND OF CORRECT

4. You go out for a drink. He/she orders…
My guess: bloody mary
His answer: bloody mary
CORRECT

5. Where did he/she go to high school?
My guess: vp
His answer: vp
CORRECT

6. What size shoe do they wear?
My guess: 9
His answer: 9.5
CLOSE TO CORRECT

7. If this person were to collect anything, it would be?
My guess: guitars, camera stuff
His answer: transformers
INCORRECT

8. What is their favorite type of car?
My guess: dodge viper
His answer: dodge viper
CORRECT

9. This person could eat __________ everyday?
My guess: smoothies
His answer: sushi
WRONG

10. Favorite sports team?
My guess: St Louis Rams and Cardinals
His answer: Rams, Cardinals, Blues
CORRECT

11. Favorite cereal?
My guess: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
His answer: Golden Grahams (Cinnamon Toast Crunch is his second)
INCORRECT

12. This person wouldn’t be caught dead wearing…
My guess: a shirt with a stain on it
His answer: A dress.
WRONG

13. Who will he/she vote for?
My guess: Obama
His answer: Obama
CORRECT

14. What is their sign?
My guess: aquarius
His answer: Aquarius
CORRECT

15. What is something you do that he wishes you didn’t do?
My guess: Cop a bad attitude
His answer: Smoke (although bitch was the second answer.) For the record... I haven't smoked in 7 days.
WRONG

16. How many states has this person lived in?
My guess: 4
His answer: 3
INCORRECT

17. This person could spend hours….
My guess: on the internet
His answer: video games
WRONG

18. What is his heritage?
My guess: german
His answer: italian/german
ALMOST RIGHT

19. You bake them a cake for their birthday….What kind do they want?
My guess: cheesecake
His answer: anything with whipped frosting. he said he just had a dream about that frosting the other day. weird.
INCORRECT

20. Did he/she play sports in high school?
My guess: no
His answer: no

CORRECT



11/20 Mostly, Almost, Halfway Correct. Damn, I don't know him at all. Together for almost 5 1/2 years. Sad!

Let's take the temperature...shall we?

So, I made my New Years resolutions. And checked in three weeks later on this post here. Now, it's July and most people have already forgot about their resolutions come January 2nd but not me, baby! I'm all about the follow through. Well, not really. But I do like to pretend. I thought it would be fun to check out my progress on becoming a better person and all around good citizen.

Let's recap.

"Resolution Number One: Remembering and recognizing people's birthdays a little better. I'm not terrible at this right now but it's something I want to take a tad more seriously."

I am pretty proud of myself on this one.  I have followed through on almost every birthday that has come up on my beautiful calendar covered in reminder stickers.  The only thing that I feel bad about happened recently, I hate to say.  I didn't decorate my best friend's cubicle at work for her birthday last week.  I suck.

"Resolution Number Two: Get haircuts every eight weeks. This one sounds stupid but to me it's not because of how many times I finally get my hair to grow out but then end up having to cut it short again due to horrifying split ends."

No split ends to report.  And no ugly roots or gray hairs either.  Moving right along... 


"Resolution Number Three: Read more books. I used to read a lot, but these last few years I've really gotten away from it."
My last check in I was reading Wicked.  Um.... I still am.  And I'm also reading David Sedaris's book When You Are Engulfed in Flames.  And I'm also reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter. And I'm also reading The Secret Life of Bees.  And I also think that I will never finish any of these books.  But staying true to myself, I've read eight more cookbooks cover to cover.  These count, right?  There are stories in some of them, damn it.


"Resolution Number Four: Being nicer. Being happier. Not bitching as much."

Well.  Let's not go there.

And there you have it.  

Check it out...

I started a new food blog called Something Sweet by Karen. I found myself writing some posts about food/baking on here and thought it fun so I wanted a whole new blog dedicated just to that.

Something Sweet by Karen

I have fallen...

So, earlier in the week I had posted about wanting to make the "Falling In Love" pie from the movie Waitress. I finally got around to it late last night and... Oh, it is love. Chocolate, some more chocolate and a little more chocolate. Everything a girl could ever want. Mmmm Hmmm.

It's really easy to make too. The hardest part was waiting at least four hours for it to set. Since I started so late, I had to go to bed without trying it knowing that I would get to eat some in the morning. Well, I was up at 5:00 this morning and downstairs opening up the fridge at 5:01. The ingredients are very basic, nothing too fancy. But it tastes gooood. Real good. The only thing I changed from the original "Falling In Love" pie was that I used a graham cracker crust. No big deal.

Chocolate Lovers must try this pie. Like... Tonight. Google it and get to it! And if you haven't seen Waitress yet, run out to Blockbuster and rent it. It will give you something to do during your four hour wait.

"Falling In Love" Chocolate Mousse Pie. Enjoy!





If you want to get all fancy, add some chocolate shavings. I did. I like fancy stuff.

I don't care if I talk about my cats too much

I love my cats. I really like taking pictures of them. This is Damian. He likes getting his picture taken.

He will pose for you like this to show how regal he is.

Then he will show you his thoughtful side.





He's a big yawner. I love that about him. Um, someone could use some Crest Whitening Strips.



Still yawning... although it looks like a sneeze.

Another Zoo Trip. Pictures!

American Idol Talk

Last year, I was just about over American Idol.

This year, I'm all about it again. The instruments add more to it, I think.

My picks for the winner? David Cook or Brooke White.

I would definitely buy anything Jason Castro put out though. He could come in 3rd and that would be fine with me.

Brooke White makes the kind of music I really like and that's why she should win (haha).

Can't understand the fascination with David Archuleta though. I mean, he sings great. He's a cute kid. But... he's not who should win. Most of the polls and stuff always have him on top. I don't get it.

Some Movie Talk

I have a huge problem sitting down for two hours and watching a movie now. I can barely do it anymore. I feel like I'm being trapped, wasting away precious hours of my life on a movie with actors playing characters that get on my nerves and plot situations that are basically ridiculous. (But I can sit for HOURS on end watching episode after episode of tv shows on dvd.)
Every time J says "hey, wanna watch such and such?" I say "No!" and run away like I'm trying to escape a prison sentence.

But every once in a while, I'll actually commit to one and sit down to watch it. And last weekend, I actually watched three. The Queen, American Gangster and Into the Wild.

I absolutely loved all three. I had wanted to see The Queen for a while. I love Helen Mirren and I had always wanted to see the movie because it was about how Queen Elizabeth II dealt with the aftermath of Princess Diana's death. One thing I found really interesting was the portrayal of the effects the media/tabloids/newspapers had on some of the decisions that were made. I think people sometimes get numb to the fact that the media has such a strong influence on everything around us.

American Gangster was LONG! It took a while to build up because there was so much story to go through. But the end was absolutely fantastic. There were some pretty intense scenes when everything finally went down. I was like "This is awesome!" because I'm all about the action, baby. The last scenes with Russell Crowe and Denzel were, in my opinion, some of the best movie scenes I've seen in a long time. Kind of like Pulp Fiction in a way with how good Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta were together. Although, not too much could ever come close to those two.

And Into the Wild was so good. This movie had me crying a lot. What a sad story in the end.

Received from Netflix and needing to be watched: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Margot at the Wedding and Deadwood Season 1 Disc 2.

Recipes from the movie Waitress... YAY!

I have written about the movie Waitress previously. It was my favorite movie of 2007 and it's now one of my all time favorites. A big part of the movie is pies. Jenna, the main character, is a master pie baker and creates all kinds of different pies with real interesting names. I was recently looking at one of the food blogs I always read and saw a pie that reminded me of Jenna's "Marshmallow Mermaid" pie. I started doing some web searches and found a few of the pie recipes from the movie.

Ones like:

Baby Screamin’ Its Head Off in the Middle of the Night and Ruinin’ My Life Pie (aka No Crust New York Style Cheesecake)
Falling in Love Chocolate Mousse Pie
I Don't Want Earl's Baby Pie
I Can't Have No Affair Because It's Wrong & I Don't Want Earl to Kill Me Pie


I think I'm going to try to make the Falling In Love pie this weekend. I've tried coming up with my own weird pie names and recipes. Like... "How the Hell Am I Going to Pay Off This Credit Card?" pie. Or "I Can't Go to Work Anymore Because It Just Makes Me Sick" pie.

I'll post some pictures if I get around to making it. I'm SUPPOSED to be on a diet but... yeah.

Who Forgets Their Five Year Anniversary?

Whoops! That would be me. And J until I reminded him.

Good thing I got this fancy calendar for Christmas with all these stickers that say "Birthday!", "Party!", "Appointment!" and, of course, "Anniversary!". I was so enjoying putting those stickers on for every little thing going on this year that I actually ran out of them. Some people had to get "Appointment!" for their "Birthday!" sticker. Oh well.

This is the calendar I use at my work. Luckily, I had remembered back in January to mark April 4th as me and J's 5th year anniversary. Although, I'm really bad about flipping the page to the next month when a new month rolls in. Sometimes, I'll actually be two months behind. And this is at my work, mind you, a calendar I look at every single day I'm there. Instead of taking the calendar down, flipping to the current month's page and hanging it back up I'll just pull up the previous month's page and look real quick at the current month. I have done this my whole life. It's even worse at my house. My calendar here is still on January. And I just recently wrote down my April 22nd dentist appointment on the April page after flipping up the two previous months. And I still didn't change it to the current month. I think it might border on that I refuse for some reason.

Anyway...

Like I said, luckily I had remembered back in January to mark April 4th as me and J's 5th year anniversary. And on April 4th, my good friend at work asked me about something having to do with dates in April so I flipped to that month and low and behold, there was the big pink "Anniversary!" sticker staring me in the face. My first thought was "Oh shit" because for a split second I actually thought I had missed it totally. Then I realized our anniversary was that day and made a point to text J so he wouldn't be the only one who forgot.

The anniversary came and went. I can't believe it's already been five years. Oh my god.

One more thing... don't worry if it seems like I forgot your birthday this year. I'll catch you in a couple months when I've finally got the calendar page turned and am staring at the big purple "Appointment!" sticker going "Oh shit..."

Podcasts = My New Addiction.

Podcasts! I am in love with them right now.

In my iTunes, I currently have 398 waiting for me to get to. Good thing I have a boring job and can mindlessly work while my brain pays attention to topics ranging from things like One Minute Russian lessons to what it's like attending the Culinary Institute of America. Podcasts are generally pretty short so it's hard to get bored with them.

The number of podcasts I subscribe to on iTunes had to be cut down drastically. My laptop hard drive was completely filled up at one point with them and I had to learn to let go of a few. I will be alright.

The ones that made the cut and get to stick around:

Amateur Traveler
Mandarin Chinese
One Minute Russian
Learn to Speak Spanish
NPR Movies
NPR Story of the Day
My Trivia (ten trivia questions and I never get more than two or three right, damn it!)
The Ricky Gervais Podcast (hehehe)
The Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack (oh my god, love this one and it updates twice a week!)
The Official Lost Podcast (yes, I'm obsessed with Lost... so what)
That's What She Said (podcast on the tv show The Office. These guys are serious, they do a 1.5 hour podcast on a half hour show.... but I can listen to the whole thing and not get bored.)
A few Old Time Radio podcasts. Love me some 1940's and beyond radio mysteries.
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
Legal Lad's Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Lawful Life
Money Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for a More Richer Life... hmm. a pattern with the quick and dirty? yes! oh baby!


And what is my most loved podcast of all, you wonder? The one that I actually get excited about when it updates? The one I get upset about when it's over? Why, that would have to be the LSAT Logic in Everyday Life podcast. Not sure how I found this one exactly but I am so glad I did. The guy that does it takes current event situations and applies LSAT principles to them to find flawed logic. It's really interesting to hear arguments deconstructed and analyzed without all the emotional crap that usually goes along with it.

We just got back from CHINA!!!

How to say "hello" in Mandarin Chinese phonetically = "Knee How!"

More to come soon from our vacation.... I'm so exhausted since we got back and all I can do is sleep.

We took over 2,000 pictures. Here's one of me and J for now:

This is the muffin that almost ruined my computer.

It may look innocent. But don't be fooled.



Ahh! It's almost indecent how plump those cranberries are!


I've been wanting to make Cranberry-Orange muffins for a while.  I finally decided that this weekend was it.  I was making them.  I got on the foodnetwork site and found the recipe I wanted to try and got to it.  

Now I usually put my laptop up on the ledge near my kitchen sink and do all my cooking business on the center island.  However, I decided I was going to put my laptop on the island this time.  I thought it would be much easier on me so I wouldn't have to turn around to see the recipe. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I'm going along.  So far, so good.  Things are coming together.  The muffin batter is going in the pan.  Then in the oven.  And things are fine.

Then comes the clean up stage.  Here is where things go wrong.

The milk is one of those small flimsier type milk jugs.  I'm trying to put the top on with one hand (this is probably part of the problem) and it won't go on.  I push harder trying to get the lid on and the whole milk jug falls forward.  All over my laptop.  Milk is gushing out of the container and I scream "Noooo!" and pull it up and away as fast as I can.

I'm freaking out at this point.  I'm scared my computer is ruined. I know I need to tell J and fast because he might know of something I can do to help save it.  But I'm scared to tell J because I know he will not be pleased with me.  I felt like a five year old.  I clean it up the best I can to get all the milk off of it.  

I run upstairs.  "Um, I need to tell you something but promise not to get mad, okay?" 

Well, he was definitely not pleased.  Like I said, I felt like a five year old.  Luckily, I think my cat-like-lightning-fast reflexes helped to keep the milk from doing serious damage to my beloved laptop.  The only thing that is wrong with it at this point is the screen is ruined.  But I can live with that, I think.  It would seem that some liquid got under the screen somehow and made a stain.  It's getting better but I don't think it will ever go away.

This morning, my cat came over for a visit while I was reading the news.  He sniffed around a little bit and then realized what he was smelling was coming from my laptop.  Sour milk.  Lovely.

The muffins were pretty good.  

This is only one small thing about this cat that's strange...

Now, I love this cat. I have to say though, that he's kind of weird. But in a sweet, endearing way. Sometimes kind of annoying.

He likes to headbutt me while I'm sleeping. First at 2 am and then at 4 am while purring in my face really loud, and taking a time out to walk on my nightstand and investigate. It's a pattern. Headbutt, purr, nightstand investigate. Headbutt, purr, nightstand investigate. Sometimes he'll switch it up and walk across my pillow as a shortcut on his way to investigate. Which I can't stand.

He will wait outside of the shower for you to be done. Then if you leave the shower door open, he will go in and sit in there under the shower head and look up at it and wait for some water to drip down on him. One day, I left the shower door open and saw he was in there when I left for work. J got home in the afternoon and found him asleep in there. I really think he sat in the shower all day. Now I've started making sure that the bathroom door is closed so he can't do that anymore. I feel uncomfortable about my cat living out his days in a 2x2 glass enclosed area. There must be more than that for a cat to look forward to.

You know, like shredding the couch, scratching up the rug, unraveling toilet paper from the rolls and eating anything and everything he comes across.

Baking on Sundays is good, too.

I absolutely LOVE Dorie Greenspan. She is the author of one of my newest baking bibles titled Baking: From My Home to Yours.
I got this book as a Christmas present and have made a few things out of it so far. All have turned out to be a great success. This is the Blueberry - Brown Sugar Plain Cake. I cut the recipe down and baked it in a petite loaf pan. It ended up really tall with all the blueberries at the bottom but so what? It tasted awesome!

I love baking on Saturday mornings.

Actually, I love baking period. Much more than cooking. I like how baking has to be done in control. In baking, you can't just dump "some of this" and "a little more of that" in and expect things to turn out okay like you can when you're cooking. Another plus, the ingredients are usually a lot less gross to the touch.


My Mom used to make this hot milk sponge cake quite a bit when I was growing up. I never realized until I got older that most of the baking recipes my Mom used came from the Red and White checkered Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. It was a real pleasant surprise when I started making things from that book like my favorite cookie (snickerdoodles), my other favorite cookie (peanut butter), my third favorite cookie (sugar) and finding out that it was just what I grew up on. Truly "how Mom used to make it." I have a lot of different cookbooks now, a lot of them dedicated solely to baking but my favorite is still the BH&G by far. It's a cookbook you can trust that when you make something from it, it's going to taste like it's supposed to and it's going to be good.

Anyway, this hot milk sponge cake doesn't exactly look like much but the taste is excellent, although subtle. There's nothing fancy on it like frosting, glaze or fruit except for the top which turns into a crunchy sweet coating. You can easily eat a whole pan of this just so you can keep tasting it. And that's exactly what I did this morning. BUT... I'm really in to the "small-batch baking"** way of thinking now so I cut the recipe down to a very small round cake so I didn't have to get too mad at myself because I already knew I wouldn't be able to resist it.

My breakfast:

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!


**Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos is my new obsession this week. I'm eating healthier now and working out on a regular basis... but I really can't live without baked goods. This book is perfect because it scales recipes down to just one or two servings and you still get the satisfaction of baking totally from scratch. My very first attempt at making something from the book (Chocolate Birthday Cake with Double Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting) did not turn out to be a great success but I'm going to keep trying until I get this small batch baking stuff down because I have to be able to eat sweets AND get this body bikini ready at the same time.

I love sleeping in late, zombie movies (still) and fondue (especially chocolate fondue)

What a great weekend! It was so nice to finally get some free time to be able to sleep in until 11 both Saturday AND Sunday (that never seems to happen for me anymore). I felt really refreshed... until Monday morning rolled around and it was time to go back to work. Then I felt sick... psychosomatic, perhaps?

After I woke up I started watching a zombie comedy movie called Fido. I am a huge fan of zombie movies but I prefer scary ones. I really liked this movie though. Basically it's about zombies who have been domesticated to be service workers and once Timmy's family finally gets their own zombie named Fido, Fido does some bad, bad things and hilarity/tragedy/revenge/heartbreak/heartwarming moments ensue. Yeah, it was good. Definitely different from the normal formula.

Saturday night J and I went out to the Melting Pot fondue restaurant for the first time. It's a place I've always wanted to try but we don't have one close to our house. So a little over an hours drive later... there we were waiting for our table. The atmosphere was perfect for couples I thought and couples (or groups of couples) were basically all we saw coming in and going while we were waiting. I'm a big fan of dipping food in sauce so this fondue thing was great for me. Although, I will say it was a lot of work cooking all the food because there was so much of it. The best part was the chocolate peanut butter dessert fondue. Oooh, baby!

This is how you see Dominic a lot

This is one of my three cats. In a way, he's the funniest of them all. They all have their own ways but he does some really cute things. One of them is sitting at the back window and staring out. He gets very interested in what appears to be absolutely nothing to me. I love when something trips his "Spidey Senses" and he sits up real tall and moves his head all weird. He really likes it when flocks of geese fly over our house every day.

He actually just did something funny. One of the things he does that's really cute is he likes to carry paper from other rooms to wherever J and I are. At night, he is busy a lot bringing paper up to our bedroom from the kitchen, the basement, wherever he can find a piece. Sometimes, he'll bring four or five pieces but by then, he gets tired and usually leaves them on the steps for us instead. He whines like he's being murdered while he's carrying the paper in his mouth and if you hear him and ask him what he's doing, he gets real happy like he's proud of himself.

When you walk by the bathroom, he runs in hoping you will turn the water on in the sink for him to play in. He loves to chew up Netflix envelopes, especially the little strip that covers up the sticky part. You have to take those away from him or he'll eat them. He hides behind corners and jumps out to try to scare you. He makes little grunting noises when he breathes sometimes. When he was a kitten I thought for sure he wasn't going to live due to some respiratory failure because I had never heard a cat make such a sound before.

At first, he seemed to absolutely hate people. Especially me. And he didn't seem to care for J very much either. Then, when J was home due to having extended periods of time off from work, he started to come around. Now, he is just the sweetest. Awww.

How am I doing so far?

So, we are four weeks into 2008. Let's check in on how well I'm keeping my New Year's Resolutions, shall we?

Let's break it down.

"Resolution Number One: Remembering and recognizing people's birthdays a little better. I'm not terrible at this right now but it's something I want to take a tad more seriously."

There have been two birthdays so far in January. A co-worker and one of my best friends. How did I do? Well, I recognized both with cards, small gifts and/or a phone call. Go me.


"Resolution Number Two: Get haircuts every eight weeks. This one sounds stupid but to me it's not because of how many times I finally get my hair to grow out but then end up having to cut it short again due to horrifying split ends."

Guess what? I had my hair appt on January 22nd. No split ends, baby! Go me.


"Resolution Number Three: Read more books. I used to read a lot, but these last few years I've really gotten away from it."

I started reading Wicked. It was getting so good and then on January 22nd while I was keeping up with resolution #2 I accidentally left the book on the counter at the salon. I haven't gone back to get it yet. But do cookbooks count? Because I've ready five cover to cover since the new year.


"Resolution Number Four: Being nicer. Being happier. Not bitching as much."

Hmmmm. This one is open to debate, I'm sure, depending on who you ask. I think I've done pretty good with this one considering how broad it was. Am I nicer? Maybe somedays. Am I happier? Um, maybe sometimes. Am I bitching less? Well...


Whatever, I'm proud of myself.

And not only am I keeping up with what I said but it's also permeated other areas of my life. Especially resolution one. I've already got all my Valentines candy bought and sitting in my pantry ready to be given out. I bought a mixed set of greeting cards so I'm prepared for different circumstances which require a card. I already bought my sister's birthday gift so I don't give her another lame ass gift card like I always do. Hopefully, she won't be disappointed and go "Uh yeah, this present sucks. Where the hell is my gift card?"

I love Sirius Radio

2008 has started off fine... the first 6 days anyway. Let's hope it continues.

So, I got Sirius radio and I am just loving it. I was against it for the longest time. I figured I could listen to regular radio for free so what was the big deal? Well, I joined "the revolution" and I couldn't be happier with it. First of all, there's Howard Stern. I have never minded Howard (unless he was talking to someone who was naked, then I sometimes got sick to my stomach). I always thought he was pretty interesting when I used to watch his tv show on E! and that Robin was such a great counterpart to him. But he has turned into a major selling point for me with Sirius. I laugh a lot more on my way to work than I did with my regular FM radio dj's. And I definitely need a little more laughter in my life on my way in to work. For sure.

Then there is the Coffee House station which I'm always listening to now. They play such great music on there and my iTunes bill just keeps getting bigger and bigger from the artists I've discovered there. They play everything from Patty Griffin to John Mayer to Amos Lee to Tracy Chapman to Beth Hart... and I like everything.

Then, of course, the Radio Classics. I'm a HUGE fan of 1940's and beyond radio shows. And a whole channel dedicated to nothing but them is great for me.

I can't write this blog anymore.

Happy New Year from me to you

Here we are... already in 2008. I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and the upcoming year is a good one.

J and I went down to the casino last night which has turned in to our New Year's tradition it seems. We have gone every year for the last four years. Unfortunately, I lost almost everything I brought with me. Slots are the worst! We were home in time to see the ball drop and then I was out after that. Yeah baby, don't I party hard in my 30's? I didn't even have one sip of alcohol. Hey, at least I don't have a hangover today... I could go out and run a marathon if I really wanted. And I don't.

Something that made me laugh this morning.... The baby going through the tunnel is what I'm specifically referring to. How cute!