Ambiguity lends itself to creativity.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Coffee
I like coffee!!! During the summer months I will order an iced non-fat, half caf/half decaf carmel latte. It's the best!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
I know I'm addicted.......but seriously....what's up with the boy figure?
I just saw this picture on the internet of LiLo (for those of you not utterly addicted to celebrity gossip, that is short for Lindsay Lohan - it's pretty sad that I know that isn't it? Oh well - I have lots of time on my hands these days. In any case, here is the picture I saw:
There WAS a pic of Lindsay Lohan here, but it was a bit too racy so I deleted it. (Plus, I couldn't stand looking at her everytime I logged onto my page). :)
Shawn and I have talked quite a bit about this and we both agree that women with no curves look like little boys with boobs. I'm sorry to be so judgmental and so superficial but it irritates me to NO end that women (or girls for that matter.....hello Paris, Nicole, Lindsay etc....) are portraying a body that is soooo unrealistic. Yes, of course I want to eat 700 calories a day, which by the way equals to an English Muffin with no butter, 2 eggs and maybe a Lean Cuisine dinner AND THAT'S IT!!! Not only are women that skinny utterly unattractive, they very much look like 11 year old little boys with boobs (some of them anyway - some of them don't even have boobs). This body image also perpetuates the idea that ALL women must be like this. Now, there are people trying to fight against this, namely the Dove campaign for "real beauty" - but even that perpetuates that ONLY having an extra 10 pounds is o.k. but nothing more than that. What happen to the days of old where women who had a little weight on them were considered beautiful because it meant that they were well taken care of? Or back in 1628 when Peter Paul Rubens painted this:
Look at those women. They were the perfect picture of beauty!!! They have PERFECT figures. Hips, boobs, a curvy waist...what more do I need to say? This is a depiction of a beautiful woman back in the mid sixteen hundreds. And look at the first picture - that is a pic of the perfect woman (or close to it) in today's opinion. Heck, in fact back in the 1980's, Cindy Crawford was a supermodel and even had a tiny bit of extra weight on her (not a whole lot, but at least the woman had hips).
I'm sorry to sound off like this, however, it really bothers me that women are not able to be who they want to be and they have to struggle every single day to strive to be someone they clearly are not. This is not to say that people should be huge and have health problems. I think that a variety of people, shapes, sizes etc... is very acceptable. It bothers me that when you watch even cartoons on TV like the Family Guy you have a large husband, a skinny wife....but what bugs me even more is that the African American couple are both big (both the husband and the wife). What? It's not ok that white women are a little larger? But it's ok if people of other races are? What's that all about? Not only does this cartoon have a bit of weight discrimination, it also has some form of racial discrimination. Not good!!! I hate the fact that little kids are subjected to the daily struggle of people on our society to be something they are not, both men and women, and learn that pattern of behavior at such a young age. I am done now!!! Thanks for listening!
There WAS a pic of Lindsay Lohan here, but it was a bit too racy so I deleted it. (Plus, I couldn't stand looking at her everytime I logged onto my page). :)
Shawn and I have talked quite a bit about this and we both agree that women with no curves look like little boys with boobs. I'm sorry to be so judgmental and so superficial but it irritates me to NO end that women (or girls for that matter.....hello Paris, Nicole, Lindsay etc....) are portraying a body that is soooo unrealistic. Yes, of course I want to eat 700 calories a day, which by the way equals to an English Muffin with no butter, 2 eggs and maybe a Lean Cuisine dinner AND THAT'S IT!!! Not only are women that skinny utterly unattractive, they very much look like 11 year old little boys with boobs (some of them anyway - some of them don't even have boobs). This body image also perpetuates the idea that ALL women must be like this. Now, there are people trying to fight against this, namely the Dove campaign for "real beauty" - but even that perpetuates that ONLY having an extra 10 pounds is o.k. but nothing more than that. What happen to the days of old where women who had a little weight on them were considered beautiful because it meant that they were well taken care of? Or back in 1628 when Peter Paul Rubens painted this:
I'm sorry to sound off like this, however, it really bothers me that women are not able to be who they want to be and they have to struggle every single day to strive to be someone they clearly are not. This is not to say that people should be huge and have health problems. I think that a variety of people, shapes, sizes etc... is very acceptable. It bothers me that when you watch even cartoons on TV like the Family Guy you have a large husband, a skinny wife....but what bugs me even more is that the African American couple are both big (both the husband and the wife). What? It's not ok that white women are a little larger? But it's ok if people of other races are? What's that all about? Not only does this cartoon have a bit of weight discrimination, it also has some form of racial discrimination. Not good!!! I hate the fact that little kids are subjected to the daily struggle of people on our society to be something they are not, both men and women, and learn that pattern of behavior at such a young age. I am done now!!! Thanks for listening!
Monday, July 24, 2006
What do you think???
As many of you may already know, my husband and I bought a house that is a definite "fixer - upper". The picture of it below is the "before" picture. Here's where you come in - I need to figure out a color to paint the house. Please please please look at the house and post a reply with what color you think would look great on the house.
Our plan is to remove the front deck and re-do the entire front yard that will make it more even and pretty beautiful. Now, all we need to do is figure out the paint color. Of course we are removing the facade shutters and will be replacing them with newer, updated facade shutters. So here's what I need from y'all - what color should the house be and what color should the trim be? We are going to paint the house within the next month so we need to decide on this ASAP.
Keep in mind that the house to the left of us is a light green and dark brown wood color and the house to the right is maroon/barn red. So what would look good on the house and in between each of those colors? I appreciate your input. :)
Our plan is to remove the front deck and re-do the entire front yard that will make it more even and pretty beautiful. Now, all we need to do is figure out the paint color. Of course we are removing the facade shutters and will be replacing them with newer, updated facade shutters. So here's what I need from y'all - what color should the house be and what color should the trim be? We are going to paint the house within the next month so we need to decide on this ASAP.
Keep in mind that the house to the left of us is a light green and dark brown wood color and the house to the right is maroon/barn red. So what would look good on the house and in between each of those colors? I appreciate your input. :)
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Home Update
We finally finished the floor in our movie theater. Now we have red walls, a white ceiling, black curtains and a very light colored wood floor. We are going to be putting white trim around the windows and doors and also white baseboards and crown molding (although I am not sure it's going to actually be 'crown' molding since I don't like that stuff too much). But, I think it's going to look cool. Now when people ask you the age old question - "What is black and white and red all over?" you can say with 100% confidence, "Carol's movie theater". LOL
We have figured out though that the dog is not a friend of the slick floor. She already fell once today - which is not good for her since she has pretty bad arthritis. But, in our defense, we are going to be putting area rugs down on the floor in a lot of places so there won't be too much for her to slip on. I am looking at the poor pooper right now and she's knocked out. She doesn't like when we come up here to do work. She is the ultimate protector and NEEDS to be with us all the time otherwise she thinks she is not doing her job. So, when Shawn and I walk in and out of the house 100 times she ALWAYS gets up from where she is sitting or laying and the blocks the door until we come back in. We would have taken her with us and let her freely walk around except that it's about 110 degrees outside today and the ground is simply too hot for her little paws to handle. In addition to that, we were using the Skil Saw and Chop Saw all day and it's a bit too loud for her sensitive ears. Plus, all we need is for her to knock one of us over while using one of those things. So we thought it best if we kept her in the air conditioned house.
On a much more positive note, I am getting used to the heat. It doesn't feel quite as hot today as it did yesterday. I went down to Folsom for a bit yesterday and thought that I was going to die when I got out of my car. It was about 120 degrees out there when you were standing on the asphalt. But, up at our house it was about 10 degrees cooler. Plus we put a window air conditioner in the bottom floor window to keep it bearable in here while we worked. So it was only about 80 degrees while we were laying floor over the weekend - thank God for little blessings.
We have figured out though that the dog is not a friend of the slick floor. She already fell once today - which is not good for her since she has pretty bad arthritis. But, in our defense, we are going to be putting area rugs down on the floor in a lot of places so there won't be too much for her to slip on. I am looking at the poor pooper right now and she's knocked out. She doesn't like when we come up here to do work. She is the ultimate protector and NEEDS to be with us all the time otherwise she thinks she is not doing her job. So, when Shawn and I walk in and out of the house 100 times she ALWAYS gets up from where she is sitting or laying and the blocks the door until we come back in. We would have taken her with us and let her freely walk around except that it's about 110 degrees outside today and the ground is simply too hot for her little paws to handle. In addition to that, we were using the Skil Saw and Chop Saw all day and it's a bit too loud for her sensitive ears. Plus, all we need is for her to knock one of us over while using one of those things. So we thought it best if we kept her in the air conditioned house.
On a much more positive note, I am getting used to the heat. It doesn't feel quite as hot today as it did yesterday. I went down to Folsom for a bit yesterday and thought that I was going to die when I got out of my car. It was about 120 degrees out there when you were standing on the asphalt. But, up at our house it was about 10 degrees cooler. Plus we put a window air conditioner in the bottom floor window to keep it bearable in here while we worked. So it was only about 80 degrees while we were laying floor over the weekend - thank God for little blessings.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Lessons from today...
I learned that when driving to a far away location, you should not caravan with an old clunker car. Why you ask? Because, maybe, just maybe in 106 degree weather, the car COULD break down 7 miles away from your destination after traveling 165 miles. I also learned that 106 degree weather feels just like 95 degrees or just like 85 degrees.
I learned that the power company has permission from the State of California to ram people up the booty on power rates during the summer. In addition to this lesson, I found out that the power company blames the state of California for your "base rate usage" - and the state blames the power company for exactly the same thing. Apparently we get something like 19 kilowatts hours alloted per day during the summer and 30 for the winter. This sucks because we do not have a WOOD BURNING AIR CONDITIONER!!!!! So how do we fix it? We boil ALL summer long in a VERY hot house unless we want to pay a $3-$4 hundred dollar a month power bill.
I learned that if Placerville gets to be about 106 degrees during the day, at 10:30pm at night, the weather is still at about a cool 93 degrees. And, for that matter, the ground is still a bit too hot to walk on.
I learned that little blessings come along everyday. For example, when our car broke down 7 miles from our house, a tow truck just "happened" to be passing by and helped us out. Thank God we did not need to stand in the 106 degree weather for more than 20 minutes. As it was, we were already dripping sweat from just standing there. Little blessings are good!
I learned that the power company has permission from the State of California to ram people up the booty on power rates during the summer. In addition to this lesson, I found out that the power company blames the state of California for your "base rate usage" - and the state blames the power company for exactly the same thing. Apparently we get something like 19 kilowatts hours alloted per day during the summer and 30 for the winter. This sucks because we do not have a WOOD BURNING AIR CONDITIONER!!!!! So how do we fix it? We boil ALL summer long in a VERY hot house unless we want to pay a $3-$4 hundred dollar a month power bill.
I learned that if Placerville gets to be about 106 degrees during the day, at 10:30pm at night, the weather is still at about a cool 93 degrees. And, for that matter, the ground is still a bit too hot to walk on.
I learned that little blessings come along everyday. For example, when our car broke down 7 miles from our house, a tow truck just "happened" to be passing by and helped us out. Thank God we did not need to stand in the 106 degree weather for more than 20 minutes. As it was, we were already dripping sweat from just standing there. Little blessings are good!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Hot Weather = Not My Friend
Ok, so I am going to sound off here for a minute so please bear with me. I have learned from Teen Mania that I should "never state the obvious". In fact, when I was a TL I enforced the whole 'stating the obvious' thing because it doesn't get you anywhere and it brings people down. Those of you that have been with TM for any length of time can relate I am sure. However, I am pretty angry about the weather these days. Even though I am moving away from the Bay Area, I AM STILL HERE - - which means that I pay overall too darn much for an apartment, gas etc.... Because of the extremely HIGH cost of living, I EXPECT that the weather is AWESOME all year round. Oh, but this is not so. It is approximately a million degrees outside right now and it's almost 9pm. In fact, the temperature is only getting down to.....uh, I don't know.......80 degrees overnight. What's up with that? I expect this kind of weather in Placerville where the cost of living is a bit lower and it's beautiful scenery out there - I mean really, there has to be a trade off right? I am a reasonable person. I know that I can't have it all.....but in the Bay Area can't I have something??? Give me either low cost of living or beautiful weather, I don't expect both. But neither - come on now. I think I am getting jipped!!!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Busy Busy Busy
I have been a bit preoccupied the last week or so. I am thinking about starting a business and have done nothing but research over the last week or so. Believe it or not, I think Shawn and I are going to be starting a toe ring business. We would likely go to art and wine festivals and set up a tent and fit people for toe rings. You know, the ones that are 'almost' permanent - not the adjustable ones. I am finding that this may be a viable business for the two of us. I am pretty excited about it - well, not necessarily about the work that has to go into it, but excited about the prospect.
I went to S.F. today to the BIG jewelry wholesale area (which you need a resale license to be admitted) and checked out the products that I am probably going to be selling. It's pretty interesting how this has all come together in about a week. I already have a resale license and business cards. Now all I need to do is get some art and craft festivals lined up and I will be in business. I had no idea starting a business was so easy. In any case, that's why I haven't posted in a while.....I have been a bit preoccupied. Actually, with all of this business talk I have neglected to prepare for my new classes this semester. I know, I know - I AM THE PROFESSOR - I should get on top of it. But to tell you the truth, I don't wanna!!! I want to play around until the end of summer. For all of those out there that think that their professors are totally on top of it, let me tell you, some of them ARE NOT. Don't let me mislead you, I am always prepared before class, but that does not mean that I don't stay up half the night the day before class to prepare. It's interesting, even though I am responsible for hundreds of students every semester, I am still a Toys-R-Us kid and I will NEVER grow up - NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!!!!!! (This attitude makes for interesting classes - LOL - always fun, but always informative and useful!!!).
Oh yeah, back to my point - my business. I came up with the name uTOEpia. I think it's cute, and it's probably going to look really cute on a sign - and it certainly looks cute on my business cards. What do you think? Do you like the name? I can remember, before my sisters wedding I got toe rings so my feet would look cute in my open toed shoes - which they did. I had actually purchased my first set of 'fitted' toe rigs a number of years before that and was hooked. It's been about 8 years now and I feel naked without them. Plus, I think feet look sooooo much cuter with them. So, if any of y'all out there would like a toe ring, I can certainly help you out. :)
I went to S.F. today to the BIG jewelry wholesale area (which you need a resale license to be admitted) and checked out the products that I am probably going to be selling. It's pretty interesting how this has all come together in about a week. I already have a resale license and business cards. Now all I need to do is get some art and craft festivals lined up and I will be in business. I had no idea starting a business was so easy. In any case, that's why I haven't posted in a while.....I have been a bit preoccupied. Actually, with all of this business talk I have neglected to prepare for my new classes this semester. I know, I know - I AM THE PROFESSOR - I should get on top of it. But to tell you the truth, I don't wanna!!! I want to play around until the end of summer. For all of those out there that think that their professors are totally on top of it, let me tell you, some of them ARE NOT. Don't let me mislead you, I am always prepared before class, but that does not mean that I don't stay up half the night the day before class to prepare. It's interesting, even though I am responsible for hundreds of students every semester, I am still a Toys-R-Us kid and I will NEVER grow up - NEVER NEVER NEVER!!!!!!!!! (This attitude makes for interesting classes - LOL - always fun, but always informative and useful!!!).
Oh yeah, back to my point - my business. I came up with the name uTOEpia. I think it's cute, and it's probably going to look really cute on a sign - and it certainly looks cute on my business cards. What do you think? Do you like the name? I can remember, before my sisters wedding I got toe rings so my feet would look cute in my open toed shoes - which they did. I had actually purchased my first set of 'fitted' toe rigs a number of years before that and was hooked. It's been about 8 years now and I feel naked without them. Plus, I think feet look sooooo much cuter with them. So, if any of y'all out there would like a toe ring, I can certainly help you out. :)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Can someone please help me???
Before I post something else interesting, I would like to know about Xanga etiquette. When someone posts a comment responding to one of my posts, how do I respond to that? Do I post a comment under their post on my blog? If I do that, do people go back to see what I have replied? Or, do I post a comment under one of their blogs? Please help!!! I don't want to be rude, but would really love to reply to people's comments on my blog, I just don't know what is customary. Thanks everyone!!!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
I have a secret
As you may already know, Shawn and I are remodeling our whole entire house. We bought the house and it was a total disaster when we bought it - we knew it needed a lot of work. So, here's my secret - I look at real estate agents websites (you know, their listing websites like MLS listings) and I look up really super expensive houses. I then look at all of the pictures for those super expensive houses. I then 'borrow' ideas with what kind of structural changes we are going to make, design ideas and paint ideas. It works really well because I know what's on the market and what is selling for a really high price. Then, we model our house after those really expensive houses, and POOF, we have a really expensive house. I am brilliant....
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Alcatraz
Here are some pics from Alcatraz last week:
Can you believe something so pretty came off of Alcatraz Island?
Can you believe something so pretty came off of Alcatraz Island?
Here's a little tip for those of us that have a little extra under the chin. When you are taking a picture of yourself like the one above, always hold the camera higher than your head a little bit so it doesn't show the double chin. LOL
In bed
I am stuck at home in bed today. I did something to my back yesterday and it's now killing me. I used a heating pad last night and this morning and it's feeling a bit better. My muscles aren't spasming too much today. But it's quite frustrating not being able to exercise. I would really like to get up and go hang out on the elliptical machine for a while. Maybe I will go later and just go really slow. I can't stand not moving around and getting at least some kind of exercise. But, I guess this will give me the opportunity to get some stuff together for my new class I am teaching next semester. I was hired at Evergreen to teach two argumentation classes which is good because it expands my field of experience for teaching. This means that I will be more equipped to teach other stuff when I get to the Placerville area.
That's it for now. I will update again later. :)
It is later (about 10:30pm) and I MUST share. My dog is CRAZY for this lowfat/lowcal frozen yogurt that we get from a place called Sweet Retreat. Shawn and I have discovered that if we give her BIG spoonfulls, she will eat the whole thing and just swallow (typical dog). So, to combat that we started packing a small amount of frozen yogurt into a red plastic cup....but tonight she ripped that apart. We had to put the remaining yogurt into a thicker plastic container so she wouldn't tear it apart. Here is a picture of her....enjoy.
That's it for now. I will update again later. :)
It is later (about 10:30pm) and I MUST share. My dog is CRAZY for this lowfat/lowcal frozen yogurt that we get from a place called Sweet Retreat. Shawn and I have discovered that if we give her BIG spoonfulls, she will eat the whole thing and just swallow (typical dog). So, to combat that we started packing a small amount of frozen yogurt into a red plastic cup....but tonight she ripped that apart. We had to put the remaining yogurt into a thicker plastic container so she wouldn't tear it apart. Here is a picture of her....enjoy.
Monday, July 10, 2006
No Make-Up
I don't know what it is, but seeing celebrities without make-up makes me happy. I checked out http://www.tmz.com and it showed Eva Longoria without make-up on and it makes me very happy (I know, I know...I shouldn't be happy about someone else's bad pictures - but I am). It makes me happy because celebrities are NOT perfect. Yes, they may skinnier than a ritz cracker - but I can say one thing - at least I am not a total (rhymes with witch) because I haven't eaten in 4 years. They are normal people who look bad without tons of airbrushed make-up, tummy girdles that hold in everything, and hair extensions that cost $3k. Have you seen JLo before she was "JLo"? She looked like a normal person - but now that she bathes in Pellegrino or Evian and gets pampered at every turn, she looks like gold. She has perfect hair, perfect nails (both toes and hands), a perfect body with no lumpies or bumpies (thank you very much body slimmers) and of course perfect skin (which I guess should be thanks to Proactiv since EVERYONE in Hollywood uses that stuff now). But, before all the glitz and glamour, all of these people looked exactly the same - NORMAL!!! As beautiful as Eva Longoria looks in Desperate Housewives (which I do not watch by the way), she looks just like any other woman walking down the street. Sighhhhhh - little blessings brighten up my day. Knowing that even Hollywoods most beautiful women are NORMAL without all the primping they do makes my day just a little bit better. :)
Saturday, July 8, 2006
A song from a long time ago that has recently touched me...I love it!
Dime Store Prophets Lyrics - Baby's Got A New Dress Lyrics
Salvation in cotton,
you've never looked this good before.
Raise your chin child, guilt is not my style.
I'm the one you're looking For.
A chemical breakfast,
and a liquid lunch,
let me be your addiction.
Said he'd love you all night long,
but in the morning he put his pants on and he was gone.
He left you naked.
I'll never leave.
Chorus:
I don't love you For your yesterday's,
I'll meet you just right where you are.
I don't care what kind of clothes you wore.
Angels sing and I confess, hallelujah, baby's got a new dress.
I watched you dancing in the arms of another,
remember, I am the jealous lover.
White looks fine on you.
It cost me a life's wages just to give it to you. My love is truth.
Who loves you baby, I do...
Salvation in cotton,
you've never looked this good before.
Raise your chin child, guilt is not my style.
I'm the one you're looking For.
A chemical breakfast,
and a liquid lunch,
let me be your addiction.
Said he'd love you all night long,
but in the morning he put his pants on and he was gone.
He left you naked.
I'll never leave.
Chorus:
I don't love you For your yesterday's,
I'll meet you just right where you are.
I don't care what kind of clothes you wore.
Angels sing and I confess, hallelujah, baby's got a new dress.
I watched you dancing in the arms of another,
remember, I am the jealous lover.
White looks fine on you.
It cost me a life's wages just to give it to you. My love is truth.
Who loves you baby, I do...
Friday, July 7, 2006
What irritates me is......
I have come to the realization that I need to update this thing before 9pm EST in order for it to post with today's date. So, I am holding my "time" place until I return from a focus group that I am participating in. But when I get back I will update this blog with things that really irritate me - the list is long, but it will be entertaining. Until then......
Here's the list...
1). Bad drivers - drivers who can't merge, drivers who stop in the middle of road because they are idiots, drivers who drive too slow and driver's who simply can't drive and cause other people to get into accidents.
2). Stupid people who can't walk - which I assume also can't drive. It irritates me so much when someone stops walking in a store right in the middle of the walkway.
3). People who don't think before they speak or act.
4). College students who are lazy!!!
5). People who are unappreciative.
6). People who feel it's their God given right to 'police' other people in EVERY situation.
7). Technology - while it's supposed to make our lives easier - I think it just takes us away from our true purpose in life.
8). Dishonest people - enough said!
9). When someone does not answer a cell phone - why have a cell phone if you are going to ignore the call?
10). Small apartments.
11). Fleas!!! Our apartment complex does not spray for fleas - and yes - it's that season again. I am a magnet for fleas - they love me and my blood.
12). Hot weather - Placerville is pretty hot during the summer - why am I moving there again? Oh yeah, because it's gorgeous there and very close to Lake Tahoe.
13). Cleaning the apartment - there is no place to put anything and it's a never ending battle.
14). Not being able to be on missions right now.
15). (deleted for fear of the wrong people coming across this comment) :)
16). Having chronic insomnia.
17). Living in a place where "the whore from next door" (I know, not the best name we have given her - but she literally has a revolving door to her apartment - well, actually, her mom's apartment) has sex against our common wall from 2am to 4am. Before you ask - yes it was loud - yes it was rhythmatic - YES it WAS sex (amongst other stuff) - yes it lasted 2 hours (actually, it was 2 or 3 times in 2 hours) - and yes, it IS her mother's apartment, but her mother was gone that weekend.
18). Kids who are perpetually blaring music in the pool area.
19). My back perpetually bothering me - even though I try to do stuff to make it better.
20). Video games (I am not going to expand on this - but I am sure you can imagine - see the movie Prime for the video game comment)
This is by no means an extensive list - but for now it will do. If you couldn't tell, today was a bad day! ;) Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Here's the list...
1). Bad drivers - drivers who can't merge, drivers who stop in the middle of road because they are idiots, drivers who drive too slow and driver's who simply can't drive and cause other people to get into accidents.
2). Stupid people who can't walk - which I assume also can't drive. It irritates me so much when someone stops walking in a store right in the middle of the walkway.
3). People who don't think before they speak or act.
4). College students who are lazy!!!
5). People who are unappreciative.
6). People who feel it's their God given right to 'police' other people in EVERY situation.
7). Technology - while it's supposed to make our lives easier - I think it just takes us away from our true purpose in life.
8). Dishonest people - enough said!
9). When someone does not answer a cell phone - why have a cell phone if you are going to ignore the call?
10). Small apartments.
11). Fleas!!! Our apartment complex does not spray for fleas - and yes - it's that season again. I am a magnet for fleas - they love me and my blood.
12). Hot weather - Placerville is pretty hot during the summer - why am I moving there again? Oh yeah, because it's gorgeous there and very close to Lake Tahoe.
13). Cleaning the apartment - there is no place to put anything and it's a never ending battle.
14). Not being able to be on missions right now.
15). (deleted for fear of the wrong people coming across this comment) :)
16). Having chronic insomnia.
17). Living in a place where "the whore from next door" (I know, not the best name we have given her - but she literally has a revolving door to her apartment - well, actually, her mom's apartment) has sex against our common wall from 2am to 4am. Before you ask - yes it was loud - yes it was rhythmatic - YES it WAS sex (amongst other stuff) - yes it lasted 2 hours (actually, it was 2 or 3 times in 2 hours) - and yes, it IS her mother's apartment, but her mother was gone that weekend.
18). Kids who are perpetually blaring music in the pool area.
19). My back perpetually bothering me - even though I try to do stuff to make it better.
20). Video games (I am not going to expand on this - but I am sure you can imagine - see the movie Prime for the video game comment)
This is by no means an extensive list - but for now it will do. If you couldn't tell, today was a bad day! ;) Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Which Golden Girl are you? This is NOT a quiz!!!
I am finally back from dinner with two of my closest friends and one of their moms. I had a good time. But let's get back to my point here. I was on the elliptical machine today and I came across the Golden Girls on TV. I was thinking, "which Golden Girl would I be?" Would I be Blanch? The ultra glamorous, promiscuous lady? Probably not since I was a virgin until I was married (and I was 27 folks - that's a loooonnnnnngggg time to wait) and I really like to knock around the house in yoga pants and tank tops - plus I pretty much hate frilly clothes. Would I be Sofia? The ultra independent, yet dependent Italian mother? Probably not right now - maybe when I get older. Would I be Rose? I don't think I have many horrible and virtually pointless stories - but some may disagree....lol. I really think that I would be Dorothy. I hate to say that because she is the least attractive of all of them, but I think when I get older I will be just like her. Sharp, sarcastic, witty, intelligent and full of life. She is a teacher - and she's got a fashion sense that I would probably adopt when I am older. Right now I really like to wear frumpy clothes, which Dorothy is the queen of - and I think I will probably take it a step further when I get older - but who knows, maybe I will be the queen of fashion when I am older. But it would probably safe to say that I will be somewhat like her when I get older. Which Golden Girl are you?
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Dear Abby
This is not a letter to Dear Abby - this is a confession. While I have never written to Dear Abby with a problem, I am addicted. I read the column everyday almost without fail. I have a sickness. I am also addicted to Hollywood gossip, local news sites and checking my email. I check all of these everyday to the point of obsession. While I am teaching at San Jose State or De Anza, I check my classes email about 20 times a day - no lie. It's my main form of communication with my family, friends and students. My husband sometimes gets mad at me for checking so many times a day, but I can't help it. How much easier is it if an instructor is readily available when you need them? And how much does it suck when you are stuck on an assignment and can't get in touch with them? That's why I do it (well, the email part anyway). I also look up celebrity gossip online at least twice a week if not more. I need to know what's going on with my peeps. Did Brad and Angelina break up? Did Ben Affleck make another horrible movie or loose more hair? Did Lindsay Lohan get into yet another fight with Paris Hilton? Did Britney and Kevin break up yet (because you know it's inevitable right?). Although I wish no ill will towards anyone, there are just some things you can see coming from a mile away. But the point is, I think I have a sickness! I NEED to know what is going on in my world. And it's not just trivial stuff - just yesterday I read that North Korea sent test rockets into the ocean (can someone say, "Hello next world war?") and Bush has taken it as a provocative move. Duh, of course it's provocative. Kim Jong Il (if you've ever seen pictures) has the biggest hair I have ever seen. Seriously, this guy has some height issues amongst many other issues - can we say "inferiority complex?". Now, I don't want to talk about politics because I am bound to piss someone off. But my point here is that I HAVE to see the news. I get up early enough to watch at least a half hour of news in the morning, then I check my local news websites, and of course Dear Abby, check my email and then I can get up and take a shower. Unless I know what the heck is going on in the world I can't function! I think this all started with the whole 9/11 thing. Shawn and I were talking about this the other day, how surreal the whole experience was watching the second plane crash into the towers. Ever since then I have been glued to the TV in the mornings and can't leave the house without seeing something on the news. The mornings that I am running late and can't watch, I have to check the news websites the first chance I get.
I know, I know - I need to stop, but I don't want to (I sound like a 5 year old don't I? - yikes - Amber, was that a blast from the past? "5 year old" comments - lol - I was soooo mean back then - sorry babe!!!). Some days I long for the times when I was in Russia, Peru or Kazakhstan. There was no communication with anyone or anything and I was happy. I was happy to know what was going on in the lives of the people around me. Or even in the Internship (for those of you that read my blog, I am sure that you are aware that it was called the Internship before it was called the Honor Academy - therefore it will always be known to me as "The Internship") when there was NO tv, no newspapers and the only thing we listened to was Christian CD's. Dave Hasz used to make fun of us for not knowing what was going on in the world - uh, hello Dave - get us a TV and we will watch CNN (jk Dave!!!) It was amazing though how much we didn't know about what was going on in the world. As soon as I got home I began asking everyone to tell me what the heck has gone on in the last year. It was kind of weird, like coming out of a coma. Anyway - that's my blurb for today. I will most certainly update again tomorrow - but not before watching the news. :)
I know, I know - I need to stop, but I don't want to (I sound like a 5 year old don't I? - yikes - Amber, was that a blast from the past? "5 year old" comments - lol - I was soooo mean back then - sorry babe!!!). Some days I long for the times when I was in Russia, Peru or Kazakhstan. There was no communication with anyone or anything and I was happy. I was happy to know what was going on in the lives of the people around me. Or even in the Internship (for those of you that read my blog, I am sure that you are aware that it was called the Internship before it was called the Honor Academy - therefore it will always be known to me as "The Internship") when there was NO tv, no newspapers and the only thing we listened to was Christian CD's. Dave Hasz used to make fun of us for not knowing what was going on in the world - uh, hello Dave - get us a TV and we will watch CNN (jk Dave!!!) It was amazing though how much we didn't know about what was going on in the world. As soon as I got home I began asking everyone to tell me what the heck has gone on in the last year. It was kind of weird, like coming out of a coma. Anyway - that's my blurb for today. I will most certainly update again tomorrow - but not before watching the news. :)
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
The adventures of Tess Part 1
I could probably write a book about my dog. Most of the time she is a typical dog - loves going on walks, loves being pet by her humans and loves sleeping. But every once and a while she does something to push us over the edge. If you remember, a number of weeks back she pulled an entire bowl of spare ribs off of our counter and ate it - which inevitably resulted in 2-3 days of a sick doggie at our expense. A few weeks before that she had doggie blisters on her paws (our fault) and had to be carried up and down our apartment stairs at least 3 times a day and could barely walk around the apartment for a while. Well, the puppy is at it again. For those of you that are dog lovers, you're gonna love this.
This past Friday, Shawn and I were going out to the movies to see Superman with some friends. Before that, we went to the store and got some Tri-tip for sandwiches on Saturday. We went to Albertson's - which always has a bbq on the weekends and they make the BEST tri-tip that you can purchase already cooked. So we bought a small piece, enough for about 4 generous portion sandwiches over the next few days. Since the meat had just come off the bbq, it needed to sit on the counter to cool off. (Can you see where this is going?) So, Shawn and I had to stop by the movie theater in the afternoon for the movie that night just so we had tickets in case they sold out. After going to the store and coming home, and leaving the meat on the counter to cool, we were off to the movies. We got back about 30 minutes later and come home to meat juice on the carpet and no tri-tip. Yes, that's right - the damn dog took it off the counter and ate THE WHOLE THING. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except when the person at the store was packing it up, I asked them to put some sauteed onions in the container with the meat (I liked cooked onions on my tri-tip sandwiches). Yes, that's right folks - my dog ate onions. Onions are toxic to dogs!!!! So, by the time we got home, Tess had eaten the whole tri-tip and ALL of the onions. I totally freaked out. I had Shawn look up our vets phone number, but they were unable to help. We had to call the Animal Poison Control Center (I had no idea such a thing existed - but it does). So I get on the phone and ask them about the onions - and they kindly let me know that there is going to be a $55 dollar charge to talk to a licensed vet. That's right folks - the damn dog got the meat - AND $55 dollars of my money - all because she is a total freak. Now, don't get me wrong - I love this dog and would do almost anything for her - but this made me mad. I finally get a vet on the phone and they told us to induce vomiting because she could pretty much die from ingesting the onions (if you have time, check out what onions do to a dogs system - it's pretty nasty). So, we give the dog 4 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (please don't try this without the advice of a vet because this amount of peroxide was determined by the vet for Tess' weight and breed) mixed with some frozen yogurt (the dog LOVES frozen yogurt - but I will leave that for another post). She lops that up and we wait. It takes about 10 minutes for her to start puking - but finally she throws up EVERYTHING. I then had to put on some gloves (2 layers) and, get this, dig through the 'stuff' to make sure that she puked up most of the onions. That's right folks, I was on my hands and knees digging through doggie puke to make sure that she got everything out so she wouldn't be - and excuse my pun here - sick as a dog. The poor thing puked like 5 times - but it was all worth it because she is fine. No sickness - nothing! Thank God for the Animal Poison Control - otherwise it would have been touch and go for the next 3-5 days or so (that's how long it takes for onion poisoning to take effect - and let me tell you, the effects are nasty and could potentially be deadly). Life lesson (yet again) - DO NOT LEAVE FOOD ON THE COUNTER - FOR IF IT IS WITHIN TESS' REACH - SHE WILL BE SURE TO EAT IT!!!!!
This past Friday, Shawn and I were going out to the movies to see Superman with some friends. Before that, we went to the store and got some Tri-tip for sandwiches on Saturday. We went to Albertson's - which always has a bbq on the weekends and they make the BEST tri-tip that you can purchase already cooked. So we bought a small piece, enough for about 4 generous portion sandwiches over the next few days. Since the meat had just come off the bbq, it needed to sit on the counter to cool off. (Can you see where this is going?) So, Shawn and I had to stop by the movie theater in the afternoon for the movie that night just so we had tickets in case they sold out. After going to the store and coming home, and leaving the meat on the counter to cool, we were off to the movies. We got back about 30 minutes later and come home to meat juice on the carpet and no tri-tip. Yes, that's right - the damn dog took it off the counter and ate THE WHOLE THING. This wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except when the person at the store was packing it up, I asked them to put some sauteed onions in the container with the meat (I liked cooked onions on my tri-tip sandwiches). Yes, that's right folks - my dog ate onions. Onions are toxic to dogs!!!! So, by the time we got home, Tess had eaten the whole tri-tip and ALL of the onions. I totally freaked out. I had Shawn look up our vets phone number, but they were unable to help. We had to call the Animal Poison Control Center (I had no idea such a thing existed - but it does). So I get on the phone and ask them about the onions - and they kindly let me know that there is going to be a $55 dollar charge to talk to a licensed vet. That's right folks - the damn dog got the meat - AND $55 dollars of my money - all because she is a total freak. Now, don't get me wrong - I love this dog and would do almost anything for her - but this made me mad. I finally get a vet on the phone and they told us to induce vomiting because she could pretty much die from ingesting the onions (if you have time, check out what onions do to a dogs system - it's pretty nasty). So, we give the dog 4 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide (please don't try this without the advice of a vet because this amount of peroxide was determined by the vet for Tess' weight and breed) mixed with some frozen yogurt (the dog LOVES frozen yogurt - but I will leave that for another post). She lops that up and we wait. It takes about 10 minutes for her to start puking - but finally she throws up EVERYTHING. I then had to put on some gloves (2 layers) and, get this, dig through the 'stuff' to make sure that she puked up most of the onions. That's right folks, I was on my hands and knees digging through doggie puke to make sure that she got everything out so she wouldn't be - and excuse my pun here - sick as a dog. The poor thing puked like 5 times - but it was all worth it because she is fine. No sickness - nothing! Thank God for the Animal Poison Control - otherwise it would have been touch and go for the next 3-5 days or so (that's how long it takes for onion poisoning to take effect - and let me tell you, the effects are nasty and could potentially be deadly). Life lesson (yet again) - DO NOT LEAVE FOOD ON THE COUNTER - FOR IF IT IS WITHIN TESS' REACH - SHE WILL BE SURE TO EAT IT!!!!!
Friday, June 30, 2006
The most fun game EVER.... (for me) :)
Shawn and I play this game.....well, I should say I play a game, Shawn is just an innocent bystander. Sometimes I get in a rambunctious mood and try to irritate Shawn as much as possible just to see how far I can push him. I certainly think that this game is pretty funny - Shawn however does not like this game at all. Tonight, after we went to go see the movie Click (which was an o.k. movie - Vanessa seemed to like it quite a bit. Me, ummmm, I still haven't decided what I think about it yet) and we were hanging out in our living room. I start to irritate him by pushing his buttons (isn't that always the way? The person you love the most knows how to irritate you more than anyone in the world?) and touching him on his face, almost like the "I'm not touching you" game, but I really am touching him and trying to irritate him. Usually this game ends up with one of us really irritated or angry, but I keep on playing it anyway. I think there is something in me that wants to figure out just how far I can push him - which I know isn't the greatest thing in the world, but there is almost a point to it. When I do this I am usually in a pretty rambunctious mood and want to wrestle with the man (literally wrestle). When we were dating, it would get so deep into wrestling that I have ended up on the floor a number of times and so has he. No major injuries though - bruises, scrapes, cuts, etc.... are pretty normal, but no broken bones yet. Shawn used to get really into this, and so did I to tell you the truth. But we don't really wrestle anymore since we got the dog. Tess gets pretty scared and acts out quite a bit because she doesn't understand that we are just playing. She thinks we are serious and needs to protect us. She will sometimes jump on the bed and try to get right in the middle of us to break it up (our wrestling matches usually take place at night - and we live in an apartment now which doesn't bode well with the neighbors). So, maybe my irritation game is a subconscious replacement of our wrestling. Come to think of it, when we used to play the "let's irritate Shawn" game, it usually ended up in a pretty fun wrestling match. In fact, for those of you that used to watch WWF wrestling - I have used the "superfly" move a number of times. Pretty fun move - but I must warn you, it must be planned out otherwise you will hurt yourself quite a bit. Good thing I have never had a bad landing (you know, since I have a really bad back). Luck I guess - but lots of fun! :)
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Impress your significant other with this recipe....
I just made the BEST dinner and I had to share it. This is actually based on a recipe I had at The Stinking Rose in San Francisco. It is a Pesto and Arugula Pasta and it's the BEST pasta dish ever. So, take this recipe and impress your husband/wife/partner/parents etc... This is also a GREAT dish to serve if you have having company - it will impress the pants off people and it's sooooo easy! Here you go:
Pasta - enough for the amount of people you are serving (I used bowtie pasta)
Pesto - Here's the easy part. Don't make it, but it at the store already prepared (it either comes in a bottle or in the refrigerated section.
Grape Tomatoes (small) - cut them in half, but leave them raw.
Arugula - leave this raw as well
Parmesan Cheese - NOT THE GREEN CAN (you know what i'm talking about). Either get a block of it and shave it yourself or purchase it in the container that is shaved, not grated.
OPTIONAL: -Chicken pieces or shrimp (you can add one of these if you don't want vegetarian pasta - I am a fan of the vegetarian version).
-Sauteed mushrooms
Cook the pasta until al dente (or almost done - but still has a bit of a bite to it). Drain. Add as much pesto as you'd like. Right before you serve it, add about 8 pieces of arugula per plate. Toss it lightly so you don't break the leaves. At this point you can add in the chicken/shrimp/mushrooms if you so choose. Plate each portion and add the tomatoes on top of each portion (about 10-12 pieces per plate -- or to your liking). After you do this, add grated parmesan cheese to taste.
This dinner was one of the best dinners I have made yet. My husband doesn't really like the arugula because it's not cooked (he says that there are plants growing in his dinner...lol), but to the sophisticated palate (that sounded snobby didn't it? Sorry!), it adds depth and flavor to the dish. I must say though, don't overdo it with the arugula because it does have a bit of a different taste, so people may not like it too much. Also, I added plain sauteed mushrooms to it (but that's just because I really like mushrooms). Other things that would go GREAT in this dish are sprinkling the individual plates with pine nuts or adding in sun dried tomatoes. Either of these would be great. This is a dish that I call "semi-homemade" because it takes about 15 minutes, but it's restaurant quality. Let me know if you have any questions. :) Happy cooking!
Pasta - enough for the amount of people you are serving (I used bowtie pasta)
Pesto - Here's the easy part. Don't make it, but it at the store already prepared (it either comes in a bottle or in the refrigerated section.
Grape Tomatoes (small) - cut them in half, but leave them raw.
Arugula - leave this raw as well
Parmesan Cheese - NOT THE GREEN CAN (you know what i'm talking about). Either get a block of it and shave it yourself or purchase it in the container that is shaved, not grated.
OPTIONAL: -Chicken pieces or shrimp (you can add one of these if you don't want vegetarian pasta - I am a fan of the vegetarian version).
-Sauteed mushrooms
Cook the pasta until al dente (or almost done - but still has a bit of a bite to it). Drain. Add as much pesto as you'd like. Right before you serve it, add about 8 pieces of arugula per plate. Toss it lightly so you don't break the leaves. At this point you can add in the chicken/shrimp/mushrooms if you so choose. Plate each portion and add the tomatoes on top of each portion (about 10-12 pieces per plate -- or to your liking). After you do this, add grated parmesan cheese to taste.
This dinner was one of the best dinners I have made yet. My husband doesn't really like the arugula because it's not cooked (he says that there are plants growing in his dinner...lol), but to the sophisticated palate (that sounded snobby didn't it? Sorry!), it adds depth and flavor to the dish. I must say though, don't overdo it with the arugula because it does have a bit of a different taste, so people may not like it too much. Also, I added plain sauteed mushrooms to it (but that's just because I really like mushrooms). Other things that would go GREAT in this dish are sprinkling the individual plates with pine nuts or adding in sun dried tomatoes. Either of these would be great. This is a dish that I call "semi-homemade" because it takes about 15 minutes, but it's restaurant quality. Let me know if you have any questions. :) Happy cooking!
Food by the Calorie
I went to Shawn's work to meet him for lunch today. I do this at least once a week because we normally watch TV while we are eating dinner and when we go out to lunch, we actually talk. I had a thought about the price of food and nutritional value. Now we all know that a lot of foods that you can get at restaurants are high in fat and calories - too many calories and lots of fat (unless you are VERY careful about what you order). The healthier things are usually more expensive - why? I don't quite know. Healthier foods are normally unprocessed and natural which means less preparation, less additives etc... which should mean less money right? You get the picture. Most of us really want to watch what we eat when we go out. Now, here's my idea - how about grocery stores and restaurants charge by the calorie? So, if you want a salad (of my favorite things to eat is simple cut up raw veggies with low fat dressing - cut out the lettuce - just the veggies), you pay a lot less than the person who wants a burger and fries that has like a million calories. I would love to open up a restaurant that does this. Think about it, going to a place where a plate of raw veggies costs you about 3 dollars. Add a chicken breasts for 150 calories onto that and you have a perfect meal for like 4 dollars.
On a little bit of a side note, I had my interview with Evergreen yesterday and it appears as though I did a pretty good job. The person that I interviewed with seemed very positive about me joining the adjunct team of instructors - which I am pretty happy about. I will find out definitely tomorrow, so I will update y'all then! I may post later - so stay tuned!!! :)
On a little bit of a side note, I had my interview with Evergreen yesterday and it appears as though I did a pretty good job. The person that I interviewed with seemed very positive about me joining the adjunct team of instructors - which I am pretty happy about. I will find out definitely tomorrow, so I will update y'all then! I may post later - so stay tuned!!! :)
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
The Land of No Leashes
So, a couple times a week the husband and I take Tess Monster on a walk to a place we like to call "The Land of No Leashes". This is a park close to our apartment where we can let Tess of the leash and let her have some free time to herself to sniff and smell and occasionally try to chase a bird or catch a frog. We took her there last night, and being her usual self, she had a great time off the leash. I must preface this though, she is VERY good about listening to us and responding when we call her back. In fact, if she chases something and we call her back in an authoritative tone, she will stop dead in her tracks and come right back to us - for this we are very thankful. We wouldn't do it otherwise. In any case, we were walking along and noticed that hundreds of little things were hoping along the ground. Now, in California this could be anything from grasshoppers to flies. But this was different - apparently we stumbled into froggy breeding ground. There were literally hundreds of froggies hopping along the ground where we were trying to walk. Being the kindhearted individual that I am, I stomped on all that I saw! Just kidding! I am not that kind of person - to know me is to know that I can't kill anything except spiders (and I even go so far as to let daddy long legs outside of the house by capturing them - I like those, they don't bit people very often). In any case, I told the husband that we needed to leave that place because I didn't want to kill any baby froggies just trying to get to the water.
Shawn thinks it's funny that I am so careful about little creatures on the ground. When it's wet outside, I have to look at every step I take for fear of crushing a snail (all of which have the name of "Harvey" or "Harvey's Cousin"). So when Shawn and I go for walks with the dog when it's wet out, my all too common saying is, "Baby, watch out for Harvey. He's trying to get across the sidewalk. Be careful please!". He thinks it's cute - but I think it's necessary! And when one of us does accidentally step on one my common saying is, "Oh no!!! You killed Harvey!!! Bad Shawn!!!"
I know, I know - I am a quirky person. But being quirky keeps life interesting right?
Shawn thinks it's funny that I am so careful about little creatures on the ground. When it's wet outside, I have to look at every step I take for fear of crushing a snail (all of which have the name of "Harvey" or "Harvey's Cousin"). So when Shawn and I go for walks with the dog when it's wet out, my all too common saying is, "Baby, watch out for Harvey. He's trying to get across the sidewalk. Be careful please!". He thinks it's cute - but I think it's necessary! And when one of us does accidentally step on one my common saying is, "Oh no!!! You killed Harvey!!! Bad Shawn!!!"
I know, I know - I am a quirky person. But being quirky keeps life interesting right?
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Ugghhhhhh.....I can't wait for tomorrow to be over!!!!
I have to give a final exam at 7:00am (or as I like to call it - the butt crack of dawn!). Then I have an interview at 10:30am at Evergreen College for picking up a couple of argumentation classes. I hate interviewing - I mean really HATE it! I don't like talking about myself in front of people I have never met. However, I must say that interviews with college's are a bit better than interviews in the corporate world. The corporate world SUCKS!!! Enough about that.... let's talk about the weather.
So, I live in the Bay Area and the weather here is supposed to be great right? Not the last couple of weeks. I did not sign up to live in Florida. Now, don't get me wrong, 85 degrees is MUCH better than the 105 degree weather that we were painting in last week. However, the humidity level is at about 60% - which all in all isn't bad - but mix that with 85 or 90 degree weather and it totally sucks booty! I feel like I am in Texas again at TM or training in Florida. I have kept the air conditioning on the whole day. This means that our power bill is going to pretty much kill us this month. Good thing it's only hot here for like 3 months or so during the year.
I know I keep referring to Farscape, but when I am in the heat I feel like it's the "living death". What this means is, Peacekeepers have a condition that if they get too hot, they go into shock pretty much and then they go into a state called the "Living Death". This is where their mind is still alive, but their body is in a perpetual state of dying. It's like being stuck in between a world of life and a world of death. That's exactly what the heat feels like to me. I hate humid heat. This is why I want to move to a place near the beach in California, Oregon or Washington - because it's pretty temperate weather there. I like rain, I like snow, I like Spring weather and Fall weather - but I HATE summer weather. I have been hanging out in the pool quite a bit lately, but not much sunbathing because I can't stand the heat when I am laying there. If I sweat from the heat while I sunbathe, it's really bad - like I said, it's the living death. Enough for now! :) Love you all!!!
So, I live in the Bay Area and the weather here is supposed to be great right? Not the last couple of weeks. I did not sign up to live in Florida. Now, don't get me wrong, 85 degrees is MUCH better than the 105 degree weather that we were painting in last week. However, the humidity level is at about 60% - which all in all isn't bad - but mix that with 85 or 90 degree weather and it totally sucks booty! I feel like I am in Texas again at TM or training in Florida. I have kept the air conditioning on the whole day. This means that our power bill is going to pretty much kill us this month. Good thing it's only hot here for like 3 months or so during the year.
I know I keep referring to Farscape, but when I am in the heat I feel like it's the "living death". What this means is, Peacekeepers have a condition that if they get too hot, they go into shock pretty much and then they go into a state called the "Living Death". This is where their mind is still alive, but their body is in a perpetual state of dying. It's like being stuck in between a world of life and a world of death. That's exactly what the heat feels like to me. I hate humid heat. This is why I want to move to a place near the beach in California, Oregon or Washington - because it's pretty temperate weather there. I like rain, I like snow, I like Spring weather and Fall weather - but I HATE summer weather. I have been hanging out in the pool quite a bit lately, but not much sunbathing because I can't stand the heat when I am laying there. If I sweat from the heat while I sunbathe, it's really bad - like I said, it's the living death. Enough for now! :) Love you all!!!
Monday, June 26, 2006
It's been a frustrating day
So, I now have an interview with Evergreen which is good. They called today and want to meet me on Wednesday - it sounds promising. I am excited at the prospect of expanding my teaching experience. I would really like to teach Interpersonal Communication, Small Group Communication or Intercultural Communication. Any of these would be ideal for me and pretty fun since I loved all of these classes when I was an undergrad!
I got my hair cut today. I was thinking about growing it out and donating it to Locks of Love, but have decided that I can't stand it anymore and needed to chop it off. Now it is shoulder length again and layered. I like it - it's very summer-y.
I am feeling a bit discouraged with this whole writing thing. I have so many ideas, but none of which I feel completely connected to. The latest idea I had was for a children's book. Three or four people meet at a summer camp and become friends even though two of the people start off really disliking each other. They are brought together by a mutual friend and the three of them become fast friends. Through breaking the rules and sneaking out in the middle of the night, they discover an entrance into another world (what this world is going to be, I have no idea yet). While in this alternate universe one of them gets kidnapped and the other two have to figure out how to get the third kid back. Once they figure out how to get the kid back, they return to their camp (in the normal world). This is when the summer ends and they all return to their respective homes and wait until next summer to meet up again. This time they are a year older. I have not figured out what is going to happen in the alternate world or what characters are going to be involved yet - but I hoping this idea will take shape and be a viable story line.
What I really want is an idea that I can fall in love with and will be compelled so much to write about these characters that I physically cannot not write. I also want there to be interpersonal aspects to the characters the I write - something deep - something that will connect with people. I have a feeling that I will not product a book for many years to come! But that's ok, it will happen when it's supposed to happen I guess. Until tomorrow......
I got my hair cut today. I was thinking about growing it out and donating it to Locks of Love, but have decided that I can't stand it anymore and needed to chop it off. Now it is shoulder length again and layered. I like it - it's very summer-y.
I am feeling a bit discouraged with this whole writing thing. I have so many ideas, but none of which I feel completely connected to. The latest idea I had was for a children's book. Three or four people meet at a summer camp and become friends even though two of the people start off really disliking each other. They are brought together by a mutual friend and the three of them become fast friends. Through breaking the rules and sneaking out in the middle of the night, they discover an entrance into another world (what this world is going to be, I have no idea yet). While in this alternate universe one of them gets kidnapped and the other two have to figure out how to get the third kid back. Once they figure out how to get the kid back, they return to their camp (in the normal world). This is when the summer ends and they all return to their respective homes and wait until next summer to meet up again. This time they are a year older. I have not figured out what is going to happen in the alternate world or what characters are going to be involved yet - but I hoping this idea will take shape and be a viable story line.
What I really want is an idea that I can fall in love with and will be compelled so much to write about these characters that I physically cannot not write. I also want there to be interpersonal aspects to the characters the I write - something deep - something that will connect with people. I have a feeling that I will not product a book for many years to come! But that's ok, it will happen when it's supposed to happen I guess. Until tomorrow......
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Lessons from the weekend
This weekend was quite interesting. Shawn and I traveled up to our house in Placerville to paint our "movie theater"....of all colors, red! I learned that painting with red paint is quite the task. We had previously sealed the walls, with white primer. Once we started painting we realized what a difficult task this was going to be. We painted 3 coats of red and we are going to have to paint an additional 2 coats at least. The bright side of this is that the room is going to look amazing. I really hope some of our friends and family will get to benefit from all of our hard work, because if it is just Shawn and I using this room all the time, it's not going to be quite worth it to us.
To top off the painting, it was one of the hottest weekends in Placerville. It was 105 degrees - and boy was it a pain in the butt to paint in that weather. So, here are the lessons from this weekend:
-When painting with red, use the gray primer as suggested and don't use white primer, no matter if you think you "know better"
-Paint in medium weather, not cold weather because the paint will not dry properly, nor hot weather because it will pretty much kill you in the process. (If anyone watches Farscape out there, it is like the living death!)
-Try to seclude your dog from the painting area, because you may just end up with a red dog.....LOL!!! Poor Tess Monster, she has a red tail and red paws, but she is fine!
The brighter side of the weekend was that we can finally see the fruits of our labor come to pass. It is so hard living 3 hours from the house we are remodeling. We can't just go over there at a moments notice to remodel - we have to plan ahead of time and make sure we have all of the supplies needed otherwise we will end up at Home Depot 20 times before starting a project. If y'all remember, we are flooring the movie theater this weekend with pergo flooring - pray that it goes smoothly please. Shawn is going to be working his little heart out (as will I, I think - depending on how my back feels), and it would be great if the process happened smoothly. Since we are talking about prayer requests, I was emailed a couple of days ago by a community college in this area, they want to interview me for some classes, which would be great since we need the money. I will probably hear back sometime this week. I hope I get to pick up those classes since they will be new classes (meaning I have never taught them before) and it will look good on my vitae (an academic resume). In any case, both of those need some prayers! Talk to y'all tomorrow!
To top off the painting, it was one of the hottest weekends in Placerville. It was 105 degrees - and boy was it a pain in the butt to paint in that weather. So, here are the lessons from this weekend:
-When painting with red, use the gray primer as suggested and don't use white primer, no matter if you think you "know better"
-Paint in medium weather, not cold weather because the paint will not dry properly, nor hot weather because it will pretty much kill you in the process. (If anyone watches Farscape out there, it is like the living death!)
-Try to seclude your dog from the painting area, because you may just end up with a red dog.....LOL!!! Poor Tess Monster, she has a red tail and red paws, but she is fine!
The brighter side of the weekend was that we can finally see the fruits of our labor come to pass. It is so hard living 3 hours from the house we are remodeling. We can't just go over there at a moments notice to remodel - we have to plan ahead of time and make sure we have all of the supplies needed otherwise we will end up at Home Depot 20 times before starting a project. If y'all remember, we are flooring the movie theater this weekend with pergo flooring - pray that it goes smoothly please. Shawn is going to be working his little heart out (as will I, I think - depending on how my back feels), and it would be great if the process happened smoothly. Since we are talking about prayer requests, I was emailed a couple of days ago by a community college in this area, they want to interview me for some classes, which would be great since we need the money. I will probably hear back sometime this week. I hope I get to pick up those classes since they will be new classes (meaning I have never taught them before) and it will look good on my vitae (an academic resume). In any case, both of those need some prayers! Talk to y'all tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
I just realized
Hmmm, I just realized that anyone could be reading my blog. I know you are probably saying to yourself, "duhhh", but really, it just dawned on me. This is one of those things that I already knew, but didn't REALLY think about it until just now. You know when you really sit down and think about who is reading your thoughts on the internet, it can get kind of weird. I have tracked a few people from my "footprints" area on Xanga, and everyone I have checked out so far I don't mind reading this - but there are some people that kind of weird me out a bit. What if an ex-boyfriend stumbles upon this page? Or, what if a stalker (not that anything that interesting would ever happen to me, nor would I want it to) were to come and visit my page everyday just waiting for me to post a blog? Ewwww!!! But, I guess that's the risk you take for having a Xanga page. Let's talk about something a bit more interesting - actually two things a bit more interesting.
I was watching the Maury show today and I was amazed! I need to explain though that I don't normally watch talk shows or daytime TV because I think it's a waste of time. But today I was working out for a very long time (a long time to me is about 65 minutes non-stop on the elliptical machine) and decided I wanted to watch TV. What came on really made me cringe. Mothers had brought their 2, 3, 4 & 5 year olds on Maury because they were extremely overweight. Now, I am not talking just 10 or 15 pounds - I am talking a 5 year old weighing 212 pounds and could barely walk. Every mother had pretty much the same story. They fed the kid whatever they wanted and felt bad about saying no. All I could think was, "you are the mother, you say NO". Kids need boundaries, very clear boundaries!!! If you are going to give in on everything, what are you teaching your kid? You are teaching them that they are in control, not you, the adult. Now, I don't have any kids, and don't really plan on having kids for quite a while (I am a Toys-R-Us kid myself and don't feel ready for babies), but I do know that you need to draw very clear boundaries and put kids in their place when it's necessary. The first time a kid throws a temper tantrum, that's it - I would walk away until they were finished and then confront the situation once they decided they were done. My mom did this and I never had another one. I learned at a very early age that I was NOT in control, my parents were and I needed to respect that. I did push the envelope quite a bit, but knew who was ultimately in charge.
Speaking of working out, I am neurotic. I am only teaching a couple days a week right now and have tons of time to myself - thus the book idea (see an earlier post). I kind of have the opinion that I NEED to workout everyday otherwise I am going to get really really fat. I know that's not true, but I can't get it out of my head that I should workout every single day. I used to workout for 30 minutes, and now I am up to 45mins. to 65 mins a day. And, once I up my workout time I can't go back otherwise I am disappointed in myself. I think I am a little obsessive. I worked out for 65 minutes today and think that I am going to do the same tomorrow. My friends keep telling me that I need to slow it down and give my body a day to rest (and normally I do), but when that day of rest comes, all I can think about it working out. I can't just have a day to relax, I constantly think about it. So there's a little tidbit into my workout obsession! I need help! LOL
I was watching the Maury show today and I was amazed! I need to explain though that I don't normally watch talk shows or daytime TV because I think it's a waste of time. But today I was working out for a very long time (a long time to me is about 65 minutes non-stop on the elliptical machine) and decided I wanted to watch TV. What came on really made me cringe. Mothers had brought their 2, 3, 4 & 5 year olds on Maury because they were extremely overweight. Now, I am not talking just 10 or 15 pounds - I am talking a 5 year old weighing 212 pounds and could barely walk. Every mother had pretty much the same story. They fed the kid whatever they wanted and felt bad about saying no. All I could think was, "you are the mother, you say NO". Kids need boundaries, very clear boundaries!!! If you are going to give in on everything, what are you teaching your kid? You are teaching them that they are in control, not you, the adult. Now, I don't have any kids, and don't really plan on having kids for quite a while (I am a Toys-R-Us kid myself and don't feel ready for babies), but I do know that you need to draw very clear boundaries and put kids in their place when it's necessary. The first time a kid throws a temper tantrum, that's it - I would walk away until they were finished and then confront the situation once they decided they were done. My mom did this and I never had another one. I learned at a very early age that I was NOT in control, my parents were and I needed to respect that. I did push the envelope quite a bit, but knew who was ultimately in charge.
Speaking of working out, I am neurotic. I am only teaching a couple days a week right now and have tons of time to myself - thus the book idea (see an earlier post). I kind of have the opinion that I NEED to workout everyday otherwise I am going to get really really fat. I know that's not true, but I can't get it out of my head that I should workout every single day. I used to workout for 30 minutes, and now I am up to 45mins. to 65 mins a day. And, once I up my workout time I can't go back otherwise I am disappointed in myself. I think I am a little obsessive. I worked out for 65 minutes today and think that I am going to do the same tomorrow. My friends keep telling me that I need to slow it down and give my body a day to rest (and normally I do), but when that day of rest comes, all I can think about it working out. I can't just have a day to relax, I constantly think about it. So there's a little tidbit into my workout obsession! I need help! LOL
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
The Fidgety yet Supportive Husband
Last night Shawn read the blog about my dad and immediately said, "does Double P need a hug?" (he is so sweet and supportive). Of course I started to cry, simply because the whole situation with my dad is pretty sad. But I must say I am progressing with the healing process. A year ago there would have been no way that I would have put into words what I was thinking, nevertheless what I was feeling. It has taken a while, but my heart is coming around a bit. I no longer have so much rage in me, rather sympathy and hope.
Enough about that, let's get back to the fun posts! My husband is one of the greatest people I know. He is full of patience, love and perseverance. In addition to all of these things, and this is a pretty surfacy comment, but he is also one of the most fidgety people I know. We can be hanging out watching Farscape (the best TV show in the world by the way) and he will not stop moving. He will literally be hanging out and shake his foot, scratch his arm, pet the dog, play with the blanket, move around his pillows, and the list goes on and on. Shawn and I have this very conversation almost every night, (me) "Baby, please stop fidgeting, I just want to relax", (Shawn - with a pitiful face) "Double P, you know I can't sit still", (me) "Baby, please try. Just for five minutes, please. You are driving me crazy". (Shawn) "I will try" - and no more than 30 seconds later he starts to fidget again. It sometimes gets so bad that I have to leave and go into the other room if I am trying to fall asleep. Looking at this from an outsiders perspective, it's kind of funny. His fidgeting drives me nuts! When I want to relax I will lay still and only move when it's necessary. That's how I unwind. He, on the other hand, has to have something moving at all time - whether that be his mind, or his fidgety body. As much as this drives me crazy, if it weren't there I would probably miss it greatly. Stuck between a rock in a hard place I guess. :)
Enough about that, let's get back to the fun posts! My husband is one of the greatest people I know. He is full of patience, love and perseverance. In addition to all of these things, and this is a pretty surfacy comment, but he is also one of the most fidgety people I know. We can be hanging out watching Farscape (the best TV show in the world by the way) and he will not stop moving. He will literally be hanging out and shake his foot, scratch his arm, pet the dog, play with the blanket, move around his pillows, and the list goes on and on. Shawn and I have this very conversation almost every night, (me) "Baby, please stop fidgeting, I just want to relax", (Shawn - with a pitiful face) "Double P, you know I can't sit still", (me) "Baby, please try. Just for five minutes, please. You are driving me crazy". (Shawn) "I will try" - and no more than 30 seconds later he starts to fidget again. It sometimes gets so bad that I have to leave and go into the other room if I am trying to fall asleep. Looking at this from an outsiders perspective, it's kind of funny. His fidgeting drives me nuts! When I want to relax I will lay still and only move when it's necessary. That's how I unwind. He, on the other hand, has to have something moving at all time - whether that be his mind, or his fidgety body. As much as this drives me crazy, if it weren't there I would probably miss it greatly. Stuck between a rock in a hard place I guess. :)
Monday, June 19, 2006
Father's Day
In honor of Father's Day (inspired by a friend)
I am angry... I am angry that you didn't think about the people around you or give them the benefit of the doubt in helping you. I am angry that you didn't call for help when you were having suicidal thoughts! I am angry that you didn't give us an opportunity to reach out to you. I am angry that you were so deep in your depression and so prideful that you didn't bother to ask for help, rather you kept it bottled up and tried to deal with it yourself. I am angry that you took your own life. Your life was intertwined with many...many people who hurt, even two and a half years after you ended your suffering. I am angry that you turned to alcohol instead of turning to the people in your life for support. I am angry that you weren't there for my wedding. I am angry that you didn't stick around long enough to be the one to walk me down the isle, I had to go it alone!
The book adventure
I wish I had something to write today, I don't. I think this is what writer's block means. I don't say that haphazardly rather with complete seriousness......but there is something I am trying my hand at to see if it will work.
I ordered three books today on how to write a great fiction novel. In fact, I have a few ideas that I would like to try my hand at. One of them, the first one I would like to explore is about a girl in her last year of college who is very studious, a great researcher, and gets engaged the summer before returning to her senior year. During the year she plans her wedding while finishing her senior year. She gets some advice from a young married friend from her church who tells her that the best thing to do before you are married is to talk to people at different stages of marriage to see what kind of information they have to offer through their experiences. She the book is going to be about her journey and struggles through her senior year of college (the college thing may change), but more about her preparation of her upcoming marriage. I am still throwing around ideas of what to do for the "major problem" she faces in the book. Is it going to be her cold feet of getting married? Will it focus on maybe interest of a 'new love' of one of the couples sons of whom she is gathering advice from? What is the major problem? I don't know yet. There are a million different ways this story can go. Mixed in with the story are going to be her journal entries and reflections on what she has learned from the people she visits and what she feels about her fiance. Does this sound like a viable story to anyone? Would this be something that people would read? I really want to write something that people can relate to on some level. I really want the fictional character to be developed really well and something people can empathize with and get emotional with. Maybe I am on the wrong track here, but this seems like a cool story to me. I am sure I can get a good 200 page book out of that idea. Any suggestions?
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Pangaea
I really wanted to write something really profound for today's post - but I have decided to talk about dad's tomorrow and something completely random today. Here it goes: Shawn and I watched a documentary on the origins of the world this morning and they mentioned Pangaea. I have been fascinated with the concept of Pangaea for quite a while. So tonight when we were laying in bed watching TV, I looked at my toes and said they looked like Pangaea. They fit perfectly together just like the 'original' continent, yet they are separate toes just like the current land masses on earth are. At times my toes are Pangaea, but I can spread my toes and they become separate entities.
Shawn often laughs at me and says that I am the weirdest person he knows. In fact he sits back and laughs at me when I verbalize things like this. I will be completely serious when I say stuff like, "my toes are like Pangaea" and it cracks him up. To tell you the truth, sometimes random things cross my mind and I will sit there and debate whether to say them out loud or not. Most of the time I will simply say whatever it is I am thinking because I know it will make him laugh. (I love it when he laughs, it makes me happy). Therefore my toes are like Pangaea! :)
Shawn often laughs at me and says that I am the weirdest person he knows. In fact he sits back and laughs at me when I verbalize things like this. I will be completely serious when I say stuff like, "my toes are like Pangaea" and it cracks him up. To tell you the truth, sometimes random things cross my mind and I will sit there and debate whether to say them out loud or not. Most of the time I will simply say whatever it is I am thinking because I know it will make him laugh. (I love it when he laughs, it makes me happy). Therefore my toes are like Pangaea! :)
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Tess Monster
So some people talk about their kids all the time, but I don't have kids so I talk about my dog. Tess is a funny character. We adopted her about a year and a half ago from a place called Hopalong Pet Adoption or something like that. I saw her picture online and immediately fell in love. To this day she hams it up when a camera comes out. I swear she was Tyra Banks in another life (well, if I actually believed in that). She literally will pose when she sees a camera. She gets these really cute looks on her face and will move around a bit to give the cutest look. I really think she knows what's going on. Anyway, in addition to the really cute things she does, she has some pretty bad habits. First, she scouts around the house to see if we have left anything on the floor for her to get into and eat when we leave the house. Since we have become accustomed to her doing this, we no longer leave things on the coffee table or within doggie reaching distance. But the dog has since outsmarted us. About three weeks ago we made spare ribs (why they are called "spare" is a whole other conversation. Are they really spare or are they needed and usable?) Enough of that, back to my story....so Shawn and I go outside to hang out in the hot tub and about 30 minutes later we come back into the apartment. We walk into the kitchen and see the really heavy duty glass bowl that we once had on the counter now shattered in a million little pieces all over the floor. The kicker? The ribs were gone, the bones were scattered all over the apartment, but there was no blood! Let me paint the picture for you here: Tess Monster stood up on her hind legs, reached up on the counter and pulled the bowl of ribs onto the floor. The bowl shattered probably scaring the crap out of her, but she continued on her mission anyway. She then picked through all of the glass pieces to get to the ribs, ate the meat from the ribs and licked up the sauce from the floor ALL WITHOUT CUTTING HER PAWS OR HER MOUTH!!! She is truly a dog with skill! Not only can she predict earthquakes, she can magically get ribs off of a tall counter, eat the whole bowl of ribs without getting cut, she can also jump on a seconds notice. Just today Shawn was taking her out for a walk and some weird guy in tinnneeeeyyyyy tiny running shorts came up behind her and freaked her out and she jumped on his leg ripping his already too small running shorts. Apparently Shawn did not hear this guy from behind coming up on them, but Tess Monster did. She reacted and tried to protect her daddy by jumping (not biting mind you) on the 'would be' assailant by ripping his shorts (a dog with true skill). And, before Shawn could offer to pay for the shorts (even though this guy was a freak! Who the heck would come up behind a dog and scare the crap out of them?), the guy runs the other direction - but not before momentarily giving my husband and attitude by sarcastically saying "thanks"! What a freak! These are the kinds of things we deal with on a day to day basis with this dog. If we didn't love her so much and weren't as attached to her as we are, we would have probably given her up a long time ago. But, she is our little angel! In fact, she woke up her last owner and saved him from a fire (that is, before he died of natural causes a few years later). She is a very smart dog, but very much a spoiled little brat!
Friday, June 16, 2006
Lot's of Randomness
So I met a couple of my colleagues from
Scriptures
One of my husband's friends from high school lives close to where we are moving in December. I like the fact that we are going to be close to some of his friends - but the trade off is that I will no longer have friends that I will be hanging out with. I am going to need to make all new friends, which I am kind of scared about. I have no problem making new friends, but it's a hard thing to make really good friends at this age. I am almost 30 (scary to think about). One of the coolest things though is that I am hooked up with his wife (Hi Valerie) and we are trading scriptues online (through our MySpace pages). I quite enjoy getting little tidbits of what people are reading in the bible. It is very encouraging! I slacked off a bit yesterday, but will be back on my game today and will send her a scripture this afternoon! :) I will update again later. (I am running out the door to meet some colleagues for brunch).
Thursday, June 15, 2006
A Dog's Intuition
Today was interesting to say the least – or should I say this morning?
Many people (including our family on the east coast) think that we are crazy for living in earthquake country. But, it’s a small price to pay for the weather I guess. Plus, most of the time we are hit with really small earthquakes that we can’t feel. Actually, after living here for most of my life I kind of enjoy a good earthquake. Sounds crazy, but it spices up life a bit. What do you think?
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Performance Review
So today I had my performance review - although in the world of academia I don't think it's called that. Essentially I had a 'senior' instructor come into my class and observe me for about an hour. Then, two weeks later, I met with the instructor to find out what he/she thought. Now, at every college I teach at, it's done a little differently. At De Anza, we meet with the observing instructor - but at
Everything was going ok until - well - until I put my foot in my mouth. I should walk around with a tattoo on my forehead that says "Foot in Mouth Syndrome - BEWARE!" So, there I was, having coffee with the instructor who observed me, and all was well. She talked to me a little about how I had improved since last quarter and how I should just keep on doing what I am doing. I asked her for suggestions and she said that everything looks good and that I shouldn't change anything. Towards the end of the conversation she asks me about a retiring professor at
On a bit of a different subject - now that I am only teaching 2 days a week with absolutely no prospects for work during the summer. Now, I could just sit back and do nothing all summer - work on my tan - and enjoy this time. However, I have been working full time for about the last ten years and don't really know what to do with myself since I have time off. How do housewives do it? I am not asking this to be mean or sexist - but I am truly wondering how people do it when they have long periods of time off? I don't have kids, so I don't really have anything to keep me busy during the day. If I don't get some suggestions soon, I have a feeling that I will be reading away my summer. I have 6 more books I want to get through, but I was hoping to spread those out over the next few months. At this rate I will be done with them in no time.
Until tomorrow.....(or later if I get really bored).......
Monday, June 12, 2006
Saving Money
My husband and I went to Ikea today to get some stuff for the new house. We decided to get wood flooring for the entire downstairs of our house. While we were there we picked up some extra things. Apparently Ikea was having its annual sale today and we got quite a bit of stuff for very little money. Here is the list of stuff we purchased:
2 Rugs 4x6 originally $99each purchased for $20each
4 outside chairs originally $59 each purchased for $10 each
4 bookcases originally $69 each purchased for $10 each
Monday, January 1, 2001
Stuffed Artichokes
2 jumbo artichokes
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup grated mizithra cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, minced finely
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TB olive oil
Clean artichokes and steam for approximately 20-30 minutes. Clean out center of artichoke and stuff with stuffing (reserve 1 TB of olive oil). Stuff between leaves if you'd like. Drizzle with the remaining TB olive oil. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 350, or until the stuffing is thoroughly heated.
Modify however you'd like.
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup grated mizithra cheese
1 can artichoke hearts, minced finely
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TB olive oil
Clean artichokes and steam for approximately 20-30 minutes. Clean out center of artichoke and stuff with stuffing (reserve 1 TB of olive oil). Stuff between leaves if you'd like. Drizzle with the remaining TB olive oil. Bake for approximately 30 minutes at 350, or until the stuffing is thoroughly heated.
Modify however you'd like.
Cowboy Caviar
Cowboy Caviar
- 1 15 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 15 oz can of corn, drained and rinsed
- 1 can of Rotel Tomatoes
- 2 large avocados, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, small dice
- 1/2 sweet onion, diced (optional)
- Lime juice from 3 lime
- 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
No Guilt, No Crust Pumpkin Pie
1 - 15oz. can pure pumpkin
1 - 12oz can 2% evaporated milk
1/2 cup liquid egg substitute
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup dark brown, 1/4 cup white)
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Mix all ingredients together, bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.
Nutritional information:
1 - 15oz. can pure pumpkin 140 cals, 3.5 fat, 17.5 fiber
1 - 12oz can 2% evaporated milk 300 cal, 6 fat, 0 fiber
1/2 cup liquid egg substitute 30 cals
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup dark brown, 1/4 cup white) 580 cals
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 0 cals
1,050 cals, 9,5 grams fat, 17.5 grams fiber
Makes 8 servings
131.25 calories, 1 gram fat, 2 grams fiber = 2 points per serving.
Pumpkin Pie Spice:
4 TB. ground cinnamon
4 tsp. ground nutmeg
4 tsp. ground ginger
3 tsp. ground allspice
1 - 12oz can 2% evaporated milk
1/2 cup liquid egg substitute
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup dark brown, 1/4 cup white)
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
Mix all ingredients together, bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.
Nutritional information:
1 - 15oz. can pure pumpkin 140 cals, 3.5 fat, 17.5 fiber
1 - 12oz can 2% evaporated milk 300 cal, 6 fat, 0 fiber
1/2 cup liquid egg substitute 30 cals
3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup dark brown, 1/4 cup white) 580 cals
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 0 cals
1,050 cals, 9,5 grams fat, 17.5 grams fiber
Makes 8 servings
131.25 calories, 1 gram fat, 2 grams fiber = 2 points per serving.
Pumpkin Pie Spice:
4 TB. ground cinnamon
4 tsp. ground nutmeg
4 tsp. ground ginger
3 tsp. ground allspice
Tri Tip Marinade
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TB. black pepper
1 TB. garlic powder
1 TB. kosher or sea salt
2 tsp. onion powder
3 TB. minced garlic (in water from jar)
1 TB. dried minced onion or onion flake
2 lbs. tri tip roast
Marinate for at least 6 hours.
Cook on grill, on low for a long time!
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TB. black pepper
1 TB. garlic powder
1 TB. kosher or sea salt
2 tsp. onion powder
3 TB. minced garlic (in water from jar)
1 TB. dried minced onion or onion flake
2 lbs. tri tip roast
Marinate for at least 6 hours.
Cook on grill, on low for a long time!
Korean Beef (Bulgogi)
Ingredients
- 2 pounds thinly sliced Scotch fillet (chuck eye steaks)
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons white sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 3 shallots, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 5 tablespoons mirin (Japanese sweet wine)
- In a large bowl, stir together the soy sauce, sugar, sesame seeds, sesame oil, shallots, garlic, and mirin. Add the meat, and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Fry the meat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Serve with salad or fried rice.
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