Bonus Opinion: Banana-Rum Pancake Topping

Scott was making pancakes for breakfast (because he's a domestic god) and I was eyeing the darkening bananas on the counter. At first, I suggested cutting up some banana coins and dropping them into the pancakes, but then he thought up something akin to bananas foster (sans flambe because I'm a kill joy like that). So I made up some sauce:

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar, dissolved into the melted butter
enough dark rum to turn the butter-sugar paste into a sauce
1 very ripe banana, cut into coins.

Now, I put the bananas in to soon, and ended up with banana sauce with some slimy chunks. If you leave them in for less than 1 minute, you'll get what I thought I wanted - a sauce with warm bananas. Then you basically leave the mix on the stove until the rum cooks down and the sauce thickens.

Pour over pancakes and orgasm.

Definitely ***** out of *****!
(by the way, you're going to want to have some bacon to cut some of the sweetness)

Got Turtles?

Have you heard about the Tour de Turtles?

Started in 2008, the Tour de Turtles (TdT) is a fun, educational journey through the science, research and geography of sea turtle migration using satellite telemetry. Created by Caribbean Conservation Corporation, with help from sponsors and partners, this event follows the marathon migration of sea turtles, representing different species, from their nesting beaches to their foraging grounds. 2009 is the second year of the TdT and will follow the migration of ten sea turtles, representing four different species.

I heard about the TdT because Disney Vacation Club/Disney's Animal Programs is sponsoring a turtle named Dory. She was fitted with a satellite transmitter (and now looks a bit like an RC Car... can I have a turn at the controls??) after she laid her eggs, and was released at Disney's Vero Beach Resort on August 1.

Each of the turtles has a map tracking where they are and where they have been. They also have videos of the releases, in most cases surrounded by cheering fans. It's just the beginning, so it'll be interesting to follow where they go from here.

Go check out the site and if you're inclined, sponsor the turtle of your choice for $25.

I rate this site ***** out of *****, for education, entertainment, and TURTLES!

Contact Shopping

It's no secret that I dislike my current eye doctor. Scott has been going there for... forever, so when we got married and the first eye doctor I went to (the one literally walking distance from here) gave me glasses that were the wrong prescription, I decided to switch to his. Ever since, I've been unhappy there. After four years, I don't think the man would know my name without looking at the chart. I sit alone in my little room with my eyes all dilated listening to him have 15 minutes of friendly chit chat with Scott, and nothing but "is this better... or is this better" with me. And the last time we were there, he asked Scott when he was going to have kids. HEY PAL! IF YOU'RE GOING TO INQUIRE ABOUT CHILDBEARING, WHY NOT ASK THE ONE WITH THE UTERUS?

Plus, the people who work fitting glasses to your head do a terrible job. My last glasses squeezed me behind the ears, and I paid special attention when I got my current pair fitted that that wouldn't happen. Instead they are loose and wearing them makes me feel like I'm under water.

Needless to say, I'm not going back.

I said that last year, but this year I really mean it. I would rather go to Lens Crafters and pay out of pocket for quality work than use my insurance benefits for unusable crap and bad service.

I ran out of contacts this week (my 6-week supply having only lasted 6 months), and rather than call the doctor's office, order lenses direct from them and have them get even one more dollar out of me, I decided to try ordering online. I price checked through drugstore.com (which redirects to visiondirect.com) and 1800contacts.com. The per-lens price was cheaper through 1800contacts, but you had to buy more boxes. I only need enough to get me through the end of the year, so I went with the former. The ordering process was simple, I got free standard shipping, and all I had to do was give them the name and phone number of the doctor.

Of course, I can't really say 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' at this point since I haven't gotten my contacts, but I give the price and the ease of ordering **** out of *****. I guess for now this is to be continued...

Lazy Sunday, Feline Edition

I just spent the last hour sitting in this exact spot doing my normal blog-jog through the blogs on my side bar. Also for the last hour, I've been doing that strictly using my right hand and the mouse, because my left arm was pinned on my lap by Elphaba.

This cat has quirks that my boy cats just don't have. She ignores me for days, and then demands attention for hours on end. She's like a camel of love! And don't even try to walk through the bedroom door or the front door without dangling her rainbow string in front of her face. She'll either yell at you or just run through the door.

She also does that kneading-my-arm thing, which other cats of mine have done. Of course, Kilo has his "suckie toe." I know he got that because his mother was taken away from his litter when he was too young, and he had an older brother who let all the other cats suck on his toes. Then when Kilo came to live with me, Milo certainly wasn't going to let him play that game, so he started sucking on his own. Tiger, the first cat I ever loved, had a blanket that she'd suck on. Unfortunately for me, it was my blanket, and I never knew when I'd roll over and stick my foot in a wet spot. (hello, Google perverts!) At least Elphie just does the hand motions!

Alas, my bandy legged ginger cat (yes, I did blatantly steal that phrase from J.K. Rowling) has just jumped into the spot vacated by the kitten. He says hello, and also "pet me pet me pet me!" I think I'll go do that!

August 2009: You Are Entitled to My Opinion

I've once again been peer pressured into participating in NaBloPoMo. The theme is "tomorrow," but instead of looking to the future (if I wrote an entry about tomorrow it would probably say "I'm looking forward to working with a skeleton crew tomorrow. Oh, and also sleeping in past 8:00.") I've decided to look to the past, and spend a whole month reviewing random things.

And so I present August 2009 NaBloPoMo: YAEtMO!

Today I'm starting with a fun little gadget Scott and I picked up off the clearance rack at Publix: the Dove SkinVitalizer. You may have seen the commercials for this little thing and giggled, "hey - it's a vibrator for your face!" I think every company that makes face wash came out with something similar about the same time.

Really, if it hadn't been on the clearance rack, I never would have brought it home. It seems silly - my fingers and my favorite face wash were doing a fine job washing my face! Scott and I have both used the DSV for two days now, and I'm ready to go back to my old routine.

My primary issue with this little device is that it's incredibly wasteful. Not only does it run on batteries, it also uses these little disposable "pillows" that stick to the surface of the gadget. This means I'm having to throw something out after every shower (actually, I try throwing it out from the shower, but end up picking it up from wherever it flew to and then putting it in the trash can once I'm out of the shower).

And while I admit that on day 2 my cheeks were smoother than they were before, I don't feel that my nose and forehead are as clean as they would otherwise be. It's almost as if the cleanser is too gentle. And don't even ask me to wash my face in two steps... that's just not good time management!

Fun sideshow: turn the DSV on and press it against the bridge of your nose. This morning it nearly made me sneeze!

Out of 5 stars, I give the Dove SkinVitalizer ***.

"I'm on Top of the BLT!"

*8/1/09: updated with more pictures*

Yesterday Scott and I did a little resort hopping, to check out the open house for the new Bay Lake Tower - the DVC property next to the Contemporary.

Of course, the big draw of this resort is location: walking distance to Magic Kingdom and gorgeous vistas of MK from the front and Bay Lake from the back. They also did an amazing job designing and decorating the resort, too. The appliances in the kitchens are stainless steel, the furniture is modern, and the artwork is eye-catching. Oh - and the pool is shaped like Mickey's head!

The view of the Grand Floridian from the 16th floor. The white blob to the left is the Wedding Pavilion.

A print that they had in both villas we toured. The original Contemporary tower is in the bottom-right corner, BLT is in the bottom left, and that's the monorail beams sweeping through the center. I wonder if they'll be selling this through disney.com in the "Resort Collection." It's sure pretty enough!

Video!

I've uploaded a bunch of photos to Facebook, but here's a special bonus: video montage of opening night. yay!

Still Here...And There...

Hello ParkHopping world!

This is just a place-holder, really. I wanted to tell you I'm still here, doing real life stuff, and not spending a whole lot of time on the computer.

If you miss me that much, you can always check out my Twitter feed on the right. I tend to shoot out a message or seven every day about random things I see and do. And of course, you can come see me in person at revolution! It's right around the corner, July 23-25.

Hopefully after Encore wraps up, I can go back to my less-full days and posting of cat photos. I know... you can't wait... neither can I!

Your 15 Minutes Starts...NOW

It sucks to have your 15 minutes of fame entangled with a tragedy. Trust me - this is something I have a little experience with.

Yesterday, I have to admit I was rather amused to hear the voice of my darling "Matt of Honor" coming through my TV. He's a dispatcher for RCFD and was on all three 911 calls released to the media (warning: link to MP3 file) after Sunday's accident.

Knowing him as well as I do, the first thing I thought was, "wow, he's really annoyed!" The call I heard on the news last night was (I think) the third call he got. It sounds to me like he was getting to the point of "I KNOW there was an accident...please tell me something new!" Of course, I might be putting words in his mouth. But that's what it sounded like to me.

Anyway, way to go Matt. :-)

Living Legend

For anyone out there who doesn't know who Paul Bocuse is, he's basically the original celebrity chef. He's the first chef-owner to name a restaurant for himself and step out of the kitchen and into the spotlight.

The Bocuse d'Or, an international cooking competition dubbed the "Culinary Olympics," is named for him.

He is a living legend.

Last month, my friend Gayle went to France with a friend who had won this really cool river cruise vacation, and one of their stops was Bocuse's restaurant in Lyon. She had e-mailed me before she went and asked if I had ever heard of the restaurant, and I basically sent her back 500 words with no punctuation breathlessly explaining who Bocuse is, and how freaking lucky she was. ("oh yeah, and I hate you.")

Upon her return, she sent me another e-mail about her lunch, and how her friend had told everyone about how Gayle used to work at The Restaurant. She struck up a broken-English conversation with one of the waiters, who had worked for a time at Chefs de France at Epcot (which is run by Jerome Bocuse - his son), and was familiar with The Restaurant as well as The Chef. My name came up somewhere in there, as in "my friend Jamie works there..." And when the waiter asked if she'd like a signed menu to take back to her friend, she jumped on it.

Gayle says she guesses the waiter didn't understand as much of the conversation as she had thought, and she debated whether to send the menu to me at all. I'll call it a happy accident, that my husband and The Chef should share the same first name, and therefore HE got a really cool gift from France. It's actually better, because Scott loves cooking so much more than I do. I think he almost misted up a bit when he pulled the menu out of the envelope.

Plus, the menu is cool enough looking (all those circles are the same shiny gold as the edge) that I'd actually consider framing it and hanging it in our kitchen...when we have a kitchen with actual wall space! Our autograph from a living legend definitely deserves to be seen!

Night Terrors

Reading Between the Tweets

I sent a bunch of rapid-fire Twitter messages this morning, and there was so much more to share that I thought I would use them to add color to the story of my morning.

Scott woke up around 5:00 this morning, and was surprised that I was still asleep. I woke up about 5 seconds later. The cause? Sideways rain was pelting our bedroom windows. These windows are north-facing and don't usually get direct impact rain. The rain was pretty surreal due to the near-strobe-light effect of constant lightning. I couldn't believe how bad it was out there. Scott went to the living room to turn off the computer, and I turned off the cable box in the bedroom. But it was so bad (sounded like we were inside a tin can) that we (I) decided to check the weather for a tornado warning. There was no tornado warning - just one cell directly over our home that was red and pink on the radar, though you couldn't even see the color until they turned off the lightning strike display!

This was the worst nighttime thunderstorm I had seen since the week I spent in Casselberry with my Great Grandmother when I was in junior high. I was terrified. As the storm was winding down, I joked with Scott that I was going to get on the floor and sleep between the bed and a pile of laundry baskets, just in case the roof crashed in. We fell back to sleep right around 5:30, having survived the crazy storm.

6:20: flashBANG! I think the lightning actually woke me up a split second before the thunder shook the walls. "Holy shit!" It's not that I wanted to yell. It was involuntary (sort of). I was NOT going to be awake and terrified by myself. This storm was worse than the first one, and that lightning strike was CLOSE!

If you thought waking up to 5am t-storm was bad, try 6:30 lightning strike followed by bldg fire alarm going off!

At first, we didn't know it was our building. It was a funny alarm, beeping twice, then a feeble chirp, and then it would stop for a few seconds. Right away, we thought that it was another building, but that it was a shorted out alarm. We heard the fire truck come into the development and decided to get out of bed and investigate. Upon opening the door to the living room, I nearly jumped out of my skin to the sound of a loud CHIRP! coming from the alarm right above my head! "Oh...I guess it's our building."

Side note: firefighters in full gear stopped to say good morning when they passed us in the hall!

We decided to put on more clothes - an undershirt and pair of shorts for Scott, and a bra and change of pants into less pajama-like black lounge pants for me. We couldn't go out on the balcony due to the continued sideways rain (having lived through a few hurricanes, I can tell you the rain and wind was just as bad this morning) so we wandered out into the outside hallway. We were walking towards the back of the building when we heard very heavy footsteps on the stairs near our door. And lo, there were two firefighters in full gear stomping up our steps! As they passed us, I was waiting for them to "rescue" us or something. Instead they said good morning, and kept walking. Thank goodness. Not only had we wandered outside without shoes, cats, keys or wallets, I wasn't even wearing underwear! I imagine they were just as confused to see us.

Another side note: not sure who's more spooked, me or the cats. I'm not hiding under any furniture, but I think I'm also staying awake.

Even now, Elph and Milo are extra cuddly. When we came out during the second storm, there were no cats. Then Elphie came out from under the blue chair, and Milo appeared from wherever he had been hiding. Kilo came out when he was sure the danger had passed.

update: channel 9 a-hole weather man just said this storm wasn't severe. wtf???

The storm let up a little bit, so Scott turned on the TV in the living room while I was sending out my rapid-fire tweets. I wish I knew what the criteria was for "severe" thunderstorm. If not high winds or sideways rain or thousands of lightning strikes, then what?? I'm sorry that I called the smiling guy an a-hole, but he shouldn't have marginalized my terror. Had this storm hit downtown Orlando or Seminole County the way it hit us, they would've been running wall-to-wall weather all morning.

At 7:00, we went back to bed. I finished one book* and started another, and Scott fell right back to sleep. At 7:45 I stopped reading, and decided to try to fall back to sleep. At 8:00 on the dot, just as I finally sunk into my pillow, I woke up to a low rumble - the unmistakable sound of a riding lawn mower. That's right, the lawn guys were back, mowing our swamp! I managed to fall back to sleep, and barely flinched when the alarm went off at 10. I woke up for real at 11, but only because I have to leave for work by 12:45.

Speaking of work, I should really go blow dry my hair.

* Dave Barry's collection of columns, "Boogers Are My Beat." Even if you never liked his humor, I suggest you find this book at your local library and read the last two essays. They are, to the best of my knowledge, the only non-humor columns he's ever written. One was written the week after 9/11, and the other was written a year after. It made me realize that Dave Barry isn't a silly guy who lucked into a writing gig. He's a really gifted writer. And that last story should be required reading for high school kids.

1,000 Words

Further proof that my camera is designed for teenagers: fun borders you can add before taking a photo! Here's Milo and Elphie "playing" in their play zone, with an eerily familiar orange & black cats border!

Side note: we washed those towels yesterday, and now have the most fascinating orange & black lint ball ever!

We Can Do It: Wine Edition

I know, it's not good to judge a book by its cover, but tell me this label doesn't make you want to try the wine!

It's called Rosé the Riveter and it's from Working Girl Wines. I discovered the company last night at work when I noticed a case displaying their logo (featuring Rosé, Working Girl White, and Go Girl Red) next to my desk. I don't know if we ordered a mixed case that was just packed in it or what, but I totally fell in love. And that was before I found out the name of the wine!

I actually have a Rosie the Riveter magnet on my desk (thanks, Scott) and showed my manager and he was a little freaked out. I think maybe he didn't get the reference before it was right in front of his nose.

I'm hoping that since the case found its way into our office, that means one of our distrubutors carries the collection, and that means it's available in Florida. Fingers crossed...Scott is on a mission to find it for me.

And by the way, according to their website, they support women and family charities. And this particular wine might actually not suck: Wine Press rated the 2006 Rosé "Outstanding!"

Work "Schedule"

Until the end of Encore, I am scheduled off Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (rehearsal days). That's actually my 2 normal days off and 1 vacation day per week - the only way I could do Encore and not go broke. However, we're in the midst of this system transition right now, so my managers have basically given me carte blanche with my schedule. This week, I worked 4 hours on Wednesday. Next week, I plan to work a full daytime shift on Monday.

It's nice that I'm not having to burn my vacation time, and that I'm able to help out on day shift with training and phone calls and whatever else needs attention. At the same time, I'm coming into my third week in a row with a different schedule. My brain is confused about whether it's my Monday or Friday, and when my next day off is going to be.

...and I thought stepping out of your routine was supposed to be good for your brain!

Operation Iraqi Stephen

If you're not watching the Colbert Report this week, you really should be. He's doing shows from Iraq, wearing a digital camo tailored suit. The show is peppered with military jokes, most of which Scott has to explain to me. And his "Baghdad Shout Outs" have featured short videos from John McCain, Bill Clinton and (Old) George Bush.

Of course, I don't know if it'll be possible to top the surprise guest from the first show - a video from President Obama! To the best of my knowledge, this is Obama's first late-night comedy appearance since taking office. That's a huge "get" for a basic cable show, and just goes to show either how much the Stewart/Colbert team means to pop culture or how much Obama's team wants to show support to the troops overseas.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Obama Orders Stephen's Haircut - Ray Odierno
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Stephen Colbert in Iraq

I hope his hair grows fast!

Philly in Lists

We're home from the great grey north, also known as the greater Philadelphia area!

While in Philly we saw the following friends and family: Grandpop and his "lady friend" Dottie (who has been in his life longer than I've been alive and he still introduces her to us as "my lady friend," which is sort of cute and creepy all that the same time), Jackie (the newly certified RN) and Jon and their girls, and Jackie's mom and brother.

I did not see any of my other Marlton friends or family members, because I couldn't put out an all-call on Facebook because we were going to be surprising* Jackie, and the people I did contact were too busy doing important things like yard sales.

While in Philly we saw the following things: the LOVE statue, the Art Museum (didn't run up the steps... are you crazy???), the clothespin statue, the Mint, William Penn, Boathouse Row, Independence Hall, the Constitution Center, Penn's Landing, Betsy Ross's House, Edgar Allen Poe's house, Ben Franklin's grave, The Thinker, the Rocky statue, Reading Terminal Market, and lots more. Notice I said we saw these things. We didn't go into any of them except the market! We also got quite a thorough tour of the area where my Dad grew up, including my Grandmom's house (where we didn't stop because Grandpop was driving), Dad's middle and high schools, the church where - correct me if I'm wrong here Mom - my parents were married and I was baptised, and every creek or home/"estate" with a story, and Mama's - my Dad's favorite cheese steak maker.

While in New Jersey we saw: Evans Elementary, Marlton Middle, and Cherokee High Schools. Each has grown in the past *cough*thirteen*cough* years. We saw my old house, which now has white aluminum siding, gold numbers, a fancy stained-glass-like storm door and a tacky flowered mailbox that the current wife of the previous owner would probably love. It didn't look like "home" at all. We saw the Marlton 8, which I had a different story about every time we drove by, Olga's Diner, buildings I think my Mom worked at, some friends' old houses (in most cases, where their parents still live), the Amish market, Main Street, a few parks, the Super Fresh, and some other places.

We crossed Delaware River via the Betsy Ross Bridge, Ben Franklin Bridge and Walt Whitman bridge. We also briefly floated down the river via Duck.

And of course, we ate! We had a cheese steak, soft pretzels (buttery Amish kind, not stale Philly kind), fresh corned beef sandwich, Philly pizza, South Jersey pizza, Amish sticky buns and roast chicken, water ice, calzone... I realized this morning that I hadn't consumed a vegetable since Friday afternoon at Olive Garden (don't judge us for the OG - we went with my Grandpop!).

We took loads of pictures, mostly *not* of people, which I'll be editing and presenting later. For now, here's the first few I managed to pull off of Scott's camera before the computer decided it was done with photos. I'll try again Wednesday to get the rest done. Tonight and tomorrow are pretty full.

*oops...surprise was ruined, but not by me!

Minding My Business

"Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties." ~Doug Larson

I've had quite an exciting few days at work. I've been solving problems that we've been banging our heads against, streamlining some processes and centralizing information, and giving my manager a few new gray hairs (the last one is strictly a recreational activity!).

Tonight I actually stayed late to run through some stuff I've been working on with the manager, and I really thought what I had was ok. It was imperfect and inconvenient, but better than anything else we'd managed to come up with. And in the 10 minutes we spent talking about it, we went from "yeah, that's ok" to "can we do this?" (my answer: "no") "well what about this?" (my answer: "no") "I wish we could make this happen." (my answer: "OH MY GOD YES! AND I KNOW HOW TO DO THAT! LET ME FIDDLE WITH IT TOMORROW!")

Eureka!

My brain hurts for the first time in over a year. I had forgotten what it's like to feel challenged by my job. And I miss it! So tomorrow when I get in, I'm going to start from square one based on what we discussed tonight, and teach myself some new formulae in Excel. Example: "=(sheet1!b2:b6)" I have basically just tomorrow to figure out whether we're going to be going with my "old" plan from 2 days ago or the new plan because we have to roll this out next week and I'm off 5 of the next 7 days.

Cooking Fun

What to do with a mostly-full bag of mini marshmallows? Perhaps make a batch of marshmallow-cereal squares? Well, I had the marshmallows, I had 1/2 stick of butter, and I had 8 cups of cereal. I didn't have anything with "Rice" or "Krisp" in the name, but I did have Peanut Butter Crunch. That's crispy, right?

So I made them.

I can't tell you how they are (though my guess is "not good") because they're still cooling in a foil-lined pan. What I can tell you is...

* Melted marshmallow is about 1000 degrees and so sticky you could use it to adhere heat tiles to the outside of the space shuttle. I still have the imprint of a piece of cereal that stuck to my shirt. (yes Scott, I was wearing one of your undershirts. again. I'm sorry, but those things are stain magnets!)
* When the directions call for a "large bowl," they underestimate the sheer volume of 8 cups of cereal. They mean "use a punch bowl." If your bowl is merely large, you will not be able to properly coat all of your cereal with molten marshmallow.

Scott seemed pretty shocked that I had never made Marshmallow-Krisped-Rice-Treats before. I've always liked them, but they weren't something we made. We made cookies by the ton instead.

I'll let you know how they came out, and maybe take a picture, but not until I get home from work. I'm supposed to be leaving in 15 minutes and am nowhere near ready to go.

Preaching the Gospel of UP

So, and you may have noticed if you follow my Twitter feed, I saw Disney/Pixar's "Up" on Friday night. And ever since I have been running around to everyone I know and telling them that they have to see the movie. And to bring tissues.

I most definitely give this movie JJJJJ out of JJJJJ. I'm trying to reserve "best Pixar movie ever" judgement for a few years to see if it holds up to the way I love Monsters, Inc. or Finding Nemo after 50+ viewings. But something about this movie got under my skin and stuck with me the way no movie I can remember has.

Without ruining any potential surprises for anyone, I can't possibly do anything close to a proper movie review. But really, go see it. We saw it in 3D, which was cool, and I have every intention of going to see it again in 2D, just to make the comparison. And, you know, maybe I'll make it through the movie without crying next time.

(and yes, I promised a post about our day with Beth and Pete and the girls. I've decided to just post the photos on Facebook.)

Leno

I've got a proper post pending, but it's going to require editing some photos and typing more than I'll probably be able to do this morning before work. And there's a good chance I'm going to get home from work tonight and immediately pass out. So for now, you get this.

I stayed up late last night to watch Leno's last Tonight Show. You know, he was never my favorite. Unless he had a specific guest I wanted to see, I defaulted to Letterman. That said, he really is a good entertainer. Last night involved "best of" Jay Walking and an interview with Conan O'Brien (including a clip of their first meeting in April of 1993 when Conan had just signed on to do his show). The end was my favorite part though. Rather than doing some self-centered tear-jerker montage of clips set to "Thanks for the Memories" or something, he ended the show by talking about all the crew members who had met and married each other in the past 17 years and then brought up the curtain to show the 63(?) production babies born during his run on the Tonight Show. It was sweet.

Stay tuned for Monday, when Conan takes over in a brand new studio.

Fruity Desserts

Last night I decided to make dessert for our cook-out with Dave. Something popped into my head...all the way from Girl Scout Camp. I couldn't remember exactly how it went, so I also got a back-up dessert. The result?


Bananas stuffed with marshmallows and chocolate chips, plus pineapple with caramel dipping sauce.

The bananas weren't bad, but we didn't really do a great job with the grill and they never quite warmed up. So we put them in the oven while the caramel sauce was finishing up.

Yep, I MADE the caramel sauce (out of a bag of square caramel candies and some half & half). Good Lord, that stuff was tasty! The pineapple was WAY acidic, but overall I give myself a pass.

Did I mention how good that sauce was?? The leftovers are in a cup in the fridge. Hopefully we can nuke it back to a good consistency. We have a bowl full of apples and 2 bananas left crying out for a little un-healthy-fication!

Plans? Where we're going, we don't need plans!

So... you go to the dentist for a cleaning. At the end of the appointment, you schedule your next appointment 6 months later. How often do you end up having to change that next appointment because you can't plan your life 6 months in advance?

Me? I've actually been pretty good about this. This time, I even remembered that our days off would be changing. But still, life got in the way and I had to reschedule the appointments that we had - on the same day at the same time - to today 3 hours apart. That's ok, today was already going to be incredibly busy. This just adds to the jigsaw fun of the day. Check it out:

* 10:15 dentist appointment for one of us
* then hair cut for me (OMG I almost hacked off my bangs last night at work!)
* then lunch somewhere
* then potentially a quick run through Kohl's or Ross, depending on where lunch is, to find some summery capri pants
* 1:30 dentist appointment for the other one of us
* grocery shopping
* grocery put-awaying
* drive to Dave's to burn things on the grill for dinner
* plus laundry. Scott has that started already.

Tomorrow is a family day, Beth and Pete and the girls are in town and my mom is coming up at some point, but neither Beth nor I are sure what her plans are. We had two different stories and aren't sure whose is most current. "How do you keep a wave upon the sand?" No, really, if you know, can you tell me?

So it's not going to be much of a relaxing weekend. But that's ok - I can sleep Saturday at work!

New Voices in Blogging

The Orlando Sentinel has a new interesting blog called Orlando Opinionators. Basically, movers and shakers in the community seem to have been given carte blanche to write about whatever is current.

One of the bloggers is Real Radio's own Jim Philips. His first post was poking fun at the local weather people:

Hipwader madness (HWM for short) can be seen every night on any of the local television news programs. Reporters don all manner of foul weather gear in their never-ending effort to inform the audience that it's raining outside.

At times I expect one of them to announce that after their "live shot" they will have to head to the docks and loosen the lines on the "Mary B" because the lobster pots have to be hoisted aboard. I swear I saw one of them in an advertisement for fish sticks.

May a merciful God intervene before one of these reporters sloshes into a nest of water moccasins or steps on a snapping turtle.

OK, I admit that there are some reporters that I enjoy watching outside in the rain.... and that water moccasin thing would make great TV. Otherwise, Jim is spot-on. Last week WFTV pre-empted Oprah for a one-hour special on the rain. And then ran their regular 90 minutes of local news, primarily focused on - you want to guess? - the rain! Even Kevin Oliver, the space reporter, got shoved outside without an umbrella to hold a model of the shuttle and explain why it couldn't land in that weather. Apparently rain hitting your exterior when you're coasting in at mach-2 can do serious damage. I can't really remember the specifics though - I was too distracted by the little waterfall pouring straight off Kevin's nose!

I hope he was wearing his hipwaders!

Sign of Summer?

I'm having watermelon for breakfast. That's a sign of summer, right?

(More accurately, I'm having watermelon for breakfast now, and will be having nutri grain blueberry waffles in an hour for brunch. And then I'll probably have something for lunch a while after that.)

If I'm lucky, Number Two will have left his birthday cupcakes in the fridge at work and I can make myself sick on sugar like I did yesterday. In the words of Juno, "woah! dream big!"

Yep...that's all I have to say!

Time to Print the Pictures?

Anyone out there have 100 images saved in digital format that you need to print out? Now's the time! I just got an e-mail from snapfish and they're doing a sale - 100 4x6" prints for 12.99 including standard shipping. 1.3 cents per print? Trust me - that's a bargain at 5x the price!

I might have to take the opportunity to turn my Encore pictures into an album. Other than that, I don't think I have that many pictures worth printing. (nope, not doing a Christmas with Elphie album!)

So anyway, here's what to do if you're interested: Go to snapfish.com, upload your photos, order your photos, and then use coupon code LETSPRINT.

You're welcome!

Oh yeah - offer expires June 1.

Happy Sunday

I was going to eek out a blog post about how much it hurts my feelings to get AARP-related spam in my e-mail, but then I thought that was stupid and maybe I should just get over it. As it turns out, there's a lot of panic among the people I follow on Twitter right now, and I should mention them...

Nicurnmama: omfg! we're going to hospital by ambulance. jodie cant see! pulse thready. pray, pass this on RT. i'll keep.y'all posted

She and her daughter were away from home for a dance competition, the daughter started puking non-stop, and now she's in the hospital with meningicoccal meningitis. The doctor put Laura on antibiotics "just in case," but not soon enough. She's got the same diagnosis and I'm guessing as a result she probably is no longer sitting at Jodie's bedside. If I'm reading correctly, Jodie is stable, but will be in the hospital for a while. Still, some scary stuff going on there.

A little closer to home, and less emergent, it seems Matthew and Kristen aren't having such a good time on their camping trip in Georgia:

Data_Byte: 255/70/r18 -- help -stuck at river rock

I (don't laugh) thought the wacky numbers were map coordinates or something. It turns out it's a tire size. Though I guess they're ok - Kristen just posted an update that the tire is being replaced and then they'll be on the way home. As much as they take that Jeep off-roading, I sort of wonder how many tires they've already gone through (since December).

As for me, I've got nothing tweet-worthy going on. I guess I should contemplate going to work some time soon...

ROBOBAMA

From the New York Times*:

LOS ANGELES -- Barack Obama was standing on a riser inside a warehouse here, delivering an inspirational speech about the blessings of freedom, when his left index finger began to twitch uncontrollably, unnerving his aides.

The nation's 44th president was in obvious distress. At least it looked like him. But with silicone skin and a tangled nest of wires for veins, this Obama was a 21st-century reproduction.

More specifically, it was an audio-animatronic representation of the president, as imagined by the Walt Disney Company, and assembled with the direct involvement of the White House staff -- and of Mr. Obama himself. The president supplied not just his measurements, but he also recorded that speech (which was initially drafted by a Disney writer) -- and yet another recitation of the oath of office, this one in Disney high-definition sound.

That's right, boys and girls, let the hype for the July 4 reopening of The Hall of Presidents officially begin! Having read the article, I'm more excited for the new show there than for the refurbished Space Mountain. Just a few more weeks!

''Young children watch this, and you want them to feel a sense of identification with the president,'' said Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential historian, who was recruited by Disney two years ago to write a Hollywood-style treatment about the presidents, which became the basis for a 20-minute documentary made for the exhibit. ''This makes the president someone not so far removed from them.''

As much as history isn't my thing, I absolutely *love* Doris Kearns Goodwin. Not only is she one of the most amusing regular Daily Show guests (along with Fareed Zakaria), but she wrote the book about Abraham Lincoln that inspired Obama during the campaign. She rocks!

The exhibit will open with the new film, narrated by the actor Morgan Freeman. At a certain point, the Abraham Lincoln figure will rise and speak to the audience, as it always has, but now it will deliver the Gettysburg Address in its entirety.

''And this is the first time George Washington will have a speaking role,'' said Kathy Rogers, a senior show producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, the unit that oversees the creative side of the theme parks.

But the emotional high point is intended to be the introduction of the Obama figure, who will yet again be heard taking the oath.

...and then he speaks some more, hopefully with words that turn out to be less hollow a few years down the road than the equal rights mumbo jumbo in W's HOP speech.

I can't wait! And if you told me even five years ago that I would be giddy anticipating the new guy in the Hall of Presidents, I'd tell you to lay off the crack. Funny how things change, huh?

* You really should click on the NYT article. Even if you don't want to read the rest of the text, you can at least see the little picture of "Robobama!"

Ebola?

A post that, in 30 seconds or less, you are going to be happy doesn't have any accompanying photos!

Earlier today: "AAAAAH! MY NIPPLE'S BLEEDING! IT MUST BE EBOLA!"

Nope... not Ebola... Elphaba!

The cats occasionally chase each other across whomever is in their way, resulting in scratches, punctures, and other minor feline "war wounds." Today, I happened to be in Elphie's path as she jumped from the climbing tree in the corner down to the floor.

I grabbed my boob and started yelling before I actually assessed the injury. Generally I tend to exaggerate my war wounds. Imagine my surprise when realized I had actually bled through (Scott's) t-shirt!

Scott offered me a Q-tip and alcohol, which I declined in favor of soap and water. The cut is only maybe 1/3" long, so I'm pretty hopeful it won't get infected. After all, it would definitely be a shame to, in Scott's words, "lose a boob."

Almost forgot to blog today. Still in the game! More than 160 characters tomorrow, I promise! Too much LEGO Indiana Jones on Wii today.

Probably the Last to Know

Once a website is featured on abcnews.com, it's probably safe to assume the rest of the Internet has already seen it. Except my mom. So mom, this one's for you:

AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com

The name says it all. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the ABC attention increased their viewers by a lot and it's taxing their servers. If at first you don't get the page to load, hit refresh until it does.

If only I had any awkward family pictures to share... Sadly, my dad was always smiling for the camera, and I don't have any weird wedding pictures worth making fun of. (that last one might be the best... the "no one told me we were supposed to look angry" photo)

SNL

Will Ferrell was the guest on SNL this past weekend. I saw the first 2 sketches, and then passed out. So right now I'm watching them on nbc.com. And though I love the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches, I didn't think that one was the best. Here's the opener, because I love Will's GWB!


...and in case the video won't play for you (won't play for me!) here's the link.

Let's Discuss the Weather

Might rain!

May 17

This is the month that doesn't end...
It just goes on and on my friend...

We turned the page on the calendar because of when it was,
and now we will be living it forever just because...

This is the month that doesn't end...

NaBloPoMo has definitely been tough for me this time around. All I want to write is variations on the theme of "I hate my job." But when it comes down to it, I don't hate the job. I'm bored of the job. And I feel taken for granted. But given the state of the economy, I should be thankful that I have a job, and even more thankful that I got a less-than-cost-of-living raise this year. That's really everything that needs to be said on the subject, so for the rest of the month I'm declaring a moratorium on work posts.

I still don't have anything to say, so be on the lookout for more pictures of the ZPMKPZ (now with tropical palm tree) in the coming days. Or, you know, more quotes from college commencement addresses. I like those too.

I'm Glad I Voted for Him!

I came across this piece of President Obama's commencement address to the University of Arizona and thought I should save it. What he says... it's so true!

"I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven't yet achieved enough in my life. ... I come to embrace the notion that I haven't done enough in my life; I heartily concur; I come to affirm that one's title, even a title like president of the United States, says very little about how well one's life has been led -- that no matter how much you've done, or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, always more to learn, and always more to achieve."

...and then there's Joe "Chicken Little" Biden, who informed students graduating from Syracuse University that they "are graduating into a world of anxiety and uncertainty." To be fair, the whole passage wasn't that bad:

"You are graduating into a world of anxiety and uncertainty, but these are the moments you can embrace. Throughout the span of history, only a handful of us ever get a chance to actually shape the course of history."

photo and both quotes from abcnews.com

Congratulations, class of 2009. Good luck out there!

Flashback Friday, Mind Eraser Edition

Today's picture comes courtesy of the detailers who cleaned my car during its last visit to the Hyundai dealership. This picture had been buried under one of my front seats, and was put with a pile of other stuff on the back seat. I found it yesterday and have been laughing about it ever since.






The date on the bottom of the photo was 9-26-02, right around the time our lease together was up. Actually, I think it was right after I moved into my shoebox apartment. I couldn't tell you much about this day in Epcot, except that we had our yards-o-beer and then thought refills were a good idea. I believe this photo was taken during that second round. I can also tell you that the anonymous and certainly not now a Law Enforcement Officer person in the photo with me LOVED that purple shirt and wore it all the time. I'm sure whatever I was wearing, it was either a theme park logo t-shirt or a free shirt. That's all I wore back then!

Bottoms up!

Elphie is in heat and we're having fun watching Milo try to figure out the logistics of cat sex! My poor little eunuch... We really need to get her to the vet!

Test from text...

Cutting of Your Nose to Spite Your Employees

Danger: Work Post. Not sure if this makes sense to anyone else.

So... there's this new reservation system set to "go live" in a few weeks. Actually, it already is live, since people have been booking in said system for weeks now. Now we're nearing the event horizon where the restaurants will have to start using it exclusively.

I'm not happy.

The old system, while antiquated and not willing to conform to the great data-share in the way that the company feels ALL systems should, works just fine. The new system, which apparently shares information just fine, does NOT do anything else just fine. I've been dealing with this system since the testing phase in November. We identified problems, and were told that said problems would be fixed. Indeed, situations arising for The Restaurant especially would be priorities because of our status in the hierarchy of dining.

Fast forward 6 months to the present.

While some things have been fixed, most "have been requested" and have no ETA. We just got access to the last piece of the puzzle - reporting. Reports are the bread & butter of the way we do business. It's how we know who is coming, when they are coming, what allergies/occasions/special quirks they all have. The new reports take 5 minutes (literally) to load, are incomplete, and have little grasp on reality. Case in point: a date in late July where we have 5 parties of 2 showing on the report. Total guest count: 12. WTF???

Someone (maybe Scott?) asked me last night why we're changing systems if the other system was ok. At the time, I made a bad heart transplant analogy. This morning, I think I have it. It's like going to a (bad) surgeon because you have a splinter in your foot. The surgeon thinks in terms of surgery, so instead of grabbing tweezers and pulling out the splinter, he amputates the whole foot. Recovery? That's YOUR problem.

One of my co-workers had a chat with the manager of another restaurant yesterday, and he said he was ready to jump off a bridge. It seems that the only restaurant people who aren't stressed about this change are the ones like The Boss, who have delegated all responsibility to other people and choose to remain blissfully ignorant. This train is rolling towards the edge of the Grand Canyon, and I'm betting they're not going to build the track around in time for us to not derail.

And now, I shall take my bucket of mixed metaphors and do some deep breathing.

Not Quite the Waltons

(umm...I'm referencing a pop culture reference from before my time, so I hope that's correct. Were the Waltons the ones who said good night to each other and there were like a dozen names?)

Anyway, I made myself laugh this morning when I came out and greeted my menagerie. Elphie was closest, so I started with her. As I scratched them each on top of the head I said, "good morning baby girl... good morning fat boy... good morning angry cat." And then I thought I should say "good morning John Boy," but I would have just confused the cats.

In retrospect, that might not have been a story worth telling. Sorry. Only other news around here is that our CD matures today and I have to move the money to our savings account. And now, the will power kicks in!

White House Correspondent's Dinner

So...I don't know about you, but I wasn't at all offended when Wanda Sykes said Rush Limbaugh was the 20th 9/11 hijacker but was too strung out on Oxy to make the flight. But you know, I can see how people who don't hate Rush might have a different opinion.

As for Obama, I think Scott and I agree that Dick Cheney's memoir, "How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People" was the best shot of the night.

You know, for $200/plate, I'd love to go to one of those some time.

In case you missed it: Wanda's Routine, Obama's Routine

Very sorry this wasn't more in-depth. I could've written a substantive post, but I'm meeting up with a cousin this morning.

Flashback Sunday

To the woman in the giant glasses and the tiny bikini,

Happy Mother's Day!

Love,

The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Baby

Take Your Kid to Work Day

Conversation between me and Scott earlier today:

Scott: apparently, on Take your Kid to Work Day, at some FL correctional facility they felt it was okay to show the kids how electronic pacification devices worked… You know...TAZERS! A few supervisors have been fired for SOME reason from the facilities. FOR TAZING KIDS maybe?
Jamie: at least they didn't strap them into the death chamber and hook up an IV of anything
Scott: oh now that'd be funnier'n hell
Jamie: "who wants to sit on Old Sparky?" (which is not, incidentally, an electric chair, but the pervy old man who watches the showers)
Scott: is he the guy with the walker? Ol' Ssssssparky

if you're not a fan of Family Guy, or just didn't get the reference to the guy in the walker, check this out...

Fun With Grits

"I claim these grits in the name of the Queen!"

Honestly, if the fork stands up straight in a bowl of grits, how can anyone be expected to eat them? At least the rest of breakfast tasted good!

Yes, They ARE Spoiled

We finally got around to disassembling ZoePig's cage today, and took the opportunity to clean out the bedroom, clean out part of the living room, and re purposed the "Cubes" her cage was made out of to create quite possibly the coolest cat condo I have ever seen!

In the photo to the left, you can see the little plastic charm of a guinea pig head that hung inside Zoe's cage with a chew toy and bell at the bottom. It's hanging on the front of the new tower so that she'll always be with us.

And now, I'd like to present the ZoePig Memorial Kitty Play Zone!

No surprise, Elphie was the first to investigate. She loves toys with feathers!

Then came Kilo, who tested the structural integrity. We had one connector pop off, but there's so many zip ties on here that there was no problem at all. Scott reattached it and we haven't had any other issues so far. **knock wood**

Finally Milo joined the party. Though with Milo, it's less 'party' and more 'let's nap.' He really is my grumpy old man!

This picture is my best chance to show & tell all the cool features of the ZPKPZ.

* The bottom level doesn't really have anything special about it. The two cubes facing the camera are open, but don't connect to the back side. This section is basically still intact from the cage.

* The second level has 2 sections - an open square and an L-shaped section (where Milo is). The left corner is open on top for "secret" access to the third level.

* Kilo is camped out on the third level, which is basically just the one platform.

* The fourth level has two squares with a wall in between. The section where Elphie is sitting doesn't easily connect to anywhere else, and she had to jump to get in there.

* The fifth level is where the cats go when they want to taunt me by threatening to jump to the top of the book shelf. So far none has made the leap, but I'm sure it's coming. Elphie jumps up there all the time when we're not around, making the "bad cat" trip from the back of the TV to the top of the TV to the top of the book shelf.

If we had it to do over again, we'd have done something cooler with the bottom section, and used some common sense to connect the two squares on the fourth level. So far, they seem really happy with their new space (though as I type this, Elphie is on my lap, Milo is asleep under the desk, and Kilo is laying right behind my chair). And in case you were wondering, the lovely burnt orange fabric covering the levels are cheap Wal-Mart towels that we got for Zoe's cage that never got used.

So, are you jealous? I am - I totally want a grown-up size Play Zone!

Cookie Pile

There's a pile of cookies cooling on a plate on the counter. The pile looks pretty substantial, but isn't going to be nearly as impressive when it is divided in half and shipped to two different locations later this afternoon. We should have made them smaller.

Lessons learned with this particular batch:
* "Softening" butter in the microwave is a delicate process. 2o seconds and the stick is still rock hard, 30 seconds and it's in a puddle.
* Check for all ingredients before starting. This recipe called for 1.5 cups of granulated sugar. The cookies got 1.25 cups of granulated and .25 cups of powdered!
* Pay attention to what you're doing! The cookies were supposed to be pink/white swirled. Instead they are pink with white blobs, sort of like sausage.
* And possibly the most important lesson of all: cookies are forgiving. Despite the fact that these are certainly not the best incarnation of the recipe, they are still tasty. And made with love.

Performance Anxiety

I tried to capture Elphie playing fetch with the video function of my camera phone, but we couldn't make it work. She had it in her mouth at one point and looked like she was going to come to me, but then she heard Scott in the kitchen and thought he was more interesting.

We'll keep working on it. It's good to have goals, right?

Cinco de Cuatro? Right...

Stupid Things You Hear on TV, National Edition:

Usually our local newscasters can be counted on to deliver a bad pun or mispronounce a common word. Sometimes they come up with some real gems. This morning though, Diane Sawyer must have taken her stupid pill. Coming back from a story of something that happened yesterday, she quipped "So that happened on cinco de cuatro!" One of the guys paused, trying to decide whether or not to say it, and then responded "cuatro de Mayo."

I love Diane, and GMA is the only morning news show that I watch, so please understand that I poke fun in a good way. I just don't think I've ever seen her fumble like that before.

For a Good Cause?

My cousin Alicia is running in a very interesting charity 5K - dressed in an inflatable sumo costume!

This gruelling challenge will have us lugging our impressive frames on a 5k run to raise money for web-based educational systems to help developing countries. The money raised will be used for innovative IT software to connect the world's most remote schools to online learning tools. If I reach my goal, its estimated that it will connect one secondary school in the developing world.

Honestly, she could be running for beer money and I'd still pitch in. Apparently in my world, humiliation = cash. Must be all the reality TV I watch!

I wish I could have given more, but she's in the UK and the exchange rate sort of sucks. So help me out - click on the link above and send her some money. It really is for a good cause!

It's a Math Day

Today is a math day. "Huh?" you say? It's simple. The date is 5-4-09, and 5+4=9. I love days like today.

Last night I came home and finished off the last of my orange sherbet. There's still Cool Whip in the freezer, but I don't intend to eat that by itself.

And now, a camera phone photo of some flowers that Scott bought me last week. He's so good to me! They are almost exactly the same as the ones I tried to buy myself for Secretaries Day before I realized I left my wallet at home.

Sunday Symphony

Some sweet music this morning for you, courtesy of Beaker!

Scenes from a Bike Ride

Jamie: I wish these bikes had bells. Then we could talk to each other in Morse code.

Scott: But you don't know Morse code.

Jamie: I know S.O.S.

Scott: So you're going to ride around calling for help over and over? I'm going to assume you're being hi-jacked and I'm going to have to PIT your bike.

Jamie: OK, no bells then.

Saturday Morning

I remember when Saturday morning was a lazy time of Smurfs and Snorks. Now it's the one day of the week that I have to wake up to the sounds of an alarm. At 7:00. Other people love Saturdays. Not me!

Today marks the beginning of a very busy stretch at work. I say that with an actual amount of excitement, because business has not been great for the past few months. But this week we have wait lists for some days, full seatings for other days, and none of us can figure out why. Someone remarked that it's spill-over from Mother's Day. Good theory, except we're pretty dead on Mother's Day.

Sweet of the day: left-overs from last night for dessert at work: fresh fruit salad from Publix. There's watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes and pineapple. Yum!

I'm In!

I've been peer-pressured into doing the May NaBloPoMo (theme: "sweet"), so Happy May! Here I am!

Scott and I did another hour of biking at Ft. Wilderness this morning, followed by lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (now open at Crossroads!). Now, we're on our way to what is becoming a weekly cook-out at Dave's.

We have a few pictures from today's outing, but they are, for now, still on the camera. I'll try to post a few when we get home. (or after midnight for tomorrow's post)

As for the theme, I'm not sure if they were talking about sweet treats or sweet things like kitten photos. Today, I'll tell you about the desserts we had at dinner last night at The Ravenous Pig. We split a strawberry-rhubarb crisp and a caramel-chocolate tart. Both were divine... and WAY sweet! The best part of the meal though was the veggies that came with my fish. That's the first time I've ever had okra served as a vegetable instead of deep-fried. I'm totally in love!

TTFN... I'm off to a decidedly less high-brow dinner tonight!!

...and then she remembered to breathe!

My car is fine. I think I'm going to owe them something insane like $900 when I go pick her up tomorrow, but that includes a 15,000 mile service, 4 new tires and removal of a rogue piece of metal that was clanging around in my oil thing. Yep...that's the technical term.

Funny story from Hyundai: the first person to greet me when I pulled up was a sales manager who told me he could get me into a new Accent "for cheap." How desperate must they be to be pulling that? The second person to greet me was the service manager, who told me to pop the hood - right there in the drop-off zone - because my engine was clicking. He was like the car whisperer - put oil in right there, and then leaned in close to listen. He thought I might have a valve problem, but it turned out to be the mystery metal bit, which apparently would have blown my whole engine if it had left the oil thing and hit a gasket or something else. Sort of like a blood clot, I guess.

As it turns out, I'm fine too. Scott was nice enough to escort me to the Credit Union so that I could beg in person. It turns out nothing new has hit my credit report (yet) and I have a stellar credit score. I guess it was good enough - I was able to get a $6,000 unsecured loan with 48 months to pay it off. The girl who was helping me walked me through a bunch of options, was able to get me an ok interest rate, and was able to extend my credit card limit another $500. Oh yeah - and I found out that my credit card has a fixed rate of 7.4%. How sweet is that?!? Of course, I had originally applied for a loan big enough to consolidate all of my school debt, so it wasn't quite a home run, but the other collection agency seems content to take my $100/month. No crisis state there quite yet!

I have armed myself with some information from the FTC (thanks for the hint, mom!) and feel like I'm prepared to take on the skeevy DCH tomorrow. I think I know enough to keep them from bullying me any more. *fingers crossed*

Of course, there was no happy ending for ZoePig. I feel terrible that I didn't go with Scott to the vet, and that he had to be the grown-up in this chapter. It's a horrible thing to have to go through alone, but I think I would have never made it through the rest of the day if I'd gone. Scott knows that. Plus, friends of ours had a bad run with guinea pigs, and have one still living, so we're going to pack up her food (brand new giant bag purchased a week ago!) and a few other unused things for them. They told Scott that their little girl said that her two guinea pigs would show Zoe all the fun things to do in Heaven, which is maybe the sweetest thing we could have heard.

Well I think it's time for me to go cuddle with my kitties, and then with my hubby. We've had a helluva day. Plus, I've got to get myself psyched up for the final(?) battle tomorrow.

[insert favorite curse word here]

So here's a brief run-down of everything wrong in my world right this second:

• Scott is on the way to the vet with ZoePig. She hasn't eaten in two days, didn't drink at all last night, and isn't quite mobile. I don't think she's coming home.
• I got a collection call at work last night from some company saying I owe them $8,000.
• I found out this morning that I have a balance of $2,520 with PSU Housing & Food Services for my Spring '00 room & board.
• Maybe my car - I have an appointment at the dealership today.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

So...Zoe. Yeah, that sucks. We've been horrible caretakers to her and while I'm sad that she's sick, I'm sadder that she had a crappier life than she deserved.

The money? I nearly threw up at work last night. I sobbed at my desk for at least an hour. Aside from the stafford loans that I completed paying off a few weeks ago (enter a feeble "yay me" here for that), I've been paying down an account of $4,900 since January when a collection company said they were collecting on a PSU account. And now I find out that there was another $4,900 account that somehow ended up in the hands of Debt Collectors from Hell (DCH).

It turns out that the original amount I owed was a bursar account, for tuition. The one I'm just finding out about is a defaulted Perkins loan. Apparently the government guarantees Perkins loans, and when I didn't pay back the school, the Dept. of Education bought back my loan. The DoE, of course, has the right to garnish my pay, take my tax refund, etc. The worst part? They've probably already dropped a collection record into my credit report. That's the worst part because you can't qualify for a FHA loan unless you have no new entries in your credit report within 12 months. That unfortunate situation last April was just about to drop off Scott's report, and now my 7-years-clear report has THIS.

DCH is also being really douchey. They are refusing to put me on a payment plan. They're willing to take about $2,000 off the fees and interest if I can give them $6,095 by next week. They may as well ask me to shit a golden egg. When I called the DoE, they said that I have the right to be put on a payment plan, and told me to call another company that acts as a mediator between me and the DCH. I did try to get a loan through the credit union (of which I have been a member for nearly 12 years with no incident at all). The automated system couldn't pre-qualify me, so I anticipate a rejection letter some time in the next 2 weeks. I guess I owe it to myself to call and beg to a human being.

I called PSU this morning to find out why they employ different companies to do their bidding, and whether I could expect another company to contact me in a few months time with yet another thing I owe money for. That's when I found out about the money I owe to Housing. The only silver lining to that cloud is that now I know about it. I asked the 19-year-old work study girl to send me a bill and she replied, "I can send a copy of the bill you've already been sent." "Fine, thank you, that would be lovely."

And before anyone out there feels compelled to leave me any comments that are remotely snarky, I would just like to say I KNOW. YES this is my fault for defaulting. YES this is my fault for not informing everyone I ever owed money to that I moved/married/changed phone numbers. NO I'm not asking anyone else to take responsibility for any of this. NO I'm not asking for a hand-out. (and possibly to my detriment, NONE of the money in our house fund will go towards this debt. if we have to wait another year, we'll deal with it, and we'll have more money for a down payment...which we'll need because the market isn't going to offer $100k houses forever.)

The timing just sucks. I sure could use a freaking break. Hopefully when I take my car to the dealership today, whatever they do won't cost more than a couple hundred bucks.

UPDATE (11:15): Zoe isn't coming home. sigh...

Off to the Theater!

A few months ago when the touring schedule for Mary Poppins was announced, Scott and I batted around the idea of making a weekend trip (similar to the Atlanta trip) to Chicago or St. Louis to see the show and do some touristy stuff. When I did some pricing online, I found that either of those trips probably would have cost around $1,000. For a weekend! I quickly put those plans away and we revisited the idea of flying up to NYC, camping out on Jenn's couch for a few nights, and going to see a show or two on Broadway. Ultimately though, Scott wants to DO New York when we go, not just run in and out. (never mind I've never spent more than 10 consecutive hours in the city! all we ever did in my youth was run in and out!)

Fast forward to two or three weeks ago. An e-mail appeared in my mailbox from the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (TBPAC) advertising their 2009-2010 Broadway Series. Two things caught my eye right away: Wicked and Mary Poppins. In fact, they are calling it a "high-flying season." Scott and I were both really excited, but season tickets are expensive! We talked about it, put it off, talked about it some more, and finally decided to just go for it. We got tickets in the balcony, which will probably be better than the seats we've had for any previous show at that theater. And, though expensive, it's still less money than that trip to see MaPo would have cost.

Strangely enough, I now have plans more than a year from now, though I'm not sure of specific dates. Beginning in October, we'll be seeing In the Heights, Wonderland, South Pacific, Wicked, Godspell, Little House on the Prairie (the only one Scott has NO desire to see), Cirque Dreams Illumination, and Mary Poppins.

I can't wait! We've both seen Wicked before, and I saw a high school production of Godspell, but the rest are totally new to us. Hopefully a year from now we'll be renewing and not lamenting the waste of money!

(and a bonus came yesterday when I saw the line-up for Bob Carr's '09-'10 series. Phantom of the Opera is the only one I might go see...and in a venue that small it'll probably suck! They also have Xanadu, The Color Purple, and some other shows I can't remember off the top of my head)

Baby Steps

This weekend's physical activity:

2 hour bike rental at Wilderness Lodge!

Of course, this was 1 hour of biking and an hour at Trail's End Restaurant eating buffet-style country food! Truth be told, my "seconds" was another plate of salad and another piece of cornbread. That was much more responsible than the pulled pork sandwich/fried chicken/beef stew that I wanted!

We found out later that we get a 50% discount on bike rentals, so that second hour we were sitting didn't really cost anything. It was a lot of fun, and we thought about doing it again and packing sandwiches and having a picnic out there somewhere. I imagine this kind of stuff will start being a lot less fun once the temperature is in the 80's-90's, but for today it was great!

I also learned today that Scott can stand the sight of blood, but the sight of a bent-back fingernail is enough to make him almost cry. I was brave for him, but it hurt like a mo-fo. Poor little pinky!

Now I'm off to tell the Wii Fit that I already did my activity for today and she can kiss my butt! (ok, maybe I'll do 20 minutes of self-guided step aerobics while Scott watches The Matrix...I'm still sweaty from the bike ride)

Fuzzy Vomit

A Domestic Post from your UN-Domestic Host!

All three of my cats have started hacking up hairballs. This might not sound strange, unless I mention that all three are vomiting the same hair. The culprit? Elphie, of course! Everyone likes to lick her, and everyone pays the cost.

Milo has always been a puker. He's bulimic, so as long as we don't let the food bowl get completely empty before feeding him again, he's fine. And cat food vomit is easy to deal with: you wait for it to dry (or at least cool) and grab it with a paper towel. And most of the time one of the cats will go back and eat it before I get back to it. Hairballs are a different beast. They are mostly liquid, and dry into a nasty splotch on the carpet that I haven't yet figured out how to clean easily.

But I digress. We decided that perhaps the solution to our problem was a new cat food. Milo and Kilo have been eating Indoor Cat Chow for their whole lives, but that was before we introduced Elph fur to their diet. So we're trying switching over to Purina One, which has an indoor formula for weight management *cough*Kilo*cough* and hairballs!

I bought a small bag tonight, in case the cats refused to eat it. I mixed some in to their bowl with their current food (because I'm a good mommy and read directions) and all three of them have been chowing down, possibly selectively eating the new bits. So I guess that makes today the start of the Purina One Challenge.

Menus for the Week

While gorging ourselves on tasty lunch, Scott and I came up with our menu for the week. Yes, we're in one of those healthy eating phases. No, it won't last long. But the orange sherbet in the freezer and the bowl of apples and bananas on the counter at least give me hope for a week of healthier snacking. Anyway, I'm not claiming that our meals are healthy. I am claiming that they are slightly better balanced and each contain at least one vegetable!

Tonight, we had flounder fillets en papillion with asparagus, and macaroni & cheese on the side. We didn't have white wine, so we used limoncello. Not bad - better than I thought it would come out!

Tomorrow, we're having grilled pork chops with green beans and macaroni & cheese. (what? the recipe makes a lot!)

Later this week, we'll have chicken salads with romaine, cucumber, mandarin oranges, sesame-ginger dressing and chow mein noodles.

Also, another chicken dish and another pork dish, with cous cous or risotto and more green vegetables are still to come later in the week.

Plus, there was a recipe on my bag of cherry Craisins for "black forest cookies." I made them, and they aren't half as good as those cran-orange cookies, so I'll probably send them to work with Scott.

Well, it should be a pretty good week of dinners. Maybe this will make the work week slightly less painful? We'll see...

Holiday Memories...

...we're making them:

Plus, who doesn't love the smell of hard-boiled eggs every time they open the fridge? And of course, there's the added bonus of lightly-tinted egg salad sandwiches to look forward to!

Sweet!

A rare money post tonight!

I was just about topped out on available vacation, so I sold 2 weeks worth back to the company. The money was in today's paycheck - 3 weeks of pay for 1 week of work! Without going into actual dollars, because that's no one's business but mine and Scott's, I used the money to pay off my credit card (all except $8. also, I noticed that they increased my credit limit to $2,000. not sure when that happened, but it made me happy) and still had enough left over for us to have a little bit of fun with. I don't really know what we're going to do. Without a plan, we'll probably fritter it away on stupid stuff like dinners at new restaurants.

aside: when considering what fun to have with the money, I actually floated the idea of getting a steam cleaner. when did I turn into a grown-up?

Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the money in our CD when it matures next month. Since we're planning on buying a house, the longest CD I could put the money into would be 3 months, which only has 1% interest at our bank. I can't just keep it in the regular savings account because if it's accessible we're likely to not have the discipline to keep our sticky fingers off of it. I've been looking into interest rates online, just to see if I can find a decent savings account that we could dump the money into, but not have quite as much access to. And since we won't have the money in there long (hopefully), even an introductory teaser rate would work.

I'm so proud of what we've managed to save in the past year. Of course, I'll be even prouder to write a check for the full amount and hand it over to a random dude in exchange for a set of house keys. I thought last year was going to be the year, and was heart-broken that it wasn't. But I really think this is our year. I don't think home prices are going to get any lower, and as long as we can qualify for a mortgage, I'll gladly swallow a higher interest rate.

Just get me out of this damn apartment!!

My Life On Stage?

I read a theater review tonight that spoke to me. Why? Because the play is about my life! I encourage you to click through and read the whole thing, but here's some key tidbits:

Fully Committed is for that guy — in this case, an underemployed New York actor named Sam, who works booking tables for the kind of restaurant where Gourmet magazine has been waiting all morning to take pictures and the Zagats have just dropped in for lunch...

In Becky Mode’s 1999 comedy, Sam is hidden away in a basement office-hovel, where he scurries between calls from Bunny Vandevere, a socialite who just flew
in from Tibet; from Bryce, Naomi Campbell’s assistant, who needs a table for 15
with an all-vegan tasting menu; and from the peevish tyrant known only as Chef.

Nothing is going well. Sam can’t seem to get a callback. A co-worker is mysteriously absent. And Chef won’t let him off for Christmas.

Yep, that sounds eerily familiar. I'm going to do my best to get out to see it. If employee fun hadn't already been cut from the budget at the beginning of the fiscal year, I would be begging my bosses to take us as team building. I'm sure Scott is thrilled at the prospect of being dragged along to another show... but at least this one promises to be funnier than Our Town!

Today's Fun Typo

They'll probably get it fixed before too long, but here's the link.

I love it when the typo is in the headline. It makes my mocking so much easier!

Yard Sale

There's a yard sale on April 18, and since I don't work until the afternoon that day (and since Scott should be scheduled off as well), I think I'm going to take the opportunity to clean house and get rid of all sorts of stuff that I'd rather not box up and move in a few months.

For now, I'm trying to figure out how to price things. I thought that all of you readers (ha) might have some input. Here's a basic list of categories:

• Paperback books
• Hard cover books
• Random Theme Park plushes
• VHS tapes
• Disney pins
• Ice cream maker (that we got from Reyna but never used)
• Knick knacks
• Christmas tree stand

Frankly, I'd be thrilled to get 50 cents each (3/$1) for the paperbacks and the VHS. The pins that I have are mostly limited edition, cast exclusives, or 5-10 years old, and for that reason I don't think I'd take less than $1 for any of them. Plus, they take up almost no space so there's no reason to sell them for way too under value (90% off is cheap enough!!).

Wii Fit

Our purchase of a Wii was conditional. If we were going to have yet another video game system, we were also going to buy a Wii Fit so that it would be a video game system with purpose.

We finally got our Wii Fit this past week, and today is Day 4 for me. Poor Scott has been sick and hasn't done anything but cough and wheeze since Day 1, so I have no comparisons between my experience and his. So far, I love it. It turns out I don't love yoga or strength training, but I love all things aerobic (even jogging!) and about half of the balance games.

I'm getting in about 35 minutes a day, which isn't enough heart-pumping for a true aerobic work-out, but for now it's all the time I have to give. And since I don't end tired or sore, I'm much more likely to get up and do it again the next day. (take THAT, Cardio Kick-Box DVD!)

The Wii Fit monitors your weight (in my opinion, it makes this stuff up - I seriously doubt I lost 2.6 pounds between 9 last night and 9 this morning, or that I gained 2.3 pounds between Day 1 and Day 3) and also keeps track of your progress in the activities. There's always that desire to get a new Personal Best to keep you going. Plus, for every 5 minutes of activity, it unlocks another activity. It keeps things interesting.

I'm going to try to keep doing it in the mornings every day except Saturday, because I work mornings on Saturday. We'll see how that goes. I'll check in here from time to time with updates, when there's something to report.

Week One
Favorites: Hula hoop, step aerobics, table tilt
Least Favorite: Push-ups