So, I may have mentioned this cookbook before, but I've started using it again this week. All the recipes made exactly two servings. It's been working well; I make the dish for dinner, and have the second portion as my lunch the next day. So far this week, I've made cheese'n'beef bundles, zucchini and beef casserole, and zucchini frittata from it. Some notes for my own reference:

cheese'n'beef bundles: since we're using very lean ground beef, I can probably leave out the egg and the bread crumbs (or in my case, flaxseed), which would make the small patties easier to handle, and not taste so "slick" when cooked.

zucchini and beef casserole: make sure to cook the ground beef finer, so it distributes more evenly. Layer the thin-sliced zucchini in the casserole dish rather than mixing it in with the beef and tomato sauce. Leave out the macaroni, as it doesn't really add anything to it.

zucchini frittata: get a new non-stick skillet so there's a better chance of it staying a frittata and not becoming scrambled eggs.

Next week, though, if I want to continue the trend, I'll have to double the recipes, so Matt can have some dinner, and lunch the next day, too. Although, with the frittata, it's going to be breakfast rather than lunch, and I'm not sure what to take for lunch. Maybe I should see if the veg soup in the fridge is still good.

I made what seems to be a costly mistake yesterday. I gave in to a craving, let myself have half of an Oreo Cookie Jar Blizzard, because I had a coupon, and I oh so dearly missed Oreos and cookie dough in soft serve. I was tired last night, but that happens on the weekends, when I'm out in the heat more so than during the week.

But today....today, I am paying dearly for that simple, forbidden indulgence yesterday. I'm trying to make gluten-free donuts for breakfast. It's a new recipe, and somewhat complicated in the procedure. I was disjointed when I started, getting easily distracted by simple things ("Oh, we never put away the new batch of paper towels....Oh, I need to clean this up in the kitchen...."). But then came the time to cut the 5x5 squares of parchment paper needed, and things blew up. The paper's on a roll. It likes to roll back up as I'm trying to measure (with a measuring tape that ALSO likes to roll back up, crushing and crunching the paper as it does). The dough is so sticky, it pulled the spatula apart. I ended up practically in tears, screaming, "These had better be the best fracking donuts EVER!" and "The next time I get the stupid idea to make these fracking donuts, I'm buying parchment that doesn't come on a fracking ROLL!!" I gave up. Matt's finishing them now.

He is so good, so patient. He knows when I have a lapse of judgment in food choices, that the next day is pretty much shot. But he lets me do it anyway, possibly hoping that this time, I'll learn my lesson, and not give in to the forbidden temptation the next time.

...and he's having fun in the kitchen. I hear him in there, giggling, before he exclaims, "You know, if you don't do it the way you're supposed to, it's kinda fun." The recipe wants you to pipe donut-shaped circles onto the 5x5 squares of parchment. He thought the dough was too thick to pipe, so he's just shaping it by hand. "How many are these supposed to make?" he asks. Two dozen. He laughs, "Then I did _something_ wrong."

I'm feeling better now, having washed my hands of the whole donut-making endeavor. I'll have a cup of coffee later, let the caffeine and sugar work their magic. Hopefully, I'll feel up to going to meeting. Right now, I don't. Right now, I just want to go back to bed and hope everything's different when I wake up.

So, it's Saturday. I figured, since we didn't have a lot of grocery shopping, we'd go, get that taken care of, get a flu shot, plan what to take for lunches, get the kitchen cleaned, get Dave & Tammy's box in the mail...

No. Matt wanted to get the brakes checked on the car. So, he went to Just Brakes, where we had them fixed before. I think he left around 8:30 or so. It's now two hours later and he's still not back. We don't have cell phones, so I can't call him to find out what's up and how much longer it's going to be.

So since I don't know how long it's going to be, I can't start anything, because I want to leave for grocery shopping as soon as he gets back.

This is one day when 2 cars would be SO convenient.

So far this month, I've read the entirety of "Cable & Deadpool," and "Agent X." Not that "Agent X" was that long a run, only 15 issues, but all 50 issues of "Cable & Deadpool"... (shakes head) That, and I've gone back and re-read most of C&D, too.

I wish I'd known about these back when they came out. Then again, no one in my friends tier was into comics, so there's no real way I would have found out about them.

Ashes to Ashes starts filming series three soon. April 2010, it starts airing on the BBC. I'm hoping the person who posted series 2 on YouTube can post series three, too. The finale of 2 was such a total mindscrew.

1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No.

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and asks. -- and believe me, the temptation to explain some of these will be overwhelming nothing is exactly as it seems. Now, here's what you're supposed to do. . . Copy and paste this, delete my answers, type in your answers and tag as many of your friends as you'd like to.

( Hidden for flist friendliness )

IO9 recently created a (admittedly very subjective) top 100 scifi shows list. How many of them have YOU seen?

( Let's take a Fantastic Voyage... )

Better than half, so not too bad.  The older shows killed me.  And Outer Limits, but no Twilight Zone?

Tomorrow, I will have a pile of ticked-off cats.

You see, this morning, the bedframe in our bedroom broke. It was on its way; three of the four casters had already split, and this morning, the leg that still had an unbroken caster buckled. So, to remedy this situation, we took the bed from the front bedroom, the "spare bedroom," and moved it into our bedroom. Once we did that, we also rearranged some, and in the rearranging, decided to keep the front bedroom closed off for now. Since we get, on average, one visit a year that requires the spare bedroom, keeping it a full-time guest room is really an inefficient use of space. We're planning on moving the television system in there, and making it our "entertainment room," possibly getting a fold-out couch in there for that one visit a year. The living room will become the computer/sitting room.

But anyway, as to why the cats will be ticked off. The front room was sort of "their" room. No one else was using it. And now, "their" bed is gone, and the room is closed to them. For one thing, they abused their privileges. It needs a serious top-to-toe cleaning. So now, both bedrooms are closed to the cats, and we closed off the garage, too. This leaves them living room, bathroom, kitchen...and the entire freaking backyard. But I can guarantee, we're going to hear at least one of them crying at the door tonight, trying to get into either the front room or our bedroom. And when that one's not allowed in, he or she (probably she) will take it out on the other three.

And that is why all four cats will be grumpy tomorrow.

The other day at work, Matt was looking around his company's website, and his coworker said, "Oh, how cute, you're 'pretend shopping.'"

In days past, it was called "window shopping," back when you could walk down Main Street, looking at store window displays and daydreaming about items therein. Now that a large portion of Main Streets are empty, being replaced with shopping malls and big box stores, the "window" portion of window shopping has become an artifact of language. To window shop, one must actually enter the store and stroll the aisles now.

Online, there aren't even aisles to stroll. I went through the pages of the MMS catalog today, adding items to my cart, just to see how much the order would be. It was very easy to quickly get over $100, just with a few fixed oils and a bunch of flavor oils. The colorants took it up, too. But, instead of completing checkout and spending money earmarked for something else, I just printed out the page, so when I _do_ have money to spend (and when the weather's cooled enough that the waxes and butters won't melt in transit!) I'll remember what I wanted to get.

Pretend shopping. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes, it's depressing.

So, the other night, I wanted fried chicken. Since it was a work night, that meant no stopping at Frys or Safeway to pick some up. I had to create my own, gluten-free. Success! I used the recipe from my old Betty Crocker cookbook for buttermilk fried chicken, and instead of the all-purpose wheat flour it called for, used 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup tapioca starch, and 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum. Also, I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I used a cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice instead. It actually looked, tasted, and crunched like regular fried chicken. I was so pleased, that this morning, I got some chicken out of the freezer to thaw, so we can do it again.

--The headache salve is working well. Another week I didn't take any Excedrin.

--Another round of thrift stores this weekend. Matt wasn't as lucky this go-round; he only got a pair of pants, a tie, some tie tacks, and 2 pairs of cufflinks. I got a skirt and a VERY nice black lycra dress that actually looks good on me. We also hit WalMart, where I picked up 5 colored semi-nice t-shirts (high scoop neckline with a gathered neckline detail) for $5 each (solid colors to wear with my patterned skirts), and a black jersey-knit cardigan for when the weather cools off. I also picked up a book for a friend.

--It rained Friday night. Like, RAINED. Once again, in a three-block drive, I watched the temperature fall 25 degrees. We sat in the driveway for about ten minutes or so, waiting for it to slack off. Hey, it's Arizona. Rain doesn't last long here, even in monsoon season.

--I went in early to work three days last week. After coming home from grocery shopping yesterday, I took a four-hour nap. And still went to bed around 9.

--Not sure how, but all my fingernails seem to be stained black. I'm thinking it was dye leakage from either the dress or the tights.

--I am so ready for a nap right now. Or ice cream.

Or something like that.

Okay, so, Matt's working again, which is a big yay. He got his shift moved to start at 7 rather than 6, another big yay. I got a 9-inch fan that runs off the car battery to use while I nap in the car in the morning, yet another big yay.

Notable things I remember:
Last week, I hit a small storm cell on the drive from Matt's workplace to mine. It's only a six mile drive, and I'd say this only hit maybe one or two miles in the middle of the drive. It was so surreal watching the ambient temperature readout on the dashboard fall from 98 to 78 and then climb back up to 98.

Cranergy "energy juice drink" contains caffeine. A 12-oz bottle has more caffeine than a can of Red Bull, according to energyfiend.com: http://www.energyfiend.com/caffeine-content/cranenergy I was not aware of this, and it hit me by surprise yesterday morning. I was feeling fine, then just started _shaking_. Not good. So now I know.

I experimented and made a batch of headache salve. 1 ounce beeswax, 1.5 ounces shea butter, 2 ounces almond oil, and essential oils of peppermint, eucalyptus, spearmint, and vanilla. I don't have measurements on those, because while I started with "drops," I wasn't getting strong enough scent, so I switched to "dropperfulls," and didn't keep track. But, it works well, at least so far. When I feel a headache coming on, I grab a bit of the salve, and rub it on my forehead, temples, and on the boneline just under my eyes (the sinus bones?). It does help.

We went thrifting Friday and Saturday, and got a lot of pants and shirts for Matt.

Finally, my period started today, after a four-month absence. Here's hoping it's not a horrible torrential one.

Starbucks liquor. A little too strong on its own for my tastes, but not too bad with milk. Has something of a chocolate taste to me, moreso than coffee. Matt doesn't like it; the alcohol's too strong for him. It'll probably end up like most of our liquors, forgotten in the back of the fridge.


Oooh, wait, I wonder how it is mixed with Coke......I wonder if it's caffeinated. I may have to do some research into this.

I think my eyes are crossing on their own.

My dad retired this year. July 1st was his first official day of retirement. To celebrate, Mom and Dad are taking a giant trip with the truck and camper. St Louis, MO; Carlsbad Caverns in NM, visiting us; Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; visiting Dad's cousin Bill in Indiana, and home. They're about a week into the trip now, in their Phoenix layover.

Last night was their first night in Phoenix, so Matt and I took dinner over to them. Carnitas, cilantro-lime rice, salad, tortilla chips. They went over well. We visited for a while; Mom sent back some of my stuff from home, that I now need to figure out what to do with. Some interesting highlights I received include:

--My great-great aunt Arlene's pocketwatch. I'm not sure why it's called a pocketwatch, as it has a chain like a necklace, not a fob like most pocketwatches I'm familiar with. It's a windy-one, so I'm going to have to remember to wind it (gently) and I need to ask Mom if she knows how to set the time on it. I don't want to fiddle with it and accidentally break it. It'll be nice to wear to meetings; the clock's at the back of the hall, and I'm one of those chronic watch-checkers.

--a decent-sized bottle of Starbucks liquor. Mom said the saleslady said to drink it like regular coffee. My confused reply, "With milk and sugar?" Matt's reply, "With donuts?"

--a box of ties. Since Dad retired, he doesn't have to wear a tie every day anymore. So, he went through, thinned the collection. Matt's always happy to get more ties. Most are just standard fare, patterns, but one has brightly colored lizards (boy, did his eyes light up at that!!) and one has Bugs Bunny in an airplane.

Today, they're bringing me my rocking chair, and Mom and I are going grocery shopping. Ajo Al's for dinner later tonight.

I really should be making my lunch. I just don't feel like it. What I really want to do is go back to bed for an hour or five. Not happening, though. Got work today, and a LOT of it. I'm even going in early.

Matt starts his real schedule next week, sort of. Monday and Friday are on his actual schedule times, 6-2:30. Tuesday is 8-5 for orientation, and Wednesday and Thursday are 9-5 for more training.

Six am he has to be there. I don't start work until 9. We carpool. It looks like it's going to be back to napping in the car in the morning.

Blah. It's already 90 degrees that early in the morning. Although, once October or November hits, it should start cooling off, making those mornings easier.

Also, I started researching Sedona hotels last night, half-heartedly planning an anniversary trip. When $119 is listed as a "low nightly rate," I know I'm in for trouble.

ETA: I got paid Tuesday, and we do have coffee in the house again...that will make it all better.

From sweetcrumpet

..and I went with all three options, name, birthday, and favorite number
( Wow that's long )

I'm working on going through my dolls and figures, to put a sale post together. It's just so tiring...once I find them all, then I have to go through and photograph them, then get the pictures online, and make the post, figuring out what to ask for each of them....I got through 2 boxes of sorting, and was ready to give up. It's hot, I don't have a tall enough table to work at without killing my back and neck, and the thought of taking pictures of them, finding a spot with enough decent light to get a good picture, is exhausting me.

What I've found so far:

"Sky" PB 1.0, broken right ankle cup.
"Sky" CG 1.0, complete
Pale-pink CG 1.0, no head, hands or feet, broken ankle cup
Numerous Max Steel figs
Numerous Power Team figs, including blonde female
Numerous Ultra Corps figs
ballerina-body Barbies
pointed-toe horserider Barbie bodies
various Generation Girls
Happy D, redhead incarnation, Flavas
Midge
Diva, from the second-line of Barbie and the Rockers
Captain Sisko, DS9
Stacey-sized knockoff, jointed arms and legs, one arm broken at shoulder pin. Held together with screws, good for Frankensteining?
Kelly and Tommy dolls

And that's just in the two boxes in the bedroom. I have more in the garage. This is going to be a long, tiring day. But I have motivation: the bank account went negative again, I don't get paid for another 10 days, we're out of coffee, and I'm going to need gas before I get paid again.

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" (or you can just ask for the meme, I won't mind) and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Meme from marsdejahthoris

Power Rangers
- I can see that, as MMPR was what started our friendship on its current course. I started watching it my senior year, and taping it since you didn't have cable or satellite yet. We stuck through MMPR, Zeo, Turbo, Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force (where we started the short-lived tradition of getting together for the premieres), Wild Force, Ninja Storm, DinoThunder (featuring the return of Tommy Oliver!)....and then tapered off, as they started to just really lose cohesion.
PR reminds me of long nights at sleepovers, running through scenarios and rp sessions that would become part of our universe fanon, yet never be written down. Notebooks being swapped at homeroom, lunch, gym class and chorus. And of course, the immortal conversation ender, re: why Jason was the leader: "Because he has the biggest Zord."

Writing
-Heavily tied into the above. Yet, the first "story" I wrote was back in Limestone, when I was in Girl Scouts. It was about a troop with my friend Kelli Schoonover, going to a makeup shop. All the other Scouts in the story bought green makeup (to match their uniforms) while Kelli bought different colors.
I wrote fanfiction before I knew it had a name. I remember jotting down an opening to a sequel to Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series in the blank spaces around the church bulletin. Those were always favorite scribbling spots. Yet, I managed to quickly write a poem that my mother gave to the minister, to see if he wanted to perhaps put it in the church newsletter. We didn't stay for the service that day, so you can imagine my shock the next week when I found out that Gary read it, and decided it fit the sermon he was giving that day. And he read it aloud, during his sermon. That's something I kind of wish I could go back and hear, to see what was said about it.
I miss writing cohesive fiction. I haven't written anything complete in ages.

Bicycles
-Really? I haven't ridden one since high school; Jeff appropriated mine to use with his friends. Then again, seeing as I ran over one of his my senior year (he had two)... My high school boyfriend was obsessed with bicycles, wanting to be the next Greg LeMond (I think Lance Armstrong beat him to it). Although, I was thinking about that yesterday morning. My clock radio is set to the classical station, and the announcer was talking about the movie Breaking Away, and the Italian Symphony that was used in it. The movie inspired Dana to shave his legs...too bad he chickened out after only shaving one. And then wore shorts to school.

Sailor Moon
-Ahhh, the anime gateway drug. I recently sold my DVDs of the movies, and if I can get in touch with Scarlet Otter, I'd send him the rest of my 6" and 12" dolls for his Vixen-Alpha series. But, because of Sailor Moon, I have my username (also related to Power Rangers), even if it did make the guys at MWD think I was in the Navy. :-P Without Sailor Moon, I never would have found Fushigi Yuugi, Revolutionary Girl Utena, or even really ventured into the anime sections at Blockbuster, Movie World, Hollywood Video, or Netflix.

Usenet
-Just the other day, I was thinking about Usenet: afs-m, rssif, The Sandbox.... Otaku Wars; finding both The Strong & the Sequined and On the Edge at rssif, which inspired me to write/post Designs of Greatness; how continually asking about female action figures at The Sandbox led to an invite to Men With Dolls. If YSU's news server had carried afp-r, I'd have been around there, too. I sort of miss Usenet; it seems to have been replaced by message boards and blogs.

Is it odd that for a brief moment, I thought $8 for 5 pieces of chocolate was a good deal?

I signed up for Godiva's rewards program, because of the free piece of chocolate every month. So now I get their e-mails. July's e-mail is talking about their limited-edition ice cream flavored truffles. Their special deal for Rewards members is a 5-piece sampler for $8. Considering that this is normally $11, not a bad deal.

But then I thought about it more. That's over a dollar per piece of chocolate. That's over a dollar and a half per piece of chocolate. That's...not really a deal. I can get a full-size Snickers bar for 50 cents. For $8, I can get 16 Snickers bars.

"But this is GODIVA chocolate," will come the argument. "This isn't some mass-produced candy bar available at every convenience store."

True. It's Godiva, and Godiva is a luxury brand. This is why Starbucks can charge as much for a cup of coffee as I pay for a whole bag of coffee beans. Perception. Now, I'll agree, Godiva is good. I thoroughly enjoyed the free piece I had last month. It was the Open Oyster, hazelnut praline between 2 milk chocolate shells. But when asked to describe it, well... "A nugget of Nutella between chocolate shells."

If the five-piece sampler price ($11) is a guideline, that makes one piece $2.20. Going by Google, I can get 2 13-ounce jars of Nutella for $7. Throw in a chocolate bar from Fresh N Easy ($0.50), and I can get a similar experience, in a larger quantity.

So while compared to its original price, the sampler deal is a good one, compared to alternatives, not so much.

I will admit, though, that if I had the $8 to spend frivolously, I'd probably get it.

Even though I'm gluten-free, there are days...usually Friday nights or Saturdays...where I just want something _normal_. A donut. A brownie. A slice of cake. Something breaded. Something baked that I didn't have to make. And because I don't work on Saturdays or Sundays, I'll give in. I'm not celiac, so it's not an intestinal issue. I don't worry about having debilitating cramps or being tied to the bathroom after eating wheat. What I worry about is my mental state, which is why I only allow myself these temptations on days where I don't have to be at my best the next day.

This is on my mind because last night, I allowed myself a Brownie Batter Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It was good, but I think it was a little too much, because this morning, all I feel like is throwing up. I was going to do a ton of baking today, in preparation for next week, but...there are several contributing factors.

1. Matt found out yesterday that this weekend is the end of his temp job.
2. That bummed him out, so he didn't get the kitchen clean.
3. I cleaned so much at work yesterday that I'm out of cleaning energy.
4. Since he's not working next week, I don't have to make grab-and-go breakfast bars.
5. My stomach is killing me.

I'm still going to get a batch of bread going in the bread machine, and probably start the dough for hamburger rolls, since those are necessary. As to whether I'm going to make the milestone bars or the date bars, well, we'll see.