beenie

House smells

Aaaaaah, the joys of leftovers - my house smells sooooo good right now. I have the remains of two turkeys (see expanded entry for an explanation) and two gallons of water happily bubbling away in a huge stockpot on my stove. This will later today become Glorious Turkey Soup!!

Since we'll have so much, I told some friends that if they want some, just pop over with a Tupperware and I'd hook them up. Heaven knows I don't have the freezer space to store that much soup.

The 10lb. turkey I got from work thawed a lot more quickly than I thought it would, so it had to go in the oven Tuesday night (I also bought a 3-pounder for the actual day). I didn't put the probe thermometer in it (first mistake), didn't set the timer (second mistake), and trusted the person in the house with the wicked head/chest cold (i.e., can't smell ANYTHING) to pull it in a timely fashion while I was shopping for extra groceries (third mistake).

He forgot about it until I got home from shopping and asked about it. Crap. We pulled it and inserted the probe. Oy. 192 degrees in the breast. Oy. You're supposed to pull it at 161 and let carryover heat bring it to 165. Oy. Dry turkey. BUT... I got an extra quart and a half of gravy out the deal, AND I have a ton of meat left for a nice, meaty, wonderful soup.

Amazing restraint, I tell you... AMAZING!!

I spent a good portion of the day today with my girlfriend Carrie. We went to to see Christmas With the Kranks**, take a look around the beauty supply store, and to the mall to pick up the shoes I wanted for Lisa & Chris' wedding***.

And let me tell you, I showed AMAZING RESTRAINT at the beauty supply store (and the mall, but that was easier). Technically, only Carrie is "allowed" to shop there because it sells heavily discounted (or minimally marked up, but enough to make a profit) merchandise to members of the beauty industry (you have to become a member and show proper credentials with your application - Carrie's studying to be a nail tech), but I guess they have a little leeway - whenever I've gone in with Carrie, they've let me purchase items under her customer info. It took a lot, but especially aided with the knowledge that it's almost Christmas and I'm broke this week, I managed to NOT buy any OPI nailpolish (my absolute favorite brand), which they sell for $3.75 a bottle (it's $8.00 at the salon). You can hardly get decent nail polish for $3.75 at the drugstore!! And with OPI, not only are the colors themselves gorgeous and rich, the names are SO adorable.

Right now, I'm wearing a blue-y green shade from their new Canadian collection that they call "Glacier Bay Blues" (there's a try-on studio on the website, but this color isn't quite true-to-life on the site). My absolute favorite is called "Chicago Champagne Toast" - it's a shimmery mauvy-brown that is very neutral in comparison with my skin tone - plus, it's not as conspicuous when it chips (I let my polish go way too long after it's started to chip). Unfortunately, I'm the kind of person who could buy 5 different bottles of nail polish in 5 different brands on 5 different shopping trips and wind up with essentially the same shade of polish. I've been trying to branch out, hence the aforementioned "Glacier Bay Blues" and darker shimmery pink (but not "I just got back from vacation and have a tan that is way too dark for me" pink that seems to show up on the 2" long talons of the bleach blonde sun goddess worshippers who will look like a leather handbag by the time they're 35) "Abbey Rose" that I bought a few weeks ago on my first trip to the beauty supply store, and I realized today that out of thier Holiday Harmony collection, there's really only one color I like - "Concerto in Copper" - but I didn't buy anything. I didn't buy Concerto in Copper, or Chocolate Moose, or Route Beer Float, or Java Mauve-A, or anything else that I liked. Yay me!!

Heh, maybe it's also my subconscious telling me that I'd better make an investment in something to help strengthen my soft, flexible, thin, peeling fingernails before I start buying loads of stuff to make them look pretty.

** Christmas With the Kranks was cute, but I dislike slapstick physical comedy, and while it was cute in the book on which the movie was based, it didn't do it for me in the movie.

*** The wedding isn't until July, but I found THE shoes that are black, pretty, dressy enough for the occasion/formalwear combo, and DO NOT HAVE HEELS. In addition to it being an outdoor wedding on the grounds of a botanical garden (read: heels sinking into soft ground), I simply cannot walk on heels.

Another quiz

I'm sure it's no big surprise to you that your
romance is The Princess Bride. A heartwarming
tale of "Twue Wuve" that has giants,
Spainards and swashbuckling. You really do
think that love can overcome anything. You may
be a touch naive but your heart is certainly in
the right place. You've probably got one of
those relationships where proper nouns have
been replaced with "Snookums" and
"Pookie Pie". Eww. Beware a cuteness
overload.


What Romance Movie Best Represents Your Love Life?
brought to you by Quizilla

A day late

From my table to yours...

Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you all had a wonderful day.

Foodie fun

Here's a little quiz on world food culture. I only got 5 out of 11, but learned some pretty interesting stuff.

Don't Gross Out the World!

Christmas cheer

This cracks me up. Shake the snow globe and watch the people inside fly around and scream.

Culinary experimentation

Does anyone think it's weird that, for some unexplained reason, I want to make a layer cake, except that I want to use meatloaf as the "cake" and mashed potatoes as the "frosting," then decorate the whole thing with corn?

Didn't think so.

Heh

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Not a shock

You Are From Venus

You love all forms of beauty. You love dressing up and anything luxurious. A social butterfly, you're incredibly popular and a great host. You're known for your fairness and affection. And as a frind to all. Careful though! You're desire to please may make you too willing to conform. Be yourself. Focus on what matters to you. You'll be all the more popular for it.

Well, it's like I say...

"Better a bleeding heart than none at all."

Spd from Mel.

Aaargh!!!

I could have sworn that Dubya mentioned something recently about letting the states decide whether to allow gay marriage.

Now, aides are saying that he will renew his efforts to seek a constitutional amendment banning it.

Sonfoabitch.

Home Ec

It was mandatory in my school district (Long Island, Sachem School District - not the district from which I graduated). I can't remember if I was in 7th or 8th grade though - 7th was '88-'89, 8th was '89-'90.

There's a discussion on home ec on a message board I frequent, and I can tell you that it was a requirement in my school district in junior high.

I don't remember much about the cooking part, but I remember sewing. You could choose from a number of pillow patterns, each a fun shape and made with felt. I made an ice cream cone that had a drip of ice cream that was sewn separately and then attached to the finished pillow.

Unfortunately, the part of home ec I remember the most was being self-conscious of my arms for the first time. I wore a sleveless top one day and heard a boy at my table whispering to his neighbor that fat people shouldn't wear sleeveless. It's only been in the last couple of years that I've gone sleeveless in public again.

I hated junior high boys.

She's done!

Sherri finished. She's injured, but she finished. Even limping for a good 22 miles, she finished in about 7.5 hours. I'm so incredibly proud, I can't even describe it. Go congratulate her!!

That's it!!!

I saw this posted as a comment on another blog I read (don't know if she'd want to be linked, thus no link):

There is no need for two people to separate their money and possessisons. How good is your love for one another if you can't share it all? It would be silly to share your feelings and not everything else.

Thank you, Tony, for helping me put a finger on my feelings about something I don't get in regard to one of my best friend's relationship with her husband.

They have separate money. Not one joint account to speak of. They split the bills equally. Sometimes she gets upset when he spends what she thinks is too much money, despite the fact that he makes a heck of a lot more than she does.

She truly is one of my best friends, but she needs to realize that if she's the one who wants to keep separate money, she have to respect the fact that his money, above and beyond paying "his half" of the bills and any percentage or amount you've agreed to set aside for savings/other stuff, is just that - HIS money. If you spend your leftover money as you see fit, without consulting him on your purchases, you can't deny him the same thing. It's just not fair.

I can understand the separate bedrooms thing, because not everyone can sleep well in bed with someone next to them, not to mention the "working opposite shifts" thing. And I know she's fiercely independent, but if they're not sharing everything, what are they other than roommates who have sex, a piece of paper and pretty rings?

I don't get it, but since it's not my marriage, it's probably not for me to understand, anyway. As long as it works for them...

Edited to add: just don't get mad at me when I don't 100% agree with you all the time, especially if you flat out ask me my opinion (which she has, on both accounts - asked, and gotten mad).

I {heart} my mother-in-law

She totally cracks me up.

She called Bryan the other day and asked what we wanted to do for Thanksgiving - it seems the people we usually spend the day with (friends of my in-laws) are just having so many people this year that MIL just doesn't want to be there (think 14 people in a tiny ass apartment). She asked if we would cook and it could just be the 4 of us. Well, that idea was right out, because we got rid of our kitchen table a few months ago - it was too big and falling apart.

So she says, "well, is there a set you have your eye on?" Good-furniture-starved as we are, of course there is. She said "hmmm, we'll see." The next day, she text-messaged Bryan that she's going to buy us a kicthen set.

My mother-in-law is seriously going to buy us a kitchen table and chairs so she doesn't have to cook Thanksgiving Dinner! Holy crap! Not that I'm complaining (especially because my cooking is better than hers), but wouldn't it have been ceasier - not to mention cheaper - to, say, go out?

But I'm getting a new kitchen table! :D Now I just have to find a cute tablecloth for Thanksgiving.

Wow

Sherri is running the NYC Marathon as we speak. Go, Sherri!!!!

Don't stop... thinkin' about tomorrow

This letter to Salon put me in the best mood I've been in since the election. Obama!

Thanks, Carl Graci - you rock!

I see a lot of sad faces and feel a lot of angry emotions coming from Democrats/liberals . There's no reason for this. Here are some things to be happy about:

It's OVER. I know, not the way we wanted it to be over -- but it's over. Praise the Lord. No chads, no recounts, no Supreme Court decision, no Florida hicks bitching on TV.

Nixon. We got through that one; we'll get through this one.

Feel free to watch Fox News and think to yourself, "Gosh, eventually, all these people will be dead. Dead, dead, dead."

There will continue to be a steady stream of material for "The Daily Show."

Bush will propose things we hate. We'll fight them. He'll propose Supreme Court justices we hate. We'll fight them. He still won't have a grasp on the English language. We'll snicker.

Only two years until we take back the Senate.

The new domestic and international policies and laws you are dreaming of haven't vanished. It's not a matter of "if" it's a matter of when. This is a short-term setback for some very large and time-consuming improvements we are making in society.

Know that Ohio will get exactly what it has coming to it.

Remember, we're the good guys! Feel free to act and feel morally and ethically superior to conservatives. We're right, they're wrong. Tell people you're liberal and proud! It's time to free the "L" word from conservative propaganda. Forward, not backwards! Advance, not retreat! Modern, not retro!

Obama!

The universe has come back into balance now that Rudy Giuliani has returned from a temporary state of "America's greatest hero ever -- a beacon of light in an otherwise darkened universe" to his normal state of "asshole."

You can join the ACLU or the Human Rights Campaign or another charity of your choice. Whoever you select, make sure Bill O'Reilly has called them "a bunch of pinheads" and you'll know you're on track.

As is tradition, Ann Coulter must now return to her ancient home on Mount Olympus and return to her life as "Festerpus," the Godess of Crazy Bitches.

Read Salon, listen to NPR, read the New York Times and be damn proud of it! More Liberal Media Bias, I say! You down with the L - M - B? Yeah, you know me!

Four more years to witness Dick Cheney morph into Skelator. They're building Castle GreySkull in DC as we speak! Honest!

Election? Man, that's so Tuesday. Welcome to Wednesday!

-- Carl Graci

Hmmm...

Funny... she was on Bryan's "list" for a loooong time (might still be)

Which Rock Chick Are You?

"For the Children" whining

I watched America's Ugliest Bathroom last night. Jewel Savage, you may have had an ugly bathroom, but you lost in my eyes when you said "we have children, we deserve it!"

Nope, sorry. That does not and will not EVER fly with me.

Oh, and BTW, I didn't like what Doug did with the winners' bathroom (I generally don't like Doug's stuff anyway, so this was not a shock). The olive green tile was okay, but the brown paint? That would have ben gone over with white the second he left if that was my bathroom. And they didn't want anything dark - so what was with the brown tile in the toilet area? Ick.

Yep, that just about sums it up

I {heart} The Onion.

Happy Birthday Grandpa

My paternal grandfather passed away Veterans' Day, 1975, 10.5 months before I was born. My grandma tells me that he "would've just eaten me up." I would have loved to have met him.

My grandma has been head of the family since he passed away, and I think it would be interesting to have some magical fairy show me, in some kind of "It's a Wonderful Life" kind of way, what the family dynamic would be like with him still here, presiding over the family.

Grandma has never even entertained the notion of a "man friend" in the 29 years he's been gone. My cousin Veronica and I once asked her why. She said "nobody could ever replace your grandfather." It seems they were very much in love, and I don't think my grandmother has ever really gotten over his death.

He would have been 86 years old today. Happy Birthday, Grandpa, wherever you are. I never met you, but I love you. Thanks for making my grandma so happy.

Maybe this is why I'm sick...

Fluckin' election!

We got 4 phone calls in the span of 45 minutes last night. And it was between 8:00 and 8:45 PM. Ummm, some people SLEEP during that time. I don't usually, but I was b/c I felt like crap, but still...

And we got 7 pieces of political mail on Friday. SEVEN!!! 6 of them were pro-Republican. Now, I work in the printing industry and know how expensive that stuff is to print - what a waste of money. Maybe that's why I'm sick to my stomach - all I keep thinking of is how many people could have been helped with all of the money wasted on printing and mailing stupid freakin' flyers to people who have already made up their minds anyway. Maybe get them some food. Or some subsidized child care so it would actually be more cost-efective for them to get a job as opposed to staying on welfare. Or even something as small as driving them to the polls so they can vote tomorrow.

Oh, wait. Those people wouldn't vote Republican anyway, so why help them?

I want my mommy

I think I have the flu.