News from the Great Beyond

Worst fortune cookie fortune. EVER.

Today, Songstress and I decided to have lunch at one of the local all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets near our home (there's a bunch!).  As usual, most of the food was pretty decent, but I had no idea what lameness was lurking just beyond that helping of General Tso's Chicken.

When our fortune cookies arrived, Songstress opened hers to show me some nifty saying about how everything good in life stems from having determination, yadda yadda yadda.  I opened my cookie to find this saying staring back at me:

DO OR DO NOT.  THERE IS NO TRY.

Some of our faithful readers (hi Moms!) may recognize that quote.  For those of you who don't, read the rest of the post after the jump.

Random Things that Go Through My Head

I'm checking numbers on a potential change order from our contractor and see that one line item has 60 feet of pipe at $11.10 per foot - doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that totals $666.00.   A couple of lines down there's a listing for pipe hangers - 4 units, at 1.11 hours each, with a labor adjustment factor of 1.5... this calculates out to 6.66 hours... My first thought is "My gosh, our plumber is the Antichrist!"

I am soooo digging the new Starbucks drink - Cinnamon Dolce Latte.  For the uninitiated, it's a brown sugar/cinnamon thing - soooo good.  I'd put it on a "Tuesday's Top 10" list but I don't think I can come up with 9 other items for it right now.  Oh, except for Cinnabon cookies.  Those are pretty darn awesome.  And the Chronicles of Narnia soundtrack - that's on the list.  OK, maybe I could come up with a full top 10 list after all.

So Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are having a baby.  Somehow, I don't care.  Except that I'm curious to see what he/she/it looks like.  I think it's ironic that sometimes good looking people have kids that manage to inherit the worst possible combination of their features.  When you really look at her, Angelina Jolie has some odd features.  The whole package is attractive, yes, but I can imagine that it might not work so well in other combinations.

Shoot me, I'm speculating about Baby Brangelina.  Even more so, shoot me - I just said "Brangelina".

Is it time to go home yet?

I just heard "Every Season" by Nichole Nordeman on my iPod. That song brings tears to my eyes every single time (so of course I repeated it 3 times *ahem*).  It also makes me want to live somewhere where there are actual seasons, but that's beside the point.  I'm sensing in my own life that spring is coming.   

What's running through your mind today?

Everything That's On My Mind - Happy Back Edition

It has been five years since I've been to a chiropractor - until yesterday afternoon.  I had forgotten how good it feels to have a professional adjust me.  I'd had a headache most of the day, and a catch in the middle of my back that was causing me stabbing pains when I moved suddenly.  Alllll better.  I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon, and then I'm probably going to schedule a regular monthly appointment or something to keep my back in line.  Two cases of whiplash will do a number on you, let me tell you.

Speaking of yesterday, it was ExBossMan's birthday, so I brought him a birthday cake.  Devil's food, made with strawberry schnapps, strawberry Smucker's Simply Fruit between the layers, Hershey's Strawberries & Creme white chocolate kisses baked in, and chocolate buttercream frosting with strawberry flavor.  Pretty darn tasty, although the kisses didn't melt as well as I'd have liked.  I did that 3-layer cake, plus I also brought in a dozen-and-a-half limoncello cupcakes (vanilla cake mix, with half lemon juice and half limoncello liqueur replacing the water, and a dollop of lemon curd on top of each cupcake so the cake mix puffs up around it while baking, and lemon juice/powdered sugar glaze).  Lots of compliments.  Once I move to a house that has a decent-sized kitchen with a pantry, I'll have to start taking orders.  I'm gonna be a popular girl.

Speaking of food (and birthdays), my mom got Hubby-head a gift certificate to Omaha Steaks for his birthday.  We went on line and found a special deal on a variety pack that was marked down by like $121.  It included some filet mignon, some sirloin steaks, some burgers, some gourmet hot dogs, stuffed sole, chicken breasts, and au gratin potatoes.  I cleaned out the freezer to make room for all the food.  So far we've had some of the burgers (very tasty) and the au gratin potatoes (yummy!)... looking forward to the stuffed sole tonight.  I don't know that the prices would be worth shopping from Omaha Steaks without the gift certificate, but I can't complain about the quality of the food.  Anyone else have any experience with Omaha Steaks?

OK, so I have a question to ask you readers.  Hubby-head won 4 movie passes from a radio station recently.  They are the kind that work for special engagements too.  We plan to use them to see two movies.  One, I think, is going to have to be the Narnia movie when it comes out.  What should we see with the other set of passes?

Anyone?  What's on your mind?

Everything That's On My Mind - September First Edition

September?  What the... who the... OK, how did it get to be September already?  Wasn't it just April like two minutes ago? 

I took tomorrow off work, giving myself a four-day holiday weekend.  I had 6-1/2 days of vacation left when my company anniversary rolled around in July, and I got another 15.  I was strongly encouraged to start using them up a little more frequently than I have for the last two years.  My company's policy is that you're only allowed to roll over vacation days from one year to the next if your supervisor approves it (because they don't want you to take all of them for project-related reasons)... and if you accumulate two anniversary years' worth (in my case, 30 days), they won't give you more until you take the ones you have.  I think it's their way of preventing people from saving up 6 months' worth of vacation before they quit, and having to be paid for all of it.

Hubby-head and I had been kicking around the idea of taking a trip for the long weekend - perhaps going out to LA to see mom-in-law and other friends and family members... although we'd prefer a longer stay if we're going to pack in that much visiting, and we will be there for several days for Thanksgiving.  We'd just about decided to stay home, when our friend Christi invited us to visit her in Albuquerque for the holiday.  We made our arrangements (switching lock-up days at church, rearranging the praise & worship team schedule so we'd be free that day, etc.) and were looking forward to the fun weekend, when yesterday evening the peripheral effects from Hurricane Katrina started to become obvious.

Gas prices jumped from $2.63 on Monday and Tuesday to $2.80-something and even over $3.00 at some stations.  People heard that the refineries shut down in the gulf coast could affect our prices and supply, and started topping off their tanks and "stocking up" before the prices got any higher.  Stations started running out of gasoline, which makes people panic, and which makes them more likely to fill up everything they own that uses gasoline and further deplete the supply.  People are starting to behave like they did after the Kinder-Morgan pipeline break in 2003.  The Governor's spokespeople are on the news telling people that there is plenty of gas, and not to panic and top off.  We'll see how well that works.

Anyway, with the sudden spike in gas prices, as well as the question of whether the supply is adequate, I'm not sure if hitting the road for a 450-mile drive is such a good idea right now.

In other random updates on my life, I made another of my semi-famous cakes for CoWorkerB's birthday.  I asked her what her favorite flavor of cake was, and she said "lemon" - so my first thought was to make a vanilla cake with limoncello liqueur.  That's not the easiest thing to find in the liquor section of your average grocery store, and I knew I'd seen recipes for making it yourself, so I decided to give it a shot.  Most of the recipes I'd seen use lemon peels and vodka, and involve weeks of preparation time, letting the oils from the lemon zest infuse the alcohol. I did find one that used grain alcohol (Everclear) and only required 3 days to infuse - which I had time for (just barely).  I made that one.  It burns like fire going down, but it has a really nice lemon flavor.  It worked very well in the cake (water in the cake batter replaced by half limoncello and half lemon juice, lemon curd between the layers, and lemon juice/white chocolate glaze).  It's also fantastic in a shake, with milk and vanilla ice cream.  I wouldn't drink that stuff straight if you paid me.  OK, maybe if you paid me, but only a teensy bit of it.  I will probably try making limoncello again using the vodka recipe and more patience - I've heard the vodka version is much smoother.

The cake was a hit, by the way.  I've just about decided that when we move, if my kitchen is reasonably-sized, I'm going to start taking orders and selling my cake creations.  Right now my kitchen is unreasonably-sized.  If you only knew...  I will have to take pictures and write a post about it sometime so you can understand why I just can't deal with it.

No, no update on the moving thing.  We still have some items that need to be taken care of before we can take any concrete steps in that direction.

In other cooking-related news, I found a tasty recipe for Curry Chicken which I made last week with a batch of basmati rice.  Hubby and I had made a trip to the Asian grocery recently, and I had a can of coconut milk just begging to be used in something.  I'll try to remember to post the recipe and get it into this week's Carnival.

Otherwise, life rolls on.  Still on a reading kick - right now I'm working on pre-critiquing a draft copy of Jared's new novel.  I also have a small stack of library books (including the first two of the "Voyage of the Jerle Shannara" series) to devour, and I've got 3 books on order through PaperBackSwap.com.  I've sent out 3 more as of today, and have another one to mail tomorrow, so I'll have 4 credits coming my way in a few weeks.  This is going to be fun.

There's probably more to say, but I can't think of it right now.  Enough for the moment, there are other things to be done.

Oh yeah, and before I forget, Happy Birthday to Paul Fell.  I was just thinking this morning about the blue moose, and how one of these days we'll have taught everyone we know about "puzfoomeny forbit".  Love you, bro.

Everything That's On My Mind - Short Week, Even Shorter Weekend

After the Memorial Day weekend, last week just flew by - one of the many blessings of a holiday weekend is the shorter work-week that accompanies it.  I've got another 4-day week on tap this week, since I'm taking Friday off.  I'm hosting the Carnival of Recipes this week and wanted plenty of time to do it up right.  Start thinking about what you want to submit, post it and e-mail the link (or just e-mail the recipe if you're not a blogger) to recipe(dot)carnival(at)gmail(dot)com.  Or just use Conservative Cat's handy-dandy Carnival Submit Form and make it easy on yourself and me!

Ahh, the weekend.  Let's see... Hubby-head worked a later shift on Friday, so my buddy Judy and I did a girls night out for the First Fridays Art Walk.  I can't believe it was time for that again already.  This time we took the South Route (there are 5 shuttle routes to choose from) and saw some really great venues, and some very nice art.  I saw several things I would have loved to buy, and even a few that I might be able to afford.  The coolest part, though, is that both of us got ideas for things that we could probably recreate ourselves to save money and decorate our homes.  If I make any, I'll post pictures.  Heck, I might try to sell some.  I probably wouldn't fetch $32,000 per painting, but you have to start somewhere, right?

I took some pictures - mostly of Trinity Cathedral and the Cathedral Center for the Arts - some of them may find their way into future design changes for the blog, or onto products in our CafePress shop.

Saturday I did a bit of cleaning (mostly the kitchen - it gets messy so very fast when I actually cook at home)... then went to Urgent Care to get a prescription for antibiotics for a kidney infection I've been fighting for a while.  That done, prescription filled, I went to get a pedicure and then to the grocery store for shopping with a capital "S".  I felt like cooking.

Sunday after church we came home and I made bratwurst on the George Foreman Grill (complete with sauerkraut for Hubby-head) and a batch of potato salad, recipe from Dave at the Glittering Eye from the Carnival of Recipes a couple of weeks ago.  'Twas yummy.  I think it was a bit too yummy, we ate too much of it, and Hubby-head promptly decided it was time for a nap.

Sunday night we watched Food Network's new reality show, The Next Food Network Star.  Eric and Hans are early favorites... I could see Susannah or Deborah making it as well.  Michael is just a bit too odd (although he'd be fun to watch), and Harmony - well, she'd just be a disaster from what I've seen so far.  Dan and Steve might be entertaining but since they appear to have started nearly every demonstration and interview by reminding the viewers that THEY ARE A GAY COUPLE, they appear to be on a quest to make a statement more than to make a good cooking show.  Brook was the first to go, and it's kind of a shame - he had some showmanship and some good skills.  He talked too fast, though.  Hubby was disappointed that he even made it into the finalist round, because he preferred the guy who was spinning eggs on his spatula from the semi-finals.

Last night we had Mexican food - quick and easy - but for dessert I made that strawberry and mascarpone dish also from week-before-last's Carnival of Recipes.  Of course I had to tweak it a bit, I used strawberries and blackberries, and sprinkled them with brown sugar... I also doubled the mascarpone/yogurt topping recipe.  It was sooooo scrumptious.

There you have it, everything you didn't know you wanted to know about my weekend.  You've probably noticed that I gave my big brother a set of keys to the blog, so he'll be popping in from time to time to philosophize.  I've made some additions and updates to my blogroll, which I plan to share later.  Until then, have yourself a merry little Tuesday.  Did y'all do anything fun last weekend?

*Happy little sigh*

Mission accomplished:

Hubby and I went to Best Buy and found this little darling for $199.  It's slightly smaller than my previous model, and 4 MP instead of 3.

Funny story - as we pulled up in front of the MetroCenter Best Buy location, Hubby noticed the "faux YC's" Mongolian BBQ and was pining for the REAL YC's.  He suggested "I bet there's a Best Buy somewhere near the Scottsdale YC's."  Oh, possibly, I told him.  But since we're here, and all...

But that Best Buy was all out of the Nikon CoolPix 4600... so when we got back in the car, he looked up Best Buy in my Dex On-the-Go yellow pages, and discovered there indeed was one in the same shopping center as the Scottsdale YC's Mongolian Grill location.  Still, we decided to go to Arrowhead Mall to Best Buy, and perhaps grab dinner at the new Chick-Fil-A down the street.  Love Chick-Fil-A.  Mmmm.

Anyway, the Arrowhead Best Buy was also fresh out of the 4600 model, but the helpful young man in the camera department did a search to see what locations would have it for us.  Hey, they have plenty of them at the Scottsdale Pavilions location, it would be the safest bet for us... And guess what?  That location?  Is the one right by the Scottsdale YC's Mongolian Grill.

I'll give you three guesses what we had for dinner, and the first two don't count.

Everything That's On My Mind - Long, Dragging Afternoon Edition

I'm having a really hard time believing my clock.  It tells me it's only quarter till 3, and it feels like it must be at least 2 hours later than that.   But here we are, overlooking the downtown Phoenix streets, groups of people starting to stream by on their way to this afternoon's baseball game at 3:10.   Anybody care to venture a guess as to what I'd rather be doing right now?   Unfortunately, I don't have the money to shell out for a ticket today (except maybe a $1 standing room only ticket, but that would cut into my after-church dinner plans).

After-church dinner plans explained:  Every Wednesday night after church, Hubby- head and I (and whoever among the Singles group, friends and associates decide they want to join us) go to Native New Yorker, which is just down the street from our church.  We actually started this a couple of years ago... our church for a while did Friday night services instead of Wednesdays, and since it was the weekend, a bunch of us made a point of going out to eat afterwards.  Native has karaoke on Friday nights, which made the experience a lot of fun (even if we didn't participate, we could sit there and laugh at those who did).  When the church decided to go back to Wednesday midweek services, our Native tradition soon returned.  Mostly because I never had time to eat dinner before
church, especially if I was on the praise team that night.  So we're regulars at this particular Native New Yorker, and most of the servers recognize us.  Some of them even know what our "usual" is - boneless buffalo wings, honey hot.  Mmm.

OK, so.  I realized I forgot to mention anything about the weekend, for those who care.  Friday night we did the First Fridays art walk as planned, which involved more actual walking than we'd planned but we did discover how very close many of the venues were to the Central Library.  I took lots of pictures, but of course will have to find time to pull them off my camera and prep them for uploading (at very least resizing them, because the files are youuge (TM Donald Trump)). I will mention that we checked out the Irish Cultural Center, in honor of Hubby-head's Irish heritage.  Very cool stuff.  They have a display on the Book of Kells - that looks fascinating.  The next First Fridays art walk is June 3 - Phoenix bloggers/readers, you should check it out!

Saturday we did the Lord of the Rings movie marathon.  Since we have the extended version DVDs, that was nearly 12 solid hours of movie watching.  Good thing they're such good movies.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and so for lunch we avoided any restaurant that looked remotely likely to be a place that people would take their mothers.  We went to Santisi Brothers, a dark place with lots of tables and walls full of televisions tuned to sports (see our Adventures in Phoenix Food review).  Yummy, and not packed to the gills.  Mission accomplished.  Then we went home, goofed off a bit, and then yes, I was a good girl, and I called my mom.  Hubby called his mom as well.

That was pretty much it.  Exciting lives we lead, huh?

Before I forget, I should plug the most recent Carnival of Recipes... There are some fabulous-looking foodstuffs in this batch, and if I could actually get to Technogypsy's blog right now to remember what they are and list a few of them, I would.  You'll just have to see for yourself.

Random thoughts...

I want to learn to create fractal art.  It's just so cool.

I keep hearing these radio commercials that promise a way to earn the equivalent to a full-time corporate income from home.  They never give any details about what the business entails.  I'm always curious, but reluctant to call for info because I'm just sure it's a multi-level marketing scheme or something shady.  I'll just have to become an artist or a musician whose work is highly in demand so I can make a full-time income doing something that doesn't feel like work.

Hey, did you know Starbucks (at least some locations) has sandwiches now?  I tried a half chicken salad sandwich and fruit the other day.  It was yummy, but the sandwich didn't quite have enough chicken salad on it for my taste.  The ciabatta bread was good, but it was kind of dry without more filling.  Some of the other sandwiches looked scrumptious.  They also have a fruit and cheese plate that looks to be a tasty light lunch.

I'm still planning that blogroll roundup.  Soon, I promise... and as a special treat (take that as sarcastic if you like), CATBLOGGING!  What would be really fun is if I got my cats to blog.  That would be wildly entertaining, I'm sure.

Speaking of wildly entertaining, time to wrap up this post.  I've managed to keep myself occupied for an hour, at least.  Hasta la vista, muchachos!

(Posted via e-mail... relevant links and formatting fixes to be added later!)

Sushi-riffic

Hubby-head is a big fan of sushi - if it wasn't such an expensive habit, he'd want it for lunch and/or dinner several times a week... Myself, I love California rolls and some miscellaneous sushi rolls containing crab or tempura shrimp, but I can't abide the texture of raw fish, and the thought of salmon roe makes me just a bit green around the gills.

This here, though, is some sushi even I could get into:

You can find this and so much more at Suedy's Koo-ki Sushi.  Pricey, but unique and oh-so-yummy-sounding.

Hat tip to Miss O'Hara for the link!

On Cakes and Such

Tonight I'll be over at my brother and sister-in-law's house baking a cake to bring in to work. 

I have mentioned my penchant for baking cakes before on this blog - a few months back I had this desire to experiment with boxed cake mixes and alcoholic beverages and such... It worked well and snowballed from there.  My most popular creation to date has been the key lime cake I made for my birthday, which used vanilla cake mix (not white cake) and key lime juice, KeKe Beach key lime liqueur, a lemon-pear marmalade between the layers, and a glaze made of white chocolate and key lime juice and key lime liqueur.  I've usually made the cakes for a singles event or some such thing, and brought the leftovers in to work.  They are a big hit with the HardHatGuys and the electricians especially, and word has spread about them until they are legendary on this job site.  I owe the electricians a cake of their own after all the help they've given my on my personal situation, but they'll be happy to share a 3-layer cake with the rest of the crew, I'm sure.

I will admit, I go all-out in making them, except for using boxed cake mix.  I always try to find some sort of melty candy to toss into the layers before they are baked, and I replace at least half the water in the cake mix recipe with whatever the liqueur of choice is.

I made one for Hubby-head's office Christmas party on Friday, a devil's food chocolate cake with peppermint schnapps and York peppermint bites baked in, homemade rich chocolate frosting between the layers, and two glazes: a white chocolate and a semi-sweet chocolate one with more peppermint schnapps.  And crushed starlight mints on top.  It was triumphant. At least two or three of his coworkers told me I should make them special-order for sale, and his boss offered to be a partial investor if I should decide to open my own bakery. (!!)  I doubt I'll be opening a bakery any time soon, but it's good to know that I have career options, right?

I Had No Idea.

I suppose you could call this man a visionary... or perhaps a little bit nuts:

When Gary Wood opened a shrimp farm in the desert nine years ago, people told him it couldn't work.

Today, Wood has partly proved his early critics wrong. Consumers have touted the desert-raised shrimp's flavor and freshness while scientists have commended the farm for practices friendly to the environment.

But as shrimp farmers have gained their footing, the growth worldwide also has caused prices to drop and exports to increase. To compete, Arizona farmers are trying to appeal to other markets with what they tout as a superior product. Wood, the manager of Desert Sweet Shrimp, phased out his wholesale business last year. Instead, he is selling his shrimp as gourmet products to the restaurant at Phoenix's Royal Palms Hotel and to AJ's Fine Foods, as well as to specialty food stores in Los Angeles. Wood's shrimp sell for $3 to $15 per pound.

Apparently there are four - count 'em, four - shrimp farms in Arizona, responsible for producing 313,000 pounds of shrimp in 2003.  Good news for consumers: the price of shrimp is dropping.  But, apparently this is bad news for the four struggling Arizona shrimp farmers.

Shrimp farmers in Arizona.  I had no idea.