For no other reason

than that I like this shot (saw it on Perezzzz) and love this song, here's a little P!nk for your Saturday night.

Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Close your eyes and trust it, just trust it
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said I just don't care

It's only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg
The sun before the burn
The thunder before the lightning
The breathe before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?

Lucky?

I had to be up early after a late night that was only late because of a little issue involving a tow truck (sigh...). I was Not Happy about any of that.

I had to go to school to cook, but first I had to go buy buttermilk(to make dressing, we use mayo, buttermilk, and powdered ranch dressing mix). So I went to the local convenience store, because for some reason they carry TONS of buttermilk. I dunno. I never would have thought they would have that crap.

I used the ATM there... and got an extra $20. I told the clerk he needed to call and get the machine serviced. (Knowing that atm's track whether or not they successfully distribute bills in a transaction, and other stuff... I wasn't as excited as someone else might be. I know I'll have that $20 deducted from my checking account balance in the end.) He tried a "Oh, I know who that was, she was just here and didn't get her money" on me, and I gave him the hairy eyeball and said "tell her to call her bank". (For the record I did call my own bank to see if I could straighten it out sooner rather than later, but no, because it wasn't our ATM.)

I got to school and started working. I have a team of myself plus four others.... ONE person showed up a half hour after I got there. Me, not happy. Tons of work. Work of my own at home not getting done. Family members driving me up the wall via cell phone.

Today has been a lost day. It's almost dinnertime and I managed to get mix into my bread machine, so there will at least be nice bread for dinner. ... dinner which I get to cook for myself, because I am home alone, and clean up the mess myself... which is ok, even though I'm So Tired, mainly because I am not At Another Freaking Basketball Game. This one was literally 45 minutes from here and the directions from our coach were so sketchy, I wonder if the guy can find his, you know what, with both hands. Google maps can't help you if you don't have a street address for a place out in nowhere land.

So, in short: Tired, overworked, cranky. Feeling only semi lucky. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Oy and Vey with a yawn on the side

I am exhausted and crazy busy. Every day this week I've had somewhere to go in the evening. Yesterday I went from work to pick up my daughter to the market to basketball practice to a school meeting to choir practice. ::::thud::::

March is looking like torture because I have yearbook stuff I've been seriously neglecting to plow my farm on facebook, and I have a raffle to run, and a dance to prep for. Oh, and the kids have honors band rehearsals and there will be a couple more basketball games (frowny face) and the basketball banquet.

And there is no long weekend this month. Soooo wrong.

Please, send Pepsi Max. (side note... I gave up soda and wine for lent. Yesterday at work I was so tired I thought "I'll have a small soda, I need to taper down my caffeine consumption to make this easier" (a thought I shoudl have had last week, but whatever). Then I got home from choir and Mr. C said "hey, I got some wine...." (I usually drink a glass or two while I watch office/ greys/ etc... last night was no exception.... sigh...day one, F-. )

The elephant in the room

Yesterday morning, I woke up and fought with you again, about all of the things that I guess we will never agree on. Of course, it was all in my head, after I hit the snooze button. I didn't know why I was arguing with you at length; for some reason it had just bubbled up, as though from a broken watermain in the street. I assumed it was a byproduct of my new timewaster of looking up everyone I've ever known, on facebook.

And then there you were, after all this time. I turned around in a very public place, started walking away from the counter with my purchase, and almost smacked right into you. Damn. I could see that you were with other people that I don't know. So I just walked on by. I don't think well on my feet. I hate confrontations.

What is there to say, that I didn't say a thousand times, back then? You didn't want to hear it.

So I sat, hands shaking, listening to another friend, and trying to focus on the here and the now. It all seems so long ago and far away. Do I wish we were still friends? I guess I'd have to say I wish I was still friends with the person I used to think you were. And that I will spend the rest of my life wondering whether I saw your true colors THEN, or now.

Lyrics

From Phil Vassar, on my Sirius this morning...

Life takes its toll on the heart and soul, but I'm doing the best I can..Lord hear the prayer of a Common Man.

I'm not looking for charity, I just need some clarity.I've got people counting on me. And I'm tired that's all. I'm up against the wall. Lord hear me when I call


Carly(via Blackberry)

Hello, Cupcake!

I bought Hello Cupcake the other day... I was in the megahuge bookstore that just opened in the mall near me, and I flipped through the book and loved it.

There is a page that has cupcakes arranged to look like a plate of pasta (see, at left? it's CAKE.... with frosting "pasta", strawberry jam and chocolate covered candies...)

This is a clever book with more cute ideas that I will probably never get to try, but given that I've been decorating cakes for almost 15 years, leafing through this book is entertaining for me, if I'm snowed in the house... and there is wine.

I will be making this particular project when I make lunch for my brother in law. He wants a ruben with steak fries. (This is from our Superbowl squares bet, winner at halftime got to pick anything at all for a lunch that the other family members to cook for him, and he went easy on me. The final score winner gets dinner - my nephew won that -- and so far I have him sold on fettucini alfredo with shrimp and broccoli. )

Two frosting covered thumbs up!! It's available on Amazon.

More oscar complaints

Oh look. Jessica Biel rolled out of bed and dragged the sheet with her! Hem it, sister!!!

Beyonce's Grease thing? Hurts me. Hugh can't dance. Vanessa looks Bad, like Beyonce dressed her to look that way. Who are some of these people?? Ah look, here's the guy responsible for this schlock.

Carly(via Blackberry)

A tiny little Oscar commentary

Robert Downey Jr looks pretty damn good tonight. Poly, can he be my new boyfriend?

Sarah Jessica Parker, not looking good !! Like a cracked out, over the hill tooth fairy. Blah. How lame that the male ABC red carpet interviewer didn't recognize her husband! Geez! (Who the eff is he?)

(PS - nevermind him - look at Robin Robert - gorgeous orange dress!!)

Miley Cyrus got attacked by one of my grandmother's old doilies. Egads there's so much wrong with that dress.

I am noticing that a lot of actresses are NOT filling out the tops of their strapless gowns. Too much dieting. Bad. Amy Adams / Anne Hathaway, if someone tall keeps standing RIGHT behind you, he's looking at your jumbelies. Just saying.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Yankee Mural... now even MORE done

So I added a few things... touched up the white lines and foul poles, worked on the dugouts, and added ONE more thing...can you spot it? Just a tiny detail - click on the photo to go view the notes in Flickr.

The SCARY thing is... yesterday we went to Michael's. My son has to make a volcano. We bought plaster of paris type stuff and a can of brown spray paint to finish that project... and a can of clear matte sealer for MY project.

Well, I'm sure you can see where this story is going... the WRONG CAN ended up with all of my paints for this project. More than once yesterday afternoon I picked up the can of brown paint without realizing what it was, shook it a little, and debated starting to "coat & protect" my mural. With dark brown paint. ::::thud::::

But because I am a picky pain in the you know what, there were things I didn't like about the mural, and I kept deciding "I'll just fix this", or "I'll just add a little more on that part"....and then I didn't want to spray while any of it was wet, so....

After dinner Mr. C went out to the car to bring in a few things that hadn't been carried in the house when we first got home, and we all realized the sealer was in THOSE bags.... and that I had been THISCLOSE to using the brown paint all afternoon.

I can't even imagine what I would have done, if I had sprayed a blast of brown all over this.

Time is running out

...on the basketball season. I'm about done with it.

I want to have normal weekends where we do something besides get ready for the game, drive to the game, watch the game, go home and clean the uniform for tomorrow's game... which I guess I'd better do right now... since he is out with one of his teammates, at batting practice.

Anything to tire them out!!!

Stick a fork in it

I think it's done...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Shopblog

...What you do when you wait for a cashier.

You start by noticing the woman with her coat half on, half off (split vertical) who is posing and sighing, and has no idea that black tights (with endless tiny white polka dots ) really DON'T go with those shoes.

Then you notice the girl with the grey knit beret who looks a bit stoned and has no idea this isn't france. Or even Canada. It's on.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Good parenting gone horribly wrong...

So my friend talked about her parenting style, and how she prefers to use humor when her kids misbehave.

Hmm. When I get mad at my kids I don't stop and think "I should use humor here". I just tell them I'm mad, and why.

And when I want them to practice honors band music, I simply announce that "at seven o'clock you guys will practice".

It seemed like a good idea an HOUR ago, but now they're still doing it...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Almost

...Almost done... Crowd and foul lines tomorrow

Carly(via Blackberry)

Mural progress

Today I FINALLY got some more work done on D's mural... it's not done, but I fixed the outfield stripes, and started the infield and the grass around home plate.

I'm hoping to get it done this week. (famous last words....)

Overheard

Mr. C , to the boy: "are you ready?"

D (sings): "I'm ready to go right now, ready to go right now..."

Last night he was sleepwalking and tried to put the salt grinder into the microwave "to get a drink" . Hmmm.

Valentine's dinner

Well, my sister in law and I cooked last night. Or, all afternoon and half the evening, I guess you could say. We were shooting for 5:30 and we ate our entrees at 7:15... but we had a blast.

We had some cabernet that we used in the sauce for the hens, (meaning we had to TASTE IT before using it), some Merlot that I don't think I tried, but .... Greg Norman makes wines??? ... it was my sister in law's bottle... and later with dessert we had an ice wine that tasted like hard apple cider.

I made sourdough bread to go with the spinach salad.... which is rather ugly here but tasted wonderful with raspberry walnut vinaigrette.

We let everyone eat salad while the hens were getting to a temp that wouldn't kill us all... it took much longer than the recipe indicated it would. Perhaps because the little buggers were still a wee bit frozen. We didn't actually stuff the hens... part of our delay was thawing them in the microwave and we decided to sacrifice presentation for safety.

The stuffing was onion, celery, cornbread, sausage, shrimp, and some regular bread crumbs (which I think I made too soggy by adding too much chicken broth, but OH my gosh I could have just sat down with a fork and eaten a plate of stuffing and gone away happy). Whoever edited down the restaurant-quantity recipe for the magazine article we were following was NOT really concentrating... we had enough stuffing to fill a roaster pan that you would make your holiday turkey in. For 8 tiny little hens with a body cavity smaller than my tea mug.

Live and learn. It's in gladware now, and we will all eat more one or two days from now with new, decidedly less glamourous chicken. We saved the extra (red wine/ blackberry jam) glaze by freezing it in an ice cube tray, so we can pop one or two cubes out to make a boring dinner a bit less so. My brother in law helpfully compared the glaze to blood at every opportunity.

(We gave the kids just plain boneless chicken, with a pile of stuffing on the side, and they complained about ewwww, lemon juice on the beans. Tough crowd.)

And, you've seen the cupcakes, but here's one more.

You can see a few more photos on my flickr/feed if you're still hungry. Exciting things, like the cheeses we had (one was brie with apricot jam... but we didn't bake it... we have learned to focus on one or two dishes and not try to compete with a top chef finalist in making an over the top menu... ), the stuffing in preparation, and so on.... and the roses. What's valentine's day without overpriced roses ? (Mine, haha. I instituted a ban on $75 roses several years ago.) OK, now I am just being mean, because my sister in law has only been married a few years, and she loves her roses. I'm sorry.

We joked about having our own cooking show, but each episode would be more of a miniseries. (This would be why we serve so many snacks while our family patiently waits for the big entree. )

Well, I'm late for stuff so I've gotta get going.... will someone help with the dishes??

Yummy

...It is taking ALL of my willpower not to taste test!!!

Carly(via Blackberry)

Look ma, no fingers

You would not believe how long it takes to grate baby carrots. I need a food processor.

Carly(via Blackberry)

My pc now has more memory than I do

A friend of mine helped me order some additional memory for my pc... it's about 3 years old which means I might as well throw it into the pond behind my house, as far as technology is concerned. But since I cut down the money tree in my yard a long time agooooo....


So it's a Dell tower, and they have this bizarre way of opening up. When I used to help with LAN support eons ago (when all you had to be capable of was following a few basic steps), covers used to slide off. So I tried about three times to get the cover to slide, forwards, backwards, up... not happening. By accident I figured out that the PC opens rather like a book or a clamshell up on its side.


Then I saw the dust. Oh yeah....

This gives you a little bit of an idea. The inside was just CAKED with all the gross things that internet stories tell you actually make up what we call "dust".

I have no working "dustbuster" right now, and so... I used my hairdryer on the cold setting to blow the dust out. It's all over my desk now. It was not a perfect plan.

But hey, you should see how fast my pc boots up now.

Plans

Every now and then my sister in law and I like to get together, and just cook for hours. We let other people clean up the mess we make - they get the glorious meal - everyone's happy. We've made lobster thermidor and other complex dishes. Since neither of us has any real culinary training it is often (what's a nice phrase?) an adventure, in timing and general execution, but we eventually finish the dish and it tastes well.

This is what we have on deck for Saturday....

• Appetizers: Brie baked with ??? on top. (To be decided, she's assigned that one, not me.) Crackers, some cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks with ranch dressing for the kiddos.
• Spinach salad, with mushrooms, egg, and a warm bacon dressing; sourdough bread
• Cornish hens, stuffed with shrimp, andouille sausage, rice & cornbread (we'll bake plain chicken for the kids and just let them try a little bit of the stuffing, it's kind of out there for them....) Green beans with almonds & a touch of lemon on the side
• Junior's recipe: carrot cake/ cheesecake cupcakes. I'll be making these Friday evening

My sister in law will also visit the wine store and get something nice to go with all of this (perhaps more than one bottle, something for the early stuff, and then with the main meal. But the cooks can't have tooooo much or I, um, we will end up sitting on a couch staring at the tv....)

Is anybody hungry?

Well now

Crazy busy times. Hmmm. Where was I ? Besides falling into myfacespacebook and not wanting to get back out...

• I submitted the last few yearbook pages (first of two deadlines) and got them in just under the wire. No stress. Hah. People are mailing me great pictures, but in a way that they compress to a really crappy resolution once used in the online yearbook tool ::::bangs head on desk:::
• My mother came to one of my son's basketball games. (We've had 5 in the past ten days, just saying, aaaaaaagh....) I was pretty much a wreck about how THAT would go. She sat (in her coat) with her hands clenched for the first half. Then (apparently when she realized each half was only 15 minutes and it was a good game and there were no giant crowds to be suffocated in) she took her coat off and actually seemed to have a slightly good time. Baby steps.
• I am the (entire) nominating committe for next year's PTA elections. This, you see, is the way to keep my name completely off the ballot. (I have begun turning over some of "my" events to other people. I want my free time back. I've served my tour of duty. I can't take the crazy anymore. I would say 85% of the parents there are wonderful, kind, people. However we have a few that just like to start trouble. I'm tired of the nonsense. Use your brain, contribute positively to what's going on, or go away, people. )
• I am secretly hoping my daughter will be chosen for the May crowning (to crown a statue of Mary with flowers, old tradition in some churches, May is the month we honor Mary)

On deck for the week ahead:

• Lost! Top Chef! Getting good. Survivor, Amazing Race, I don't have time for this much TV, people!!! I heart my DVR.
• Saturday my sister in law and I will be cooking a feast. Because, Valentines day + restaurant = crappy service + high prices = no way. I'll post our menu separately.
• Sunday, more basketball, maybe my parents will come again. :::cue scary music::::
• Monday is a bank holiday... could be my last ever, who knows.... friggin economy...my job is not 100% secure right now, but is anyone's?? Monday I will sleep in and be generally lazy. Then maybe I'll finish THE MURAL. I know.
• Entertaining / cracking the whip on my kids for a week of vacation. Whyyyyy we need a vacation week now when I am too poor to go somewhere warm.... I dunno.
• Nagging aplenty for Honors Band practice to occur in my house. I finally got them to START, by threatening Bad Things, and they realized "hey... this music is hard...." -- YA THINK???????

Hi there

Crazy busy the last few days. More at lunchtime. (Banana muffins....mmmmm)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Hopes & fears

Dear Mr. Obama,

If you can land this economy the way "Sully" landed that plane on the river, and get us out of this mess, now would be a good time to do it.

( I spoke to a friend yesterday who is out of work and her husband basically said to her, "don't worry about matching your salary, just GET a salary" )

Carly(via Blackberry)

Days

This morning something I read made me find the calculator app on the blackberry. My father's side of the family tends to live to about 95. Which makes his angst about dying soon all the more puzzling, but whatever.

I figured out using conservative estimates that I still have about 15,000 days to live, and only a third of that will be days I have to work, worst case.

So I'm gonna have a good time.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Duck, part deux

I took my son to basketball practice yesterday. It's a tiny gym and I was sitting along one of the side benches using my crackberry to play on myfacespacebookpage. Which I am totally hooked on, so I was rather absorbed, when I heard a noise.

I looked up and with one hand I tried to shield myself, but the other hand was holding the berry, so the basketball beaned me on the head.

So after that plus what happened last summer, I'm very glad my son doesn't bowl very much.

If only all curves were this easy to adjust

Ok, so I have no idea how or why to properly do tonal curve adjustments, but these were fun.

You can go to my flickr feed and look at the originals of these shots, as well as other variations. Someday soon I'll learn how to make a more ::::ahem:::: natural look.

And yes, I took them out the window of my car on the way to work this morning. With my left foot. It's an automatic transmission. And it was 15 degrees this morning. Just saying. And that giant chunk wasn't actually taken out of the pillar; it was a convenient effect of the sun.

Not habit forming

The sunrise was pink this morning. Isn't that supposed to mean something bad? ( something like "you will freeze so much you might snap in half today")

I took pictures going over a bridge, and when I got to work I could see they're not bad... I'll put one or two on flickr later.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Top chef

Every week when I watch Top Chef I try to figure out what the hell some of the ingredients are.

I just finished reading "The Sharper Your
Knife, the Less You Cry" - I really enjoyed it, especially the whole idea of leaving the corporate world behind and going to Paris.

And on anothe plane alltogether, what is hulu? Seriously? I just don't even have time to google it. Stupid Alec Baldwin. Damn basketball. (My kid's tournament ended tonight. They got shellacked but he went 100% on the foul line)

Carly(via Blackberry)

A tiny little Flickr

I put a few photos from 2005 on my flickr photostream. Funny how I gravitated to sunny warm pictures at the lake. BECAUSE IT"S 23 DEGREES HERE.

Little throwaway lines

I love quirky news stories like this because of lines like "and an undeclared eggplant."

You just know that somewhere a writer was cracking up in his cubicle/ home office/ neighborhood wifi spot, writing about this goofball and dreaming of being able to win the lottery and quit her job and buy a kayak. Wait, that's me.

Groundhog recipes, anyone?

So in my attempt to ignore the snow I will offer up a few good things.

My son made a buzzer shot last night. His team was already comfortably in the lead but still. (I missed it. Wasn't there.)

My glasses are fabu-- well, they're a bit skewed and don't sit level on my face. The young woman was so busy remarking on "oh I remember THESE glasses" that I wonder if she was the one who built them in the wrong frames. At any rate she was making the tilt worse and I couldn't bear her anymore. I will go back to "the real eye doctor" tomorrow and see if they"ll adjust them.

I have figured out that everytime I snuggle with my tiny neice and nephew I get a cold then a sinus infection. Damn. But to balance that I heard they might start to SELL WINE AT THE GROCERY STORE. Awesome.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Overheard in panera

"Every night I go into the medicine cabinet and decide what pill I'm going to take to help me get to sleep"

-attractive, 30 ish blonde, to her friend, who did not reply

Well, I am happy to say I trekked up to the mall AGAIN and this time my glasses were right. I am not sure why some people are so dramatic about getting used to progressive lenses. Mine seem fine. But then, maybe I"m also going senile too.

Carly(via Blackberry)

The Office

This episode is so funny (Lecter!!) that I *almost* don't care about losing the football squares game.

(Beth, we just use a regular squares grid and fill it evenly. And your new email doesn't work for me)

Carly(via Blackberry)

Aaaaagh

So every year we make a grid with the seven of us repeated over and over. (My four, BIL, SIL, and nephew) right before the superbowl starts. Last year I almost left off a column doing it in a hurry. This year I didn't label the teams until the middle of the first quarter. Oops. I guess "bookie" is not a career path.

Last year the bets had to do with NYC - who would pick a video to play in the limo on the way down, etc

This year it was Q1 a cd , Q2 winner gets lunch of thei choice cooked by the other family. Q3 was a DVD and Q4 was dinner.

So my daughter won the cd and I was THISCLOSE to a lobster roll for lunch one day soon. Then that effing 100 yard return killed me.

No problem, I won the DVD (I'm thinking the entire boxed set of Friends) and my son was SO close to getting us salmon for dinner (seriously he loves salmon ) but NO! NO! That last touchdown screwed it all.

Now I gotta make my nephew tacos or something. Crap.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Lostpedia

Lostpedia is my new way to waste time today. (Thanks to Lindsay's comment on Sarah's blog. Got that?)

How could a team of writers keep SO much information straight??? I'd love to hack my way into whatever tools the WRITERS are using to keep data organized.

Dear Michael

A bong? You were photographed using a freaking BONG, at a college party? You've got to be kidding me. And your excuse is "a youthful mistake" ??? I call bullshit, on that, and on the people working for you who tried so dilligently to hush the whole thing up.

Unbelievable moron. Some hero/ role model.

Why HIPPA laws were invented

The other day at the urgent care center a man in his mid 60's came in after we did. ("We" being myself, sick, and my child, who said "I think I have strep". Cha-ching. TWO urgent care copays. Drinks are NOT on me today.)

He sat a short distance away from me, and I didn't really notice him until he went up to the window. The nurse/ receptionist asked what the problem was with his finger - apparently he was vague on the form.

I heard him say "Well, I shut it in my car door, the other day. I thought it seemed fine because I could bend it and all. But now I think I have ( an infection maybe? he said omething unitelligible, to your basic eavesdropper, with pointing going on) and I thought about usinging one of my power drills to drain it but I thought maybe that wasn't the best idea."

I died. Right there. Because he came back over and sat relatively near me and I could NOT burst into hysterical laughter. Died, I tell you.