DIY Blues

When I rule the planet, homeowners that install wallpaper will be required by law, upon pain of death, to remove said wallpaper before selling the house to another (unsuspecting) person.

mood: FRUSTRATED AND SWEATY

(but I did get some damn fine windows installed!--more later!)

New Music Tuesday!

Thanks today to David Byrne and Brian Eno for giving me a quickie excuse of a post.
I've listened to the album only once so far. My first impression is that it is quiet and mellow...just the thing to listen to when you're laying on the couch feeling all sickly. Definitely not My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, but definitely beautiful work. I remember when Jed the Fish played "Bush of Ghosts" in its entirety on KROQ when it first came out...I still have the little cassette I made of the broadcast.
It's funny to see their pictures. They're like all old and stuff! These guys were my idols way back when. I guess that makes me pretty old too.

***cough cough****

feel.like.crap.
head.too.stuffy.to.make.clever.posts.
back.soon. (i hope)

Mutant Pizza

I know I often post about the wonderful meals I've made or the beautiful vegetables I get at the farmers' market. That's just the highlight reel folks. More often that I want to admit, meals at Fartwood Manor are pretty mundane. I usually keep a pizza or two in the freezer for those nights when I don't want to cook. The Trader Joe's Pizza Margherita is our favorite. I really like the crispy crust.
Sunday, I wanted to have a quickie lunch before we went out and about. So I pulled out this (not Trader Joe's) pizza and...WTF?!?! A mutant pizza! Somebody at the pizza factory was sleeping on the job.
We were really pressed for time so I cooked it anyway. It was pretty bad.

The Holy Grail of Snack Food

I won't deny it--I do enjoy salty snacks. My preferred snack is pretzels. Snyder's Pretzel Rods to be exact. The best thing about pretzels, other than that they taste great with beer, is that they are good for people who use computers a lot. Because pretzels have no greasy coating, they don't get your fingers all messed up. You can pretty much eat and keyboard with no ill effects to the keys. Popcorn is a close second. In my world, it is OK to have popcorn for dinner. I'm old school on popcorn--I make it in a stove top popper. splatgirl creates: Breakfast with a Bonus Ending explains how to make Bacon Popcorn--popping the corn in bacon drippings. This I will be trying soon, I assure you.
Which brings us to Hot Cajun Corn Sticks. I first encountered them in Jack In The Box's "Southwestern Salad". Which, believe it or not, is a great salad. Along with the salad comes a packet of these yummy corn sticks. The idea is to provide some "crunch" to the salad. (Before you go and cast aspersions on my eating at Jack, let me explain by saying this is the only thing I eat there, because it is made OFF PREMISES and the fact that I can get a salad and be back at my desk in under ten minutes.)
The sticks are pretty well spiced with cayenne and give the tongue a good tingle. Unfortunately, they do have a slight coating on them, so they aren't the best for munching and working. Since the salad is pretty big, I save the corn sticks for my afternoon snack time.
I have been looking for these corn sticks for a few years--just to get them "a la carte" so to speak. No luck. Until last week when I was at Sprouts stocking up on Usinger's Weiners. There they were...a whole barrel of them! Yay!

Scirocco Memories

I had a cool car once. For about two years, I was the proud owner of a VW Scirocco. All black, black tinted windows.......I was Darth Vader on four wheels--without all the heavy breathing. I kicked ass-phalt. Almost rear-ended someone on 190th Street as I was listening to "Ride of the Valkyries" on my Blaupunkt turned up to 11.
Oh yes, I was stylin' n smilin'. Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Hwy1, Hwy2, Mammoth. Always road trips.
Then I moved to Maui. Since I wanted to be financially unencumbered for the move, I sold the car to my next-door neighbor--who had watched me care lovingly for it and knew he was getting a good deal. It was a pretty good thing for a while...he would let me drive it whenever I came back to SoCal...that is, until he totaled it on the 605. He told me he was very impressed with all the safety features.
I felt sort of sad to give up the Scirocco, even though I WAS moving to Maui, but the sadness was tempered by the fact my dad gave me his GTI as a replacement to bring with me. Another kick ass-phalt car. The GTI's were pretty potent. My mom even made up her own acronym for what GTI stood for. She said it meant "Good Time Inside". I'll have to agree.
Fast forward to reality: Now that I am a responsible adult with commitments and obligations, I have to get cars that are "economical" ie. cheap. For a while, I thought I was getting a Mini, but I got a house instead. How lame is that? (J/K).
But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a nice "go-fast car".
So today my dad sends me a link to the review for the "new", resurrected Scirocco. Well, thank goodness it is butt-ugly or I would have really been having a bad-hair day. The seats look really cool, but man, that styling blows. It looks like an effin' Mazda! The reviewer gave a good mark for the handling, etc. but visually...sheesh. no way.

This is what my Scirocco looked like....except the color. *sigh*. One of these days I'll dig out those photos and digitize them.

It's funny....all I have left from my Scirocco days is my old key fob....20 years. wow.

Catharsis

Since Favre's trade is a done deal, I decided to do a little housekeeping in my cube at work. The Prilosec ad was from a while ago, and I originally started with the "I Quit" sticky note on 3/4/2008. During the last month or so, I and my co-workers have been adding sticky notes as the drama unfolded.
I replaced my Favre-centric stuff with the "power of cheese" poster I got at the SuperBowl XXXII in SanDiego. The toughest thing I have to replace is my spiral-bound Favre notebook. It's full of work notes from the last ten years. Either I transcribe it (which I really should do) or just paste another picture onto the cover.


last year's schedule