Laundry

Okay, I didn't believe the info-mercials or the blogs, but now I'm a believer.  I got a coupon in my costco mailer last week for $4 off a 15lb box of Oxiclean.  Just did about five loads of  laundry with it and OH MY GOODNESS does it work!

My whites have never been whiter, my colors never brighter!  You know how socks get pretty grungy from all of the MN-non-shoe-ness?  Well, no more!!  They look like they're almost brand new!  Seriously.  If you're a costco member, you can get the coupon at the courtesy desk, it's good through the 31st I think.  With the $4 off it was $13.50 for 15 pounds of the stuff!  I don't know if it's a good deal, but I know it works and 15 pounds is going to last for a looooong time. 

Happy cleaning!

I have a great idea - I wonder if it already exists.

It would be awesome if there was technology that tagged every word you recorded when working in radio. After a few months, you'd have a great repository of words, that you could use to put together a new tag line or sub a word with another because of a swear or something. You'd just search for "crap" and then find & replace within the recording. Wouldn't that be awesome? I bet it'd save radio stations a lot of money - instead of having to edit and "splice" segments together, you could just find and replace.

The other idea I had today (it was a productive drive to freezer cooking!) had to do with stop lights. I think it would be great to link the stop lights to car engines. Basically, by using GPS and the signals the stop lights already follow - your car wouldn't be able to run a red light. When you're heading towards a red light, and you get within a certain distance, your car would begin slowing down. I guess there would be some debate around whether the car should speed up for a yellow light or slow down for a yellow light. Maybe you'd have to take an IQ test before they determine which your car would do. I'm sure there are some kinks in the idea - but all those tech people will figure it out.

The first snow the year makes me think of my best idea from a few years ago - indoor gas stations!!

Happy Saturday!

le smile

first, i need to mention my new addiction...via Jess: http://corporette.com/
love love love!

Worst new show: More to Love

And then, the thought that brought me to blogging today.
Sometimes, when I'm walking into work, or climbing the stairs, or walking through the hallway at work, it smells the same as it did during my internship. There have been a few occurances this week - and it's amazing how quickly it brings me back. Not just back to the moments in time when I smelled those same smells, but the excitement, curiousity, boundless opportunity I could see...it's fun to be back there and to be reminded of what I was thinking, feeling, smelling when I picked this job, this company, this career.

Ps, I have the best husband ever. :-D

no facebook!

I'm giving up facebook for two months....which didn't seem that hard when I agreed to the challenge, but now that i'm watching rachel ray with milee cyrus.....i SO want to post a status update!!!

Instead, you get a blog post:

1. Rachel Ray, while I love her cooking show, is not a good talk show host. at all. AWKWARD!
2. I want to see the Hannah Montana Movie!!
3. Can't wait for Billy Ray to be interviewed next!!

edit - Billy Ray, your hair is horrible.

phew.

So, my phone broke - for no apparent reason. I went to open it, and it cracked on the hinge. Reminds me to see if my warrany just ran out - time for a free phone? Hmmmm.

Killed chickens this weekend - went much better than expected. I only had to pluck, not kill/gut. Should be set with chicken for a while. Next year I'll give the gutting a try...I'll bring a nail brush too to get the gunk out asap.

Interesting how possibilities completely change my outlook on things. le'sigh.

Follow-up to "this'll probably piss some of you off"

I found the below blog by facebook-stalking happenstance. The writer: a MUCH better writer than myself, and happened to cover the same topic as I did in a post titled "I will respect you only if you agree with me". And that was my point as well. For your review:

http://iwriteright.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/i-will-respect-you-only-if-you-agree-with-me/

the internet!

I am really enjoying learning new cooking techniques and terminology...so I thought I'd poke around on the internet to see if there's any way to get some sort of culinary education. THERE IS!

I just rediscovered a love of the internet. YAY free information!

this'll probably piss some of you off

but here's the deal.

I was thinking recently about comments other people make that could be considered offensive by me, but that I brush off because I believe people can have different opinions than I do.

I frequently get feedback that something I said offended someone. It occurred to me that if other people were as open-minded as they complain I need to be, they would be offended as infrequently as I am.

So basically, the complaint that my comments are offensive completely disproves your point that you're open minded.

And, the part that will piss some of you off: typically, other people = liberals.

I'm serious though. Perhaps not all conservatives do a good job of this, but I think I do a pretty good job of accepting "different strokes for different folks" and I don't think a lot of liberals do a good job of letting other people have different viewpoints than theirs! (To the point that I'm sure I'm going to get a comment about how closeminded this post is. ARGGGG!!!!)

Ps. When I run for office, I'm considering using this point as part of my platform.
Pps. I think I broke my foot today. It hurts a lot, looks like a hippo coming out the top of it, and I'm unable to walk on it. Why does this have to happen when my husband is out of town!? (This is just another reason I should not have gone to target today as it also broke my 2009 fast from Target....5 months is pretty good thought I think).

baking

Let me be honest. I am begininning to really like cooking, but I love baking. I've currently committed to making all of our bread from scratch. No more preservatives for us!

Anyway, I use the william's sonoma baking cookbook for some fun bread recipes, but I can NOT seem to get the dinner roll recipe to proof very well. I try forcing it with warmer air, I try giving it more time, I try letting the yeast dissolve a bit longer, but they still always come out more dense than I'd like. My next try will be a bit less flour than called for and possibly more yeast.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I can get wheat sandwhich bread to proof like nobody's business, but all white dinner rolls, no luck. I don't sift my flour, is that maybe it? Arrrrg.

Thanks!

i had an awesome title and i forgot it, dang.

I've had all these great blog-worthy thoughts the last day, and now that I open the box to start rambling them, they're missing.

One, that I remember, is regarding this weird time in life that I guess people are calling the "twenty-somethings". It's appropriate I suppose. The reason it felt blog-worthy was for a moment it occurred to me that this would be a time in life that I will one day look back at fondly and recall how it felt like I was straddling a deep chasm. One the one side there are my twenties - the start of which includes the last two years of college, a few moves, and a relatively easy workload. On the other side are the thirties - what appear to be full of the doom and gloom that appears when one becomes "old", brought on by the realization that work isn't always carefree and fun, life is rather serious, and kids really do change your life. And the reason I'll look back fondly at this time is that I'm sure the way I'm looking at the thirties will be rather humorous to me after I've lived through them and they're not really much different than living through my twenties.

Another item is the rate at which I use the library. The online option is fantastic and allows me to turn some librarian somewhere into my personal assistant. I search for the books I want online, request them to hold for me, and then show up once I get an email to find all the books I requested in my hold section ready for me to check out. How amazing and easy is that? I currently have about eight books checked out regarding how to be a manager, and two books regarding negotiations. I'm excited about one I just requested: "Eat. ShopTwinCities".

Another is something I would guess might be a little controversial. I recently found out about two people I know who are having an affair. I won't go into any detail, but the point I have to make is that I've found this information affects my opinion of both people. and that it suprises me that people think it shouldn't. Both were married before this started and now they're pursuing divorces. I now have little respect for either of them and my level of trust in their ability and integrity is erased. I suppose we're living in a world where this is rather commonplace, but why is it wrong of me to hope that we aren't?

Anyway, today is supposed to be the nicest day of the weekend, so I'm going outside.
Happy weekend all!

and, to just say,

i hate when people do things that they really shouldn't do.

this covers more than what I was initially irritated by (someone spending an hour re-typing a sheet we can't find the original to), so there's my current state: Grow a backbone people.

frustrated

Definitely not thrilled it's a Monday. Wishing I could get stuck in some sort of weekend groundhog's day event...no work, no stress. Wondering if I was an intern again I'd feel all the same sorts of excitement I did then.

Typed my new name without thinking today....not a first, but maybe. It's weird that I thought it would be all different to have a new last name, and really there's no different feeling at all. I thought there'd be a whole new persona I'd take on - but it's still just me. And switching back and forth really isn't odd.

I need a vacation where I don't just stay home but actually go somewhere. I'd also like my garden to actually start growing.

In other news, what about this flight to Paris that disappeared. Have they even released a passenger list yet?

Thinking I'll pull out the old rollerblades after work and take a spin around the lakes. Haven't done that in several years.

This post, fyi, is the epitome of rambling randomness. :o)

mmmmm

sigh. it was a good day.

no work (!)
beautiful weather
sunny
slept in a bit
laundry
baked bread
made dinner (meatloaf, veggies, wheat rolls, red wine)
time with the husband
grocery shopped
saved 12 dollars with coupons!
monday night line-up (big bang theory, before i met your mother, two and a half men)
bears hat
coffee

good start to the week. :o)

Answer to the last post's question....

drumroll please.........

THEY ARE ALL MEN!

Are there not any women leading a country important enough to attend this meeting?
Why are the industrialized countries the ones with no women.

WHAT THE HECK?!

It appears the glass ceiling still exits.

Can you find it?

So, beyond the super awkward uncoordinated set-up of the photo....can you find the serious problem here???

At center, US President Barack Obama, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and Russa's President Dmitry Medvedev, reacted as they took part in a group photo to mark the G20 summit in London, Thursday. Others in the group in the front row are Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal; China's President, Hu Jintao and Britain's prime Minister,Gordon Brown. Center left is Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Thailand's Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva is seen top left. At right is South Africa's President, Kgalema Motlanthe while at top right is Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi.(Stefan Rousseau, Associated Press)

Check back tomorrow for the answer!

s.l.o.w.l.y. g.o.i.n.g. c.r.a.z.y.

i hate when people around me can be politically incorect, but I can't be.

seriously. people need to start thinking about their comments.

garrrr. i wish my desk was soundproof.

Bloomington Chophouse - Two Thumbs Down

We went to the ChopHouse for restaurant week, excited to try a new location for dinner. If i could rate just the host, I would give four of five stars, however the rest of the experience was miserable.

To start, we ordered a bottle of wine, and were told, thirty minutes later, that they've never carried it!!! The host suggested a different bottle it's place (which was very good), but we would have prefered to know WAY before half an hour had passed. We weren't asked for our order until after they figured out the wine.

The evening went down from there:

• Our first course arrived an hour after we sat down
• Main course arrived about 30 minutes after our first course was cleared, and was cold. Not lukewarm, but "30 minutes sitting after cooking" COLD. We sent them back and the new steaks arrived in 5 minutes - even still, they were average.
• Dessert arrived 30 minutes after our main course plates were cleared. We had to wait an extra 15 minutes before our server came back for us to be able to order coffee.

Because it was restaurant week, we ordered all three courses at once, so there was no delay in ordering from us - it was just terrible service. The food wasn't anything special (in fact, sub-par might be a better description).