Sunday, February 27

....In honor of the Oscars tonight, I made cupcakes with my usual Devil's food cake box mix and this time with homemake cream cheese frosting. I haven't had one yet but I love the fluffiness of the frosting. The recipe I used is from epicurious. Basically, butter, cream cheese, confectionery sugar and some vanilla flavoring. Very easy. I would love to try making buttercream but i'm not willing to devote that kind of time and energy. Anything involving a candy thermometer and a double boiler is too much for a working woman.


We watched SKY CAPTAIN: WORLD OF TOMORROW last night. Love the look of that film. Love the robots. Don't like the bad acting.

Thursday, February 24

....On Sunday, Snail and I made a grocery list so that I could go to the store. Sometimes we go together but sometimes I just go because I am better at sticking to task which results in a quicker overall time at the store. In other words, Snail is more fun but I'll get you and and out the door.

While we were making the list, we start thinking about what we're going to have for dinners for the week and Snail writes down each night's menu.

What I'm hear to tell you is that it actually worked! Can you believe it?

Tomorrow night, the last night of the week, will be Mexican food. As planned.

Wednesday, February 23

....New Flavors

...Upon my stepmother's request, I tried the new Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper yesterday. I don't like diet drinks as a rule, but i think i liked it better than diet coke or diet Dr. Pepper. But i think i'll have to try it again to be sure. And anyway, I don't see myself going out and buying cases of it. I should note that there's a regular Cherry Vanilla DP.

...I also recently sampled Arizona Sweet Tea. I would give it 3.5 out of 5 bottled-sweet-tea stars. Not as good as the locally made, Sweet Leaf. And definitely not as good as the Arizona Green Leaf tea. ( Did i ever tell you about seeing that stuff EVERYWHERE in Hawaii? It's true. ) I am still planning to have my sweet tea taste-off with my mexican friend......one of these days.

...On the chocolate front, I have tasted the Strawberry Hershey Kisses. Man, those things are fragrant! I would say they are tasty, considering they are white chocolate, which I don't care for, as a rule.

Thursday, February 17

....Last night, I had a fancy work dinner at a restaurant that I would never use my own money to eat at. It's a place that's known for having rattlesnake, rabbit, elk, venison, quail, etc. I ordered duck ('cause I knew that Snail would want my leftovers) with sea scallops. It was good and all, but its no UCHI (my favorite sushi place) and it was unbeleivably expensive.

The funniest part of the evening I will try to tell you about. Stay with me. Me and another girl shared a salad that included some quail. We both got a mouthful of bone and had to spit the meat/bone wad into our napkins, and hold them in our laps for the course of the evening. It was a shared secret.

Shortly after dinner, the girl said she was going to the bathroom, and she left her napkin wad on the chair for me to keep an eye on. I swear I had turned to talk to someone for 3 seconds and when i turned my head back around, I saw the waitress behind her chair, as if in slow motion, shaking out her napkin wad and then folding it neatly and placing it over the back of her chair. With a big customer-service-grin on her face.

The most vivid part of that scene was seeing the giant meat/bone wad stain on the napkin as the waitress was 'shaking' it out. I won't forget that. The fortunate part, but what ultimately ruined something embarassing for the waitress, is that the floor was a dark, rough-textured stone and with the dim lighthing there was no chance the waitress would have spotted the wad that fell from the napkin, onto the floor. (Believe me, I TRIED to spot the wad on the floor and couldn't find it.)

When the girl returned from the restroom, I laid my hand on her now neatly folded napkin and we both started cracking up. I was laughing much harder than her, since I was the one that had to witness the entire incident.

Please, restaurant people, leave people's napkins alone. --- Later I was thinking, what if I had been on a date, and i needed to use the restroom during the meal but didn't want to get up for fear of them messing with my napkin 'situation.' Sigh.

.......Tonight we met with our real estate lady to talk about selling this house. I'm here to tell you, don't beleive what you see on HGTV and what I mean by that is that you don't actually have to do much to sell your house. I thought she'd at least make us put up some curtains, but no. What this all means is that its going to happen faster than I thought and what THAT means, is a serious interruption in my time of painting. Now that I'm over the wedding/honeymoon interruption we can move onto the house selling/buying interruption. Drag.

.......Snail bought me my favorite chocolates for Valentines Day. I don't understand why I love them so much more than any other chocolate-related dessert treat, but I do. They are the pecan turtles. I'm sure Snail doesn't understand why I favor them, after all he doesn't discriminate. There's something that happens between the pecan, the sweet salty caramel and the chocolate.

...I didn't sleep well last night. The duck and scallops wouldn't settle in my stomach. Tonight, I predict smooth sleeping waters. Ahoy, mate!!

Monday, February 14

....Since its Valentines Day, I thought I would tell you about one of the many little things that I love about Snail. Its the silly tiny moments that make him special to me.

Whenever I rub his back, he says "HEY!" kinda loud if I hit a sore spot......The same kind of "HEY!" that I imagine him yelling to some kid on the street that just ran off with his bean burrito.

I'm sure that I'm the only one that would find it so incredibly funny and that's why we're meant to be together. Today is our tenth Valentine's Day together, as a couple of idiots in love.

xoxoxo Happy Valentine's Day, big stupid.

Sunday, February 13

....Painting in front of an open window on a sunny day while drinking a Dr. Pepper is my idea of Heaven.

Not including the part when our 40-year old neighbor is riding up and down our street on his goKart. Shouldn't there be a kid in on that, in some way?

Thursday, February 10

....I made two Valentines tonight. One of them is for my mexican friend who i look forward to making a valentine for, because hers is always black, cause she likes black.

I'm either tired still from my trip or I'm tired of February. Its not even 9pm and it feels like I should be sleeping.

Speaking of sleeping, when I opened the bedroom door this morning I was hit with the hot savory smell of beans. When I was in the shower, I could smell beans. This was the result of cooking some beans in the crock pot all night. When I got home from work today, I smelled bacon. Bacon for the beans for dinner. Thank you, Snail, for cooking bacon for the beans which could feed an army of 20. I just won't be able to eat that many beans and I had just as soon throw the whole pot into the trash as I would clean that crock pot out. Time to buy a new crockpot with a removable insert.

I tried to tell Snail that I was hit with the "throw-everything-away-NOW" feeling about 4:30pm today and I started tossing stuff at work that had been sitting or hanging by my desk. There's this mug that was given to me by a very nice person and I used it for a good year or so but i've never much cared for its looks. Today, I left work with it and placed it into the garbage can when I got home. After looking at that mug for 40 hours a week for over a year, I am happy that I don't have to see it another minute. Ever again.

I'm sleepy.

Tuesday, February 8

....It was a dreary gray day outside. I had enough bad weather in chicago and I'm ready for a sunny 65degree afternoon. Also, i am ready for a saturday to paint. Also, you should know that through a series of mishaps, we missed our new favorite show (24) last night and neither of us were pleased. Also, I would normally be mailing out my handmade valentines about now, but i've had neither time nor energy to make any and that's sad too. Also, I keep thinking its wednesday.

good night.

Sunday, February 6

....My 5 day business trip to Chicago quickly turned into 12 days. It was a bit long, considering I didn't have many clothes, but I was happy to have the weekend to check out a city I'd never been to.

Notes and observations in no order:
1. Chicago is a lovely city.
2. It was very cold and very dry. The drugstores there sell lotion by the gallons and for good reason.
3. I went to the original Paper Source store. 3 stories high, in a corner row house. I could have either died in there or spent hundreds of dollars on precious letterpress stationery and cards. Somehow I managed to escape, barely scathed.
4. Visited an H&M, which i would describe as a mix of Old Navy and Urban Outfitters where everything in there is $10 cheaper than it should be. I bought one shirt. I'm stupid.
5. Visited a 9-story Marshall Fields department store. Visited the BENEFIT counter. Bought my first eye cream. Drooled and drooled then nearly died again when I stumbled into their "Apothecary" section. Imagine every dreamy scented and packaged soap, lotion, potion imagineable and multiply that times 100. I had to buy everything or nothing. I bought nothing. I'm stupid.
6. Visited Millenium park to see the Anish Kapoor bean, only to find it hidden under a tent for "cleaning." Cried.
7. Visited the Art Institute.
8. Enjoyed my first room service, with 2 other work ladies. We sat on the bed eating fries, ice cream and a cherry cobbler.
9. The hotel I stayed in had the travel size AVEDA lotions, soap and hair products.
10. Saw the One-Man Lord of the Rings show on a Monday night with a theater that was 1/8 full. It was funny, but if you go, see it on the weekend with a full house and have a drink beforehand.
11. Chicago doesn't sell Dr. Pepper.
12. Tried to go ice skating at the outdoor park.
13. Worked a lot.

January