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ARCHIVES: NOVEMBER 2003
NOVEMBER
28, 2003 : FRIDAY
--> Thanksgiving was delicious and relaxing. We all enjoyed
the usual suspects: turkey, ham, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes,
mashed potatos, gravy, cornbread stuffing, pea salad, rolls, cranberry
sauce, pecan pie and more.
I think one of the highlights of this holiday has been the discovery
of reddi-wip. Snail picked
up some reddi-wip to go with our pies and I was an instant fan.
That is some good stuff. I grew up on cool whip and everyone i
knew had cool whip too. Cool whip is good, but can't match the
fun of the squirty can stuff.
 www
NOVEMBER
26, 2003 : WEDNESDAY
 -->
Here we are at the beginning of a long thanksgiving weekend....extended
remix for me since i'm taking monday off. What to do. What to do.
I know that i need to make a christmas list. Guess i'll work on
that.
Tomorrow, we will start the day with refrigerated canned cinnamon
rolls. Once i read the martha recipe and thought about making some
sticky buns with my hand mixer, well, it just didn't seem worth
it. So, pillsbury it is. and we may cook up some bacon. Later in
the day we'll be at Snail's Mom's place eating the turkey and some
ham and all that good stuff. It will be a small gathering with
no traveling needed. It'll be nice and quaint.
--> Last weekend, i got all of my paintings up on my other website.
They are all 6" x 6" and mixed media. I am getting everything
in order so that I can try to have a show of some kind. After i
make up some business cards, i will be ready to approach a gallery/coffee
shop.
NOVEMBER
23, 2003 : SUNDAY
--> I am thinking of making homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast
thanksgiving morning. Its important to lead the day in the right
direction with something delicious. You can't move properly into
thanksgiving mode with a half-eaten stale bagel in your belly.
Seems like Martha had some sticky bun recipes a couple issue back.
Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. A day centered around
food. How perfect.
NOVEMBER
22, 2003 : SATURDAY MORNING
--> i enjoyed my vacation day yesterday. I did my usual breakfast
taco and mexican food for lunch. The weather was nice. Went to
the mall. Looked around. Didn't buy much and didn't do any christmas
shopping. When snail got off work, we drove to his hair trim and
while he did that, i went in this clothing store next door. I scored
this black cord jacket for $44. I wasn't that jazzed about adding
another cord jacket to my collection, but it was a cool jacket
and it was black. I was happy. From there, we got to UCHI at 5:00
for dinner. We sat at the sushi bar and ate the following awesome
meal:
1.
fried japanese freshwater crab (the whole crab, very tiny!)
2. shrimp tempura (hot and i could eat 10 of these)
3. 5 peices tuna sashimi with brazilian mangos and fresh mint (awesome)
4. salmon ceviche with tomatos and yellow bell pepper (refreshing)
5. eel nigiri style (perfect)
6. 5 peices of sashimi chu toro served on ice (so so heavenly)
7. brei tempura with apple chutney (great finish)
Whenever i go to UCHI, my faith in the world is restored. The food
looks great. The restaurant itself looks great. Service is super.
I feel like i'm in another city when i'm eating there (sorry, austin).
After our bellies were full of our favorite things, we went to Nordstroms
and filled our eyes with nice things to look at.
And just when you thought this story was over, oh no! its not even
close to over. We came home to my crock
pot apple dessert (courtesy ljc).
It wasn't anything crazy, just hot baked granny smith apples. Simple
and delicious. We each scooped some out and added our own topping.
I added some more cinnamon sugar and some whipped cream. Snail added
some grand marnier I think and some ice cream. And that is THE end.
NOVEMBER
19, 2003 : STILL WEDNESDAY
--> I have a few more things to say today in addition to s'mores
cookers and allergies. Let's talk about cell phones and taxes. I
got a new cell phone with tmobile about 3/4 months ago. This new
phone with free weekend long distance has never worked at my home.
Ever. Won't even work down the street. I am having a vision of myself
and i'm sitting in KFC with a chicken leg in one hand and my phone
in my other, making my long distance calls. (KFC is located at the
intersection closest to my house, that gets good service)
I'll cut to the chase here rather than type out all the details.
Basically, the lady at tmobile that i just spoke with is filing
a work order to get someone down here to take a look at it and i'm
supposed to call her back in 72 hours. According to her, I am in
a "good coverage" area. I asked her what would happen
if this issue couldn't be resolved and she said umm...and stuff.
Next up: taxes. These are 8 different taxes on
my cell phone bill that i pay every month:
City
district tax - .30
Federal excise tax - .91
Federal
Univeral Service Fund - .48
Local sales tax - .32
State sales tax - 2.00
State Universal Service Fund - 1.08
Texas Infrastructure Fund - .37
State 911 - .50
Total: $5.96
(
that's SIX dollars )
There's about 110
million cell phone subscribers in the US give or take a few.
The Federal Univeral Service Fund gets .48 cents a month per user
-- That math works out to about 52,800,000. That's 52 million dollars
A MONTH. And that's just ONE of the taxes. We're talking 6 hundred
thirty three MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR from this ONE tax per year.
All i know is that the government gets a damn lot of money a year
and for what? Nobody knows.
It's been fun, gotta go --- must watch kelly jo and bob the hobbit.
NOVEMBER
19, 2003 : WEDNESDAY
 -->
This tiny s'mores
maker is adorable. i can't think of anyone to buy it for, but
maybe you can. I don't believe i've ever roasted my marshmallows
on anything other than a stick. oh well. great idea, though.
NOVEMBER
19, 2003 : WEDNESDAY
IF YOU'RE TIRED OF HEARING ME BITCH ABOUT ALLERGIES, SAY "I"
--> When I got in my car to leave the gym last night and drive
home, i had a huge allergy attack. I was a miserable wreck and I
had no tissues in my car. No tissues and not even a napkin of any
kind. Its pretty lame for allergy queen to be caught with no tissue,
but it DOES happen. I was forced to use a tank top that i'd had
on at work, which worked well enough.
As, i'm driving home, sneezing my head off and blowing snot everywhere
and feeling like crap, i'm contempating the email that i'll send
to all of my friends telling them that we're moving to Denver. Denver
seems the best place to move because dust mites don't live in high
altitudes. That's not to say they don't have pollens and other things
to be allergic to, but at least we could knock one major one out.
And, i'm pretty sure there's no cedar fever there. I asked my doctor
moving somewhere and he didnt' really have any suggestions (other
than denver), unless i could afford a house directly on the coast.
I don't know that i've ever talked to anyone that lived in denver.
is there anything fun there? How pissed will i be if we moved and
i'm still sick? Its cold in denver. Snail would love that.
This
just in: "Denver has an average of more than 300 sunny days
per year - more than Honolulu, Miami, and San Diego." Sweet.
NOVEMBER
16, 2003 : SUNDAY
--> Here's a photo of Christmas Craft 2003, a.k.a. door hanger.
This project is going really well. I have 3 completed and I'm not
sure how many I will make. They are all green trees with contrasting
red felt backing. I am thinking of doing a snowman, perhaps, but
right now i'm just focused on cranking some out and i don't want
to mess up my finely tuned process. Also, i think i am going to
get some tiny jingle bells to sew on the bottom corners.
NOVEMBER
14, 2003 : FRIDAY
--> There's a good chance you'll be seeing these cute little
hatted snowmen
ornaments on my tree this year. There's also some great little gumdrop
cupcake snowmen, all from crate and barrel.
Also, i decided that for the people on my christmas list that remain
impossible to buy for, there's a good chance they'll be getting
some gourmet foods this year. I was just looking through the williams-sonoma
catalog when i spotted the following scrumptious items: caramel
covered marshmallows, toffee, paper-thin
chocolate pears, giant
caramel apple and the list goes on. Before I begin ordering,
I better eat some dinner.
NOVEMBER
13, 2003 : THURSDAY
--> I THOUGHT the poor man's MINI cooper was the Mazda Pro5 or
the Toyota Matrix, but alas, I was mistaken. This, my friends, is
the car. I haven't seen the SCION xA in person and so, i'm not sure
just how small it is, but i can't wait to check it out when they
get one on the Toyota lot in December. We test drove the xB last
night (poor man's honda element) which is similar in size to the
matrix...maybe a big longer. That thing is really something spectacular.
I am simultaneoulsy amused, bewildered and inspired by it. Cheers
to toyota for making something for the kids. You should see the
literature on these cars. Its SO demographically dialed in.
NOVEMBER
12, 2003 : WEDNESDAY
--> Dear Sara Lee Bagel Makers,
Please make your bagels only half as golden brown as they should
be. I mean, how am I supposed to toast your bagels if they are already
as brown as they can possibly be without being burnt?
Signed, Grumpy Picky Austin Morning Bagel Eater
NOVEMBER
11, 2003 : TUESDAY
--> I'm having a dr pepper this morning and i'm really enjoying
it. I didn't have one yesterday and so it tastes extra yummy and
crispy and good.
--> Christmas Craftiness 2003 is well underway. I saw LJC's halloween
felt garland project and decided to do my own spin on something
similar. My felt christmas trees will have a ribbon attached at
the top and can be hung for decoration on door knobs. Last night
i finished covering the tree with sequins and sewing up the edges
with silver tread. Its looking good. Still need to pick up some
wide ribbon from which these trees will hang.
Last night, i sat on the couch sewing while we watched monday night
football. it was quite productive. That was kind of a painful game
to watch. It was in the mid-30's and raining there. I was SO happy
to be sitting on my warm couch and not be playing football in the
freezing cold.
NOVEMBER
7, 2003 : FRIDAY
 -->
I am dead determined to do some gingerbread house decorating before
this season gets too far behind me. I know that i've talked about
it before. I JUST missed being enrolled in a local place that offers
classes (to kids AND adults). That's very disappointing. What a
time saver to have someone else do all the work FOR me and then
i step in for the fun part. I am on the waiting list but the class
is too close to christmas and I can't count on it.
I've seen kits around Michaels (where the house is already built)....i
need to open one up and see if its really worthwhile and good --
for $12 i'm a bit leary. Plus, i want to pick out my own candy and
not use what they have. What i need is a kit with no candy. Hmm.
If all else fails, i'm going to just do it how my friend's mom did
them when we were growing up. Graham Cracker Houses - no fuss. Afterall,
I'm not interesting in the baking, just the decorating.
Martha's
kit is $50
Looks like i missed the gingerbread
train.
This christmas
tree cookie is pretty spectacular. I've never seen one of those.
NOVEMBER
5, 2003 : WEDNESDAY
--> Ever since last friday, my little red go-cart continues to
cause drama and time spent. I'm not sure what the future holds for
my car, so, you'll just have to stay tuned.
--> I'm going to see a new dentist in the morning. Any time i
have a morning appointment, i'm always scheming about what part
of town i'll be headed to and where i can possibly stop for breakfast.
Mainly, i'm thinking about bagels. We don't have a proper bagel
resource on my end of town and I don't get to eat them very often.
I'll never forget the first time i had a real new york bagel, in
downtown manhattan. It was my first trip to NYC ( with college professors
and other advertising students ) and we were there visiting ad agencies.
I grabbed a bagel on the street on the way to one of our appointments.
It was cinnamon raisin with cream cheese. It was a giant delicious
bagel like none that i had ever tasted. There's nothing like that
here. Einstein's is about all we have. In any case, there will be
no bagels in my path in the morning which is probably for the best,
since i would need to brush my teeth afterwards and all that.
NOVEMBER
3, 2003 : MONDAY
--> My car broke down on my way home from work tonight. Snail
came and rescued me -- we pulled the car off the road, into a parking
lot and came home. Yesterday, Snail's cousin changed a bunch of
filters and stuff on my car, but didn't have time to change out
the spark plugs....which may be the cause of all of this. So, they
went back out there tonight to see if they could fix it.
--> I found something that I think that i want for christmas.
Its the The
Lord of the Rings Trilogy Gift Set [UNABRIDGED] on Audio CD.
Can you even begin to imagine how many hours of commuting time that
could be put to quality listening?!?!?! Holy Gollums, it would be
total heaven!!! I don't know if its worth $90 bucks, though. There
must be some good faith network of LOTR lovers out there who want
to share. I'll send them $15, and when i'm done listening, i'll
send it on to someone else to enjoy. i have NO desire to keep these
sorts of things when i'm done.
NOVEMBER
1, 2003 : SATURDAY
--> Halloween was fun. I made some red velvet cupcakes for the
occasion. They were ok but i wouldn't make them again. The box mix
version of red velvet isn't very good at representing the flavor
of a red velvet cake. Also, I made the orange icing by coloring
the can icing that i had bought. I couldn't get the color to be
as rich/dark as I wanted. Not sure what's up with that. Next time,
i'll just buy a premixed color I reckon.
--> Last night, I woke up, in the middle of the night, kinda
choking with a peice of lint or dust stuck in my throat. This is
fairly common. About 98% of the time, i have a glass of water by
my bed for just that reason. I was barely awake but I could see
a mug on my nightstand and though i had to keep tilting the mug
to get anything out (which should have been my first clue), I still
managed to get the last gulp of something. Something that was not
water. I spit it all back in the mug. It was gross and confusing
in my half sleep stupor. It was milk. Snail had left it in my room.
I'm just glad it wasn't rat poison.
--> I was afraid that my car wasn't going to get me home after
work last night. Luckily, I made it and today we are replacing a
few filters and things on it to see it we can fix the problem.
-->
I saw SCHOOL OF ROCK yesterday. I enjoyed it very much. Jack Black
is a funny guy...he has the right face for being funny. It was great
to finally see him in the perfect 'Jack Black' role. It's too bad
the story wasn't a little more complex...but all in all, good fun
times.
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