Viva La France!

Well the France Album is finally done. It's taken me plenty of hours, but it's done (though I may add one or two things still). There are TONS of photos. Enjoy!

Sort of a normal/boring day, really. We had yummy Chin's sesame chicken for dinner. That stuff is seriously good. I really should try some more of their stuff, but the sesame chicken is so good and I hate getting something that sucks, esp. if you're getting take-out. That's one reason I like Noodles & Co. so much. If you try something and you don't like it, they'll replace it for you for free.

Mean Girls comes out tomorrow which I'm really excited to see and I was reminded today that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban comes out in like a month! Anyhow, I want to go see that and there's plenty of work to do. The paper version of the France album has got to be put together and I've got some other little things I'm working on.

Always Good for a Laugh

I just got a call from some guy from “Associated Builders” who, after I'd said hello, promptly asked me if my mom was home. I explained to him that I am, in fact, 23 and my mom doesn't live with me anymore. He sounded pretty embarassed. He had the wrong number.

I have a really high voice and I'm frequently mistaken for being a kid over the phone. Hilarious.

Dinner, Presents, Weather

We made quesadillas last night. We frequently put pepperjack cheese and spinach in them, but last night we did mexican cheese, black beans and ground beef. Sooooo good. Not that we don't still love the spinach ones.

I've got to find a mother's day gift for my mom, and birthday gifts for Matt and his brother (they have the same birthday, which falls on Mother's Day this year). I already know what I'm getting Matt (I won't, of course, put that here because he does occasionally read this) I've just got to get it. May is always a busy month. I like busy though. It works for me.

It was really nice yesterday, and it's not so bad today, but it's going to get all nasty this weekend. Which means, I guess, that we'll be spending time at home. That's OK though. Staying at home can be reallly nice.

This 'n' That

The photos came from Yahoo! I am pretty impressed with their speed and quality. So all's well that ends well. Matt and I will be working on an album for them this weekend.

The online France album is almost done, but I'm missing a bit of narrative, because I don't remember some sequences of events and the name of this one town we stopped in. I should have written it down! So I'm hoping my sister can fill me in.

Idol last night sucked. None of them did Gloria Estefan's songs justice. But I liked Latoya the best so I voted for her. It was a real pain to vote. I couldn't get thru 'til like 40 minutes afterwards. Luckily real voting is easier. Just a nice 'lil absentee ballot to fill in. Except this year I may not vote at all. I don't like any of the candidates. When did the world get so wonky? Can I write in Jon Stewart? He amuses me.

Ah. Back to working.

Rambling

Today was a pretty normal day except for the fact that my cable modem went out! Out out! And it remained out for like 7 hours. How obnoxious. I like my cable modems working, CHARTER. WORKING. What do I pay you people for? Anyhow, it's fixed now (obviously).

Now I'm watching Letterman, which I don't normally do, but I'm a bit behind on work, so I'm catching up. And he's got this guy on there who wrote a book about the random pieces of paper that he has collected. It's called Found. He finds all these crazy things like To Do lists and pro-con sheets comparing two guys and a note that was taped to someone's car saying “Please, don't put any more crab on my car. Just cut it out!!” I think it's a very interesting commentary on human culture. I might have to have it.

Matt's birthday is coming up very soon and for once, I thought of a very good present for him. I just have to remember to get it before his b'day. Oooh. I like getting people presents I'm almost 100% sure they're going to like. It's so much fun.

Goings On

Our step teacher must have sprinkled a little crack over her cornflakes this morning because she was all over the place! I don't know what the heck she was doing. I was exhausted just trying to figure out what she was up to. So we finished with the step stuff and she mentioned something about sprinting and so I did … straight out of there. Ugh.

Then I'm doing my weight lifting and while I'm doing that, I hear over the PA that they're looking for the owner of a purple station wagon (?!). They announce this twice. When I get out to the parking lot, I see why. The owner of said purple station wagon (a Focus, I think) had left his/her parking break off and either the force of gravity or a nudge cause it to roll backwards into a red sedan. Now my obsession with always putting my parking break on doesn't seem so dumb. It's one of the first times I really wished I had a camera phone. Of course as I didn't have my cell phone with me anyhow, it probably would have done me little good. As I was driving away, I see this little lady who's about 50 walking up to the scene. It's clear she owns one of the cars. From her expression, I'm guessing it was the station wagon. PS: Her warmups matched her car.

This weekend was boring, but nice. I got damn busy working on the pages for our France trip. It's pretty much going to be a typical photo album but with a few extras. It should be ready soon(ish).

I got some awesome scores at the used book store on Saturday (Frugal Muse if anyone in the Madison area is interested). I found three moosewood cookbooks and in their $1 outlet, they had a ton of hard-back young adult books. I love books. I was calculating it the other day and I realized that I read, on average, 6 books a week. That seems a bit excessive! But I guess there are worse things to be excessive about. Plus, I read really fast, so I can polish off a book in a couple of hours, easy.

Alias was great last night. Sloane's a baddie again. Yippee! I like the girl they got to play Nadia (Syd's sis) … and the whole Vaughn capture thing was cool. Malcolm in the Middle was funny too. Of course they're on at the same time, so I had to tape one. Some dream of Jeanie. I dream of Tivo.

YOU MORON!

As part of our weekly errands, we went to Walgreens to have some pictures from vacation printed. We put in our CD with over 1000 pictures and spent nearly 45 minutes loading and selecting the ones we wanted. Some of them we zoomed and cropped or removed red-eye. The interface was incredibly slow and we just had a lot of pictures. Finally, when our feet were starting to hurt we finished! We had around 100 pictures to print. So we went clicked the print button. When we did so, a screen came up insisting we have a photo department associate's code before continuing. So, obviously, we went and found someone to help us. And then she got her manager. The manager came over, hummed and hoed for a few minutes, and then clicked cancel … and then with one swift stroke of her finger, OK. SHE DELETED OUR ENTIRE ORDER. Out popped our CD and then my eyes.

I could not believe she had done that. I was sort of afraid that if I said anything, I'd really lose it. So I just kept my mouth shut. I don't think killing a Walgreen's associate for blinding incompetence would be looked on fondly by the Wisconson courts system (though I surely would have gotten sympathy). Anyway, we went home without exchanging any harsh words with anyone. Now I want to go back and complain, but it's sort of the thing you have to do at the moment, isn't it. GRRRR. I was still livid a half hour later.

Well I've decided we'll be using the Yahoo! photo system for printing our pictures instead. It's a bit cheaper too … even with S&H.

Shredded Zucchini

Ingredients
a few zucchini, or yellow squash
butter
salt
seasonings of your choice (lemon juice, seasoning salt, lemon pepper, whatever)

Directions
Grate up your zucchinis/squash using whatever means you deem necessary. We use our mandolin, which makes this go every so fast. A salad shooter, food processor or box grater would probably work well too though. Put your shreds in a colinder and salt them lightly. Leave them in the colinder for at least 10 minutes. They’ll leak, so don’t just leave them on your counter. After 10 min is up, squeeze the excess moisture out of them. Put a little pat of butter in a frying pan. You don’t need much. I use less than a tablespoon for a TON of squash. Saute them until they’re tender, but not squishy. Season them as desired … or just leave them alone. They’re great either way.

TGIF, Mates

I'm in a remarkably good mood. Don't know why really. I just woke up like that … happy and full of energy. Probably because it's FRIDAY! Fridays are great. I really want to go see Mean Girls. I like Lindsay Lohan and it looks funny and fluffy. 13 Going on 30 is also tops of the stuff I want to see. Jennifer Garner looks awesome in it. I may wait though. There's still a few things at the cheapies I haven't seen yet. They're also showing that Kill Bill 2 is at the cheapies. I don't think that can possibly be correct, but … maybe??

I got the stuff for making yummy enchiladas yesterday so we'll have those for dinner tonight. The strawberries have been gorgeous and cheap around here lately, and I buy a ton of them every time I go to the store.

We thought about going to the Star Trek Convention that's in Chicago this weekend, but it's largely Classic Star Trek and I'm so not interested. Plus, it's all the way at O'Hare and it's $25/person entrance fee.

Instead, I think we may go down there the weekend after next for WXRT's Rockin' de Mayo. They're featuring Fountains of Wayne and Blues Traveler. Plus, it's Matt's birthday weekend and we could have a nice little stay in Chicago and hang out there. But then we might also go out to San Fran … Matt for work, me for fun.

Dither

I'm sitting here having my lunch and May is watching me expectantly. I know she wants some food. She gets petted instead.

Spike TV is unfortunately showing a marathon of MXC (a very stupid obstacle course show) and so Star Trek is not being shown. Well I'll get over it. I've got tons to do.

I was so POed at American Idol last night. Everything was totally backwards!!!! The good singers were in the bottom three and the bad singers where in the top three. I swear – it's rigged! I've never seen it so backwards on that show. I am going to vote next week. John Stevens and Jasmine CANNOT STAY. Grrrrr.