I made a deal with myself that if I met a certain goal that I could buy myself Sims 2: University. It was a tough goal and so it was a great prize cuz I wanted this game sooooooo much (you long-time readers and friends know of my unnatural obsession with The Sims games). Sims 2 came out back in September and I was eagerly anticipating this game. So after a good bit of hard work, I met my goal yesterday and I went out after dinner with friends last night and picked up this little gem. So I am planning to go home, take Loki for a walk, run quickly to the grocery store for a bite to eat, and then settle in with the expansion pack to the sequel of one of the greatest video games of all time.
GOSHDARNITSUMOFA….
I wrote this nice long post and stupid Hurricane Electric had to go all funky just as I hit the submit button. WTF??!?! I'm so POed. It took me literally minutes to write and now it's gone. I'm really thinking about switching providers. They're really really really really really pissing me off. Not only does this (and other connection problems) heappen occasionally, but they also switched from telnet to SSH and NEVER TOLD ME. So I'm sitting there thinking I'm crazy cuz I can't connect an little do I know there's a very good reason I can't connect. GRRRRRR… frustrated
Ouch Part Deux
Since Matt left my clumsy factor (already well above the national average normally) has seemingly increased at least 5 fold. I don't know what's going on. Here's what happened last night: I came home and wanted to wind down before bed by watching a bit of Tivo. We have an old futon mattress on the floor of the retreat where the Tivo is that I lie on to watch when I'm tired or whatever. But recently, our darling pup had been lying on it chewing his bone, so there were gross bone fragments on the futon. So I just picked up the cover and shook it to get them off, planning to vacuum them later. To aid the departure of the fragments, I started kicking the cover as well and managed to kick a bit overzealously and right into the cabinets in the retreat. OUCH! After swearing like a sailor and nearly crying like a baby, I calmed down.
I managed to run a mile on it this morning at the gym, but it's all black and blue and hurts like hell. I'm going to be taking it easy. Yeesh.
Hiatus
Well, Monday Meal is going on Hiatus this week. Matt left for Cali yesterday and I just can't be bothered to make a meal on my own, especially after what happend last night. I went to the trouble to put a bitta rice in the rice cooker and then saute some zucchini and mushrooms. The “main course” was to be a frozen salmon filet with dill sauce on it that I got from Target. It was the only thing going in my oven, so I decided to put it on one of our oven proof plates – less mess in the long run, since I could eat off it as well. Bad choice. Of course after it came out of the 425 degree oven, I promptly forgot it had been in there and put my hand right on it to pick it up. I managed not to sling it across the kitchen, but it did get dropped a couple inches onto the counter where it did that rotating plate thing for a second and just sat there. But the damage was already done. My hand was burned. BADLY. I am, in fact, sitting here looking at the blisters on my thumb, pointer, middle, and index fingers. The pain was so bad I had it on ice or in a bucket of water until almost 2 AM when I finally fell asleep. This morning, I was OK to go without ice, but it still stings like hell.
Matt is in Cali now. Maybe he'll write something up for us. Yea, I wouldn't hold my breath either. He'll be vair busy with his new job. It's going to be so much fun for him. Before this, CO was the farthest West he'd been. And I'm sure I'll be visiting him occasionally… 
Continue reading “Hiatus”
How Psyched Are You?????
Well it probably cannot even touch my level of anticipation on this one. I really love the story (Roald Dahl is just incredible anyhow) and Johnny Depp as WW?!?! Shut up. That's going to be absolutely tooo perfect. So heres the plan. Opening Night Tix + Lotsa Candy + Lotsa Cool People = WW Opening Night Extravaganza. I cannot wait for July.
Blah Week
I have been having a sort of blah week. I'm sure most of it stems from the fact that Matt is going away for 2 weeks on business to California. I kinda like the idea of being home alone for a bit, but 2 weeks is a long time. Plus, I've got Loki to worry about. He's a ball of energy I'm not used to taking care of on my own. But it will be nice to come home to someone.
So my week has been kinda blah. I don't really feel like doing much of anything and even though Matt's going away on Sun, I don't even really feel like hanging out with him. It sucks!!
Pizza Party
Last week when Matt cleaned out the fridge, he made a rather startling discovery …we had a TON of mozzarella cheese. Dunno how it happened. It was prolly one of those things where we bought it, forgot we didn't use it and then bought some more. Anyhoo, so we had some family over on Fri and we made three different kinds of pizza: shrimp scampi, BBQ chicken, and italian.
The recipe for the scampi pizza is below. That was my fave. The BBQ chicken pizza had chicken, BBQ sauce, gouda cheese, mozzarella cheese, parmesean cheese, and carmelized onions on it. The italian pizza had a bitta tomato sauce, fresh chopped basil, mozzarella, parmesan, romano, onions on half, and chopped tomatoes. They were a huge hit. It's something we'll definitely have to do again.
Winter Weekend
We had quite the weekend. Most of it was very nice weather. We gave Loki a bath (as you can see from the pictures) and enjoyed time with friends and family. But as is typical of CO, no matter what the calendar says or what the weather was yeterday, early this morning a little storm rolled in. And before we knew it we were 14″ deep in snow . Cool, eh? There have been some road closures and stranded motorists, but it's not nearly as bad as the news makes it out to be…
I'll have to post some pictures of the snow soon. For now, enjoy the ones of Loki and my anagram game!!!!
Anagram Game!!
Okay kiddies, here's a new one for Jesser.org. This week is National Anagram Week and so in celebration, I'm putting up a new anagram for you to solve each and every day until Saturday in my MOTD (the funny sayings underneath the date/time up top). The answer will be posted in the MOTD on the next day.
If you have a guess, leave me a comment. First person to guess it (by time stamped comment) wins … well nothing. Except your name on my blog. So nothing. Haha. Happy anagramming!!!
Shrimp Scampi Pizza
from: Shape Magazine
Ingredients
1 c lite vanilla soy milk
1/2 c calcium OJ
1 banana (I like frozen ones), peeled, obviously
Directions
Chunk it all in a blender and smoothie it up.
from: Everyday Food #15
Ingredients
5 t olive oil
1 1/4 lb boneless leg of lamb cut into 1 inch dice
coarse salt and pepper
1 large onion, halved and sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 t paprika
1/2 c dried apricots, halved
1/2 c pitted prunes
1 can (14.5 oz) whole peeled tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish
2 T fresh lime juice
couscous
Directions
In a 5 qt saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, heat oil over high heat. Swirl to coat bottom of pan. Season lamb with salt and pepper; cook until browned, 3-5 min.
Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 2-4 min. Add paprika, apricots, prunes, tomatoes, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer partially coverer, until tomatoes begin to break apart and sauce is thickened, about 25-30 min. While you wait on the lamb, put a pot of water to boil for your couscous. Place the couscous itself into a large bowl and add any dry seasonings you desire. Once the water has boiled, carefully pour it over the couscous until you have about an inch of water over the couscous. Wait a few minutes for the couscous to absorb the water and stir it. Wait a bit more and then taste it. It should have the same consistency as properly cooked pasta.
Return lamb and any accumulated juices to pan; cook until heated through, about 1 min. Stir in cilantro and lime juice. Serve with couscous.
Nutritional Info (1/4 recipe(
(without couscous:) 371 calories; 13.3 g fat; 31.9 g protein; 33.1 g carbs; 4.6 g fiber
from: Matt and Jess Original
Ingredients
– 60 count shrimp
– Italian salad dressing
– Teaspoon oregano
– Pizza Crust
– Mozzarella Cheese
– Parmesan Cheese
Directions
Marinate thawed shrimp Italian dressing. Take shrimp out of dressing with a slotted spoon and add to a pan over medium high heat. Cook shrimp till done, typically just a few minutes. Cut shrimp in 1/2.
Roll out pizza crust on cooking sheet. (Precook crust if required for pizza crust.) Lay down a thin layer of Italian salad dressing. Cover pizza with Mozzarella cheese to desired thickness. Add desired amount Parmesan cheese. Add cooked shrimp to top pizza. Sprinkle top of pizza with Italian salad dressing and oregano.
Cook pizza according to pizza crust instructions.