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ARCHIVES
: MAY 2003
FRIDAY
: MAY 30
 >
After
watching Spider Man last night, i crawled into bed and discovered
a spider on the windowsill right by my head. I tried to squish him
with a tissue, but he was fast and jumped onto my bed and then disappeared
into the covers. I sat up for a while, trying to pretend that i
was 'on-guard.' I started thinking about all the spiders that are
probably in my bed everynight and went to sleep and prayed that
it wouldn't crawl into my ear during the night and lay spider eggs.
> Finding Nemo comes out this weekend.
THURSDAY
: MAY 29
>
Sleepypie
and cous cous have been united at last. A lady brought a cous cous
boutros boutros dish to the luck pot work lunch and in it was fresh
cilantro, fresh mint, toasted almonds and golden raisins. It was
really tasty. I've never made cous cous before and if i've ever
tried it before, it was forgettable. All of the other dishes that
I tried (most of them) were really delicious and the cupcakes took
third place right behind the crepes with orange sauce and the lemon
bars. I look forward to the next group lunch.
> The bad thing about a 20 mile drive to work is the dreamy options
I pass along the way, all of which involve me not showing up at
work on time. One of the places that I pass on my trip is a lovely
mexican restaurant that has a nice patio and a view overlooking
rolling hills. I imagine pulling in, ordering up a Dr.P and a couple
of tacos and calling in late to work.
WEDNESDAY
: MAY 28
>
I brought in my chocolate cupcakes with white icing today for the
work bunch lunch pot luck. I went by the office of the lady organizing
and she started rattling off some of the fancy dishes that people
had brought in. I hung my head in defeated fashion and said, "I
brought cupcakes." She said, "I can't wait to see what
fancy artistic thing you did with the icing!" HA!
Sigh.
It's true that I did run my mouth a bit at that first meeting about
my new icing decorating kits. And its true that my cupcakes look
like any other soccer mom's cupcakes: ordinary. No one told me that
this was going to be a gourmet work bunch pot luck. Gah, who do
those people think they are with their crepes and their gnocchi?
Stay tuned for follow-up work lunch bunch pot o' luck posting....
TUESDAY
: MAY 27
>
In one of our L.A. travel books, I read about a fine-art children's
book store, called Storyopolis
and I had it on my list of things-we-must-do. We made a point to
check it out on our trip.
The store had a gallery-like area displaying children's book illustrations
.. it was an informal space with a hodge-podge of stuff hanging.
There was a Gary Baseman
painting ($3,500), a couple of David
Kirk prints, several prints by Seonna
Hong and many others. Additionally, there were a few Tim
Burton prints from his book, "The
Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories." Though
that book has been out for a few years, I hadn't seen it before
and thought it was pretty neat, kinda Edward Gorey-ish.
 When
I returned to Austin, I had a package from a friend. She had seen
the Tim Burton book and picked it up for me thinking i might like
it. I do. I've read through about half of it, and my favorite story
so far is one about a girl who turns into a bed. "Through her
organs and torso she sprouted like wings, a beautiful set of mattress
and springs."
Some of the other stories are called, "The Boy with Nails in
His Eyes," "Roy, The Toxic Boy" and "Stain Boy's
Special Christmas."
SUNDAY
: MAY 25
>
Today we are having a BBQ and some friends will be stopping by to
make merriment. I made chocolate covered strawberries for the occasion.
We're also having this evil chinese salad stuff. I first had it
at a work potluck and immediately had to have the recipe. It was
like crack. The stuff was so good that we couldn't get enough of
it. I suppose i probably ate it 4 or 5 times before declaring it
utterly revolting. I can't explain it and I feel the same about
Kettle
Popcorn -- it's so good that i hate it. Seven years later, I
am going to have a go at chinese salad though i have no plans for
kettle corn in the near future.
> Last night, we watched ADAPTION and I thought it was the best
film i've seen in a while. Its too bad there aren't more films like
that. The next one i want to see is ABOUT SCHMIDT. The End.
>
Happy Memorial Day!
FRIDAY
: MAY 23
>
I just had a bad lunch. It was my fault for ordering something utterly
tasteless. The waiter was annoying. My psyche is damaged from eating
adjacent to a hanging peice that features 8 faucets from which strands
of colored beads flow.
> I did my presentation yesterday. Everything went well and i'm
glad its over. I hate to sound like a corporate droid, but tomorrow
is all TGIF
WEDNESDAY
: MAY 21
>
Everyone's been asking me to give an update on the plants that I
put in the ground a month ago. Well, let me tell you. The lamb's
ear is the happiest. The grassy/lily thing has bugs that i need
to deal with and the dancer dark/clover stuff is hurting. I can
hear it calling my name "h ellllll p , m eeee...." I think
it needs more water than i'm giving it. I fertilized it last night.
Honestly, it may just need to die because it has steadily declined
since i put them in the ground.
I have a theory with plants. If the plant is of higher maintenance
than my plant-tending skills can handle, then me and the plant are
not a match and its better for both of us to just go our seperate
ways: me back to the nursery and it to the plant cemetary. The plant
cemetary worked better with potted plants. When a plant started
looking like it was making a turn for the worse, i would toss it
to the cemetary, and then maybe have a look at it in 6 months. If
it was still alive (which mainly happens with cactus), then i take
it back under my wing and treat it like an old friend.
TUESDAY
: MAY 20
 >
So, I couldn't hold out any longer. I just HAD to try the new premium
McDonald's
Salads. Haven't you seen the new campaign with the 30-ish year
old hip chics? the drummer/mother of two? Well, I'm sure that one
of those chics is me.
Anyway, so their big mistake is that the salads are named and paired
with a dressing but they don't make that clear on the menu and it
can get a little confusing.... Let me break it down for you:
Bacon Ranch (ranch dressing, i can figure
that one out)
Caesar Salad (caesar dressing, i'm 2 for 3)
California Cobb (...um......)
I guess this is suppposed to make the drive thru process even faster
for them, but maybe i want my cobb salad with ranch dressing, what
then? And in fact, I ordered the dressings my friend and I wanted
with our salad and we were given the dressings that came with the
salad instead. Enough with that. So, i got the Bacon Ranch, because
there's no such thing as bad bacon and I don't trust eggs from a
fast food place so i couldn't get the cobb and caesar has long had
its 15 minutes. Mine was tasty with the grilled chicken on top.
This all makes McDonald's the most recent to add its name to the
very short 5-minute work lunch list. When you break it down (eliminating
things i can't eat for lunch like pizza, fried fish baskets and
big macs), it means that i now have a total of 3 places to get a
grilled chicken salad and 2 places for a sub. Now, THAT's choices.
You're probably thinking that i should just shut up and bring my
lunch. Actually, i forgot it this morning when i left.
SUNDAY
: MAY 18
>
It's a really uneventful weekend, which is perfect after being on
vacation. Saturday, I worked most of the day. Today, I am just hanging
around the house, making labels, doing laundry and painting. My
newest thing with painting is that after messing with wood with
acrylic and considering making a move to oil, I am back where I
started years ago with watercolor. I tried to get my rapidograph
pens going yesterday. But after 10 years of sitting in various drawers,
it was no surprise that i couldn't get any of them to work. Those
things are tempermental on a good day. This week, I will pick up
some new ones and possibly some colored inks. Hopefully I can find
some colored ink made specifically for those pens.
> A friend loaned me the book, Snow Falling on Cedars, to read
on the airplane. After getting half way through, i don't really
care to finish the book. Its interesting, but not interesting enough
to compete successfully for my time. Last night, I rented it on
DVD and fell asleep before finishing watching it. This is about
the third time in recent history that i've read a book and then
watched the movie. I like the idea of the translation from book
to movie, but in reality there's not much to it. I don't think i'll
do it anymore after I finish watching this movie.
Besides that, I still haven't bought my work book club book and
I can't remember the name of it.
FRIDAY
: MAY 16
>
Today MUST be a monday. When I got back from vacation yesterday,
I discovered that the files/folders for this big project that i'm
working on are all gone. The folder was somehow sent back in time
to April 21. (which means 3 weeks of work are history) It's my general
belief that most computer issues are from human user error....but
this time i don't think it was my error. Maybe someone else's, but
not mine. (i'm perfectly willing to eat my words later, if necessary)
Have I learned anything from this? Well, i can tell you that I won't
be working from the network anymore. Everything will be on my hard
drive. Maybe I shouldn't have trusted the network in the first place,
but honestly, i've never had a problem and i've never heard any
other poeple talk about any troubles. I'm going to be playing a
lot of catch up today and the next and the next.
Normally this really wouldn't be a big deal. But of course, this
kind of thing will only happen right before the biggest deadline
you've had in the last 2 years.
THURSDAY
: MAY 15
>
I'm back from a nice long adventurous vacation in Los Angeles. I'm
so glad that we finally got of out town; it really seems like we
were gone for a while. I return to a big project at work with a
major deadline next week. Time to push into full work mode; which
is proving difficult. I'm hoping it will sink in that i'm back at
work, when i return from lunch.
>
For all the bad press that LA gets, its hosts some of my favorite
things: stunning weather coupled with plants that don't stop, beaches,
great art museums and galleries, palm trees, unforgettable people
watching, shopping for miles and million dollar homes. What's not
to love?
THURSDAY
: MAY 8
>
I'll be out until thursday, next week. In the meantime, go do something.
WEDNESDAY
: MAY 7
> I
just joined a female book club at work. I don't know how it all
happened, but it did very quickly. I like the idea of books. But
i don't read unless i'm on an airplaine, or i'm in a book club.
I probably don't belong in a book club. I was in a coed book club
last year and we were all over the map with the stuff we read (or
didn't read, ha!) -- I think this group is a little more mainstream
in their tastes and are more likely to pick something very readable
-- and by that i mean, 'readable' for someone that has lukewarm
reading interests.
Some of the members weren't happy about meeting once a month and
wanted to meet more often, since they go through books so quickly.
I opened my big mouth and suggested that we start another club,
a cooking club. I was really only not really serious and mostly
joking. Next thing i know, i've joined a pot luck lunch club. I
think i'll bring plates.
TUESDAY
: MAY 6
>
its 9:03am. its seriously doomsday dark outside.
MONDAY:
MAY 5
> I made french toast sunday
morning. I made it the way i usually do, except I used brioche instead
of plain white bread and I added fresh slice strawberries on top.
On the side, i served up some fancy bacon. I would say that my expectations
were met. I think its safe to say that i'm never that happy with
anything i cook. Not because what I cook isn't good, but because
I just spent the last 30 minutes with the very ingredients that
i'm eating. There ARE no surprises. its like, "Oh. It tastes
just like i thought it would."
Does everyone feel this way about cooking? I think it would help
if I
put ear plugs up my nose so that i couldn't smell anything. And
I could wear weird tinted sunglasses that made the food have a strange
greenish cast. Unless I was making salad, then i would wear brownish
cast glasses.
THURSDAY:
MAY 1
>
Today, I am reunited with my favorite black summer sandals and my
belly is breakfast-taco happy.
> The best tv line-up these
days is futurama at 10 and family guy at 10:30. last night on family
guy, stewie refered to turtles as "nature's 'D' student"
which i thought was funny enough to remember and post about. The
other night i dreamed that i had a shell-less pet turtle and i was
trying to catch him as he was swimming in a pool.
>
We talked to our real estate lady yesterday about finding a peice
of land to build on. i guess we'll start driving around soon, looking.
>
I am going to make french toast for breakfast saturday morning.
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