Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Joyco issued a challenge for other bloggers to complete a fun photo challenge she's done, and I really liked the idea. Hopefully I can get it to work! Here are the rules, questions & answers:

1. Go to photobucket.com
2. Type in your answer for each question into the PhotoBucket search bar.
3. Only use the first two pages. Choose your favorite photo to represent your answer.
4. Copy the html and paste it here.
5. You can only answer in picture form.

What is your first name?
I'm answering with my nickname, to cut down on the stalking. ;o)



When is your birthday?

What kind of car do you want?


Where did you go for school?




What is your favorite season?





What is your favorite type of shoe?




What is your status?



What is your favorite movie?


What is your favorite song?

I've decided to narrow this down to favorite love song:



What is your favorite Disney character?





What is your favorite clothing line?




What is your favorite vacation destination?





What is your favorite dessert?



What is your favorite letter?






What are you most afraid of?

Not my biggest fear, but heights are near the top of the list.



What is your favorite tv show?


or



What annoys you most?



What is your job?


What is your favorite animal?




How old are you?



















Tuesday, February 26, 2008

#8: New Lunch Bag

I take my lunch to work almost every day, and I usually end up toting it in a plastic grocery bag. . .which I then throw away at the office. Since I've started using my own grocery bags, our plastic bag stash is shrinking. And it's not very environmentally conscious to just throw those plastic sacks away at the office, either. Just because it's not in my trash doesn't mean it's not my problem, right?


K wanted to go to the Container Store this past weekend to look for some filing options (he's reorganizing his studio/office room at home after selling one of his desks). He didn't find anything he wanted, but I found a cute lunch tote. I will have to add a photo after I have time to take one--I bought the brown one with multi-colored polka dots. It's a good thing the Container Store didn't have the blue plaid one, I would've been torn between the two. My only complain about the lunch bag is that it smells like rubber. K washed it three times with some laundry he did this weekend, but I can still smell it. I'm hoping the smell wears off quickly--otherwise, I love it!

Friday, February 15, 2008

#9 Dinner: Parmesan-Crusted Mustard Chicken

Thursday night I decided to change up a recipe I've already made--Parmesan-Crusted Chicken. I've made this chicken dish several times because it's really easy, and quick on a weeknight. Here's what I did:

4 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix mustard & olive oil, then spread on each side of each chicken breast. Mix parmesan cheese & italian bread crumbs, then press chicken breasts into mixture to coat each side. Place in baking dish, and cook for 20 - 25 minutes.

I prepped the chicken breasts the night before by trimming off the fat and pounding them to uniform thickness. So I all had to do on Thursday was spread on the mustard mix and press in the bread crumb mixture while the oven preheated. Since the main side I make these days is steamed veggie (frozen bags that I heat in the microwave), I zapped those as the meat was finishing in the oven. Dinner was ready very quickly, and it was delicious. I love that sweet hot mister mustard!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

#31 Reading

I just finished a book I bought in my holiday book shopping spree--Death at La Fenice, by Donna Leon. I love detective stories, so when I read good reviews of this one, I thought I would enjoy it. It was intriguing enough for me to want to stay up past my bedtime to read it, but I would've liked more subtle clues throughout the story leading up to the big reveal. Of course, if I'd figured it out, I might not have liked it as much. One of the reviews compares this series with Agatha Christie books, and I definitely see the resemblence. I read most (or all) of the Christie books growing up, and I'd like to try another Commissioner Guido Brunetti book, too.

Oddly enough, until I finished this book, I'd forgotten that I've read another La Fenice book--City of Falling Angels, by John Berendt. Berendt is the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil, which I loved, but he disappointed me a little bit with City. He does an excellent job at capturing characters, but the sense of mystery wasn't there for me in City like it was in Midnight. I'm hoping he writes another one about another city I'd love to visit soon.



From the publisher:


Beautiful and serene, Venice is a city almost devoid of crime. But that is little comfort to Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor whose intermission refreshment comes one night with a little something extra in it-cyanide. For Guido Brunetti, vice-commissario of police and detective genius, finding a suspect isn't a problem; narrowing the large and unconventional group of enemies down to one is. As the suave and pithy Brunetti pieces together clues, a shocking picture of depravity and revenge emerges, leaving him torn between what is and what should be right -- and questioning what the law can do, and what needs to be done.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Updates!

#9: I had a dish of Giada's shells (aka, Husband's favorite dinner) in the freezer that I thought had been in there almost a month, so I cooked that up last Tuesday and am counting that as my weeknight cooking. K claimed that he liked them more cooked after being frozen, but I think he was just really hungry for his favorite.

#51: I finally finished converting all of my CDs into MP3s, and loaded them on my nano. This was a huge project for me--not because I have a ton of CDs (I have a little over 80), but because I wanted to try and take the time to only convert songs I like. I've been working on this project a few CDs at a time for about a month, and thought I was finished on Saturday. Of course, I found 9 CDs in my car that I had missed, and quickly went through those on Sunday. Now I am going to pick and choose some selections from K's (huge) CD collection to convert and add to my iTunes. I also have started a list of songs I want to either buy from iTunes or purchase on CD. And, I'm thinking about selling a lot of my CDs. Esp. the random ones that I suspect came from old roommates who left behind CDs after moves and didn't ever want to pick them up. (Josh Groban?!?)

#4: I got to spend some time with the nephews early this month, when the families gathered to celebrate my mom's birthday. Nephew #1 (turns 3 in May) is in a mischevious stage. I have to be sure not to watch him too closely while we're eating dinner (he sits diagonally across from me), or I'll start laughing and that only eggs him on. Can I help it if a little kid with his cheeks crammed full of food is funny to me? I know I used to do the same thing at his age--fill my mouth with all the food left on my plate so I could be excused to go play. As I got older, I found the bathroom trashcan an excellent repository for what I didn't really want to finish in the first place. But, I don't think the little guy is quite that advanced yet. Little Nephew #2 (turns 1 in March) was adorable as usual. He was taking a late nap when we arrived, so Brother woke him up after we finished eating. At first the little guy was confused and sleepy, but soon was warmed up to playing with K. He is fascinated by K's tiny beard (a small triangle just below his lower lip), and will stare at him and try to mimic the faces he tries to make. This time, N2 became interested in trying to touch the little beard, which was very adorable. K really enjoys playing with him. . .hope we have one of our own soon to amuse with the weird beard.

#33: When I started a diet after getting engaged, I weighed 10 pounds less than I weigh now, about four years later. I lost 20 pounds in the year before my wedding, and I would love to get back there. As a step in the right direction, I decided to give up sweets for Lent. I had a good week until Sunday, when K and I were out for lunch and I was a few bites into a brownie sundae we were splitting before I remembered my sweet-free agenda. I got right back to my plan after that, and have even been strong in the face of the Thin Mints K bought on Saturday. The next part of working on #33 (Lose 15 pounds and keep them off) will be actually exercising, bleah.

#43: Well, I've finished writing out a home improvement list, but I have not completed all the items on it. I'm going to keep this one as "incomplete" until the house is ready to sell.

#52: Part of my Christmas gift from K was additional hardware to hook up to my computer which would enable me to print from downstairs (where my laptop usually is; printer is at desk upstairs) and also electronically store photos & documents in a drive/server (?) that is seperate from my laptop. So, I copied all the photos on my laptop over this weekend, and am also going to burn them to DVD to keep in our safe. Eventually, I'd like to scan all of our non-digital photos to keep an electronic version of those, but that's a very long-term project I'm not ready to tackle.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Mrs.Froggianna to reveal 6 random things about myself. Should be pretty easy, since there are a lot of random things about me:


1. I wear the same necklace almost every day. When I first saw this necklace online, I couldn't decide whether I wanted it or another more colorful one. I probably looked at the website weekly while I thought about it, but by the time I was ready to order, the shop had been shut down. I was going through a hard time then, so when I added myself to the mailing list, I told the jewelry maker that I needed some magic in my life, so please let me know if she started her shop up again. A couple of months later, just as I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, she emailed me to let me know she was taking orders. I didn't hesitate, and ordered my very own Superhero Necklace. Some days, I like to make up my own little pep talk using the idea from the text on the little card that came with the necklace. The card says: "This is your very own superhero necklace. It will protect you from harm, attract people to you, and create magic in your life." I like to think to myself as I put it on "I am protected from harm, people are attracted to me, and I have magic in my life." It's my way of encouraging myself to believe in myself on days when I don't feel very super.


2. I prefer to eat small candy in pairs. If the candies come in colors, I prefer to eat them paired by color. I will then chew the candy pairs either one on each side of my mouth or both on one side and then alternate sides. I like to pair up the candies before beginning to eat them, and eat the single (if there is one) first.


3. I am currently driving the third car I've owned. The first two were totalled in collisions that were not my fault. The first--a red Mazda 323 "sedan" I drove from my senior year in high school until a year after college--got t-boned at the top of a hill near my mom's house. The other driver was speeding, and I was slowly pulling out to turn left. If I'd been going just a few miles per hour faster, I would have been killed. My second car--a sporty green Honda Civic Coupe--was smashed at a stoplight two days before my brother's wedding. I was driving to his house in Kyle to follow him out to the airport to pick up a bunch of his OOT friends. I stopped at a stoplight, took a swig of soda, and happened to look up at my rear-view mirror in time to see a huge truck speeding up behind me. If my car hadn't had a working airbag, I would've been killed. The back of my car was so smashed that my trunk and back seat seemed to cease to exist. I drove that car for just under 5 years. I've been driving my current vehicle for almost six years, and I feel a little bit like I'm on borrowed time. One of the items on my list is to buy a new car (my first brand new car!) later this year.


4. I excel at games involving trivia or guessing & shouting, crossword puzzles, and telling you what you should name your pet.



5. Every year on my birthday, my mom tells me the story of the day I was born. One of my favorite parts of the story is this: mom had been at the hospital and in labor for several hours. Her regular doctor was not there, so she was stuck with the on-call guy. It was the Saturday of one of the biggest football games of the season, and the on-call guy made my mom wait to push until halftime. I was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and I can never remember if it was the Alabama vs. Auburn game, or the Alabama vs. Tennessee game. . .which would be like UT vs. A&M or UT vs. OU. At any rate, I know the Crimson Tide was victorious that afternoon, so a good time was had by all.

6. I am very interested in ghosts, ghost stories, and shows/books about ghosts and hauntings. I believe I saw the ghost of my grandfather when I was a child, but I am very scared to have a ghostly experience as an adult.

I haven't kept track of who has been tagged and who hasn't, so I'll just tag anyone who made it through all six of my items and wants to tell six random things about themself!