Forward snob

I realized today that I am a forward snob. A co-worker gave me a little story, which is detailed here, that is pretty interesting and kind of amazing once you read it. The coincidence was just too great in the end and as much as I wanted to believe in the neatly ended punch line, my skepticism in things gleaned from the Internet prevailed. I checked my trusty Snopes.com for background on what I was hoping against hope was a true story, even if just for my coworker's sake. She really wanted to believe it.

Alas, it is not true, nor is much that gets forwarded through e-mail. This was when it dawned on me that I am a forward snob. I pretty much don't read anything that comes to me as a forward, from anyone. I think my friends and family realize this already. I also hardly ever forward anything unless it undergoes the Snopes test. Not much comes out of there successfully.

It's kind of sad because it's gotten to the point where I can't just read something and enjoy it for what I know it is. I have to analyze it to within an inch of its life and tell everyone that it's fake so that they can't enjoy it either. I just don't want anyone to get bamboozled and pass on bad information. There's enough bad stuff out there that is, unfortunately, true. I feel like there's a commentary on my life in here, but I don't think it's worth the effort for me to suss out right now.

Over 1,000 hits!!

Guys, can you believe that there are over 1,000 hits on my blog! I'm popular! So popular! Anyway, thanks for reading!

Makeup night

So our little makeup get together went very well on Friday night. We had lots of fun and I think we should definitely do it again, minus the MK lady :-) So we'll have to do another girls night sometime soon. Here are some pictures from the color session!



I have off today and had a nice lunch with my aunt Joanne. We tried out some recipes from my favorite, Pampered Chef. I got both of these made within the hour and they were both delish!


Grilled Chicken & Veggie Sandwiches

4 oz reduced-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel) softened
1 tbsp milk
1 packet dry ranch dressing divided
1 glove garlic, pressed
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (4 oz each)
8 slices ½ in thick sourdough bread
vegetable oil (I used EVOO)
2 tbsp all purpose flour
½ cucumber, sliced
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
½ cup carrot, julienned
1 cup alfalfa sprouts
1 firm ripe avocado, sliced

In small bowl, combine cream cheese, milk, 2 tsp dressing mix and garlic pressed; mix well and set aside

Place each chicken breast between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Flatten chicken to ¾ inch thickness by alternately pounding and rolling.

Heat grill pan over medium heat 5 mins. Lightly spray one side of each bread slice with oil (I just brushed it on). Place slices oil side down on pan, cook 2-3 mins on oiled side or until toasted. Remove bread slices to cooling rack. Repeat with remaining slices.

Combine remaining dressing mix and flour, mix well. Sprinkle chicken evenly on both sides with flour mixture, shaking off excess; lightly spray pan with Pam. Place chicken in pan; cook over medium heat 5-7 mins per side until chicken is no longer pink in the center. Remove from pan; cool slightly. Refrigerate while preparing vegetables.

Core cucumber and slice. Julienne carrots. Slice tomato and red onion.

To assemble sandwiches, spread cream cheese mixture onto untoasted side of each bread slide. Evenly layer veggies and chicken. Top with other slice and slice diagonally. Makes 4 servings.


Apple Cherry Tart

½ pkg (15 oz) refrigerated pie crust
2/3 cup all purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine
½ cup pecan halves, chopped
2 lg granny smith apples (I only needed one!)
21 oz can cherry pie filling
Whipped cream or Ice cream if desired

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Let pie crust stand at room temperature 15 mins. In bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add butter, blend thoroughly using pastry blender. Chop pecans. Add to batter bowl; mix well and set adside.

Roll pie crust into 13 in circle on a round baking stone using lightly floured roller. Peel (I skipped this!) core and slice apple(s). Cut slices in half; layer apples evenly over crust to within 1 in. of edge of crust.

Spread ½ cup of pie filling over apples; sprinkle flour mixture over apples. Fold outer edge of pastry up and over filling to form a 1-inch rim.

Bake 30-35 mins or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven; cool slightly. Serve warm w/remaining pie filling. Top w/whipped cream or ice cream if desired. Makes 12 servings.



And...I went to Penn State today to get my graduation gown and tickets! The big day is drawing near - just have to finish writing that paper!!

See, the guilt thing works for me

So I got a couple things done last night and here's my new list:

Figure out what the heck we are doing with the backsplash
Final coat on the doors in the kitchen
Polyurethaning glass door and door jambs
Fix up all the edges that got scraped during countertop installation
Furniture shopping for a pub table and chairs
Cleaning up the house for a MK party here on Friday
Gathering tax data together to send to Nam
Go to the post office
Go to the gym
Class stuff - type up references for paper

For some reason, publishing it to the world made me feel guilty about the length of it and I actually crossed a few things off. Of course, going to Target isn't that much of a chore but I was proud of myself for sticking to my list and not really purchasing any superfluous items. Mom, I bought curtains - you would be so proud. I am also relying on my personal shopper at Acme to get my groceries together for me and will pick them up later today - efficiency, thy name is the Internet!

I have class tonight and I'm supposed to attend a lecture if I get out early (b/c it's on the same topic as my thesis) but I REALLY think that I probably have enough research and there's nothing this guy is going to say in an hour on blended learning that will knock my socks off. So...I may cut my losses and head home to work on my list, especially because there is much that needs to be done in the way of cleaning before tomorrow night!

On a different topic, did you see Lost last night? It was a good one! Loved the Jack/Kate moment.

The to do list is probably not do-able

Since I was chastised today by a co-worker for not having a new post in a week, I decided I better put SOMETHING up here. We haven't been up to much that's really worth writing about around here. This weekend was spent taking care of weather products (Kevin=ice) and school products (Jackie and Kevin=papers) and then Kevin went off to NC for the third time in 2007; he's getting to be a pro at that airport.

He has been with the women's basketball team during their tournament experience, but is headed home now that they are out of the running. His sister Caitlin also joined him at one of the games to help keep stats for the radio broadcast he was doing through Yahoo Sports. It was pretty great to listen to him online; he does a very professional job and it's evident he not only knows what he's talking about, but he's enjoying his job.

Since this is what's on my mind, here's all the things I need to do right now (well, not right now because I'm going to bed shortly, but these things all need to be done pronto):

Food shopping
House stuff shopping - frames, wall hangy things
Figure out what the heck we are doing with the backsplash
Final coat on the doors in the kitchen, finish staining and polyurethaning glass door
Fix up all the edges that got scraped during countertop installation
Furniture shopping for a pub table and chairs
Cleaning up the house for a MK party here on Friday
Gathering tax data together to send to Nam
Go to the post office
Go to the gym
Class stuff - class on Thurs., blended learning talk on Thurs, type up references for paper

Bah. Sleep now.

I'm a STAR!

Tonight, I am going with a group of people from work to answer phones at the WHYY telethon. If you are local, you can watch and see if you can catch a glimpse of me - I'm wearing a bright green sweater today! I think the programming is pretty standard until 9 p.m., at which time they will be showing some Irish music concert, which will hopefully be fun to watch! Personally, I always enjoy a litte "Are You Being Served?" and in the days before we had cable at our house growing up, we got a real kick out of this show. That cheeky Mr. Humphries.

Keep your eyes peeled for my big moment! :-)

Out of the office

After spending a few days working on the next section of my thesis project, I needed a creative writing break and found a prompt to write a creative "out of office" message for e-mail. Given that today was my day off, it seemed apropos.

Thank you for your message. I am not here to receive it because I am out of the office indefinitely. This comes as a result of extreme burnout due to answering emails like yours, which probably isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things, anyway.

If this really is an emergency, you will find me basking in the lazy afternoon Tahitian sun, swinging slowly on a hammock at my own villa on the water. I do not have a pager, or a cell phone, or a Blackberry, or a laptop. You will have to get on a plane, fly to Tahiti and rent snorkel gear to swim out to my hut.

I hope it’s really an emergency.

If seeking similar Tahitian vacation, get your own travel agent. My hut is full.

Oh I wish. Hope you had a good Monday!

Nan's quick baked apples

My grandmother is brilliant.

I stopped by there today to drop something off and as always, did not leave empty handed. Nan usually has something cut out of the paper, or some coupons, or food set aside for you. Today I got a brown bag of snow peas and two questionable apples. When I kind of turned my nose up at the apples, she told me that she loves to use them to make baked apples.

I myself have never had a baked apple, though I've heard of them. When she told me her microwave recipe, I was sold. If you've never done these in the microwave, you core and skin the apple, leaving the feet on so it can stand on the plate. Then you fill the middle with some Splenda or sugar, a dab of butter and some cinnamon. I treated myself by adding some brown sugar too, which I think really made it extra yummy. Pop it in the microwave for three minutes, or "zap it" as Nan says, and you have a hot gooey apple treat!! I still had to eat it with a knife and fork, as it had retained some crispness, but I really like the consistency rather than total mush. It would have probably been awesome with a dallop of ice cream or some granola sprinkled on top. It was so delish and I now have a use for those apples that aren't at the peak of freshness!

Just wanted to share! Back to my thesis! Let me know if you try it!

Too. Many. Headlines.

So, we started sitting on balls at work.

Yeah, I know. Hence the title of this post. There are just too many jokes to choose from on this one.

This was not a company change. One of my coworkers said she had thought about bringing one of those stability balls into work to sit at her desk. If you are familiar with these, also called pilates balls or Swiss balls and used in rehabilitation or at the gym, you know that they are like giant bouncy balls that you used to bop around on when you were a kid (at least, when I was a kid I did). They require a bit of balance to stay on and you can do a number of exercises with the ball.

The potential group razzing she could receive was what prevented her from doing this. Upon hearing us say that we would not tease her, but in fact join her, she purchased one, along with 2 more of us, and we all pumped them up and sit at them at our desks.

I've read mixed reviews on this practice. This abstract doesn't agree that it's a good idea for prolonged use, but items such as this (where they are obviously interested in selling the ball) say that it helps with core strength and balance. I think that I agree with this assessment that it can be good for you, but not for prolonged periods. I've done it for 2 days now and find that I enjoy switching back to my chair after a while. However, my abs are a bit sore (which may be sad) and my quads are as well from the little bounce that the ball encourages. We found an amazing number of links on the topic of "active sitting" and even this book of exercises.

Bottom line, if you'll pardon the pun, is that it's fun. I would suggest it for a change, but not for the long run just yet, although we've seen office chairs that employ the ball as a seat, with back support and casters to roll on.

At least no one can say we're not on the ball.

It's the tops

I've heard from some of you that you are enjoying our online kitchen transformation. I'd love to hear your thoughts, so I'm asking for some feedback today!

After pricing tile the other day, and finding that it's a bit much to cover 43 sq ft in a house we hope we're not staying in forever, I started exploring other options for our backsplash, maybe a compromise between partial tile and something more cost effective? The option I like the best after today is something like this catalog photo. I know this is hard to see, but it's small slate tiles and then the same paint effect that is on the walls above it.

What do you think? There are other options at this link which I explored. I'm not sure what to do now, but if any of you have thoughts or suggestions, I would love to hear them!

The rest of the photos show our new countertops! We got grey for the small counter in the dining area and dark blue for the rest of the kitchen. I think they look great and am so excited to have that complete.

Dad also installed our sink, faucet and garbage disposal. We have everything but a drain, so after that we will be in business.

I cleaned off some trim that we messed up with the Venetian plaster and also stained one side of the door that was hanging between the rooms. I hope to get two coats on the other side between this evening and tomorrow, but we'll see what happens.

Kevin is away with Temple women's bball in Cincinnati so he missed all these changes. Hopefully he'll check the blog and get an update like the rest of you!

Fridays

Fridays are work at not the most thrilling times - it's a very quiet day around here. I seem to be falling into a pattern of checking these blogthings out at this time - maybe I will make it a theme!

Today I just HAD to find out which of the X-Men I was, since I love all comic book characters and comic strips. I just have to see all these movies when they come out because I grew up on this stuff. I buy this one and actually like Cyclops, so it makes sense.

You Are Cyclops

Dedicated and responsible, you will always remain loyal to your cause. You are a commanding leader - after all, you can kill someone just by looking at them. Power: force beams from your eyes

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Rejuvenation

Public computer labs lead you to overhear some really innane conversations. The two people behind me are trying really hard to impress each other. The guy says that Fridays in Lent are tough, being that his wife's father is Catholic. Why is that so hard on him? Sounds like even though poppa dearest didn't bring religion into the kid's life, he at least brought the non-meat eating tradition during Lent in. The girl responds that she hasn't eaten any meat since Lent started - except chicken. It sounds like these two don't truly grasp the purpose of the sacrifice of the Lenten season. I myself gave up chocolate, which is very hard for me and God is definitely testing me because I've never had so many people offer me chocolate as I did at work this week.

I am sitting in the computer lab at PSU on a Thursday night out of choice because I need to really focus on my paper now that my 7 week class is over! This frees up my Monday and Wednesday nights again, which is great for my schedule, my paper and not to mention, my sanity! I am thrilled to have this time back and left my final class last night feeling a little giddy.

Just wanted to check in and tell y'all where I was with school, since everyone's being so supportive! Back to the books...