Say 'Hello' to Anna Wetzel!

Last night, at 7pm, Anna Wetzel was born! She was 6lbs 1.5oz, and Richard reports that momma and baby are doing fine, although it was a very looong delivery. Congratulations, Richard and Leigh!

I'm so excited. Now Roy has a little cousin less than a year younger than he is! Outstanding timing!

Book Report - Tempting Danger

For my morning coffee the past few days, I read Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks. It's the first in a (so far) 3 book series. Annoyingly, I really enjoyed the first book in the series, only to find that its sequel - Mortal Danger - is limited in its availability. Amazon was saying 1 to 4 weeks for it to ship, so I had to go through one of their 3rd party sellers to order it. I hate that. Bad enough when the first book in a series is no longer available, but to have the first and third available, but not the second? Crikey.

In any case, Tempting Danger appears to be another in the mixed genre thriller/romance variety. It's set in modern-day San Diego, in a world where people know werewolves and witches exist, and werewolves are legal - if barely. The lead female is a homicide detective in San Diego who can sense magic. She's investigating a murder that appears to have been committed by a werewolf. Her initial werewolf suspect is (of course) the charming, smokin' hot, sexually available, local werewolf prince. And as soon as they meet (of course) they're irresistably drawn to each other, because it turns out they're fated to be mated (hey I rhymed!). As cheesy as the setup sounds, the prose is good, the characters are well drawn, and the plot kept me engaged throughout. I'm keeping an eye on the mail for the sequel.

In other reading news.... my first issue of Buffy: Season 8 will ship in the next week or so, and I have the first four issues of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. It's kept to the story-line from Guilty Pleasures so far, and the artwork has been really good. I'm interested in seeing how they handle things when they get to the gory parts... and if they continue past Guilty Pleasures, how they handle things when Anita becomes the slut-goddess from hell. Guilty Pleasures practically begged to be put into comic book form, though. There's something about a world peopled by vampires, werewolves, witches and the like that lends itself really well to little graphical boxes with bubble-text.

Oooh, and who else finished Blood Bound yet? I kinda wish Patricia Briggs would write longer books.... I finish them too quick, and I really enjoy reading her stuff.

Baby Teeth

Lemme tell you... it is not easy to get a picture of a baby's teeth without a clamp and forceps. But after several attempts, I finally managed...

Here they are, in all their glory. Roy's first two bottom teeth, picture taken through a torturous (for him) breakfast where momma was holding the spoon in one hand, and the camera in the other. See what I put him through for you guys?

My Roommate Must Wear a Wig

Just a quick little post. My roommate, we'll call her A for anonymity's sake, gave me some of her old hair products. She decided to go from brunette to blonde so she had all this "Brilliant Brunette" stuff left over. I've used this shampoo before and I liked it so I gladly accepted. I mean hey it saves me some dough right? Included in her castoffs was this "glosser". It's basically a temporary hair color that you smear on after you shampoo to give your color a little boost. It is supposed to be safe enough to use daily without damaging your hair. It made me break out in hives.

Yesterday I was sad to discover that my hairdryer, which has served me well for five years now, had died. It just would not turn on at all. This morning, I was in desperate need of a hairdryer, so I borrowed A's. As I was styling my hair this patch of nastiness magically appears on my head. I start thinking: "Is there poop in my hair? How did I not notice this earlier? What is that horrible smell?" I go to comb the mystery substance out of my hair (it seriously looked like poop, or melted caramel) and am horrified to discover that it's melted hair! That's right, I end up combing out a big chunk of my hair, that has been BURNED off my head by my roommate's nuclear powered hairdryer!

I mean seriously what the fuck? First her god damn hair shit gives me HIVES which has never happened to me before in my entire life. I mean I thought I was dying until I looked up my symptoms on the internet. Itching that much can be terrifying. AND THEN her fricking ridiculously-high-powered-covered-in-electrical-tape-cause-its-been-massacred-
by-her-bunny-radioactive-should-be-haz-matted-hairdryer just eats right through my beautiful hair!

I can still smell melted hair. Which brings me to my conclusion. Bitch is wearing a wig.

Here I thought of Something...My Quit Stats!!!

I have been quit for 10 Months, 1 Week, 6 Days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 12 seconds (319 days). I have saved $1,761.95 by not smoking 11,187 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Month, 1 Week, 1 Day, 20 hours and 15 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 3/26/2006 12:00 AM

I think I will take a vacation with the $1,761.95 I have saved and waste that 1 month, 1 week, 1 day, 20 hours and 15 min, that I have saved of my life and do ABSOLUTELY nothing. I'm sure I'll make it up sooner or later, so no worries. ;).

Livvy Post

Ok...I know I haven't posted in awhile, and here's why. I don't really have anything to say! Everything I do, you guys already know about. I work, go to school, do school work, exercise, run around outside with my friends which is practically the only time I get to see them, watch dad's dog, and spend time with my boyfriend. There's not much time for anything else, as all of the above takes up all--and then some--of my time...for the time being anywho.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'll have more to say later.

Toodles for Now.

Avoiding CHOW and MEALS

I was going to wait until Livvy posted again to put anything up, but this is burning a hole in my head, and Livvy is a slacker....

I've followed a sort of natural progression in my cooking and eating habits over the years. I decided I was sick of just eating the same old rotation of frozen vegetables, and wanted to cook with more fresh produce, so I bought Vegetables Every Day. Cooking with fresh produce made a natural progression into an interest in cooking more real food, and avoiding over-processed products. I'm not going to make my own bread (yet), but I find myself now obsessively examining the labels on the back of products in the grocery store. I only needed to get four days worth of food, and I had a list, but it still took us an hour because I kept having to sort through all the brands to find the one that was made with real ingredients, instead of refined, extruded, concentrated, processed, crap. The amount of crap that's in the 'food' available in stores astounds me. There's high fructose corn syrup in every damn thing you look at, from the obvious - like sodas, to the less obvious or expected - like salad dressing, and your bread. If they need to make it sweet, why the hell can't they just add some damn sugar?

Which brings me to the title of this post. I know Anna has read Good Omens, and I think the other two of you have. But I sat down to have my coffee this morning and it suddenly struck me that what I been so studiously avoiding in the grocery store last night were CHOW and MEALS.

CHOW contained spun, plaited and woven protein molecules, capped and coded, carefully designed to be ignored by even the most ravenous digestive tract enzymes... artifical sweeteners; mineral oils replacing vegetable oils; fibrous material, colorings, and flavorings. The end result was a foodstuff almost indistinguishable from any other except for two things. Firstly, the price, which was slightly higher, and secondly the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony Walkman. It didn't matter how much you ate, you lost weight. ...
MEALS was CHOW with added sugar and fat. The idea was that if you ate enough MEALS you would a) get very fat, and b) die of malnutrition.

Sounds eerily like what America is going through today, doesn't it? So that's my new years resolution. With the exception of candy (and I'm even going to work on that) I'm working to eliminate the CHOW and the MEALS from my family's diet. It's gonna mean making my own ice cream, or finding a place that sells Hagen-Daaz by the half-gallon. It isn't going to mean eating lower calorie foods, or less fried foods... but it is going to be a whole lot healthier.

If you're up for the reading, Unhappy Meals is an engrossing piece explaining how we started eating CHOW in the first place. You'll have to register for the NYTimes if you aren't already... or you can use bugmenot to borrow a login.

People are so Sensitive

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/06/news/companies/snickers/index.htm?cnn=yes

This sort of thing really pisses me off. How does "quick do something manly" promote anti-gay violence? Answer: it doesn't, and all you whiny little pansies need to shut the hell up!

Here's the ad if you don't know what I'm talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHkoZ7ngAM0

On topic; I watched an ABC Family movie (Lovewrecked) the other day that greatly offended me. Not because the premise was mind numbingly stupid, but because when a young man is told to massage a large woman he says "She has elephantitis" and his manager says "No she's just from the Midwest". Writing an angry letter? You bet I am! That sort of joke promotes violence against fatties!

Resolution Part. 2

I am going to add, "Cut back on drinking" to my list of New Year's Resolutions. I used to drink pretty rarely, but moving in with Kelly, Andrea, and Dan increased my booze consumption tenfold. Since, I don't need the extra calories or the dead brain cells, I am calling it quits. My friend and I have made a deal; 6 beers at most a month, 1 glass of wine at a time, no liquor ever . . . period. While this may still seem like a lot . . .compared to our current consumption, it's a big reduction. My ultimate goal is to cut back to a couple of drinks a year on special occasions. I figure if I could cut down to one TV show a week, and no cigarettes at all, drinking less will be a piece of cake.

P.S.

Take that Lissa and Celeste!!!

Once More With Feeling

I saw the Hitcher last weekend with Livvy and Sonny. Sean Bean is a terrific actor, and Sophia Bush is hot and in a miniskirt the whole time. What more do you want out of a horror movie? I read a review prior to the movie that said it had the most inappropriate use of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer". I have to agree. I love the song, and I loved the scene but they didn't really fit together. Anyway the movie was a pretty typical Michael Bay crapfest extravaganza, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Anyone who doesn't appreciate over the top action, shouldn't be reviewing movies that obviously cater to the lowest common denominator. See also, The Island, or Bad Boys II.

Yummy in my Tummy

Last night I wanted to cook dinner for Sonny with minimal fuss. So I searched for a recipe that only required ingredients that I had on hand. Well I failed at finding something interesting that wouldn't require a trip to the store, but I did find this. It was super easy, and pretty tasty. It's simple, but the cayenne pepper adds a nice kick to it.

FUSILLI WITH SHRIMP AND PANEED CHICKEN
The term panéed means "panfried" in the New Orleans culinary lexicon. This recipe is from that city's Gabrielle Restaurant.
2 eggs
2 cups fresh French breadcrumbs
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
3/4 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves

4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled, deveined

2/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 pound fusilli

Place eggs in shallow bowl and beat to blend. Mix breadcrumbs, 1/3 cup parsley, 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in another shallow bowl. Dip chicken into eggs, then into crumb mixture, turning to coat completely.

Heat 3 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; sauté until cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to plate. Discard oil in skillet; add 1 tablespoon oil. Add shrimp; sauté over medium-high heat until just cooked through, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer shrimp to plate with chicken. Add wine to skillet; boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 2 minutes. Add cream; boil until sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Mix in cayenne and Parmesan.

Cut chicken into 1/2-inch pieces. Return chicken, shrimp and any collected juices to sauce in skillet. Stir over medium heat until heated through.

Meanwhile, cook fusilli in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite.

Drain pasta. Add to skillet; toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons parsley and serve.

Serves 4.

I had to cook the chicken longer than stated, and I didn't use fresh breadcrumbs. I also didn't take the time to actually measure anything so I might have been a little heavy handed with the parmesan. At any rate it turned out well. Also since the recipe only calls for 2/3c of wine, you get to drink the rest yourself!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/720?saved_to_box=y

I keep all my recipes on epicurious!

Compare and Contrast

Here are two articles I read this morning. One is about a woman who is suing the police department because she suffered a miscarriage after she spent a night in jail. The article states that she delivered her baby boy prematurely (at 3 months) and she is suing for wrongful death. The second article is about a woman who is being sentenced for killing her friend's three children and cutting a fetus out of her friend's womb. I just thought it was interesting how clear the bias is. In one article a 7 month old fetus is referred to as an unborn child and as a fetus. In the other, a 3 month old fetus is referred to as a premature baby. Don't you love the media?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/01/woman.slain.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/02/police.miscarriage.ap/index.html