Fun few days

So I had some fun the past few days. On Thurs I played Catchphrase and ate Lou Malnatis with some friends after a day of shopping in the city. I didn't buy anything, but it was fun to go into stores where you could buy a t-shirt for $150. On Fri I went to the Shedd Aquarium and ate at Protillo's. mmm mmm. Saturday, I went to the John Hancock building's 95th floor for lunch. I had an awesome cheese steak sandwich. And for only $15 after tax and tip, I'd do it again!

And today Kristin is coming back into town. I can't wait. I also cleaned my apartment, now it's sparkly clean. boy isn't cleaning fun? I love cleaning so much, I should become a butler. hahahaha

It's almost Christmas!!!

It's so much fun to spend time with your friends and family for the holidays even if you have to spend your whole morning shoveling the driveway :P I've been eating mostly cookies instead of meals lately. It's fun, but now I'm actually starting to crave un-sugar! Well I wish everybody a Merry Christmas!

nobody missed my blog posts

I guess I don't have too many subscribers though. But that's ok. My life is pretty boring anyway. my bff is getting married. that's cool. too bad though cause he doesn't IM me anymore. and he can't blame the time difference either. it's his fault anyway. j/k

I got free lunch the last two days, so that was pretty fun. Not much is happening besides that. I wish i was cool enough to have more of an update, but now that I remember I have a blog, maybe I'll post while I still remember what I did

No more vacation

It was a good run, but now it's definitely over. That's what I thought this morning as I scraped the frost off my windshield before heading off to work. During the last week or so of my vacation, I often found myself clueless as to what day it was and I'd have to reference a calendar to figure it out. It was a great feeling actually because that meant I had no pending deadlines and that all I had to do was have fun.

After Germany I visited my grandparents in New Jersey and celebrated Thanksgiving with them and a couple other relatives. But before that we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NYC. We really didn't plan on it, but we ended up just going to NYC on Thanksgiving day and running into the parade since it ran through the heart of Manhattan! We got close enough to be on the front lines of the parade and we were able to watch it in all its glory close up. After all that fun on Thanksgiving, we went to Atlantic City and enjoyed a casino buffet and a walk along the boardwalk. The last time I was there I was too young to remember, or take pictures. So I'm glad I was able to do both this time :)

We then came back home and visited Kristin's family and they served us some delicious food that I forgot the name of, but it was good. Our families got along really well and I was happy about that. I laughed when I found out that Kristin coached her parents before the visit to make sure it went smoothly. I don't think they really needed coaching to get along but it sure made the morning/afternoon go well.

After the family meeting, my family left and I was left all by myself to do whatever. And I found myself clueless as to what to do. So I just unpacked all my luggage and set up all the fun souvenirs that I bought and prepped Kristin's gifts for when she could stop by to pick them up. But then I finished all that, so I started cleaning. Yeah that's right, I cleaned almost first thing after my vacation. I think I'm crazy. I guess I just wasn't used to not having anything to do after all that time of going everywhere humanly possible in the short 2.5 week span I was on vacation.

Now I'm already used to being bored. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but last night I just curled up on the couch and watched TV. I then went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for stuffed mushrooms and chicken saltimboca, or however you spell that. It's listed in my blog, so if you're curious, look at my previous posts. After prepping all the food, I headed to bed. And that's my life.

And so we leave Germany

As the trip comes to a close. I took the time to reflect upon how blessed I am for being able to travel this distance and and do so many things in such a short amount of time. And even now, the vacation is not over. I still have New Jersey and New York to visit yet this week!

Today we went to Castle Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) in Southern Germany. Well we also got a good look at Hohenschwangau while we were there because the father of the king that built Neuschwanstein built Hohenschwangau so they were right next door to one another. Anyway, Neuschwanstein was built in the 1800s because the king was reminiscent of the old castles built during medieval times. He built his castle to replicate the styles of those times. It is truly a beautiful castle but unfortunately, they do not allow you to take pictures of most of the castle and I was not able to document that leg of my trip :( However I got a lot of shots from the outside and the fantastic scenery around the castle. I probably got some of the best mountain shots of the whole trip.

After the castle we ate dinner at a restaurant by the castle. We all had traditional German dishes. I was ecstatic about this because one of the most fun parts of traveling abroad is enjoying the local dishes. I had the Jägerschnitzel, which consisted of a thin pork chop on bed of mushrooms in cream sauce with potato croquets. MMMM

I also bought a couple of souvenirs. I got a real German beer stein for less money than I would've though and a surprise for Kristin that I hope she likes. My sister bought a cuckoo clock as well, and it's prettier than mine, fooey. I've already been outdone. I think she fell in love with mine while I had it hung up here :) It is so much fun though. I really love it. So I guess that's all for now. I'll see you all back in the states!

Weiβwurst

When you go to Germany, you have to eat a German sausage or (wurst). Today I went to the store and bought a traditional southern Germany Weisswurst. I had it with lots of Sauerkraut and a sweet brown mustard. It was very good and mild with a rather smooth texture. Translated it is "white sausage." I feel like I have lived now because I have now eaten a sausage.

I also bought a ton of German chocolate at the store today. And to tell the truth, our whole family filled a large duffle bag with chocolate and other stuff to bring home. it was great.

Beautiful Sights

It may be 30 degrees colder here than Iowa, but that doesn't detract from the fact that it is so much more beautiful out here than the flat, boring Midwest! Out here they have winding roads that carve paths through the mountains and through beautiful old growth forests and you can see mountains and valleys in most of the directions you look on a clear day! It's so amazing how beautiful a few large sized rocks can look if you're not used to seeing them!

Yesterday we traveled to Lindau, Germany near the Austrian and Swiss border by the Bodensee. It was Sunday, so all the shops were closed, but even with that, there were so many picture taking opportunities in Lindau and during the drive to get there and back, I don't feel like we wasted a day because we couldn't browse the local goodies, which seems to be a big part of any vacation. ...you know admiring the local crafts and foods that you don't have at home.

I was able to take a lot of good pictures and post them on Flickr. I have some that are only visible to friends and family when they log in, so if you have an account, log in before viewing! I also upgraded to a pro account so that I could organize my pictures into sets. They limit you to 2 sets if you have a free account. So I figured it was high time to upgrade. And besides, it was only $25 for the whole year :)

I've had cold cuts for most of my meals out here so far. I think it is far more common to eat cold cuts out here than it is in the states. It isn't bad though because they have so many varieties of sausages, salamis, hams, cheeses, and breads that you can eat cold cuts for several days and never eat the same thing. That is nice in itself, however, I do wish I could get a hot local meal :)

My dad was introduced to pesto the other day. I bought a jar in the store, and now my dad has been putting pesto on almost everything. I guess you can say he likes it. He even put it on his picked fish sandwich! I'm glad that my dad likes it so much. He even asked me to keep introducing him to foods I like that he hasn't tried. That made me feel good because it lets me know that he appreciates my opinion :)

And so with that I think it's time to add pictures and let you all be jealous of how beautiful it is out here. I wish you all the best and I hope you are having as much fun as I am!

clicky!

Update from Deutschland

So I woke up exactly 34 hours ago and I have gotten about 2 hours of sleep from power naps during the flight and while riding around in Europe, but I can't complain because I've had a great time so far. We arrived at 6AM Germany time and after renting the car, the first thing we do is decide to drive to Zurich in Switzerland to go shopping :) My dad bought some watches for his relatives, and I bought a Cuckoo clock that actually has a little bird that pops out every 3o minutes and counts out the hours at every hour! It is so much fun. And it requires no batteries or electricity!

After Switzerland we really started getting tired but we really wanted to keep moving but it was so hard, and we took several power naps during the drive back to Munich :) When all was said and done, we finally made it to Munich at about 7PM or so because of traffic at the Austrian/Swiss border.

It's about 25 degrees here and there's a ton of snow on the ground, but that didn't stop us from walking about 2-3 miles in Zurich between stores and going grocery shopping after the long trip in Munich. I am glad that we got all this done today because we probably would be tired tomorrow. I'll try to get a couple good pics uploaded in the next few days if I can but it may be a challenge since I have limited internet access times and free time :) Until my next entry... adios!

Edit: uploaded pictures here and to Flickr

clicky!

Branson Finale

Today in Branson I started off with a run on the treadmill and a swim in the indoor pool. Then I ate a nice hearty breakfast and we eventually made our way to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It was pretty fun because I got to see a lot of crazy crafts like scale replicas made out of matches, shrunken heads, meteorites, optical illusions and a lot more interesting stuff! I took the tripod in so that I could take as many pictures as possible without the flash. That came in handy several times because most of the displays were enclosed in glass and the flash bounced back. My parents also had a custom picture of themselves made with their faces inserted into the two main Shrek character's faces. They even colored them green, so that was pretty fun. My dad lives by the motto "better out than in" ;)

After that we all ate sushi for lunch and then headed to Table Rock Dam and lake to take nature pictures. I was really glad that I finally got them to come out into nature with me so that I could photograph some of the scenery. We also got off a lot of portrait studio quality pictures of the whole family during this trek and I got off about 100 shots! Everybody should now have new pictures to show off of one another now!

We also got the chance to watch Fred Claus in the movie theater that was supposedly IMAX, however, I didn't notice any difference from the regular theater. I guess IMAX is only special when you have a film created with a super wide angle lens and a ton of microphones. The movie was funny and it made me wish that every child everywhere got a present for Christmas, naughty or nice :)

Clicky!

The Third Day

Today was a little slower because of the rain, but it ended up pretty well! We went to a butterfly exhibit where we were able to walk amongst hundreds of white butterflies and enjoy the calming atmosphere. They also had a fun 3D video about bugs to watch and a display of jungle bugs and amphibians and reptiles. I forgot the name of them, but there were some giant cockroaches that were probably a good 4" long. We should all be very glad that they aren't native to the midwest!

After that fun, we cooked the pork chops that we bought the day before. I finally have my mom's recipe! I brined the pork overnight and it really did make the meat really tender and everybody was glad that they learned a new trick. Everybody helped make a little bit of the lunch too so it was great that it didn't become really chaotic even though the kitchen in the hotel is very cramped! The pork chops were just like I remember from childhood and I was very happy!

After lunch we lounged for awhile while dad got some work done and then everybody went shopping at the local outlet mall. My mom and my sister both bought a bunch of clothes. And if you count the boots my dad bought earlier today, I don't know how we're going to fit it all in the car because the trunk was full on the way down and we had stuff on the floor and in our laps on the way down!

For dinner we went to Lambert's Cafe in Ozark, which they claim is the "home of the throwed roll" We had to check it out because I think we heard about it on TV years before and my sister's co-worker recommended it. They had southern style food and they gave us way too much to eat, but it was delicious! I had the meatloaf with green beans and peaches. Along with that, everybody got "pass arounds" which included fried potatoes, black eyed peas, fried okra, and macaroni and tomatoes. Of course we all had a roll thrown at us from across the restaurant!

clicky!

More Ozarks

Today We had a pretty event packed day. First we went go-karting on a wooden roller coaster-style track. We all really enjoyed bumping around so much! That ended up being a random detour on the way to the "Inspiration Tower." The tower is a location where you can see all the way to Arkansas and also view all the scenic mountains and the lake nearby. It was a real trip! I got some really good photos taken there, so that was nice.

After that fun we went to the local Super Wal-Mart with the intention of buying pork chops and cooking them for a late lunch the way my mom used to when I was younger. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearing 4PM and we decided just to skip lunch and just have a small snack. I ate a banana. Para continuar, we then went to The Talking Caverns cave and had an awesome tour. I really appreciate nature much more because of it! Before the tour I bought some Ammonite and Orthocerid fossils that they had for sale because I thought they looked so cool. Neither of them are native fossils in Missouri, but I couldn't help myself, they looked so cool! The Orthocerids are from Morocco. In the cave I thankfully got off a couple good indoor shots with no flash. That was pretty difficult especially since the exposure required was about 4 seconds on average.

We came back from the cave starving for dinner, but instead of eating pork chops, we all decided to go out for dinner because we passed so many good looking restaurants on the way. We ended up choosing a seafood place with a horribly depressed waitress but good food. I ended up having the tilapia with a white wine sauce with mushrooms and lump crab meat. I really enjoyed it.

And now here I am writing this...

clicky!

The Ozarks (part 1)

So after leaving home at around 8:30AM and driving to Kansas City to stop at the Stetson Hat Outlet store for the better part of 2 hours to buy 2 very expensive cowboy hats, 2 bathroom breaks (in the first 4 hours), 1 lunch break (at 4PM), and getting lost in the stupid KC highway maze.  We finally arrived in Branson, MO in the heart of the northern Ozarks at 9PM. I had always heard that Branson was like a clean family-oriented version of Las Vegas, but I didn't realize that meant a church every mile and only white people as far as the eye could see! Well, it's not too much different from Iowa, well with all the white people..... I guess that's about the only thing Iowa has in common besides the dirt.

We had a super late dinner at around 10:30-11:00, but I made sure not to eat my whole plate because it was so late, but I still think I ate too much! After that we went to a 50's style club called Club 57 where a band played a bunch of classic rock music. It was pretty entertaining. And now here I sit typing all about it. And I'm beat!

Free to me!

Last Friday I received a banquet ticket worth $80.00 for the local Sister Cities branch. I wanted an excuse to wear a suit since I hadn't worn one in almost a year. I felt like I wasn't giving them the attention they were used to when I still lived at home and wore suits every Sunday. Anyway, I was happy to be at the banquet with Kristin and her family because I looked snazzy. But the night kept getting better and better! First, there was wine. Secondly and most importantly, they served filet mingon. Unfortunately, it wasn't wrapped in bacon or seasoned generously like I like it. But I've never gotten such nice meat at a fund raiser banquet! And to top all that off, they had performances from cultures around the world including Japanese drummers, African dancers, Aztec recreation dancers, and Chinese New Years style dragon dancers. Those were my favorite because the dragons were so intricately designed and their faces moved too!

After the dinner Kristin and I were going to drive back to Iowa, but my parents convinced us that it was too late, so we decided to leave the next day. But during the phone call I got all excited because I saw an accident were some dude rear-ended a police car and there were like 10 other police cars monitoring and directing traffic. I was so excited that when the guy in the left turning lane got the green light, I started going too... Then I realized I wasn't supposed to and I slammed on the brakes, right in front of the cops. I then proceeded to hang up the phone and whistle innocently, like that would make a difference :P

The next day Kristin and I headed to Iowa. I had work to do, so we left pretty late, but that's ok. I ate so much food that weekend, which was also free to me because I didn't have to pay for it! I love my dad's grilling and my mom's cooking. We ate pot pie, ribs, homemade cream of broccoli soup, collard greens, sweet potato pecan pie, apple kringle, and I'm sure a couple other things I forgot. And I loved it all. mmm mmm. Instead of watching TV we all finished a 750 piece CSI puzzle, which didn't even have a picture on the box because that was part of the mystery! Then once we put it together, we had to look at the crime scene and find evidence to prove who the guilty party was! It was a lot of fun and I think everybody loved it!

David Beckham to visit the office

So on Monday David Beckham is coming to our office to say hi and talk about who knows what or maybe just stand there and look pretty. Well pretty to whoever would find such a guy pretty, I'd much rather stare at his wife, but whatever :P Anyway, I have normally been ignoring the "buzz" emails about our company in ads and what we sponsor, but I realized that they actually have famous people come to the office these days, so now I actually read them. I went to see Danica Patrick when she came to talk about her racing style and how much she loves us for throwing money her way. Well because I am a guy, I decided to go and see if she was as good looking as the poster in my cube. Well from 200 feet away, she looked great and I have proof, look!


ok ok, so the picture is a little small and that could be any burnette with that resolution and blur, but think of it like a big foot sighting or the lockness monster. You just can't get a good shot off when you need to... and cameras are banned from the office, luckily we make camera phones so everybody can use them.

'Bionic' Nerve To Repair Damaged Limbs and Organs

University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells -- and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life. In a study published in October's Experimental Neurology, Dr Paul Kingham and his team at the UK Centre for Tissue Regeneration (UKCTR) isolated the stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and differentiated them into nerve cells to be used for repair and regeneration of injured nerves. They are now about to start a trial extracting stem cells from fat tissue of volunteer adult patients, in order to compare in the laboratory human and animal stem cells.

Source: Slashdot

Maybe soon they'll be able call root canals an "outdated" practice and people parallelized in accidents will be able to walk again. I hate to say it kids, but seriously, stem cells are cool. Anybody that is afraid of stem cell research is silly. I don't want to sound calloused, but when doctors today artificially inseminate a woman by in vitro fertilization, they take several eggs and fertilize many and then throw away the rest (full of stem cells). If people really are so opposed to killing a living being, then this should also be outlawed in the U.S... And according to that article, you can harvest stem cells out of adult animals, maybe that means that you won't even have to "kill" anybody at all. So next time you decide to get on your high horse and preach about how stem cell research is evil, do some real research. I'm just saying. *climbs off high horse*

New 2008 Challenger

Well, in my opinion Dodge kept to their word about making the production version of the car look very similar to the concept. Except, it just doesn't seem look as cool :( They reduced the size of the rims, gave the car a bigger rear bumper, and they added the B-pillar between the front and back windows. I think they also switched out the headlamps because they don't look quite as cool either. I really didn't notice how lame b-pillars make cars look until I took a look at the concept picture. It looks like if I get this car, I'll be tinting the windows to hide the pillar. But one surprising apparent change is that they decided to go with the classic grill instead of the one on the concept. Well if they're going retro with this car, it gets my thumbs up for the modification! Here's a couple comparison shots with the concept on top and the production version on bottom.

Tires are expensive

I just bought some new Dunlop Radial Rover A/T tires online because they had a $100 off 4 discount with free shipping. I did some quick research and found that this was in fact the best deal online. And typically buying stuff online is always a better deal than buying in a store. So I decided to buy them. But then, the fun really started. I figured it wouldn't bee too expensive to mount, balance, and align 4 tires, you know, because they're just tires. But I was wrong. So I quickly learned that buying from a tire store that offers free mounting/balancing, alignment or a free tire, wasn't really as bad of a deal as I thought.

	Online	NTB (cheapest store)
Tires + Valve Stems	$88.00x4-$100.00 ______________ $252.00	$91x3 (Free Tire) ______ 273.00
Mounting + Balancing	$75.00	14.95x4=$59.80
Total	$327.00+tax (on $75)	$332.80+tax

Phew, it looks like I still saved a whopping $5.80! With that kind of cash, I guess I could buy a whole meal at McDonalds! Luckily for me, either of those prices are better than the original $600 I was quoted by Midas for tires, mounting, balancing, and alignment. Midas charges $89.98 for alignment, but I found a price as low as $58.00. Funny, that's exactly 10x as much as my savings from buying online. Now if only I could find an alignment for $5.80 and I'll really have a deal on my hands.

Zoo and Geneva Lake

I was up in Geneva Lake again this weekend. James came back into town along with just about everybody. The wedding was canceled, but not the plane tickets. So we just all hung out and did random stuff. It's always nice being up there because there is so much beautiful scenery. Everybody had a good time as far as I could tell and this time Kristin came along!

Kristin and I also went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It has been a long time since I have been to the zoo. We saw a lot of fun animals including a roaring leopard. It was so loud. I was glad to have been there when it roared! We also saw a bunch of sick looking animals. There was a bear that just had jaw surgery and its tongue was hanging out about a foot out of its mouth with its back all hunched. I thought the poor thing was going to die. There was also a camel with one saggy hump. I felt bad for it too :( But it didn't look sick so I wasn't so worried. But even with the sick animals, I still saw plenty of healthy ones and got to see some cool primates.

I wonder what other fun stuff I'll be doing in the near future

Productive at work

I've been super productive at work this week. It's great having a job where you actually have to use your brain every once in awhile. I got to fix some bugs in a SW program that we're working on. You know, programming may not be my dream job, but I forgot how much better work is when you have to think just a little bit. I'm already satisfied with my new job! Now if only I could find a house to live in that I actually was impressed with when I went to the showing!

:(

My buddy Kristin had to delete her journal because one of her client's parents snooped online to find it and sent it to the VP of her company complaining. She had nothing offensive, confidential, or specific that could be used as identifying information about any of her clients, but they still complained and made it a bad day for her. I hate people that think that anything published on the internet will ruin RUIN their lives. 90% of the journal was just about her daily happenings and mostly about weekends, but that didn't matter, she mentioned her job once or twice and that was enough to make her a target for unfair accusations. Old-fashioned people that are afraid of change suck. I dare any one of you crabby-@$$ old people to take this tame old blog down just because I made an obscure reference to your family member in a non-demeaning or confrontational manner.

Weekend, The

Friday was pretty uneventful. Kristin and I hung out, but we didn't really do anything besides watch TV. I ordered pizza and ate it. It was good.

Saturday we went shopping for a track jacket for myself. I found one that I liked a bit and it was on sale for only $30, but Kristin wasn't digging it so we didn't get it. The other ones I saw were around $70, yikes!!! After that we did the whole youth group leader thing and I brought donuts. They were hyper little boogers and they also scratched up one of those thin plastic table cloths. I told them to stop, but at the same time, I was remembering how I used to do that so I kept laughing and they took it as a sign of my approval. ooops. I guess I'm a little immature for my age! After all that fun, Kristin and I went to a haunted house with 3 separate attractions. Kristin got scared, I keep talking to the people running around trying to scare us. Only once did I jump slightly. It was fun though!

On Sunday Kristin and I bought two pumpkins to carve since they were on sale at the local grocery store. After that We went to Oktoberfest at Lynfred Winery and walked around the area and looked at some of the older architecture. We then rented a few scary movies to watch. Kristin got scared again, but I was A-OK. Kristin even got scared of Dino, her beloved stuffed dinosaur. But after some coaxing she came to love him again. I was worried because Dino was the first "sweet" gift I got her and if she didn't like it anymore I'd have been sad :(

But on a sad note. during that weekend a friend of mine called off his wedding a week before it's scheduled date. I dunno what happened, but I'm sure there are some very hurt people. And I hope that their emotional wounds will heal over quickly.

lets say you went shopping to buy a bunch of things

and when you buy all these things you think you are going to be excited when you see the receipt because of all the super awesome coupons you clipped and by random chance the store actually marked discounts on the shelf for most of the items you are buying. But after you check out you and get a receipt for $18 and you look at your two, not completely full, grocery bags of stuff you didn't really need to buy but only bought because you had coupons and kind of wouldn't mind eating it, you see that your two boxes of cereal, 2 pillsbury breads in an exploding can, 8 cups of yogurt, 2 boxes of granola bars, and 2 pouches of taco seasoning really wasn't that much of a deal even though you saved 46%. But if you really weren't going to buy even one thing on that list if you didn't have a coupon for it, you really didn't get much of a deal at all. And in that 30 seconds it takes you to walk to your car with your two, not completely full, bags of stuff you didn't really want, you start to feel like a sucker for spending any money in the first place, especially when you originally decided to go to the store to buy milk and eggs and they're nowhere to be found in your two not completely full bags of stuff that you didn't really want anyway.

brush your teeth

and brush them well. Brush them twice a day. Don't forget to floss. And don't skip out on the dentist for a year and a half just because you didn't get any cavities for the first 20-something years of your life.

You know why? Because if you don't you're gonna end up with 5 cavities (4 in your wisdom teeth, which pretty much finished growing in 2 years ago) It gets worse when you find out you shouldn't have put so much trust in your orthodontist when he pulled out your second set of bicuspids when your mouth had enough room for them. It turns out that it's better practice to pull out a set (of 4) molars because you have 3 full sets including the wisdom teeth. And when you pull out the bicuspids you can develop some weird biting problems which may lead to jaw popping and grinding at an older age.

And if it wasn't bad enough, you find out 2 months after you get the cavities filled that one of them was so deep that repairing it irritated the nerve and to stop the numbing pain of drinking liquids that has recently developed, you have two choices, pull the tooth or get a root canal. The root canal is very expensive and actually requires 4 separate dental appointments, but if you pull one tooth, you're probably going to have to pull the corresponding tooth on the other jaw since there will be nowhere to bite down on when it is gone.

Brush your teeth or you'll end up like me having to pay several hundred dollars even with insurance to have this repaired.

I beat K to it!

The Chicago Spire

My weekend was pretty laid back because I have some crazy sinus cold that just kicked in Saturday morning. I hope it goes away Monday, that would be great! Anyway, on Friday, I hung out at Kristin's house and just lounged around. We talked a lot. I dunno what we talked about though. The cold is making me delirious!

Saturday, I watched a lot of TV in the morning and learned a quick way to make puff pastry, how to brine a pork roast (soak in salt water) and that Donald Trump is building a 90 story building in Chicago. Of course, that will be ironically "trumped" by a 150 story building scheduled to be finished in 2009 in the north side of Chicago. This building will be the tallest in north America, and strangely it will look like a giant screw. After that I rode my bike 10.4 miles to the youth group leader thing I do at the church. That was a lot of fun! I wore earplugs for the first time and it was so peaceful and quiet. I found myself becoming overly comfortable while riding like this so I made it a point to remind myself that I have to maintain 100% attention and scan for potential hazards just like they taught me in class! Luckily my nose behaved for the whole bike ride! After the youth group I ordered fried rice and watched Donnie Darko with Kristin. I still don't completely understand what the director was trying to get at in the movie. But I think Donnie could travel through time or something. Or he was just super crazy!

On Sunday, Kristin and I made white bean and chicken chili, sweet potato chips, with some special cornbread muffins with green onions, sour cream, sharp cheddar, and creamed corn inside. They were very soft and moist. With a little tweaking they could be some fantastic snacks! My nose is driving me crazy today and I think the cold is worse, but what can I do but wait it out... well I guess I could take 6 Sudafed, 1 Claritin, 2 Tylenol, and one vitamin! That oughta fix it! wait.... nope, didn't help.

More reasons I am glad I switched

...teams.

My old manager is taking everything back including accessories that I'd need to perform my job! So I have to order all new things. Here's the kicker. They're charging the same dept for the new parts I just ordered. there's some real un-telligence going on here....

Me [12:01 PM]:
Hi, do you know who I'd contact to get new phone chargers and cables? My old team wants all of this back so I'll need to get new ones
New Team Admin [12:03 PM]:
They can be ordered off of Tigers, or maybe someone from our Validation team has extras.
Me [12:05 PM]:
well since I'm still listed under the old Manager, the bill would go to him at the moment, and thats why he wants me to give my accessories back. So would you be able to order them from Tigers so that I have them when I start? Or will I have to wait until I start to begin getting these items?
New Team Admin [12:06 PM]:
Do you have the part numbers, or the name of the exact items you want (part number would be preferrable, it's easier to find in Tigers)?
Me [12:08 PM]:
for charger #1 FMP5202A
Me [12:08 PM]:
charger #2 PSM5202A
New Team Admin [12:08 PM]:
anything else?
New Team Admin [12:08 PM]:
do you only need 1 of each?
Me [12:09 PM]:
well I only need one, but I'd like to have 2 of charger #1 so I can charge the micro USB phones from home
Me [12:10 PM]:
I already have a mini USB charger at home that I purchased myself
Me [12:10 PM]:
and I would need a micro USB cable to connect to the PC... only one... SKN6238A
New Team Admin [12:11 PM]:
Ok. When I order it, it will have to be approved by Dawn who is traveling to Turin today. Hopefully she will approve it this week. Either way it won't be here when you come in tomorrow.
New Team Admin [12:12 PM]:
Does the old Manager realize that the same dept will be charged? It would be easier if he could approve it.
Me [12:12 PM]:
I'm sure he realizes this, but I don't think I have the power to assert this point
Me [12:12 PM]:
same deal with the SIM card issue
New Team Admin [12:12 PM]:
ok
New Team Admin [12:12 PM]:
Got it.
New Team Admin [12:12 PM]:
alright, I'll order it.
New Team Admin [12:13 PM]:
You'll be without one when you come here tomorrow.
New Team Admin [12:13 PM]:
Let me talk to our validation managers and see if they have any extra, until your order comes in.
Me [12:13 PM]:
I hope they'll at least let me keep the items until my official start date for your team on oct 1
New Team Admin [12:13 PM]:
Let me see if the validation team has any to hold you over.
Me [12:14 PM]:
ok thanks a lot!

scripting is fun!

I know nobody knows what the stuff below means, but yay. pretty!

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict "subs";
use warnings;

$time_id = "65546"; #0x1000A pack/unpack can also interpret a string as a number in decimal
$emp_id = 0x77777777;
$item = "fresh bananas!!!";
$quan = 0x3456; # short should be 16 bits shorter
$urgent = 0x1;

printf ("\$time_id: %s, \$emp_id: %x, \$item: %s\n\$quan: %x, \$urgent: %x\n", $time_id, $emp_id, $item, $quan, $urgent);

$rec = pack( 'i i Z32 s2', $time_id, $emp_id, $item, $quan, $urgent);
$packed = unpack('h*', $rec); # convert to a printable string
printf "packed value: %s\n", $packed; # prints representation of items stored in little endian
@decode = unpack 'i i a32 s2', $rec;
printf "unpacked value: %#x %#x %s %#x %#x\n", @decode;# $decode[0], $decode[1], $decode[2], $decode[3], $decode[4];



foreach $key (sort keys (%ENV)) {
print "$key: $ENV{$key}\n";
}

print "PID: $$\t time: ", time, "\n"; # $$ is the current PID, 'time' is short for 'time()'
srand(time|$$);
for($i=0;$i<10;$i++)>
print "\n";


$SIG{'INT'} = 'handler'; # catch ctrl-c

sub handler {
local($sig) = @_; # first argument is signal name (pg 97)
print "caught SIG$sig -- exiting!\n";
exit(0);
}

sleep(10); # wait 10 seconds for an interrupt

new clothes

This weekend K wanted me to buy some new clothes because apparently buying new clothes only once a year is too seldom :P So with her super girl-power persuading skills she convinced me to go to the mall with her. She told me she had a 20% off coupon for Express so we went there first. We picked out some button-up shirts and some graphic T's to wear in combination. She had me try on about 10 different pieces of clothing. This is a lot more than my average shopping visit. So after all of the experimentation with combinations I decided to get 2 shirts and 2 T's But then I realized that if I bought 3 shirts I could get the third for only $8 more than buying two with the multiple shirt discount and the 20% off coupon. So I got a third. We also looked at jeans and track jackets, but I decided for my wallet's sake not to buy any more. Even with the 20% off and everything the 5 pieces of clothing cost me about $130. EEP! Luckily for me the mall closed so I didn't have the chance to be tempted to buy anything else.

Later that day I checked out ae.com to see if they had jeans my size online. They're much cheaper than Express so I felt safe going there. I also found a stackable 15% and 20% off coupon to apply to my purchase so I was happy to get a 32% discount. I decided to buy 2 pairs of jeans for only $56 after shipping and taxes. Now that's a bargain because I have to get 36' inseam pants and they rarely have those in stores and especially not for a discount!

All I have to do now is buy a track jacket and I'll look super fly. Well according to Kristin. I do agree that with her help, I was able to buy some pretty nice looking tops!

So I really got 7 articles of clothing for about $190 so each article cost on average $27. That's not too horrible especially considering Express's top-notch quality! I can feel the good construction in the seams and fabric texture :P The button up shirts even come with handy plastic inserts to keep the collar tips straight (yes they are supposed to stay in there, they give you spares with your purchase).

So here's the damage, minus the two styles I couldn't find on expressfashion.com

Express 1MX (dark brown instead)	Express 1MX	Express Graphic T (light brown)
AE Faded Indigo	AE Medium Stonewash

mmmhmm

On Thursday I made fried catfish for Kristin, her grandmother and her sister. They loved it. I cheated and used Zataran's cornmeal breading though instead of making it from scratch. Her grandmother also made some delicious traditional cornbread that contained only corn meal, oil, salt, and eggs. It reminded me of those corn cakes I tried to make once as a kid because I learned that George Washington loved em! I didn't like the corn cakes so much because they were very dense and had little flavor, but Kristin's grandmother's cornbread had plenty of flavor. I even put a little maple syrup on my piece.

Friday was a pretty awkward night. K's friend met a new girl about a month ago and they're already official. They call each other by nicknames regularly and cuddle more than any other couple I've seen. This made it kind of awkward because I find it annoying when people can't keep their hands off one another while in public. And they just met and they were cuddling like they knew one another for months. We played Apples to Apples entirely too long, and I suggested we stop playing that game and move to another once to everybody, but I was ignored. So I secretly begged K to intervene since it was her friend, but even that took awhile. The strawberry daiquiris were very good though. I only had a tiny bit because I was driving. Her friend is a good dude though so I hope he is happy with his new gf.

Saturday was a pretty laid back day. We made 49ers flapjack dough the night before and let it ferment over night. When Kristin came back over the next day, we cooked them up and they tasted more sour than we remember from Walker Brothers, but they were great with syrup. We decided that we'd try not to let them sit over night at room temperature next time and see if the taste was more similar. After that we did our youth volunteering thing at Kristin's church. They had a special speaker who told her story about how she tried to kill herself and how she found God afterwards. It's sad that she felt so desperate to kill herself though, but I'm glad she is happier now.

For dinner I had a Work Burger from Crave. It is one of the better burgers out here. It comes with bacon, onions, mushrooms and cheddar cheese. They even cook the beef to -order, so if you like yours a little more pink, you can ask for it! We then watched Apocalypto. It was a pretty good movie, but yes, Mel Gibson is still the king of gory snuff films. There was a lot of blood. He sure loves his blood.

On Sunday Kristin and I hung out at her parents' house and went shopping at random stores. Her parents fed me brownies with walnuts and I ate too many. But boy oh boy were they good. At least Kristin is keeping me working out over the weekends. That makes me feel a little better. We also ate dinner at her parents' house. I had Lou Malnati's pizza and herb crusted tilapia. After all that I watched Queen with Kristin and took an online "personality strengths" test. Apparently my strengths are: Competition, Achiever, Focus, Strategic, and Significance. So basically, I'm gonna kick your butt at whatever I do every time by focusing on my strategy and it'll be a significant butt kicking. yeah that's right. :P We tried making flapjacks again just to experiment and we only let the dough rise for an hour before cooking it. It was a lot more self-adherent and dough-like, but the flavor was better. We still have to experiment more to get the recipe right! Maybe leaving the flapjacks in the refrigerator over night instead of at room temperature, or adding more butter to the recipe will help.

Work sucks

...like a pool pump sucks away unsuspecting children's intestines. If you didn't know, there have been many cases of pool pumps sucking out kids' intestines when they sit on the intake at the bottom of a pool. Now you may think this is graphic, but work makes me feel like I am in an abusive relationship and I just keep taking one hit after another.

I got hired almost 2 years ago. They took well over 18 months to give me my first inflationary 3% raise. So technically, I'm still making less than I did last year because my bills for the same apartment and electricity are still about $50 more a month than my raise. Go team! Anyway, you'd think that when your manager says you're on track for a promotion and that your hard work has been recognized means that you will get to reap the benefits of your hard work, right? Not with this company. Those who know me know that our company is having financial difficulties at the moment and this is no fault of mine. However, because of this my promotion, and well-deserved raise has been delayed indefinitely. You typically get this first promotion a year to a year and a half after you've been hired. Now remember, it's already been almost 2 years for me.

So in utter dissatisfaction with my job, co-workers, and company outlook. I have been looking for other jobs. So far I haven't been able to line anything up outside of this company but there is a small glimmer of light because there is now an opening in the first team I interned for. This job would actually allow me to use my brain and I like the team members. Unlike me normally, I actually made it a point to keep in touch. So that appears to be working to my advantage. But to make this another negative, my manager asks me to come to his cube today and he asks me to think and make sure I'm making the move for the right reasons... Is he trying to guilt me here? He said that the grass is always greener on the other side and I told him that i knew that I would most likely have to work late some Fridays and be "on call" every 4th weekend. But since I dislike my current position so much and the team mentality makes me want to trow up, I'd gladly take these negative aspects if it meant I wouldn't have to avoid certain team members because they depress me and that I'd actually be able to use my problem solving skills to write scripts. I just can't believe my manager tried to guilt me like that. Maybe he did that because he realizes that I'm a better employee than some of my other teammates, but still. That just makes me feel even worse.

das Wochenende

On Friday Kristin and I made bratwurst and vegetables at her house. She got tired and fell asleep watching TV, I fell asleep too and then woke up and realized I fell asleep. Then I drove home super sleepy! Don't worry, I'm still alive!

Saturday was Kristin and my interview for the youth group at the local church. It was a lot more laid back than I thought it would be. The guy asked me more about my job than anything else! It was pretty funny. Guys love their technology! Immediately after our interviews we were told to go teach the kids. It was super chaotic that first time because they normally send out the lesson plans in advance, but since we just met everybody, we saw the plan for the first time, 5 minutes after starting the small groups! Kristin's sister is one of the main leaders for the ministry so at least we had a little tutoring. I rode my bike to and from Schaumburg so that was pretty fun!

Stone Manor at Lake Geneva, WI

Like I said earlier, Kristin rode my bike on Sunday and she did really well! I also worked out an extra day for the first time I can remember since starting working out. I've taken so many days off, it's about time! After that I went to Lake Geneva and hung out with my friend from college and some other friends along with his family at their party. They had grilled pork tenderloin and turkey along with an assortment of sides including some great varieties of potatoes, stuffing, croissants, fruit salad, and other fun stuff. It was great! They put out the desserts later and it was all so tasty. I had some wonderful strawberry cheesecake with strawberries mixed inside! I met James' girlfriend too, so that was neat. Kristin didn't come along, and everybody asked where she was! It is so beautiful in Lake Geneva, I can't wait until I am rich and can afford a weekend home!

On Labor Day I went over to Kristin's to make breakfast. I brought croissants and we made spinach, feta, tomato and onion omelets. Kristin made them American style. I made a French omelet. Don't tell GWB, I'll prolly get put on the no-fly list for that! We then went to a local parade and got lots of free candy and cheered on her dad's float. We walked around the local carnival too and we had a great time. After that we had a lot of random shopping fun. And I went home and did laundry, and so went my weekend

Riding a motorcycle

It really is a different experience. I've been riding for a little bit now and I am finally getting used to how it feels. The wind and the movement of the bike due to road grooves and imperfections was the hardest to get over. But once you get used to the fact that the bike will move around a little and nothing catastrophic will happen, then it's not too bad! I've got a few hundred miles under my belt now so any time I'll be a pro, j/k!

Kristin rode on the road for the first time today. I am so proud of her :P

20

Well this is an obligatory post to make my 20th post. This weekend I'll be interviewing to be a youth group leader at a local church. It should be fun. I like working with kids, but middle school aged kids will be a challenge. I'm also going to be grilling with Kristin tonight and I'm bringing bratwurst! I love bratwurst, especially the ISU MEATS lab kind!!!!

home buying

Well let me tell you, it's complicated enough without trying to haggle with people and pretending you're not interested when you really are very interested. I really wish I knew how to do this, but I don't so I am just trying my best.

Long story short, a person was selling a home and the lot next to the home. I just wanted the lot, but the person is retiring and moving to Florida, so they really wanted to sell the home. The Realtor tells me that they'd throw in the lot if I bought the house for just over list price. This would've been an amazing deal. At first I thought I couldn't afford it because I'd have to sell the house right away. So I made an offer on just the lot. And then I changed my mind and said I wanted to buy the house and have the seller throw in the lot too. But since the offer on the lot was a certain amount, the seller had become sure that they could sell the house alone for more than I could afford to pay for the lot at the price I offered plus the house price. So to clarify, because the seller knew I wanted the lot, the seller got greedy and decided to say that they won't sell for anything but $40,000 more than their original verbal offer. So I backed out completely. I felt cheated, but I think I did the right thing. If they are desperate enough, they'll come back!

update!

My weekend was pretty boring, but I did get to see Superbad on Friday. So that was nice! It's a pretty funny movie and it may make some geeks in high school have high hopes of getting a hot girlfriend, but I don't think 2/3 of the guys in that movie would even have a chance with any of those girls in real-life high school. People are too concerned with image at that point to date people that aren't in their crowd.

I cleaned my apartment on Saturday. The Pine Sol smell is finally going away. I always feel good when I mop the floor because I imagine the disinfectant killing all the bacteria and the wet mop getting all of that dust. But don't worry, I'm not some sort of weird neat freak. I've only mopped twice since December '05.

I hung out with Kristin on Sunday and I had a Cold Stone Creamery cake batter milkshake with real yellow cake pieces. We also cooked steak and it was delicious. It had a Kirkland steak rub on it and it was cooked almost a perfect medium. I got lucky on that one!

Crazy stuff is happening this week and I'll write about it if anything really happens!

asi es la vida

I now have 3 SIM cards, 2 for work and one personal. My new work SIM has 3G internet enabled and I did a bandwidth test yesterday and got 700kbit/second download speeds. I am very excited about that because now when my regular internet dies, it won't even phase me. I'll just hook my phone up via Bluetooh or USB (for faster downloads). It works like a charm too.

The last intern left today, she gave me 5 cookies. I ate all of them. I wish everybody would suck up to me like that... I also stole her badge clip because mine was almost broken. I almost feel like I just robbed the grave of somebody because she just left and all and I'm already picking over her things. I didn't talk to the interns that much, but today I was reminded again about how much of my life has passed and how much I miss college life. If I could take their place I would. What's the rush in life?

I made an offer on a lot to build a house on today. My Realtor expects that they'll give me a counter-offer because mine was low. We'll see. I hope they just need money badly so they'll accept anything. The lot has been on the market for awhile and they are also selling their house, so I think that I'm in a good position. We'll see, we'll see. Nevertheless I'm taking my first step (again) towards building a house and I hope this time it'll all work out!

Weekend Update

I had a very good weekend starting on Wednesday because that was my Friday! Kristin and I baked molasses and peanut butter cookies. Of course, I ate a bunch. Thursday Kristin and I headed to Iowa at about 10AM. We had made delicious sandwiches to bring along the night before so I had forgotten them. I kicked myself for that because I was really looking forward to it! In the evening we met up with my whole family and we went to a Casting Crowns and Tree 63 concert that my dad had bought tickets for. That was my first Christian concert. It was alright and I was glad we weren't sitting close to the speakers. They had a scary looking drummer who they "let loose" do do a solo and it reminded me of a Tool concert.

On Friday Kristin and I headed up to Ames to see my campus and eat all the food that I missed. I ate the West Street Deli sandwich that I missed ever so much. After that I had Pizza Pit wings and cheese bread. It was all so delicious. I also picked up some ISU MEATS lab bratwurst and ate some of that for dinner. I was in heaven that day.

On Saturday the whole family went to see the covered bridges in Madison county. We also ran into John Wayne's childhood home while on the way. After we were all done we saw a sign for "Grandpa's Workshop" so we decided to check it out. Some grandpa opened up a shop in the middle of nowhere and sold lots of wood items. The cutest little kid was there too. She seemed like she was out of a storybook because she was so adorable. We got some free knickknacks and then headed home. I felt bad for not buying anything, but there wasn't anything I wanted! For dinner, we had a massive dinner that consisted of bacon wrapped fillet mignon, grilled potatoes, broccoli, and corn along with green beans and brown rice. Needless to say, I also over ate on Saturday. The whole weekend we played a lot of games of Apples to Apples and the whole family ate it up. I was happy about it and Kristin was also a big hit with the family.

Sunday was a travel day but we still managed to go to Target, eat at Tacos Mariana's, watch half a movie, and go to the church where my dad's church was visiting and eat their food. I over ate that day too! weird. It was all fun though. I had a great trip!

Win lots of free Yamaha stuff

Win the World of Yamaha - You can win many prizes including a waverunner, piano, sport bike, home theater and more!

Crazy dream

I had a dream that I wasn't able to finish, but it still made me wonder what made me think this up while I was sleeping. It was my birthday party and my family had invited like everybody I ever knew to it. And they lived in this gigantic house with a parking garage with four or five levels and a club house that was so big I had to run across to get from side to side. Anyway, I get there by train and for some reason there is this girl Ellyn there in the same car. Back in the day I had tried to date her but somehow she just ended up not calling me back, and I didn't call her back ever. She was on the train with my sister because apparently my sister needed her help or something. So I was trying to be nice and talk to her and I was trying to be nice by asking where she worked. She was like "nowhere... nothing" and she looked away, so because I was such a smooth guy in the dream, we got off the train and I kept talking to her and she admited that she worked at a plant nursery, but I was expecting that she'd work in a law office or something. I was shocked but I thought it was cool and I told her that my mom loved plants and that they should talk. At that point Ellyn disappeared from my dream.

Then came in Brian Brecha (not my best friend Brian) And he starts talking to me and people swarm around him and somehow this makes me feel cool. I'm saying hi to everybody I used to know in high school. I roam the area and find different pockets of people, and everybody was there even people I didn't like. Phil, the jerk who hated me in middle school who ended up flunking out or something senior year was also there. It was crazy! I ignored him. I then remember seeing a guy "Andrew" who was somebody that my family knew but I didn't and there was an even bigger crowd around him. I didn't want to compete so I took my crowd outside. Then I wanted to find Kristin because I felt bad that I hadn't seen her. So we all went to the parking garage and looked around and then went back into the house to find her. And that's when I woke up. hmmm.

During the dream i remember seeing a lot of faces of people from high school, but I don't remember where I saw them in the dream so I didn't write about it. But I wonder why my brain chose to reunite just about everybody I could think of from my high school and a few people from college at my parents gigantic dream house. Why brain why?

My weekend in photographs

This weekend I went crazy taking pictures and I took a whole roll in black and white. I felt really good taking a bunch of pictures again.

Today was already too good not to write about

I woke up at 7:00 and had myself a bowl of Safeway blueberry cereal. Lucky for me I already had my morning planned. I brushed my teeth and headed outside for my nice cool morning bike ride. So I rode my bike for an hour. I got back home and changed clothes to go on the elliptical because I slacked off and didn't exercise on Friday. [flexes muscles] Now I'm all stronger! Then I hopped in the shower and de-stinkified myself. I called Tony and asked if he wanted to go to this Freecycle free for all event where you can find a lot of used stuff for free, no catch. Tony was busy, so then I started to rethink my plan on going today. I thought, well I was going to go by myself before deciding to go with Tony, but I think Kristin would really enjoy going. So I decided to put off going to the free for all until Sunday when I can go with her. But then my morning had a gap! What ever was I going to do?

Eventually I decided to watch a movie and then eat lunch, which consisted of the last bits of pizza rolls, buffalo chicken bites, and an Italian sausage. Well, I had successfully gotten through another 3 hours. What can I do now? I thought. I felt the sudden urge to be creative and take pictures with my film camera in black and white. Unfortunately, I didn't have any film. So on the way to the camera store, I decided that I wanted to take some pictures of my truck. So I also took my truck to the car wash. $10 well spent... My tires were dirty!

I get home all excited about all the pictures I was going to take. And on the way out of the car I hear the "ding ding ding" and I see that my lights are on so I turn them off. Then I shut the door still hearing the "ding ding" without paying attention and then I reach for my keys.... and BAM it hits me.... The car was still dinging. I had no keys! So I was thinking about how Kristin warned me that I should have a spare. And how now I had just put my foot in my mouth. To make the story even funnier. my apartment keys are attached to my car keys, so I couldn't get into my apartment. I reached for my cell phone, but I had left it on the charger! Thank goodness I live in an apartment because otherwise I'd be locked out for good! I went to the office and they gave me a spare key to get into the apartment and grab my cell phone. I call my dad and ask if he can mail my keys for Sunday delivery because FedEx used to do that. But they don't anymore I found out. So then I get the bright idea of calling the Mazda dealer instead of paying $60 for a locksmith. Luckily, they could make a key by just using the VIN! PHEW. So I got a ride to the dealer and so ended my crazy ordeal!

After that I had a bunch of fun taking pictures. I only took 12 shots so a special somebody had better be ready to be photographed in artistic black and white on Sunday ;)

Oh those interns

Today, they made their own fake news bulletin. (click the image to read)

When giving blood

Do not give them your real phone number. I've received 2 phone calls in the past 3 or so days from them asking for me to donate again. Yes, donating blood saves lives, but I really dislike telemarketers! I didn't get sick the last time I donated blood. So I am happy about that, but I like my blood and I wish there was a way for them to take the blood w/o digging in my vein for 3 minutes trying to get blood out. I have narrow veins gosh darn it, you digging in that needle hurts! Oh well, I'll still go again though because it's the right thing to do, but no more telemarketing!

This really would make baby Jesus cry

One of five drivers in fatal hit-run stops for victim - The only person to stop after a man was hit by 5 cars and being fatally injured was the one who hit him second and least severely. This is a very sad thing to see and I really hope this isn't statistically accurate because if 4 out of 5 people would drive off after hitting a pedestrian, then our world really is in a sad state.

Happy Camper

I now have 24 bratwurst waiting for me in the ISU MEATS lab freezer. I will soon be reunited with a long lost college love. [tears up] Now all I have to do is figure out how to eat a West Street Deli sandwich, chicken wings and cheese bread all in the span of about 3 hours and I'll be set!

I think I'm also going to stop by the good ol ECSS office and say hi to my former co-workers. Of course every single student that I worked with will be gone, and that is sad, but I'll still have the memories. They can never take away my memories.

I brought a ton of peanut butter cookies into work today. I haven't sent out a mass email though because I don't want people making a mess in my cube. I'll put the cookies out in one of the main asiles around 11 after Tony comes in because he gets first dibs for helping fix my TV problem.

What do you do when you're bored?

Bake cookies!!!!

...and post about it in your blog. I made some peanut butter cookies with a similar recipe to the molasses cookies Kristin and I made the other day. I think I'm going to bring these into work tomorrow. I made almost 50 and I still have a ton of dough left! I'm refrigerating the rest until Kristin comes back from Colorado.

Grandma's Best Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup white sugar
1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco
1 cup creamy peanut butter (Skippy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups flour (1/4 cup more if needed)

1. Cream together the sugars, Crisco, peanut butter.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together and add gradually until blended well.
4. Roll into tablespoon size balls.
5. Roll cookie dough balls into sugar.
6. Place on cookie sheets- do not mash with fork in normal "peanut butter cookie" fashion!
7. Bake at 350° oven for 11-13 minutes.

Soft Molasses Cookies
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Cream together shortening and brown sugar.
2. Stir in egg and molasses and mix well.
3. Fold in dry ingredients and stir.
4. Cover and chill till firm (1-2 hours).
5. Preheat oven to 350°.
6. Roll dough into small balls and roll in white sugar.
7. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake at 350° for 9-10 minutes.
9. Leave on sheet one minute until set.

Food I miss from ISU

It's funny that I miss food from college more often than anything else. Yes, I miss the parties and the ability to sleep all day and lack of real bills. But day after day, I wish I could find something similar to so many of the foods I ate at ISU. Here is a list of food I miss the most and I hope dearly that I can find a way to eat some again before I die ;)

1) ISU Meat Lab bratwurst - I hope to head over to the market and buy at least 4lb of this next time I visit Ames. They're open from 11:00-1:00 on Fridays so I can't wait to stop by.

2) Gumby's pepperoni rolls - I had some of these when I visited Illinois State back in Nov. They were heavenly

3) West Street Deli capicola and pastrami on panini-style toasted dark rye with mayo, black olives, banana peppers, lettuce and tomato - complicated order, but it is seriously the best sandwich I have ever put in my mouth.

4) Pizza Pit fried buffalo wings - These come in at a close second to my all time favorite fried wings from the Chicken Shoppe in my home town. Unfortunately, the Chicken Shoppe no longer exists and their delicious wings are lost forever.

5) Pizza Pit cheese bread - Italian bread covered in a thick layer of mozzarella and Italian spices then baked until the cheese is gooey and the crust is crispy. Dip it in a cup of fresh marinara sauce and you'll be in heaven.

6) Home Team Chicago-style sausage pizza - For the price, this pizza couldn't be beat. It cost only $6 without any coupon, and it lasted me at least 2 meals. A lot of people didn't like Home Team but I loved them and now that they're closed. The closest location is in Des Moines, and I don't see any indication that they serve this pizza anymore :(

7) Totino's Mexican pizza - OK, this is just frozen pizza, but you Chicagoans think you all are too fancy to stock a $1 Mexican pizza, don't you???

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Macbook woes

On Sunday, I tried to burn a CD in my new Macbook Pro that I bought 6 months ago, but to my dismay it spat the blank disk right back out like a 3 year-old spits out canned spinach. Frustrated, I tried another blank disk, followed by another, but only more 3 year-old fits occured with these disks too. At first, I wanted to give the laptop the benefit of the doubt because my newest CD-R was at least 4 years old (I bought a 50-pack in college). So for sanity's sake I put in a DVD-R that I had burnt a home movie onto to see if the computer would spit that out too. And since you're reading this, you can probably guess that the computer refused to read that disk too. As a last resort I put in the OS X install/restore disks that Apple provided and the computer refused to read those as well. So now I knew something was up and I did some research online and I found out that many people with supposed "bad hardware" had the drive malfunction after the latest Apple superdrive firmware update.

Luckily, my Apple is still under warranty. So I took it into my local Apple store to have tech support verify that my drive was indeed toast. Because I am the luckiest person alive, the first blank CD-R they placed in the drive was read just fine. I got worried. I thought to myself, "These guys are going to force me to take back a broken drive just because this one disk works" Lucky for me, even though the computer recognized this disk, it refused to burn any amount of data to the disk because the "data was too large" according to the on-screen error message. The technician also noticed a weird noise coming from the drive so he said he'd have it replaced. Phew, that was close! Of course he also noticed another problem, which was most likely on the software side that has me worried if replacing the drive will fix. There was only one burn speed , maximum, available. I sure hope the drivers are not corrupt now after the superdrive firmware update and I will be able to set my burn speed again!

While I was still at the Apple store, I decided to bring up another rather minor issue I had noticed since I first received my Mac. I have a magical "J" key that sometimes will not register a keypress even if the key was fully depressed. This probably happened about 50% of the time if I typed fast and with lighter keystrokes. But that day, the key worked wonderfully for the technician. I swear this computer has a mind of its own! Luckily, I was able to reproduce it readily by pressing "J" followed by "K" repeatedly. The technician then removed the key and noted that the rubber spacer under the key was almost completely torn off and that caused the misalignment that caused the key presses not to register. My luck had changed and the technician ordered a new keyboard. They say the parts will be in the store within 2 days and the repair will take up to 2 days. Although I don't like the fact that my computer will be gone for 2 days, they say that no data would be lost if I had the computer repaired in house as opposed to shipping it off to a service center. Yay Apple!

Movies, Molasses, Marklar

Friday was the start of my movie marathon weekend. Well I only saw 3 movies, but that is more than normal! I went to see the Simposons Movie with Tony, Kristin, and her friend. It really didn't seem all that exciting and it seemed like just another episode to me. But I guess after writing a show for 15+ years you start to run out of ideas. It really is one of those movies you should see in the dollar theatre but not shell out the money for the full-price ticket. It was really short, but I was glad because we ended up going to the 11:00PM showing because of random scheduling mix ups along with people going to the wrong place and having to find the rest of the group. Before the movie I had a great piña colada at Bahama Breeze. And before that, I had cooked the chicken saltimbocca for Kristin and Tony to try. Even though I burnt the chicken it was still moist because of how it was cooked and everybody claimed to like it! Kristin even had a second piece (2 days later).

On Saturday I watched Cruel Intentions with Kristin. I remember liking that movie back in the day and I still do, although I have a more jaded viewpoint on the way love works now and I have a hard time believing that somebody could fall in love with another person in a matter of weeks. The movie still showed that you could change for the better and in the end, you'll get killed for it. It's those life lessons that I so adore! (sarcasm)

Molasses Cookies

Blueberry pancakes started the day on Sunday. Kristin came over to make them with me. We put the heat on too high though so they either burned or were slightly undercooked between the blueberries. Next time I'll do better, I swear! We also tried making a recreation of the Walker Brother's flapjacks by adding a lot of extra water to one pancake. It was thin, but it just didn't have the same flavor. I think it was most likely the pancake mix we were using because I remember having a slightly undercooked pancake made at the YMCA with very similar flavor. Walker Brother's probably adds a couple of secret spices to their flapjacks and I bet that's what made them taste so good! Later in the day I watched the Rocky Horror Picture show with Kristin. It was a weird movie, but I had to watch it because people referenced it all the time in college. I really don't know what was so awesome about it though. It kind of reminded me of Clockwork Orange, which is a very very twisted movie. You don't want to watch it.

While watching the movie, we made molasses cookies. Kristin has loved these cookies since childhood, and I really am starting to like them too. While making the cookies, I learned that Cracker Jacks are actually molasses flavored, and not just some crappy caramel flavor like I had thought as a kid. Anyway, Molasses cookies are delicious spice cookies made out of a bunch of tasty spices including, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and of course, molasses! These cookies get my stamp of approval! They kind of remind me of ginger snaps, and I probably have eaten them and mistaken them for ginger snap cookies. I've eaten 10 since making them last night. Good thing we made small ones because I'm sure I'd have eaten more mass-wise if they were bigger!

Chicken Saltimbocca

I was looking for some baked chicken wings with some delicious looking glaze I had seen on Food Network while working out, but I found this first... mmmm. I think I'm going to make it!


Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Show: Everyday Italian


6 (3-ounce) chicken cutlets, pounded to evenly flatten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 paper-thin slices prosciutto
1 (10-ounce) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 (14-ounce) can low-salt chicken broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Place the chicken cutlets flat on the work surface. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Lay 1 slice of prosciutto atop each chicken cutlet.

Squeeze the frozen spinach to remove the excess water. Season the spinach with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, toss the spinach with 1 tablespoon of oil to coat.

Arrange an even, thin layer of spinach atop the prosciutto slices. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over each. Beginning at the short tapered end, roll up each chicken cutlet as for a jellyroll. Secure with a toothpick.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken and cook just until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice, and scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Cover and simmer until the chicken is just cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Simmer the cooking liquid over high heat until it is reduced to about 2/3 cup, about 5 minutes. Season the cooking liquid with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove toothpicks from the chicken. Drizzle the reduced cooking liquid over the chicken and serve immediately.