Earache

Owww.. I think I have an ear infection. My ears have been really itchy lately and it feels like there's fluid moving around inside of them, but when I put a Q-tip or my fingertip in them there's no wax. They're so itchy! I just want to scratch and scratch and scratch.

I think I developed an ear infection from taking a shower and then using my headphones while there's still water in my ears. After I get this cleared up, I'll have to find headphones that are more breathable. And in the meantime, I'll have to sit on the van without any entertainment. :(

I can't remember the last time I had an earache. I must've been a little kid.

Fortunately, my doctor's office could get me in tomorrow morning, so I should be in good shape after that.

Opinions needed!

I am signing up for the Evansville Primetimers' Pie-Making Contest. Any suggestions on a good pie to enter? I have a really good key lime pie recipe, and I can also make a mean fruit pie. But I want something that will knock their socks off! The winner receives a certificate proclaiming them "the best pie-maker in Evansville."

Also, I'm developing a Thanksgiving menu for my donation-based baking business. I'm trying to figure out what to put on it. Here's what I'm thinking of so far:

• Pumpkin pie
• Apple pie
• Lemon meringue pie
• Pecan pie
• Pecan pie squares
• Pumpkin cheesecake

Any suggestions? I think I would like to have more cookies on the menu, but what cookies are popular at Thanksgiving? I was also thinking of homemade rolls, but would people really want them if they aren't fresh and hot out of the oven?

Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich on whole wheat with yellow mustard
Apple
Popcorn ball

My weekend

Friday night Zach and I went to a Halloween party at a local restaurant (Romano's). We were a little short on costumes - it was kind of a last-minute decision to go. I dressed up in a toga and Zach wore my old hobo clothes. I can't believe I still have that stuff; it's about 5 years old.

Our neighbors got married on saturday and invited us to their wedding reception. We had a nice time talking to them and meeting other people. We did some dancing, too.

Both saturday and sunday I busted my butt getting things done around the house while Zach sat on his ass watching TV. He said he wasn't feeling motivated to do anything. I guess I understand that, we all have our moments, but for an entire weekend? Well, okay, he did the laundry. But that was it! And I realize that he does do things around the house, it's just that he does them on his own time. But I just can't help feeling like a servant when I'm working and cleaning all day while he does nothing. It's things like this that make me wonder how right we are for each other.

Plus he's been really grabby lately. It drives me insane, especially when he's in my face while I'm trying to do something that requires concentration, like sewing or chopping vegetables. I'm afraid I'll accidentally injure someone if I have a knife in my hand while Zach's trying to give me a bear hug. He says he's just trying to show me affection, to which I respond, "well, instead of grabbing my butt you could just give me some flowers."

Today's Lunch:
Leftover pizza (homemade, with pepperoni, green pepper, and feta cheese)
Apple
2 Hershey's kisses

Big birthday cake

A coworker of mine asked me to make a huge cake for her, as her family was celebrating five birthdays. She wanted the cake friday afternoon, so I worked 10 hours monday through thursday so I could take friday off.

The cake-assembling process:

Making the filling (German chocolate):

The final product:


A close-up of the flowers:

I had a lot of fun making and decorating the cake. It was my first tiered cake, too, so I enjoyed having something new to learn. I think the cake could have been more decorated, but we started running out of time and my coworker was happy with it the way it was. I'm really happy with the sunflowers, personally.

Digital camera

I received a digital camera for my birthday!

So here are the pictures I've taken with it. I kinda went crazy at bowling.

Glen.. he's really nice.

Me..

Mike. He's not retired.

Roger.. he's Finnish but not from the U.P.

The Locusts: Zach, Ron and John. Today, John left for Pennsylvania to celebrate his mom's 100th birthday.

Okay, enough bowling pictures.

Here's my silver tea set. I got it at Goodwill for $4. Zach polished it for me on sunday while I was raking leaves.

Before:

After:

And, last but not least...

My office door. The worms and spider come down and touch your head when the door opens. Mwa ha haaaa!

Today's Lunch:
Leftover spaghetti with meatballs
Leftover green beans

Haunted bar

I've discovered that I need more excitement in my life. Lately, I've been feeling kind of lazy and not motivated to go out and do anything. I haven't been riding my bike or hiking or exploring or anything like that. I've just kind of been in a slump, it seems.

So I'm looking for something to do - a class to take, a club to join, something to get me out of the house.

I filled out an application to join the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group. I became interested in the group today, because I was looking for information about The Bar Next Door.

I had heard that The Bar Next Door was haunted. Saturday night Zach and I went there to scope it out. The crowd of people there made it seem like any other bar (20 and 30-somethings laughing, talking, and drinking beer), but there were a few things about it that stood out. First was the fireplace. It was in the middle of the room, and there was a nice, roaring fire going. I've never seen a fireplace in a bar. Second were the pictures of mobsters on the walls. These are related to the history of the bar, which I'll be getting to in a moment. Here is a photo of the bar:

THE HISTORY - In the 1930's there was an Irish family from Chicago's Northwest side; Roger "The Terrible" Tuohey, arch foe of Al Capone, his brother Eddie and two sisters. Capone was too powerful for Tuohey so Tuohey opened up roadhouses away from Chicago to distribute his beer. One of these roadhouses was The Wonder Bar. This was the distribution center to supply illegal alcohol for most of Wisconsin. The Wonder Bar became a safe-house for gangsters traveling in and out of the area. A secret tunnel was put in underground for a fast getaway if needed. The building was built bullet-proof with hidden compartments. Purportedly, there is a body buried behind the fireplace in the second floor banquet room. One story claims these are the bones of one of the Touhey brothers killed in a shootout. Another makes them to be that of someone who crossed the Touhey brothers in a business deal. Eddie Tuohey ran the bar while Roger owned and funded it. It was named The Wonder Bar until 1993 when it changed to The Bar Next Door. It's also Madison's first cigar bar.

Creepy, huh? Unfortunately, I didn't get to leave the main floor, so I didn't see the tunnel entrance or the upstairs fireplace. According to the Southern Wisconsin Paranormal Research Group website, evidence of paranormal activity included:

Occurrences include a feeling of being followed in stairwells, the sound of footsteps descending the staircase after hours, unexplained noises of loud thuds and rattling glasses, lights turning on and off, unexplained smells of body odor, citrus, and mustiness that last for one hour and then dissipate, shadows of people being seen by customers, ex-employees seeing a man in a fedora and long coat and a woman with long red hair and white dress during closed hours, portraits, bottles, and cigar boxes falling off of walls and secured shelves, doors slamming closed, being poked in the back when alone in a room, chairs found in a different location and position other than when last placed after hours.

The science person in me doesn't really believe this stuff, but the spiritual side of me does. I think it would be really cool to join the club and see if I can go on an expedition.

Unrelated to haunted buildings, I'm also thinking of taking a class. I've looked at the classes offered by community colleges and the university, and am thinking of taking a course on either Dreamweaver, fire fighting, cooking, Photoschop, or history. It depends on what my cash flow is.

Any other ideas for putting more excitement into my life?

Today's Lunch:
Bagel sandwich (wheat) with peanut butter (Jif)
Banana
Baby Butterfinger bar

Aunt Crystal

I'm going to be an aunt!

My sister Becky and her boyfriend Alfonso are expecting their first child in June. Becky found out she was pregnant almost two weeks ago, and has since started a baby blog. You can read her blog here.

And those of you who are moms, I'm sure she'd appreciate your comments and help as she goes through her pregnancy. She says she's already feeling bloated and nauseus (hopefully she won't start puking).

Hooray for being an aunt!

Random thought of the day: In the game Monopoly, did they include a $200 bonus on the "Go" square because, when the game was being developed, people kept losing their money too quickly early on?

Today's Lunch:
Turkey and yellow mustard on whole wheat
Apple
Popcorn ball

Adventures in cake-making

Last night I had a little accident in the kitchen.

I spent a lot of time making this fantastic sour cream coffee cake for my coworker JT. The recipe required mixing baking soda with the sour cream and letting it sit for an hour (it was really cool when it got foamy), and then mixing the ingredients together and putting them in a tube pan (angel food cake pan) with alternating layers of strudel.

By the time the cake was done, it was 12:15 in the morning. I took it out of the oven and inverted the pan over an empty beer bottle (Leinie's Sunset Wheat), and... the cake fell out of the pan, hit the counter, completely collapsed, and crashed down onto the floor. It was a big, sticky mess. I think Kitty knew I was upset because she sat in the doorway with a somewhat sympathetic look on her face (right, like cats have facial expressions). I cleaned up the floor but left the cake on the countertop; I just didn't feel like dealing with it at the moment. I was feeling upset for a few reasons:

• I ruined JT's cake, and that I didn't have any more sour cream so I couldn't make him another one
• I felt bad that JT was expecting the cake today, and there was no way I could make him another one last night because the grocery store was closed
• I wanted to be professional, since JT is a paying customer, and do whatever it takes to give him his cake on the day I said I would. But it just couldn't happen.
  
• The cake fiasco officially happened on my birthday, so I felt that the day had gotten off to a rotten start

I wanted to get a decent night's sleep so I could enjoy the rest of my day as much as possible. So I finished reading "My Friend Leonard," by James Frey, and went to bed.

This morning I sampled the cake left on the countertop. It was awesome. It's layers of rich vanilla cake with a cinnamon-walnut streusel swirled through it. I was pretty hungry, so I threw it away before eating too much of it and chowed down some Frosted Mini Wheats.

I would've taken the day off today from work, but I have two meetings, including my annual review with my project leader. I think I will leave early, hit the library, and rent some kind of movie. Then I'll spend my afternoon relaxing on the couch with my bison blanket on my lap, upon which a little white cat will be relaxing, too.

Today's Lunch (I went a little crazy cuz it's my b-day!):
Turkey sandwich on whole wheat with Light Miracle Whip and cheddar cheese
A whole "Big Grab" bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos
Apple
2 pieces of peanut butter chocolate

Random thoughts and bowling

Last night I rocked the haus in bowling. I got a 189, my all-time high. However, I've bowled a 189 before, so it wasn't that special. Now, if I could only beat that...

I'm thinking of buying this hutch for our dining room. I found it on craig's list. I will definitely strip it, and, if the wood looks bad, repaint it.



Crystal's Free Association

Goth movement: It's a great way for angst-ridden teens to express their dark feelings about the world. Confused, depressed, and can't stand authority figures? Dress in black and start wearing white foundation with black eyeliner. This will show the world how you feel without having to utter a single word. Other goth people will be drawn to you, and you can all be sorrowful and sullen together.

Bottled water: Awful. Our country has spent millions of dollars providing safe drinking water in every little community, and now we're paying $1.20 for 20 oz. of water out of a faucet in L.A. Meanwhile, more than a billion people in the world don't have reliable access to safe drinking water (article here). Does anyone else think this is ridiculous?

Ric Ocasek (lead singer of The Cars): Not the cutest man I've ever seen, but great music. I've been listening to Panorama, and I'm seriously in love. And this isn't that poppy "Best Friend's Girl" B.S., either.



Cat Scratch Fever: That stupid song won't get out of my head. For months, whenever I'm trying to think of something, that song enters my head instead of useful thoughts. It's driving me nuts.

Tommy Lee, Dustin Diamond, and Jessica Simpson: Media hogs.

Today's Lunch:
The last of the gumbo (chicken, andouille sausage, okra)
Gingersnap

Jerk

I have this co-worker who has no people skills. He's also a jerk.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the floor in the hallway cleaning a cabinet I brought in for a silent auction. The paper towels I was using were of the flimsy, public-bathroom variety. Our janitors here use these soft, thick, disposable paper towels that work much better, but I couldn't find any. When the co-worker came by to see what I was doing, I asked him if he had any of the janitor paper towels. He went to his office, grabbed a few, and came back. He then proceeded to wave the towels just over my head, moving them out of reach when I attempted to take them. Then he said, "now what do you say?"

Annoyed already, I said, "thanks."
Then he said, "bark, come on, bark. I want to hear you bark."
I said, "I will not bark for those paper towels, it is degrading and stupid."
He said, "well, I guess you don't really want them."
I said, "no, I'm almost done. I don't really need them anyway." So he gave them to someone else instead, who just handed them to me.

I was pretty furious.

Whipped cream

Today I had my first experience whipping cream. It was much easier than I thought it would be. I simply put the bowl and beater in the freezer for a few minutes, took them out, poured in the cream, and turned the mixer on. Voila! The cream began to stiffen and before long it was the perfect consistency. I mixed in some vanilla and sugar, and it was ready to go. I used it on a banana cream pie that I made for a coworker. He also ordered some gingersnaps and raspberry-coconut bars. I was a busy girl last night, baking for 4 hours straight.

I need to raise the prices for my baking business. The price I charge covers the cost of the ingredients, plus a little more for labor, but I should be charging more for labor. Some of the things I make are very labor-intensive, like decorated cakes and some cookies. My co-worker Mike, who came in second place in his college's young entrepreneur contest, said most small businesses make the mistake of not charging enough money for their goods, thinking they'll make up for it in volume. Well, I'm sure I've made that mistake. He gave me an equation to determine how much to charge based on labor and ingredient cost.

I have a lot of things at home that I need to tend to. The leaves in the yard need to be raked, the gutters need to be cleaned, and I have fabric to make roman shades for the bedrooms. The roman shades hopefully won't take too long, since my mom and I already made some and I'm kind of familiar with the process.

Today I played Stalker Chick and called a few people trying to get ahold of my friend Chad from high school. He lives in southern Michigan, and as I drove past the exit to his town a couple weeks ago, I thought of him and wondered what he's been up to. I haven't seen him since 10th grade, I think. So I looked for other people with his last name on whitepages.com, called them, told them who I was, and eventually they gave me his number. Now I just need to call him.

Tonight's bowling. I have a drink coupon from a beer frame a couple weeks ago, so I may have to get something tasty to drink.

Today's Lunch:
Went to lunch with former co-worker Rachel at Noodles & Co. Had small mac & cheese and side salad. The side salad was not fresh at all, and I didn't eat much of it. But the mac & cheese was a piece of pure heaven, as usual (drool).

Commitment

I realized something over the weekend - I'm reluctant to commit. To anything. My job, my boyfriend, my life. I'm finding it difficult to make decisions that I feel confident in. In the past, I've sabotaged my happiness by doing destructive things.

So.. how does one commit? This is something I will have to talk to my therapist about.

Today's Lunch:
2 slices leftover pepperoni pizza (yes!)
Apple
Popcorn ball

Dishwasher Love

I love our new dishwasher. Zach installed it last weekend while I was out of town, so when I got back on sunday it was all ready to go. I've used it twice since then, and it's so wonderful. At night, when I am cleaning up the kitchen, it's like all I have to do is snap my fingers and it's clean. No more stacking, rinsing and washing dishes. No more pesky silverware to clean. No more mixing bowls to towel-dry because they don't fit in our dish rack. I love it.

Every morning, when I get up and look in the dishwasher, I am amazed at how clean our dishes are. I pick them up, turn them over in my hand, just looking for globs of food. But there are none (except in my cookie scoop - I guess it didn't receive enough spraying action). You never realize how truly wonderful dishwashers are until you go five years without one. Especially if you're like me and do a lot of baking and cooking.

It's also nice to use a fresh, clean glass every morning. Before I would use the same water glass for about two days, or until it just got funky. Now I don't feel guilty getting a clean water glass out of the cupboard. We used to eat foods like sandwiches and pizza on paper plates, but now we can use real plates and not feel bad about washing a plate that only has a few crumbs on it.

Relaxing evening

Ahh, tonight will be nice. We have enough leftover gumbo to feed an army, so for once I won't have to cook. And no one needs cookies tomorrow, so I won't have to bake. I do have some homemade applesauce sitting on our 3-season porch/outdoor food storage area, but I think it can wait one more day before being put away. I'm just too exhausted to can anything. Canning can be scary.

I'm leaving work early today because I'm feeling the onset of a cold. Plus I'm just plain exhausted from cooking and baking all week. So when I get home, I'm going to lay on my couch with my bison blanket over me, and Kitty will sit in my lap, and together we'll watch Season 6 of Sex and the City so I can finally find out what Mr. Big's name is. Zach told me it's John, but I need to see it for myself.

Zach is leaving for JP's (the Bet Sig, for those of you who went to MTU) bachelor party in the Twin Cities tomorrow morning. So Kitty and I will have the house to ourselves for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be so quiet. I think I will work on making curtains. And I can watch whatever I want on TV.

I'm thinking of giving Zach a suit for his birthday, which is in November. He's been wearing this ugly hand-me-down from his step-dad and needs something stylish that fits him.

Today's Lunch:
Leftover gumbo (chicken, andouille sausage, and okra)
Banana
2 pieces of chocolate

Cooking is fun

One of the reasons why I like cooking is because there are endless techniques that could be learned. I suppose the same could be said about my job, but I find cooking more exciting.

I've encountered a few new techniques in the last couple of days. I started making gumbo on monday, and the recipe I had said to buy a whole chicken, cut it into pieces, and cook them. Buying the chicken was easy - it was only $4 at the Pig. Cutting it into pieces was more difficult. Is there some kind of meat butchering class I could take? I was standing in the kitchen, my hands covered in chicken goo, for almost two hours trying to take the darn thing apart. I found the joints but couldn't separate the bones by strength alone. And then I kept cracking the ribs, so now I'm afraid of finding bone splinters in the food. I ended up snipping and sawing through bones, trying to separate the thigh from the hip and the wing from the arm. It was really tough. I told this lady I work with about it, and she said she's taken chickens apart before. She said she'd be willing to teach me, too. So maybe I will buy a couple of chickens and a bottle of wine and spend an evening at her house, mastering the art of chicken butchering. Zach and her husband can drink beer and watch TV or something.

Tonight I'm going to American TV, an appliance store, to figure out what kind of new oven I want and determine its cost so I know how much money to save. I want a convection oven sooo badly but will have to see if it's economically feasible.

I was planning to take the day off for my birthday next week but have a group meeting that day and then my annual review with my supervisor. Bummer. Maybe I will leave early.

Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich on whole wheat bread with yellow mustard
Banana
2 chocolate chip cookies

El Chico

Last weekend I went to lower Michigan to visit my "kid," Meagan. She lives in Big Rapids with her dad and her boyfriend and is attending Ferris State for optometry school. Her dad's place is on a lot of land with apple trees, so they had a cider-pressing party. By the time I got there, the cider was gone, but I made up for it by drinking beer and eating s'mores. Yum!

Sunday morning I drove down to Plainwell to see my brother, Tom (aka Chico). We started calling him Chico a long time ago, when he was smaller than me. Here's how it began: my mom bought me some new pajama pants, and on the tag the size said "Small - Chico." Then I heard from somewhere that Chico means "little brother" in Spanish, so that's how we started calling Tom Chico. It used to bug him ("Just call me plain old Tom"), but we did it anyway. I don't know if it still bugs him; he hasn't complained about it lately.

We had a nice time together. He showed me his dorm room, and then the rest of the school. The school is MCTI (Michigan Career and Technical Institute) and is located about 10 miles from Plainwell, kind of in the boonies. The school is great because it's on a lake, and you can tell they've tried to provide a lot of activities for residents, like archery and bowling and movies. But I think Tom still gets bored there. He said he spends a lot of time in his room playing video games. He has a roommate, but he leaves on the weekends, so I think Tom spends a lot of time alone. I know how it is to be lonely, and even though we only got to hang out for a few hours, I could tell it kind of helped him.

We went to Plainwell and had some lunch at a bar. Then we drove to the end of town to see what was there, and we stopped at a couple of dollar stores and a Goodwill. At Goodwill I bought what seemed to be a silver tea set (a tea pot, sugar bowl and cream pitcher). I thought they looked really cool and antique, and even if they're not real silver, they'd still look great in my "china hutch." I also found a chessboard made with two types of wood (one light and one dark for the squares) and the pieces seemed to be hand-carved. It was $5 so I bought it.

Our "china hutch"



We also stopped at Meyer's, where I bought Tom some food. Then we hit up a tractor supply store so Tom could check out the tools.

We had so much fun together. It reminded me of when I was a teenager and would make Tom go on adventures with me. Together we explored a hiking trail and a bog. We also would drive around the country in my truck pretending to be Bonnie and Clyde. We camped out on Heart Attack Hill to watch the sun rise on the summer solstice, but accidentally slept in and missed it. We picked tons of blueberries and juneberries one summer and made pies. One time, we were going to make pies in the summer, and instead of choosing a berry to make his pie with, Tom wanted a pumpkin pie. So we made pumpkin pie in July. Speaking of baking, when he came to visit us in February, he insisted on making the entire recipe's worth of gingersnaps, which turned out to be about 9 dozen. I was eating gingersnaps for a couple weeks after that, but they were delicious. We rented the movie "Captain Blood," a 1930s-era pirate movie with Errol Flynn. Once we were at our aunt and uncle's lake near Cadillac, and a couple of snails washed ashore. We named them Fred and Betty and watched them for the whole day. I like hanging out with Tom because he's fun to talk to and has the same crazy imagination as me. And we both like to talk a lot.

Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich on whole wheat with yellow mustard
Leftover acorn squash, roasted and cooked with a dash of butter and brown sugar and salt and pepper
Banana
Small peanut butter cup

#@%! Cinnamon Rolls

Today I filled my first custom baking order. My coworker asked for a dozen cinnamon rolls. I found a really great recipe and took a chance and used it for his rolls. They turned out sooo good, but not without a fight. The problems I encountered:

• Last night it took forever (2 hours) for the yeast to start activating. I ended up putting hot water in a large pot, then set my bowl of dough on top of it. It finally rose.
• Then I rolled the dough to make the actual rolls, but I forgot to put raisins in it! Once it was rolled up it wasn't going to come apart, so I just put raisins on top of the rolls and frosted over them.
• The last time I made cinnamon rolls, I put the assembled rolls in the refrigerator and by morning they had completely risen. Then I just had to pop them in the oven. I thought it would work the same this time, but it didn't. When I got up, the rolls were just as small as they were last night, so I took them out of the fridge and tried to get them to rise by sticking them in the oven with a pan of hot water beneath them. When that didn't work fast enough, I took the rolls out of the oven, turned the oven on to 350 for 2 minutes, turned it off, and put the rolls in. After doing that a couple of times, the rolls finally rose and eventually looked beautiful. I could finally start baking them.

The rest was golden. I made the icing, iced the rolls, let them cool, and ate one in the meantime. The roll was perfectly tender, not too dry, with ooey-gooey frosting and cinnamon flavor in every bite. When I baked them, I had put some butter and cinnamon-sugar on the pan beneath the rolls (which is actually the top when you buy them) and it gave a nice, buttery taste to the rolls. It was delicious. I am definitely going to use that recipe again. And next time I will use my special dough-rising techniques right away.

Cavities and hair

Oh man, I just can't believe it. I have 3-1/2 cavities. What is a half cavity, you ask? Well, the dentist said I definitely have three cavities, and he suspects a fourth one but won't know for sure until one of the others is filled. I am so bummed. I've only had 1 cavity my whole life, and now I suddenly have 5. My coworker Ted recommended asking for the gas when they fill those puppies. I don't know what "the gas" does, but maybe I will look into it. I got my first cavity in college. It was pretty shallow, so my dentist at the time (a sadist, I think) filled it without giving me any painkillers. It hurt like a mo-fo. I suddenly understood why people dreaded going to the dentist.

After that I had a haircut. I get my hair cut at RZ & Company, a salon/spa in Madison. I used to not really care about my hair; I'd just let any ol' person cut it. Two years ago, after receiving yet another disappointing haircut from Cost Cutters, I decided to go somewhere fancy. I looked at the top 3 salons in The Best of Madison, and the #1 salon didn't list their prices on their website (bad sign). But RZ & Co., the #2 salon, cost only $25. So I decided to try them out, and was very impressed. I love the way my hair falls, and it's never been so healthy. I was a faithful RZ & Co. client for 2 years until last month, when I needed a trim. I had an appointment booked but accidentally missed it. By then the rates for RZ & Co. had hiked up to $32, and I decided to save some cash by getting my hair cut in Evansville. It was then that I realized how important it is to get a good haircut. After my Evansville haircut, my ends felt dry, like the lady's scissors weren't sharp enough. And it just didn't fall right. So yesterday Jessica, my RZ stylist, got me all fixed up and now my hair looks good again. She's the best.

Today's Lunch:
Turkey and salami sandwich on whole wheat with yellow mustard
Apple
Random cookie

Quick Update

Well, I have my very first dentist appontment in five years today (I know, I'm bad), so wish me luck! My teeth are occasionally sensitive, but not long enough for me to think I have any cavities. But still.. they could be lurking there inside my mouth. That's why I waited to get dental insurance before making my appointment.

Today, I decorated my office with some Halloween paraphernalia. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I always liked it when I was a kid because it's close to my birthday, so it was like I got to celebrate two important holidays in one month. Plus, I love acting and wearing costumes, so Halloween for me is a time to be somebody different for the day. I think this year I'll be some kind of zombie. I may even wear a costume to work .

We bought a "new" dishwasher over the weekend. This couple bought a brand new house with all appliances installed, but they wanted stainless appliances instead of the white ones that came with the house. So we bought their dishwasher, a Whirlpool Energy Star, for $225. It still had the wrapping on it. I think we got a good deal on it. The hard part is installing the thing. Our kitchen countertops are too low for the dishwasher to go under them, so Zach has to raise them, which means he'll need to raise the sink, too. So he's going to jack up the sink, install a new faucet with longer pipes or something, put some shims beneath the countertop, install the wiring, stuff the dishwasher in there, and then we'll be in dishwashing heaven! And I even have a 3-day weekend (thanks to Christopher "I Torture Indians" Colombus), so I'll have an extra day to enjoy it.

Okay, off to the dentist!

Today's Lunch:
Dannon Natural Yogurt in vanilla flavor
Bag of popcorn (yes! it's popcorn day!)
2 (yes, 2) bananas
Apple

So bad but so good

Whenever I need a good laugh (or am just bored) I go to Snarkywood. It's this fantastic website where a board of writers (comedians?) write the cattiest things about Hollywood celebrities. Here's an example (from the Emmys):

Jen: From the new flick On Her Majesty's Sexy Secret Service, where 007 is licensed to kill - but not to wax.

Lauren: "Is Pouuula here? I've got to show off my manhood."

Martha: Impressive pelt, but he's no rival for The Hoff.

Susie: Dressing like a Soprano eases the burden of air conditioners.

Some of my favorite snarky posts:

We Love Downward Spiral Britney
Celine Dion - Our Hate Will Go On

You can find posts about your least-favorite celebs at the Snarkywood Archives.

Today's Lunch:
Ham sandwich on wheat with yellow mustard
Apple
Banana-bran muffin