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

Feeling dejected

Ugh. I'm in a rut.

My baking business isn't going anywhere. I really, really want to give up because I'm afraid it will never get started, and all this effort I'm putting toward it will be for nothing. I need a commercial kitchen to operate if I'm going to be a "business." So far I haven't found one. I know I need to look harder, but I am just so afraid to call people and ask them. I'm afraid of having to "sell" myself to a complete stranger. I can't stand salespeople. I'm afraid that the rent I'd have to pay will be more than any profit I could ever make. And I'm afraid to put a lot of money into this, because what if I don't like it?

My brilliant co-worker Pam suggested that I just operate on a "donation-based" system. That way, I wouldn't be considered a business and wouldn't have to go through all the license and tax B.S. It was what I wanted in the first place. I even felt a few minutes of exhiliration at finally being able to get my baking business rolling. So I put an ad in our bulletin at work. The ad made it for two days before it was pulled and I learned that we can't post ads about people making money in side jobs.

So I feel like I've lost my audience. Now what do I do?

Re-reading this, I feel like I'm being utterly negative about the whole situation. It's often easy for me to focus on the problem instead of the solution. I just want to go home and do nothing today.

To add to this, I've been having motivation troubles all week. I seriously have to push myself to get the littlest thing done at work. Two days ago I was supposed to find a paper online, something that would take all of two minutes, and I haven't even done that yet. I'm just feeling so bored, so uninterested, so much like I don't belong here. I'm not a scientist or a researcher. I'm... a scanner. I like being involved in a multitude of things. I like pursuing new interests all the time. I like having each day be different from the last. I like finding new challenges. I suppose people I work with find their jobs satisfying in those ways, but I don't. I get even more depressed when I realize I have to work here for two more years. I know things will improve, but it's just hard to convince myself of that. The only things that keep me sane and happy are the people I work with and the committees I serve on. I know it'll get better. I guess I'm just in a negative mood today. As Erika said in one of her posts, I'm "seeing the world through black glasses."

Only 4-1/2 hours to go.

Today's Lunch:
Leftover rabbit
Leftover potatoes with cottage cheese
Apple
Probably some kind of chocolate to cheer myself up :)

Bowling League

I wish I had some good pictures for this blog posting. I think that when the day comes where I get a digital camera I will go hog-wild and take pictures of everything I encounter that day, just so I can post them in my blog.

The FPL (where I work) Bowling League is said to be the second-oldest continually-running bowling league in the nation. The FPL has been around since 1910, so I imagine they began their league around that time. Our teams are named after species of wood, so we have the Pines, Walnuts, Maples, etc. The Pines are supposedly the oldest team of the league.

I was a full-time bowler two years ago, and last year and this year I'm a substitute bowler. That means I don't have to come every week, and I don't have to pay any dues.

Bowling is very popular in Wisconsin, so it seems there's a bowling alley on every corner. I've been to some pretty fancy bowling alleys in Madison. There's one where you simply push a button to get the bumpers up, and there are computer screens advising you on which angle to throw the ball to score your spare. But somehow we ended up at the Bowling Green in Middleton (a suburb of Madison). Nice people and all, but the place is not the kind of yuppie bowling-alley you'd see in Madison. It's kind of smoky and dim, with low, tiled ceilings and ugly carpet. The same people have worked there since I started coming to bowling. The women are middle-aged with poorly-died hair and bad fashion sense, and the men aren't much to look at, either. Granted, they seem like nice people, although the one and only cocktail waitress, a lady, doesn't seem to wait on female customers. And the 1980s-era computers used for scoring have been known to break, and our balls often get eaten between frames. Maybe we keep bowling there because they don't charge much. God knows the beer's cheap!

We only have about 24 people in the league, and I'm the youngest FPL employee by about 30 years. A lot of the people in the league are retirees, friends of FPL employees, and family. Some of those retired guys are so old and hunched over that it looks painful to walk, yet they can bowl a 150 three games in a row. Zach is a full-time bowler on a team called the Locusts. His bowling partner is 80 years old.

Not only does the FPL Bowling League have a wide age range among its participants, it also has a wide range of ability. Thank god for handicap scoring! The highest average in our league is about 205, and the lowest is around 98. At the end of the last season, my average was 133.

At the risk of sounding cheesy, I think the best part of the bowling league is getting to know people and have fun. Our league is pretty relaxed and everyone's very supportive of each other. Even if someone gets four gutter-balls in a row, their teammates and opponents will still cheer them on. I'm not a competitive person when it comes to sports, so this is the attitude I like.

And I think it would be really cool if we all had matching polyester bowling shirts like this:


Just kidding!!

Today's Lunch:
Ham and bacon sandwich on whole wheat with Light Miracle Whip and yellow mustard
Apple