Stuff

I don't want to say that I'm not blogging much lately but I had to make four tries at my password before I guessed the right one. In my defense, someone hacked my google account last summer and it always takes me a couple of tries to get the "new" password right. *sigh*

Anyway, I recently bought a donut pan and decided to create my own kind of donut. It was based on a tried an true recipe but the final result was one of my own making. I was going for a chocolate peanut butter donut because that sounded good in my head. I wrote down the ingredients in case they came out okay, or if they came out good enough that I'd want to "enhance" them at a later date (which was the case, by the way). I haven't played with it since but here's the original recipe:

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 teaspoon baking sode
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons chocolate hazelnut butter
1-1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup raw sugar

I forgot to write down the temperature and how long I baked them but looking at the base recipe, I would say 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.

When I decided to make the donuts I thought I would melt the peanut butter and chocolate but didn't feel like wasting the time it would take so I just combined everything into a bowl, mixed it up, poured it into the sprayed pan and popped them in the oven.

Next time I will melt the peanut butter and chocolate and will use more of both. But I guess the point is, I will make them again.

In other cooking news, I made Mushroom Turnovers the other day. You'd have to understand that I'm kind of afraid of mushrooms to understand the importance of this act. For a year or so now I'll periodically buy mushrooms because I want to try them (mostly because of their vitamin D content) but I seem to end up throwing them out a few weeks later as the science project begins in my refrigerator. But this time I cooked them. And ate them! The recipe doesn't say anything about chopping up the sliced white mushrooms but I did chop them into as small of pieces as I could get them into because I didn't think I'd be able to even try the turnovers otherwise. Turns out, they're not that bad. I had a mushroom turnover this afternoon for lunch and I actually forgot about the mushroom content. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but I'm telling you, it was history making! :)

I watched Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake today. I liked it much more than I thought I would. Some might wonder why I'd get the movie if I was anticipating not liking it. I can't answer that because I honestly don't remember adding it to my Netflix queue and I apparently bumped it up the ranks after doing so. But the point is, I did like it - a lot.

Ditto for I Don't Know How She Does It with Sarah Jessica Parker, with the exception of I watched it yesterday. I don't know what I expected from these movies but they were light and fun . . . a good thing.

Did you know that the Game Show Network is airing past seasons of Dancing With The Stars? They started yesterday and they started with season 4 - the season Apolo Anton Ohno won. I've watched every episode of the show that has aired and when the "stars" came out, there was one I didn't remember. Her professional partner was also a one season wonder. They were the "Ken and Barbie" couple. The only thing that came back to me after watching the show was that they stayed too long at the party!

Speaking of staying too long at the party, did you hear that Emily Maynard (the one Brad gave the final rose to in his second run on The Bachelor) is going to be the next Bachelorette? I haven't watched the series from the beginning. In face, I saw the very last episode of Brad's first run and started watching then. I skipped Brad's repeat and believe I'll be doing the same for Emily. I have to think the franchise is not doing well if this is what it's coming down to!

Sex and the City

I went to see Sex and the City Thursday evening with my best friend. I really wanted to see it but fully expected to be disappointed because the clips used to promote the movie didn't make it look like a good movie, in my opinion.



And maybe it was the low expectation that resulted in me being pleasantly surprised but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It showed the what the character's lives were like two years later. I found it to be very relatable. There are those who say that it shouldn't have taken the ladies out of New York but it fit the storyline well.



It brought back all the characters we loved from the series and wrapped up any unanswered questions / unresolved issues from the last movie. And while I would go to see another SATC movie if another were made, I think this was a great way to end the franchise. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it.



What about you? Have you - or do you plan to - seen it? If you have, what did you think?

Best Kiss

I stayed home from work today because, well, I kind of wanted to. I mean, there were legitimate reasons for me TO stay home - like I came home to a busted window last night that needed repairing and I needed more poison - er medication - for Harley. And a storm is coming tomorrow, which makes it harder to get some things done (like grocery shopping). So today was a good day to get things done - so I took a personal day.

Anyway, after I got things done (actually it was all done before lunch, if you can believe that...and that was with me heading out to the vet - which is 25 miles away - TWICE - poor Harley), I decided to watch some things on my DVR.

I just finished watching Derailed with Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston. I won't spoil (much) if you haven't seen it. It's a thriller. But there is one scene in it that I loved. Owen and Aniston's characters are sitting in the bar and he says "I'll bet you $20 I can kiss you without ever touching your lips." She takes the bet and then he kisses her and says "It was worth every penny." I really liked that scene.

I also really liked the movie. It was different and not what I expected.

But I really liked that scene. I think it's my new favorite kiss scene. And I wonder, would that line would work in real life? ;-)

What about you? Do you have a favorite kiss scene from a movie? If so, please share. :-)

More Miscellany

Well, Slime Boy (the probably married man that asked me out) got let go. He was supposed to work until the end of the month but his agency informed us they were pulling him because he wasn't showing up. Someone from our group (not me) said they we were okay with him still coming back because we had things for him to do but supposedly the agency said no - that this wasn't his first time to pull this kind of thing. Oh well, guess we're not going to make it to lunch after all.

As for school, I went to my first "big girl college" class on Thursday. If I haven't shared it here, I'm taking a class on Shakespeare's works. I missed the first class because I hadn't been cleared to register until this past Tuesday. They had been assigned to read the first three acts of A Midsummer's Night Dream. We (and by "we" I mean "they" - since I hadn't read it yet) discussed it Thursday night. I was surprised by the enthusiastic participation in the class. That's not typical of what I remember about classes and certainly not what I'm seeing in my Government class. However, it did occur to me that Government is required so that people are not there because they want to be, whereas there may be some in Shakespeare that don't want to be but, for the most part, people are in it because they want to be. Therefore the people in the Shakespeare class would be more enthusiastic. In any event, I'm enjoying both classes so far. Although...I do have to turn in an assignment for the Shakespeare class on Thursday and I have three more acts to read...

This past week at work was very hectic. A co-worker of mine was out sick with the flu so I had to step in and fill in for her. Which normally isn't a big deal except that she has several people in her group traveling to Saudi Arabia this next week - and that requires a business visa. And that requires a lot of work and coordination to pull it off. There was a last minute addition to the team going and there is so much you have to do to pull it together. I sent off the request for the required Letter of Invitation the traveler needed Wednesday morning. Thing is, that's Wednesday evening for them and their weekend is Thursday and Friday, which meant they wouldn't get my request until their Saturday morning. Since we were told that if the consulate didn't have this traveler's package by 10:00 am on Monday, he wouldn't be going, I went in to the office yesterday so I could work the issue if it wasn't in my inbox. I had nothing in my email so I started shooting off emails because I knew they were no longer in the office. I provided them with my home phone number and email so that they could send it here so that I wouldn't have to go into the office today. I worked for a couple of hours (since I was there anyway) and then came home. I woke up this morning and didn't have an email from them. Shit! I went into the office, hoping I had email there. I'd forgotten to set my alarm so I didn't have time to do anything (like shower!) before I went in, if I needed to contact them when they were in the office. Again, there was no email. I wasn't certain of the time difference but I started making international calls like crazy and freaking out when all I got was voicemail. I left messages, leaving my work and home numbers begging them to call me and let me know the status of the request. About ten minutes later I got a call. Come to find out the letter of invitation had gone out their Saturday afternoon, only they hadn't copied me on the email. Fortunately they forwarded it to me so I was able to put together what I could...now the traveler just has to provide the rest of the documents. Meanwhile, someone else traveling to the Netherlands had a letter of invitation and it wasn't even needed! LOL Just a busy week.

Oh, and in other work news, I posted for a job that I really really want and they called to schedule an interview!!! I really suck at interviews so I asked a friend for some tips and she sent me to monster.com, which has some good tips. However, it suggests you ask the interviewer questions about themselves (because everyone likes to talk about themselves). I don't think I can do that. It says it's good to ask that when they ask you if you have any questions because interviewers hate it when you say you don't have any questions - that they've covered it all (which could explain why I suck at interviews, considering that's usually what I say to that). Anyway, if you have any interviewing tips or possible interview questions, please tell me. The interview is Tuesday and I really want to nail it!

Well, Eight Below just came on and I think I need to turn the TV off, since I bawled like a baby when I saw the TRAILER! Yeah, that wasn't at all embarrassing or anything.

So, what's new with you?

There is no I in TEAM

But, as a former boss of mine pointed out, there is a "ME" in team. I work with a group of women who can come together when we have to but for the most part, everyone's out for themselves. Remember when I told you what we were going to do for bosses' day? Well, one staff support wasn't going to be able to make it on the day we'd originally scheduled it. She was disappointed but she was looking for the best interest of the group and still said she'd take care of the things she'd agreed to do. Her buddy, however, decided to boycott the thing. She didn't say it was because her friend couldn't make it but it was pretty obvious. And she made it very difficult for the rest of us for a while. To the point I didn't care if it even happened.

Well, last week, when I was pretty much at my wits end (I ended up taking off half a day Thursday and all day Friday of last week...before I went postal) when I received an email from the "difficult" one, instructing me to change the date. She wanted it to be tomorrow. I looked at calendars and it did actually look like a good date (October wasn't really a good month for any of the bosses - there was just the one day that I had booked), so I resent the meeting notice to everyone.

So okay, we're doing it earlier. Those that haven't started preparations had less time (the buycostumes.com site was pretty much sold out of everything we needed within days of when we'd made decisions a couple of months ago). And then Tuesday - three days before the event - the staff support that would have had to miss it on the original date comes to me and tells me she doesn't want to play the game. The fact that I didn't beat the snot out of her is a testament to my restraint (as well as the healing powers of the full body massage I got Thursday afternoon).

Anyway, we tweaked the game a bit and it might even be more fun now. There's only one thing I don't like about the new way but I guess it ensures we're all involved in the game so I can deal with it. Now the celebrities won't rotate around the tables but rather sit at the front of the room. There won't only be three questions asked - all ten will be asked (the staff support will be asking them and that's what I'm not happy about, but it's really not bad). It was thought that it might be hard to figure out some of the celebrities so we decided to help out by having stars on the walls with the possible guesses (with a few red herrings) printed on them. They're going to be brought (in character - we all bought costumes for our guys) back into the room based on the most right answers for a celebrity so doing the music like we originally thought we'd do is out. But I was looking for some music last night and found this for when the celebrities leave the room and the teams are "deliberating" their answers, and this for the time when the "ballots" are being tabulated and the celebrities are getting dressed - it's a bit fuzzy but since it's just filler, it doesn't really make that big of a deal. Everyone seemed to like the idea. Someone is bringing in a strobe light so that when the celebrities reappear it gives the illusion of flashbulbs.

Everyone gets a bit a prize and the winning table (most celebrities guessed - and we do have a plan in the event of a tie) gets meal tickets for our cafeteria (most the guys eat there anyway so they'd probably really like that).

Bottom line, for a while there I wasn't looking forward to it but I'm getting excited about it again. I even made potato salad this evening for forty. Do you know how much potato salad that is??? A LOT!

Anyway, hopefully I'll have pictures available tomorrow to be able to post but if not, early next week at the latest. I really think it's going to be fun. But if it goes as well as I'm thinking, I'm already wondering how we can top it next year.

I'm excited. Oh, but it's still a secret so don't tell anyone yet. ;-)

Hairspray

I went to see Hairspray this afternoon and absolutely loved it. It's one I'll probably have to buy when it comes out on DVD. The lead, Nikki Blonsky, was great, as was John Travolta as her mother. It was a fun, upbeat movie. And it had a message! It was better than I expected it to be. Always a good thing. :o)

So, what movies have you seen lately?