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!

More Random Stuff

I was leaving the office today and somehow realized I was heading towards the stairs. I never do that. I know I should, but I don't. Anyway, I headed down the stairs and went down two flights of stairs and came out. I headed around the corner towards the exit, only it wasn't there. And then it dawned on me...I started out on the fourth floor, not the third!!!

That's actually why I saw a lady I work with on her way out. She was talking to someone when I came up on her and something was said about having to take her husband to a doctor that night - he was waiting on her. So, when we weren't done with all the talking we could've done when we reached the cars I kind of cut her off and told her I knew she needed to go, was she available for lunch tomorrow? She said she was, and then proceeded to tell me everything we would've discussed tomorrow at lunch. So now I have lunch plans for tomorrow with someone I'll have nothing to talk about with.

Which, is kind of what my ex-husband did again today. I had called on Monday because I was having a panic attack over the papers I completed (I answered every last question on the questionnaire!). It turns out that either my ex or I can go and read what everyone wrote - including each other. It isn't that I care if he knows what I put but it seemed kind of personal and initially I wanted to know if he was going to go read my stuff. I got his voicemail and said I had something I wanted to talk to him about. But, he never called me. It was kind of bothersome for me. I mean, I know it shouldn't have been but it was. So, today I decided to call him again because I wanted him to know I'd sent the stuff in. He didn't pick up the phone and someone got back on the phone and said they'd page him. Then they came back and asked who was calling. I was seriously starting to get a complex about it when he picked up the phone. (He asked if I'd called earlier in the week and long story short, he said he hasn't listened to his voicemail messages. He was a chronic liar when we were married so that may or may not be true - not really important at this point.) Anyway, I asked if it was a bad time and he said no but that he did have to go into a meeting in a few minutes. We talked for over an hour again. I kept telling him that he needed to go but he kept wanting to talk. He did that last time we talked too. The conversations have been pleasant but I'm not looking to strike up a friendship with him. I know he's changed since we've divorced but he cheated on me and I will always be questioning his motives because of that. So, it was comfortable but creepy, all at the same time, if you know what I mean.

So, I went to classes last night (missed last week because of the migraine!). I think there may be someone out there who obsesses about their grades more than I do. I'm taking a Planetary Geology class and we have three tests, including the final. They will all either carry equal weight for the overall grade (with no other variables factored in) or he will drop the lowest test grade and count the final twice (he says people generally do better on the finals than the other two tests). Anyway, someone was stressing about it and talked to the instructor about it so he decided he would give us quizzes throughout the semester now - starting next week - that will factor into our grade as well. So now, instead of three tests we're going to have something like eight (basically one every other week). So thank you obsessive person because with everything else going on in my life, I had five minutes left over every month. And now I know how I will be spending it! Grrrr!

I'm wondering, how do sign your letters? Or do you? At work I sign mine "Regards". It seemed nice enough. That is, until someone sent me a reply that said "Warm Regards". That seemed better than just plain ol' "Regards". And someone else sent an email signed "Kind Regards". Seriously, making me look bad. Then came the big daddy of them all, "Best Regards" I mean, you can't get any better than that, can you? So, I'm thinking of changing my signature line to reflect what, in light of all the other "regards" out there make mine look like, it comes across as - even if it's not what was intended. I'll sign off here with what I'm thinking...let me know what you think.

Whatever,
Lucy

Random Thoughts

I was reading someone else's blog a bit ago and the phrase "talk her off a ledge" was used and it got me to thinking. What exactly does that mean? I mean, I know that its intent is that there is someone standing out on a ledge and another person maybe goes out on the ledge with them to get them to come back in the window of the top floor skyscraper. But, what if it meant that someone just yelled things like "DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!!!" at them. Or, "I don't believe you'd really jump - I dare ya." Or things like that. After all, they'd be talking them off the ledge...just not the way you'd normally think.

Rapid change of topic

We had a baby shower today at work. One of my guys came to me at the end of the year and said he thought we should have a baby shower for one of our second line supervisors. He later added on another one of our co-workers to the festivities. It was up to me to schedule a time and place to have it (at work, during business hours) and get the cake and drinks. So, I sent out invitations the middle of last month and put off shopping until Saturday. I went to Baby's R Us and bought things off the registry for both new dads. Last week I ordered the cake. This morning I got up early and went out and bought everything else. Well, the guy who had coordinated our doing this came into my office this morning and had me sign a group card. I thought it was awesome that he thought of that because I totally didn't. Then he tells me that some of the guys went in on getting one of the fathers a gift card for bass fishing stuff and the other one gift cards to restaurants.

Huh? It was a baby shower!!!!! But whatever, they'll have other gifts from those that didn't contribute, right? Uh, no. That was the entire gift from everyone else. The only exception was one of the fathers got a bag of gifts for the other father - and what I bought each of them. I hadn't put a card on my stuff so when they opened my gifts and said thank you, the others in the group said they were welcome, as if it was all community gifts. Is that not just strange or is it just me?

Another rapid change of topic

I did the paperwork for the annulment my ex-husband wants. I spent all day yesterday on it. It was 22 pages long - single spaced. A lot of writing. If I could only put that much out in my fiction writing, we'd be in business.

It really wasn't that bad. My ex had said that it was emotional for him. It really wasn't for me. I just answered the questions (all of them!) honestly - and then moved on to the next one. I found out that I have the ability to view all the forms that are submitted on the annulment. My ex does too. At first I thought I might want to see what was submitted by all the others but while I was completing the questionnaire I realized that it really is kind of personal. I mean, I didn't put anything in there that I wouldn't tell my ex if he asked me but I didn't really write it for his eyes to see, you know?! And I realized that it doesn't really matter what he put in there either - and not just for the reason I just listed. No, I realized that in completing the questionnaire we've really just put everything behind us. To go back and read what the other wrote would only serve to bring up things that don't matter anymore back into view. I'm not interested in doing that.

I mailed it off today so that is done. I'm glad I did it and we just go forward from here. :)

So, that's what going on in my world, what's going on with everyone else?

Okay, I'll play

My Town Monday

So, I popped over to Alyssa's blog and she was following Travis Erwin's lead to spotlight someone - a celebrity - from your town. I knew (or believe anyway) that Jennifer Garner's grandmother lives here but, well, she's not the celebrity.

Anyway, in my google search, I discovered that Renee Zellweger was born in Baytown, Texas! That's right, born on April 25, 1969, Renée graduated from University of Texas, Austin with a BA degree in Radio, Film and Television.

Her family now lives in Katy, Texas. And in case I haven't mentioned it, I lived in Katy for four years. Both are relatively small towns on either end of Houston (Baytown is east of Houston and Katy is west of Houston).

So, there you go. Renee Zellweger is from the town I now live in. What celebrity is from your town?

To Be Opened by Addressee Only

The other day I received ten boxes - ten LARGE boxes at work. Now, I have a rather small office so they take up quite a bit of room and make it difficult to get around. So today I decided to open them up, see what was in them and handle the contents so that I could get these boxes out of my way.

No problem, really. I open the first box and it contained a bunch of full binders. And an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet that said - in big, bold letters - TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY.

I did mention that this sheet was INSIDE the box, right?

Did I also mention that every single box had a sheet in it like that. INSIDE the box?

Maybe I'm just easily amused but that cracked me up. And made me wonder about who it was that fixed those boxes up that way. ;-)

So what cracked you up today?

Weird / Random Facts

I think I did this tag recently but since Maria tagged me again, I'll see if I can come up with 7 more weird or random facts about myself.

Here's the rules:

Link to the person who tagged you; Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours; Post the rules on your blog; Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog; Tag 7 random people at the end of your post; Include links to their blogs; Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I worked as a professional temporary for ~10 years, by choice. I really enjoyed it and if I knew for a fact I could still meet my financial needs, I'd go back to it again in a heartbeat.

2. The only concerts I've ever been to are Christian concerts or concerts performed at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I once bought tickets to see the BeeGees but decided not to go at the last minute. It's not that I haven't wanted to go to other concerts, that's just how it's worked out.

3. I was so upset that Erica got over the death of Mike Roy (he later turned up alive, despite dying ON SCREEN for the world to see) so quickly, I didn't watch the soap opera All My Children for years.

4. Way back when, I thought when people said it was a quarter after the hour, I thought they meant it was twenty-five minutes after the hour. (Hey, a quarter is twenty-five cents and I knew money!)

5. My first official college class was Ceramics and my initial degree plan was Visual Arts. I enjoyed it so much that I went on to teach it in the Continuing Education program. I haven't done it in years and I miss it.

6. The only car I've ever owned that wasn't in a car accident while I owned it was my very first car. It was a yellow VW bug. I owned it for about six months and it was working about six days of that (hence the reason it was never in an accident).

7. I bought my first car (the VW bug) for $400 and sold it (six months later) for $2000 (it happened to be running that day). It was during an energy crisis and those cars were selling like hotcakes. Despite the issues with the car, the dealership made a nice little profit on the car when they sold it.

I'll skip the tagging others since I think I already did that. But if anyone feels inclined to play along, let me know so I can stop by. :-)

I know I saw it...somewhere

Earlier this year I bought a Weight Watchers comfort food recipe book. It has some great (low point) recipes in it and I fully intended to make a list of ingredients I needed and purchase them at the grocery store and make all these wonderful new foods.

That's what I intended. What happened is I brought the book home and promptly lost it. I've been searching for it for several months now. I thought it was in my "office" room and have been digging through boxes in there (don't ask) for some time now, without success. It was getting to the point that I was considering the possibility that someone broke into my house for the sole purpose of stealing the recipe book. Not likely I know but what else could've happened?

Then fast forward to today. It's Veteran's Day and we had a little celebration at work for the veterans who work there, along with a couple of special guests, including a WWII veteran. It was really nice. Well, eleven years ago I was in an English class and had to write a paper on a veteran. A co-worker had referred me to a friend of hers and we were going to meet for ten minutes or so so that I could interview him for my paper. Well, ten minutes turned into about four hours (during business hours - oops). I remember him getting emotional and my taking notes. And I remember the final product but not writing it (although I do recall looking at my notes and thinking I needed to include something I'd written down). I was very proud of the final product and to this day it's the one thing I've written that I'm most proud of.

Anyway, since it was Veterans Day (and I had planned on meeting this person at the celebration but due to a mix-up we're having lunch together instead) I wanted to find the paper (yes, I still have it...somewhere). So this evening I went digging for it. Without success (although I found a draft copy of pages 1, 2 and 3).

However, following is a list of a few things I DID find:

1. A pair of smiley face underwear (who they belong(ed) to is anyone's guess).
2. Several paintings I did a number of years ago.
3. Some leftover author promotional items that I thought I had returned (oops).
4. A ton of books (I'm starting to think I might have a problem).
5. The 2006 Golden Heart entries I judged.
6. A book all about Leonardo DiCaprio (don't ask).
7. A letter I wrote to my ex-husband five days before we separated (I read it and I cannot believe I said the things I did in it - and I only remember the date we separated because it was my mother's birthday).
8. Notes, papers and tests from a bunch of my college classes.
9. A belt to a dress I can't quite fit into yet, but is my goal.
10. An erotic story I wrote a number of years ago.
11. A picture I had forgotten I had but never got framed. (I really need to because I really, really like it)
12. Performance evaluations from 1986.
13. Several letters of recommendation, including one from a company that shortly after they gave me the LOR, I left during lunch and never returned.
14. About ten copies of a resume and letter of recommendation on someone I worked with nine years ago.

and.....

15. The cookbook. Wanna know where I found it? On my nightstand!!!!! Yeah, because THAT's where all cookbooks should be kept. (Really makes me wonder where the heck this paper can be now...)

Anyway, if you enjoy your freedom, thank a vet. :-)

Tagged!

Alyssa tagged me. I have to come up with eight "quirky, unusual and/or completely random" things about myself. Then I'm supposed to tag eight people (who I will have to let know I tagged them because I don't think I have eight regular visitors).

Here we go:

1. I served on a grievance committee for the Texas State Bar for a number of years. The preferred panel consisted of four attorneys and two non-attorneys. On my panel I was the lone non-attorney and on the last case we heard, I was solely responsible for saving an attorney's license to practice law. The attorneys on the panel all thought he should be permanently disbarred.
2. When I first started looking for a house almost seven years ago, I refused to look at houses that weren't carpeted throughout. A couple of years later I ripped up all the carpet in my new home and had tile laid.
3. I really like to do nice things to surprise people but I hate to be surprised myself...I like to know what's going to happen.
4. My idea of the perfect relationship is based on my favorite movie - When Harry Met Sally.
5. I saw Titanic in the movie theater five times (it was necessary...really). And then I pre-ordered it as soon as it was available for pre-order.
6. Until very recently (when I bought a book caddy and a bookshelf), I stored my books in my linen closet.
7. I worked as a professional temporary for ~ ten years by choice. I'd work three weeks and take a week off. I could pay my bills but little else but I have to say, having one week off a month was so worth it!
8. The thought of me ever getting married again scares the heck out of me. Just thinking about it possibly happening some day makes me hyperventilate - and I'm not even seeing anyone!

Okay, those are my weird secrets and since I've told you all, I'm probably going to have to kill you now. *sigh* Was it worth it?

And now for who I'm tagging.

The original Alphabet Girls (now known as Deadline Divas):
Honey
Ellen
Kristen
Aura

and non-DDs
Mel
Maria
Laura
Pam