T-shirt Envy

You know those sites all over the internet with the "cool" t-shirts with their "hep" slogans and cynical sayings? Well, I generally like the idea and very rarely covet the application. But yesterday I met my match in a light blue t-shirt (great start) with one of the best decals I'd ever seen. Peep this:

That's just awesome! And I want to get this one for my nephew, but he's still a little small for it.

Living Picture Frame

This looks like fun (click pic for link):

Monday Mayhem

Weird. You ever wake up and find things have moved around you without you having any recollection of moving them? This morning when I finally awoke, my bedside table clock was on the covers beside me and the lid on my chapstick was off and the chapstick was standing vertically on the table. I don't remember completing any of those actions.

Not as good, apparently, as a co-worker who on Friday woke up wearing a completely different outfit than the one she went to bed in.

Has this ever happened to you? Are these the early stages of sleep walking?

Friday Fun Day! (Word Puzzle)

Sweeping Generalization Thursday

"I have rights, you know!"

Ballad of the Potter's Wheel

round and round

its turning eye

begins to see

a shape below

and as each hand

in hand complies,

a fuller vessel

starts to grow.



undreamt its shape,

unthought its form

until the potter

makes it stand.

from its center

this silent storm

of clay ascends

at his command.

Word of the Day for Wednesday

I love this word. We got to talking about it from an earlier post. It's just so darn beautiful to look at, so nice to say, so fun to demonstrate! Everyone, take a moment in your Wednesday to stand fists (or arms, more accurately) akimbo today. It'll make you feel taller, and happier, and slightly greener.

I'll take the Hybrid...

So, finally, concept cars with fuel cell capability are becoming less of a "concept" and more of a "car." I have been waiting for something realistic and approachable (although price-wise, I'm sure it is anything but approachable) to appear on the car and driver scene. Ford unveiled its Edge with HySeries Drive (registered trademark). I don't care what a car looks like so long as it can drive up to 400 miles with zero emissions! Don't act like you are not impressed! Just go ahead and wish you had one.

No doubt there are drawbacks, like running out of electricity on the side of the road, or ending up someplace where you have to plug it in for four hours before you can drive again (is that really true? how annoying!), but, still, gasoline is such a brutal taskmaster that I'd love to see the human race get out from under its thumb.

Mmmm, efficiency!

Philosophy Hour

Who is the bigger fool? The man who shouts, "There is a God!" in a godless universe? Or the man who stands with fists akimbo declaring, "There is NO god!" while the God of the universe looks on?

twiTch

I have a new ailment that amuses me no end: twitching. My eyelid twitches. Not constantly. Only occasionally. But it is rather amusing to try to have a serious conversation when one eye is in convulsions. I try not to laugh. Maybe the other person will thinking I'm winking repeatedly very quickly.

[UPDATE: my twiTch is hiding from me. It spasms all day, at various times, but NEVER when I am looking in a mirror. I've tried to catch it working it's twitchy magic on my face, but no matter how spasmodically it was tweaking my eyelid, the instant I stare at it it becomes calm as the dead sea! It's laughing at me. That or I have a very calming effect on myself...]

White and Nerdy

File under "Guilty Pleasures" and rewatch weekly:
(Original Song Here)

Pot Roast

So, after 29 years I managed to do something I've only till now dreamed about...

I made a pot roast!

I know you're probably as excited as I am (with the possible exception of the vegetarians in the room). A real live, honest-to-goodness pot roast (with pot and roast in it!). And now that I have made a pot roast and it even tasted good, I'm crazy to make some more crock pot recipes. I bought six and a half pounds of frozen chicken breast just for this unexpected turn of culinary events.

Wait, backing up. Perhaps many of you do not know to what minimalist accommodations I repair each evening. My kitchen is tiny. And by tiny, I mean, it has no stove. I've been juggling my cooking skills between a microwave, a toaster, a hot plate and a water kettle. I cannot bake anything. And whereas in my heart of cake-loving hearts this is a terrible burden to bear, still, it is not too great a price to pay for freedom of private and affordable living space. I love my pad.

Now, on to the triumphant story at hand...

I had been eyeballing rump roasts since the day my sister presented me (literally made a present of) a one and a half quart crock pot. The only cooking attempt since it's arrival was a rather doomed pile of cranberries I overcooked and then which gloomily garnished Christmas Dinner. Others claimed it was good, and that they couldn't really taste the burnt parts, but none of this was any comfort. I had failed. Again. To cook anything delicious. My culinary skills were right up there with my Java skills... not good.

So when I had finally decided to attempt a roast, it was not without some trepidation. I purchased an English roast, small potatoes and a large Spanish onion and proceeded to cram them into my tiny crock pot. I left for church, just like you are supposed to (seriously, to me, a crock pot cooking means it is Sunday) and returned home that evening to a gurgling, beautifully cooked Angus Beef dinner! Trala!

Now, I'm gathering recipes and have even found a new favorite website. If you have crock pot recipes and would like to share, please do! I'm all ears.

Solve the Puzzle

To the Dreamer

I want to honor a man who spoke about what was hideous and dared believe in something that was beautiful. He is one of my heros.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

~Martin Luther King Jr.

Tales of a Clevelander

This list is an old joke list. I've heard it before, but there is something head-shake worthy about some of the surprisingly delightful retardations of being a Clevelander. So I give them to you (some favesd highlighted). True Cleveland Dwellers will more readily understand...

It's only soda if it's orange soda, otherwise it's pop. It's dinner, not supper. If you get the head nod, you know you are part of the crew. If you are white and act like a thug be prepared to run. We are home to Bone Thugs and Harmony. We are home to The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, and Red Right 88. We are the reason stadiums don't have glass bottles. You laugh when someone tells you Lake Erie isn't polluted. You are used to the dead fish smell after it rains. People are trained to talk on television like us. Buffalo Wild Wings is aka BW3. The Dawg Pound is heaven. We know the Browns suck, the Indians sorta suck, and we haven't won a championship in over 40 years. But we've got LeBron so we don't care. Lake effect snow is a given. Our river caught on fire not once, but 3 times. You believe the Second Coming meant the Browns returning in 1999. You don't really know any homosexuals, you just know that there are a lot of them in Lakewood. You take Dead Man's Curve at 60 mph holding your breath. You know about the Eastside/Westside rivalry and you support it, but don't quite understand it. You actually know how to pronounce Cuyahoga. You can't tell Brook Park, Brooklyn, or Old Brooklyn apart. You have gotten 3 speeding tickets, and they are all from the 200 yard long stretch of a suburb named Linndale. You have no idea how exactly to get to the Flats, you just kind of end up on a bank and start partying. St. Patty's Day is your number one holiday, and even if you aren't Irish. You hear there are always famous people in town, but you have never seen one. You take credit for Cedar Point even though it is 2 hours away. You're still dumbfounded by the Leaping Fountain in Tower City. You know Tower City isn't a city at all. You're still relishing 1987 when we ALMOST made it to the Super Bowl. You counted down with the monument in Tower City to the exact second in 1999, when the Browns came back. You know all the 4 seasons: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction. You live less than 30 minutes from some college or university. You know what a buckeye really is, and have a recipe for candy ones. Toward the lake means north, and toward the river means south. You measure distance in minutes. You've had to switch from heat to A/C in the same day. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: Where's my coat at? You carry jumper cables in your car. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow. The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page, but requires 6 pages for sports. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

Sweeping Generalization Thursday

LOVE HURTS

The Passing of a Top Ramen

It came to my attention that the inventor of Top Ramen died recently. While slightly saddening news, this information did not stop me from thinking instantly (haha) of the massive box of Maruchan Ramen noodle blocks I keep under my kitchen sink for frugal edible emergencies. This also made me wonder if there wasn't another way to flavor them, since the chicken flavor leaves a gritty silt at the bottom of my bowl and I have grown weary of it. So I looked online for recipes. I found an article with some wonderful Ramen recipes ideas. There are a lot of Ramen fans out there...

In honor of Momofuku.

Split the Difference

I went blonde a year and a half ago and in retaliation my hair is dying a slow and painful death from the tips up. It is splitting and cracking like a patio in a hurricane. Tying itself into knots.

So now I am hair obsessed and wondering how I can keep from looking like this:

And when will my hair be healthy again?

I can kind of relate to Freida Kahlo in moments like this.

Alphabet Soup

Go ahead. Write a small literary work using every letter of the alphabet to start a word only once. It can be a sentence. It can be a paragraph, but it should at least try to make sense.

I don't have one yet... You could be the first!

It Took Forever to Find This Quote

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

~ Benjamin Franklin

ScreenSaver History

Did you know that ScreenSavers are purely decorational now? It's a fact! But what would we do without our scrolling pictures of cars, flowers and celebrities? I personally miss the old screen savers, like the pictured flying toasters. Remember the flying toasters? So shiny and happy! Were they in outer space? Were they winging their way to breakfasts all over the world? Or departing for Pluto? Nobody knew. You can still have them, if your little heart so desires.

Sweeping Generalization Thursday

All the best work at the office is done after four in the afternoon.

Can it Blog?

Happy New Year, One and All! I am glibbly attempting a Blog by email from my work desk (I'm on break, haha). Question is, will it work? I guess you'll know before I do.

Well, and what lovely things did you get for Christmas and how did you clock out the old year?