It's just been one of those months where everything around here decided to break.
First, the sum pump died and my basement flooded. Dealing with a wet basement is no fun.
Then two front burners on my gas stove just went out and despite my best efforts to clean the the clogged burners, they still don't heat right.
Three of the electric outlets on my kitchen wall stopped working.
The hinges on the bottom of the lid for my bathroom toilet seat snapped and broke. ( just for your info: i am not the world's skinniest woman, but I am not a fatty either).
The glass pitcher for the blender fell onto the floor and broke.
And if that wasn't enough, vacum cleaner motor totally died.
Oh, you don't want to know what happened to my bedroom door. Let's just say that it has a good size hole in it. I guess that's what happens when contractors put cheap hollow doors in your house.
The latest disaster? The fridge died. After spending $90, the repairman told me that the compressor was dead and that since the fridge is 11 years old, I am better of replacing it than repairing it. Don't I love shelling out my savings for these unexpected expenses?
You think I am making all this up, dontcha? I wish I was, but it is true.
As you can tell, it's been one of those months. A good friend of mine had us over for dinner the other night since I couldn't do a lot of cooking with one burner and a flooded basement. Let me tell you, this woman is the best damn chef ever. We had salmon marinated in olive oil, soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic pepper, pastry filled with spinach and feta cheese, stuffed grape leaves, greek salad and homemade custard made with real butter and topped with crushed hazelnuts. Her food is amazing. If I were you, I'd be uber jealous too.
More soon, if I don't choke on my tea. Yeah, I almost choked on burning hot tea while blogging. Ah, the sacrifices I make for my few readers.
-D
PS: I know I don't blog everyday, but that doesn't mean I don't obsessively check comments. So please comment!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Little Getaway
After an unusally cold and wet weather, it is finally starting to warm up. Yes, it looks like spring has finally come to Southern Illinois. The forecast calls for a beautiful weekend, so I am planning on taking full advantage of the beautiful weather by traveling to Carbondale this weekend. I will be spending some time visiting my daughter who is a senior at SIUC. My daughter suggested that we go to the Blue Sky Vineyard in Makanda. I have never been there, but heard it is a very scenic and charming place that offers a little taste of Tuscany right in our backyard...and you thought Southern Illinois scenery consisted of flat croplands for miles and miles! Even though I am not much of a wine drinker, I am looking forward to exploring the vineyard and its grounds and am hoping that they have "real" Italian food.
A good friend of mine owns a lake house not too far from the winery and she said I could spend the weekend at her house. Yes, she gave me keys to her beautiful home which is right on the Lake of Egypt. Wasn't that nice of her to do that for me? Anyways, it looks like I will be spending my Sunday boating and relaxing on the lake. That should be fun.
Full trip report to follow when I get back. Oh, almost forgot to mention. If you enjoy cooking and baking as much as I do, you must try this recipe. You need to register (very fast, just provide an email)with America's Test Kitchen in order to access the recipe, but trust me, this is a really yummy cake that offers a wonderful baking and of course an eating experience!
Enjoy the weekend and have loads of fun!
-D
A good friend of mine owns a lake house not too far from the winery and she said I could spend the weekend at her house. Yes, she gave me keys to her beautiful home which is right on the Lake of Egypt. Wasn't that nice of her to do that for me? Anyways, it looks like I will be spending my Sunday boating and relaxing on the lake. That should be fun.
Full trip report to follow when I get back. Oh, almost forgot to mention. If you enjoy cooking and baking as much as I do, you must try this recipe. You need to register (very fast, just provide an email)with America's Test Kitchen in order to access the recipe, but trust me, this is a really yummy cake that offers a wonderful baking and of course an eating experience!
Enjoy the weekend and have loads of fun!
-D
Friday, April 13, 2007
Happy Tax Season
Tax season is upon us again. Filling out tax forms can be highly stressfull, so I thought I'd post some tax humor to put a smile on your faces.. Oh, you don't have to thank me, I just did what every intelligent, highly educated, uber-geeky people do .... I just googled it!
I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means that I'm employed. ~Nancie J. Carmody
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund. ~F.J. Raymond
'Ever wonder why the IRS calls it Form 1040? Because for every $50 that you earn, you get 10 and they get 40. ~ Unknown( My favorite, very funny!)
it's a good thing we don't get as much government as we pay for. ~ Will Rogers
on filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher. ~ Albert Einstein
Isn't it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool's Day and ends with cries of 'May Day!'? ~ Rob Knauerhase
If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?
And a joke:
A businessman on his deathbed called his friend and said, "Bill, I want you to promise me that when I die you will have my remains cremated.""And what," his friend asked, "do you want me to do with your ashes?"The businessman said, "Just put them in an envelope and mail them to the Internal Revenue Service and write on the envelope, "Now you have everything."
Bet you didn't know tax time could be this much fun, did you?
May you be blessed with a hefty tax refund.
-D
I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means that I'm employed. ~Nancie J. Carmody
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund. ~F.J. Raymond
'Ever wonder why the IRS calls it Form 1040? Because for every $50 that you earn, you get 10 and they get 40. ~ Unknown( My favorite, very funny!)
it's a good thing we don't get as much government as we pay for. ~ Will Rogers
on filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher. ~ Albert Einstein
Isn't it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool's Day and ends with cries of 'May Day!'? ~ Rob Knauerhase
If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?
And a joke:
A businessman on his deathbed called his friend and said, "Bill, I want you to promise me that when I die you will have my remains cremated.""And what," his friend asked, "do you want me to do with your ashes?"The businessman said, "Just put them in an envelope and mail them to the Internal Revenue Service and write on the envelope, "Now you have everything."
Bet you didn't know tax time could be this much fun, did you?
May you be blessed with a hefty tax refund.
-D
Friday, April 6, 2007
Super thinness
My daughter is interested in majoring in fashion merchandising, and naturally she enjoys reading fashion and style magazines. I am really not into fashion nor do I follow trends, but the other day I was looking through one of my daughter's magazines, Vogue, to be exact, and I was absolutely disgusted by the pictures of super thin models and celebrities. They were too thin and looked very unhealthy. No, let me rephrase that. They didn't look thin, they looked like walking skeletons!
Do designers actually think that clothes look better hanging on rail-thin models that look like third world refugees? A clothes hanger would display their fashion just as good as these models if not better. Heck it would be a lot cheaper to use hangers. The sad thing is that the fashion industry continues to use these girls who look like they are inmates at a concentration camp. This sends a message to young girls that you must be a size O for your clothes to look good on you. Teenagers are following these examples and are starving themselves b/c they think that the skeletal thinnes is ideal. It is time for the fashion industry and the media to stop all this. It is not healthy to be fat, but being bones is not healthy either. It is impossible to be skeletal thin and healthy at the same time. We need to see real women with curves in these fashion magazines. They look good in fashionable clothes, too!
Dove is not a high fashion retail house, but the company is trying to bring a positive change into all this mess by delivering a message that all women are beautiful. Have you seen the Dove Ads for their Real Women Campaign? They are trying to change the way society views beauty by using curvier non-airbrushed real women from different ethnicities for their new skin line products. I’m not sure if Dove is really trying to improve women’s self esteem or this is simply a marketing trick for the company, but I’ll say, more power to them.
I applaud Dove for refusing to hire skinny models to promote their products. In any event, these ads are getting plenty of attention; both positive and negative. Men in Chicago complained that they didn’t want to see full figured women in underwear on billboards. Let me tell you, these women are hardly chunky! They are more like size 8-10. How said is it that we can’t even see a picture of a real woman (not even fat) in the media without having to hear negative remarks. Unless your bones are protruding through your skin, you’re not beautiful in this society! Then they wonder why eating disorders are on the rise.
Do designers actually think that clothes look better hanging on rail-thin models that look like third world refugees? A clothes hanger would display their fashion just as good as these models if not better. Heck it would be a lot cheaper to use hangers. The sad thing is that the fashion industry continues to use these girls who look like they are inmates at a concentration camp. This sends a message to young girls that you must be a size O for your clothes to look good on you. Teenagers are following these examples and are starving themselves b/c they think that the skeletal thinnes is ideal. It is time for the fashion industry and the media to stop all this. It is not healthy to be fat, but being bones is not healthy either. It is impossible to be skeletal thin and healthy at the same time. We need to see real women with curves in these fashion magazines. They look good in fashionable clothes, too!
Dove is not a high fashion retail house, but the company is trying to bring a positive change into all this mess by delivering a message that all women are beautiful. Have you seen the Dove Ads for their Real Women Campaign? They are trying to change the way society views beauty by using curvier non-airbrushed real women from different ethnicities for their new skin line products. I’m not sure if Dove is really trying to improve women’s self esteem or this is simply a marketing trick for the company, but I’ll say, more power to them.
I applaud Dove for refusing to hire skinny models to promote their products. In any event, these ads are getting plenty of attention; both positive and negative. Men in Chicago complained that they didn’t want to see full figured women in underwear on billboards. Let me tell you, these women are hardly chunky! They are more like size 8-10. How said is it that we can’t even see a picture of a real woman (not even fat) in the media without having to hear negative remarks. Unless your bones are protruding through your skin, you’re not beautiful in this society! Then they wonder why eating disorders are on the rise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)