I hate, loathe, abhor phone menus where they won’t let you push a button for your choice. Usually you have the option of doing either and I always choose the buttons because I don’t want to sound like a retard sitting on the phone going:
“Yes”
“Yes”
“No”
“Account “
“Billing”
“No”
“No”
“Yes”
“Operator”
“Operator”
”Operator.”
”Operator.”
“OPERATOR.”
DAMN IT!
HOW COME I CAN’T JUST TALK TO A FREAKING PERSON?

So today, I had to call and got a machine menu. I tried using the number one for YES but it immediately advised me, “I did not understand your answer. Do you have an account with us? Please say yes or no.”
I got a little thrill when, after a few voice option choices, I was connected to a live person. BUT right before I was transferred, the recorded voice said, “We like to know how our customer’s experiences are. Please take a short survey when you are done talking to the representative. To take the survey, press the star key at the end of your call.”
PRESS THE STAR KEY huh?
When the call ended, I said “SURVEY” and when nothing happened, hung up.

I have this PROBLEM.
It's called: Spring makes me want to be a gardener.
And that would be ok if it weren't for this other problem I have: Summer makes me want to stay inside and not water plants and then they DIE.

My one week old babies:







































(Ladies and) GENTLEMEN - PLACE YOUR BETS!

Labels: of all the plants I've loved before

The other night I made salmon.
My kids were gone and I had one in the fridge and it had been calling my name. And the brown rice in my cabinet was singing "me toooooo"....
So I threw my brown rice into my rice cooker (one part rice to three parts liquid) and took the salmon out.
I took a baking sheet that The Cake Lady had sent me home with the other day and drizzled olive oil all over it and sprinkled salt and pepper on it.


Then I took my beautiful salmon friend and laid him ever so nicely on the cookie sheet. The one that belongs to The Cake Lady. I didn't realize after I cooked the salmon that there would forever be an imprint of the salmon on her cookie sheet. I am sorry TCL. Please forgive me?


Then I grab the lemons.
I [heart] lemon.
I [heart] lemon a lot.
I zested two lemons and rubbed the zest on both sides of my salmon.


And then I squeezed the juice from one lemon ALL OVER the salmon.


Then, sliced lemons inside.
I also put about a third a stick of butter on the inside.
Butter + Lemon + Salmon = HEAVEN


Then I took the remaining slices of lemon and put them on top and sprinkled with salt and pepper...


Ok, so the real reason I was cooking?
I had to try out my new stove.
My new stove that has electricity and buttons.
*sigh*


My new stove that has a WINDOW.
*double sigh*


I covered the salmon and cooked for about twenty minutes at 325F.
And when it came out it was all pretty...
TCL - did I mention I was sorry about the fish imprint on your cookie sheet?


Yum.

Labels: cooking, recipes

~The Script



I can feel the colour running
As it's fading from my face
Try to speak but nothin's coming
Nothing I could say to make you stay
Grab your suitcase call a taxi
It's 3am now where you gonna go?
Gonna stay with friends in London
And that's all I get to know.

Just a cigarette gone
No you couldn't be that far
I'm driving my car to where I hope you are
Maybe I can talk you down
Maybe I can talk you down
We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head
And try to open up your eyes
This is reletionship suicide
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...

Taking shortcuts through the alleys
While you're racing through my mind
Cops can chase but they won't catch me
Not before I get to speak my mind
If there's still time, oh

Just a cigarette gone
No you couldn't be that far
I'm driving my car to where I hope you are
Maybe I can talk you down
Maybe I can talk you down
We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head
And try to open up your eyes
This is reletionship suicide
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...

We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head

We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head

Just a cigarette gone
No you couldn't be that far
I'm driving my car to where I hope you are
Maybe I can talk you down
Maybe I can talk you down
We're standing on a tiny ledge
Before this goes over the edge
Gonna use my heart and not my head
And try to open up your eyes
This is reletionship suicide
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...
'Coz if you go, I go...

Labels: music, song of the day, stuff I like

~Wakey! Wakey!


I love Wakey! Wakey!
I want to marry Michael Grubbs.

Check out the other albums:
War Sweater
Silent As A Movie
Live at Bowery Ballroom

Labels: music

Labels: photography, Triniti

Friday night I had wine and conversation with my neighbor-boy’s mom and her girlfriend. I really like them. It’s been awhile since I’ve started a new friendship but I think I’m handling it ok :-)
One of the best things about them is that they only live one road over! So it’s super convenient for hanging out.
I’ve decided I am going to invite them to dinner sometime in the next few weeks and cook for them. And then I am going to invite them to my next Girl’s Night Dinner…
Friday night Triniti also had her friend Erin coming over which I had thought was happening in Saturday night… this worked out well though because not only did Erin spend the night but so did neighbor-boy’s mom’s girlfriend’s daughter.
Man, I need new names for people.
I think the combination of the wine drinking and company on Friday night made me think that the it was Saturday so it felt like I got an entire extra day out of my weekend.
Of course, three little girls having a sleepover is a pretty crazy amount of energy and those girls stayed up until like two in the morning. And then woke up at like six thirty.
There just wasn’t enough coffee in the world for that.
The girls and I putzed around, cleaning up a little before heading over to The Cake Lady’s house for Jimmy’s Gumbo. SO GOOD.
And so nice to spend some time with The Cake Lady and her family. We’ve hardly seen each other in months and I miss her. She had to work the next morning so we left around ten-ish and went home where I promptly went to sleep and slept straight through until ten o’clock on Sunday.
Did you read that?
Ten. O. Clock.
Fueled by what I can only assume was some hard core guilt over having slept until TEN, I worked my ass off yesterday cleaning and organizing and laundry washing and seed planting until it was bedtime.
It felt great.
All in all, a pretty darn good weekend.
And, I am over the writer’s block. I had some great ideas this weekend.

Labels: being a Home Owner, Being Mommy, soul sisters, The Cake Lady, Triniti, writing a book

I get writer's block when I can't finish something I start.
That, dear readers (are there still more than one of you?), is why I haven't put anything up here in a few days weeks almost a month.
It's not because I don't love you guys.
And it's certainly not because I've ran off and am having an affair with another set of blog readers who are cuter than ya'll.
Because ya'll are just the cutest bunch of blog readers out there, hands down.
It's because I started a letter to my boss when he left. My boss left.
When I try to put that information into my brain and hit the COMPUTE button, my brain returns the following error message: Does Not Compute
Even now.
His last day was February 26th and on that day I started a letter to him and I haven't been able to work on anything else since.
Not my blog, not my book, not even a decent letter to a friend.
It was just too hard the first few days. I was all DESPAIR and GLOOM! I opened the letter every few days and tried to work on it, but then it became a project and the over achiever in my was fighting with the part of me who tells me I should table a little of the Girly Feelings parts and I just threw my hands up in the air and worked on other stuff because when Over Achiever and Girly Feelings start fighting, I have to step away.
So since then, I've been occupying myself with some other stuff.
In no particular order:
I've been gardening. WHAT? I know right! I betcha if we scrolled back through this website to all the springs I've ever loved before, we'd find that probably every year around this time I get bit by the Plant Stuff Now bug and the end result is a lot of wasted money and dead plants but I CAN'T HELP IT! I DON'T LEARN. This year I am all excited about the prospect of having fresh herbs. I'm not delusional enough to think I can bring fruits and vegetables to maturity yet given my clear black thumb but herbs? I'm just crazy enough to think I can pull of herbs! And oh what fun that would be since I decided to start actually cooking recently. It will be so fun at my dinner parties to be all, "yeah, I grew that rosemary myself. In my GARDEN! AND IT DIDN'T DIE!"
Which brings me to another thing I've been doing, throwing monthly dinner parties! This has turned into one of my most favorite things and if you have a group of people in your life that live fairly close, I seriously recommend it. I'm doing mine the last Saturday of every month. I send out my invited via facebook using the events app. I started it in January as a way to get together with my girlfriends. It just seemed so ridiculous that I never saw any of them and we all live just a few miles away from each other. I don't want to look back and say, "we were all too busy." I want to look back and say, "I made an effort." And really, not that hard to pull off. Thus far, I've been doing pasta dishes and pretty easy desserts and a plethora of booze and it probably runs me about fifty bucks but I'll take it! Fifty bucks to be able to spend a few hours with my bestest local friends? Totally worth it.
And speaking of friends, I think I've made some new ones. You know the little neighbor boy who lives one road over? Well his mom invited me over for coffee with her and her partner and coffee lasted over three hours! We had such a nice time sitting outside chatting away this past Sunday. I really like the both of them and they live super close by which is nice. We are going over tonight to hang out and chat and I think I am going to bake something to take over :-)
What else, what else?
Fairy is having a little boy! She had the ultrasound this past week and as much as she was willing that baby to be a girl, it's going to be a boy after all. I keep telling her I will take him and name him Jude and keep him because I've never had a boy. I don't think she is going to let me though. I'm still in the very early stages of planning that baby shower so any advice would be super appreciated.
Oh and there is a date in my future. My co-worker sold a house to a guy who has been asking him to set us up for like three or four months and finally wore me down :-) So sometime in the next few weeks we are all going to go out to dinner. A date. Holy cow.
Ok, I have to get to work but I love you my pretties and I will update more soon. I'm just going to push right through this writer's block and MAKE it go away.
*mwah*

Labels: At work, Being a Chic, being an aunt, Being Mommy, My pathetic excuse for a love life, soul sisters