Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a great day and eats lots of yummy candy. My costume for today consists of cat ears. I was going to wear some fairy wings, but I decided against it. Went for low key. We will see what my other co-workers are dressed up like. My senior manager is dressed up as Count Dracula. LOL one of my co-workers just said that we are dressed like researchers. Too true.

Combining

So I should update this blog eh? Jeff says that I have way too many blogs that no one reads about random topics. I had a cooking blog for a while, a blog about domokun, and a blog for Milo our cat. So I figure I should try to combine them all into one and see if I can get some readers. Hopefully posting will become less sporadic :D

Domo

27 dresses

I love a good chic flick. I love romantic movies and all the mush. This is why Jeff and I netflixed 27 dresses. I had wanted to see it for a while. The commercials made the movie look good. However, I think that this is the first chic flick in a really long time that I did not like.

The movie was basically about this girl (Kathrine Heigl) who couldn't say no. She was always taking care of other people hence being a bridesmaid in so many weddings. I know the point of the movie was to talk about how she couldn't say no and show her growth, but the fact that she couldn't say no annoyed me. If she could have said something at the beginning of the movie there would be no rest of the movie. Kathrine Heigl spent the whole movie being used and having to go through all this crap because of mean people just because she wouldn't stand up for herself.

In addition, there were many aspects of this movie that I have seen in other movies. It made it very predictable. For example a guy writing an article about a girl and then guy falls in love with girl and wishes he wasn't stuck writing about (Never Been Kissed) or girl pining after this one guy the whole movie, but when they finally get a chance to be together she doesn't want him anymore. I'm sure there are many movies out there that use that formula.

So in the end. I liked the mushy parts, but overall the movie irked me.

Cow Appreciation Day

Do you like to eat at Chick-fil-A? Do you want a free combo meal? Then tomorrow dress up from head to toe as a cow for Cow Appreciation Day. I think it may cost more to rent a cow suit than it would actually cost to buy the combo meal. Still would be entertaining nonetheless.

Amazing jumping cat

Milo loves to chase his toy mice around and will get some good air if you throw it right. However, the cat in this video beats Milo in the height department. I think the cat is a wild breed which may explain how high the cat can jump. Amazing.

Cardboard cat playhouses

I love finding new cat toys, but this one looks a little goofy. These are cardboard cat playhouses shaped as tanks, airplanes, and fire trucks. They don't look like they give a cat much room to play in. Interesting, but doesn't seem very practical.

Happy belated birthday bread

Yesterday sliced bread celebreated it's 80th birthday. Wow, I had no idea that it was that old. I did celebrate yesterday by eating a turkey sandwich for lunch.

Salmon burgers

I tried a new recipe last night for dinner that was healthy and really yummy. I made salmon burgers from scratch. Well the salmon was from the can :)

All you need is two cans of salmon, 1/4 cup of oat bran (I used oatmeal), 2 scallions, one egg, and 3 tablespoons of butter.

Drain the two cans of salmon and place them in a mixing bowl. Mash the salmon and add the oat bran, scallions, and egg. Mix. Then in a frying pan melt the butter and form the burgers. Cook the burgers about seven minutes a side, turning carefully.

They come out tasting yummy and buttery. We ate them with rolls, but you could be even healthier and put it on top of lettuce.

Crafty

This past weekend I decided to be crafty. I saw this cool craft in a catalog I wanted to try. It was a kit to make a fleece blanket. Basically it was fleece strips or squares (I'm not sure which) that you tied knots on the edges to keep it together instead of having to sew, which I'm not good at. I was like, "Hey, this is a craft that I could do and not mess up too badly."

I decided to stop in at Jo Ann's Fabric's to see if I could find it instead of having to pay shipping and handling with the catalog. I found they had a bunch of kits to make fleece blankets with a lot of cute patterns. I ended up with one with monkeys on it which matches my monkey pjs quite nicely :) Anyways, I brought it home and soon found that it was a lot more work than I was expecting.

First, instead of squares of fleece or strips it was two large pieces of fleece. I had to do all the cutting. I had to cut a 7inch square out of each corner and then cut 7inch strips 1 inch a part all the way around the fleece. Then I had to knot each strip from one piece of fleece to the other. It took me three hours. Not what I was expecting.

The whole time Milo was sitting on top of it. The second I spread it out he was laying down in the middle of it. While I worked he stretched out and attacked my strips. I yelled at him a few times, but while I worked he was never far away from my blanket.

In the end it came out cute. I like it and it is really warm. I probably won't do anything like that again for a long time. However, when I use it Milo always comes to sit on it. He also loves taking naps on it. Jeff calls it Milo's blanket, but I won't let him have it. I worked too hard on it to give it to him.

American Foods

This link lists the top ten foods that only Americans could have invented. I'm not sure of all of them like chinese food (although I know our version of chinese food is more american). Mmm smores, chinese food, and corn dogs are making me hungry. I am ashamed to say I have never had a real philly cheese steak and live pretty close to philly. However, now days, I don't think my stomach could take it.

Nintendo DS teaching English

There is a school in Japan that is using the Nintendo DS to help teach the students English. I think this is a very cool idea. It's a way to teach children instead of just reading out of a book without any real world applications. I still like Animal Crossing the best, but I would definitely try this game out.

Combos

While I love to snack on cheddar cheese cracker combos, these new bacon, egg, and cheese flavored combos sound a little weird. I would definitely try them and see if they taste like the yummy breakfast combination, but I'm not sure if they would be great or gross.

Lars and the Real Girl

Jeff and I received this movie off of our netflix list. Leading up to watching this movie Jeff did not want to watch it. I have heard that it was a good movie, so I wanted to try it. This movie is weird. We kept looking at each other during the movie saying no way. However, if you can get past the weirdness it is sort of a good movie. It has a good message. It's about this one guy who is having some issues in life and starts retreating from society. He ends up buying a real girl doll (a life sized doll) that he introduces people to as his girlfriend. He takes her everywhere and has conversations with her. Most of the movie is about what society thinks and how they get over their judgments and support him.

Bit of a foodie

I like to eat. I like to try new foods and different things. However, I haven't been able to do as much of that as I would like the past year. I have had stomach issues that may be caused by gerd and by a gallstone. Because of these two things, I have mainly stuck to blander foods and not been very adventurous.

I have found that when I'm bored at work I tend to end up on food type blogs. It's amazing how many are out there. I found a foodie blog roll today that looked cool. My blog isn't 80% food though so I couldn't join. I can still read. It's cool reading everyone's blog with pictures for each step, but that is way too much work.

I enjoy cooking, however, I haven't been doing much lately because of work. I'm tired when I get home and don't want to make anything big. However, reading all of these food related blogs does make me feel like I want to cook more again. Maybe one new recipe a week would be a good start.

Last night I did try a new recipe. I made eggplant moussaka. It was sort of like an eggplant lasagna. I started by browning eggplant slices and then put the slices at the bottom of a casserole dish. On top I poured a mixture of browned ground beef, onions, and garlic that was seasoned with cinnamon and oregano. I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top and then put some more eggplant slices and then more meat. I cooked it in the oven for about 45 minutes. It came out pretty yummy and we got more vegetables in our diet.

Geeky wear?

I came across a link to Rhombuswear which bills itself to be clothing for the slightly geeky. Interesting concept, but I'm not sure if I know a lot of people who would wear all of their stuff. Maybe I should get some geekier friends.

Turkey Taco Salad

Yum Sugar posted a recipe for Turkey Taco Salad. They advertise it to people as an innovative fast and easy dinner. I am way ahead of the times. I have been making a version of this recipe for a while now. I enjoy thinking of yummy meals that are very fattening and thinking of ways to reduce the calories, fat, and carbohydrates. I buy lean ground turkey, brown it, and then mix a small container of mild salsa in it. Then put the turkey on top of the lettuce with whatever you want and viola. Jeff and I also use this recipe to make actual tacos with soft taco tortillas. Yum. What I like about it is you can change the ingredients to whatever suits you. I use soy cheese on our tacos most of the time because it's lighter on my stomach. Jeff uses sour cream. It's up to everyone's individual tastes.

More car issues

As I blogged on Friday, I took Charlie, my Honda civic, to NTB to get his brakes worked on and his axle fixed. All was well at the end of the day on Friday. I turned in my rental car and Charlie was fine. I drove to and from work on Monday and everything was fine. Tuesday, as I was driving into my office complex I drove over a small stoned in part of the road. As I drove over I heard this weird noise, which scared me. I was right at my work so I just parked.

When I got into my work, I started getting nervous and wondering if something was wrong. I decided to go outside and drive it around the parking lot to see if anything was really wrong or if the noise had gone away. I drove around and it was fine when I was going straight, but when I hit the breaks I heard the noise. It was like a scraping noise, like something was going to fall off. I know nothing about cars so I got my office mate to take a ride around the parking lot with me to see if she heard the noise, which she did.

After that I decided to drive back down to NTB to have them figure out what was wrong. I was like I was just there on Friday and now something isn't right. I was annoyed that I had to take time out of my day to go back down there. They said they would look at it and call me at work to tell me what was wrong and what they were going to do. I said ok and then walked across to rent another rental car from Enterprise. I was annoyed I had to do this because that is another $50 I had to spend. In the end I found out that my backing or breaking plate (I'm not even sure which) had dislodged. They fixed it for no price.

On my lunch break I drove back down and picked up my car again. I tried to see if they would pay my rental car fee since it was their fault that I had to drop my car off again. I was kinda doubtful they would, but I wanted to try. I ended up talking to the manager who ended up a bit huffy. He was like we fixed it on Friday and now it's Tuesday, you didn't alert us to having any trouble right away. He also said that I didn't even ask to be driven to work. He said if I had asked someone one would have. They don't advertise that. I am not even sure they really do that. An how would I have gotten back to NTB to pick up my car? I could of gotten a ride from my office mate, but what if I couldn't have? He probably only wanted to get out of having to pay for my rental car. Either way, we both left kind of annoyed, and I will never be going back to NTB ever again. Good riddance. They were never that helpful/friendly in the first place.

Movies Netflixed

Jeff and I received two Netflix movies that we watched this weekend: Juno and National Treasure 2. Below is what I thought about them.

Juno
We have wanted to see Juno ever since it was in the theaters. However, we tend to catch movies on Netflix. I thought the movie was cute and had some characters that were likable. However, I don't think it lived up to all the hype people were attributing to it.

Also, I'm not sure about the message. No, she didn't try to get pregnant on purpose and I'm glad that her parents were supportive of helping her through it and making the right decisions. However, the movie didn't really show the parents getting furious at Juno for getting pregnant. My parents would have freaked out. They seemed to be a little shocked, but dealt with things calmly. Her boyfriend's mother didn't like her through out the whole movie, but did not seem to have any comment about her pregnancy. They mentioned briefly that her classmates were making fun of her, but barely showed what it would really be like. In the end it was good that the baby was adopted (although that story line was a little messed up too)but, they didn't show any repercussions from her going through labor and giving up her child.

Over, all a good movie, but some aspects are lacking.

National Treasure 2
I like these kinds of movies. I liked the first one - however, I can't remember much of it. I tend to forget what happened between the first and second movies. Anyways, I thought overall the movie was good. I liked the story. However, some parts were pretty unbelievable. I found myself saying, "Yea right, that wouldn't happen."

The pace also seemed to be a little off. The whole movie was basically oh my gosh how do we get through this obstacle, ok we got through it, wait a couple of minutes, and then oh look another obstacle, solve it, wait a few more minutes, and then another obstacle. I think there should have been a bit more down time between each thing they had to conquer. That's just me though. I suppose that's what this genre of movie is about.

Over all, if you can suspend disbelief it's a pretty good movie.

Firefox

Oh Firefox how I <3 thee. Ever since I started my new job (about a month ago) I have been using Internet Explorer version 6.0 - not the one with the tabs. By the end of the day I have a million little windows open at the bottom of my screen, which I'm sure slows my computer way down. It's also a pain to find stuff. Today I downloaded Firefox. It is great. I have my tabs at the top of the screen back and spell checker. Yea for Firefox ;)

Nerdy, but cool

This is a blog all about the statstical program SPSS. It has a forum and tips on how to do things. Very neat resource. I'm sure I'll come to use this site a lot.

The rabbit

I had to bring Charlie (my honda civic) to NTB on friday for new brakes and to get some part of his axle fixed. While he was being fixed I walked over to Enterprise and rented a VW Rabbit for the day. The rabbit is a cute car and just my size (I hate huge cars). I had no trouble driving it around and all was good.

However, I did have some issues when I got ready to turn it in at the end of the day. First of all, the gas tank is on the wrong side. I had the worst time trying to get the gas thingy on the right side to get gas. I had to turn around at least three times. Cars with gas tanks on the left side make things so much easier. I have now decided that it's a requirement in the next car I buy. Secondly, turning it on after I got gas was weird as well. I am pretty sure I turned it off correctly. However, when I got ready to leave the gas station it wouldn't go forward and I started going backward. Uh, what? It took me like five minutes of making sure it was in park and fiddling with the key to get it to go. By that time I was ready to get rid of it.

So in the end cute car, but I'm glad to have my Charlie back.

Give me bacon

For those who love meat and especially bacon this flavored dental floss is for you. I think it sounds totally disgusting, but to each their own.

William Shatner's My Little Pony

The cast of Boston Legal will be designing their own My Little Ponies to help a children's charity. I used to love my little ponies. I can only wonder what design he will put on his ponies butt.

Yummy sign

To celebrate their fresh salads McDonalds has created a sign that is made out of real lettuce. They even went as far as to make sure birds couldn't perch on it and eat the sign.

Cat furniture

I think cat furniture is great although a bit expensive. Milo loves his. However, this cat tree is a little ridiculous. I would be afraid that Milo would fall or get into many things he shouldn't.

PC

The guy who plays PC on the PC and Mac commercials you see on tv all the time is a mac user. Boo on him.

Wedding nerdity

While I suppose this wedding theme is a cute idea, it is very nerdy.

The new Hello Kitty?

I hear that Sanrio is coming out with two new characters called Cherinacherine. They are cute, but I don't know if I like them as much as Hello Kitty. We shall see.

USB fun

While some usb tools like a domo jump drive or a cute flower that is a fan are neat this usb greenhouse is weird.

6/6 Cool things on the web

These large sized lego blocks are so cool. You can make your own coffee table or whatever else you can imagine. Too bad they cost so much.

This laptop sleeve is totally adorable. I would think about it if I actually carried my laptop anywhere. So cute!

Happy National Doughnut Day

Today is National Doughnut Day! Go out to your local Krispy Kreme and get a free doughnut. Mmm chocolate glazed donuts with sprinkles.

The fun and dangers of a lunch break

I haven't had a lunch break in the longest time. For the last two years I worked at a company that didn't give me a lunch break. However, I didn't work enough hours to really really need one. Anyways. Today for my lunch break I went over to dsw (so close) and looked for new black sandals since my old ones are dying. I went to payless earlier in the week (also very close) and didn't find anything. However, today I did find some shoes and they are cute. They are black naturalizer slip on sandals. I will have to see if I can find a picture online. Yea for having enough time to buy shoes on a lunch break :)

Interesting things from the web

Today while web surfing I found some interesting things..

This wii remote is yummy and fun.

This might be a fun tool to get when we finally buy a grill. Though I'm not going to wear the mask.

I don't want to eat real haggis and I don't want to eat this either.

These cat scratchers are so cute looking. This one is my favorite.

This is a cool foodie site that I may end up following and reading. This couple makes many great recipies and takes pictures of each step.

This lamp is cute and a little scary.