The Ipod touch

I have been thinking about putting an ipod touch on my wish list. I just got my first apple product - an 80 gig ipod classic last fall. It works great and I like it. When I bought my ipod, ipod touches had just come out. I didn't think I needed all the bells and whistles and went for the bigger size on the ipod classic.

However, now I really want to have some of the great applications out there. There are so many that sound awesome. I also would love to use the wifi option. I would never buy an actual iphone though, I don't want to be buckled down by a monthly contract. Today in a down time at work, I started reading reviews on the ipod touch at amazon.com So many people love them. Made me want one even more ;) I learned that you can only have about 9 pages of applications which I believe comes out to 148 applications you can have. The size of applications also differs, with the ones that are games and video taking up more space.

While reading the reviews and thinking about it, I think if I did get one I would get the smaller version - the 8gb. I already have my real ipod with all of my music on it. I would want it for the wifi access and the applications. I would not need the biggest one like I was thinking before. So I dunno. I feel a bit weird thinking about buying a second ipod product, but this ipod touch has functionality that mine doesn't have. I also read that it's not as great for listening to music because it doesn't have the same buttons. An if I went for the smaller one I could use both ipods for each situation I needed. My birthday is coming up next month, so we will see if I can rationalize it enough :)

Healthy Fast Food

I normally shy away from most fast food places where everything is fried and covered in sauces. My two favorites and normal go to's are Subway and Wawa where I can pick and choose what I want on my sandwiches. Yum. Today I decided to go to Wendy's for lunch. Jeff and I had been watching a show on fast food the other day and it mentioned Wendy's slogan "do it your way". That got me to thinking about Wendy's again and I decided to give it a shot.

Before I went I checked out their nutritional information online to see what their numbers were. You never know what things they can hide in food. From researching online I decided to get their grilled chicken sandwich without the sauce it normally comes in and a baked potato instead of their fries. I think it's great they have other things you can have instead of fries. In the end the chicken sandwich was pretty yummy. The potato looked kinda sad, but was still also good. This is definitely something I will repeat. Yea for something different I can eat :) This also makes me more motivated to try chicken sandwiches at other places. I normally avoid them because a lot of the chicken sandwiches I have had have had a weird almost overcooked bland taste. It's hard to describe. Wendy's didn't have that taste and I was glad.

Home made lasagna

For an early birthday treat for Jeff I decided to make him some home made lasagna. Lasagna is one of Jeff's favorite foods so I thought it would be a nice treat. I went to the store and picked up two foil tins especially made for lasagna so I would have two containers that were large enough. I decided on making two separate lasagnas so that Jeff could have the real full calorie version and I could make mine so that it wouldn't bother my stomach.

In Jeff's lasagna I put a little bit of tomato sauce in the bottom, and then alternated layers of lasagna noodles, cooked ground turkey with italian seasoning, cut up slices of zucchini, small plops of ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and then more tomato sauce. I got through about three layers before I ran out of noodles. My lasagna was the same as Jeff's although I didn't have any cheese or tomato sauce. This made it a little dry in the end, but not bad. I need to figure out some sort of sauce to include. Maybe just adding in some water would help. Jeff's came out great. I hope it was a nice early birthday treat.

Butternut Squash French Fries

While surfing the net I came across a really cool blog of a mom who likes to cook vegan, but has a lot of great recipe ideas that are similar to the kind of things I like. One thing she makes a lot that looked really good are butternut squash french fries. This immediately had me craving some french fries. I had to try it. I made Jeff go buy a butternut squash at the store that night.

I finally got around to making the fries today. The recipe itself is not hard. However, peeling the squash and cutting it into the right shape is a little hard because the squash is a bit hard and funny shaped. I think I'm going to invest in a mandolin. In the end they were really good and I was impressed. I will defintley be making them again. Even Jeff liked them. Since these fries were so good, I'm excited to try some of the other recipes Sarah makes.

If you would like to make them all you have to do is cut a butternut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out all the seeds and gunk, and then cut the squash into big fry shapes. Spray a baking pan with pam, place the fries ontop and then spray lightly with pam and add some salt. Bake them in the oven at 450 degrees for forty minutes, turning them over half way.

Week 2 c25k

I started week two of my Couch to 5k program. I had been a little bad and skipped exercising on saturday to finish out week one. However, I had completed a trial run at the beginning of the week. So technically I did complete the week one podcast three times as per the instructions. Yes, I'm rationalizing ;)

This weeks instructions call for intervals of running for 90 seconds and then walking briskly for 2 minutes. I did pretty well overall I think. I did mess up in the beginning because the guy's voice is hard to hear over the music. I was on the warm up walk and I started running early. When I finally realized I was still supposed to be walking it was time to run, so I barely got a break in between, which made me a bit more tired through out the whole thing.

This weeks is definitely harder than last weeks. However, after doing the podcast two more times this week I will hopefully do a lot better.

Stranger than Fiction

Jeff and I watched Stranger than Fiction yesterday. I wasn't sure if I would like this movie, but I gave it a shot. In the end I really liked it. Jeff wasn't so sure. This movie is about a guy who works for the IRS. His life is mundane and boring. One day he starts to hear a woman's voice in his head that is narrating everything he is doing. I won't ruin the end of the movie, but it has a great message. What did I get out of this movie? That you shouldn't just live your life thinking this is how it's always going to be and give up. That little things can change the whole course of your life. That you should live life how you want it. If you have a dream to do something go do it.

More Domo

Today I happened to be in our local Target. Target is a great store and has all sorts of cool things. One section of the store I always check out is the seasonal section. Last Halloween I found that they had some really cute Halloween Domo, which is where I got my pumpkin and devil domos. Ever since I found my Halloween Domos, I always go back to that section of the store to see if they have any new ones.

Today they had all their Easter stuff out. I noticed they had some Hello Kitty stuff, but after looking a bit I found they had two Easter Domo's out! I picked out a stuffed domo dressed as a little chick and a domo with bunny ears. So cute. These two plus a pink domo a friend of mine got for me brings my total to nine stuffed domos ;) My collection is really starting to get big.

Couch To 5k

I decided to give running a try. I am out of shape and I wish I had the stamina to run. I also wouldn't mind looking like a runner. I tried running on the treadmill one afternoon last week and realized what bad shape I was in. I ran for about 7 minutes out of twenty total.

When I was finished I talked to a few friends about it. One brought an internet site to my attention. It is called Couch To 5k. It is basically an interval running program that lasts 9 weeks. It's for people who are out of shape to slowly increase the amount of running you do and decrease the amount of walking you do in a thirty minute session. In the end you will be able to supposedly run 3 miles in 30 minutes. It sounds really cool actually. There are support forums and all sorts of podcasts you can download. I downloaded one that includes techno music. It has the guy who created it in the background telling you when to run and when to walk. There are a variety of podcasts out there with all different sorts of music genres.

This site gives a breakdown of the different walking and running intervals that you go through each week. I am starting my first week today. I did do a trial run on Saturday and surprised myself. I thought I wouldn't be able to finish the whole podcast and would tire out. However, I actually finished the whole podcast and didn't have any troubles. I was very proud of myself. It made me look forward to today when I am really starting. I hope the excitement continues I continue to move through the weeks successfully.

Cleaning the tub

Last weekend I started a cleaning experiment. I have been looking for a way to clean our bathtub floor, which is made out of fiberglass, ever since we moved into our town home. I have cleaned it before, but it never got really clean. I wanted it to be white. I asked around and got a variety of suggestions on what to use to clean it.

In the end I went for a combination of methods. I first poured powdered comet on the bathroom floor. I wanted to use a brush to really put some elbow grease on it, but I couldn't find a brush anywhere. I need to pick one up. So instead of using a brush I used Mr. Clean magic erasers as my brush. They worked pretty well. However, I think I went through five of them. A friend of mine said that they now make super duty magic erasers with scrubbers on the bottom. They sound cool and I look forward to picking some up. Anyways, I used the erasers as a brush, and then after each use I rinsed the eraser under water, squeezed it to get the water out, and then dipped it in a little white vinegar to clean it a little more.

In the end our bathroom floor did finally look white. I was very happy. It took about an hour just working on the floor alone. The only problem is since I used a combination of methods, I'm not sure which one was the material that made the most significant difference. I'm thinking it was the magic erasers, but I guess I will have to try using them first the next time. I was so proud of our clean bathroom floor that I kept going in the bathroom to look at it and didn't really want to get it dirty again. Oh well. At least I know what to do now to get it clean again.

Happy Spring

Happy 2nd day of spring. I can't wait for the warm weather. I love being able to wear short sleeves and shorts and to have the windows open in the house. Today to celebrate spring Jeff and I went over to Rita's and had a some water ice. Mine was mango flavored. Rita's is great because it's a dessert I can eat. Yes, it's very high in sugar, but there is no dairy and no chocolate. I will have to go back and try some more of their flavors. They also supposedly have sugar free flavors, but they didn't have any tonight when I went.

Hello Kitty 3-D Cookie Cutter

Sanrio has come up with so many interesting gadgets. I found this post which advertises that jbox.com is selling a Hello Kitty 3D cookie cutter that can be also used with toast! Cute. I wonder if I would be able to assemble the cookie or if it would fall apart.

Stuffed Shells

I found jumbo pasta shells at our local farmers market this past weekend. They sparked all sorts of cooking ideas in my head. I had already been thinking about making some sort of pasta stuffed with meat dish so I picked them up.

When I got home I googled stuffed shells recipes until I found a good one on cooks.com. The recipe calls for ground beef, but I substituted it with turkey. I got rid of the onions and substituted egg beaters for a real egg. I also realized while making it I didn't have any nutmeg so I used seasoning salt and italian seasoning. I bet nutmeg would have given it a good taste, I'm sad I didn't have any. The meat mixture was basically a mix you would use to make meatballs.

I made two pans full of the shells. For Jeff, I covered the bottom with tomato sauce, put the stuffed shells in, and then covered it again with tomato sauce and Parmesan chesee. For me, I put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan and put little bits of butter through out it. Then I cooked them for about 30 minutes and served. Very yummy.

The next time I try this I will cook them in the oven for maybe ten minutes less. The pasta was a little crunchy on the edges, but otherwise fine. Jeff also enjoyed making his own stuffing with my leftover shells. He put tomato sauce and shredded cheese in them. I may also try to make a lasagna with similar ingredients. Oh the possibilities ;)

Burger Grease Art

I avoid all foods that are greasy because they bother my stomach. After watching this video I am now even more glad that I avoid greasy food. Ew. Even though this is sort of an ad for Arby's new sandwiches this guy is very creative and I give him kudos. I love the cute dog cameo in the middle as well eating the hamburger bits.

Bloggers like me

I love food blogs. I have a huge list of foodie type blogs that I read on all sorts of topics. However, many of the yummy things I read about I can't actually eat, because of the various things that bug my stomach. Recently when reading one of my favorite sites I found a post about Sloane Miller and her site. On her site she is known as Allergic Girl. Her postings are all about eating out and enjoying eating out even when she is allergic to a lot of different foods. This really resonated with me. I enjoy food, but have been eating out a lot less and avoiding a lot of different foods when I started having stomach issues about a year ago. Now that I know the cause - ibs and gerd - and what I can and can't eat, I have started eating out a bit more again.

It's just nice to find others out there who are in the same boat even though we may be allergic or bothered by different foods. I'm happy to find her. I also found the Food Allergy Queen through Allergic Girl's blog list. I can't wait to read more of their posts and find others out there who are going through similar things. Yea for the internet :)

Happy Birthday Milo

Today is Milo's fourth birthday! Happy Birthday to our cute furry kitty. We got him when he was about two and a half. I can't believe we have spent almost two years with him already. I think we will have to do something special for him. Jeff thinks we should give him some tuna juice while I'm thinking of buying him a small toy. Either way I'm sure he will have a great birthday taking naps in his sun beam and chasing his toys around the house.

The Hamentashen House

Tis the season of Purim. To celebrate I ordered some hamentashen from a local temple. I ordered a box of cherry and apricot and a half a box of apple. They are very yummy. Then a friend of ours who is a trained maker of yummy dessert things made us some home made chocolate chip hamentashen.

Now my parents are down for a visit. They brought hamentashen with them as well. They brought some from their temple as well as some from Whole Foods. So we have hamentashen of all different kinds from four different sources. Yummy. We are going to freeze most of them so that we can pull them out at different times of the year and enjoy them. Freezing is also good so that we don't eat them all at once :) It's just need to see so many different kinds of hamentashen in one spot.

Snackage

While wandering the snack isle at the grocery store I found a new snack food that is pretty yummy - Quaker rice cakes. They are great for a snack because they are healthy, yet also get rid of my carb cravings. They come in all different sizes and flavors. So far I have tried miniature peanut butter, sour cream and onion quakes and kettle corn quakes. So far I think my favorite was the sour cream and onion quakes. I think the next ones I try will be apple cinnamon. My goal is to try all of the different flavors except for the cheese ones of course.

Alphabet Survey

Here is a fun survey I found on the internet.

A
- Age: 29, 30 in May (eeks!)
- Annoyance: Mean people
- Animal: My kitty Milo

B
- Beer: I don't drink
- Birthday: May 5
- Best Friends: Jeff
- Best feeling in the world: Being happy and contented
- Blind or Deaf: Deaf
- Best weather: Spring, probably around 70-80
- Been in Love: Yes
- Been on stage?: Yes. I have been in band and chorus all through school. That counts right?
- Believe in Santa: I'm Jewish.

C
- Candy: I love snickers, m&m's, caramel squares,cadburry creme eggs, and the rolos I had at work the other day were really good
- Color: Purple, green, cranberry
- Chocolate/Vanilla: Chocolate
- Chinese/Mexican Food: Chinese! I have it every saturday
- Cake or pie: CAKE!
- Continent to visit: I would love to go visit Asia. I want to go to Japan.
- Cheese: I love cheese, but it doesn't love me. When I do eat it I like american and cheddar

D
- Day or Night: I'm not sure. I like being up in the morning to get lots of stuff done, but I love sleeping in. Probably day. When I work I can't stay up very late at all.
- Dancing in the rain: I'm a horrible dancer

E
- Eyes: Greenish I think they are hazel
- Everyone's got: Their own opinion
- Ever failed a class?: No, but I did get a D in Math in high school on an interim report

F
- First thoughts waking up: What time is it?
- Food: I love to learn about/cook different kinds of food. I'm a bit of a wannabe foodie

G
- Greatest Fear(s): certain types of doctors, pain
- Goals: To have kids in the near future, to find my calling in life, to enjoy my free time more
- Gum: I don't really chew much gum, but when I do I like juicy fruit and the sugarless ones. There used to be a good kind that was rectangular shaped with one flavor on the outside and one on the inside, I can't remember the name though.
- Get along with your parents?: For the most part yes :)

H
- Hair Color: Golden brown
- Height: 5'2"
- Holiday: Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Cinco de Mayo (my birthday :))
- How do you want to die: Peacefully when I'm old

I
- Ice Cream: Rocky Road. Though there are some good soy ice creams out there. I like the toffuti's mint chocolate chip
- Instrument: Clarinet. I've played the b flat, contra alto, and bass

J
- Jewelry: I only wear a little. I wear my wedding and engagement ring on my left hand, my "I am my beloved and my beloved is mine" ring in hebrew on my right hand, hamsa bracelet on my left, watch on my right, and a necklace. However, I am starting to get into cheap cute chunky jewelry
- Job: Intern who works in research/statistics

K
- Kids: None at the moment, but I would like two
- Kickboxing or karate: I've wanted to try kickboxing, but I hear it's not good to try if you are totally out of shape.
- Keep a journal?: Yes

L
- Love: Jeff
- Letter: J
- Laughed so hard you cried: I did at work on thursday

M
- Milk flavor: I don't drink milk, never really did even when I could. But I love chocolate so I will say chocolate
- Movies: My favorites are Contact, Moulin Rouge, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original)
- McD’s or BK: McD's

N
- Number: 5

O
- One wish: I'd like to enjoy myself in whatever I'm doing and not worrying about other people or being bored

P
- Pepsi/Coke: Diet Coke. However, if I have to drink pepsi I like real pepsi. Diet pepsi tastes weird
- Perfect Pizza: I used to say pepperoni pizza with bacon and onions. Now I make a soy cheese pizza on bobboli with grilled chicken.
- Piercings: 1 in each ear

Q
- Quail: I think I've eaten it once.

R
- Reason to cry: ASPCA commercials w/ Sarah McLachlan, when anyone gets married or gives birth on tv (lol, yes I'm a sap)
- Reality T.V.: I will watch certain shows, but some of it is too over the top for me.
- Radiostation: WMMR, 106.5, WJFK
- Roll your tongue in a circle: I can't :(
- Ring size: 5

S
- Song: I have a lot of favorite musicians, but I can never remember the names of their songs.
- Shoe size: Depending on the shoe and the socks I'm wearing anywhere between 7-8
- Salad Dressing: Ranch on the side
- Skinny dipped?: Yup
- In the shower?: What is this question asking? Aren't you always naked in the shower?
- Strawberries/Blueberries: Strawberries
- State: VA, DE

T
- Tattoos?: None, I have such a low tolerance of pain
- Time for bed: Usually about 10-10:30pm on week days and 11ish on weekends
- Thunderstorms: Very cool

U
- Unpredictable: Usually not. I like to plan things in advance :)

V
- Vacation spot(s): Outer Banks, Florida

W
- Weakness: Lack of confidence, anxiety, caring what other people think, shyness
- Worst feeling: Getting into a big fight, being in work I hate
- Wanted to be a model: Nope, could never make it as a model
-Worst Weather?: I hate it when it's really hot and when it's really cold. Though I do like snow

X
- X-Ray: I haven't had one in a really long time.

Y
-Year it is now: '09
-Yellow: I wore a yellow v-neck fleece to work yesterday because it made me feel springy

Z
-Zoo animal?: When I was a kid I wrote a story about wanting to be a hyiena because they laugh all the time.

Dairy Free Icing

Today there was a lot of food around at work. There were two birthday celebrations that I know of plus some other types of food from a meeting that occurred. In one of the birthday celebrations there was a large cake. I love cake, but was trying to talk myself out of having a piece because it's unhealthy and because the icing would probably upset my stomach. However, I heard someone say that the icing was dairy free. I was like woah, how cool! I had never thought to look for or ask about such a thing. When I heard that, I of course had to have a small piece, and it was good. I hear that there are two grocery stores in the area that sell dairy free icing so I will definitely have to check them out. So yea for being able to eat a little more cake ;)

Peeps

The Washington Post is having it's annual Peeps Diorama Contest. All you have to do is come up with a theme, buy some peeps, set them up according to your theme, and take a picture. They also have pictures of last years winners posted. Some people are so creative. My favorites are the Simpsons and the Batman and Robin peeps.

Twitter

Twitter is gaining in popularity these days. I hear about people twittering everywhere. I even heard our local news anchor talking about how he twitters and asked Sam Champion from Good Morning America to be his friend on facebook and asking if he twittered. That made me laugh.

I don't have a real cell phone that I use. I have a pre-paid phone. I basically pay $100 a year for service and use it when I'm not at home or for emergencies. However, twittering is making me want to get a real phone where I could join in. I doubt that I would ever buy a phone just to twitter, and I don't have enough people I actually talk to, but it would be fun to join in. Though I'm not sure if anyone would even care what I had to say.

Recently, I have found myself reading twittering from authors of my favorite websites and even from celebrities. I have found that Matthew McConaughey twitters as does Soleil Moon Frye. It's just fun to read. I guess that goes along with my hobby of keeping up with celebrity gossip.

Comcast Commercial

Comcast Cable has a new series of commercials out. I saw one for the first time just last week, but I'm not sure if I like them. They are animated and have this weird song that the people sing. The song sounds very monotone like the people aren't singing but mumbling. It's odd. However, every time I hear the commercial I stop what I am doing and listen to the song. I guess that means the commercial is doing it's job. From listening to the commercial a few times I find that the longer version of the commercial is better than the shortened version, and the version that they play on the radio sounds better. Still oddly weird yet catchy. If you haven't heard the song I'm talking about go here and click anywhere to see the different versions of the commercial.

*EDIT*

Here is the commercial from YouTube

HTML

Last night I spent some time online looking for a craft to get into. I have been looking for something crafty to try, but I haven't had that much luck. I have tried knitting, crocheting, latch hooking, needle work, and even making flannel blankets. I never was very good and I didn't continue to do them.

Last night I started looking at beading crafts since three of my relatives are getting into making bracelets and necklaces with beading. I may try it, but I am not sure yet. In the end, I ended up fiddling with the html on my test blog. I am pretty good at basic html, but I am no where near an expert. I can usually make it do what I want when I have a guide or something to start with. I just keep tweaking it until it works out. Html is crafty sorta in a weird way :)

I finally figured out with some help how to change the layout of blogger with their new widgets. I now have my test layout in three columns instead of being stuck with the layouts that blogger lets you choose from. I am going to play with it a bit more to perfect it on my test blog, but I may change it to my layout over here as well.

*UPDATE*

So I decided to try the new layout over here. The layout was made by Amanda at Blogger Buster. I'm still getting used to it and trying to decide if I like it better than the two column layout. We will see. I may also continue to tweak it some.

The cadbury creme egg cake experiment

While reading through one of my food blogs I found a post talking about how they have cadbury creme egg McFlurries in England. I wonder if it will catch on and come to the U.S. I would love to taste one, but I bet they would be way too sugary. While reading the comments I found another link that lead me to the cadbury creme egg cake experiment on Jay Barnes' blog. In his experiment he attempted to bake a cake with cadbury creme eggs instead of regular eggs to see what happened. It was an amusing read even though he does cuss a bit. I couldn't believe he threw out the cadbury egg "shells" after he got the yolks out though. I would have eaten them, yum.

Recipes floating in my head

A lot of the time I will get an idea for a recipe by watching a commercial on tv, reading something on the internet, or by a meal in a restaurant. Lately, I have a few recipe ideas floating in my head that I have been meaning to try. A lot of them have been in my head for a while. I thought if I put them down in writing that maybe I would actually make them.

One recipe that I would like to try is home made chicken noodle soup with home made stock. I found a great recipe on Macheesmo's site. I visit his site regularly. His recipe uses a whole chicken and looks great. Can't wait to try it. I also recently found some great Asian noodles that are sorta ramen like that I mixed with shrimp and a little soy sauce. I would love to find an Asian broth and make my own pho bowl.

The other two recipes I would like to try are on an Italian theme. I would first like to try to make low acid tomato sauce. Tomatoes are acidy and bother my stomach, but yet I've been craving some baked ziti recently. I hear that you can add baking soda to tomato sauce to make it less acidy so I would like to try it. The other Italian thing on my mind is ravioli. Most ravioli you can get has cheese in it. Again I can't eat regular cheese, but I bet I could make ravioli from scratch and it would be even yummier. I'm sure the filling won't be too hard. I just have to figure out the dough. I'm not sure if I can buy ready made dough somewhere or if I have to make it from scratch which I could probably figure out how to do. I may need to buy a rolling pin first though lol.

Hello Kitty Hell

I found a great new Hello Kitty site called Hello Kitty Hell. This blog is maintained by a man whose wife is in love with Hello Kitty. More so than I am I have to point out. Her husband does not like Hello Kitty at all and shows his distaste in his blog posts. He also posts about all of the wacky items that have been found with Hello Kitty on it. Some examples are a whole hospital where actual children are born in with a Hello Kitty theme, a Hello Kitty patch for someone in the military, and Hello Kitty wedding dresses. Great read, but some posts are nsfw.

Domokitty

What do you get when you put Hello Kitty and Domokun together? Domokitty! Only one was made by David Faller and it was sold to charity. Very cute!

Colorful Turkey Hamburger Rice

I tried a new recipe I found online for dinner tonight. I was excited to try it because it sounded yummy. I found the recipe at Heather Van Vourous's site on the recipe board posted by Missy.

It started off a little rough because I didn't read the directions carefully. I put the uncooked turkey in the pan when it should have been cooked first. That was easily fixed though and all went fine. I excluded a few ingredients though. I didn't add onion and celery because they bug me and I didn't include green beans and peas because Jeff doesn't like them. That would have been a full pan if I had added all of those things. My pan was stuffed as it was. I also substituted couscous for rice because we didn't have any real rice around.

In the end, it came out pretty well. It was all mixed together in the pan and looked kind of like a stuffing. Jeff did not like how it looked and that it was all mixed together. He tried it and said it tasted fine but didn't like how it looked. I didn't mind it and actually really enjoyed it. I'm going to bring the leftovers for lunches this week. Should be yummy and filling, which is just what I need in the middle of a work day.

Private Practice

I just got done watching the last episode of the three episode arch where Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice crossover. I have watched Grey's Anatomy from the beginning. I watched it before it was popular. I was hooked from the very first episode. So when Private Practice spun off of it I gave it a chance. However, I didn't like it and stopped watching it. Recently, I have watched Private Practice for the last three weeks because of the cross over event and it has reminded me why I don't like this show. It is too over the top. Grey's Anatomy I know is dramatic and everyone is sleeping with each other and it's not anything like real life. I know this. However, it seems like in Private Practice they try to go beyond that. Each episode is like an after school special that is on steroids. From having to decide to surgically make a baby male or female to violence in high schools to parents leaving their children to making a dying teen pregnant so that she can have her wish of being a mom come true before she dies. It's crazy. I am glad this arch is over so I can go back to not watching Private Practice anymore.

Animal Crossing City Folk

For Christmas I received Animal Crossing City Folk for the wii. I had been playing Animal Crossing Wild World on the Nintendo DS and enjoyed the game. The main premise is to decorate your house with different themes of furniture, and to collect/sell/fill the museum with fish, sea shells, fossils, bugs, and paintings. I was excited to try it out on the wii. After playing the game for a few months I feel like I am able to write a review on the wii version.

In the Nintendo DS version you are able to have a house with five rooms. One main room, one back room, two on the left and right, and one on the second floor. In the wii version you only get three rooms. There are too many furniture options to only have three rooms. In the DS version it is easy to get rare fruit when in the wii version if you don't visit a different player's towns it's really hard to get them. I still haven't found a piece of rare fruit. In the DS version after being friendly with a character they will give you their picture which gives you extra points on your house score. I don't think this feature is available in the wii version which sucks. Another annoying thing is the letter writing. It is horrible to have to write letters to the players with the wii mote. We invested in a usb keyboard, which makes letter writing much more bearable.

What are the good things about the wii version? It is easier to get money in the game for one. That is a good thing. I also like being able to see all of the furniture options on the big screen. In addition, the wii version has some new special holidays that are fun to take part in. The wii version also lets each character have their own house, which is good if you have more than one person playing the same game. In the DS version Jeff would have had to share my house with me and we would have to split up the rooms. In the wii version he can decorate his own house however he wants.

Overall, I like the Nintendo DS version better.

Beef Domokun

I have a soft spot for Domokun. I think he's cute. I have started a growing collection of Domokun dolls and memorabilia. This is why I got excited when I found this link. Jessamyn found the beef and added a creative touch. It's a Domokun made out of a beef tendon. Awesome job, but a little gross!

Falafels

I made falafels for dinner tonight. I had wanted to make them for a while, but hadn't because the directions always say to fry them. I am avoiding all fried foods since it isn't healthy and my tummy couldn't handle it. Today while wandering the grocery store isles I realized I could pan fry them. This was an exciting prospect. I found a packaged mix where the instructions only called for water to be added and bought two so we would have leftovers through out the week. I could of just made them from scratch instead of buying a mix, but it's easier and quicker to just buy the mix.

When I got home I started making them. All you have to do is pour the dry mix in a bowl and then add one cup of water. Then stir the mix and water together and then let it sit for 7-8 minutes. After it sits, spray the pan with pam, shape them into balls, and then brown them. They turned out to be falafel pancakes, but still good. We had them with pita and ranch dressing. Well Jeff did since I can't do dairy. They are very filling and healthy. I can't wait to use them for snacks while at work.

Hello Kitty Watch

I have loved Hello Kitty ever since I was a child. My mother used to buy me Hello Kitty merchandise when I was young. I still love Hello Kitty stuff and get excited when I see stuff with her face on it in stores. And yes, I know that Hello Kitty stuff is everywhere and that there is no way I could collect it all. That doesn't stop me from searching for Hello Kitty on whatever I may be looking to buy at the moment.

I am in the market for a new watch. I like my current watch, but I am looking for something a little different and something that matches more things as my current watch is a light purple. I was randoming around amazon.com and found this watch. Wow. It is so pretty. It's silver so it would match anything, it looks professional (not too childish) and it has Hello Kitty on it!! I think it's a little expensive for my tastes, but I'm tempted. I'm not sure if someone would take me seriously if I went to a job interview with that watch on though. Doesn't stop me from drooling though.

Tagalongs

Today I bought a box of girl scout cookies. I had wanted to buy a box, but I actually hadn't seen any girl scouts around. I bought my favorite kind of girl scout cookie - tagalongs. They are so good. They are the ones that are part cookie part peanut butter and then dipped in chocolate. Yummy. The only problem is that they are 9 grams of fat for two cookies. With my annoying stomach issues I have to eat very low fat or my stomach protests. So I will be rationing them out. If you divide 9 by two you get 4.5 grams of fat. That isn't bad. So if I eat one cookie per day or every couple of days my stomach should be fine. I hope so anyways. So that is what I'm going to do. It's hard to stop at just one, but I will do it. I have put them in the freezer because they are yummier that way and because they are out of sight so I won't be tempted.

Starbucks Oatmeal

A couple of co-workers today decided to go on a Starbucks run in the middle of the day. I overheard their plans and went online to the Starbucks website to see if I wanted anything since I don't drink coffee and I knew they would ask if I wanted anything. I came across their new "Perfect Oatmeal". I had read on one of my many food blogs that their oatmeal was ok so I decided to try some. I got their brown sugar oatmeal.

The oatmeal itself was ok. They don't make it from scratch. I hear they make it out of packets like many do at home and then heat it up. It was kinda bland and needed more flavor. It was also a little watery, yet still kinda thick. I liked the thickness, but it didn't impress me that much. I can make oatmeal at home that doesn't cost anything and I can put whatever I want in it.

The thing that really bugged me though was their website. I was trying to look at the ingredients in the oatmeal and trying to find out if they make it with milk. To actually look at the nutrition information for the foods on the menu you have to put in your zip code which I think is dumb. Then the site decided not to work and kept giving me errors. After playing with it a while I finally got it to work and tried a few Starbucks in Delaware. All the sites said no nutrition information available. So I tried in different states to see if only Delaware sites didn't have information. Nope. Every Starbucks site that I tried had no nutritional information listed. On their site they do say you can substitute soy milk for regular in their coffees, but they didn't specify what they normally make their oatmeal with. Very annoying. So instead I googled Starbucks and oatmeal and nutrition information. I found the amount of calories, but I couldn't tell if it had milk in it. I did find some other blogs talking about it, but nothing concrete.

*UPDATE*
My stomach did fine with the oatmeal so I'm thinking that they use water in their oatmeal instead of milk. I also googled it again with different terms and found two different articles mentioning that they use hot water in their oatmeal. I'm glad to hear that even though their oatmeal wasn't the best. If I'm in a pinch I would definitely try it again.

Fortune

I had my chinese food for dinner as mentioned in the entry below this. However, I saved my fortune cookie for a snack during break from class. When I opened my fortune I got a chuckle. My fortune said: "You have the ability to analyze and solve any problem." Very fitting to open in the middle of statistics class isn't it? I think I'm going to tape it to the front of my statistics notebook.

Class

I have class tonight. I'm actually excited about it. Yes, I'm a nerd. I'm taking a certificate program on statistics. Hopefully in the end it will help me find an awesome job. Tonight I think we are just going to go over basic statistics like summary statistics. Hopefully all will go well.

Since I won't be going home for dinner I picked up some chinese from the place near work for dinner. It's sitting in the fridge at work and is making me hungry. I feel like it's calling out to me lol. I think I need to pack more interesting lunches that satisfy me more.

Pandora

I recently discovered and have been playing with Pandora. Very cool site. When you first come to the site it asks you to enter one musician or song you like into the engine. That will create a music "station". After that Pandora will play songs that are similar to the song you entered. You can add in a variety of artists to one channel like I have the Classical music mix channel for when I work. On it I have Josh Grobin, Yanni, Apocolyptica, Enya and more. It's a great way to hear new artists I've never heard of before.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day! Jeff and I aren't doing anything real exciting today. Just enjoying each other. I did get beautiful roses though. Thank you! We thought about going out to eat tonight, but all restaurants will be overpriced and crowded tonight. I rather cook in. We thought about making sushi tonight, but I'm not 100% sure what we will be making tonight. Here is an idea for a cool project if you find yourself with too many candy hearts.

It's supposed to snow tonight and I don't want it too. It's been warmer recently and I love it. What I am able to experience that is. Whenever it's been warm I'm usually stuck in work and miss it all. Oh well.

A bit more snow

So we did get a bit more snow yesterday. As it got dark it was flurrying outside, but nothing major. However, when I got up in the morning we had a dusting that covered the ground and our cars. I think we got an inch and a half total. Not much of anything. It was a pain cleaning off my car though, all the snow kept blowing back at me.

Today is a slow day. Nothing that exciting going on. I'm looking forward to this weekend. We don't have any big plans but that's ok. It will be warm and nice and relaxing, just the way I like it.

Must see tv tonight? American Idol is on, which is good. I'm sad that they cut out most of the parts with the bad singers. That was my favorite part. Bones used to be on Wednesdays but it moved to Thursdays. There isn't that much on anymore on Wednesdays.

Snow

It's snowing out. Well it has been since this morning. I woke up to the top of my car covered in a light dusting of snow. It doesn't seem to be accumulating much on the roads or the cars at this point. The weather channel says we are supposed to get anywhere from 2-4 inches with a crazy evening commute, but at this point I'm not sure. We would have to get a lot of snow in the next couple of hours to reach that.

Right now I'm bored. I've exhausted my list of url's I normally visit. I think I'm going to challenge myself to write at least one entry in here a day. Lets see if I can keep up with that.

Cooking

Recently, I have had a lot of stomach issues. Well not recently, this past year. Anyways, because of the many things I have had to cut out of my diet I have started to cook a lot more from scratch. This way I can cook what I want and not include all the things that bother me. I have always enjoyed cooking, but I feel like I'm starting to get more into it recently. I cooked a whole chicken (six lbs) for the first time the other week and it turned out great. I was very excited. I have made chicken tenders, flounder, and all sorts of things. Making things from scratch is also helpful when I crave a particular food, but can't eat it for one reason or another. I have gotten good at substituting ingredients for safe ingredients which lets me make a healthier version of the food. This way I can satisfy my craving. So yea for cooking. I think I will be posting some of my recipes to keep a record of all the great ones that I turn out.