1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk (you can get the original/blank list there, too) linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

( I like food in general. apparently. )

OMG, Wang Xin, one of the Chinese divers is just horrible and disgusting for me to look at. She's, like 15, and maybe weighs 80 pounds. Maybe? The story is that she was initially picked for gymnastics as a child, but they changed her to diving because she doesn't like to eat. She hates gaining weight. OMFG, give her an NG because seriously, this is bad. The other one isn't quite as bad, but still freaking skinny. Gee, I wonder why they don't make a splash, could it be they don't weigh anything?!

I am going back to school! Wheee!

When I asked Mom if I could have a Hannah Montana backpack, she laughed, but she didn't think it was as funny as I did.*

So, uh, yeah. Nine months to learn about office administration. I am looking forward to learning some accounting, and a refresher course on basic math (because I gave up on math way too early).

I go in tomorrow to register and apply for OSAP, and will drop off some resumes at Whiteoaks Mall after that. Since classes are 9-4 every day, picking up a part-time job for some evenings and weekends so I'll have a little money seems like a sweet idea.

Wheee!!!!!!!!!!!!!



*For the record, I thought it was hilarious.

Man!

The zucchini glut of summer is starting to come in. You ALWAYS FORGET how the squash is all LA LA LA and then suddenly it starts to produce 2-pound behemoths that were just tiny babies LAST NIGHT.

I couldn't bear the thought of eating it steamed again tonight, so I took the squash I picked this morning and sliced it thin, put it on cookie sheets, and tucked it into the oven on 140 with the door propped open. (Yes, a dehydrator would be better, but.... I don't have one.)

THIS IS DELICIOUS YOU GUYS. I just went in to the kitchen and ate, um, a third of a tray of slightly leathery yellow squash slices. I didn't blanch them or season them or anything, because I didn't want to get TOO ambitious.

Honestly, this makes me want a dehydrator. I bet a medley of sliced, dried veggies would make a really excellent snack, sort of like non-oily chips.

(I hesitate to say that it's super-healthy, because my understanding is that drying veggies basically destroys the vitamin C and A. But it's not UNHEALTHY.)

I WANT MORE! I'm tempted to go out and pick all the squash that's available and go nuts. NOM NOM NOM.

WANTS DEHYDRATOR NOW.

/domestic nerdery

Does it? Or does it just continue to grow? It's been nearly 10 years since he died and it seems and feels like yesterday. Is it because I never really grieved because everyone told me that it's too late now? For the first year, I was strong so my mom could be weak and grieve the loss of her husband. The next year, I decided to focus in on my own grief and was basically told that because I had a close relationship with my dad, that I had NO RIGHT to grieve him.

I was also told it was part of God's plan for my life.

WTF?

I lost my dad. My DADDY. My hero. How can I possibly believe that the God I grew up believing in, that I grew up defending...how could He possibly plan this? And WHY?

So, I once again buried the grief.

And now, what I have fought so hard to keep buried resurfaces. I've let my dad go. I no longer carry the guilt that I carried for the longest time. I understand that, despite the fact that I wish he wasn't, he IS in a better place, pain-free and happy.

So, how come now...after all this time of fighting the grief, is it resurfacing? I mean, it's too late to grieve now, isn't it?

Sometimes, all it takes is seeing a young man in uniform. Other times, it's a song. Or, like now, I'm going through a crisis and I NEED and WANT my daddy. To sit on his lap one last time, with him hugging me, telling me it will be okay. I don't have that and that is what I need the most right now.

How daddies can make everything okay, even when they're not, is beyond me. Is it because we look at them as such pillars of strength? That daddies are invincible? Is it because we look at daddies as being brave and strong?

So, why is it that all my grief over the death of my dad nearly 10 years ago has suddenly resurfaced? After all, it's been 10 years and too late to grieve.

All I know is that I miss him. That I need him. I need his help and advice that only a daddy can give.

But it's much too too late to grieve.

HERE

These are from Jessica's camera.

Tomorrow I will get the pictures that njdrew took.

Is there some kind of service where you can have romance novels written to your exact specs? NOT PORN. Novels.

Because I beat out these stories in my head sometimes, and listen, I don't want to WRITE THEM, I just want to see the story on paper! Sigh. (Also, I often don't really have a STORY. If I'm honest. I have, like, "Three characters and four scenes and a setting.")

Sigh. For instance, I would like to read a novel about a girl who's possibly a journalist (BUT NOT SOME KIND OF HARD-CHARGING ONE. She brings people MUFFINS, okay.) who follows this imposing general around his office for a day, and the general thinks she's so sweet and cute, he invites her over to have dinner with him and his wife, and then he orders some... major-kind-of-guy to come over also, because the general is mentoring the major and has very old-fashioned feelings about how you just aren't promotable past a certain grade if you don't have a wife. But he doesn't tell either of the people this, so they both show up and then are all "..." BUT, they actually kind of hit it off. (Although it's totally awkward, because the general keeps smiling approvingly at his wife IN FRONT OF THEM.) And then at the end of the night the major guy walks her to her car and they're all awkward and embarrassed, because they KNOW they've been set up, but now they feel sort of LAME, because it's all so obvious and kind of weird.

And then, I don't know! There's dating. And he's stern and a Republican.

I WOULD READ THAT SHIT.

I have been watching a lot of 30 Rock, and I just recently watched the episode where Liz goes on a date with a black dude and doesn't like him, but then keeps going out with him so as not to seem racist.

The best part is how she basically decides that she hates him. They're at this restaurant, and she asks what he's going to get, and he says that he'll just get a salad because he doesn't really care about food. And she's all "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and deeply appalled and IT IS SO AWESOME.

I love Liz Lemon. I LOVE HER AND HOW MUCH SHE LIKES TO EAT FOOD.

At nearly three this morning, I had to leave my room. I am having allergies that prevent me from sleeping peacefully, the cats started whining at me at one o'clock, and then Paku pissed on the couch at two-thirty. I took my fuzzy blanket, my contoured pillow and my body pillow, and crashed on the floor of my office.

Surprisingly, I managed to sleep a bit.

Now I'm rushing to get ready for my trip into London. Time to find out if Westervelt is the right idea.

LJ IS NOT SENDING ME COMMENTS! Or something.

(It's making me feel very fussy. SIGH.)

PS, Generation Kill:

I think I like the lady director (she did the first two - or three? - episodes) the best. This most-recent episode, while still obviously GOOD, was not as OH MAN as the first ones. I blame a lack of Ripped-Fuelled Person!

( Spoilers )

ANYWAY, the real victim here is ME. Because there's only one more episode. TERRIBLE.

If you're an American voter, you should know that John McCain thinks that "a human being gets human rights" at the moment of conception.

Some (CRAZY) anti-reproductive-rights types believe that ordinary birth control pills act to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, and emergency birth control ("Plan B") can have that effect. In the perspective of someone who thinks that a sperm merging with an ovum immediately creates a human being with human rights, hormonal birth control is abortion, and abortion is murder.

Here is a quote from the website of an anti-choice ministry, a website I am not going to link to because BITCH CRAZY:

Typically, the new person attempts to implant at six days after conception. If implantation is unsuccessful, the child is flushed out of the womb in a miscarriage. When the miscarriage is the result of an environment created by a foreign device or chemical, it is in fact an abortion. This is true even if the mother does not intend it, and is not aware of it happening.

That is the perspective John McCain is endorsing by stating in his conversation with America's most powerful evangelical pastor that A HUMAN BEING GETS HUMAN RIGHTS AT THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION.

Many independent voters think, based on John McCain's "Maverick" image, that he's some variant of pro-choice. Man, he is NOT. Believing that the clump of ONE OR TWO CELLS that hasn't even implanted yet is a human being with full human rights is a pretty radical perspective.

I am somewhat concerned by the number of people I talk to who assume that McCain is pro-choice, or at least not ultra anti-choice. I do worry that people will vote for him without realizing what they're getting into. (They're getting into a president who will give you a Supreme Court that will reverse Roe.)

I have not ever had an abortion, I hope to never have an abortion, I have mixed feelings about abortion. But I deeply resent the attempt by an ancient white man to tell women that hormonal birth control - one of the most reliable, convenient forms of birth control available, COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT. - is murder. I believe that the vast majority of extreme anti-choice advocates are motivated not by a desire to protect children - if you want to protect children, thousands of kids languish in a broken foster-care system - but by a desire to punish sluts, and a slut is any woman who has sex for pleasure, for anything other than procreation, and hormonal birth control more than any other advance has made it possible for women to have sex for pleasure without getting pregnant, so of course we should immediately put a stop to that, what whores, how dare they.

If you are a woman, or if you love a woman, John McCain is not on your side. DON'T VOTE FOR HIM GUYS.

(Also, he'll take us to war in Iran, and we can't go to war in Iran, we can barely keep it together in Iraq and Afghanistan, WE'RE OUT OF DUDES.)

Mum is coming with me tomorrow, which means there will be no smoking. That is aggravating (and yes, I know I should quit, this is not the post about that). Being with my mother stresses me right out, and being with her when I am trying to figure stuff out about my future stresses me even further out. By the time I get home tomorrow, I may be in a different body.

And I had forgotten that we're having our energy audit on Wednesday (when I will be looking after Sam's boys [take the bikini to the quarries, woohoo]) and the auditor will need to get into the attic. The only way to the attic is through my closet, so I need to do some rapidfire cleaning.

Hurray for doing stuff!

I woke up early this morning and went for a walk. If I get nothing else accomplished today, I can at least pat myself on the back for that.

But I will get things accomplished today, I can feel it. I will write two cover letters, mail out two resumes, and do at least one load of laundry. I can tell.

I know I haven't been around much lately. I haven't commented on anything, all I seem to do is whine. It's the kind of behaviour I make fun of other people for, in fact. How embarrassing.

But I'm working on it, flist. I'm trying. Just think good cover-letter-y thoughts my way - I've never really written one before.

[EDIT - 10:42] Have not finished my cover letters yet, butI have booked an interview at Westervelt College tomorrow, to find out about their Executive Administration course. It's a nine month course that looks like it would teach me skills I lack.

Now, I just have to convince Mum not to come with me, so I can smoke ^_^

[Son of EDIT - 11:59] Letters written, resumes mailed. Laundry awaiting hanging out in the sun. Communism fan keeping me cool. I think I am now entitled to 15 minutes of just sitting.

Wow, I don't feel like I did anything today. But, I was at the clinic for three hours. Then ate a quick lunch at 3, then got small animal food. Did some reading. Cleaned up the stalls, fed the critters. So really, I did things.
Suuuuuch a blah day. Usually I love rainy days. Maybe it's the lack of good sleep. Who knows.
Had to leave the horses in today. So glad I did, too because by the time I got home there are little lakes all over the pasture.


As I was listening to one of the sirius electronic music channels, I was thinking how weird it is that I really like electronic music, but hate smooth lines in decoration, but my sister likes rock, and adores smooth lines (modern). But on further thought, it made sense my like of electronic because it's really all about the beat, so it really matches Taiko, and a lot of the international music I like. (Hey, it made sense to me, and that's what matters. lol)

Sirius has me trained. Whenever I go under a bridge, I expect the music to temporarily cut out. Even if I'm listening to a CD. *snort*

To say this has been an emotional roller coaster week would be an understatement.  I started the week with a lot of pent up anger, frustration, disappointment ... pretty much any negative emotion you can name.  And a significant chunk was directed at my husband.  It didn't help that he had a conference in Tampa and was gone from Tuesday to Thursday.  So on Friday morning, after spending all week deep in thought, I told him I needed to talk.  And that's when we went to hell and back.  I feel bad because family members and co-workers were dragged into what should have been a totally personal matter, but I truly believe that things wouldn't have worked out as good as they did if they hadn't.  I got Eric's attention and we both were able to sit down Friday afternoon kid-free and talk about all the issues.

The bottom line is that he's still leaving in October, but my thoughts on it have done a complete 180.  I was too busy focusing on all the reasons why it sucked and why it wasn't fair that he was doing this to us again, that I couldn't focus on any of the positive points.  The house is still up for sale, and will remain so until it is sold.  To help with my sanity, we will look into rentals as an option to get me closer to friends before he leaves.  I think what I needed to hear is that he is willing to do what it takes to get me through the seven months he is gone.

Today we had an open house that supposedly went pretty well.  We also had a couple of showings - one expected, one not - before the open house.  I also went to look at a couple of open houses on my own.  I took my mom and she helped me see that I needed to eliminate both from my potential list.  However, the ironic thing was that the realtor of the house I liked the best is looking to buy a house in my neighborhood and thought my house sounded perfect.  For anyone curious, the listing to our house us here.  You can see what 300K doesn't gets you at the Jersey shore.

Other than family drama, the Olympics have been on non-stop at our house.  It took me a couple of days to get into it, but once I did I've been watching them every night.  I also reached my goal of reading five books over the summer.  I'm kind of afraid for the summer to end, and for me to be thrown back into absolute crazy days.  But we're down to less that three weeks until school starts, so it's coming whether I want it or not.

The person DJing the wedding next door has awesome taste in tunes. And I'm not even saying that with a bitter sense of irony.

I hate how crying (or almost-crying) makes my face feel. Parts of it are too tight, others are stuffy, and my ears hurt.

I'm not sad, though, just over-tired. The soapbox derby was yesterday, and it was a long day in the sun. And then there was the concert where hometown-heroine Janna Polzin sang (which made me feel proud and petty and mean and a particularly nasty shade of chartreuse with envy), and then cover bands, and I have a sunburn which makes me irritable.

So, I'm really okay, I'm just not.

Now I'm going to write me up some cover letters, put on clothes, and make some cinnamon rolls, dangit.

Snagged from Ancarett:
( Read more... )

To procrastinate from finishing a project, I just read the new David Milch pilot Last of the Ninth. A cop drama set in the early 70s, it starts with the arrival of a new detective (played by Jonah Lotan, who's the Really Grumpy Corpsman in Generation Kill, YAY!) at a copshop during the height of various police-corruption scandals. He also has an unexplained gap in his resume because he was undercover for a while, so everyone is super suspicious of him. His partner-mentor is played by Ray Winstone (YAY! He is magnificent.) and there are various other colorful characters.

What's great is that those astonishing Milchian runs of dialog that were so great in Deadwood happen here also. Not AS florid - after all, it's the 70s, not the 1870s - but there are still all these wonderfully-paced iambic-pentameter-sounding lines that you know are going to be fantastic when delivered by a crusty old actor.

There's also a plainclothes girl cop who I assume is going to be the young cop's love interest, and the whole thing starts off with a cop shooting, casual corruption, awesome outfits, alcoholism, family drama, etc etc etc. IT IS GOING TO BE SO GREAT! EVERYTHING LIFE ON MARS SHOULD BE BUT ISN'T!

(I'm sorry, I've seen the US LOM stills, I am underimpressed.)

Anyway, David Milch: he's a genius. He's one of the FEW creators where I think that if his shows bomb it's because we're not smart enough to get them (see: his surfing show, which I totally didn't get BECAUSE I AM NOT A SAVANT LIKE MR. MILCH.)

Last of the Ninth: look for it on HBO sometime in 2009.