My New Male-Centric TV Obsession

I won't lie. I love some television shows that are pretty much geared toward men, namely UFC. But there is a new challenger on the cable box and its name is Ninja Warrior.

This is a crazy Japanese obstacle course game show that tests real endurance and strength. I LOVE IT! I didn't even know I had G4 until a few weeks ago when my brother introduced me to the show. When I got home from Massachusetts, I went through every channel on our system looking for G4. I have now introduced Aaron to NW and he really digs it. He even stayed up this morning to watch the two episodes. I'm now enjoying another two episodes. If you have the channel, I highly recommend it.

Ninja Warrior:
http://g4tv.com/ninjawarrior/index.html

Dinner Failure

As I mentioned earlier, I have been in a funk. Sure the good ole hubby did his best to pull me back from the brink of lighting my first cigarette in months, still I was, well, in the mood to give everything the raspberry. Said funk then lingered and managed to pretty much dampen my enthusiasm for making dinner. Blech.

So rather than making a chicken, wild rice and cauliflower au gratin. I ended up making grilled hot dogs, mac and cheese and steamed veggies. I have to say, that is the saddest little dinner I have made in a very long time. Ah well, at least it's not as bad as the meal I packed for him to take to work. I packed him a yakisoba noodle box, carrot sticks, homemade hummus and crackers. Yeah, it's the mixed up snacks meal.

I'll have to make it up to him. I think I'll make braised short ribs tomorrow. He should love that. Not to mention, it'll be a good show off meal. Apparently meals are somewhat of an event for his fellow cops. They like to gather to see and guess what I packed him. The majority of them have to order take out or pick something up from the 24 hour McD's. Tsk, tsk.

As a side note, this is why some cops get fat. They're usually in a hurry when they eat and if they work odd hours, they only have access to fast food. Since Aaron started taking food with him, his weight gain has slowed. In the past month he's actually lost 1 percent bodyfat. :) I just have to make sure I pack him better meals.

[Brenda] And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

*Sniff* Shove over Alexander...

This isn't meant as a pity party for myself but damn it, I'm pissed. I just heard back from one of the places I last interviewed. I got the close but no cigar e-mail. According to the e-mail, I was a, "top candidate for the post" but they, "decided to go with someone else." Piss!

All I know is that they had me waiting for about a month and after two interviews I get a big ole, "wah-wah" and it sucks ass! I really had high hopes for that position. I really thought I had that one in the bag. Talk about a fecking letdown. Grrr... Not to mention that I am now feeling a significant financial pinch. My Mom needed a new computer. Her old one was screeching at her and just not cooperating and kept going to the blue screen of death, regularly. Since I'm the closest one to her, I was able to go shopping with her. WE found her a good deal and I put it on my card. My brother's are supposed to reimburse me since I'm the one who's sans job. The problem is, they have yet to pay me back and the bill due date is coming up soon. I don't mind paying the minimum on it but I don't want that figure just lingering there on my credit card for a while. I have worked too damn hard to get that biotch down to a $0. balance and damn it, I'd like to keep it that way.

So yeah, all of these things and some other minor, normally unimportant, yet strangely irritating things are all adding up to one funked up, angry day. It was so bad that I actually wanted to smoke. Not a 'perhaps a cigarette will make things better,' kind of an urge. I'm talking a, 'surrender the cancer sticks or I'll run you over with my car and laugh about it,' kind of an urge. Luckily Aaron didn't have one in his hand when I told him about this (yeah you read that right... don't ask). Lord only knows what I would have done to him. But yeah, he was good enough to use his superpower to get me smiling and yes, even laughing.

I still feel like poo. But at least I'm not feeling too upset and potentially homicidal any more.

Dear Lord, I Love Crap TV

I can't help myself. Every now and then a program comes on the telly that I can NOT help but watch and eventually have to fess up to watching. "Flava of Love" was one of them as was "I Love New York," and now it's "Daisy of Love." I wanted to not watch it. I really tried but once you get sucked into the brainless nonsense it's hard to stop.

I've been watching the "special" episode that recaps the show thus far and it's wonderful. It shows all the kooky stuff so far and some extras but the best part about it is listening to some of the comments made by Daisy and the goobers on the show. I honestly feel my IQ points slipping away as the hour ticks away. I wish someone could explain why, WHY I can't stop watching these shows. I think I need to go read a book or try electroshock to coax my brain back into functioning. Until next week, that is.

Ta-Daaaaaaah!

I'm pretty damn pleased. I had my haircut today at the new salon. I really dig the job she did. It was curly as can be but without the tree gnarly branch look (too much product dried in so all the curls look like twigs and often feel like them). The of course the day became "sultry" (teehee- "Throw Momma From The Train" ref.) and my adorable hair went to crap. It's the kind of day that no amount of hair product, including straight up Spackle can help. So now it's in a poofy ponytail.

The haircut however was great! the lady knew exactly what I wanted even though she looked skeptical when I first told her that the mess actually does curl nicely when all the ends aren't fried. One of the best parts of this experience is that she has a great sense of humor and actually talks back. I hate it when you end up with a robot with scissors. I told her I would definitely be coming back. I really dig her. I am so happy. I just wish I wasn't sweating my ass off, just sitting here. Blech.

Go Bananas!

Who knew most people open bananas all wrong. Stoopid monkeys...

Abre uma banana como um macaco @ Yahoo! Video

No Whammy. No Whammy. No Whammy... STOP!

So, I thought I was coming down with swine flu...

My brother was sick as a dog over the weekend and he we were around him. He had flu-like symptoms. Then I started feeling sick. I mean just generally icky, achy and wiped out, blech. My brother had one of his doctors check him out and luckily, it wasn't swine flu, just a 24 hour-ish bug.

That's about it. I would write more but I have the attention span of a fruit fly today. I think I may just try to watch some telly and pass out for a while.

Starting Over... For Now

Sigh... I have had the same hair stylist for a while already and I love her to pieces. When I found her I was pretty much lost. Bouncing around from one careless hack with a pair of scissors and not a clue as to what to do with curly hair. Then by some wonderful coincidence I saw a girl at a conference with the most perfect curls. I asked her who she goes to and I ended up calling at the next "bio break."

It's been love since then, but sadly the salon is on the expensive side. Average cut is $125. BUT, every time I go there I usually stock up on gel, shampoo, conditioner... the bill is pretty painful by the time I leave.

So yes, I have held off as long as I possibly could but I am extremely overdue for a cut. My hair now feels like straw and I swear I can hear my curls laughing as I hang upside down drying my hair, desperately hoping to coax the curls into behaving. You can see why I had to find someone new until I am back working.

On the recommendation of another curly girl, I decided to call a new salon with prices that are far more reasonable. I just about went into shock when the voice on the other end said "$40 for just a cut and blowout." Good lord!

I just hope that this place does as good a job as my usual salon. That would make me extremely happy not to mention, it would make me seriously reconsider who will do my hair from this point forward. It's not so bad having to pay a shit load (when I have a job and) when there isn't a mortgage or miniature people to think about. But I also don't want to have Aaron have an aneurysm every time I start fussing with my dry and brittle ends.

Lazy Sundays. Sigh

I'm pretty psyched. I got to spend a beautiful Sunday outside with a group of friends, shopping at the outlet mall. We popped in to different stores and chatted up a storm. Aaron was there too but he was off on his own. Actually he dropped me off, went out to look at a few houses in the area then came back to do some shopping. It's not like I ditched him completely or anything like that. The best thing about this outing is that I only spent $40 on a few tops. That's it. Woo!

Afterwards we came home and took a nice looooong nap. I just finished a summer chili (tons of veggies) and had dinner. I love it. Today was pretty much stress free and wonderful. More days should be like this.

Pie Crust: 3. Me: 1

Grr... I now remember why I really hate baking on humid days. Nothing, I mean nothing goes right.

I've been baking over the last few days and things have been going fairly well. Until, that is, today. It was one of those tricky days that doesn't feel too humid but is. The kind of day that will take forever for your hair to dry, even if it's down. Yeah, THAT kind of day.

So yeah, the humidity made all the difference when I was making a crust for a strawberry rhubarb pie. I tried about three variations of a crust and each one was just no good super sticky then completely flimsy and the last was just too crumbly no matter what I did to it. Finally I just decided to make the simplest version I can think of and pretty much eyeballed the ingredients. It didn't really work to my liking but at least it held after I chilled the hell out of it. Still, working it was a trial and a half. Oh yeah, to make things more fun, I still went forward with my plan of doing a lattice top. I stink at these under the best conditions! I still don't know what possessed me into doing this. Ah well. At least the thing is baked now and hopefully it'll taste good. So far it looks and smells pretty good. Given the battle I waged with the crust, however, I fear I may have used a touch too much shortening. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Pony!

I never knew Pony had his own bar.

Don't Need Nothing But a Good Time

Thanks V. Ever since I read your concert post I haven't stopped hearing that song in my head. Not that I mind it per se but it's been there since last night. Come on...

Anyhoo. So I got up early today to brush up on the company I will be interviewing with this afternoon. (...And it don't get better than this...) So far I ended up hitting snooze too long but managed to turn the computer on and get some coffee. Now if I could just stop procrastinating...

An Odd Day

It's such an odd day. I watched the entire MJ memorial and cried my eyes out. I meant to do a bunch of things but didn't. BUT Because of that, I actually ended up doing other things. Then, because I didn't go out to run errands, I was home when a call came in for a job interview (Thursday!)

I don't know, I'm having such a difficult time getting a grasp of today. Although things worked out, I just feel off. I hate days like this.

Easy As Pie

I love this time of the year. Every where you go there is fresh fruit a huge variety. So I did the next best thing to driving out to an orchard, I hit a farmer's market. I got monster blue berries, strawberries, peaches and picked up tons of rhubarb from my Mom.

Tonight I made a wonderful smelling peach pie. Tomorrow I think I'll make blue berry muffins or perhaps a cobbler, I still have to make up my mind. The day after I think I'll be making a strawberry rhubarb pie. I feel the baking bug coming on. I love it!

It's a really good thing I've upped my running.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Here are just a few of my favorite memories from the 4th:

Learning that with a little creativity and a full book of matches, anyone can be a ninja.

Sparklers!- It really doesn't matter how old you are, it's still fun to watch the glowing trail left behind when you swirl it around.

Bottle rocket wars. Yeah, this was not one of our best ideas, but we had fun anyway.

When my parents finally let me hold a roman candle. Awesome!

Watching Lady Liberty finally reopen after years under scaffolding while being repaired.

Watching the Macy's fireworks display at the river with my family. We used to do this almost every year.

and...

Watching the Washington D.C. fireworks display from the center of the reflection pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial. This one requires a back story...

When I was 17 my cousin Mindy came to spend the summer with us. Even though she lives just outside of Los Angeles, we used to be as close as close can be back then but we were also a handful. Since my cousin had never been out East for the 4th and since she had never been to the Nation's Capital, my Dad decided this was probably the best time to take a trip. We hung around the city, did some sightseeing and in the evening we prepared a picnic dinner. After dinner we packed up out stuff and made our way down to the reflection pool to get a better view of the fireworks. Mindy and I had to hit the port-a-potties but the lines were sooooo long we decided to jump from bathroom site to bathroom site to find a shorter line. We thought my parents heard us say we would be back, but they didn't hear us. When we finally made it back, my family was gone! We looked around for a while but nothing. Then we heard a boom; the fireworks were starting. Since it was just the two of us and we were rail thin we meandered all the way through the huge crowd, to the edge of the reflection pool. We knew they would be around there somewhere. Then it dawned on us. What better way place to look for them than the middle of the reflection pool, some people were already standing along the edges anyway. Not to mention, it was a hell of a lot less crowded there. We sloshed through the water and walked into the dead center. Eventually, others followed suit and some even fully submerged themselves in the water. The view from there was fantastic. That had to be one of the prettiest fireworks displays I have ever seen. Since there wasn't anyone around us, it felt like the we were the only ones watching; like it was just for us.

After the show ended, we heard and saw a helicopter with a huge spotlight coming right toward us. We pretty much ran out of there as fast as we could. My parents met us at the edge. Our plan worked. They saw us. They weren't so thrilled, but at least they knew immediately where to find us. When they realized we were missing, they searched by looking in the places where we would most likely get into trouble in that area. Moments after my Mom said that, my brother Alvin spotted us walking into the water.

In case you're wondering, the pool is about three feet deep and yes, it's pretty cold.

All is Well

Thank you all for the well wishes for my brother.

I'm happy to say that he is doing well. A little too well actually. He didn't want to listen to us when we told him to stay laying/sitting down and not try to do too much. But then again, he is a Velez and therefore, incapable of staying still for too long. He was started walking around about five hours after he got home!

So anyhoo... I spoke to my friend 'Chele who I was supposed to go biking with today (we decided to postpone the outing) and she told me some pretty exciting news. She's working toward running a half marathon. She got me into seriously thinking of giving it a shot. I've always been a short distance runner, but lately I've been running for distance, so perhaps it isn't too far fetched of an idea. If all else, it'll give me a great running goal. I told Aaron about it. He was pretty supportive about it. He said he'll try to train with me as much as possible.

So today I went out and got a nifty pedometer. According to the thingy I ran 2.35 miles. Woo! I was so psyched after the run that I decided to do something a little wacky. I ran up the stairs to my floor. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I live on the 15th floor. I made it to the 13th floor and pretty much almost fell over, then walked the remaining two floors. When I got in I was not panting but gasping and my legs were shaking.

I can't say for sure what possessed me into running up the stairs but I have to say it kinda felt good. I think I'm going to try to make Aaron do them with me next time he runs with me.

Never Say, "Don't Freak Out" Over The Phone!

I love my Mom, I really do but the woman is not exactly known for smooth. This morning I got a call from my Mom at about 7:00. I freaked a bit because no one calls at that time except for Aaron and when that happens, it's not exactly a good thing. So I was relieved to hear my Mom's voice until she said, "now, don't freak out or anything. It's going to be okay." So now I'm freaking out. Good lord what happened to my Dad? Nope. She then says, "Ralph (my eldest brother) is in the hospital" and then she pauses! I think she was trying to give me a heart attack. After the, WHAT?! WHAT HAPPENED? questions, she THEN tells me that he went to the hospital last night after being urged by my sister in law. He was feeling sick for the last few days and then started feeling pain in his abdomen. They admitted him last night and he is currently still in surgery getting his taken appendix out.

So now, my Mom and I are heading up to Mass.