So, I didn’t get to make the brownies. I couldn’t heat the evaporated milk/dry milk/ sugar combination without burning it. sigh So, I got cranky, and ate 4 of my Ferrero Rocher chocolates that I had left over for Christmas. I was also cranky about the fact that my wireless connection was acting up, and my new TiVo freezes. That’s right - play those itsy-bitsy violins for me! (I am so utterly spoiled).
Eleanor - You Rock!
Susan
I wish I had a video camera so I could post a short movie of my dog moving her legs 30 feet worth and only moving two feet on my new floor. She hasn’t caught on to how she has no traction on the smooth surface and just skitters madly in place. Very amusing, and happily, the top layer of the floor is harder than her claws and she’s not marked it up yet. OTOH, there are dozens of splotches where she’d been drooling. This dog eats, sleeps and slobbers. Not much else.
About 90% of the baseboard molding is cut, including all the tricky cuts to compensate for walls that don’t meet at perfect 90-degree corners, and the bump-out for the patio door. That slide miter saw I got two weeks ago is fantastic for making easy work of cutting things at 22.5 degrees or 49 degrees, or whatever they slapped together 17 years ago.
Eeeek!!! The week has completely gotten away from me… So:
Yay, Rigs!!!
I must confess that I, too, was intrigued by the thought of brussel sprouts muffins. But, no, Ashes, not ones based on carrot cake.
I, too, own a Mac (iBook) and think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I wanted something that completely didn’t remind me of work where we are an all-Microsoft shop. My brother has had a PowerBook for about six months and loves it (he uses it for his business). I’ll send you more info this weekend, rigs; remind me if I don’t. It might not be til Monday (long weekend) because I am booked pretty much the whole weekend.
Also, taxi, love the dress. And, we were just talking about cruises at work yesterday. One of my friends has been on 2 Celebrity cruises already and is considering a third. I was also going to suggest Puerto Rico as a honeymoon destination. They have great beaches, old San Juan is beautiful Spanish colonial, and you can also go to a really cool tropical rainforest all within less than a 2-hour drive.
And now:
Part IV: New York-Columbus
Far less exciting than the previous. When I started to write in Paris, I was thinking that CDG was my least favorite airport. The long-distance trip within the airport was a pain, but at least the place was clean!!
I went into mild shock when we got off the plane because the way to immigration and customs was, well, just ugly. It was a kind of winding path, including dirty, narrow escalators, almost no restrooms, and just general gray depression.
Eventually, I emerged into the terminal my flight left from and went to look for my flight. Which wasn’t listed on the monitors. Even though there were later flights listed. Of course, there wasn’t an easy-to-find info desk, so I just waylaid a passing Delta employee and he gave me a choice of two gates and recommended one over the other. Fortunately, his recommendation was the right one. Found a restroom, finally. It was not pretty. JFK is the only airport I’ve been to recently where the restrooms were actually dirty. Not as gross as they could have been, I suppose, but definitely not clean. Yuck. Eventually, I decided to call Mom and inform her of my progress. She told me my cousin might be there somewhere because he was flying through New York that day. She didn’t know which airline or which airport, but I figured I’d go try to figure out where he might be since I had a couple hours to kill anyway. Of course, he was flying through LaGuardia, so I didn’t find him.
Eventually, we boarded a little bus to get to our plane and - the person sitting next to me was someone I volunteer with. Don’t know her well, but it was another one of those small-world experiences.
Got on the plane, got to Columbus, got my luggage, got home. All uneventfully.
THE END
Happy Friday!
GT
**
WOOOHOO RIGS!!!
YOU RAWK!!!
**
The talk about fart blossom muffins is really skeeving me out. ICK!!!
gt I think all airports look alike. I sometimes forget which one I’m in, especially if I have a long layover. Good MMP in installments. I’m proud of ya!
Today’s the big moving day for Drae so let’s all say
**
YAY DRAE!!!
GOOD LUCK!!!
**
Cool about the new floor gotti. I want new flooring in my dining room, living room, kitchen and laundry room. I’m thinking hardwood in the dining and living rooms and tile in the kitchen and laundry room. The house is ten years old so I think it’s time for some updates. Of course, if I put new flooring in the kitchen (which also includes breakfast area) I’ll start thinking about new wallpaper and countertops. I’ll probably start thinking new paint and wallpaper in the dining and living rooms as well. I can never stop at one thing. If I do new paint/wallpaper in part of the house, of course I’ll have to do it for the rest of the house too. I get a little nuts with this stuff.
It’s supposed to be rainy and stormy today, so I might not be on the puter much. Of course it was supposed to be all rainy and stormy Wednesday but that didn’t happen.
Whoop-de-doo! Good job, Riggs!!!
Have fun moving, Drae. I don’t envy you the work, but I bet your new place will be awesome!
No brussel sprout muffins for me, thanks. Ick! And I love brussel sprouts!
I got to brag on myself a bit. Lst night I became a gourmet for a minute… I made crabmeat stuffing with huge lump crabmeat, and stuffed some catfish fillets. It was sooooo good. Lemon pepper all over the catfish, a bit of cajun seasoning in the stuffing. We will definitely have that again, even though the crabmeat is kinda expensive.
I’m eating leftover sketti for breakfast. 
Exactly why Mr. Anachi and I are going to look at shower doors and ceramic tile for the Master Bath this weekend what with the rest of the house freshly redone. If you’ll recall, it all started with putting in the Travertine floor. :rolleyes:
gt, that was a goodun. Who’s in line for next week?
riggs, you may want to check with the uniy as far as your new puter is concerned to see if they have any issues with cross communication between Macs and PCs. There ARE some quirks still between the two systems. From my point of view there are three advantages to be had with Macs:
No virus problems…yet. There are too few Macs out there to make it worthwhile to create one.
The learning curve for Macs is pretty low. They are very user-friendly.
The operating system is a lot less likely to crash than Windows.
YMMV
Tupug
The idea of brussel sprout muffins yucks me out too. But I got to thinking about it and decided that deep fried brussel sprouts would be damn good. Yes they would, so just shut-up.
riggsI’m so glad that you did well on the test.
me
I volunteered on Tuesday. I’ll be doing a lot this weekend, so I’ll have stuff to ramble on about
anyrose has graciously offered to host the MMP next week.
Look, I’m from the south. The home of deep fried just about anything. Deep fried fart blossoms sounds just gross! That ought to tell you it ain’t a good idea. ICK!
ACBG want to go to the Dead Lobster tonight. Sump’n ‘bout some kind of pig out shrimp thing they got goin’ on, I think. Anyways, not my fav-o-rite place to eat but he’s payin’ so I’ll go have me some shrimps and stuff tonight. That’s the extent of our excitement for this weekend right now. We both have Monday off. YAY! We’re both planning on being veggies this weekend. But not fart blossoms. ICK!
Oh, right now the sun is out and hardly a cloud in the sky. It’s supposed to be raining.
Many thanks all. My laurel is a wee crumpled, but I’m still resting on it.
I couldn’t get in here! Something logged me out! :eek: And I tried and I tried to get back in with my password and then I tried to change my password etc.
:mad: 
So, I emailed the nice people who work here-and they did something and I STILL couldn’t get in. I was the like the Lil’ Engine that Couldn’t. but then…
I noticed where it said “user name” I wasn’t entering my, um, user name.
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
So, now I’m here. You see how clueless I can be.
Pug --thanks for the info, I will check with them. Windows just seems so complicated and everchanging to me. I know that technology changes rapidly, but I hear alot about patches and loopholes and black holes and og knows what else with XP especially.
Brussle sprouts–yuck. Methinks I have never had them well prepared, but…
I like not so savory muffins. I’m a popover kind of girl. Of Yorkshire pudding–nummers.
We got your rain, not so swampy cause it’s not raining near you --and I’m sick of it. This is January, dammit–I want snow on the ground!
Off to workout and then avoid housework. Work this weekend. (not looking forward to it).
What the heck cartoon was it… Not Bugs Bunny, um… crap I hate this getting old stuff. Any way, It goes like this:
Shut up. Shut up. And when you begin to shut up, shut up some more.
(I mean this as a joke. I’ve spent most of the morning reading a pit melt-down and am feeling a bit edgy.)
I would sooooo definitely do deep-fried dirt balls. But then I never met a veggie I didn’t like. I could go vegetarian if it weren’t for the fact that I like steak too much. 
anyrose, looking forward to your OP on Monday. I’m off, too! Yay! Or W00T!! YMMV
riggs - I intensely dislike snow. it has a tendancy to get in my way when I drive. I’m rather enjoying this warmish January, rain and all. Reminds me of Jan’95 when some friends and I wondered around NY’s Chinatown and Little Italy without coats. It was 70 degrees!
tupug - Red Lobster::real seafood restaurants as Olive Garden::real Italian restaurants. Great for folks who don’t have access to the good stuff, but if you do have access, why go to the knockoffs.
As for veggies - I’m lucky in that my mom knew how to cook them properly. So many of my friends’ moms would boil veggies til grey or bury them in tomato sauce. One friend’s mom did both. To this day, he will only eat raw veggies.
We are on our 26th, that’s right, 26th straight day of rain here. We have just tied our second place all time record for most consecutive rainy days. It appears that we will meet or break the all time record of 33 straight days. We have flooding, washed out roads and highways, mudslides, etc.
M’Kay, I’ve lived here in the Western Washington for most of my life. I’m usually pretty much inured to the rain and most of the time it doesn’t bother me. BUT!!! I’ve had enough dammit. Knock it off!
Ashes, whatever crystals will work for health, happiness and wealth (well at least enough to pay all our bills, still have extra, and not sweat every month) are the crystals I and the family need.
Fart blossoms are just plain nasty and leave a very nasty taste in your mouth afterwords. I can’t stand 'em. Deep fried and in a muffin is just beyond the nasty nastiest I can imagine.
Drae, I sincerely hope the moving and all that’s associated with it goes well. Have fun.
I would love brand new hardwood floors for my whole downstairs area. Unfortunately, that won’t happen for a long time. That’s a lot of floor to cover, which of course, means lotso moolah.
Tomorrow night we’re going to “From the Bayou”. It’s one of our favorite cajun’ type restaurants. We’re introducing some friends to this restaurant. We hope they like it.
Well, even though I don’t want to be here at STOOPIT old work, I better actually do some. At least I have Monday off.
my apologies **tupug ** - i just realized it was **swampbear ** who mentioned Lob Redster
on remodeling - I’ve got a project going - to fix up the downstairs apartment for purposes of rental (read: income) - the bathroom is done. the kitchen is next - but after I have the plumber in to fix some upstairs water pressure issues - he’ll access and will probably undo whatever work would have been done at that point
I’m not a big fan of Dead Lobster but I ain’t payin’ so I ain’t complainin’.
Tomorrow I’m fryin’ up some chicken. I think I’ll make some green beans, smashed taters (But N.O.T.) and gravy, biscuits and maybe a peach cobbler. It’ll be like Sunday dinner on Sattiday. I’m in the mood for my fried chicken.
See guys, Ashes at least was getting where I was coming from. I mean, I’ve had zucchini bread. I’ve had carrot bread. There was even one time I found and tried a recipe for broccoli bread (it was okay, but I wouldn’t make it again). So I figure someone out there has tried it with brussels sprouts.
I’m not saying I’m going to DO it. But the thought at least makes sense on a certain level. Of course, this all assumes you like the fartblossoms in the first place. And I know a lot of people don’t.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. In other food news, I am going to make the recipe for Texas Caviar that (ellen, was it?) posted - it will be my lunch for next week.
Is this thing on?
Finally. I wasn’t able to type in the Message window. Had to reboot Safari.
Anyway, I agree with rosie about the restaurant analogy. I’m constantly telling people that OG is okay for a fake Italian restaurant. I grew up in Pittsburgh, and the omly people there that eat in OG are tourists and new arrivals to the city that haven’t found a real I place. But at Lobster, they do make some tasty rolls. Definitely worth the trip if someone else is picking up the tab.
We had hardwood floors installed a few months ago. Home Despot subcontracted the work out to a company that gives power tools to monkeys. We’re still fighting with them about the damages done to our place and the excessive charges (they are tryiing to charge us for installation of two boxes of flooring that the estimator said we would need, but were never used or even opened. They did take the material back and subtract that amount, but still kept charging us for installing it.)
Drae hope your move went well.
Anyone hear from VBob lately?
OK Swampy I need The Secret to Frying Chicken. I can’t do it. The outside always burns. I had some fairly thin chicken breasts, too – you’d think it was no-fail. I was following a recipe out of Southern Living, and it said 5-6 minutes per side. I don’t get it. I need The Secret.
Congratulations, Rigs!! We knew you could do it!
I don’t know what I’m doing this weekend. Probably cleaning house and doing laundry. Oh the life I lead.
Thanks everyone for the compliments on the dress. I’m really tempted to go with it. But everyone’s telling me I need to try things on before I buy. So I’m hesitant to buy off the internet. But I really really like that dress and haven’t found anything even remotely similar locally. We’ll see.
We should get together again soon. Sorry I didn’t get in touch about meeting up in NYC. It got kinda crazy.
Frou - as best I understand it - is all the frilly lacy beady foofy poofy girly stuff that they like to put on wedding dresses. The one I linked to has some but not too much. I hope. Maybe. I’d know for sure if I just ordered it!
My father called last night. He decided last minute to drive to Texas to take some furniture to my aunt. Mind you, this furniture has been in storage for ~5 years. There was no emergency need to take it to Texas. So in the rush things didn’t get planned well. So he’s flying in tonight and needs someone to pick him up. But then he’ll either need a ride home - more than an hour each way which I’m too tired to do after a week of work - or a place to stay. Bad idea because he snores like a lumberjack (apologies to any lumberjacks I’ve offended) and I won’t get a wink of sleep and I’ll be ready to smother him by 2 a.m. So I feel like a bad daughter. But on the up side, he didn’t leave a phone number for me to call him back so I never got to respond either way. Here’s hoping that he found someone else to give him a ride and that he doesn’t show up at my place in a cab tonight. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. Yup, I’m a bad kid.