Thursday, December 29, 2011

K-Cups

Happy Thursday! I almost said "Howdy Thursday," which would have been a severe slip. At least this isn't a live blog.

Howdy, nonetheless. How were your Christmases and/or assorted winter holidays? I hope they were the best yet.

Right now I'm wearing my Batman varsity hoodie and the shirt with the huge cat face on it that I received from my mom. The best story is I went outside wearing the shirt, and my tiny niece signed "cat" and I was all "where? where is the cat?" But I was wearing it all along.

So my entire family was over for Christmas, and that was a full house. But I haven't seen my brother's family since that hectic stop-off in Colorado a little while back, and I don't remember the last time my sister was here. Maybe in the spring time? And the last time the three of us were at home at the same time? I don't know.

We baked a lot and had a turkey and a ham, pies, cakes, cookies, ricey crispoes, it was ridiculous. Donuts. Fish n chips. Coffee. I had to go to work a lot, but I came back in time to hang out with the kids and play board games and whatever. We watched the Tourist which was only worth it for Timothy Dalton.

Travel plans were arranged quite epically -- Beth vacated my sister's room the day before my sister arrived. My first day off was yesterday and that was when she was flying back, so I got to drive down to get her; at the same time, Sam was visiting a friend in Thousand Oaks, so he got to hang out with me for lunch and then go help pick up Beth. Then my brother and all them left, so the living room was free for Sam and Beth to sleep over. So I got to see everybody! Even Carolyn called from Vietnam last night.

A very social Christmas. It was nice to have people around and have different conversations and laugh about crazy stuff, but the introvert in me just wants to sit in a dark room for a little while, haha. And sleep. I'd really like to sleep.

Last night I dreamt that APU chapel was on boats. And the chapel band was Linkin Park. IF ONLY.

So now everyone is gone, Beth is back, and it's time to settle back to normal... except for the work situation, which gets weirder daily. Shrug. There's no such thing as normal, anyway.

See you next year, I suppose!

-Steph

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Now I can work on my novel

Happy Thursday! Are you all ready for Christmas? I mostly am. Gotta wrap the last of it, but other than that we're good. I was up real late last night wrapping and now I'm sooo sleepy. Workin on a sugar coma, too, so I'm getting this out of the way early.

Kevin and Gretchen and all the kids came over today and we made green ricey crispoes and red ricey crispoes and peppermint bark and cinnamon rolls and lemon snowballs. I ate every thing. But that's what Christmas is for, right? All these treats you never make at any other time of the year.

They're coming back for Christmas proper, but it was nice to see them all in like a little preview. Everyone is so tall, and the little one is trotting around like a champ.

Carolyn and Steven dropped by because they're going to be out of town for Christmas, so that was fun. We terrorized Donnie with the electric hamster I got for her. It was the best day ever.

I guess the big news of the week is that a month from today I'm out of a job. They told us day before last that our store's getting shut down. So on the one hand, it's a very sarcastic Merry Christmas, but on the other it's finally a reason to get out of there and go do something else. Come on by and say hi before we scatter to the winds.

Merry Christmas and Happy Thursday.

-Steph

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Chilled

Happy Thursday! All I can think about is how cold it is. And I know some of you aren't in SoCal and you are actually having cold weather, and I salute you for it. But it's cold here to me and I am cold and it makes me pretty edgy.

Well our kitchen is done, right. Except we're getting new flooring in sometime this week. Then it will be done done. But it's a real kitchen now, with a sink and all that. Inaugural kitchen dinner I made... shoot what was it. Oh yeah, individual lasagna rolls that Giada taught me how to make. But for the filling I used a variation on the Greek yogurt casserole I made a while back. It was good, very Christmassy. I'll do it again.

Yesterday I made granola-crusted salmon, but I don't quite have the crusting of salmon technique down yet. It was more like salmon with a granola bar on top. I'd probably be better off making those two things separately next time. I also baked a brie in a puff pastry, and that was interesting. I also tried making a peach pie but something somewhere went horribly wrong and it's really more of a peach soup in a dumpling crust. Not what I expected at all.

I've still been watching Food Network and Cooking Channel practically non stop. I don't know what it is, but that's all I'm interested in. Even though half the time it's Giada or Paula, who are not my faves, I can't turn it off. Then there's Chopped and Chef Hunter and Iron Chef America and the Next Iron Chef and the Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs and Chuckmas and all that. I'm addicted.

I really want to make something with cranberry and orange, but I don't know what.

Haha, a little while ago Beth was all BRB and now she's back with eggrolls from Jack in the Box. Pretty random.

Almost done with Christmas prep, still trying to get the last few things rounded up before the deadline. It's only, like, a week and a half from now! But we'll get there somehow.

Ok. Gonna go watch Doctor Who or something equally geeky. Carry on!

-Steph

Thursday, December 08, 2011

When the snow comes

Happy Thursday! I got a new hoodie in the maaaaail so this weather has been a bit more bearable. Can't wait for it to be over, though. When's springtime?

The cool thing about my new hoodie is that it bears a passing resemblance to clothing worn by "the biebs." And before you think that this blog has gone straight down the drain, don't worry! It's a segue!

Not into anything good, though. Beth taught me some ukulele chords and I was playing them, and they were great and we were jamming, and then all of a sudden DISASTER STRUCK.

"Beth," I said anxiously. "I don't want to scare you, but I think this is a Justin Bieber song."

And it was. So we covered it.



Which is fine, because our band's facebook page hasn't had any activity in over a year. Anything's better than nothing, right? But it also goes to show that after playing the ukulele for about three days, you can become an international superstar!

What else can I say. Oh, our new kitchen will be done tomorrow, I think. Perfect timing, because I've been overloading on Cooking Channel and Food Network and I need to get my iron chef on real soon or else I'mma explode.

Bought Borderlands cheep on Steam thanks to a tip from my brother, so I've been playing that. Still fun! Of course been playing Minecraft when the server isn't being janked by power outages. Started the last season of Chuck, but it's got a sort of weird tone that isn't entirely palatable. Hopefully it'll even out before the end.

Been working. Sleeping sometimes. Laundry. Packages from Amazon arrive daily for you people. :3

-Steph

Thursday, December 01, 2011

56 is freezing here

Happy Thursday! Don't judge. We have weak constitutions out here, and anything below 65 requires a sweater. Or, more accurately, a hoodie.

But maybe it's just me. I can't STAND the cold. It's one of my nemesises. True story.

Yesterday me and Beth went and saw the new Twilight. Dude what was that movie even about. I don't even remember, I wasn't paying attention. The best part was when all the wolves were SHOUTING at each other it was like what is even going on. It was so scary under the circumstances. I'm sure I laughed inappropriately at no less than four things, but luckily it was just us two at the very back and two other peeps at the very front. The worst part about that movie is even if you've read the books and seen them all and everything, you're still like THIS is what this has all lead up to?! It's so arbitrary and downright weird. Bah.

Our kitchen looks like a kitchen again, minus countertops and a sink. There are sooo many cabinets now. All empty, of course, but not for long. We got a new fridge, too. And painted the wall yellow. It's like a brand new house.

Finished Chuck season 4 yesterday. What a cute show. A lot of times with the spy stuff or the tech stuff I'm like lololol that's so duuuumb, but when it comes to real human relationships and the way the episode turns out so adorably, tv just doesn't get much better. Now I just need to scout around the internet for the new season so I can catch up before it's all over.

I need to go get a cocoa or a cider or something, 'cause it is frrrreeeeezing in here. :<

-Steph