New Cut

I finally got my hair cut again. It isn't the same as my original cut, but I'm happy with it. The stylist definitely had her own idea about what my hair cut should be. The front staff booked an hour and a half for me. I arrived early so that I might get a little extra time. The stylist had someone wash my hair. I don't like that. I think that the stylist should wash your hair, then they can get to know what it is like. I can barely believe it, but the stylist was done in about an hour!

I like the new haircut. It will take a while to get used to it being so short. I bought a new product by Garnier Fructis. It says it will make my hair smooth and easy to blow dry for up to 7 washes. After coupons I only paid 4.50 for it. I'll try it out soon. After the last stupid, horrible haircut I never wore my hair straight:
This is what it looked like when I came home from the salon! I felt like I had a mushroom on my head and dog ears on the sides. I hated it.

Flinstone's Breakfast

In an effort to eat more fruit, I bought a whole bunch at H Mart. One of the three kinds of plums I bought was labelled as a dinosaur egg. The plums (and everything else I bought), are now very ripe and juicy. Bailey goes nuts when I eat one. She'd rather have fresh fruit than the ball of compressed catnip that I bought her.

Making Tomatoes Edible

I don't really like raw tomatoes. I eat them much more than I used to, but I still only eat a little. We got a lot of tomatoes from the farm. I decided to make something of them before they went bad. First, I boiled them for a couple of minutes.

Then I put them in a cold water bath.

The skins came off fairly easily.

Empty skin.

All bald.

I stuck my fingers in to scoop out the seeds.

Tomato puree.

I added oregano, basil (from my dead plant), and rosemary from my little garden. I also added some garlic from the farm.

I cooked it until it was just a paste. I added some water and cooked it back down to paste.

Ross put the paste on pizza. Yummy.

Other Things About the Drive In

There were a couple of things that I totally forgot to mention about the drive in. First, our neighbors: They left their car running for the first 30 minutes of the movie. I don't get it. There are signs and constant announcements about carbon monoxide. I guess they think A/C is more important. We could hear a car running, but didn't realize it was theirs or I would have asked them to shut it off. Security eventually took care of it. They talked loudly throughout the films. It wasn't just the children. Then in the middle of the second movie one of the kids opened the door--wham right into the side of my car. I had to hold myself down. Of course their car is white, and mine is black. Luckily there wasn't any damage. Yesterday I looked and just saw small hand prints dragged across both sides of my car! One passerby (child) grabbed my side view mirror and tried to take it with him! Again, I had to hold myself back. He then proceeded to wipe his hands all down the side of my car. Nice.

The neighbor on the other side parked, got out, and left. Security was looking for him. I have no idea why. Between movies he took his time leaving--while security and the cops watched. Odd.

Now on to the other thing: Spanish. I just want to say that the Spanish in Toy Story 3 was great. It was miles above and beyond the Spanish in The Expendables. The writing, accent, and acting were all better in Toy Story 3. The general in The Expendables made we want to crack up. His Spanish wasn't wrong or anything, it was just bad writing and bad acting. Buzz Lightyear in Spanish mode rocked.

Double Feature at the Drive In

I'd heard that Toy Story 3 was a really good movie. It is at the drive-in and the weather has cooled off a bit, so I was really excited to go see it. Let me tell you, this experience was 100 times better than the last drive in experience. It was cooler, and much less humid. We also took my car. To boot, the movie started earlier than last time, so we weren't as sleepy for the second movie. We both liked Toy Story 3. Ross was pleasantly surprised.

The second movie was The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Nicolas Cage didn't annoy me--but man, Jay Baruchel was beyond annoying. His voice! The movie was dumb. The acting wasn't so bad, it was the plot and the writing. Typical if you believe in yourself you can do it, even though you have no training story. I'd say it is a kid's movie, and what a terrible message it sends. Not as bad as Kung Fu Panda, but still, we keep telling kids that they don't have to work hard, just believe. Ugh.

We didn't stay for The Switch. I'm really not a Jennifer Aniston fan. We had a great time though. We had french fries and a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. We rode home with the top down. I'm so glad we went.

Heebeejeebees

Last Sunday I was pretty lazy and forgot about doing laundry. I love the feel of clean sheets, so around 7pm I threw the sheets and towels in the laundry. When we went to put the sheets back on the bed I noticed that there was a bug on the mattress cover. Not just any bug, a bed bug! I've had the heebeejeebees ever since. I've checked all over the mattress, and haven't found any more. Before bed I pull back all the sheets and check. I have no idea where the thing came from--maybe from Ross. He did stay in a hotel last week. Just--eew!

Gramps Got Around

Today my dad found out he had two half brothers that he never met. We knew of one, but not his younger brother, and they knew of my dad, but not his younger sister. Bolivar got around. He had at least 4 wives and 5 children. Well, his sons Jean and Henri gave up their searches for the American side of the family, but Jean's daughter Isabelle has been searching. Thanks to the Mormons, who seem to love ancestry.com (and still baptize and seal us after our deaths--but that's a whole other story), Isabelle has found my dad, her long lost uncle.

I have a French cousin. I don't know that anything will come of it, but finding this photograph of Roderick Bolivar Burton was totally awesome.

Hours Looking at Gay Blogs

A long time ago I stumbled on the blog No Names. When I'm grumpy I go to the site and look at the photos and then I feel better (if there isn't something beautiful to look at there's alway something to laugh at). After yesterday's non-haircut I was really grumpy. I felt the urge to eat myself out of my frustration and decided to look through No Names, Shirtless Perfection, and Definition of a Man instead. I downloaded about 200 photos and put them in a folder for my screen saver. Now, I looked through hundreds and hundreds of photos. I know what I like and I'm picky.

I don't like them over muscled.

I don't like twinks--I don't want to feel like a creepy old woman when my screen saver comes on.

I don't like the coy cover up. There are so many photos with an awkwardly held/draped towel or with the guys clutching their stuff. I saw many, many photos with guys either touching or peeking at their junk.

And I don't like the photos where they are pulling their underwear down or showing tuft. And there are some photos that just don't make any sense. Why would you wear underwear in the shower anyway?

Guys and girls are definitely different, even guys that like guys. Oh, and no matter how much I like milk, this is just gross:

What I do like is a nice, artsy, sexy photo.

Grumpy Angry

I called and made an appointment for a hair cut and blow out at an Aveda hair salon. I told the lady on the phone I needed her to book me for at least an hour and a half. I get there early--and the stylist says he only has an hour--cause I got there early and he told the front desk that he could take care of me in 45 minutes. He overrode my request. The stylist looked at my hair. He took a pick to my dry hair and floofed it all out and then said he couldn't do anything in the one hour he had. So we talked, and he said he'd block off an afternoon for me, but charge me double. He wants to charge me $150! I said okay and left, kind of dazed. Now I'm grumpy and angry. I drove almost 70 miles for nothing other than poofy hair! Grrr. I'm going to cancel. Dude didn't even offer me a free Aveda sample or discount or anything. I'm mad.

Latest Project: Felted Purse

I wanted to make a lightweight purse to carry inside my purse. Something I could just pull out and carry if I didn't want to carry my whole huge bag. We went to Goodwill this weekend. We donated stuff that's been sitting in the garage for over a year. I came out with a cami and a lavender sweater. I felted the (100% wool) sweater by throwing it the washer with hot water for 2 agitation cycles. Then I designed a pattern and made paper pattern pieces. I cut out the pieces, pinned them together, then sewed them up.

Quote of the Day

"When I was on that diet...What was that diet? Oh yeah, the Atkins diet. When I was on the Atkins diet I used to go to Sam's and buy the three pack of whipped cream cans and eat them straight. It was okay you know, because it is mostly air you know."

Hello, Veronica!

Veronica Mars has moved into our house. We are making our way through season one on Netflix instant watch. The show has some impressive writing. Not all the episodes are great, but I know we are both having fun watching it.

Chile Colorado aka Carne Roja aka Mexican Vindaloo

I love carne roja. On the rare occasion that I find it in a restaurant I usually can't eat it because it is made with pork. I've tried to make it a couple times, but I never get it quite right. I made it for guests yesterday. I started it very early so that I could get it right. I prepared it thinking of it as Mexican vindaloo, and it turned out really well. I used some tomato puree that I made from tomatoes from the farm and cayenne peppers from my minigarden.

Carne Roja

Potatoes

Oil

1 or 2 onions

Beef

Chile powder

Garlic powder

Comino

Bay leaves

Tomato sauce

Water

1. Wash, chop and boil potatoes until tender. I hate it when the potatoes aren't fully cooked, so I cooked them first.

2. Shred onion. I used one, but could have used two for the amount that I made.

3. Cut beef into small pieces.

4. Saute onion in oil until softened.

5. Add beef and cook until browned.

6. Stir in spices and cook for 1-2 minutes.

7. Add tomato sauce and water. Stir and bring to a boil. This is where I added in the tomato puree and slit open cayenne peppers.

8. Simmer stew, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours. Add potatoes for last half hour of cooking.

I served this with tortillas, guac and Spanish quinoa. Cooking it for two hours ensured that the meat was tender, and pre-cooking the potatoes ensured that they were nice and soft. The guys loved it, so there are barely any leftovers.

My Problem Pelvis

Every 28 days or so my pelvis disarticulates and my sacrum just kinda floats there between my ilia. After a few days it all puts itself back together--and locks. The problem is that it doesn't always go back together the right way. The worst time that I can remember is when I rode around for hours in the back seat of a Honda Civic squished between two other people. Two days later I hurt so bad that I could barely stand up straight. I was truly blessed to have a chiropractor working out of the same office. He said he'd never seen anything so crazy. My sacrum was out of place and locked down. After two or three treatments I was better (but still in pain) and I just waited 3 weeks for my pelvis to unlock and my sacrum to float out.

Recently I spent almost a whole day on the floor, on my belly, in front of my laptop. Now my sacroiliac joint is killing me. Sometimes when my sacrum is misbehaving I can do a kind of Elvisonian pelvic thrust and pop it back into place. Sometimes I get into bridge pose and wiggle, jiggle, and bounce my pelvis until it pops. None of this has worked. Yoga hasn't worked. I resorted to self-manipulation, trying to rotate and unlock my pelvis. No luck. I even had Ross try and pop my back. Something popped, but much higher up. I think I'm stuck like this for the next couple of weeks. Damn hormones!

Mmmmmm-Marmelade

A while back when I was looking for some Dundee Ginger I bought a jar of Rose's Key Lime Marmelade. I love lime, and I thought Ross might like it too. Well, it is a big hit. The jar is almost empty! It is awesome on English muffins. Right after getting my shipment of Dundee in the mail I found that I can buy it at the local grocery store, Giant! I don't think that Giant has Rose's Key Lime, but I think they have Dundee Key Lime, so I won't have to go too far to find it. I just hope the Dundee is as good as the Rose's.

Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown

Last night after 3 games of bowling (in which I broke 50 in all 3!), we came home and Ross put on Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown (on Netflix). Here's the backstory: Back when we were teenagers and my parents still had cable we used to watch USA: Up All Night. "Watch" meaning have it on in the background while we made out (sorry mom). Anyway, I particularly remember this movie. The subhumanoids had "little mouths down there." A couple of weeks ago we sat through Class of Nuke 'Em High. Terrible movie, and no little mouths down there. I want that hour and half of my life back. I find it hard to even call that a movie.

So, last night we watched the second in the 3 part series. It had nothing to do with the first one. It was just as terrible, but we did get to hear the line about "a little mouth down there." There was also a fight scene where I spotted someone famous. All I could think was that his name started with an L, his name sounded like a girl's name, and that I don't particularly like him. IMDB didn't have him credited, so I had to rely on my weak memory. Just when we were going to bed I asked Ross the name of the lead singer of Aerosmith. From there my brain crunched out: Liev Schreiber. Yes, my brain works in strange ways. I'm 100% sure that Liev Schreiber was in this sad excuse for a film. He didn't even have one line, just one word. He had 2 seconds on screen, I suppose that's why he's not credited. Honestly, I wouldn't want that on my resume anyway. Now I want to make Ross watch part 3: The Good the Bad, and the Subhumanoid.