Had a crushy dream about Ashton Kucher last night. I don't really like him "that way". What's up with that?

Now that spring has sprung here in Madison, we've had four straight days of gray. A steady rain fell all yesterday, and the earthworms flung themselves to the surface to die on the sidewalks and roads in great numbers. Sad. Why do they do it?

Haven't been able to create my flower/herb boxes or get stuff to plant maters yet. Broke. Got tax return. Paid bills with it and managed to squeeze out a $50 vacuum. Then it was gone. :( And I was expecting $250 from a proofreading job at the beginning of this month, and it's mysteriously missing, and my contact at the office can't seem to give me a good reason for it. I'm very distressed about this. They've never had a problem paying me before, and if someone could just give me a reasonable explanation, I'd feel better, but all she says is something about payroll and "scheduling." It makes no sense to me. I've bugged and bugged her, so now I feel like a frantic little pest. But I really NEED that money.

Up to my elbows in this data entry job that needs to be finished by the 25th. Tedious. And my lack of a real computer desk or reasonable office chair is giving me back trouble that would make a chiropractor grimace.

I miss my old job at GCI, despite the pains in the ass that were a couple of my superiors, and despite the lack of opportunity to move up. It was the best job I've ever had. $9.50 an hour, 8-5 with a one hour lunch, paid vacation and sick days, medical and dental, a desk and a potted plant. Reading for a living. Sigh. If only it were here in Madison. I don't think I'll ever find another job like that. I'd never have heard of that one if it weren't for nepotism...my aunt clued me in and I applied. She didn't get me the job, necessarily, but she did encourage me. I wouldn't have believe I could do it otherwise.

Now I'm adrift in a world of freelance.

Feeling melancholy today.

Midwest Horse Fair tomorrow. Andy's cousin and his wife are bringing their kids...two little girls and a little boy. I think it'll be fun. But there are all these horses and ponies and no pony rides. I think that's such a shame. I'm positive it has to do with liability...gone are the days of pony rides at fairs, etc. I remember them, though... nothing in this world made me happier as a child than a pony ride. But have one pony bite or kick or dump someone on the ground and you'd get your ass sued into oblivion these days. Accusations of soft tissue damage. Psychological trauma. We are a nation of litiginous wimps. I mean, it's one thing to sue if there is real, serious damage and obviously someone was at fault. But these days, people see everything as an opportunity to get some money out of someone. It's a form of revenge. "Your dog growled at my child, so now she'll be afraid of dogs for the rest of her life, and you have to pay for that. Fork it over."

But I'm not bitter. :P

If I had the means, I'd bring back pony rides. In fact, if I were Queen of the Land, that might be at the top of my list for kids right under education and health care. No little girl should have to grow up without ever sitting on a live pony, if that's what she wants.

:)

Pony rides, and afternoon naps, and swimming holes, and rope swings. Skinned knees and splinters. The joys of childhood.

Find Out Which Disney Girl You Are! created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Pocahontas With the wind against your face, the sounds of the birds singing around you, you feel more alive than anything. Like Pocahontas, you feel most alive when you're in nature where you belong - man's beginnings were in nature, it just makes the most sense. As you find yourself in nature, remember that not everyone feels this way as well - try to ease them into your way of thinking, or just introducing them to your lifestyle! Everyone loves nature - just sometimes not as much as you! Pocahontas 92% Violet 83% Alice 75% Belle 75% Jane 63% Jasmine 63% Megara 63% Ariel 50% Tinkerbell 50% Snow White 50% Mulan 46% Cinderella 46% Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) 42% Esmerelda 21%

What do voters really care about?

UPDATE: Apparently there was a press release stating that the company did find other accommodations for this young man. Thank god.

A beautiful young woman was murdered in her apartment near campus here in Madison last month. Her fiance, who shared the apartment, found her body. Now, the property management company is refusing to let him out of the lease, and is also refusing to change the carpet or repaint until "further review." The young woman was killed in a bloody fashion (police have not released the details, but the coroner said she died of a "complexity of multiple traumatic injuries"). So her fiance is being forced to continue living in a blood-stained apartment that holds memories of his murdered fiancee', or pay for two apartments simultaneously. This is outrageous, and a fine example of the attitudes of most landlords in this city. I know that the law is on the side of the company, but what ever happened to human decency? One lease is not going to make or break that company, and under the circumstances, I think it would be the right thing to do to let this young man move on.

http://wkow.madison.com/News/index.php?ID=20512

This is part of the continuing conversation on race that Obama suggested.

I haven't watched this entire show yet... I think I'll have to. Please watch this section regarding race and the "doll experiment." It made my cry. But the commentary after is really interesting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24076709#24076709

(Couldn't embed for some reason...their code wasn't compatible with LJ.)

It's so easy! I've never done it before, until last night. Unfortunately, I don't have a nifty gas stove, or I could've done it "stove top" style. Mine were done in the oven. So so easy. And sooo good! I could see roasting up a few of them and saving them for various thing throughout the week. There's a yummy cheese roll thing you can make where you wrap Italian cheese (ricotta, I think, with spices) in red pepper and drizzle it with a little olive oil. Mmmm. We had ours over spinach angel hair pasta with shrimp and a mild roasted red pepper alfredo. Delish. I felt like a gourmet chef.

My roasting technique for an electric oven (adapted to suit my "special" needs. lol):

Needed
One large red bell pepper, cut lengthwise, cored and deseeded (you can presumably roast a whole pepper without slicing it, but that's not what I did. I also presume you can remove the seeds and stem after the fact, but I chose to do it the other way)
Olive oil

*Set oven to broil

*Set the top rack a little above the middle of the oven

*Rub the pepper with olive oil, not too much

*Place the pepper halves hollow side down on a baking sheet (use tin foil if your baking sheet isn't nonstick, because the peppers ooze a sugary juice that blackens and is hard to remove from the sheet. I found out the hard way.)

*Place on top rack of oven. There's no real set time for this process. Check after 5-8 minutes just to be sure they aren't on fire. Then check every five minutes or so until they are mostly blackened.

*Remove the peppers and put then in a glass (or other non-porous) bowl and cover with a hand towel. Allow them to cool to room temperature. They should be juicy and soft to the touch when cool.

*When the peppers are cool, you should be able to slough the blackened skin right off. Mine were not quite blackened enough and it took a little finagling to get all the skin off...the black parts really did come right off, but the parts that were still red clung, and the peppers are really slippery, so it was kind of a pain. But it all came out ok in the end. :)

Ta da!

Yahoogle, or Googahoo?

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080409/yahoo_google.html?.v=4

Ok, I am obsessed lately with chubby little puppies. It's been a long time since I smelled a puppy belly. Puppy bellies smell like milk and puppy and sunshine. Puppies never have stinky dog breath.

I'm sorry I pooped out on the final day of my "week in the life." Our car started making dying sounds yesterday and we ended up stuck at the shop for four hours. Not my idea of a pleasant afternoon. The car is still acting strangely, even after we shelled out $100 for new spark plugs (and they gave us a deal because it didn't fix the problem). So then we had to go buy $10 fuel line cleaner, plus fill up the tank, which we really could not afford to do. So that's another $60 down the tubes. So far, that hasn't fixed the problem either. Well, at least the vehicle is running. It just sounds like it's stalling in first gear, and the engine shakes. Oh, we also found out that one of our pistons isn't firing. Great. But that doesn't seem to be the problem either, according to the mechanic. That's just an odd side note.

All of this started yesterday morning, out of the blue. We did have our oil changed four days ago...but we've eliminated that as a possible culprit.

So where IS everyone? No comments from friends in a long time. I guess I haven't exactly been chatty Cathy myself.

Hoping you are all well.

Meet Megan Gale, the Amazon princess who will be portraying Wonder Woman in the upcoming Justice League movie. Not bad. :) All they need to do is stick her in a gym and pump her up a bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlton_Heston



An icon has left us. I'm desperately trying to refrain from making an obvious joke. Maybe tomorrow.

Two of my favorite things. Hot blueberry muffins with butter, and coffee. Unfortunately the coffee is French roast, not my favorite, but it IS coffee. We had to buy an emergency ration last night...one of those tiny packs, and the only thing the grocery had that wasn't "flavored" was French roast. It's not terrible. Just tastes a little charred.

I remember when everyone was enamored of French roast. The thing is, I worked at a coffee roasterie for two years, and I developed a picky palate. I still drink any kind of coffee I can get my hands on, depending on my funds, but I complain more. For instance, I can taste robusta in Folger's "classic roast." Robusta is a cheaper bean that, no matter how you roast it, has a funky tar-like overtone. It's often added to blends to give them a kick, and it gives a fine crema, but the flavor is just not top notch. French roast can be done to any variety of coffee. It's quite literally almost burned. The beans are black. For the most part, this roast is not done to enhance the qualities of any given bean...say...a Kenya AA. It would ruin a Kenya AA. Fine roasters rarely put a French roast on a fine varietal, because it kills the delicate nuances of the bean. You get the equivalent of a fine slice of homemade bread that is toasted to a char. Some people dig that charred taste. I do not.

My favorite coffees are African coffees. Rwandan, when at its best, has a caramel-like quality, and I once tasted a Rwandan that had distinct flavors of bananas foster. All of this with NO added flavoring. Kenyan has a wine-like rich fruity thing going. Ethiopian is known for a bright, floral, almost lemony taste (and the beans sometimes smell kind of like Fruity Pebbles).

Yes, all those morning tastings paid off. My palate is sufficiently spoiled. We did "cuppings" which consisted of having the beans ground in exact quantities, then having almost boiling water poured over them in little glass cups. They were allowed to sit. Then then foam on top was scooped off. We went around the table and first sniffed the various cups. Then we took a spoon and slurped each once, dipping the spoon in water and drying it after each cup. At first, I didn't enjoy this, because I don't drink coffee black as a general rule. But I came to appreciate that I could most certainly taste a lot more of the delicate flavors that way than with cream and sugar. I'd never experienced any palate training before. I figured you had a good palate or you didn't. But excitingly, almost anyone can be trained. People who smoke, though, are at a disadvantage. Your taste buds and scent receptors are stunned. They really are. You may not realize it...but the food you eat doesn't taste as good as it would if you didn't smoke.

Ah, coffee.

And muffins. Blueberry to be exact. My favorite. The classic. Give me a straight up muffin, please, with none of that fancy crusty stuff on top. No granulated sugar, no streudle.

It got up to 65 yesterday. Absolutely stunning.

And in other news, I am proofreading a "novel" about a coarse, pushy female ex-cop who tries to kill herself and is transported to a fantasy world where the people are feline shapeshifters, and she is seduced by a man who can turn into a puma. It is. so. bad.

I've also invented something called Vicodent, the pain-killing gum. I have plans to Photoshop an ad soon.

Happy Sunday!