In Any Place You'll Allow

I have quotes come up on my iGoogle page. I like quotes. This one from today is pretty funny:

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of. - Burt Bacharach

I was trying to figure out why I've been so tired lately and so I asked Dr. Google for some advice on how to counteract whatever it is that might be afflicting me (bad diet, dehydration, etc). Someone had posted a whole essay thing about dehydration and how it leads to fatigue, blah blah blah. Her solution (or one of them) was to drink two glasses of water first thing in the morning. I thought it sounded like BS, but figured I'd try it out because what did I have to lose? If nothing else, I'd start off my day by getting enough water at least.

So all week I've had a 12 oz (10 oz?) glass next to my bathroom sink to remind me to drink two glasses right away. I've done it either before or after my shower each morning. And honestly, there's a huge difference. I haven't felt tired all week except for those few minutes from when I turn off my alarm to when I stumble to the bathroom. Today for instance, I was SUPER tired and even though all week the two-glasses-of-water-in-the-morning trick was working, I thought for sure it was not going to work at all considering how tired I was. But it did. I don't know if it's the water, or some psychological Pavlovian placebo effect. I don't care too much because it works and that's what

The only downside at the moment is that toward the end of the second glass, I feel like I could probably vomit if I put any effort into it. I might want to try drinking them more slowly instead of guzzling them both down so quickly, but the momentary gag reflex is easy enough to quiet. I think it's just a lot of fluid in the morning that my body isn't used to. Maybe it'll go away after awhile when my body gets more used to that.

It's kind of freaky how the two-glasses-of-water-in-the-morning trick works. I'd say it's better than coffee, but I don't drink coffee so I can't compare it. I'll definitely continue with it, though.

The X-Files movie comes out tonight and as I am a total geek, I can't wait to go see it. I'm kind of bummed that I don't have all 9 seasons on DVD so I wasn't able to go through and have a X-Files marathon the past few weeks, but oh well. If it's a good movie, the background will be covered decently enough that a marathon of all 9 seasons won't be necessary. But we'll see how it plays out.

Also, Canada on Tuesday! Woot!

My Lyrics Are Bottomless

Curb Side Appeal
Currently, I'm renting the second bedroom in a two bedroom condo. This is the front door, which is oh-so-impressive.

And from the curb, which has my bedroom window in the middle part of the picture. (The bush is cleverly blocking the torn venetian blinds - they were like that when I moved in, though.)

Junk Drawer
The kitchen isn't mine, so I don't have a proper junk drawer. Half of my desk fits the bill, though.

Blogging Space
This is where I blog when I'm at home (the other half of my desk, if you didn't piece that one together). But to be honest, most of my blogging happens at work. I don't have a picture of that though.

Best Feature
I decided to be a smart ass and say that my best feature is my brain. As I cannot take an actual picture of my brain as it is, I altered a basic image of the brain found on the web to more closely resemble my own.

Favorite Jewelry
This was tough. I love the rings my sister got me that have "Sisters by Chance, Friends by Choice" engraved on the inside. And even though I don't wear a lot of jewelry, I actually have a lot of it. (Even more now that all the pieces I made during my jewelry business venture are no longer in my storage unit.) I decided on two pieces. The earrings and necklace my Grandma bought for me at one of those at-home jewelry parties. I love these and wear them probably more often than any other set I have.

And my favorite set that I made. Sometimes I can't believe that I actually made it. I've only worn it once, to my Grandma's funeral, which is another reason it has a special place in my heart.

Close up. The colors are mostly true, here.

And for more pictures, I present return of the Weekly Bento Pictures (with added Ratatouille Bonus)!

Thursday. Turmeric-laden flower-shaped onigiri, tomatoes, nectarine slices, skewer of blueberries, cubes of colby cheese, kalamata olive filled onigiri. All on a bed of spinach.

Hummus, kalamata olives and olive tapenade. The hummus is in paper baking cups which did not protect it from the oil that sort of oozed out of the tapenade. I was tempted to buy silicone baking cups to prevent such things and then when cleaning out my storage unit discovered a cupcake tin made of silicone, so I just cut out the cups to use.
On the right there are Triscuit crackers, Keebler caramel filled fudge covered graham crackery goodness. And an Andes mint, from a whole box that I had completely forgotten I bought like two months ago.

Friday. Both onigiri are filled with mushroom flavored seaweed paste, slices of nectarines, blueberry skewers, tomatoes, two cubes of colby cheese. On a bed of spinach.

Hummus with kalamata olive smiley face which turned out a lot more demented-looking than originally intended. Triscuits and Andes mints on the side.
Ratatouille Bonus!
I made this last Sunday. It smelled DELICIOUS while it was cooking and I was pretty impressed with how tasty it looked when it came out of the oven. Note the freshly grated parmesan.

And after dishing it out for dinner. I had another portion when I was finished with this because it was so damn good. It lasted me most of the week for dinners.

And I'll leave you with my New Funny Thing:

Flight of the Conchords, check them out.

Rockies Game

Yesterday we went to the Rockies vs. Mets game at Coors Field. My Grandpa's company has a suite so he reserved it for the family. It was a really fun time.

You can see the mountains in the distance.

There's this really neat area of the field that's set up like a rock garden with fountains and things. I was surprised to see it there, but really liked it. I guess the fountains get turned really high when one of our guys hits a home run. (They did that twice during the game, back to back, but I wasn't watching the fountains when it happened.)

Since my Grandma passed away, I've been trying to take more pictures of people, not just scenic landscapes. I realized I have far too few pictures of the people that I love and too many of things, even if they are gorgeous. So, in the above picture we have my cousin Erika (12), niece Denae (15), Aunt Kathy (by marriage) and Uncle Curt (dad's younger brother).

Kendra trying to get out of the suite and see what all the commotion was outside on the balcony. She's 17 months already!

My nephew Aaron (15) in the back and my cousins Brittany (10) and Erika sitting at the bar inside watching the game through the window. The suite was, well, sweet. They had food and drinks provided for us, it was air conditioned and there were comfortable chairs and the neat bar overlooking the balcony seats.

My older sister Heather taking a picture of me taking a picture of her taking a picture of me...

My mom and Grandpa sitting outside before the sun got too intense. Derek, my brother-in-law, is inside, eyeing me and my camera suspiciously. (He hates getting his picture taken, though he has gotten better over the years.) My Uncle Curt is standing behind him, barely visible.

Heather and Kendra clapping for our team.

One of my younger sisters Amanda (20) is in the pink, dancing to something or other. My other younger sister Cory (19) is on the far right sitting with her boyfriend, and their friend Kerry is on the right, dancing.

There was a little girl a few months older than Kendra in the suite next to ours. They played together for a bit.

Matt Holliday up to bat. I guess he's a big deal or something.

It's kind of hard to see, but if you look toward the top row of seats, you'll see a purple stripe. The purple row of seats goes all the way around the stadium and that row is a mile high.

It didn't take me too long to realize we'd be there to see the sun set behind the mountains. I was excited for it and tried to get various shots of the sun sinking toward the horizon.

My dad and his girlfriend both tried to get Kendra's attention and make her laugh or smile. She was too tired by the time the game was winding down, though.

Driving around Colorado, you may see bumper stickers that say, "If God isn't a Broncos Fan, why are sunsets orange?" It seems that a similar one for the Rockies could be used considering the violet hue of this sunset.

Denae and Kendra, dancing to the final music.

Her future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades. (Also, pay no mind to the swollen lip - she busted it earlier during the night on of the seats.)

The Rockies won and the teams are on the field showing off their good sportsmanlike behavior.

Denae, Kendra, Grandpa, Aaron, Mom, Heather.

We stayed kind of late and most of the field had cleared out. We couldn't use the elevators so we went through the stadium and I was able to get a better picture of the field.

The Rock Garden thing on our way out - even prettier up close.

Uncle Curt, Derek, Kendra, Erika, Aaron.

The full set of pictures can be seen here.

Bento and Kittens

So here's what I had for lunch this week:



Monday was yakisoba with soy sauce, broccoli, celery, mushrooms. Spinach bed with fresh mushrooms and grape tomatoes tossed in for fun (and color).



Cucumber slices, carrots, and quail egg resting on bed of spinach. Kiwi, raspberries, blackberries and Hello Panda chocolate creme treats.



Tuesday we have onigiri covered with furikake, spinach, carrots, grape tomatoes, quail egg, filled onigiri (soy sausage, celery, red bell pepper). Lower right has cucumber slices, avocado, raspberries. Lower left has blackberries, granny smith apple slices.

Wednesday was payday and also double reward points day at Qdoba so I had a vegetarian taco salad, which was delicious, of course.



For Thursday there was plain onigiri, spinach carrots, grape tomatoes, plain onigiri with furikake. Lower right hand has yakisoba with baby corn, mushrooms and broccoli. Upper right has blackberries, raspberries and granny smith apple shapes (made with my new cute mini shapers). The yakisoba was inedible. Okay, so it was edible, but not tasty which made it inedible in my book. I think the baby corn made it taste kind of icky. I'll have to rinse that crap off better next time or buy a different brand or something. Or just douse it in sauce, which this yakisoba did not have as I ran out of soy sauce on Tuesday and hadn't bought any by this time.



I didn't go to work today, so I didn't make my lunch in the morning to be packed. When I did make lunch though, I still made it bento-ish. So we've got the same yakisoba from Thursday but with teriyaki sauce and that made a WORLD of difference. Much much better. I ate it all this time. Avocado slices, quail eggs, flower-shaped onigiri rolled in furikake (the shape got messed up in the furikake rolling), grape tomatoes, babybel cheese, kiwi slices shaped with mini cutters.

Also, for gratuitous cuteness, I went over and saw Kyle's kittens last night. I wanted to smuggle them back to my home with me.



Playing with the string to my hoodie. The orange one is QT (Quentin Tarantino) and the dark one is Spielberg. (He's a movie fanatic and named his kittens accordingly.)



All tuckered out from playing. They slept in my lap for quite awhile, it was terribly cute. I had forgotten what it was like to not move even if you're uncomfortable because you've got a pile of furry cuteness on your lap. It's a nice feeling.

The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

I read this for my book club. It honestly isn’t something I would normally read, but it was very good and I’m glad that I read it. It’s a quick read and The Last Lecture is available as a video at www.thelastlecture.com. Even if you just watch that I think you’ll get some good from it.

44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith

Great book. I love the way McCall Smith writes and in conjunction with the format of the book it comes across brilliantly. Slicing into the lives of the characters and seeing how their paths cross eventually is fantastic. I believe he has written more in the series and I would very much like to read those as well.

Creativity and Food

So Friday night I worked on some Artist Trading Cards. I don't think these will be for trade, though. I wanted to do a series, as I've only done completely unrelated ones before, so I set out six cards in two rows and sat thinking for a bit. I decided to make little reminders about what I enjoy and am proud of in myself. I wound up only doing four, but I like them anyway.


I'll probably take these down in a few days because it's kind of creepy having the corners of the mirror masked, but I thought this was a particularly good place for them for the time being.

Caring, Loving, Kind.
This is my least favorite, but that's okay.

Optimistic.
Yes, those are little jingle bells on the card. It's very fun.

Open-minded.
I was going to put a pair of open hands in the white space, but I like the idea of leaving it open, for whatever happens to come along next. (No, I didn't mean to stamp the E on backwards, but it turned out well anyway.)

Creative.
This is my favorite.
Last night I started pulling all my altered book/scrapbooking stuff out so I can start working on an Altered Book Swap/Round Robin thing. I couldn't find any of my hard back books that I had saved for the purpose of altering them, so I figured I'd go get some today. I couldn't for the life of me remember where a good place to get alterable books was though and couldn't think of a used book store to go to. Then I was reading about them online and remembered that thrift stores are the best place for them. I couldn't believe I had forgotten that! In any case, I went this morning to scour for alterable books and found a handful (four) for $2.34 total, so I'm pretty pleased with that. I still don't have a theme for mine, but maybe the books will inspire me.
Then I went over to the Pacific Ocean Marketplace to see if they had anything for my bentos. They did!


The Loot. Please ignore my roommate's giant martini glass filled with gum and assorted breath fresheners in the background. heh. I spent about $45 on all this.

Yay for molds! I couldn't find any sauce bottles though, but I'll still keep looking.

Sweets and Quail Eggs. I picked up more sweets than I needed, probably, but they looked fun. The quail eggs are way cute, but I still have to figure out how to hard boil them since they're so much smaller than regular eggs.

Baby corn (whole and cut), seaweed paste for onigiri fillings, furikake (rice seasoning), black sesame seeds.

Cute shaped macaroni, 50-sheet pack of nori, japanese style noodles.

I made this for lunch when I got home from the stores. 7 gyoza, one onigiri with soy sausage, red pepper and celery filling, 7 grape tomatoes, three Hello Panda choco-cremes and a vanilla wafer. The Hello Panda treats were way better than the wafer.

This was Thursday's bento. Flower-shaped plain onigiri, cucumber slices, broccoli, leftover salad, grape tomatoes, avocado slices, gyoza.

I think I'm going to do a weekly bento entry with pictures from all my bentos for the week there. Sounds good to me.
Anyway, I'm going to go try to figure out a theme for my altered book.