Which Famous Feline Are You?

Which famous feline are you?

You're Hobbes. First of all, the makers of this quiz would like to congratulate you. You have our seal of approval. You are kind, intelligent, loving, and good-humoredly practical. You're proud of who you are. At the same time, you're tolerant of those who lack your clearsightedness. You're always playful, but never annoying. For these traits, you are well-loved, and with good cause.
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T Minus 1 Hour

The in-laws are approaching the area. The groceries are in the house. A bottle of wine is already open (and they're bringing another case). The house is clean. The cats have been told to stay away from my mother-in-law. I'm ready!

New Job, New Reading Material

I started the morning off with the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

The first article of the day: "The Soviet Union and the International Brigades, 1936-1939."

If I tell you I'm actually enjoying this, you'll call me a nerd or something.

So I won't tell you.

Pack Rats-R-Us

I've only been at my current job for about 19 months, which isn't a whole heck of a long time, really. But I'm switching departments, and today is the day I pack up my desk. I thought it would be easy - throw my itty bitty pics of stepson and hubby into a box with a couple of paperbacks, a couple of pens, my coffee cup...and move on. To the new desk. Where I can whip out my pics, pens and cup and be right at home. How soon I forget what is in my DNA.... I come from a family of pack rats. A look at my grandparents house, my mom's house, my house, my sisters' houses...we do NOT like to throw anything away (although somehow, my oldest sister has escaped the severity of the gene. Her kids haven't, though, so it's obvious that she was at least a carrier). And while we all laugh and throw out my grandfather's Depression-era rationale for keeping every thing from bread wrappers to the twisty ties that hold hundreds of toy parts on slabs of cardboard to every single box that has ever come in our line of sight ("It's just the thing to have if you ever need it!"), I think that secretly we all like it. Once in a while, one of us will wake up and realize that we have 200 boxes sitting in our attic, and that no matter how long we live we will never give THAT many Christmas presents that need to be put in a box. Or their husband will tell them that their attic is a pile of kindling waiting for a match, because really? All that cardboard? It's just begging the fire gnome to come for a visit. But the rest of the time... the rest of the time we compulsively squirrel away things that will never have value. And if there's any kind of sentimental value attached to it, I'm already determined to keep it. I have ONE ROSE PETAL left from my bridal bouquet. And it is sitting in a shot glass on one of my bookcases, because I CANNOT throw ANYTHING away. Sure, it makes cleaning the house a lot harder. Especially when you know there's something in the back of your closet you need but first you have to get through three years of accumulated "stuff" to get to the sweater that you just KNOW matches your new skirt. Only to find the back of the closet sans sweater and find three other items of clothing that you completely don't remember buying. How many times have the members of my family muttered the words "so that's where that ended up" when we're looking for a screwdriver and come across the owner's manual to an oscillating fan that hasn't worked in five years? And if you're one of the hard-core members of my family, the fan that hasn't worked in five years is probably still sitting around somewhere...either because you hope one day you can talk your dad into fixing it, or because you're the dad and one day you just know you're going to fix it. How long did that broken TV sit in our garage in the house in Pelham?. Anyway, I'm packing my desk. And I find...

• A two inch long plastic jelly fish, that one of the librarians gave me after finding out I'd been stung by a Portuguese Man O' War on my vacation;

• Five books that I had forgotten I owned that I picked up at the thrift store, brought to work and shoved into the bowels of my desk in case I ever need something to read on my lunch break. Because even though I work in the biggest library in the Department of Defense, I might one day need something new to read;
• A bottle of tums that expired two months ago;
• A steak knife that matches our old set at home; apparently I thought I might either A) Eat a steak at work one day, or B) Need extra protection. On a military base. Sitting in the middle of the most public building on base, surrounded by at least 20 people at all times. And that if I did, my cheap-o steak knife would do better on human flesh than it would on the cheese that it wouldn't cut at home;
• The ribbon from the present that my husband gave me for Valentine's Day last year, that I wrapped around my ponytail for the day. Is it in my drawer waiting for February 14 to roll around again? Because it needs to give up hope - it's had my decorations for St Patrick's Day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving AND Christmas put on top of it since last year. But...if I ever need a heart infested ribbon...it's RIGHT THERE next to me.
• My 2005 & 2006 desk calendars. Because one day, when I least expect it, the CIA might come into the library and say "What were you doing at 10:35 AM on July 12 2005?" And I will be able to magically find my calendar in the middle of all my crap, whip it and open it, pointing gleefully and saying "I was working the reference desk from 10:30-11:30 that day!"

I'll stop there. Because I need to go pack up my dry goods drawer. I have canned pears, pineapples and peaches...vanilla pudding...popcorn...salt and pepper...canned tuna...Because when something happens and I'm forced to live in the library for days on end, with no way to get to food or water, I'll be ready. I'll be PREPARED. I will survive.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I'll Learn to Cook This Year Earlier this week, I made French Onion Soup for the first time. I had never even eaten it before, but Hubby loves it and I had two pounds of leftover onions that I needed to do something with. So I made some soup (using the last bit of my homemade chicken stock), and it was awesome. And, in the way of most soups, it tasted better the second day than it did the first. So, in that spirit of things….: 13 Foods I Want to Make This Year 1.) Osso Bucco – because really, can you ever get enough veal 2.) Risotto - I found a recipe for Sunshine Risotto looks really yummy – lots of colors of bell pepper all over the place. Now, if I can just find it again…Ahh! Here it is! 3.) Lemon Sorbet – we’re going to pretend that the one I made a couple of months ago never happened, even though my hubby was a good man and pretended to like it. He loves lemon sorbet so much that I have to get this one down. Of course, it would be a lot easier if I had an ice cream maker - since 99 percent of the recipes I can find call for using one of those machines. And I'm a wuss - my arm gets tired. 4.) Petit Fours; I think I’ll do these in a couple of weeks for a retirement party. I’ve even found a no-bake cheesecake version that I can use if I wimp out. But I want to try the real thing, complete with jam, icing and a wrecked kitchen. 5.) Potato Soup – I love, love, love me some good potato soup with a little cheese and bacon on top. Or maybe I love, love, love me some cheese and bacon with a little potato soup underneath. Either way, I’ve never made it from scratch. 6.) Creamed Cucumbers – mmm, maybe they’re not creamed. But there’s a recipe in Mark Bittman’s cookbook “How to Cook Everything” for some kind of cucumber dish –served warm - that sounds interesting. 7.) Quiche – So many yummy variations that the hard part will be deciding what to put in the thing. And then convincing my husband to eat it. 8.) The salmon in the dishwasher recipe. My curiosity for this is overwhelming. Every time I see salmon in the seafood case, I tell myself that one day I’m going to try it. And now that I’ll be getting home before the husband a few day a week, I may actually get a chance to cook it without him seeing me remove it from the dishwasher. 9.) A few good homemade breads – not the kind that requires a machine. The closest I’ve come to making bread at home is my grandmother’s cheesebraid recipe. And I have a bread machine. But I want to make some whole grain breads from scratch. More importantly, I want to smell them baking in my oven. 10.) A couple of Indian dishes. Hubby dearly loves Indian food, but the closest good restaurant is about 40 minutes away. I’m thinking that something like this eggplant and potato curry might be a good place to start. Finding some of the spices will become the first step in the process, since I’m pretty sure that Wal-Mart won’t have them. And since Calera doesn’t have an Indian population to speak of, then this gives me a really good excuse to check out a few spice stores that I don’t visit often enough. 11.) Chayote Squash. I bought one a couple of days ago, because I’ve never had one and it wasn’t too expensive. So now I have to look up how you cook one, and what you do with it. That will happen either tonight or tomorrow, since it’s already sitting on my counter staring me in the face. 12.)Flan. A good one, nice and smooth and creamy…mmm… 13.)Bouillabaisse - My sister always makes such an incredibly good one that I’m scared to even attempt it. But the taste sensation is enough to get my saliva going. Of course, getting fresh seafood when you’re 1 mile from the coast like she isis a little different than when you’re a couple of hundred miles. Still, there’s a seafood place up in Birmingham that I think I can use. And it will all be worth it, if I can pull of her second trick of culinary magic and transform the Bouillabaisse into a bisque the next day. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Cheeky 2. Amanda 3 Suki 4 Karen 5 Caylynn 6 Jill 7 Lindsey 8 (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Somewhere, a Deity Laughed. Loudly.

Yesterday morning, it finally got cold here in the Deep South. Morning temperatures were cold enough to require that I go out and let my car start warming up before I actually had to sit in it to drive anywhere. Somehow, it's ok for me to be cold when I run outside half dressed at 6 AM (it's still dark, so no one can really tell if wearing a robe or just an oddly flowing dress), but Heaven FORBID I be even a little chilly once I'm fully dressed and sitting six inches from the heater vents in my car. Wish a scarf wrapped around my neck. And gloves on. And a cup of coffee in my hand. Spoiled, a bit, hmmm? So yesterday I ran outside, no coat for my arms, no pantyhose on my legs, just a skirt and shirt that did nothing to hide the fact that my skin was pruning (the plucked chicken look is VERY good on me), jumped in my car, cranked the heat knob all the way up and turned the key...and nothing happened. No click, no clank, no "I'm-going-to-die-now-so-goodbye-til-you-figure-out-what's-wrong-with-me". Just...nothing. And that's when I noticed that the overhead light was barely on. Usually, it's almost blinding in the pre-dawn time, and it wakes me up almost as much as the extra-strong Colombian blend that I brew for myself. It might have even been flickering. As was the light on the dash that lets you know a door is open. And the drivers door had swung shut behind me - as it does every time I get in the stupid car when I don't pull up enough in our driveway. I had left a door open...and I hadn't driven the car in almost two days. My battery was beyond dead. It had decomposed and become engine manure. Fast-forward to me running in the house, surprising my husband by making actual words come out my mouth. For my mother's sake, I won't repeat what I think I said. Most of it would get me fined if I said it on national television. Hubby spent 20 minutes looking for his jumper cables, before we figured out they were probably a casualty in the divorce. How we went four years without noticing that... I race to Wal-mart in his Big Ole' Truck- sans makeup, which when combined with the look of utter fury on my face scared a couple of people and three stray dogs into the next county. I bought the most expensive jumper cables they had (somehow spending lots of money made sense at the time) and raced back home. Hubby takes over the manly part of the duties - meaning he went outside in the cold while I sat inside on the couch cursing at myself quietly to the cats - and hooked my car up to his Big Ole' Truck. He tiptoed back in the house, swerving in a wide arc around the couch, and we waited about 15 minutes. At which point he went outside and came back in and told me in an "I-Know-I-May-die-For-This" voice that I needed a new battery, and so I would have to take the Big Ole' Truck to work. In the rain. And now I was going to be 45 minutes late leaving, which meant that I would be in rush-hour hell once I got to Montgomery. I like driving Big Ole' Trucks as much as the next gal - more, if the next gal happens to be my best friend - but Hubby's is not an automatic, and I hate driving in rush hour in a stick shift. And it doesn't handle rain well. Not to mention I would have to move all my necessities - makeup, hands-free cell phone stuff, my lunch, my coffee cup. But not my CD's because the Big Ole' Truck has no CD player or Tape Deck. It's like I'm living in the 20's when I drive that thing. So I cursed some more while hubby called a friend to hitch a ride to work and told me to pick up a battery on the way home. Fast-forward to 4:30 PM (work was no more crazy than usual - which means I only had to visit the happy place deep in my mind two or three times to keep from strangling my boss.) I walked outside, mentally preparing myself to deal with afternoon rush hour traffic. Getting off base takes twenty minutes of mostly stopped stop-and-go traffic, because the main gate is closed to outgoing traffic right now. The Interstate is a mess because they're widening it right at the busiest part of the whole thing in Montgomery. And as I walked outside, deciding if the emergency mantra was warranted, something hit my head. and my shoulders. And it was cold. Sleet. And that's when I looked up at the sky and said, very quietly, "You Win. But I have more wine at home than I can drink in one night, and nothing is going to keep me from it." That thought sustained me through the next hour and a half. People in Alabama DO NOT know how to drive when anything resembling winter precipitation happens. And I was in a Big Ole' Truck that reacts to anything close to ice with shudders and brakes that suddenly decide they need a vacation. I made it home in one piece, with a new battery in the front seat beside me. Hubby gets home thirty minutes later, and "gets ready" to change my battery. This included some grunting and other male noises while he pulled out the tool set that has instruments in it that neither one of us can find a use for. But we have them in case we ever need them! We're Prepared for anything, we are. He goes outside to begin the process while I start heating up some homemade French Onion Soup and chopping up veggies for a salad. He came inside to get gloves at one point (later I found out that the windchill was 24 degrees at the time), and I offered my beautiful turquoise Magic Scarf, which he refused using words like "ridiculous". I guess being wrapped in turquoise fru-fru would make changing a battery in freezing temperatures somewhat less manly. Whatever. I didn't care, because the first thing I had done when I got home was open a bottle of red wine. And I was self-medicating as quickly as possible. If I'm going to drop over $100 in one day, I DON'T want it to be on parts of a car that I not only don't look at on a regular basis, but that get dirty and gross. An HOUR - and two more glasses of wine later (it would have been three glasses, but I did have to handle the womanly role in this tragedy - hold the flashlight), we were done. We were eating and drinking and watching Star Trek. Because that's how we celebrate a job well done in our house. By drinking too much and watching geeky shows on TV. We live the high life.

What I'm looking at while I should be working:

Art Garfunkel's reading list.
"Since the 1960's, Art Garfunkel has been a voracious reader. We are pleased to present a listing of every book Art has read over the last 30 years. To view a list of Art Garfunkel's favorite books, go to "Favorites". This book list has been divided into several pages to allow easy downloading. Each page indicates the author, title, date of publication and number of pages (when available)"

The missing period at the end of that last sentence really bugs me.

Dilbert: Why does this remind me of my best friend?

THE WORK FILTERS ARE BLOCKING MY ACCESS TO BLOGLINES!!!!

deep, cleansing breaths.
In-Two-Three-Four, Out-Two-Three-Four.
{sob}

Irony?

{Overheard} "Maybe if she spent less time talking on the phone then she would have time to get the job done instead of trying to create more work for someone else." --Conversation that my department's technician had on the phone with a co-worker. They spend at least 30% of their day talking on the phone or in person. More if my boss isn't here. My boss isn't here today. Two days ago, I spent about an hour doing various tasks that she "didn't have time" to do. Thank God I'm not a supervisor. And before you accuse me of eavesdropping - her desk is against mine. If she didn't want me to hear, she wouldn't have said it.