Found at Meeta’s.

Ten Favorite:
10. Color: Black - it’s my signature color.

9. Food: That’s a tough one.  Maybe scallops (but that could be because we had them for dinner last night).

8. Band: I gotta go with the Dave Matthews Band.  Stuck in a rut, I know!

7. Movie: That varies with my mood.  I love Steel Magnolias because it’s a great example of way over-acting and that’s always fun.

6. Sport: I’m a football fan, first and foremost.  (Not playing, though - just watching.)

5. Season: I think it’s spring.  There’s so much newness in the air.

4. Day of the week: Saturday.  And Sunday.  Or any other day I don’t have to work.

3. Ice Cream Flavor and why? Peanut Butter Swirl.  I love the texture of the frozen peanut butter in the vanilla ice cream.

2. Time of the Day: Evening relaxin’ time.

1. Car:  1968 Camaro Z/28!!

Nine Current:
9. Current Mood: frustrated and kinda disgusted

8. Taste: the soup that burned my mouth at lunch

7. Clothes: Black pants, black and red sweater, black trouser socks, black shoes, black wrist splint.  See?  Black is my signature color!

6. Mousepad: It’s a tiger!

5. Finger/Toenail Color: Fingernails are done in a pink & white French manicure, toenails are naked.

4. Time: 13:14 (right this second)

3. Crush: I think it’s Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But it might be Cordelia.

2. Thought: My throat hurts and I wish I’d get some word on the thing that’s been pending for five months!

1. Love: Cooking.  Well, not me cooking but picking out the menus and helping Buzz do the cooking.

Eight Firsts:
8. First Best Friend: Patty Hohnstock

7. Love: Buster.  Damn it - he broke my heart!

6. Screen Name: jclpat (still use it)

5. Pet: That I remember?  We had three dogs at the same time - Prince, Rusty and Tippy.  There were also multiple cats at the time and I think there were rabbits in there, too.  My family had a lot of pets!

4. Crush: Harry Joe Beck.  Kindergarten.  One of the tragedies of my life.  He was hit by a car and died.  That’s harsh when you’re five!

3. Piercing: Ears. Got my first two holes for my 16th birthday.

2. Word: No idea.  If I had to guess, it would probably have been “no”.  That’s me in a nutshell!

1. Car: The first one that I drove most was the Ford Maverick.  But the first one I owned was my 1970 Chevy Nova - a GREAT car!!

Seven Last:
7. Last Cigarette: Last August.  I gave ‘em up again.  So that’s good, right?

6. Drink: Water.

5. Car Ride: In to work.

4. Text Message: I don’t do that.

3. Movie Seen: I should have watched a movie last night!  I’m sad to say that the last move I watched was “I Accuse My Parents”, the MST3K version.  Don’t judge me by that!

2. Phone Call: I think it was to my husband yesterday.  Or it might have been to my son yesterday.  So far, no phone calls made today, I don’t think.

1. Song Listened to: I heard some Stan Rogers songs this morning on Buzz’s computer.

Six Have You Ever:
6. Dated one of your best friends: Yes.  And then I married him.

5. Broken the Law: Yes.  I speed on a fairly regular basis and once I stole something tiny from a five and dime store.

4. Been arrested: Never.

3. Skinny dipped: No, I don’t think so.

2. Been on TV: Not to my knowledge.

1. Kissed someone you didn’t know: Yes.  I was young and thin and impulsive. 

Five Things:
5. What you’re wearing: I’ll add my jewelry to my clothes answer above.  Watch, hoop earrings, four rings.  Light day for me.

4. What you did last night: Re-watched the first two episodes of Buffy (shut up!), played pool with my husband, ate some incredible Thai food.

3. You can hear right now: The insufferable din of those who work around me.  It’s VERY loud in here!

2. You can’t live without: Aside from the obvious?  My husband, music, books, cats.

1. You do when you’re bored: Read, do pencil puzzles, surf, watch TV.

Four States You Have Been To:
4. Connecticut - we used to vacation there every year.

3. Texas - in July.  We escorted one of my kids to a conference for 10 days. 

2. Arizona - in August.  We escorted same kid to college for one week.

Did I mention that I hate the southwest??

1. New Hampshire - oh how I love this state!

Three People You Can Tell Anything To:
3. ls

2. cjh

1. Buzz

Two Choices:
2. Black or White: Black.  Do we need to review this again?

1. Winter or Summer:  Summer, I guess.  I don’t like the heat but the cold is making me grumble a lot lately.

One Person You would Do Anything For:
1. Buzz.  It doesn’t matter what he’d ask me to do.  Because I’d know that he already thought through the consequences of what he’s asking.  (I don’t have that ability and I wish I did.)

That was fun, but it took a while!

Found this at oh so wonderful via Sable.

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 8/8 correct!

I’m pretty damn pleased with myself considering I absolutely hated science in school!

...Creamy Corn & Chorizo Stuffed Mushrooms.

YUM!!

(Recipe in the extended entry.)

This is really intended for a party so it makes a lot but YUM!!

(This is from Cooking Light - with some slight alterations.)

Stuffing:
6 ounces Mexican chorizo sausage
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (11-ounce) can extrasweet whole-kernel corn, drained
2 ounces cream cheese (they called for low-fat cream cheese but I didn’t have any)
1/4 cup reduced-free sour cream (they called for fat-free sour cream but that is a scourge upon the earth!)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Remaining ingredients:
2 (1-ounce) slices white bread
12 large stuffer mushroom caps (It was supposed to be 24 mushroom caps but that wouldn’t have given you enough stuffing so we made it 12 large caps)
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare stuffing, remove casings from chorizo. Cook chorizo, onion, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat for 6 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain chorizo mixture; pat dry with paper towels. Combine chorizo mixture and corn in a bowl. Combine cream cheese and sour cream in a small bowl; stir with a fork until smooth. Add cheese mixture and salt to chorizo mixture.

Place white bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until fine crumbs measure 1 cup.

Fill each mushroom cap with about 3/4 teaspoon breadcrumbs. Stuff each with 2 teaspoons corn mixture; top with remaining breadcrumbs. Place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Coat each mushroom with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until tops are browned.

Yield: 12 servings

And this is coming from someone who is not a huge mushroom fan (at least, not yet!).  I hope you try these - they are worth it!

I had a good day today.  It started - rather, I realized it - as I was sitting at the breakfast table eating my oatmeal.  It wasn’t particularly good oatmeal but I realized as I was sitting there that I wasn’t stressed or distressed or mad or sad or upset in any way and I was feeling physically just fine.  I felt good.

All day I’ve felt similar.  I have a few aches and pains here and there and I’d rather not have been at work but there’s not really anything that’s bothering me all too much.

I think it’s important to recognize when that happens and to celebrate it.  And how nice is it that I’m ending my work week this way?  Now I have two days - with nothing planned - to feel good and enjoy my time off. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I hope you all can feel good - and recognize it - too.

Here are the answers (and some explanations) to my last post.

1.  I make the perfect margarita. True.  If you want the recipe, I will gladly share.
2.  I am looking into starting a home-based gift basket business. True.  I have several books on the subject and I will most likely do this at some point in the future.
3.  I once attended a charm class at school. True.  My high school was a Christian school which demanded that the female students act like “ladies”.
4.  I aroused a very large turkey at a place called Fantasyland. True.  I was 15 years old and on a trip with my parents.  They stopped at this roadside amusment park thing called Fantasyland in Gettsburg, PA.  (It’s still there.) There was a large white turkey in a cage and every time I walked by him, he gobbled and gobbled and his “snood” reacted.  Here’s what I found out about the “snood”:  When the tom relaxes, the snood is short — maybe half an inch long. When the tom struts, the snood engorges with blood and extends to hang down over the beak. So, yes, I aroused a turkey at a place called Fantasyland.
5.  I used to drive a Ford Maverick. True.  It was a kick-ass car before I “threw a rod”.  Can someone tell me what that means?
6.  I was “arrested” for loitering after hours on school property (never charged). False.  I had my share of trouble at school, but I never had any run-ins with the law.
7.  I named one of my cats Kashka after a Kate Bush song. True.  I had three cats at one time named Tethys (one of Saturn’s moons), Kashka (after Kate Bush’s song “Kashka from Baghdad"), and Skip.
8.  In my senior year of high school, I refused to go on the school trip to Bob Jones University. True.  I did not approve of their policies toward women and I conscientiously objected.
9.  I broke my toe while reading and walking down a flight of stairs. True.  My first, but certainly not last, broken toe.  I was reading and thought there was one more step and just crumbled on my foot.
10.  I once installed a ceiling fan incorrectly and it caused smoke to pour out of the wall while in use. True.  Sad, yes.  I hooked up the wires to the wrong connectors.  The fan worked but it eventually overheated.  This happened while my mother was baby-sitting my kids and she had to call me at work to tell me my wall was smoking!

That’s it!  Just a few more glimpses into my oh-so-exciting past.  This was fun!  Thanks for playing!

This is in response to Erin’s suggestion that I write up a list of 10 things - nine of them are true and one is not.  You have to guess which one is not true.  Ready?

1.  I make the perfect margarita.
2.  I am looking into starting a home-based gift basket business.
3.  I once attended a charm class at school.
4.  I aroused a very large turkey at a place called Fantasyland.
5.  I used to drive a Ford Maverick.
6.  I was “arrested” for loitering after hours on school property (never charged).
7.  I named one of my cats Kashka after a Kate Bush song.
8.  In my senior year of high school, I refused to go on the school trip to Bob Jones University.
9.  I broke my toe while reading and walking down a flight of stairs.
10.  I once installed a ceiling fan incorrectly and it caused smoke to pour out of the wall while in use.

So there you have it.  Which one is the lie?

Note:  I will reveal the answer (and explain some of these things) later today.

My mind is a smooth, untouched canvas.  It is unencumbered by thought.

Does anyone know of a good meme that I could do and post here?  Maybe something that would make me conjur up at least one or two thoughts.

What do you think?

You know what I miss?  Ally McBeal.

I miss the judge who always called her “Ms. MACBeal” and yelled at her because her skirts were too short.  I miss her falling down all the time because of her shoes.  I miss Elaine.  I miss Renee.  I miss the Fish-isms followed closely by “bygones”.  I miss Georgia’s long hair.  I totally miss The Biscuit!

But most of all I miss all the Barry White songs, singing in the bar with the Ikettes, and the dancing in the bathroom - especially when Ling joined in. 

I do not, however, miss the dancing baby or the whiny Billy!

I bought a shirt recently.  In the catalog from which I chose it, it was described as “The Big Shirt”.  It is brightly colored with geometric shapes and some realtively small tropical-looking flowers.  It’s mostly turquoise with a lot of black in it.

I wore it once before and when I put it on, my body said, “ahhhh!” It certainly fit its description!  It isn’t so big that it’s the wrong size, it’s just...um...loose.

It occurred to me when I got home from work that day that my clothing choices were creeping eerily close to the muumuu world.

But I don’t care!  I’m wearing it again today!  My body says, “ahhhh!” And I am one moo shy of a muumuu.

I read the article about the people in Nebraska who won the lottery.

*sigh*

I was so jealous when I read this:

Eric Zornes, 40, a maintenance mechanic, said, “I’ve been retired for about four days now.”

He’s younger than me.  And now he’s retired.  Do you think he’d adopt me?  I’m lovable, I’m house-trained, and I could make him a kick-ass mix CD.  Why wouldn’t he want to adopt me?

*sigh*

To those of you who suggested songs for my ”What are some of your favorite songs?” posts, I wanted to let you know that I am working on the CDs.  It will be a double CD collection and, if you contributed, you are welcome to a copy.

If I haven’t already, I’ll be in touch to get shipping info.  I just need to get some time to get to my computer and finalize the lineup!

Yay - I love making these CDs!

We were visiting with Cassie-B and Don last Saturday.  (We had a simply scrumptious dinner!!) During the conversation, we were talking about what we would do if we won the lottery.  One of the things mentioned was getting the car of your choice.

Now a few questions for you.

1.  If you had all the money in the world, what kind of car(s) would you get?

2.  If you only had a spare million or so, what kind of car would you get?

3.  Do you care enough about cars to have an opinion on #1 or #2?

My answers?

1.  Some sort of old Bentley, I think, and then the new Lexus IS.

2.  A ‘68 Camaro Z-28 - NO QUESTIONS!

3.  Yes, indeedy!

So what do you think?

So I had my blood work done last Friday (you might recall the post).  I got a message from the doctor herself last night.  She wanted to talk to me about the results.  Now, normally the nurse calls me so I began to wonder what was up.  Also, the results aren’t normally back for about a week.  This was just Friday AM to Monday PM.  With a holiday thrown in there at that!

I left a message for her this morning at 8:00 and I didn’t get a call back until 1:15.  Leaving me all that time to think made me work myself into thinking I had 3 weeks left to live.  Message to my doctor:  Please don’t leave me alone with my imagination!

All is well.  Relatively so, anyway.  She just wants to up the dosage of one of the meds I’m taking.  Another round of blood tests in six weeks but no cause for making my funeral arrangements just yet!

The latest book I’m reading is Garlic and Sapphires:  The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl.  It has gotten me so fired up to start cooking gourmet meals!  I long to use ingredients like squid ink and truffles!

Fortunately, at the same time as I started reading this book, I started perusing our back issues of Cooking Light.  I have found some very interesting recipes and I’m anxious to try them.

And by “try them”, I mean to have Buzz cook them and I’ll eat them, ‘cause me and the kitchen don’t mix too well!  (He says he doesn’t mind making anything that I pick out but if I start choosing recipes that use yogurt or tofu in them, he might draw the line.)

Yesterday, we had Kung Pao Chicken and Cool Cucumber Salad for lunch.  It was really, really good! 

Tomorrow - chicken paprikash done up light.  I hope it’s good! 

Alas, still not a truffle is in sight…