Buzz and I just got back from dinner at our very first (alone) BYOB restaurant.  Aren’t we like big kids now??  We’re all growed up!!

Well, let me tell you, we are totally sold on this idea now.  (We were sort of intimidated before ‘cause we didn’t know how to do it and all.) Now we are frantically searching for all the best BYOB restaurants in our area!  Lovin’ the “bring your own wine” thing!  I’m even tempted to bring my own little carafe of Frangelico to stir into our after-dinner coffee, oh yes I am!

So there I was, flipping through the channels when my eyes landed on some of the most hideous costume jewelry on God’s green earth being sold on the Home Shopping Network.  Here’s what I saw (click to enlarge the gaudiness):

Now I’m not saying that I have the best taste on earth - I don’t.  But can someone explain to me why costume jewelry has to be so consistently clunky and ugly?  It doesn’t make any sense to me!  Why can’t manufacturers use synthetic substances but make pieces that are delicate and pretty?  Why do they all have to look like something that you might have dug out of your grandmother’s junk drawer to play dress-up?  Why?

I told Buzz the other day that I really want an Applehead Siamese.  They are traditional Siamese - not bred to meet the show cat requirements.  Their heads and bodies are rounder and fuller.  He demanded pictures.  So here they are.

See why I want one?  Plus they are very talkative!  And as much as I love my kitties, none of them will talk to me!

Coupla things.

Friday night, my love and I went out on a date.  It didn’t look like it was going to happen as I found myself in the midst of the same damn maelstrom I’ve been battling every single day at work this past week and it was getting dangerously close to reservation time and I was still working the issue.  But we got through it and had a FABULOUS dinner at a very expensive restaurant.  The food was fantastic and the company?  Couldn’t get any better!

We had so much fun we decided to make it a date WEEKEND!  A movie on Saturday and a swell Sunday brunch.  How’s that sound??

Well, we couldn’t find a thing we wanted to pay money to go see in a theatre.  So we decided to wander up to our brand spankin’ new wine and spirits shop to get a really nice bottle of port to snuggle up to on Saturday night.  We arrived just as a hellacious storm passed by.  There was a sign in the window - “CASH ONLY PLEASE!” Now who goes to a premium wine and spirits store loaded down with cash?  Not me, I can tell you!  So we turned around and went to our normal wine and spirits shop and purchased lots of things.

Oh, did I mention that on the way to our normal wine and spirits shop, we saw a tiny kitten in the road almost get run over?  The poor thing was drenched and wandering out in the road!  Someone stopped and then we discussed it and turned around to go get the poor baby, if the people who stopped didn’t want it.  By the time we got back there, the car was gone, the kitten was gone and no one was around.  I just hope the baby has a good home now!  ‘Cause he almost had a home full of four other cats!  Yep, we were going to get us a new baby!  (And now that I was all prepared, I want to go get a NEW BABY!!!)

To top off the weekend, we both got a little sick from dinner or something yesterday and we didn’t go out to Sunday brunch.  End of weekend plans!

But we did drag out an old, old board game that I stole from my sister about 20 years ago and played that, while we sipped some Australian dessert wine.  And we did play a game of pool (which Buzz won, of course).  So it’s not a total bust!

And I did get to spend the entire weekend with my favorite person in the whole wide world.  So what more could I want anyway?

(Love ya lots, hon!)

OK, so the latest in the series of thematic discs swapped between myself and the awesome Buzz was my request for turbulent 60s folk music.  Buzz delivered with a wallop!  Good, good stuff!!  I’m terribly impressed!

On this disc were two Bob Dylan songs.  A wise man once said that if you don’t like any Bob Dylan songs, it just means that you haven’t heard the right one yet.  (Or something along those lines...jjjjb - correct me, please!)

Now I have not been a big fan of Dylan.  Oh, sure, I’d crank it up for “Lay, Lady, Lay” and “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and I’d wonder why he didn’t do more songs like that - where he actually SANG the songs instead of the drawling sing-song talking that pervaded most of his music.  Well, I’ve decided that I was unfair in my assessment.

And here’s where you come in.  Tell me of some Bob Dylan songs that I should give a listen to.  Tell me of songs that have struck you in some way - even if it’s just that it struck you at “the right time and the right place”.  Where should I begin my Bob Dylan listening?

‘Twas a cold and rainy night when the poor washerwoman found that her old wreck of a washing machine had finally given its last to her.  Finally broke down as if to say that it could no longer take the toil and strain.  Could no longer take the grueling hours of endless work.

*cough cough* Sorry.

Our washing machine broke.  I thought I’d regale you with pictures from the ordeal!

Here’s the load of soaking wet laundry that was in the machine when it broke.  Any idea how heavy this basket was once those sopping wet clothes were put into it??

That left us with a washing machine full of water:

After researching on the internets, I found out that the problem was most likely the lid switch.  So we dismantled the washing machine.  Oh.my.dog.  How utterly disgusting underneath that outer layer!

Here’s the culprit (note the shattered pieces of it):

We became friends with our local laundromat while waiting for a replacement switch.  (It took almost two weeks.)

*The poor washerwoman pined for her old washing machine.*

In the meantime, the machine had to be drained.  By hand.  By hand. Allow me to repeat - by hand.  The poor washerwoman is 5’1”.  She can’t reach the bottom of the basket!  But she did it.  And cleaned off most of the crud to boot!

And, gentlefolk, this story has a happy ending.  Her knight in shining armor was home the day that they delivered the replacement switch and, without her knowing it, he replaced the faulty switch and gave the poor washerwoman her old, faithful washing machine back.  And they had a grand old time on the next laundry day!

Moral of the story:  Look it up on the internet first.  You could save yourself hundreds of dollars by doing so!  This whole repair cost us $51, including the price of two trips to the laundromat!  I guarantee we could not have even gotten a repair person to enter the house for $51 - let alone fix the thing!

We have had two problems with some video equipment recently.  Or should I say “two MORE” problems.

You may recall that our projector lamp died last December.  What a fiasco that was!  We finally got a new lamp for it and then all was right with the world again.

Now the projector itself is going.  Flickering images, color bleed, and then monochrome.  It’s not fun to watch a show when all that’s happening.  The projector is still under warranty until next September so we sent it back.  We had some friends who had to send their projector back to get fixed and it took four months!  Dog know when we’ll see ours again!

So we moved from the basement to the living room TV.  But every time we would use the DVD player there, it produced a loud hum.  I assumed it was bad cable so I tore up the storage area looking for a new cable, which I found.  But in the course of switching the cable, we found that it wasn’t that at all.  It seemed to me that it was caused by the DVD player itself.  And what do you know?  It was!

Fortunately, we had a spare in the basement.  So now we are watching DVDs in the living room on a borrowed DVD player.  Good thing we spent all that money to get the basement finished!

I walked down to get some breakfast at the cafeteria today.  They were having a breakfast buffet.  So I said to the woman who was leaning against the counter that I might have to have some of that!  I said it cheerily with a big smile on my face and expected some kind of reaction. 

Nothing.  She simply stared at me.  I stood and looked at the food and wondered if I wasn’t good enough to participate in the breakfast buffet or if it had been prepared for someone other than me.  Still she didn’t move.  I looked at the sign and then finally she stood up straight and grabbed a plastic container.

“What do you want?” she grumbled.

“French toast and sausage,” was my reply.  So that’s what she put in the container.  One slice of french toast and one sausage link.  “What else?” she growled.  I started to shake.  “Um, how about some eggs?” (I didn’t want eggs but there wasn’t much food in the container and it was going to cost me $3.59 for one slice of french toast and one sausage link.) “What kind?” she bitched.  I didn’t know there were different kinds so I looked at the sign again for guidance.  “Cheese or not?” I heard from behind the counter.  My voice trembled as I replied, “Cheese, please.” Then the plastic container was snapped shut and I had to be on my way.  She darted out to the back of the kitchen before anyone else could order.  I left my place at the front of the line of other potential customers, knowing that I had just been served breakfast by the grumpiest woman on the face of the earth.

And she ruined my sunny mood!  How dare she make me grumpy on a beautiful Friday morning?  How dare she??

Does anyone at all remember Danish Go-Rounds?  They are like a mutant version of Pop-Tarts.  I haven’t seen them since I was a child.  But to this day I remember what they tasted like.  They were like snakes of Pop-Tart material rolled up and shaped like a slightly warped Danish.  You could toast them or not.  I never toasted mine.  But I remember how I ate them.

I would start at the end and try to break off a bite but not affect the rest of the treat.  I’d try to get all the way to the end without breaking any parts off that I didn’t want so that I could be left with a nugget of heavenly goodness (there was always extra icing at that spot).  Oh, I wish they still made them!  I’d be buying them by the dozen!

I have to try the Kellogg’s Go-Tarts.  They look like they might be the same thing, only straightened out.  They might taste exactly the same!

I woke up this morning about half an hour before the alarm went off.  I got up and brushed my teeth and headed downstairs. 

All I wanted was a cup of coffee.

I stood at the sink and looked down at the dishes there from last night’s dinner.  I looked over at the dishwasher with its little green light indicating that it was full of clean dishes.  I looked at the cats.  Well, I tried to look at the cats but they were like a herd of wild horses running in every conceivable direction.  Even straight up.

I sighed.  I emptied the dishwasher.  I put the dishes from dinner in the dishwasher.  I washed the pot that has to be washed by hand.  I gathered the cats dishes (all 12 of them!!) and began the feeding ceremony.  Once that was done, I scooped out the cat boxes (all 4 of them!!). 

THEN I made the coffee.  It takes three minutes for a pot of coffee to brew in our new Bunn coffeemaker.  But it took me 40 minutes to get to my first cup.

Here’s lookin’ at ya!

Sometimes when I type in a login ID that contains my last name, I put three Ls in it.  There are only two Ls.

Twitchy L finger, I suppose!

Could someone please explain the uproar against fast food restaurants and the demand that they provide healthy alternatives?  I am not understanding this one.  Not even a little.

Let’s see - people are demanding that McDonald’s and now KFC prepare their food in a healthier way and to offer salads and food that won’t make you fat or dead, right?  I want to know where they get the nerve.  Fast food restaurants prepare and sell - to those with free will - food.  Fast.  They have their menus.  I just watched a TV show about the origins of various fast food chains and, at one time, McDonald’s had about four things on their menu.  Take it or leave it.  (Again, I’ll mention the free will part.)

People - if you don’t want to eat greasy, artery-clogging food, don’t go to McDonald’s!  But for heaven’s sake, don’t picket and sue them because they only offer those yummy, greasy, artery-clogging food items!  Go somewhere else!  No one’s forcing you to eat there!  It’s like demanding that a French restaurant prepare Mexican food.  It just doesn’t make any sense!

The only chain that I’ve seen that has embraced their fast-foodiness and reveled in their death-defying menu choices - and has, in fact, bolstered up the fat and portion size to an unbelievable level - is Burger King.  They don’t care.  They are what they are.  (Popeye should be their spokesperson, not that creepy King dude.) You just can’t get much that could be considered “healthy” at a Burger King but I can’t blame them for that.  I’d just as soon go in a Burger King and expect to find some General Tso’s Chicken as I would expect to find a low-fat lean sandwich.  It ain’t gonna happen.  And I know that.  So I don’t eat at Burger King.  Plain and simple.

See how that free will came into play there??

Up until a couple of months ago, I was the self-proclaimed winner of the meatloaf-making contest.  I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my meatloaf was the best.  I make a beefy meatloaf with no hint of anything tomato-y.  No tomato ANYTHING near my meatloaf!

Then I was paging through an issue of Cooking Light magazine and I came upon an article about making the best meatloaf.  I scoffed, naturally, but I continued to read.  I decided to put my snootiness aside and try their classic meatloaf recipe.  EVEN THOUGH IT WAS SMEARED WITH KETCHUP!  (I was just sure I would hate it!)

Yea, um, it’s time for me to follow my dinner of meatloaf with a slice of humble pie.  Damn - it’s good!  I actually find myself craving this meatloaf.  Seriously!  So with all due humiliation and respect, I’m giving you the recipe from Cooking Light (with my own modifications, of course).  You’re welcome.

Classic Meat Loaf

Combining three types of ground meat lends more depth to the overall flavor.

2 slices white bread
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1/2 cup ketchup, divided
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. meat loaf mix (beef, veal, pork)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon dried basil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large egg whites
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse breadcrumbs measure 1 1/2 cups.

Combine breadcrumbs and milk in a large bowl; let stand for 5 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons ketchup and remaining ingredients except cooking spray.

Shape meat mixture into a 9 x 5-inch loaf on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Spread remaining 6 tablespoons ketchup over top of meat loaf. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a thermometer registers 160°. Let stand for 10 minutes. Cut the loaf into 12 slices.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2 slices)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 231(31% from fat); FAT 7.9g (sat 3.1g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 26.7g; CHOLESTEROL 79mg; CALCIUM 49mg; SODIUM 764mg; FIBER 0.9g; IRON 2.3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 13.2g

I just looked inside our refrigerator.  It is jam-packed full.  Then I looked more closely.

It is jam-packed full of inedible food.  There are an untold number of containers which contain things that used to be meals.  George Carlin already wrote a skit about us.

It’s time to clean out the fridge, I think…