That Joana now has some damn good food in her kitchen once again!

Seriously, grocery shopping is no longer depressing and I’ve even found myself able to “splurge” a bit and order food from food delivery companies like Schwann’s again.

I really missed being able to order stuff from Schwann’s. Their food is so yummy, like their stuffed pretzels, and of course number 505 – breaded chicken strips. *drools*

Denali of course loves the change in food purchases and cooking. There’s more fresh produce and meat, which means I actually cook meals now and not just eating ramen or canned goods. This of course means there are actually human table scraps for her to slip off with.

Which leads us to Denali’s new nickname – Pyro Kitty.

Yeah, she’s always had a habit of jumping on the stove before, but she’d mostly cut it out. I figured that after singing her tail so many times she had finally learned that it wasn’t worth it.

Turns out she just realized that anything I had on the stove previously wasn’t worth the effort; because now she’s back to her old ways. And this time she damn near burned down the house instead of just burning some fur off her fluffy tail.

Yeah, Denali jumped on the stove while I was heating up some water in the tea kettle. Clearly she thought I was cooking. I was in the bedroom at the time and didn’t realize anything was up until I smelled something burning. I thought it was the electrical space heater I had plugged in so I turned it off. But that wasn’t the source of the smell. Some instinct screamed “kitchen moron!” and I ran in just in time to see Denali streak out of the kitchen and flames on the counter next to the stove to flare up and scorch the wall.

Denali apparently knocked over a small stack of dishes on the counter by the stove, what I smelled burning was a plastic bowl that melted. It, however, caught something else, not sure what, on fire and it spread to the stuff on the counter. I managed to throw water on the fire and nothing was severely damaged. The scorch marks on the wall wiped off, the counter came clean. A glass jar cracked due to the fire, the handle of the coffee pot melted and my battery charger for my batteries had been unplugged from the wall socket and was sitting on the counter, and unfortunately melted as well. A few plastic utensils and dishes melted as well. But over all, the loss minimal when compared to what could have been.

Needless to say I screamed bloody murder for a few hours on end and Denali remained safely hidden for the rest of the day.

I still haven’t gotten another battery charger for my rechargeable batteries though. So I’ve been unable to use my camera due to lack of batteries in the mean time. Every time I want to use it and remember the batteries are dead I’m reminded of why the batteries aren’t charged and get upset all over again. I just can’t help but think about what could have happened and how Denali just will not learn to stay off the stove.

What is it gonna take to get it through this kitty’s head?!

So, I’m hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner at my place again. Should be fun. At least this year I’m not cooking the majority of it by myself and, here’s the really good part, there are no crazy people doing funny diets attending this year. This means I don’t have to worry about what including fat burning foods into a menu X-amount of people that only one or two will actually dare touch. Or worse, remember and recite the calories, carbs, and what not in every single fucking dish I make along with the prescribed serving size.

I mean, I understand and respect people may want to go on diets. But attending a family feast and expecting the host to cater to your pretty eccentric necessities when you’re like the only one who will even eat the dishes you insist be served is just rude. Doubly so when the host has never heard of said dishes before and has to hunt down the recipes online and go out and spend an arm and a leg for some pretty out there ingredients.

Yeah, I’m still irked over last year. But this year it’s not going to be an issue at all, so big smiles for me!

And the Cowboys shall be playing the Saints on Thanksgiving – that’s gonna be a great game to watch!

Because apparently, the best method of losing abdominal fat is to find yummy sweets to nibble on. Good going Joana.

But hey, I had stopped off at the gas station on my way home this evening and I just couldn’t pass these new delights without giving them a shot. It’s a bad habit of mine, if it says “New” or “Limited Edition” on it I just have to give it a try once.

There’s a new flavor of Reese’s Peanut butter cups – these are made with dark chocolate and boy do I love ‘em. Seriously, they’re much better then the original ones which just use good old milk chocolate. Then again, I am partial to dark chocolate.

The real find were these however:

Mint flavored Moon Pies with creamy mint filling and crunchy cookie surrounding it. These things taste just like the mint cookies you can get from the girl scouts and they’re no where near as expensive either!

I bought a package of Tyson’s Any’tizers Tequila Lime flavored wings to try out while shopping the other day. I like a lot of their other Any’tizers flavors, like their Buffalo Style Boneless chicken wings. Those are actually my favorite – I could eat a whole bag in one night, they’re that good! But Wal-Mart actually didn’t have any, surprisingly, when I went so I thought I’d try something different.

I gotta say, when I finally got home I kinda regretted my choice. I thought maybe I should have gone with something I knew was good instead. But, after trying them, I’m glad I gave ‘em a chance. They taste so yummy, I ended up going back for another serving.

For those monitoring their intake, a single serving (about six pieces) has 180 calories, cholesterol is 115mg, and sodium at 620mg. Reading the nutritional value kinda makes you want to bust out with a phentermine diet pill, huh?

Still they are very yummy, and so long as you’re not chowing down on these suckers for every meal, it’s all good.

They still don’t hold a candle to the boneless buffalo wings though.

Money is still pretty tight here, even though I’ve had some new sources of income coming in, most of it just goes to pay long overdue bills rather then actually building a cushion. Grocery shopping is actually kind of humorous for the cashiers at Wal-Mart. They’ll see me come up with a large bag of cat food, some cans of wet food, and cat litter. Then they’ll see the rest of my items consists of human food that is non-perishable, can be stretched to infinity, and is really cheap.

I actually had a cashier laugh at me and say maybe it’s time I got “rid of the cat” since I “clearly can’t afford it”. Just about popped the cashier one on that. I mean seriously, just because times are rough I’m supposed to abandon my girls? Well, you can tell what kind of pet owner that cashier was. I have no intention of ditching Isis and Denali just because I’m experiencing employment woes. That’s not their fault damn it!

Needless to say my “diet” is pretty much shot to hell and back. I’ve cut out a lot of fruits and veggies from my diet because they’re just too damn expensive and I can’t see spending the money on them. Sad isn’t it? It’s just that produce doesn’t last that long (and it seems to go bad sooner and sooner now a days too) and I tend to do all my grocery shopping for the month in one fell swoop to save money and time. So, for the amount I spend on produce, for what little I do get, can usually be better spent elsewhere. Somehow I always manage to have apples, potatoes, and onions in the house though. Then again, considering how well those last compared to other produce, it’s not that surprising.

So, despite working out pretty regularly still, my eating habits aren’t what I’d like them to be. As a result? The diet isn’t going nearly as well as it was in the beginning. Ironically, some folks have suggested I invest in dietary stuff like that noxycut. Yeah, because since money is tight buying expensive diet stuff that may or may not work is a completely viable option. Pfft!

Honestly though, I feel kinda proud that I’m managing to stay afloat right now. Granted, I’ve got the support of people who love me to boost me when I’m down, but I’m managing. That’s all one can really ask for.

On another note, my cold is finally clearing up. Throat is still sore and my sinuses are still clogged, but at least I’m not trying to hack up a lung every five minutes!

I went out to eat at this awesome restaurant today (more on that later) but I swear the idiots were out and about today in full force. There were two though that were the absolute worst. The sort that make you say “I can’t believe anyone is stupid enough to do that!” Yes, they were that bad.

First of all there was the guy in this huge truck who didn’t seem to know how to properly use signal lights. The guy was driving a Ford F250 (yes, 250!) with an extended cab, extended bed, and pulling a flatbed trailer behind him. The man kept constantly signaling for the opposite direction he was going to turn. He would signal left, then turn right. Then he’d signal right and turn left. Sometimes the signal light would be turned on, but he wouldn’t turn anywhere, then turn it back off too. It was crazy and I was stuck behind the idiot for the longest time and unable to pass because I couldn’t trust when he was turning and where.

Then, when I got to Las Cruces, I found an idiot who I would strongly recommend her family go do some searches for term life insurance online ASAP. Why? Well, as a fellow bookworm, I can understand how some books you just don’t want to put down until you’ve finished them. However, I have never walked out into a busy intersection while reading said book and completely disregarding the traffic around me. The woman did this, she stepped out into the intersection, her nose buried in her book the whole time, and crossed the intersection without even looking up. Worst yet? She barely caught the pedestrian light while it had the “walk” sign lit, she’d maybe taken two steps in the intersection while the walk sign was lit before it changed to don’t walk, and just kept going. Never looked up. I was turning at the time and had to slam my brakes on to keep from hitting her. She never looked up, just continued on reading and walking. Idiot with a Death Wish.

Thankfully she was pretty much the last major idiot I saw out and about. Though there were some other priceless ones. Like the guy in the restaurant who answered his phone, mouth full of food, then gave the caller the excuse “oh no, I’m still on my way from El Paso. Yeah, still on the interstate, be home in forty minutes”. Like they can’t hear the conversations in the background and sound of silverware on plates? Please.

I met my up with my mom today to do some catching up and to celebrate her first “tax season” on her own. April 15th was yesterday, and she had a slew of tax returns and extensions to get out the door yesterday. So today, she took the day off to celebrate the end of her fist tax season on her own and the success of it. We went out to eat at Delicias Restaurant which serves fucking delicious Mexican food. And, oh my gosh, the plates are huge! I couldn’t even finish my plate and hate to get a takeout box. You get complimentary salsa and chips to start off with, then they bring you complimentary caldo de res and it is not a small portion either. And the beef that was in it, huge pieces! They’re not stingy! I got a steak plate that came refried beans, rice, salad, fried onions and chili, and enchiladas. ANd oh gosh, if the place hadn’t been so crowded I would have taken my camera out for a picture. IT WAS HUGE. And the price? A measly $9.10. Not bad, not bad at all. Good food, good service, and cheap prices – definitely going there again.

I’ve been quite the busy little bee here online lately. Sadly that isn’t reflective in my blog history though. I’ve mostly been doing a lot of work on my sites, both graphics and coding, with the occasional side-project here and there from a client. Mostly though I’ve been putting in long-needed work on my listings.

I got the fanlistings for “Sign” by FLOW, “Omae Dattanda” by Kishidan, and “Dareka ga” by PUFFY AmiYumi up that you might recall me mentioning before. Hehe, I’m still super-excited I got approved for those listings! I have google ads on two of them, down on the footer, and for the life of me I just couldn’t understand why the ads were showing those public service ads (like city of Philadelphia jobs) that appear when there are no ads matching the content. I figured, these are sites about SONGS and I mention on there that they were used in an anime series and movie. Good keywords there, right? Ah, well, while I might have used those words in the content I forgot to add in the meta tags for keywords and description so the google ads weren’t doing so hot. Oops. Well, I fixed that now.

I’ve done a lot of coding fixing on some of the older listings, and I even managed to get a new layout put up at Toxic Swill the Beer Hatelisting:

As the name implies, Toxic Swill is a hatelisting that lists the number of people who hate a particular subject, in this case beer. And yes, as the owner, I happen to hate beer. I just cannot stand the smell or the taste of it. It’s just disgusting to me. Give me hard liquor, wine, or coolers, but never, ever beer.

Just finished eating a nice yummy dinner comprised of nothing but leftovers!

From right to left we have quelites (spinach and pinto beans), lentejas, green enchiladas, and rice.

Yeah, it’s really late and I shouldn’t have eaten dinner this late, but I spent most of the day cleaning the house from top to bottom. Even after the longest shower in recorded history I could smell all of the cleaning chemicals on me still. Not to mention, my stomach was queasy as hell from smelling all of the chemicals and from skipping lunch to boot.

First thing that got done today – kicked the cats outside. Denali was happy enough with that, Isis not so much. But I planned on taking the house apart and cats get underfoot when there is serious cleaning going on. Not to mention, with all the chemicals being used, I didn’t want them inside inhaling the shit. Since the weather has warmed up considerably, I took this chance to battle the roach infestation that has somehow settled in. Covered furniture, closed off rooms I didn’t want affected, then set off some foggers early this morning around 6am. I ended up doing some yard work while giving it a chance to do its stuff before going back in the house late in the day. I attacked the carpet in the living room and hall got it vacuumed, cleaned, and vacuumed again. Then attacked the walls and ceilings in the rooms that I set off the foggers. Then scrubbed, bleachified, pine sol’d, and just cleaned everything until it shined and smelled lovely. Still gotta do laundry though.

For the most part, my hands don’t look like they’re in serious need of the world’s best anti wrinkle cream anymore. They did stay submerged in soapy, chemical-laden water for the most part today after all. Then I showered for almost two hours. Not surprising they look like they belong to an old lady. They’re also all dried-out now too.

There is a plus side though! I closed the door to my bedroom and had some downloads running all day while I was cleaning away. As a result, I am now all caught up on the latest episodes of Bleach, Naruto Shippuuden, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Not to mention, I FINALLY have the second Original Soundtrack for Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood too. Been listening to it ever since I got it. My favorite tracks on it are: 4. Envy Revealed; 6. Xing Symphony ~Overture~; 20. The Land of Ishvala; 25. Battle Scherzo; and 30. To Be King. Honestly, Akira Senju’s second OST for FMA: Brotherhood is better then the first over all, although I did like the first one well enough.

Well, as I mentioned previously, I attended the Investools Seminar by Wealth Magazine today. It was the first day of a two-day workshop/seminar that my Mother actually dragged me to. While I will admit to being interested by the presentation at the Get Motivated Business Seminar, I just really didn’t think it was for me.

After today though, I have to admit that I am glad that my Mother signed me up as her guest and dragged me down to El Paso for the seminar. It was very enlightening, not to mention, there was just a lot of information to take in. Enough to make one’s brain explode, to be honest. I am eager to set up an account of my own and do a little trading. What really got me interested was not buying a few shares in stocks and fiddling with them. No, what I’m interested in doing is getting a monthly income via covered calls and doing some option calls.

The down side to both of those wonderful options is sadly that one needs to have at least 100 shares of a stock in order to do covered calls on them. And when it comes to options, you have to buy them sets of 100. Granted, you can buy options at a much cheaper price then shares. Let’s say, a possible $340 versus $34,000 or something. Right now though I just don’t have the capital to invest into it. So while the seminar is motivating and exciting, it’s also kind of depressing. But we’ll see, I am going to try and purchase at least a few shares and see where things go from there. You have to start somehow after all.

As I mentioned, there was a lot of information to take in. And if you’re new to all of this, knowing only bare basics, it’s really a lot to take in. At one point my eyes were watering and stinging badly as a result of trying to read the slides. The white text and font they chose just always looked blurry on the edges of the words and forced my eyes to strain. I ended up having to get up and leave for a bit just to walk around and really give my eyes a rest. For the heck of it, since there were these humongous mirrors in the hallway of the Marriott, I shot a picture of me:

Yeah, kinda grumpy looking right? That was around 3pm or so. Totally worn out and my eyes were just totally bugging me. I think it may seriously be time to get a new eye exam. Seriously, they were bugging me that much viewing the slides for the presentation and I just could not read most of the graphs they had or see the finer details of the website either. No matter how much I squinted.

After the seminar Mom insisted we go out to eat. I went ahead and humored her, because to be honest, I didn’t think she should be spending money on dinning out given that she never lets me pay. She was insistent, so off we to…wait for it…Famous Dave’s!

I swear, their food is so awesome, the servings are humongous, and every time I eat their food I feel stuffed and in need of the world’s best weight loss pills. Seriously, I always feel like I just gained ten pounds. But it’s ten pounds I don’t mind because the food is just sooo good.

Mom got their beef brisket sandwich with a side of their famous fries. I settled for their Dave’s Sampler Platter which includes spareribs, fried chicken tenders, catfish fingers, onion strings and your choice of Buffalo or BBQ chicken wings Of course, as you know, I can’t eat fish anymore so I asked the waiter if it was possible to substitute something else for the catfish and explained I was allergic to fish. To be honest I expected them to say no, or that I could substitute it for something like a cornbread muffin (which are yummy) or a corn on the cob or something. Instead the waiter happily informed me that I could remove the catfish so I chose the chopped pork link in place of the catfish.

Yeah, it was as good as it looks. No, it was better. I couldn’t finish it though and had to get a takeout box for it. But, oh my gosh, heaven I tell you.

Then of course, when I walked in the door I got attacked by not one but two starving kitties. Did I forget to feed them? No, in face, they still had food in their dish. Apparently the takeout box smelled that good. Denali and Isis were begging me to give them some, but alas, Joana does not share her Famous Dave’s leftovers. Sorry kitties.

Over all, a fun and enjoyable first day, if a little exhausting. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and what we’ll learn next.

I joined Gevalia coffee a little while back and my first order arrived in the mail yesterday. To be honest I didn’t know what to expect from it. I mean, I’ve had different flavors of coffee from Boca Java and wasn’t very impressed. However, the introductory offer of 3 coffee or teas of your choice for just three dollars and free S&H was just too good to pass up so I gave it a try.

Oh gosh, I’m so glad I did!

There were so many delicious sounding flavors of tea to choose from, so I limited myself to Ceylon Cinnamon Orange and Blackberry Spice. I also chose one flavored coffee, Dark Chocolate Truffle. I’ve had four cups of the Dark Chocolate Truffle coffee already and I’m more than eager to go and brew another pot of it. It’s just that damn good. *drools*

I just can’t wait to give the flavored teas a try now after this! Now I can sit down and finishing sorting through my mail from yesterday, which I picked up on my way to ‘Cruces, hence why I haven’t read it yet. It’s actually kind of scary how you use your mailing address for one thing and suddenly you’re on everyone’s mailing lists. Case in point, this last time I got in a fender bender I order some parts for Pyro and they were delivered to this address. It was one time and from just one merchant, yet somehow I’ve got a couple of different catalogs for Mopar performance parts addressed to me. I don’t even know I got a subscription to Women’s Day magazine either, let alone Cosmopolitan, Curve, and Rolling Stone. I did sign up for free subscriptions to Spin and Marie Claire, but honestly I never get a chance to read those ones, let alone all the other ones that I’m getting free that I never even subscribed for. Makes you wonder just how I got on these lists.

Dang nabbit, I woke up this morning with a craving for some bacon. Specifically, I wanted to eat eggy in a basket and have a side of bacon to go with it while I finally go through the stack of mail that has been piling up. Most of it looks like junk mail given that there are a lot of adverts for car insurance companies in the pile, still there is some important stuff that needs to be sorted out and shredded before disposal. But in all honesty, I think I may just settle for the eggy in a basket. The bacon is a little scary to eat.

See, I picked up some bacon the other day when I went shopping. I picked up a lot items and somehow I didn’t catch on to the fact that the cashier bagged my bacon with the soda and since I had a lot of groceries (because I waited until everything was practically depleted) I honestly didn’t notice it was missing until the next day. I went shopping at Wal-Mart in the late evening, got back around 2am, put up the groceries, then went to bed. I didn’t notice the bacon was mixed in with the soda until the following day around noon. Meaning the bacon sat out for about ten hours until I noticed it when I decided to have a glass of soda around noon. Needless to say, after swearing up a storm I chucked it in the fridge real fast.

It gets very cold at night and the only [electric room] heater that stays on through the night is the one in the bedroom, so in theory the bacon should still be good. But yeah, I’m still leery of it. Damn cashiers don’t know how to bag right. I mean seriously, the woman put my tomatoes with can goods (thankfully those didn’t get mushed or bruised up), I should have thought to check everything more thoroughly after that discovery. But all the meat, dairy, and frozen stuff was grouped together for the most part that it didn’t even dawn on me that I was missing something.

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. It’s also the meal I tend to skip the most. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had trouble remembering to eat breakfast. It’s not so much that I’m so busy, although in the past that was a major factor, but more like I can’t stomach anything early in the morning. I usually don’t feel like eating anything until 10 o’clock (if I got up early) or around noon if I got up at say 9 or 10 in the morning.

I have been trying to eat something, and when I noticed that the milk had gone bad I mourned the loss of cereal this morning. Sure I could have eaten some dried, but the only thing I had left was Life, and I’ve never been able to eat more than a handful dry. But hey, it gave me a damn good excuse to open up the package of snack mix I picked up to try and eat some before heading out!

Yeah, I know it’s been around for a while now, but I’d never tried it before, strangely enough. I gave it a try this morning and I gotta say, I love it. I could sit here and eat the whole bag in a setting! Thankfully, I got some control and only had a couple of handfuls.

Cheerios Snack Mix has pretzels, bagel chips, Chex, Cheerios, and those little bread sticks. In short, it’s pretty much your basic snack mix. It didn’t feel nearly as greasy as other snack mixes, which is good since it is supposed to be baked and not fried. However, for those counting the calories, it does deliver up 120 calories per serving (2/3 cup) which is 60 calories more then a regular bowl of Cheerios.

Thankfully, I ate this before my morning ride so I can safely say I burned it off.

Strangely enough, I’ve found that eating healthier (or at least not skipping meals like crazy) and exercise has done wonders for my oil skin and the acne that was starting to return. The best acne products, in my book, are the ones you don’t have to pay for, so that’s awesome. My morning walks and bike rides though do absolutely nothing for the dry skin, just makes it worse. Why can’t my face decide between the two? Why must certain sections be oily and other parts dry? Why?!

February 12th has come and gone and now I am a year older, a little more tired and jaded, broker then I was last year at this time, but I am a little bit wiser. Fair trade off? I’ll get back to you on that.

Honestly though, as far as birthdays go, mine was pretty nice. It was mostly spent with family and friends. I met with some old friends for an early birthday breakfast, then later, my mom took me out for dinner to a restaurant of my choice, a tradition of hers that she insists upon maintaining. After much consideration I went with Famous Dave’s BBQ. I’ve eaten at Carrino’s and Si Senor many a time, Texas Roadhouse not so much. I’d never eaten at Famous Dave’s before though, although I have had some of their food a couple of times when they catered a few work related events. From what food I got in those instances it was delicious and I really wanted to sit down and give their food a try.

Oh boy was I glad I did! I had the Two-Meat BBQ Combo plate and chose brisket and barbecued chicken and my sides were potato salad and their fries; read: potato wedges. Absolutely delicious! I tried every single sauce they had on the table, and I have to say, the Texas Pit one was my favorite. I had two glasses of their Smokin’ Tea (their version of a Long Island Ice Tea) that came out in HUGE glasses that were the equivalent of two drinks in one, so I guess you could say I had four drinks. For desert I had their Kahlua brownie which was this huge brownie with walnuts in it, a scoop of ice cream, and drizzled with Kahlua and chocolate sauce and included whipped cream. Heaven I tell you, heaven.

Probably not the best place to have eaten, given that I’ve been trying to loose weight, but it was soooo worth it. *drools* My great aunt gifted me with a ton of Bath & Body Works products for my birthday, but after eating all that yummy food, maybe it would have been better if she’d gifted me with stretch marks creams instead. I feel so guilty for eating all that food, yet I don’t regret it and would love to go again soon.

I was glad that the weather was so nice today. It got a little breezy late in the afternoon, but for the most part there were clear skies and the temperature stayed in the high fifties (Fahrenheit) before dipping into the forties on the way home.

I got a lot of awesome gifts too: from items I’ve been wanting for my home office; gift cards to my favorite places and nice places to eat at; B&BW merchandise (can never go wrong there); even this cool little wooden chest that came filled with candles, incense, and oils. And of course, as always, I got a ton of flowers and candy too. Still haven’t figured out if it’s a good thing my birthday isn’t actually on Valentine’s day or not. My bedroom and the living room looks like a florist shop exploded in it right now. Boxes and boxes of Valentine’s candy, a plethora of vases filled with every Valentine’s day bouquet conceivable, and I’ve even broken out with jars and glasses and filled them with sugar water to hold the long-cut roses and carnations I’ve been gifted with too.

Strangely enough, while I got a ton of candy of flowers, per the norm, I didn’t get any Valentine’s Day plushes. Not that I’m complaining mind you, it was just something odd and out of the norm to note. I did however still get a plush this year, but I’m not complaining:

Yes! I got a Dallas Cowboys monkey plush. I’ve always wanted one of these and was so thrilled when I received it. Definitely one of my favorite birthday gifts this year.

A restaurant I used to like to eat at, called Tegmyers, closed down a while back and new placed call “Hot Rod Cafe” opened up in its place. I kept meaning to give it a try, yet someone how I never really got around to it. Today, after running around looking for a few office supplies, I decided to pay a visit to my mom’s office and invite her out to a late lunch (read: early dinner) and since the Hot Rod Cafe wasn’t far we decided to go and give it a shot.

As you probably guessed, the interior of the cafe is designed as a tribute the 1950′s. There are a ton of photos, posters, and adverts of famous actors and artists from this time period framed on the wall. There were also a lot of pictures of some cool “hot rods” too. The style of the tables, chairs, and booths look like they got yanked from Back to the Future, and there were even cutout figures of iconic comic and cartoon characters spread about. Like Little Lulu, Betty Boop, Archie, and more. And the menu, the names of the food items cracked me up. I had the “That Crazy Chick” which consisted of chicken tender strips, fries, and sauce.

Sadly though, Hot Rod Cafe wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. The wait staff seemed to prefer hanging out in the back and wiping down spotless counters rather then waiting on customers. I mean, my gosh, I had to ask for napkins and the waitress never gave me silverware either. Hello! Not all people eat chicken strips with their hands, some do cut it up. Not to mention the food is greasy, of course I’m going to want a napkin! Taku.

And there’s just something about being inside a cafe with a 1950′s decor and listening to a radio with non-stop commercials that mostly consisted of reminding Las Cruces residents that the “no talking on cell phone law” is now in effect, don’t drink and drive, and various insurance agencies telling listeners to call today for insurance quotes. Of course, when the music came back on it was Power 102 – the local Rap/Hip Hop station. Seriously? I’d think you’d be playing Ritchie Valenz, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Dion & the Belmonts, the Big Bopper, Elvis, ect. Not Soulja Boy.

Eventually though they did change the station and instead put it on 101 Gold, an oldies station playing music anywhere from the 50′s to 80′s. Better, but still a bit off there.

Besides the lack luster service, the big disappointment is the food and prices. The food is okay, certainly the sandwiches and burgers I saw were pretty decent sized (and big) but the chicken strip basket I got? Small serving for $7 bucks. So not worth it. If you go to the Hot Rod cafe I’d recommend getting a burger or sandwich from them, then it’ll be worth your money.

For Christmas I bought a ham, cooked half of it and put the rest up in the freezer. I went ahead and took it out today and made a potato ham bake with it. It’s been so cold here lately and something warm and filling (not to mention easy) seemed the way to go.

While it was cooking the whole house smelled so good. When it was ready (for dinner) I absolutely couldn’t wait and dug in – absolutely delicious! So when it was ready I served myself up a bowl of it and sat down in front of the t.v. to watch the Cowboys whoop the Eagles. Then I got a phone call.

Turns out it was a good thing I had a nice warm dinner because I had to get out in the cold and drive up to Las Cruces because my mother locked her keys in her truck. Apparently she went out to get something from her truck while at the laundromat and left the keys in the seat after shutting (and locking) the door. Her office keys were in the truck and her spare key was at the office so she was officially S.O.L. So, since I have a spare key to her truck, she gave me a ring.

Missed the last part of the game as a result sadly but I did get to play with my new ipod. See, I don’t have cd player in my car but it has a cassette player, so I have one of those devices that plugs into the cassette and you plug it into a cd via the earphone section and it’ll play through the car’s speakers. I was so happy to find out that it works with my ipod too! Especially since for the first ten minutes of the drive I was subjected to back to back commercials of medical assistant training school, DUI warning messages, and attorney advertisements (Call Jeff Lohan!) before I got the ipod plugged in.

So, I went out with a couple of friends tonight and we wound up at Carino’s. It’s probably my favorite restaurant as the food is always good, the service is great, prices not too bad, and the atmosphere is welcoming and relaxing.

Tonight was the exception. While the atmosphere was still great, and the food was (as always) awesome, the service left a lot to be desired. It took our waitress about fifteen minutes to come and take our drink orders after we’d been sat and about ten minutes to bring them to us then she wandered off for a few more minutes before returning to finally take our orders. It must have been about 10-15 minutes later that she brought us the bread that is supposed to have been set out for us from the get go. We then had to inform her that we had no silverware or napkins, again, something else that should have been set out as soon as we were seated. We didn’t see our utensils and napkins until our first course was served later.

But wait, it gets better.

Our dishes were delivered to us in a haphazard way, with soup sloshing onto the table and a rapid fire “enjoyyourdinnerladies” and she was gone in a flash. No offer of Parmesan cheese on my salad, no apology for the spilled soup, and no offer for refills on our drinks. She never checked back on us either. When we wanted more bread or refills we had to flag her down, although, for the most part it was easier getting one of the other servers passing by to assist us.

Then came our main course, again, plates tossed haphazardly, rapid-fire comments we honestly had to pause and think on in order to decipher. And, if we didn’t respond quickly she started actually tapping her foot at us. My goodness! We must have been so rude and inconsiderate, we actually expected our waitress to wait on us. Shame on us! And again, no offer for refills, just drop off the plates, grate Parmesan on the dishes requested, and mumbling a response to us as she’s already walking away. What. The. Fuck?

But she certainly was helpful and friendly to this group of guys that looked like they came from some sort of special event or party. One in particular, curly blond hair, crisp white shirt, tuxedo vest, and black slacks. Honestly it was kind of disturbing seeing a waitress hang all over a guy like a fangirl.

And the perfect way to end the evening, a twenty dollar price difference added to our bill. My tab was $44.06, I handed over my card and when she came back my receipt read $69.48. Of course, it took about five minutes to get her back to our table because she dropped off the receipts with a “okaythankyouforcomingladies! goodnightandbyebye” with half of it being said as she’s already walking away. After calling her back I had to listen to her complain about how I was reading the receipt wrong and then finally a “oh, hmm wonder what I did wrong”. She eventually went back and voided the previous transaction and ran it for the right amount, at least that’s what she said anyway. The girl never brought me a voided receipt to show that it was voided or that I was refunded the difference and when I asked for it I was told “well you should have told me you wanted one, it’s too late now”.

You can bet I’ll be checking my account online and if it’s not correct they will be hearing from me.

Needless to say I didn’t give her a tip.

The food was good though, I had the Spicy Romano Chicken and was very pleased with it. But the service was just horrid. If I was a first-time customer and that was the treatment I’d gotten I can guarantee you I wouldn’t be going back. As it is, I probably won’t be going back any time soon.

I am so tired of turkey now it isn’t funny. I ate my fill of turkey on Thanksgiving day, what with the meal, the cold cuts during the football game, and leftovers for dinner. The next day I had turkey sandwiches for lunch. And really, I should have eaten some more turkey for my late lunch, slash, early supper but I ultimately said “fuck it” and made myself something else.

Yummy looking isn’t it? Authentic ramen? Not by a long shot, but it tasted good regardless. Just sat back and enjoyed a bowl while watching some anime

I’ve been watching old episodes of Gundam 00 today. It’s been a lazy kind of day for me, which isn’t saying much, since every since I got laid off has felt that way. I’ve been looking for a job since then, but haven’t lucked out much. A few short-terms stunts here and there and that’s it. I’ve been eye-balling the adverts for call center services and just may have to go that route again in the mean time. Not the funnest job there is, definitely, and I don’t know how secure the job would be, but something is better than nothing I’m afraid.

Except fast food, I know I don’t have the patience for that!

To all those who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful turkey-day this year. For those who are getting ready to or are already out in the cold camping out for Black Friday, I wish you the best of luck in getting the items you’re looking for. I’ve done it myself, and damn but I’ve never had a colder and more tiresome night than the night I camped out in front of Office Depot.

My Thanksgiving was okay I suppose. The meal was excellent, superb, and utterly drool-worthy. The company though… Well, they’re family. Can’t live with ‘em and can’t live without ‘em. Right? Honestly, nitpicking food, banning biscuits, complaining about the house, dissing the cats, just wow. So much for being thankful this day! People, shesh.

I completely pigged out this year. I ate so much turkey, stuffing, yams, and red stuff that I felt like Aunt Marge from Harry Potter. I could have blown up like balloon, only I would have been too heavy to float away. I mean seriously, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I went into cardiac arrest and someone had to bust out an AED to give my heart a jump start. I made that much of a pig of myself. Not to mention all the leftovers in the house. I didn’t even touch the pumpkin pie, I got that filled up on everything else. But hey, I’ve got something to look forward to tomorrow. That and eggnog.

And, of course, the Cowboys beat the Raiders – that alone made my day. Thank you Cowboys!

So how was your Thanksgiving? Hopefully it was better than mine.

I’m fixing to head out to the movies in a few minutes. My mother and I are going to go see Michael Jackson’s This Is It up at the Telshor 12. Initially we had planned to see it yesterday evening but our plans got derailed. I am so glad my mom actually wants to see this because I really wanted to as well but no one I know wanted to go with me. Most aren’t that big of fans of MJ and couldn’t see the appeal of watching this movie. Since I hate going to the theater by myself, if it wasn’t for her wanting to accompany me, I probably wouldn’t be going to see this.

I just finished eating a barbecue sandwich so hopefully I’m not hit with the munchies while at the theater and I’m not conned into paying outrageous amounts of money for snacks. Granted I love theater popcorn but shesh, it’s highway robbery.

Dinner was delicious by the way. I saved out some of the pork meat I used for the posole I made earlier and mixed it up with some barbecue sauce, toasted some buns, and then grated some Monterrey Jack cheese with Jalapenos on it and called it done.

Quick and easy and doesn’t make me feel guilty for eating something else when I have plenty of posole in the refrigerator. Hey, I can’t let the pork meat go to waste can I? Not to mention it’s not very greasy either, which really doesn’t matter since it’s winter now and I don’t have to worry about skin care products that have salicylic acid now. No, instead I have to worry about dry skin and keeping lotion handy. *sigh* Gotta love the change in seasons.

Anyway, I gotta get ready to leave now. I’ll be sure to post about the movie when I return!

It was lunch time and I was hungry. Whatever shall I eat, I wondered. I opened the refrigerator but was met with an assortment of unappetizing options. Dare I risk one of the mystery dishes that just might have been leftovers once but now look kind of green and may be alive? I decided against that choice. Instant cup ramen? Tempting, but I wanted something more filling. Then I remembered that I had some Schwan’s food in the freezer still.

I had three pasta dishes from Schwan’s in the freezer, and after some careful consideration, I went with Schwan’s Baked Pasta with Spinach and Mushroom (number #479). It was easy to make and comes in it’s own plastic dish. Just pop it in the microwave for 7 minutes, remove film and add Parmesan cheese, then cook it for another 2 to 3 minutes. Easy as can be. And the results?

Oh yeah, believe me I say it tasted even better than it looks. Paired it with a salad and I was good to guy for lunch. It makes three servings so I put the rest away for dinner. Honestly though, I wouldn’t have mind eating the whole thing.

I just realized something; I seem to be posting about food a lot lately. Ah, well, I’m sure ya’all don’t mind though, right? Better to tease you with yummy food!porn shots than boring posts rattling on about the virtues of various companies that offer virtualization services.

Before you go though, you should take a look at my beautiful stamp collection – I’m very proud of it and have even linked it in my sidebar. A message board that I frequent, EcstasyMB, has a fun little activity going on where members can “purchase” stamps with the board’s currency to trade and collect. My collection is growing by leaps and bounds right now. I do need to update it though, there are a few stamps I recently collected that I haven’t added to my page.