COOKIE JAR

A little dusting.

2010-10-02T11:24:00.005-06:00

It's been a while since I posted here! It's a different year, we're in a different place (Butte, MT), and feeling wonderful.

But you know, it's good to see how Matt and I have changed over the years. We just celebrated our 3 year anniversary (wow, so long already!) a month and a half ago, and still very much in love!

Matt is the Ward Clerk for the Butte 1st Ward here and I am currently serving as Young Women's President, which I adore. The girls are all so beautiful, personable, and fun! I could not have asked for a more wonderful opportunity, and with such excellent Counselors for support.

General Conference is starting again (song just ended), so back to that I go! (Dieter F. Uchtdorf is speaking!!! I love that man.)

And by the way, the Church is getting really techy. Check this awesome Conference page: http://new.lds.org/general-conference/?lang=eng

Thank you. (And if someone else wants thanks I need a favor)

2007-04-28T01:43:00.000-06:00

Pratt thank you, you are a great friend.

Life still sucks in general but I am surviving. Tuesday Brad, Pratt and I played Warhammer. My Guardsmen not only were victorius for the first time, every one of them survived the encounter, the Death Guard of Nurgle suffered a severe rout.

Brick Oven is great, the people I work with are for the most part a lot of fun and we get some interesting conversations going back and forth. Today two of the guys were trying to teach Mike (Kitchen Manager) to properly use "Mormon swear words". Also while we were working today Mike told me "I look forward to the day when we will actually need to use your flashlight." (or something roughly along those lines.) They also gave out a .50$ raise to everyone on Monday.

I have been looking at D&D stuff recently and would love to play but don't have a regular enough schedule or the time to really do so. I have 4 character concepts that I would love to play seriously though. Ranger (Archery Combat Style), Druid, Dual-wielding Centaur, and a Ranger(Dual-wield Combat Style)/Shadowdancer. I really miss RPG's, it seems I am cursed, I can never get into a group that sticks together for any significant length of time.

I don't know why I am not sleeping, but I think I am going to try and change that. I do however need a favor. The grantor of this favor needs to be someone who has access to vehicular transportation and is free between the approximate hours of 1400-1600 on Tuesday 15 May. Recompense will be made for costs accrued in the completion of said favor. (Actually upon further reflection vehicular transportation is not required, though the replacement will need to be at least as rapid. Anything significantly more rapid would decrease the requisite availability by a proportionate amount.)

So This Is the Real World

2007-04-21T21:56:00.000-06:00

So I need to get back to school in January. I've been sort of planning doing so but at the same time have been trying to decide if that is really what I want to do. I have come to the conclusion that I need to do so if only to delay permanent entry into the real world. Having experienced the real world for the first time I am not equipped to cope with such. This worries me, esp. considering I am getting married in August. The nearly complete removal of recreation, hobbies, etc. is not something I was expecting and definitely not something I'm ready for. I dislike the politics and veiled threats involved in simply trying to get time to see my Fiancee at least once before we get married. It would seem anything else and definitely anything in addition to that is completely out of the question. I am curious to see what they will say when I ask for time off to get married. I would not be suprised to lose my job over the matter. The reprieve would be nice but I could not let it last long and job hunting is a pain. Adding to the problem is the fact that I am not getting enough sleep. Due mostly to a desire to do at least something other than work and sleep, a desire to talk to my finacee, and some small remnants of my old stubborness that simply refuses to sleep for whatever reason. I do have one day and one evening off a week, but the former is sunday which has its own limitations. My plan to use those two opportunities to at least get games in has been failing due largely to the fact that if I want something to happen I need to plan it and I really never have the energy to do so. Plus there is a lot of stuff I miss that simply doesn't fit into that schedule. The only bright side I can find is that Brick Oven is a very high stress job. It usually can calm me down and improve my mood. I had almost forgotten about that ability, it was in High School that I last was in a situation like that. It is nice that I can feed on the stress and use it to help me through, but I don't think it will be enough. I think it will be a little better after I am married but it is still going to be hard to hold out until January. Even after January school will not last forever, eventually I will have to return to this world.

Despite everything I thought I am not an adult, I cannot survive in an adult world.

Continuing in the premise of the post, stuff nobody cares about, we move on to my warhammer endeavors (which I coming to the realization that it is a pointless and likely futile endeavor). I have decided that for my army I will be using the Rim World concept and with Pratts help I have fleshed out the concept a bit. The world has a highly elliptical orbit causing the planet to be in a deep winter the majority of the year. Most of the indiginous wildlife goes into a deep hibernation for all but a few months out of the year. The ones that do not are well equipped to survive and generally not something you want to face, however they are also the only source of meat, fur, etc. during those winter moths. All in all an environment fairly hostile to human habitation. Also on this planet is a native alien race, fairly technologically advanced but no interstellar travel capabilities. Upon discovering this race the Imperium sent a detachment of guardsmen and their families to form a colony and deal with the aliens and they have been at a stalemate for centuries. The Imperium does not feel the system warrants further forces and only occasionaly will send supplies, there have even been times when it seemed the Imperium forgot them entirely. The aliens are resourceful and have the advantage of having evolved with the conditions on this planet. All together the environment makes for a very hardy people skilled at warfare. Eventually the Imperium showed that in fact they had not been forgotten, it was requested that they produce a regiment to be included in the Imperial Guard. They did so out of fear of reprisal more than anything else and slowly the regiment is making a name for themselves. A Sergeant earned the Honorifica Imperialis after it was confirmed that he did take down a Monolith after the rest of his detachment had been slaughtered. He is a bit of an odd character and is never seen without his hip flask. His presence reassures his troops however and the officers give him even more leeway than considerable lenience shown the other sergeants. Over the years of conflict with limited supplies the upper command has learned to trust the troops and even that perhaps the limited wargear they have available might be better used in the hands of the sergeants. Most Sergeants are at least as well equipped as the officers with some select veterans even better equipped.

I bought a box of 20 Cadians to use as my base troops and have assembled one model. I think I did a pretty good job for my first one, but he is going to be really hard to paint. I am going to have to decide if some parts need to be painted before assembly in the future. I am thinking of using old Valhallan models as the veterans in the army. With the world having two seasons I will likely use two different color schemes to paint, a winter camo and a dark forest green. The primary Sergeant is going to be a problem, I would love to model him with his flask at his lips, but he is also carrying a storm bolter and a power weapon, probably sword. Modeling all of that on any model will be tough, the Valhallans probably even more so since they are pewter and I don't think they come in pieces.

Bitten

2007-04-15T00:23:00.000-06:00

I've been pretty sickly as of late. I'm not gaining any significant weight, and I'm drinking less water than I should be. I just forget to do it. To get up and fill my glass.

I think I got a smear of Neosporin ointment on my lips when I was tending to a wound on my face. (A small wound from a scratch I got when my head didn't quite clear the door on my way into one of the cars.) Because of it, I feel as if someone pumped my lips with collagen. The skin there is spongy and they feel plump. It's really strange.

It's been raining every night for about a week now. When thunder escourts the precipation to my house, Quincey escourts himself into the space beneath my bed. He'll curl up there, and after having to listen to about 20 minutes of his wrestling to get a comfortable place between my shoes and the wall, he decides that he doesn't like it down there, and that he wants to get a nice pat instead. So he stands on his back legs and wiggles is nose and fore paws against the head of my bed, staring me down with those i-know-you-love-me-and-want-me-to-sleep-with-you-eyes. Cute, but not amusing when it's 3:30 in the morning and you want to get a good night's rest without having to smell like canine in the morning. Quincey whimpers when the thunder hits. It makes him shiver and snap his head back and forth, as if tracking invisible mice through the ceiling.

I put out a quilt on the floor next to my bed both times, and he eventuallty settles down to sleep.

Speaking of not being able to sleep, it's 2:30 in the morning and it's the first time that I've been up late without expecting to speak to Matt. He called around 12:30 AM (my time--EST) to let me know that he and some of our friends were off to go bowling. He asked if he should call later, but I said no. I was supposed to get some sleep tonight. My voice cracked somewhere, and he asked if I was crying, but I said no. If I say yes, then that means he thinks about it for the evening and is worried. It's hard to have fun and be worried at the same time. Matt deserves to have fun bowling, and I don't want to impede on that.

Yes, I was crying. Yes, I would have loved it if he would have called me later. I've been having an okay but terrible day.

This Monday my family and I visited my Uncle Steve and his family. My cousin Paul just got engaged to a girl named Christine. She asked to see my engagement ring, and when she did, she stuck out her hand to show me hers, only to justify it, as if I somehow assumed that her ring was inferior. It was the oddest feeling, to have someone feel they need to justify something to you in which you never found flaw or failure to begin with. Yes, the ring Paul gave her was thinner, and had one elliptical diamond instead of the seven in mine, but I thought it was elegant and I loved the silvery setting for the gem. It was a gorgeous ring! What a social oddity.

We visited my cousin Liz at her apartment which rests above Paul's house. (She's renting from him.) While there, we learned that her boyfriend has been thinking about joining the army, but that he is into some heavy drug abuse. Liz is also two months pregnant with his child, and the family is worried that she's only allowed it to happen because she think having a baby will make her boyfriend shape up and quit doing drugs.

My sister Abigail and I were especially shocked the other day when Gpa Rex responded to something we said with a somewhat familiar rhyme:

"Eenie, meenie, miney, mo,
Catch a nigger' by the toe
If he hollers, make him pay
Fiftey dollars every day."

Abby and I grew up saying "tiger" instead of "nigger." We'd never heard Gpa's version before, but nigger is likely the original wording. Since then, I've been paying close attention to things that Grandma and Grandpa Angell say, and the way they say them. Grandma is a very conservative woman, but she's also very politically correct and goes to lengths to make sure she doesn't offend anyway. But Grandpa, he says "negro" instead of "black" or "African-American" and he says it with a rusty drawl, as if it were a word that came strangely to him. I get the impression that as the Civil Rights era came and went, Grandpa largely avoided thinking about it. It shows. He's got a lot of prejudisms and stereotypes. (And he's crotchety to boot. He's from the age of "what the man says, goes.") I love him, but it still came as a shock to Abby and I that anyone could even think, let alone say things so incredibly racist. The rhyme slipped from his lips and he'd had no clue that he'd comitted a social faux paux. We corrected him, but it was still a reality check--Civil Rights really wasn't that long ago, and racism still subtley lingers through our culture.

Just like the ringworm on my ankles. I thought I had a bug bite two day's ago, but during my shower yesterday, I noticed that the bump had swelled to form a peculiar reddish ring shape on my ankle. I'm starting to break out on my other ankle as well, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I got it while out at Uncle Steve's house. Ringworm is itchy, ugly, and contagious. I have to wash my hands frequently while suppresing the compulsion to scratch at my ankles.

3:15 right now. I get pretty distracted when writing an entry.

Anyway. I think the hardest thing of all is having only snippets of a life. Yesterday, I drove for the first time in over 2 months. I still get these twitchy muscle spasms that make me randomly screech in pain as I clutch my shoulder or side, but it was bearable enough that I was able to drive my grandmother to three different stores today. (Ikea, Home Depot, and Costco.) My skin has been itchy everywhere, come to think of it. I may be allergic to the laundry soap that my family uses. It's really awful when you get an itch that you can't scratch because the skin where it's at is full of dead, cut nerves. So you're scratching, and the itch isn't abating.

I could hear Rachel, Brad, and Pratt talking on Matt's side of the phone tonight and my voice cracked because I realized how much I miss having friends around. It hurts when the best you've got for friends is background noise, old pictures, sparse emails, and whatever my fiancee tells me of them. I don't get out of the house much. You know it's bad when you look through your window to see the blue sky and start crying because you've missed it for so long. I miss other people.

Insanity

2007-04-12T15:45:00.000-06:00

Recently in my limited off-time I have been designing Imperial Guard armys. In the past week or so I have written up 6 armys (plus two of them have one minor variation written up, so you could count it as 8 but that is stretching things). To give an idea of how sad and pathetic I am one of those armys was constructed while I was at work, off the top of my head, and with no references. Other than forgetting that the Tanith army has cameleoline on every unit possible everything was dead on.

So far I have the following concepts. All armys are currently based on 1500 points, when I decide which concept I want to go with I will start making lists from at least 500-2000 in 500 point increments. (The names listed are just what I have taken to calling them to distinguish them while I decide)

Generic Regiment-This regiment just uses the base rules and as such has the highest number of guns. However, due in part to the lack of doctrines, they have no flavor to me, no background, nothing to make them unique.
Forge World Regiment-This regiment comes from a planet where the Machine Cult has a very strong presence. The army has better armor and all have some form of cybernetic enchancement (games terms, everyone execpt the techpriest and servitors have a 4+/6+ save, compared to the normal imperial 5+). It is also a mechanized regiment and contains 7 Chimera APCs. Smallest regiment I have designed.
Rim World Regiment-This regiment comes from a planet far from the core of the Imperium in a relatively unimportant sector of the galaxy. The Imperial Cult and beliefs are followed but not fanatically so. Mostly these people live their lives with little interference or support from the Imperium, the conditions on their planet are harsh (probably a death-world or close to it) leading to an army that is experienced, hardened and perhaps even a little foolish in their tactics, in many situations they will stand and fight to the last man rather than break and run. The Sergeant of the Veteran Squad was the only man of his detachment to survive a previous encounter with the Necrons, however he did successfully take down a Monolith after the rest of his squad (the last surviving squad) had been killed. A lot of doctrines to increase melee abilites (WS, removal of leadership penalties to morale checks, etc. which flavorwise is a lot of fun but I don't know that it really gives enough of a bonus to the Guard to make them worth the points)
Hybrid Regiment-A little bit of a cross between the previous two, I have worked on this army least of the six. It has a lot of the same doctrines as the Rim World, but it also has Techpriests, and a Forge World (the company this time) experimental rules tank
Tanith, First and Only-This is the only non-custom regiment I have designed. The codex gives doctrines and a brief background of 12 famous regiments in the 40k universe. Tanith is my favorite of those. Tanith was victim to a suprise attack by Chaos forces when the regiments on the world had just been formed. The defenses were still green and stood no chance against the attacking forces. Commissar Gaunt took command of the forces and evacuated as many as he could "robbing them of their chance to fight and die with their homeworld." The Tanith second and third regiments were lost leaving only the Tanith First, who now refer to themselves as Gaunt's Ghosts. The regiment is reknowned as the premier Light Infantry unit in all the Imperium. Second smallest regiment I have designed, though it does contain Gaunt. Also the only army that has a true Assault squad consisting of only humans. No tanks and only one walker to try and hold to the Light-Infantry feel.
Grenadier Regiment-This world has much more contact with the Imperium than the Rim World, but is fiercely independent and proud. They feel their own training and experience are at least equal and likely superior to that of Imperial Stormtroopers. As such they have no need for the aid of such units. They aren't from such an unforgiving background as the Rim World, but some of that willingness to make a stand is made up forby the strength of traditions, military decorum, and the high quality training of officers.

I also have one other army list put together, it is the first one I did and the only one I have actually played. It is the only army to make use of the subhuman races ratlings and ogryn, however it lacked any Russ's or anything more heavily armored and armed than a Chimera.

The top three choices right now are Tanith, Rim World and Grenadiers.

Tanith has a great back story and other than the Ogryns is the only army that has an Assault squad. Assault squads normally aren't my style but they usually prove to be useful in this game. While lacking in the hard hitting Lascannon, it has a lot of Missile Launchers which provide a very decent hit as well as the versatility of being able to select anti-personnel frag rounds. Also lacking tanks for the reasons mentioned above. Another problem is that to my knowledge there are no more than 6 Tanith models + Gaunt currently being produced.

Rim World has a decent story esp. in regards to the veteran sergeant, I have 2 slightly different versions of this army, one where I dropped a Sentinel and some random upgrades to pick up a hellhound. I love the flavor of the army, but am a little worried that the flavor costs too many points in doctrines that aren't useful enough to justify that cost.

Grenadiers has the weakest story of the three but it is also the newest. The benefits of storm troopers as troops is that I can give one squad a Chimera and have it be an improved armored fist squad, I would love to be able to take two veterans squads, one in a chimera and one not, in the rim world army instead of taking one armored fist squad and one veteran squad. I also have a variation on this army that drops the second Grenadier squad in favor of a veteran squad.

Upon closer examination the missile launcher is a better weapon than I originally thought, I may have to see if some changes are called for in my non-Tanith armies.

Mostly this whole thing has just been for my benefit, for out of the people I know read this only two will understand and they are my roomates and know the basics of this anyway.

What Day Is It?

2007-04-05T00:19:00.000-06:00

Well I shall start with some pizza stories. One of the things that makes the evenings hard is the pre-orders people inevitably want ready right at our busiest times. Today's preorders were pretty average except for one order of 30 mini (6") combo pizza's. Between all the other pre-orders and the normal orders we managed to get all 31 made (I dropped half of one on the floor carrying it from the oven to the shelf where the servers pick it up). I am not sure of the exact events here due to the fact that I was busy making other pizzas, but the servers were very confused at the plethora of pizza, to us it seemed simple, we make pizzas they take them to whoever it was that ordered them in the first place. Finally it was determined (I believe by one of the lesser dining room managers) that the root of the confusion was the fact that the pre-order was in fact for next Wednesday. I'm not exactly sure who's fault the mix-up was but our manager didn't catch it. We all had a good laugh, 30 6" pizza's downstairs in the break room, and the begginnings of a deliciously wonderful plan: Every week somone would make a decent sized pre-order for next week; we will make the pizza, discover our mistake, and eat the pizza; within the next few days the person who placed the order will call and say that they don't need it after all.

The next story occured shortly after I started working at Brick Oven: As things were winding down and we were beginning the proccess of closing we got a ticket that looked vaguely like this (I don't remember the exact proportions):

14" Hearth
Combo
28 Peperoni
28 Canadian Bacon
10.5 oz Combo Mix

SUBSTITUTION:
NO ONION

INS: PRETTTY PRETTY
PLEASE WITH SPRINKLES
AND A CHERRY ON TOP
NO ONION.

So following instructions we made a combo pizza, no onions, and after it was cooked put sprinkles on top and one marachino cherry in the middle (let it be known that we simultaneously made a pizza with no sprinkles for when the customer rejected the first one.) Sadly at about this point my shift ended and I left for home. The next day no one was quite sure if the server actually had the guts to bring this pizza out to the customer, as I was leaving it was looking like he was not going to.

Other News: ........who are we kidding.

Other Ramblings: Now we're talking.

Recently Miriam has convinced me to try Rappelz a very new free MMO that feels very very similar to Ragnarok Online. It gives us a game we can play together occasionaly in the little free time I have. Now most of you know that I used to play WoW a lot (I have ceased for the time being for two reasons:1. I am getting married in a little over 4 months and need to save money. 2. Four out of the 5 weekdays I have 3 hours a day to myself between jobs and theoretically should be going to sleep shortly after I get home in the evening that leaves 1 weekday, normally tuesday, and Sunday where I have any amount of free time). I haven't played Rappelz enough (less than an hour) to launch a comparison yet, but I am not hopeful. WoW was a lot of things, most of which are going to be very hard to match on a free client. The one thing I loved most about WoW was the complexity. It had instanced dungeons and in order to complete those dungeons required skill, teamwork, strategy etc. I played a hunter all the way to 70, I loved the complexity of the class, the ability to freeze one enemy, have Fenrir off-tank one, scare a beast and help kill a target all in the same encounter. I had so many tricks and if I knew when to use them I could help recover from a string of bad luck or small mistakes. I played predominantly with Pratt and Miriam and we played together enough that we made a very good team, I'm not going to go into specifics that anyone who doesn't play WoW won't understand but we new what each other were capable of, when to let them handle certain situations, when to step in to help, there was trust that if we got into trouble one of the others would be there to get us out. In short I still love the game and don't have much faith that Rappelz can match up

I will briefly say what I have learned so far of the game
DISCLAIMER: I have no idea how to write reviews and have only played this game for approximately one hour, I will likely post a more complete review after I have logged more time on the game.

There are two races of quasi-humans and then humans, each of the three races has three semi-unique classes, one warrior, one mage, and one summoner.
You have two levels character and job, character level increases automatically as you get enough experience (quests and killing things) and affects your attributes.
Job level is bought with Job Points (JP) and affects your skills, however those skills are also bought with JP so you won't have all the skills (unless you lag way behind in your job level compared to your character level).
Everyone must complete 10 job levels in the base job for your race before being able to choose one of the three jobs available to you (and return to job level 1 in whatever job you choose, the base job does not extend beyond 10 levels and you retain all skills you have gained from those 10 levels).
Eventually they will be adding second tier jobs where after you max your first job choice you will be able to get a job change and again return to job level 1 and have new skill options to choose.
Your choice of first tier job will limit your second tier choice to the one or two jobs that are in the same tree.
Itemization seems very simple. Mostly just upgrading basic items.
You will have fewer skills meaning combat will be less involved, and there are fewer non-damage skills making party dynamics far less important.
There are dungeons and bosses but nothing is instanced.
You can also get "pets" though again far less complex and involved than what I am used to.

For now I think that is probably good, at some point in the future when I have gotten off trainee island I will post more and correct any misperceptions I have.
As I have said the game is completely free and so if anyone would like to join us and try it out we are on server Bahamut (there are only 5 servers at this point) and my character is Ashlaran.

I have decided that Tuesday (or whatever day I end up off) and Sunday (and possibly Sat. evening if I actually get off at 2100 like I am normally scheduled) shall be declared game days. I don't get much free time and much of what I do get is spent either napping of chatting with my Fiancee (that would be Miriam, see photo to right if you need clarification). So most Tuesdays (after I get off work currently 1400, may change to 1530 or so) and sunday afternoons I shall try to assemble some form of gaming (I will likely still spend some of these time periods playing, talking, planning, flirting, etc. with Miriam);

Board games-we have bunches here including Betrayal, Arkham, Runebound, Midnight, Camelot, and others which we don't play as often so I can't think of them right now
Card Games-I love card games and don't get to play them often: Hearts, Rook, Euchre, and more party style card games that I can also not think of at the moment.
Mordheim-Surely someone other than Brad (who is getting very scary) wants to challenge the Bretonnians......but if you are all too afraid, there are always the dwarves.
Warhammer 40k-Stipulation here is that you have to be willing to let me play with whatever models and/or other objects I can manage to get my hands on at the time, and be willing to help explain the rules a lot. I do need more experience so I can decide what changes my army needs, currently a custom Imperial Guard regiment that did not have a single model survive in their first encounter with the Berserkers of Khorne. I need to decide if I want to stick with a custom regiment or switch to one of the 12 listed (Tanith First and Only is the heavy favorite right now). I also need to figure out which of the units I have are working well for me and which need to be replaced (probably by Veterans and Tanks, maybe some last chancers). Then I need to buy models, and assemble them, and paint them......I've got a long ways to go.
Party Games-I have to be in the right mood for these types of games.
RPG-I am going through withdrawls but I really don't expect to be able to fit one in on my schedule, esp due to the fact that there is no garauntee that Tuesday will be my day off every week and also if I picked one up it would limit my chances to do any of the other aforementioned gaming activities.

And that is all my brain can come up with at this hour of the night.

I'm getting Married!

Whistle while you work

2007-04-01T09:11:00.000-06:00

General Conference has been wonderful so far and it's nice to be able to watch it with my family. This will be one of the last times that I'll have that priviledge. The next time I watch General Conference, it'll be just Matt and me.

My sister and I went shopping for wedding goodies yesterday, and afterward went over to Rachel Turner's house to have root beer floats and to watch a movie. It was fun, and I -really- enjoy getting out of the house, but everyone was talking about their jobs, basketball, etcetera, neither of which can I really get involved in right now. Makes me realize just how "disabled" I am right now. It wil be so much better, months from now, when I can start hiking again, going to school, and driving! I really miss driving, but because of the way many of the cars are built, I have to have a large fluffy pillow behind my back to sit comfortably. Many of the headrests tilt forward just enough to lodge my head in a painful 45 degree angle that leaves me staring at my knees instead of the windshield, so I need extra padding below to leave enough space up top for my head to rest naturally.

Hopefully though, I'll be well enough to get at least a part-time job somewhere by the end of April. Not sure where to apply though, so I'll have to keep an open eye.

Anyhow, Happy April Fool's Day!

Chives are an indoor herb! (One of the few.)

2007-03-27T20:25:00.000-06:00

Two kinds of shopping that I very much dislike include bra shopping and swimsuit shopping and this is because it is difficult to A) Find something that is comfortable/fits and B) find something that fits my budget, yet is not ugly as sin. It's easy to find something under condition A, or even condition B, but extremely difficult to find an example of the two together. Insert sigh here.

Anyhow, I went grocery shopping with my mother today, so there is now edible food in the house, yay! (It wasn't even my idea to go shopping either.) We got all kinds of yummy snack foods like Chicken Cheese Taquitos, Veggie Eggrolls, Mango, Alfalfa Sprouts... Mmm. And on top of that, my sister felt inspired to cook dinner tonight, so we were treated to home made pretzels.

Only, the pretzels were baked with pea-sized chunks of rock salt sprinkled across the top. Rock salt does not taste good in chunks, my friends. But the pretzels tasted amazingly good (and were delightfully soft) after picking the salt off, so kudos to Abby for a wonderful dinner tonight. (Another funny thing at dinner was getting to watch Abby squeal in shock after getting a mouthful of rice with a mite too much lime juice in it. I had put some in mine, and it tasted great, so she did the same, but in my defense, I told her to do so very, very sparingly... Lime juice adds a powerful kick to less-than watery foods.)

Today I got the letter from the Billings, Montana temple, confirming Matt's and my appointment in August. There's a long list of things that need to be brought in order to be wed, including a marriage license, garments (which you can't buy unless you're already endowed, so you have to know someone to pull strings, I suppose), temple clothes, temple shoes, your recommend, 2 endowed male witnesses, and an escort. Now, to get your recommend, you have to interview with your bishop, and to get your marriage license, you have to bring a recent blood test, a certified copy of your birth certificate, and your social security number to the courthouse.

...All of that is minor, but I'm get frazzled when I think about all of the things I need to pack in the months ahead since I'm moving out of my parent's home and into a place with Matthew (which I am very excited about). I'm almost positive that I'll forget something important. Insert another sigh here.

Time moves slowly though.

I bought my first ever Ebay item yesterday. A Corioliss Flat Iron. I'm impressed, since I'm getting it for $33 including shipping (when it's sold in the mall for $150 or more). Ebay is a miracle. But I'm so impatient. I want the iron to get here so I can play with it and wreak curl-havoc on an unsuspecting family member's hair. If the thing continues to work as well as I have seen it in my mall-trials, I will be especially glad since it means I can have my hair done/do others' hair on my wedding day without having to fork out oodles of money. I had my hair professionally done once, about 6 years ago, when I was in Japan. Great turn out, as I loved the hair cut and highlights, but it wasn't worth the absurd price when I can learn to do it myself, or make a friend in someone who can.

I am a penny pincher to the Nth degree.

Speaking of sales, I bought the comforter off of the wedding registry that Matt and I put together on Amazon.com, simply because it's not likely that that Queen-sized Goose Down Comforter will sit at $30 for the next 5 months. A steal, I must say. Those things average at about $80 or more. So between my afghan and sheets, I figured I could break in the blanket for Matt and I, and I'm expecting it sometime this week.

I was reading in Kirsa's blog today that she has been gardening. She says her herbs may not grow, and oddly enough, that statement brought me to a sad realization. I've always been interested in planting, if only for the food it can yield (I say to heck with the aesthetics; I like Kentucky blue grass), but in moving away this summer, I'm losing out on the best chance I'll have to hanker down and learn garden basics from one of the very best green thumbs in this world: my mom. She can grow anything, I think. She's done everything from cherry trees to watermelon to corn to peas to lettuce to herbs. Kirsa's worries have inspired me to pick up gardening as a skill while I'm still in a good learning environment and under good tutelage.

I queried my mother about the idea and I think she's happy to have someone appreciate and learn from her work. And learn I must, since it turns out that most herbs (spearmint included) need lots of sunlight and don't grow indoors well. House plants come easy, but it's the outdoorsy planting I need help with.

Anyhow, I look at the clock and it is 11:11 pm. I wish Matt was back from his pizza cook test, if only so I can listen to him talking on the phone/Google Talk again. (A pinch of pathetic on my part, I think, but his voice is really the only thing I have of him right now, other than some very old digital pictures.)

I think I will go cook something.

Ordering Pizzas 101

2007-03-27T00:18:00.000-06:00

14" Hearth
All Meat

14" Hearth
1/2 Hawaiian
1/2 Garden

14" Hearth
1/2 Hawaiian
1/2 Italiano

What is wrong with this order? (Aside from the obvious: ordering a Garden Pizza)

This happens more often than I can count. (Not the ordering a Garden Pizza; though that happens far too often as well.)

Beet this.

2007-03-26T21:16:00.001-06:00

So today I've been reading up on quite a bit of Red Velvet Cake history. Legend has it that what makes this Southern-roots cake red is the chemical reaction that occurs between the vinegar and buttermilk when the chocolate is added. Now, I've no mind to test it out, since modern chocolate is processed darker (and will override the red-color with a rich brown), so whether or not the reaction occurs becomes obsolete. Others say that it is because of the addition of red beets into the recipe.

It may be a little of both.

Interestingly, I'd read about a delicious sounding recipe for beet cake only a few days earlier before stumbling upon this gem of a red velvet cake today. I'm sore tempted to mix the two recipes a bit to see what I come up with, but also because I'm craving something nutty and chocolate, yet soft and warm. I love to cook, but there isn't much to work with in this household since I don't do the grocery shopping. (I'm still living in Silver Spring, Maryland with my family since as mentioned in my last post, I had major back surgery. But I'll post more on that at a later date.)

For the record, I adore hot, freshly baked cake when served up in a bowl and doused with a cup of cold milk. It's a texture sensation that leaves me near breathless. (And breathless would be Matt and I both eating cake, then exchanging a warm and sweet-tasting kiss. Thank you cake. And thank you Matthew.)

Regrets

2007-03-26T16:34:00.000-06:00

How I wish I knew HTML and all the new stuff that goes along with it. A long time ago I at least knew enough to make a very basic webpage from scratch, now with the remnants of that and the remnants I have of other basic computer languages I am able to guess and check and make a few very minor modifications to the default layout given me. At least it is something. Anyway I was coereced into starting to blog (being engaged makes you very susceptible to coercion, at least from some parties) I don't know how well I will do at it, I tend to be a shy, private individual, as evidenced by the fact that there are still probably friends and acquaintences who do not know that I, as aforementioned, am engaged. Compounding the issue is the fact that I am working 60 hours a week and therefore do not have much time to blog or even really have a life to blog about. Perhaps I could record the most bizarre pizza order we get for the days I am actually on the pizza line. Speaking of work, I need to get going.

[ Edit by Miriam: He's engaged to me! All mine. >:D ]

Moving in.

2007-03-26T14:36:00.000-06:00

So, Matthew (and other anonymous friends) complained that I no longer kept an up-to-date blog. "But how can we know what you're up to?" they say. "You could call. Or email. Or write, " I say. Of course, I have been notorious in the past for not recieving/returning calls (which I recently found out was because T-Mobile digests and hides my voicemail before regurgitating it 5 days later, usually after I've already seen the caller in question; my father and I experimented to prove this was the case, and needless to say, he is less than happy with our phone service; mom is on the hunt for a new plan), but with nothing much to do except surf the internet and cook (since I'm recuperating from major back surgery), I've improved. I answer my emails every day and I almost always answer my phone (especially since the call is almost always from Matt).

But despite this, I caved in. Boredom won over in the end, and here it is.