Hey France?

SUCK IT.

PS - totally have a crush on Cullen Jones.

Olympics, Updates and other Important Randomness

First, some updates from this week's previous blog posts, since I know that you've all spent many a sleepless night wondering about these details of my life:

Walgreen's: $14.55 - for three freaking items. Outrage.

Total Lotto Winnings: it actually ended up being $68.00. Whoop Whoop. That's $2.00 more than we thought. The Cowboy came home last night and threw $18.00 at me and told me to have a ball. I thought that was rather unfair, and that I deserved at least 50% of the total earnings since it was my idea to gamble in the first place, but then I realized I can get at least 2 quality skeins of yarn for $18.00 (and a lot more, if I'm thrifty), so I shut the hell up and pocketed my money.


I decided to go ahead and join the Ravelympics. I'm on Team Austin, and have joined 2 events; WIP wrestling (I'm going to finish those Purple Socks of Death if it kills me...and it might), and Sock Put (I'm a glutton for punishment). It just kicked off this morning at 7:00am CST, and already I'm a little nervous that I am not going to make it. I don't like anyone to be the boss of me, and I don't like feeling like I HAVE to finish these items. But I'm going to give it my best effort.

My friend Bev told me about this awesome website where you can go and listen to pretty much whatever you want, for free, and they stream it onto your computer. You just type in what you want to hear, and they find it and play it for you, as well as similar artists/songs/etc. This has come in handy for me since my mp3 player broke last week. Piece of $#!+. Anyway, check it out if you are able to listen at work. It's awesome. It's called Pandora Radio.

Speaking of music, (and bad music at that, because Pandora is playing "Gloria" by Laura Branigan for me right now...I might have to tell it no thanks to that one) I saw earlier this week that Spinner.com had come out with a list of the 20 Worst Songs Ever. You can click on the link if you want to read the list, and while I agree wholeheartedly with most of their choices, (except that I happen to like #8, Ebony & Ivory, but that's just me), there is a big gaping hole where one noticeable horrendous song is missing. Um, hello? Spinner.com? It's called THE KOKOMO by The Beach Boys. You know, Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya. Bermuda, Bahama. Come on, pretty mama. Shit, now I'm gonna have that song in my head all day.

I'm off to listen to Ebony & Ivory.

I am super excited about the Olympics tonight! I'm going to crack open a bottle of wine (I haven't been able to imbibe in over 2 weeks because I've been on meds) and chillax and knit. And ok let's be honest, cry like a little baby. Because that's what I do when I watch the Olympics. It's gonna be great.

Aggie hopes you all have a great weekend!!

I'm feeling lucky

The Cowboy and I did something totally out of character for us last night. Something I've always thought about doing, but never have (because me and my money don't part ways easily, and neither do the Cowboy and his money).
The Cowboy got a "bonus" at his job yesterday. A "bonus" of $50.00. When he told me of this "bonus", I said to myself, I said, "Oh boy. Whatever will we do with this great windfall of money."

I hope you can hear the dead-pan in my voice there.

So he asked me how I would choose to spend $50 if someone handed it to me for no good reason, and I answered him honestly.

Yarn.

But apparently he didn't want to buy yarn. Can't imagine why, but whatever.

So then he asked what else I would do with the money.

And I asked myself, if you didn't like my first answer, then why did you ask?

But then I thought, I don't want to open THAT can of worms, so I decided to just be cooperative, and answered him. "I'd buy $50 worth of scratch off lottery tickets. I've always wanted to do that."

And he seemed to like that idea. And although I tried to convince him that he should do whatever he wanted with that whopping $50 (but, of course, not to spend it all in one place), he was stuck on the lottery ticket idea.

So, that's what we did.

Hark! Good fortune, sir!!! We won!!!! We bought 1 - $7.00 ticket, 3 - $1.00 tickets, and 20 - $2.00 tickets. And we won our money back plus $16.00 extra dollars. Grand Total of Winnings - $66.00!!!! Whoop. Don't be jealous.

And for the record, we haven't decided how we're going to spend our lottery winnings yet. But I'm going to make my case for yarn.

Last night was also Baby Stinky Pants' first Wednesday Taco Night with the gang (something I realize I haven't really chronicled here on my blog, so I will remedy that perhaps next week, so stay tuned).

I don't think she was really all that excited to be there.

I just stared at her while she was sleeping and willed her to wake up so I could hold her, but this is The Most Stubborn Child Ever (as evidenced by the fact that she was almost 2 weeks overdue), and she just continued to sleep.

My arms were itching. I had to hold that baby. So I made her mother wake her up and pass her over to me. I don't care if you're never supposed to wake a sleeping baby. Blar blar blar, go tell it to someone else. I needed that child.

At first, clearly, she was less than pleased to have been woken so rudely from her slumber. There she is threatening me with that fist again. She's feisty, this one! I like it.

But I persevered, and eventually, we bonded. Oh, that look on her face is gas. Not displeasure. We were at a Mexican food restaurant, after all. Everyone at the table had gas.

But then I began to notice something about BSP. She kind of always has that look on her face. Like she's grumpy. Or cantankerous. Ornery. Displeased. Sour. And I don't think it's because she's not a happy baby. She didn't cry once the entire time we were there. She didn't even fuss. She was a little angel, with the face of......

Maybe she's just concentrating really hard on something? But no, her mother says she always looks like this (which, actually, is exactly how her dad looks, especially in the above picture. Very intense.).


Maybe I should change her name? Maybe I'm a little bit scared of her, and when she grows up and can comprehend, maybe she won't be so amused that we call her Baby Stinky Pants, and maybe she will try to kick my ass. It's something I'm considering.

She's a happy girl

Baby Stinky Pants

Looks like she really enjoys that swing.

Tales from the Crock...and other

otOh

Em

Geeeeeeee.

The pot roast was good. Real good. Real real good. Gooooooood. The recipe, in case you're interested, was a combination of recipes I had found in my "Fix It and Forget It" Cookbook, and Wonder's recipe for pot roast. It could not have been easier. I mean, a monkey could have made this pot roast.

Ingredients:

2-4 pound sirloin tip roast (you can use a chuck roast if that's all you have, or all you can find, but Wonder recommended a sirloin tip roast, and it wasn't that much more expensive)

1 lb. baby carrots

3 regular sized cans of new potatoes (I know, you're thinking "canned potatoes?". I know this, because that is what I thought too...but go with me here...I mean, they're a lot easier than peeling and chopping up a bunch of regular potatoes.....they are in such cute little perfect shapes already....and they absorb the juice and flavor of the meat so well...just try it, but make sure you strain them, and then rinse them off real quick)

1/2 bag of frozen pearl onions (again, you could use fresh, regular onions, but I made this at 6:30 in the morning, and I didn't feel like chopping up an onion and having that smell on my hands all day)

1 package Lipton (or generic brand, I used HEB brand) French Onion Soup Mix

1 bay leaf

3 cups water

How To:

Put the roast, carrots, rinsed (!) potatoes, and onions in the crock pot. In a large measuring cup, or bowl, or whatever, measure out 3 cups of water and add the soup mix. Whisk until blended, and pour over the meat. Add bay leaf. Set crock pot to low (I have different hour settings, and set it to the lowest I could, which was 10 hours) and go about your buisness. Enjoy the aroma of the meat cooking. Mmmmm. After 10 hours (probably it was done in 8, and then it just sat and soaked up all that yummy juice), eat!

Notes:

The meat was so tender, we just used our forks to pull it apart. Also, I have a very large crock pot, so if you have a smaller one, you might have to cook the meat first, (overnight?) and then the veggies after that. This is what Wonder says she does. And, 3 cups of water is a lot of liquid, you could probably get away with 2 but a)I have a fear of burning things in my crock pot (because it's betrayed me before) and b)with the leftover juices, I made a delicious little simple gravy. I put butter and flour in a pan, let it melt and mix together, and added some of the juice, brought it up to a boil and Voila! Gravy. Twas most tasty, if I do say so myself. And I do.

The Olympics!!!!!!

Check this bad boy out. It combines my two great loves. The Olympics and Cupcakes. Cupcakes and the Olympics. Hot damn.

3 days to go!!!! I know what I will be doing this weekend. I just wish I knew where I could get some of those cupcakes.

Speaking of the Olympics (non knitters beware, you will not understand anything of what I'm about to say), I've been considering joining the Ravelympics for a few weeks now, but have been hesitant to do so. I was never good at competitive sports, which is perhaps why I took up knitting as a hobby in the first place, and so the idea of competitive knitting puts me off a little. I am clearly running out of time to make my decision, but procrastination is my middle name (Ok, actually it's Elizabeth, but whatevs) and I like to live on the edge. Anyway, if you are knitty inclined, please comment me and tell me why (or why not) I should participate (or not) in the Ravelympics. I mean I guess it's not like I won't ever have any time to knit, since I plan to sit my happy ass in front of the telly and watch watch watch all day long watch.

I got raped

Settle. I didn't really get raped. But last night we needed dishwashing detergent, and I needed a stick of deoderant (it broke off in my shirt when I was putting it on yesterday morning. I hate when it does that), so I ran to Walgreens. There's a Walgreens on the corner by our house, it's the closest store. I didn't feel like driving all the way to HEB (the grocery store) or Wal-Mart (and I hate Wal-Mart anyway), so Walgreens it was.

I purchased the above pictured 3 items. Anyone want to take a guess how much that cost me? Seriously, anyone. Guess. I will tell you later, in the comments section. Let me just tell you this, it was outrageous. I felt violated. I went home and took a hot shower.

Gratuitous Cute Kid Shot!

It's been awhile.

Dance, Sydney! Dance!!!!

Massive Monday Mouthful

Damn, I'm good. I'm just saying is all. Remember how I said that because of my Nasty Eye Infection of Death I wasn't going to hold myself to the One Knitted Christmas Gift Per Week self-imposed deadline for last week? Well, I did it anyway. Because damn, I'm good. And for almost all of the Christmas gifts I'm knitting, I am not going to post pictures here, because people who will be receiving the knitty love also read the bloggy, and I cannot have them seeing their gifts ahead of time. BUT! In this once instance, I am going to post a picture because I am just so damn crafty and proud of myself. I realize this is not any sort of giant knitting feat. This is maybe one of the easiest things I've ever knit. It took me 2 hours total (plus felting and drying time), but they just came out so darned cute, I am so happy.

Felted Coasters!!! I got the pattern from my One Skein Wonders book, but I altered it quite a bit. It called for bulky weight wool, I used worsted. It said to cast on 11 sts, but of course with the worsted, that wasn't nearly enough. So I kind of just winged it. But the best part was that I got to use my new felting needle tool from Knit Picks. I realize my Christmas tree is a little, shall we say, "abstract", but it's my first design and I'm happy with it. Also, my felting tool BROKE after the first use. So I only managed to get one tree done. I'm pretty unhappy about it because I figure it should have a longer life than one freaking coaster, so I've emailed Knit Picks and I'm hoping they will replace it (or at least the needles).

In other news...

I went to the movies 3 times this weekend. I decided after my mis-adventures with the great out-of-doors in the past several weeks (sunburn, infection, whathaveyou) I needed to stay inside all weekend long, which was just fine since it was about 105 degrees here this weekend and I'm not exaggerating that.

So on Friday night The Cowboy and I saw The Dark Knight.

Let me tell you what, that was a long movie. A good movie. A great movie, even. But man alive it was long. With previews and everything it was about 3 hours. Anyway, all the hype about this movie is true. It was great. Very dark, very violent, and Heath Ledger's performance was amazing and scary and hilarious all at once.

Saturday we switched gears and saw Stepbrothers.

This movie was hilarious, if you like fart jokes. Which I do. And other sophomoric type funnies. Which this movie was loaded with. There were a couple of parts that were pretty stupid, of course, but overall, it was entertaining, mindless fun.

And on Sunday, I switched gears once again, and went (by myself I might add, which I love) to see Mamma Mia!

The Cowboy is a weirdo. In addition to not liking to hold newborn babies, he also doesn't like musicals. Ok, he's not a gay man, and I can accept that musicals aren't his favorite. But I mean, he HATES them. He didn't even watch Sesame Street as a child, because they would bust into song, and he just couldn't take it. This saddens me greatly, because I have a great love for all things musical, and I realize that I have a long future of trips to the movies and theatre by myself ahead of me. But I digress....

Mamma Mia the musical was great, and the movie was just as awesome (maybe more? I daresay?). This is high praise from me, considering Mr. High-and-Mighty Himself, Pierce Brosnan is in it, and you all know how I feel about Pierce Brosnan (and if you don't know, I will tell you and that is that I think he is full of himself and thinks his shit don't stank and I'm willing to bet that it, in fact, does). Anyway, I loved this movie! This one was probably my favorite of all 3 that we saw this weekend, but I really did like the other 2. But oh, this one made me happy. I'd see it again tonight if I could, and I can't say the same for The Dark Knight or Stepbrothers.

In other news...

I have a bad habit of starting new books when I'm in the middle of reading another book, and then one of them gets forgotten. Case and point: I am reading 3 books right now. (Never mind my bad habit of buying books all the time, just never you mind about that) Two of the books aren't even worthy of a mention, but the one I bought and started yesterday is. Behold! I give you: The Pillars of the Earth.

I've seen this book for months now, and I've heard various, many, random people talking about how good it is. It's about people who build cathedrals. Zzzzzzz. I know, right? But apparently, this book is good. I believe hype when I hear it (see: The Dark Knight), so I broke down and bought this monster yesterday at Target (thanks, Tiff!). I got the paperback, and it is 973 pages. NINEHUNDREDSEVENTYTHREE pages. It is a beast. It is the size of a large dictionary, and it's the paperback, so imagine what the hardcover looks like. Anyhoo, I started it last night, and have only read 3 chapters or so, but so far it's good. I'm not all enrapt with it or anything, but you gotta give these things time.

And finally, I will wrap up my Massive Monday Mouthful by telling you all how much I love my crock pot. Some of you may know that for awhile I had a very strained relationship with my crock. Basically, I hated its guts and in return, it burned all my food. We went round and round like this for awhile, until I found this blog. She inspired me to try it again, and I've had great success with several recipes since.

Today, my bloggy friends, I attempt a new recipe in the crock. Again, I realize this is no crock-pot feat, and I'm sure many before me have tried (and succeeded!) in making this, but dangit I'm excited. I'm making a pot roast in my crock! It's a-cooking righty now and will make the house smell warm and wonderful and I can't wait to go home and eat! If all is successful, you will hear the details tomorrow. And if all is unsuccessful, well, I'm sure you'll hear the details tomorrow in that case too. Because I ain't got no secrets, man.

Happy Monday!

Cousins, Real and Fake

We must go backwards in order to go forwards. (that is a shout out to my friend Marce). This will be a Big Fat Blog, a combination of several blogs that I had planned for this past week, all rolled into one. Lucky you! I shall call it Big Fat Blog Friday (BFBF).

So, way way way back last Thursday (as in not last night, but a week ago last night), back when my eye was normal sized and not infected, my "Fake" cousin Mike came to town with his girlfriend. They live in Illinois. He is my "fake" cousin because our mothers are best friends, and as children we were all told to call them "Aunt" and "Uncle". These people are not my relations. But that doesn't mean they aren't a hoot.

Here we are, me and Mike. My face is red because of the sunburn, and also because I'd had a few cold pops.
Seriously? This kid is my kind of people. I love him. We (Mike, his girlfriend, the Cowboy and I) had dinner and then proceeded to hit up a few bars on 6th street. It was kind of a slow night, so we had to make our own fun. Hilarity ensued. Seriously, my face hurt from laughing so damn hard all night.

Seriously.

What's up with me saying seriously?

Seriously.

Oh. This is Mike's lovely lady, Linda. She has some sweet dance moves.
See what I'm talking about? Man, I wish I could dance like that.

I wish I could post the rest of the pictures that we took, but they are borderline inappropriate, and also, Mike and Linda are teachers, and I'm thinking they don't want said pictures floating around on the interwebs. There is this one though. It's decent, if not a wee bitty bit off center. Perhaps taken towards the end of the evening.

Good times, good times. You may be noticing the absence of any pictures of The Cowboy. He was being his usual uncooperative self that night.

Moving on to real cousins (not that I don't love Mike and everything, but hey blood is thicker than water, but we didn't drink any water that night, I can tell you for damn sure, but I'm getting off subject again)....

My cousin Ashley flew down to Dallas for a visit last weekend. She is 14 going on 30 and I hadn't seen her for nearly 2 years. Which was way too long. All of a sudden, she is a Young Woman. I almost started crying when I saw her at the airport.

She is a way cooler teenager than I ever was at 14. Man, those were awkward times.

We spent Saturday at a water park in Dallas, which is where I suspect I picked up my friend Staph.

Sunday, we went to a really cool place called Fossil Rim. It's a Wildlife Reserve, and we took a guided tour (like a safari) and saw all mess of neat animals. I can't remember all the animal names, so bear with me. If I don't know, I'm just going to fake it.

I'm fairly sure this one was called a Blackbuck. It's native to the Sahara. Check out dem horns! They could really eff your shiz up! (Hey, on the Blackbuck/native talk, did I sound like I knew what I was talking about? Cause I have no idea.)

This is Some Sort Of Deer. It may even be a regular old Deer like you see on the side of the road (they did have some), I don't know. I just thought he was cute. I liked his spots.

Zebras are really cool looking up close, but they are aggresive and mean. We were told not the hand feed the zebras, so what's the first thing Ashley does? Hand feed a zebra. Thankfully that zebra was more interested in eating the Scooby Snacks provided to us by the Ranch, and not Ashley's hands. 14 year olds are stubborn creatures.

This is Another Kind of Deer. Official name, of course. I like this picture because he was in the middle eating a handful of food I gave him.

The Giraffes were probably my favorite animal that we saw there. They were just so serene and beautiful. And we even got to hand feed them. It was a pretty cool experience.

This little guy was hanging around while we were feeding the giraffes. He is A Third Kind of Unidentified Deer, and he had a tag on his ear that said "509". I felt bad for him, because everyone was oohing and aahing over the giraffes, and feeding them all their Scooby Snacks, and poor 509 wasn't getting any attention. So I gave him a handful of treats.

Check out these two idiots.

I have no idea what this is, but it looks like a goat, no? I call him Raymond. I love his little patch of brown hair on his head. It's like a little toupe.

As some of you may or may not be aware, I have a not-so-secret fear of All Things Beaked. It stems from the Canadian Goose (those things are MEAN and will attack you), stretches out to the mighty and beautiful (yet terrifying) peacock, and encompasses even innocent farm animals such as chickens and ducks. If it has a beak, I believe it will not hesitate to peck out my eyes. So you can imagine my fear of this beast. It's a Six Foot Tall Bird With Beak (Ostrich).

We were allowed to feed these guys as well, although we just laid the food out on the side of the bus and then ran screaming like a little baby to the back as they approached. What? That's what everyone on the bus did. Not just me. Man! These things can eat. All they care about is more food (and pecking my eyes out).

Despite my total, all encompassing fear of the ostrich, I actually think that they are kind of cool to look at, especially in these pictures where I know that they are miles away from me and can't get to me or my eyes (my eyes can't take any more abuse, y'all).

The safari was really cool, and we saw lots of other animals (rhinos, cheetahs and wildebeest -oh my!- to name a few), but a lot of my pics didn't turn out because they were taken from so far away.

It was great to see my cousins last weekend!

And I hope everyone has a good weekend!