Wednesday, July 30, 2008

progress

I finally bit the bullet and called to get internet today. It will be installed tomorrow. As well as cable TV, which I could do without. It came in a package which made the internet cheaper and I can cancel the cable anytime I want and still pay the cheaper price on the internet. So. If I can convince my bf that we CAN continue to live without cable after being spoiled by it for a month, it might...might be worth it. But I gotta pay a cable/internet man over a hundred bucks tomorrow morning, plus buy groceries tonight, so my freshly deposited paycheck is going to be cut in half by the weekend. Oh, and then I have to pay bills.

Guh. I know everyone has to do this, but it's just been really hard the past few months. I feel completely poverty-stricken. And while I know that paying for everything with money I've earned should make me feel AWESOME, instead it just makes me want to go back to school AGAIN and take out some more students loans and live off them. It's sooooo much easier to spend the government's money than it is your own. Plus, student loans default after you die, so if I ever have children or something they won't have to pay them! I mean, really. What is stopping me from just being a lifetime student? Somehow I had more money then. Crazy.

Enough whining, right? So tomorrow there will be a real post! With real pictures! Of real food!

Including........... BIG SAMMICH!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

just something silly

I found this little tidbit on http://vegantabulous.blogspot.com/, who incidentally has a very nice nice blog, and you should check it out.

Kitty Job Description

BATHROOMS - Always accompany guests to the bath room. It is not necessary to do anything. Just sit & stare.

DOORS - Do not allow any closed doors ... in any room. To get the door opened, stand on hind legs & hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it's not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an outside door opened, stand half-way in & out & think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow, or mosquito season.

CHAIRS AND RUGS - If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so it's as long as a human's bare foot.

HAMPERING - If one of your humans is engaged in any activity, and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called helping, otherwise known as hampering. Following are the rules for hampering:
- When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted.- For book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book --unless you can lie across the book itself.- When human is working at computer, jump up on desk, walk across keyboard, bat at mouse pointer on screen, and then lay in human's lap across arms, hampering typing in progress.


WALKING - As often as possible, dart quickly & as close as possible in front of the human... especially on stairs, when they have something in their arms, in the dark & when they first get up in the morning. This will help their co-ordination skills.

BEDTIME - Always sleep on the human at night so he/she cannot move around.

LITTER BOX - When using the litter box, be sure to kick as much litter out of the box as possible. Humans love the feel of kitty litter between their toes.

HIDING - Every now and then, hide in a place where the humans cannot find you and ... do NOT come out for three to four hours under any circumstances. This will cause the humans to panic (which they love) thinking that you have run away or are lost. Once you do come out... the humans will cover you with love & kisses, and you probably will get a treat.

ONE LAST THOUGHT - Whenever possible, get close to a human, especially their face, then turn around and present your butt to them. Humans love this, so do it often.

My own two feline buddies (Bill Murray and Ghostface Killa) do ALL of these, as often as possible. Their favorites are the walking rule and the last thought. But these all happen on a daily basis, making life more fun and enjoyable for everyone in the apartment.

On another, related, note: my lovely, dearest bf saw on TV today that people who have cats are generally more happy than those who do not. This is because you can sit around and talk to your cats all day, as therapy, I guess. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I do know that I am always happier when I have kitties than when I do not.

No food today, though I will say that last night was an experiment of burritos. We are running low on ingredients since payday is tomorrow, so I did not have tortillas. So I made my own! Photos and recipes to follow soon. Internet at the house is in progress.

Monday, July 28, 2008

delayed reaction

Ok, so I know I'm behind here. I am in the process of trying to get internet for my apartment, and it is ridiculously expensive, and while I KNOW I need it and that it's worth it, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to budget in a $50 installation fee AND $58 a month just for the privelege of using the motherf*cking internet. I can't get dialup because I have a serious issue with the phone company. So ...I'm biting the bullet, I suppose, but I don't like it. However, it has to be better than going to Starbucks (blegh!) or skulking around in the parking lot of the aforementioned fast food restaurant. I'm hoping to have access to the internet (which should be FREE!) sometime this week.

To whet your whistle, though, here's a preview of some lovely food items that you will have photos to drool over and/or recipes to spice up your life:
Tabouli
Paella
Scones
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chickpea Cutlets
Wild Rice Pilaf
Brussels Sprouts done right

...plus much more! Above is just what I ate this weekend. I promise that it's worth the wait!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

This Is Only the Beginning

Hmm. I've been wanting to start up a food blog for awhile now. So here it is! This will mostly be a running commentary on the concoctions I come up with in the kitchen from day to day... With lots of pictures! Though no pictures right now. My internet at home is down, so I have to sit in the parking lot of a local craptastic fast Italian food chain (no names, no names...) with my laptop and steal their internet for now. Because Starbucks sucks. I will name THEIR name. Because they make me angry. More on that later. Maybe. Oh, I got distracted... I'm using the internet at work now.

Anyway, a bit about me. I'm vegan. So only vegan recipes will be posted here. Which is awesome. And also rad. I love to cook and bake, although since it's summer and about 3 thousand degrees outside (not counting the humidity, which is...unbearable), meals are somewhat simple as of late. But still delish. You'll see. I have loads of pictures that I've been taking of my dinners and sometimes my lunches to post (maybe tonight after work if you're lucky).

What else about me... I've been vegetarian since October 2006, slowly and steadily becoming vegan ever since. I finally kicked my cheese addiction a few months ago and here I am! That may make me sound like a newbie, but I'm not for one simple reason: my ever hungry and live-in boyfriend, Michael, has been vegan for years and I've been cooking for him for over 2 of those years. So I've got it down, for the most part. In fact, I didn't even start cooking until I became vegetarian, and cooking vegan food is most definitely one of my passions. I think about food. A lot. Like, most of my day. I love to eat, and I love to feed people.

Enough about food for a minute. I'm a receptionist at a law office. I have a BFA and a Master's degree in photography, but the town I live in for now BLOWS and there are no jobs in my field. So I am a working artist, but I don't get paid for it. So this pays my bills. Barely. But still. You'll inevitably hear about my job, depending on my mood and whether I actually feel like talking about it. It's not really like... 'part of my real life' if you know what I mean. It's just what I do for 8 hours a day to pass the time and pay the rent.

I love to read. I am a big nerd. I only ask for books and cooking tools for birthdays and christmas.

And that's enough for now. I will steal some internet later and post some food pics, ok? jeez, be patient.