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Showing posts from August, 2007

Dahlias

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There is really nothing too great about summer ending. Except this is the time of year when Dahlias are in full bloom! I think they are so beautiful and amazing!

Chun Mee!!!

Yesterday after work, Shannon, Cindy, Jaime and I met for dinner at Chun Mee in Delano. Chun Mee is this little Chinese restaurant that both Shannon & Jaime worked at in High School. (Cindy and I worked at local grocery stores)... As always we had a fun time reminiscing and laughing, and trying not to laugh during Helen's pyramid scheme presentation. Helen is the owner of Chun Mee , and when she sees Shannon she always says, You not Marwied , you have no baby! But Helen is great and she even gave us her secret fried rice recipe! Chun Mee will be closing in a few years when Helen retires, so it was fun to get back there and enjoy Helen's food. (sorry, but I forgot to take pictures last night) I have to add something else about laughing. When I was in elementary\high school I would bust out laughing all the time, everything made me laugh. The worst is when you are sitting in class and your teacher is talking, and your friends are all around you and you get the giggles

A night to myself...

My day is going sooooo slooowwwlllyyy ! I am really looking forward to a night at home. Last night I made yummy Sesame Chicken with Asian Slaw and I brought it over to my couch-ridden cousin Kelly. So if you want the recipe, she posted it on her blog: http://vlachmytastebudsoff.blogspot.com/ Tomorrow night through Monday (Labor Day) I have plans, so I need to have at least one night to relax, clean & bake some bread, but not necessarily in that order... I still want to attempt to make the Zucchini bread with Moroccan Spices... but we'll see. Boring days at work make me want to do be lazy at home. But a job change may be in the future... hopefully many good things will be just around the corner. I was driving today and I saw a tree whose leaves were already changing. It just seemed like last week I noticed that the trees just started to bud. Now it's almost fall and the leaves will soon change, then fall off the trees. This year has just flown by, and with that has come m

Superfluous Explained

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People keep asking me what 'superfluous' means and why it is the title of my blog. Well first of all, Superfluous is my favorite word. And if I was ever on Inside the Actor's Studio, that would be my favorite word pick. Secondly, I used to not know how to pronounce superfluous, and I even looked like a total idiot trying to impress a guy with my expansive Russian Literature knowledge. (My favorite short story is called "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev, which can be found in the book, "Diary of a Superfuous Man"). Well of course I said Super-FlU-ous, when you should say: Su-Perfluous. Whatevs! Here is the definition of Superfluous, which I guess if you read between the lines, you could say that is a definition of me. You tell me... su·per·flu·ous –adjective 1. being more than is sufficient or required; excessive. 2. unnecessary or needless. 3. Obsolete. possessing or spending more than enough or necessary; extravagant. su·per·flu·ous·ly, adverb su·per·flu·ou

Girls Night Out...Part Deux

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O! U R HERE!! Friday did finally come around. The girls from WMHS met up in Jordan, MN at Jaime's place. Shannon, Cindy, Jaime and I enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Jaimes... We headed out to do what I call, The Carver County Pub Crawl! We enjoyed good times and drinks and laughs at the local bars, putting to good use Jaime's BOGO card. I saw a few people I hadn't seen since high school. Including a very creepy teacher who is still creepy!! YIKES! (and Puke!). Overall we had some good laughs and no one got into any fights, although we came a wee bit close at the T-Road Tavern, but that is a whole other story. At the last bar, we girls stayed to close the place down and headed back to Jaime's to crash. We had a great breakfast in the morning and I headed out to help my friend Ellen move into Sarah's place... now i must chill, and maybe there will be more fun to have later... but for now this party girl is sleepy!

Well it's a Girls Night Out...

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The Judds sang it best... Friday finally came around This girls ready to paint the town Tonight aint nothin gonna slow me down I did my time workin all week Tonights all mine, tomorrow Ill sleep,I wanna hear a band with a country sound Well, Ive been couped up all week long Ive been workin my fingers to the bone! Well, its a girls night out Honey, there aint no doubt Im gonna dance every dance til the boys go home Well, its my night to rock No watchin that ol clock Oh, aint no doubt, lordy its a girls night out! One more day of work and then I'm heading out with my H2 OTown Posse. I will report more on this outing tomorrow. (P.S. As much as I loathe country music, The Judds are a very guilty pleasure!! I love you Winona & Naomi!!!)

The crux of the matter...

I didn't blog yesterday, and I was about to let today pass me by without blogging as well. The weather is a good indicator of my mood today, a bit gray and a lot gloomy. I've just been thinking about people, friends really, who were friends but now are not. I'm not talking about the friends that you gradually lose touch with over time, but more of the friends you purposefully lose touch with. I have a handful of ex-friends that I am not friends with any longer and not ending on good terms either. Some are boyfriends that have decided either they couldn't remain friends with me, or vise versa . I have had girlfriends where the friendship has been so wounded, no bandage could heal the wound. Looking back there are no fingers to point, I have no ill will towards any of them. And if I could get all these lost friends in a room I would tell them how special they were to me, and if I could have my way all would be made well. I am a firm believer in forgiveness, I love the tho

Blueberry Waffles & Chocolate Zucchini

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My wonderful cousin Kelly has hooked me up with my all time favorite candle: Blueberry Waffles! For the longest time I have gone to her house and literally drooled over the smell of this candle. Now I have my own! Actually this has been a good "find" week. Blueberry Waffle Candles, Hebrew National Hot Dogs, and my favorite Ruffies garbage bags! (Thanks Shannon & Sarah!) Does life get any better?! Tonight I made yet again one more Zucchini dish: Recipe from Auntie Lori: Chocolate Zucchini Bread 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate 3 eggs 2 cups white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil 2 cups grated zucchini 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips zest of 1 lime (that is my addition) DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted. Stir occasionally until ch

Saints

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Tonight, Kyle, Kelly and I went to a St. Paul, Saint's game. I have not been to a Saint's game since 2 years ago, and funnily enough it was with Kyle & Kelly. We had a fun time eating dogs, cheese curds and smuggled in treats. Fun time had for all! Oh and I am happy to report that i have finally found my Hebrew National 97% Fat Free Hot Dogs! I have been looking long and hard, and of all placed they were at a Super Target. Go figure! Dos gefelt mir!

Get your grub on...

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Today I took a personal day off of work. I needed to start using up all that zucchini I have. I decided to make 2 pans of Zucchini & Basil Lasagna and Zucchini-Lemon Muffins. Tomorrow after work I am making Zucchini Bacon Quiche and Zucchini Chocolate Bread. And for the grand finale a Zucchini Moroccan-Spice Bread. Which will be interesting because i haven't made a yeast based bread in 10 years!! Yikes! However, I have always had extremely good luck with yeast and having it rise. (Rach, remember "pulling bread" when we had bad yeast!, good times!) I have to mention the 1 ingrediant I can not live without. Penzey's Very Hot Red Pepper Flakes, I put them on everything! And i mean everything! http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyscrushedredpepper.html Zucchini and Basil Lasagna Ingredients 2 cups fat-free cottage cheese 1 cup chopped fresh basil 1 large egg Cooking spray 4 cups chopped zucchini 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cups bottled spicy tomato pasta sauce

Kitchen Krazy!

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Yesterday afternoon, Tabitha, Bonnie, Paula and I went to volunteer at a Family Center. I had found a place in Maplewood through Catholic Charities that serves as temporary housing for about 50 families. We went to help in the kitchen serving the dinner meal. Well we all arrived on time at 4:30 and went to the kitchen to wait for the regular volunteer cooks to show. Dinner was supposed to be served at 5:30 so we had an hour to get ready. So we sat and waited, and yet no cooks. At 5:00 I thought I had better go check at the front desk to see what was up. The lady at the front desk thought that we were the cooks for the night, and told me to just put together a meal! Wow! We immediately went to work figuring out what we were going to make. We decided on Spaghetti with meat, salad, watermelon, corn, dinner rolls and cookies. The four of us really pulled it off! Everything was ready to be served at 6:00pm. The families began to come in and we enjoyed meeting them and at the same time they

Er dir oys es harts

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I am on the hunt! I just ran out of my favorite garbage bags! I don't know if they make them anymore! Oh the horror! or as I like to say, Oh the Hora! (Even though it has nothing to do with a traditional Jewish wedding dance) Anyway, I had these garbage bags since around 2000. They come 100 to a bag and they are perfect for bathroom waste baskets. They are Ruffies Color Scents 8 gallon med. garbage bags. I had the Tranquil Vanilla scent, even though I thought they smelled like a Dreamsicle... very pleasant. So why am I writing about garbage bags? Who knows, it's a Saturday morning and I am lamenting over the fact that I can't find these bags anywhere! I could go on and on, but if anyone finds a bag of Ruffies, I will be your new best friend! Yesterday, I worked a half day and brought home my 4 beautifully bodacious zucchini's... I'm so excited to start cooking\baking with them! Yesterday I also got together with someone I hadn't seen in almost 5 months. It was g

Zowie Zucchini!!!

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One of the nice ladies in the office gave some of her HUMONGOUS Zucchini!! I plan on making a whole plethora of Zucchini based foods! MEOWCCHINI! (fyi, the cucumber in the pic is full size!)

ABBA is Amazing!

Hey George, you're cute!

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Sarah and I went out for Calzones last night... John's Pizza has the best! So we split a delicious artichoke heart & portabella mushroom calzone . I love going to John's with Sarah... We have great conversation and the scenery isn't bad either, i.e., the group of police officers that are always there! Meow! Afterwards we took a nice walk around Lake Como.. now since I live near Lake Como, I knew that there were bad storms that ripped through the area, I mean duh! a huge tree fell on my building! But I didn't know how badly the storm damage was until I walked around the lake. It looked like a war zone! Massive trees, ripped up from the roots, branches lying everywhere, trees lopped in half, (Hey Tommy, can you get me my Loppahs so I can cut the Popplah ), hey a shout out to my favorite home show, This Old House! Anyway, it was a real disaster area at the lake, but as Kelly's says, "It's mother nature's way of pruning." A similar storm came th

PUKE=MEOW!

Bad things=Puke Good things=Meow But when your friends start using "PUKE" in their lexicon that is a big phat MEOW!

Name Change

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Yesterday I met up with Michelle (Tina) at Macy's Mpls, downtown store. We did some chattin' and shoe shoppin'... I found 2 pairs of shoes, but now I think I splurged too much and I think I might return them! Even though they were on clearance, I really am trying to be good with my money. Anyway, after shoe shopping, we went to Sawatdee in Uptown for our favorite meal, Jalapeno Wontons, Chicken Paid Thai and a bottle of wine. However, we noticed something slightly off about Sawatdee, it is no longer SAWATDEE!!! It now goes by Uptown Thai Chili. We tried not to freak out, so we asked a server and he said, that for some reason the owner of this Sawatdee is not affiliated with the other ones. But for years he kept the name until recently. The server assured us that everything was the same, same menu, food & chef. WHOOO WHEEE! I personally think that of all the Sawatdees in the Twin Cities, the Uptown one is the best. So I would've been sad if anything changed. I guess

And then there was light...

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So after 3 days with no electricity , the power came back on! I can only live in darkness for so long. Yes, it does give me a chance to be away from tv and Internet . But after awhile the milk starts to spoil and I get sick of stumbling around in the dark trying to find my bed. The light is a welcome change to the darkness. And I guess that also goes for a lot of things in my life. Letting go of the dark and walking into the light. "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am." -- John Newton I took the day off of work today. I wanted to just have a day to get stuff done and get some needed sleep this morning. I was over at the Vlachsters last night for some delicious Thai Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Oh dear, I love good food, but I love the company more. It is the simple pleasures in life... When I got home last night, the onset of what l

Rock out with your Vlach out!

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Trees Falling on Buildings

I haven't been able to blog all weekend, so I will give a re-cap of this weekends events. Friday night at about 3:30am I awoke to hear a loud thud and saw a huge flash of light outside my window. Now of course, I am waking out of a dead sleep so I completely freaked out and disorientated. I have this funny thing about me that if I wake up from a dead sleep I pretty much lose all sense of logic, and cannot think strait for a few minutes until I get my bearings. It's kinda humorous , because I really think bizarre thoughts right at that moment of waking. So anyway, at the moment of waking to a loud thud and flash of fire\light outside my window, I didn't know what to think, maybe someone was breaking in, maybe there was a fire... but really i had no clue where I was. When I finally figured it out, I realized that a huge tree had fallen on my building and with it it brought down a power line and ripped the electrical wiring out from the buildings wall. So I still do not have e

Tra la la

I am in a bit of a self-depreciating mode this morning, so I decided to list my top 7 favorite songs of all time. Why 7 you say? Seven is a good number, it is the number of completion. I'm sure those of you who know me may be a bit surprised at my choices. I have favorite bands, but that doesn't mean they have a favorite song that makes my list. These 7 songs are the songs that when they come on the radio I will stop and I will start singing...loudly. Yes, I like cheesy pop ballads, I admit it! I can't put my finger on why I love these songs so much, but I do and I will not be ashamed. 7. I Just Called to Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder 6.Tell Her This, Del Amitri 5. Tiny Dancer, Elton John 4. At This Moment (live), Billy Vera 3. One More Try, George Michael 2. You Go to My Head, Louis Armstrong, w\ Oscar Peterson 1. Into the Mystic, Van Morrison

Supermarket Sweep

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Lately, every time I go to the grocery store, random people start talking to me. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe I seem like a friendly person, maybe I look like I know what is the best thing to buy? Who knows? Either way, it is completely random. I could say, oh well, maybe that guy asked me about avocados because he thought I was cute? But I have women ask me questions too, young & old at that. Typically it is in the produce isle when people ask me about a certain item. "Do you think those peppers are hot?" "How do you quickly ripen avocados?" "How do I know if the sweetcorn is sweet?"... so I smile and offer my best advice and wish them good luck. But this is the ironic part, I HATE grocery shopping! I find it to be one of the worst tasks I have to do in my life. It fits somewhere between filling my gas tank and answering the phone. I guess I just find that grocery shopping is a lonely task. Of course now I might start having a change of heart a

My go-to meal

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This is the meal I make when I need to whip up something fast and delicious. The recipe calls for Shrimp & Scallops, but I have made it with just the Shrimp. I have also had this meal at Pop! Restaurant, and they make it with Shrimp & Chorizo Sausage, and that tastes great too! Speaking of Pop! I once was there and ordered a bottle of wine, because the person I was with said they would have some too. Well they didn't have very much, I ended up drinking almost the whole bottle... I really don't remember too much after that, except we went to see I (heart) Huckabees and I do not remember one thing about that movie! But the funny thing is, is that I had to pretend that I wasn't completely trashed, because I didn't want the person who I was with to think I was a total spaz ! Well we ended up dating for 2 years after that, so I must of hid my inebriation pretty well! Good memories... Ok , here's the recipe: Shrimp and Scallop Stew with Israeli Couscous Ingredi

The Towering Ironic

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My weekend, was very nice and relaxing. Going back to work and having to get up so early has made me tired, so I spent Friday night just chillin' on my couch, with some pizza and a margarita made with my Magic Bullet. Romeo + Juliet was on, the 1996 version with Leonardo DiCaprio & Claire Danes. I can't believe that movie came out over 10 years ago. I think I saw it in the theatre a few times too. It's funny to look back 10 years, and what was going on in my life, who I was dating and who my friends were, where I was living. And it's all changed. Watching that movie brought back a lot of memories, mostly really good ones of a far away time. Saturday I ventured out to my parent's makeshift trailer home for a visit. My mom has worked her decorating wonders and created a nice cozy home. We went out to dinner at our new favorite local diner, Sunni's Cafe in Howard Lake. For being a small town restaurant, they really make some very good food. I had the pecan cru

Humble Pie

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It's a rather somber day here in Minnesota... well maybe for me it is. I watched the news for most of the night last night, after hearing about the collapse of the I-35W bridge. The situation merited text messages and phone calls and e-mails from many different loved ones. Me checking on them, them checking on me. My heart is heavy for so many reasons. First of all I feel the sadness of the those who have lost their lives, the families, the after-shock that comes with such tragedies. I think of all the kind people who helped each other out, Good Samaritans, if you will. I pray for the people that have still not been found. It is a sad time. My heart is also heavy because just that day I was having a mini-meltdown about the seemingly trivial crap in my life. Though I am not one to discredit individual pain, I do however, think in this situation, I can be such a baby sometimes! Crying out to God for relief of my own pain and hurts, yet all around me there are pains and losses and tra

Little Blessings

There is an article today in the Mpls Star Tribune, about Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a volunteer photographer group that takes pictures of babies that have short lives. The article features my friends Chris & Heather Lee and their beautiful daughter Lainey Rose. You can read more about Lainey at the link "LRL" under my VIP's links. If you have a chance read the article from the Strib and please remember to keep the Lee family in your prayers! http://www.startribune.com/332/story/1332895.html

She's Back!

Here I am. Back at work. It wasn't so bad going back. Although it was hard going to bed so early and getting up at 6:00am! I've been spoiled with being able to go to bed at 1:30am and getting up around 9:30am... but I am a highly adaptable species. There are piles and piles of magazines that need to be bar coded , and once that is done, I can read them! I am trying to be optimistic and thankful for all that I have. Because when I look at my life, I am blessed. So even though this isn't one of my most favorite jobs, I am blessed with work... Oh and the pie I made yesterday, turned out lovely and tasted wonderful. I brought over a few pieces to Kyle & Kelly's for one last hurrah with the cool kids. Kelly gave me a really nice cookbook, filled with recipes that I used to make when I worked in the Kitchen in NH! I'm so excited! Tonight I am going to make a banana cream pie... and then I am going to watch Rescue Me. For all my faithful readers, you know where i liv