Trials and Tribulations

Last night I was watching the Olympic trials for some track and field events as well as some swimming events while I was waiting for my Dateline fix.

I was interested in the track and field trials because a couple of current FSU students were vying for a spot on the US Olympic team. I didn't see Michael Ray Garvin's name on any of the lists, but I might not have looked at the correct event he's running in. See, Garvin is also a football player and had permission to miss spring practice so he could train for the Olympic trials. But I did see another FSU student, Walter Dix, (because he was wearing his FSU track uniform at the trials, which most still-in-college athletes do) that did make the team in the 100m. Dix finished second to Tyson Gay, who set a record for the fastest 100m ever ran by a human...although it's not an official world record because the wind was too fast. But still...that's crazy stuff. But yay for FSU students at the Olympics!

Plus, a couple of records have already been broken in the swimming trials. Michael Phelps broke the 400 IM record (a record he had set previously, and also, Ryan Lochte, who finished second to Phelps, also finished under the old record) and Katie Hoff broke the women's record in the 400 IM as well!

Five-fer Friday

Five reasons why I am not happy with today.

1. I had some bad dreams last night, plus I woke up an hour before my alarm was set to go off. All of which leads me to get up this morning tired and agitated. Not a good start for the day.
2. I go to get some regular service done on Bonnie (the 30k-mile variety). I made an appointment, got quoted the price of the service (which was $100 more than I expected for that type of service...) and go to the dealership (only because Bonnie has some magical fluid that is Nissan-specific, so most general service places don't carry it...and it was more convenient for me to just take it to a Nissan dealership who would have said magical fluid than call place after place seeing who did have it). I'm waiting and the dude comes in for the requisite "here are some other services we suggest you do...." One of them was something that would have cost an additional $120 and might improve my gas mileage but wasn't necessary. I said "uh, no" Then he mentioned an additional $70 charge for said magical Nissan fluid. I said I thought that was in the price that was quoted to me when I made my appointment (and that I had to quote to the service guy when he took over Bonnie to make sure we were on "the same page"). He said that was just the general service cost, but since Bonnie has the magical Nissan fluid...(which apparently, is all synthetic a la BMW type stuff and not a part of every Nissan vehicle). Since this was the whole point of coming to the dealership, I okayed it. But I am NOT happy about it. Why ask me 20 questions about my vehicle, quote me a price...and it not be the correct price? You idiots should have in your computer that my 2006 Nissan Xterra 4x2 SE (yeah right...like I have the money to spring for a 4x4!) needs the freakin' magical fluid. So, Modern Nissan...BITE ME!
3. While I was waiting for the service, there was this obnoxious lady also waiting. She comes in and makes a big show about putting her ginormous designer purse down and asking someone to watch it while she goes to get hot chocolate. Then there is, apparently, no hot chocolate, so she wanders around like a doofus for a few minutes. She finally gets some hot tea instead and sits down....where she proceeds to talk very loudly on her cell phone about her very strong political opinions. She gets up and wanders off for a bit...she comes back and sits down by some random lady who had come in while she was out. She starts chatting up random lady about how whenever she's waiting somewhere...everyone is her best friend (and I make the mental note to look very absorbed in my book and berate myself for forgetting my iPod!). So, she is talking to random lady, sharing the SAME. EXACT. OPINIONS. she had shared with whomever she was talking to on the phone. Like her end was almost word-for-word. Then the tv in the lobby was on CNN, who was showing John McCain speaking...and obnoxious lady starts yelling at the tv! Luckily...she got up and left again and by the time she got back I was paying the grand national debt to get Bonnie back.
4. I head to work straight from the dealership and am walking up to the building. I notice that one of my flip flops is a little manky and I think I must have stepped in gum. Oh...I did. And somehow managed to get it all over the bottom of my jeans (no idea how that happened....). So instantly I reach down WITH MY BARE HANDS to get as much of the gum off as possible. After I do that I realize I have just touched something that has been in some stupid asshole's mouth. I hold the offending germ and probably rabbie-encrusted hand away from me and head up to my desk. I throw my stuff down on my desk, stomp to the bathroom and wash my hands about 5 times. I then try to get off the remaining gum (with a paper towel) and it's not wanting to budge. So I go get some ice to freeze it off. It comes off...but I now have a nice wet spot on my jeans (luckily...at the bottom and not near my crotch). Plus, every time I step on the tile floor where I work my left flip flop is still sticky and makes a noise...and I no longer have my spare shoes at my desk (I used to keep two pairs at my desk).
5. Ok, this was technically yesterday...but it has been brought back up because of today's unpleasantness. (See, #1-4 all happened by noon. Then when I tried to originally sign into blogger, my computer got all angry...so I hit my computer, went and ate lunch, then had a meeting with my boss...so I have had some time to stew in my irritation today...and then add old irritations to the mix). So last night we had a softball game (this is a summer recreational league with the medical center I am at). There was some slight mayhem initially because there was a brief afternoon thunderstorm about an hour before the game start time and it was up in the air whether or not we would actually play. Eventually the game started...as did the subsequent fighting. There are a handful of (mainly) guys on our team who get angry over EVERYTHING. It's so stupid since this is a RECREATIONAL LEAGUE. And the anger is worse when we are losing (which we were). If anyone messed up a play, our coach, who initially wasn't fielding, was going nuts,-threatening to pull those players and put someone else in. And yeah, maybe that person shouldn't have missed the ball...but good lord...this is like a 10-games-in-the-summer thing and that's it. It makes the games uncomfortable for me because I'm generally "whatever" with it...and I like to joke around with the random people on the other team that I come into contact with. It's sad when one of the players on the other team is asking me if one of our players was mad because he was teasing him during his at-bat. I just told the other player that he's always angry. I feel all this anger by a handful of players makes the entire team look pissed off and just poor sports because we are losing. Which is why I have asked not to play unless I am needed...and honestly, wish I wouldn't have agreed to play at all this year. When I first joined the team 5 years ago, it was super fun. We had fun at the games and most of the team would go out to dinner after the games and we would have an end-of-the-season cookout. It was fun...it was what a rec league should be (ie-primarily social...softball is just the excuse to be social...and get team tshirts). Not a bunch of wannabe athletes playing SLOW PITCH SOFTBALL getting angry because they think their team is the most talented team ever yet can't win a game. And we have at least 5 games left. Ugh.

Special note to Joy: this is nowhere near as bad an injury as what you got playing softball...but last night a girl on the other team caught a bad bounce in the face. The guy on our team who hit the ball that hit her was hoping it was just a broken nose and that it didn't hit her in the mouth. The little bit I saw it was hard to tell because it was just like all blood on her face. A couple of her teammates whisked her off...and the other coach said the the ball hit her square in the mouth and knocked a tooth out. Yikes. I want a (protective) face mask to wear now...this stuff is crazy!

Although, a good thing today...the lady in the deli did give me like 5 pickles with my sandwich (because she knows I love me some pickles)...that was AWESOME!

Cupcake Porn

Ok, I mentioned in my first Five-fer Friday that I wanted to bake more. And I have been baking! I have made 4 different recipes (for muffins, brownies and cupcakes) since then and I took a picture of at least the finished product. I intend to post blogs of the recipes and all soon.

Recently, I found a website, that although it is no longer being updated...it is AWESOME. I think "cupcake porn" would be a fitting title for it (and side note, I wonder if "cupcake porn" will get me any search engine hits...yikes!). The website is http://cupcakeblog.com/.

Go ahead, browse through the cupcakes. It is cupcake insanity (but in a good way).

Looking through all those decadent cupcakes gave me an idea for another series of blog posts called "Nicole vs. Cupcake". In these posts, I will bake a cupcake from a recipe on that site and give you details about my attempt at the recipe. I don't know how regularly I will do this because I typically only bake on the weekends (so that I have plenty of time to bake, cool, frost, etc.), but I won't necessarily bake every weekend. So, it will be every other weekly-ish. Maybe.
So, anywho...stay tuned!

Five-fer Friday

Favorite Flowers

1. Tulips
2. Gerbera Daisies
3. Daffodils
4. Daisies
5. Poppies

Five-fer Friday bonus

my least favorite flower: roses...with extra hate for red roses.

Five-fer Friday

My favorite desserts

1) Banana Pudding: so simple, yet so delicious. And I've seen incarnations of this served warm, which disturbs me. I like it nice and cold.
2) Tiramisu: True story--back when I was in college, my tiramisu-loving best friend and I decided to make the stuff ourselves. We got all the ingredients and she was handling the cheese part of the tiramisu and I was handling the ladyfingers. This recipe had the ladyfingers brushed with rum. The entire recipe called for 1/4 cup of rum. We didn't have a pastry brush so I was having to kinda just dip the ladyfingers in a bowl with the rum in it. Unfortunately, the first ladyfinger soaked up the entire 1/4 cup. So, I ended up using more rum than the recipe called for. And we got drunk eating the tiramisu.
3) Strawberry Shortcake--also simple, I like my shortcake more cake-y, sort of a cross between typical yellow cake and angel food cake--but I won't discriminate. Sliced strawberries (if they are ripe you don't need no sugar) and whipped cream are the only other things needed.
4) Blackberry Cobler with Vanilla Ice Cream: I don't know why I love this combo so much. I'm not a huge blackberry fan but the warm cobler with ice cream....mmmmmm. And I love blackberry specifically over other fruit coblers.
5) Dump Cake: This is a somewhat disgusting dessert in principle--but I love it. I need to be restrained from pans of this stuff. Plus, it's sooo easy to make. You just dump the stuff in a pan and bake!

You know what is nice?

Waking up in the morning and it is actually cooler inside your apartment than it is outside. Hooray for working the AC working!

It's getting hot in herrre!

Yesterday, by the powers of mischievous lab fairies I ended up working later than I normally do. I got home just before 8pm and as I was walking to my apartment, one of the maintenance guys was working on the AC unit for the apartment behind me. Oh the little heat wave we are having and the inevitability of AC units conking out. But I was pleased that the management would have the people working late to fix an AC on a hot hot day.

So I get into my apartment, have dinner (luckily a nice, cold leftover pasta dish). I am staring in abject horror at ABC since The Bachelorette is on (which, somehow this show is worse than the Bachelor). I notice that I am warm. Like on the cusp of sweating warm. I check to make sure my AC is on (which entails me crawling behind my tv). It is on and set to appropriate settings to cool my apartment. But the thermostat is saying it's like 85 inside.

I then haul out my little step ladder to feel at all of the vents. Air is coming out of all of them. But that air would best be described as warm. So the unit is not broken completely...but it's not cooling. I lowered the temp hoping maybe it just needed to be jumped into working (which...I swear it had been working fine that morning) and nothing worked.

I decided to just suck it up and wait until the morning to call the apartment office when they opened (because it was just a little warm...it wasn't like I was sweating profusely or anything). But, when I got up this morning, it was warmer in the apartment that it had been the night before. It would have been a close contest to see if it was warmer in my apartment or outside (the temp outside was reading 85, upstairs in my apartment my little thingy said it was 88, but factor in the sun and it would probably be close). So I spent the morning getting ready with my portable fan (and a little table to sit it on) in tow.

BUT...when I was walking to Bonnie this morning, I noticed something sitting on my AC unit. There is some electrical-esque box on the wall, the cover was up and there was some mystery piece sitting on my AC unit. I don't want to get all conspiracy theory here, but my spidey sense is telling me something is amok. And if that maintenance man touched my AC unit last night (when he had NO reason to) and thus rendered useless I think I will run him over.

Hopefully, when I get home this afternoon I will have cool air coming out of my vents. Then I won't need to commit vehicular homicide.

Stalking Faux Pas

Ok. I have stalking tendencies. Not in a creepy I-am-going-to-hurt-you-and-your-family way. Oh no. I am the kinder, gentler stalker. Friendly even.



For the "celebrity" I am stalking it is Jim Gaffigan. I LOVE Jim Gaffigan. I have seen Jim Gaffigan perform several times (not to mention multiple times attempting to see more shows and things just not working out). I have a picture of Jim Gaffigan on my desk at work (along with bobble-head Dwight). I have a framed signed poster of Jim Gaffigan as well as a framed, signed Hot Pockets box in my apartment. I have a master plan to become Jim Gaffigan's assistant (pffft....science career...) and live with him. Oh...it will happen.



Anywho, so being a stalker, I should be all up in everything Jim Gaffigan. But...I'm not! Yes, it is horrible.



So in my last Five-fer Friday post, Joy commented about the show My Boys. Which Jim Gaffigan is in. And which I have NEVER seen. Not once.



In my defense, I do not have cable and have not had cable in, oh, 6 years. I just have my trusty (well, crappy) antenna. And unfortunately, the antenna does not pick up TBS.

But, for the prosecution. I am a stalker! I should go above and beyond the call of duty and get cable to continue the level of stalking I have set for myself.

Although...I have seen every episode of Law and Order that Jim Gaffigan has been in. Including the time he was a clown-suit-dressing pedofile.

Five-fer Friday

Favorite TV Shows

1. LOST--my absolute, hands-down favorite show. Period. It's such a mix of drama, action, sci-fi/science nerdery (seriously, the magazine Popular Mechanics occasionally has scientist from various fields (typically physics though) comment on things in the show--including Adam Savage of Myth Busters!). Darlton (a merging of the names of two of the main writers: Damon Lindleof and Carlton Cuse) has me emotionally invested in the characters and this show. My favorite episode of Season 4 called "The Constant" had me just crying uncontrollably. It was awesome. But sadly, I now have to wait like 8 months for the next season of LOST. Plus, there are only 2 season left. But a note for anyone wanting to get into this series: you need to start from the beginning, there is so much back story and previous occurrences that you need to know it is just easier to go out watch all the seasons before trying to jump into the newest season.
2. The Office--this is generally a well-written, funny funny show. The actors are great. The characters are great (I mean, really? Dwight K. Shrute? Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica. What's not to love?). And I may or may not be obsessively devoted to the PB&J romance (that is, Pam Beasely and Jim romance), which, if the writers ever ruin...I will hunt them down.
3. Gilmore Girls--this show is off the air, but it was such a great, great show. I own the entire series on DVD and have been rewatching it at night since there isn't anything really worth while on (local channels that I can get an ok enough signal on my antenna-which-sidenote, I still need to get one of those digital converter boxes so that I am not forced to get cable in 8 months). I can tell a difference between when the shows writers/creators left the show before the last season, but I still like it. The final episode felt kinda rushed...like they were mid-season when they found out the series was ending and was like "uh...let's wrap this up!" But I still adore this show.
4. Law and Order(s)--Dick Wolf (the creator of the Law and Order franchise) is a genius. He probably wallpapers his house in $100 bills. I still like all three varieties (the original, special victims unit and criminal intent). I will say that the frequency of great episodes is starting to get fewer and far between, but really, every episode can't be blow-your-mind fantastic. People like to hate on this show...but really...if it is that bad...why is it that you can find an episode on some channel 90% of the time (as well as every major holiday some cable channel will have a Law and Order marathon)?
5. Dateline--I am a sucker for NBC news people (well, minus most of the morning people). But the evening and weekend people...woot! Brian Williams: LOVE. Lester Holt: Awesome. Chris Hansen: Fabulous (and a rue to internet predators everywhere!) Ann Curry: Stunning. Keith Morrison: King of the dramatic monologue. Although, I will admit that being a Dateline junkie, I have developed some neurosis that I will be murdered by a future boyfriend/husband/spurned lover/crazy ex.

Honorable Mention: 30 Rock (great writing and acting--Alec Baldwin is FANTASTIC)

Formerly Good Show Now at the Bottom of My List: Heroes (the whole Adam/Kensei story shennanigans is BULLSHIT!)

Laughter is the best medicine

So, I have been in a back-and-forth bad mood/funk for the last couple of weeks. It all stemmed from one (of the three) weddings I went to in May.

See, I was angry about this wedding for a long time (for many, many reasons. So many, in fact, that the internet cannot support a blog of that length). I only went because I am spineless and an enabler. I'm a yes person; I just couldn't say no.

So I resented this wedding. I bitched and moaned about this wedding to anyone who wouldn't have the means to share my bitching and moaning with the bride or groom. I hated this wedding before it even started.

I thought this would all go away once the wedding was over, because the source of all the vileness would be done with, right?

Wrong.

Because now new people are engaged and getting married, and the obnoxious wedding bride and groom are now "experts" on how to properly do things towards a wedding (like, fun fact--did you know it is "wrong" for a guy to let his future wife pick out her own engagement ring...it's a fact, obnoxious wedding groom said so).

Somehow, I stumbled on this website called Ihateweddings.com (ok, so maybe I googled "i hate weddings" and "blog"). There I found pure glory. Snark about weddings.

The funk is over.