Weekend

Seen, this weekend, out in SI:

1. Desperate Housewives Relaxation Station in the supermarket parking lot, 2 days in a row, offering manicures, chair massages and tarot card readings.

2. Christmas decorations in the store. It's a bit odd in the Northeast when it's 75 degrees outside and Winter Wonderland is playing.

3. Bus making a left turn in front of our car proudly displaying an advertisement for McDonalds Angus burgers: "BIG APPLE, MEET BIG ANUS."

Right. Unfortunately, I have no picture and I know that no one is going to believe me without photographic proof. Sigh.

Happy weekend!

Patience's

Should I alert our tech department that one of their "under construction" notices says, "Thank you for your patience's"? 

Nah, it'll probably be gone tomorrow anyway.

The Search for Pumpkins

This afternoon I was feeling a little chilled, and all I could think about was pumpkin pie. Wrapped up in my blanket, I looked up recipes and came across one that was in my Kraft magazine at home for pumpkin loaf. It looked yummy.

After work, Alvin and I went to the Food Emporium to pick up the ingredients for the pumpkin loaf. We found everything, but after multiple trips up and down the baking aisle, there was no canned pumpkin!

How could the grocery store not carry canned pumpkin? It's not like it's Thanksgiving and the cans are flying off the shelves...

Eventually ended up getting a can of pumpkin at the Amish Market. That store always smells so good from the buffet. If only work were closer... I'd go there all the time to get lunch (the same with Whole Foods). A little more resting and then off to make pumpkin loaf!

Healthy Meals

Since I'm still getting over a stomach bug, I've been eating really carefully and trying to change my diet to be more healthy. (Lots of delivery over the past 2 years has not been great health-wise). Today, since it was a firm holiday (think of it like a Saturday as far as whether you have to go into the office), I had the first opportunity in a long time to cook dinner from scratch. It was nice having time. Especially since I am super slow when it comes to cooking. I could never succeed at a quickfire challenge.

But today I had enough time to marinate the salmon. Make a trip to Whole Foods to pick up some mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Chop vegetables. Bake everything. Listing it out like this, it sounds like I did nothing, yet somehow it still took like an hour to do everything. I am so slow.

It was nice to eat something healthy. Just feels so clean afterwards instead of totally polluted (like after eating at Burger King, even though I do like their veggie burger... I think I'm really referring to the onion rings). Quite a satisfying feeling. And the best part was the cherry tomatoes. I'm not a huge tomato person at all but I just felt like getting a little box of them. They were locally grown in New Jersey and the color was so vivid when I chopped them up and they held the seasonings so well. Yum. Now I just want a dish of baked cherry tomatoes. Mmm. (It just hit me - I think I'm not a huge fan of COLD tomatoes (other than slices). I think I generally like warm/hot tomatoes).

Anyway, I would like to cook more, if only I had more time to do it. Anyone have any reliable quick and healthy recipes that they want to share? I love the clean feeling you get from cooking and eating a nice healthy meal. Mmm.

Owww

I hate when I get papercuts from cardboard boxes.

 

And I hate when said papercut is underneath my nail so the inside of my nail is turning red and there's nothing I can do.

 

Sigh.

 

On a more amusing note, my floor is covered with little paper circles because I packed my hole puncher without remembering to empty it first.  Oops.

Overheard at the Chinese Buffet

Tonight we went for dinner at a Chinese buffet restaurant. Since I'm still sick (which would be common knowledge had I actually posted that "week in review" post I drafted over the weekend), it was one of the safer options since they had (a) white rice and (b) options for everyone.

A few of tonight's best lines:

A little girl asked her dad for rice to go with the broccoli they just picked up. Dad's response: "Rice? Chinese people don't eat rice."

The people at the table next to us were discussing black holes and explosions. I wasn't really listening but then heard an interesting illustration: "What happens when you pop a pimple?"

Alvin's fortune cookie stated: "Q: How to make a scrambled brain? A: Add Television to a child."

If you're wondering what the other fortunes said:

Mine said, "Stay true to yourself. Your sure about this?"

My parents got one that said, "All thing has a cause. Look into your pass for answer."

I never realized how difficult it is for me to type sentences that have so many errors.

Razzberry

We went to dinner with my parents tonight and then walked through Times Square. While there, we visited M&M's World (always fun) and got some m&ms for a snack. I saw some new one called "Razzberry" and it had said milk chocolate but it looked more like the size of the peanut m&ms.

It was so good. They taste just like these raspberry chocolate jelly rings I always get from the grocery store around Passover. Yum. I need to go back and get more. Although I have now learned from various sites on google that they'll only be around for about six weeks and they're going to sell them all over. I really really want to get more soon. Back before I knew they would have them other places too, I even looked at the hours for M&Ms World and made a plan to go there to get it before work.

So needless to say... if you like raspberry and you like chocolate (or if you like jelly rings), I highly, highly recommend. Yum.

Here's the official link:
http://www.mms.com/us/razzberry/