Month: February 2009 (Page 2 of 2)

Late night insomniacy thoughts

February 10, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

I should be asleep.

I ran 8.6 miles on Sunday. It was supposed to be ten. I, however, got ridiculously tired and bored and just stopped. Yeah I’m naughty like that. I did meet another runner stretching as I was beginning. It turned out that she lost bout 60 pounds running. Well over 90 total but she’s gained some back. I see her running a bit. She gave me breathing advice once.

When I was running at the local track, there would be walkers who would wave to me and say “good to see you here.” There was this hardcore running guy who told me “good job” I guess I fake the athelete thing a little bit too well sometimes.

This week, I didn’t run at all except for the 8.6 miles. Oh that was bad. the whole weekend in Northwest Arkansas messed up my stride and my routine.

Obama delivers some smackdown.

February 7, 2009 / melissa / 1 Comment

Cooking adventure #1: Bagels

February 6, 2009 / melissa / 3 Comments

I, as a rule, generally don’t cook. For one thing, I am fairly bad at it. I once managed to burn Rice A Roni. I guess my low heat was higher than Rice A Roni’s low heat and I got some blackened rice. I do, however, like to try.

One of my favorite things is authentic tasting bagels. Most of the donut shaped bread things you buy at the grocery store aren’t really bagels. They’re just not. So when I read Hilary had made some bagels, I thought I would try it, too.

I had tried to make some bagels before and they didn’t turn out so well.

That is the picture before they were baked. As you can see, they are a little bit flat. After they were baked, they looked like cookies or something. They tasted good but oh they were flat– like a deflated balloon.

So this time, I used a different recipe that can be found here. There are even videos to show you how to knead and shape the things.

So away I went. First, you need a really big bowl because three cups of water and up to seven cups of flour makes a lot of dough. My first bowl was too small. The bowl I let the dough rise in was too small. I also managed to flour my entire house.

No really. Look at those pants. It looks like I peed flour all over myself.

I attempted to buy poppy seeds but no stores in tiny town carry poppy seeds. They didn’t even have the back up of sesame seeds so I ended up making regular plain non embellished bagels.

I think I didn’t let them boil long enough because they didn’t have the contrast between the outside crunchiness and the inside chewiness. But they were tasty. They tasted fresh. Fresh is good and they went well with a shmear.

I can’t complain.

I will say that this is an all morning or all afternoon endeavor. You have to let the dough rise for an hour. There’s also 10 minutes of resting here. Five minutes resting there. The boiling process takes a bit. Then they bake in the oven for about thirty minutes. Like I said, a whole afternoon.

But YUMMY! It just might be worth it.

My wild crazy weekend

February 5, 2009 / melissa / 2 Comments

Last weekend, I had to make a business trip to Fort Smith to tend to some rather stressful business. Since I’ve never been to that part of the state and have tons of friends who live there, I thought I would make it a “big fun weekend” Okay to be fair, the stressful business was originally scheduled for Tuesday but God intervened with the big block of ice.

Anyway, away I go to Fort Smith on Friday. I don’t put enough money in the meter and get a parking ticket. SCORE!

Meanwhile, I’m trying to get coordinated with friends via facebook from Kinko’s because I’ve never been to Fort Smith and don’t know any free wifi places.

I am supposed to meet up with Jennybee later that day. I’ve known Jennybee since high school, which was . . . TWO YEARS AGO! Yes. two years ago. Anyway, a lot has happened in those two years. We’ve dated some losers. Got married, divorced, moved to other states, moved back to Arkansas and a whole host of other things. Hey those were some busy years.

Well I was typing at Kinko’s and pop. There she is. I say “Hi Jennybee” and go back typing.

Yes I’m a dork like that. Then I got up and got all excited and we hugged and acted like 12 year old girls.

One of the fascinating things about seeing someone from your past is that you are instantly reminded of the person you used to be. You see how you’ve changed and how you haven’t.

I got the tour of the house and looked at the shelves and shelves of books and movies. I met the dog and the cat. Both were absolutely adorable. Of course, they loved me. The animals always love me. I emit a scent called “she who gives treats”

We ended up eating at Papa’s Pizza. (YUM!) and I finally met her husband Ben. Ben is a writer. He loves words. In fact, when I told him that Dork was a real word meaning Whale penis, he asked me if it was slang. (well looking it up, I find vulgar slang for “penis” Although someone who is not me at yahoo answers put that it meant whale penis as well. hrmm.) He is also perfect for my friend. Oh and he’s a beer aficionado.

There was eating and chatting. Then we went to their house and more chatting until I just popped out vegging in front of the TV.

The next day was scanning old pictures. More chatting and then they had to work and I had to go.

It was off to the Postsecret exhibit. There was still ice on the ground in Bentonville which was odd since I didn’t get ice at all. The roads were ice free

As I was driving to Bentonville, I got a call from Renee who was sick and would not be eating dinner with me. boo.

For some reason I didn’t take any pictures of the exhibit. I don’t remember a sign up saying that I couldn’t. It seemed a little intrusive to take pictures of these secrets even though they had already been posted up on the internet. They were still fascinating little bits of humanity hanging on a wall. It’s amazing how the adage that “the most personal is the most universal” seems to be true. There were secrets of fear, loss, shame, infidelity, and unmentioned crimes. No matter how odd and out of sync with the world you feel, you can find yourself somewhere in those postcards.

After that, it was a trip to SEPHORA. I love Sephora. It’s a store that sells nothing but beauty products. Yeah I know that I do not necessarily look like a person who would be all giggly over a beauty products store but I am. Sephora has testers of each and every product they sell. Oh the smelling and the testing. I had way too much fun testing lip gloss, tinted moisturizers, blush . . . you name it. I ended up getting the famous Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion (the tinted style). Bellesouth did a review of that stuff and apparently, it does make your eyeshadow last all day.

After that I ended up making attempts to get in touch with Peter which failed and I ended up eating dinner at Doe’s Eat Place in Fayetteville alone. It didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would since I had so many plans to see so many people. The ice storm threw people for a loop and other people, like Ms. Bellesouth, already had plans for the weekend penciled in weeks in advance.

So it was a good trip. It was nice to know that some of the friends you make will last. Also, I’m stronger and more adventurous than I thought. I do eventually get over it, no matter what “it” is. I was pleased to learn that my Garmin does work and is quick to becoming the most prized possession in my car.

Doe's Eat place

February 3, 2009 / melissa / 2 Comments

Doe’s Eat place

Originally uploaded by melissathegoofy

I spent last weekend in the northern part of the state due to business. More succinctly, I had business in the area on Friday and hung around for the weekend because I had never been in the area before. I will get into more detail about all of this later but here is a picture of my dinner from Saturday night at Doe’s Eat Place in Fayetteville.

I forgot how expensive this place was with a steak dinner costing 30 dollars. Now the steak itself was pounds! (seriously a serving of meat is supposed to be only 5 ounces but steak houses serve 11 and 16 and 24 ounce steaks. SERIOUSLY!) So i ordered the tamales and left it at that.

The tamales themselves were tasty and nicely spiced. The cornmeal was tightly packed. The chili was spicy without being hot. The bread in the basket tasted like less sweet beignets without the powdered sugar. They were good. No

I remember the meal being pleasant but I felt nauseous for the rest of the evening and part of the next day after eating this meal.

More soaked cat

February 2, 2009 / melissa / 0 Comments

More soaked cat

Originally uploaded by melissathegoofy

During the last rainstorm, my cat fell into the drainage ditch. He came back completely soaked. Oh he hates baths and getting dried off via a towel. Here he is trying to dry off his foot with his tongue.