Crankiness and useless stock predictions

Suffering from writer's block, I scurried off to my local palace of consumerism after I heard Adam was upgrading his wardrobe at his local Nordstroms. I walked the four blocks to the mall to check out the after Christmas sales. Despite my mall induced crankiness, I did enjoy my jaunt to the mall as I snacked on some delicious caramel popcorn and lemonade.

Cranky Cause #1: While I was waiting to buy my popcorn, a family of seven was ahead of me in line. Three of the kids were literally rubbing their faces, hands and entire bodies against the glass popcorn display. Then they proceeded to climb the popcorn stand. My only thought was, "contraception," but Wheezy thinks I'll feel differently when they're my "adorable" kids. I'm unconvinced.

Cranky Cause #2: For years, plasticmom has been nagging me about cleaning out my wallet and I've stubbornly resisted. Finally, even I had to admit my wallet had reached George Costanza proportions. I checked out the wallets at Nordstroms and picked up two Kate Spade leather wallets of the exact same style and same color. However, I was morally outraged when I discovered one wallet was clearly lower in quality. Then I figured out they were from different countries of origin, but both were being sold side by side as identical items. Anyhoo...my point being, I now have a new wallet and I'm embarrassed to admit, I found something from 1993 buried inside my old wallet. plasticmom was right afterall.

Useless Stock Prediction Spurred on by Crankiness: I'd consider selling short on Coach stock, but I'm a wuss about taking financial risks. They've successfully traded on their brand name and reputation for quality by selling lots of more fashionable goods, but I think they've swung too far in the other direction by over accelerating their design cycle and turning out lower quality goods.

Marmalade

Made tangerine marmalade the other day
Learning how to crochet
Avoiding writing my essays
Still in my jammies at 4:15pm
All in all...I'm enjoying my holiday quite a lot

Marmalade recipe

1.5 tangerines
3/8 cup lemon juice (approx 1 lemon)
1.5 pounds of sugar
3 cups of water

Wash tangerines in hot water, cut into eight segments and slice thin cross sections.
Bring tangerines, lemon juice and water to a boil in a nonreactive pot (glass/enamel/etc)
Simmer for 90 minutes stirring ocassionally until citris peels are tender and translucent
Dissolve sugar in liquid and stir
Stir mixture constantly for 15 minutes [it will bubble over if you don't stir]
Marmalade will thicken once it cools

I cooked it for too long so my marmalade was very viscous and difficult to spread, but it was high on the yum factor.

Small World

plasticmom and I stopped by a shop specializing in Chinese dresses (chi-pao) when we ran into my roommate from the summer I spent at UCSD. [We actually went to kindergarten together as well, but more on that later.] She was at the store with her mom and her sister, who is getting married. I wasn't sure whether it was her, but I conferred with plasticmom, who has a superpower memory for faces and names. plasticmom was also the one who made the other connection when we roomed at UCSD the summer before college. plasticmom called me at UCSD one day to tell me she recognized my roommate from my kindergarten class when we were four or five. If that's not a superpowered memory...I don't know what is.

Festivus for the Rest of Us

Fun article on folks around this fair country adopting Festivus...I particularly like the woman who handed out tiny versions of the Festivus pole as party favors for her guests. This does lead me to wonder whether, by doing this, violates the very anti-consumeristic message of Festivus.

Not Hello Kitty

Steve: Hey, do you have any thank you notes......
[plasticann glances at a stack of Hello Kitty thank you notes]
Steve:......that aren't Helly Kitty? This is for MIT.
plasticann: Nope!

Hard of Hearing

plasticann: Where did you go to dinner with your parent's last night?
Amy: Paramount.
plasticann: What kind of food is it?
Amy: Very yummy!
plasticann: [pause pause pause] Did you say yummy?
Amy: Very yummy.
plasticann: I thought you said Northern Yummy and I was confused about what region that was. What did you get?
Amy: A burger!
plasticann: [pause pause pause] Did you say burger?
Amy: Yup.
plasticann: I thought you said bird for a second there. I need to clean out my ears.

martha martha martha

Turns out plasticfamily won't be losing their shirts on MSO stock. This time, plasticann gets the credit for picking MSO. Just like how Jerry Seinfeld refuses to run against his middle school nemesis...plasticann is pondering never picking another stock to maintain her one hit wonder status.

Too Much Bread Pudding

I made this easy French Toast Bread Pudding on Saturday for my bible study Christmas brunch. It was tasty, but two batches was way too much. I still ahve four ramekins left in the fridge.

Diameter

Our much discussed, but not yet confirmed office holiday party may probably most likely be at Radius. The following is a reconstructed lunchtime conversation regarding Radius:

Rachel: I think we're going to Radius for our party, but we're not sure when.
Steve: Diameter...if they expanded...they could name the new one Circumference.
Everyone: [peals of laughter...plasticann nearly chokes on her quiche.]

later on

Steve: I'm waiting for you to post about Radius.
plasticann: I was just doing that...how did you know I was going to post?
Steve: It seemed like something you would post about.

later later on:

plasticann: Steve asked if I was going to post about Radius.
Rachel: I think he's trying too hard to get on the blog.
plasticann: I think it's because his friend George reads it now.
Rachel: The circumference thing is actually pretty funny since it's Radius we're talking about.
plasticann: Why?
Rachel: Radius is not very funny place...it takes itself seriously. What if Circumference was a greasy spoon?
plasticann: Now that would be subversive.

Chocolate Kahlua Cake

I made this cake on Monday from the Cake Mix Doctor. You can definately taste the Kahlua in this, but it's really moist and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 box Devil Food Cake Mix (no pudding in the mix)
1 small box of Instant Chocolate Pudding
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup Kahlua

Icing: whisk together 1/2 cup Kahlua and 1 cup powdered sugar.

Directions:
1. Spray bundt pan with oil and coat with flour.
2. Turn on oven to 350 degrees
3. Mix on low all the ingredients for 1 min.
4. Mix on medium for 2-3 min. until blended
5. Pour into pan
6. Bake for 45-50 min. until toothpick tester comes out clean
7. Cool cake in pan for 20 min.
8. Remove cake from pan and pour on icing.

I'm stocking up on these mint KitKat bars. They're like Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, but better.

Going Postal

Turns out Rachel's roommate, an international visiting scholar, has been collecting Rachel's outgoing mail from their mailbox thinking it was mail the mailman delivered to the wrong address. Sure enough, there was a neat pile of Rachel's outgoing mail (cards, bills and whatnot) that had been retrieved over the past few weeks.

No Sew Solutions

Rachel was scootering around the office this morning asking for a sewing kit because she ripped the seam of her lovely chocolate brown sweater. Someone suggested she staple her sweater. Rachel, not one to destroy her sweater with staples, scoffed at the "boy solution." Inspired by the "boy solution," I've fashioned a less destructive solution with some "girly flair." I used some sheer fabric ribbon leftover from my birthday to tie a nice big bow to a mini binder clip that's now clipping together the ripped seam. The bow camouflages both the rip and the binder clip and the green ribbon is a nice festive contrast to the brown sweater. It pays to never throw things like old ribbons away.

Penmanship

Steve: Did you get my e-mail?
plasticann: Nope!
Steve: Could you do me a favor?
plasticann: Sure...what?
Steve: You see, I have my NYU application and well my handwriting isn't, well here's the envelope...
plasticann: Sure...I'll address your envelope.
Steve: Great, it'll look nice.
plasticann: Although, they might wonder why you have girl handwriting.