My Favorite Blogs

For reasons which I'll elaborate on at a later date, I'm not baking so much right now.  So I thought I'd make a list of my favorite food blogs to share the food love.  Mom got me started on collecting recipes, and I've scoured the web in search of good food blogs-- good food, and good blogs, at the same time. 

Vanilla Sugar - She has some good recipes and really nice pictures. 
Deep Fried Kudzu - Some good Southern/Jewish-inspired recipes.  I'm dying to try that matzo-collard greens soup.
CPB Gallery - A must for anyone who loves chocolate and peanut butter.  Like me.
Baker's Banter - King Arthur Flour's blog.  Really good, thorough explanations, great pictures, and really yummy stuff that I want to try. 

I'll post more later, but I wanted to get the top blogs that I look at for right now.  I have a ton of other blogs and recipe sites that I've bookmarked. 

From One Virus to Another...

Today Mom and I saw two movies.  One was "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."  When I first heard about it, I was like, "Eh."  But then I heard how much dough it made, and saw the trailer, and thought it looked pretty good.

It was pretty good.  The special effects were neat, and the storyline was easy to follow.  It got me thinking as to how far primates can go with their intelligence.  I know the speaking thing was pretty off-the-mark, but still.... (And, no, there are no redwood forests on the other side of the Golden Gate!  They're at least 3 hours away!) The ending was left totally open for a sequel.  Do not leave the theater when the credits roll.  Which leads me to the second movie... (yes, the two are linked by this small but significant thread; those who have seen "Apes" know what I'm talking about.)

"Contagion."  It's part drama, part documentary (sort of).  The cinematography is good, and so is the acting.  What's good is that it doesn't go from start-to-finish.  It skips around.

[Disclosure warning] I am slightly germophobic, and probably for good reason.  I nearly had a panic attack while watching this movie.  I thought I was going to be sick (the *other* kind of sick).  But I enjoyed it, as much as one can watching this type of movie.  It's quite good.  Perhaps that's why it was good.  It's scary.  It's scary because it could happen.

And on a happier note, look what I found... :)

Trailers and Tacos and Movies, Oh My

This evening, we Twihards finally got what we'd been waiting for.

The official Breaking Dawn trailer.

Man, did they deliver.  It was pretty stinkin' cool.  Thank you, Bill Condon.

http://www.breakingdawn-themovie.com/

I'm even more excited now to see it.

Tonight was a late taco night.  Mom and I had crunchy tacos; they were good.  Hadn't had them for a while.  By the way, Walmart, kudos to the Marketside Guacamole in the produce section.  It's really good.

I picked up "X-Men: First Class." I'm not quite done with it.  I was a little worried as to how it would go, considering none of the original cast (Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, et al) is in it, but it's good.  I like it.

I'm kind of tired, considering it's close to one in the morning. Signing off.

With Great Power...

...Comes great air-condtioning. (Sorry, Spider-Man.)

If you've been in Houston the past 24 hours, you know we've been having some problems with power.  It started last night at about 8:30.  I was at work when the lights first went out.  The registers were able to keep running for about a half an hour longer, then they quit.  The customers were ushered out of the store, and we (the employees) started sorting in the dark, until the power came back on about forty-five minutes later.

Today we had power issues again, along with a good amount of wind.  It started about noon, and for my place it went off and on a couple times.  The second time it went off, I thought I'd go to work to see if I could get a couple of things.  Alas, work was closed, and they were ushering people out again.  So I went to Food Town, where everything was working... for a while.  The lights went out there, too, but no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave yet.  Everyone seemed to be making the rounds to whichever store was open in the area.

On I went to Target.  All seemed to be well there. 


Oh, man.  The lights went out after a couple of minutes.  Then they came back on.  Then, they just went off.  The employees let us keep shopping for a while, although I was told by an employee that they would have to kick us out eventually to avoid theft.  Employees were also mentioning closing off the frozen/refrigerated food sections soon.  I heard mumblings about "flashlight apps"; indeed, some people were using theirs. 

I left eventually and went back to Food Town; it was still dark-- and pretty busy.  That was really my last stop of the day.  When I was on my way home Mom called to say that we had power again.  Maybe I should write a book: The Survival Guide for People in Weird Situations, or something like that.


So... here I am, doing this blog- with power and A/C (!!).


For right now, anyway. :)


And, yes, I did get a flashlight app.

Movies and More Musings

"Dear East Coast,
Please don't hog the rain.

Sincerely, Texas."

I'm still reading "The Confession."  It's good- still good.  I also picked up "The Sookie Stackhouse Companion", by Charlaine Harris, to read next.

Here's some movies I'd like to see:
-"The Debt"
-"Contagion"
-"Abduction"
-"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (having skipped the first one- or is it two?)
-And this little movie called... wait, you know what it is already.

Here's a handy tip: be careful about what time you set up your phone.  You just might inadvertently call someone at two am- like I nearly did.