Foodies Anonymous: Cravings

As an ardent watcher of the Food Network, I'm no stranger to food cravings.  I see it there, I want it here.  It makes food planning a little tricky.  But I'm realizing that there are certain foods that I have a crazy attraction to.  Lately, after looking at my photoadays (lunch on 7/8), I've realized that number one on this list is the Southwest Chicken Tacos from On The Border.  They're nothing special, believe me.  (I could probably make them myself if I didn't think they wouldn't be up to snuff) Just chicken, cheese, sauce and fried-onions, but as soon as I see a photo or commercial I have to have them.  And of course, since I just saw the pic, I now want them for lunch tomorrow...

This really wouldn't be a problem, if On The Border was located in the boondocks.  But since it's literally one Exit away from my office, I indulge my craving a little too often.  Pizza (Coalfire) and french fries (Five Guys) are on the must have list as well but those are easier to not indulge. Not sure why, but I can go for weeks without having them.  I'm at On the Border an embarassing number of times a month.

I'd love to hear if there are other people that have this same favorite food craving.  Please tell me I'm not the only one?!

Crafty App-tastic!

I'm not the biggest fan of Martha Stewart.  While I love her products, I really try to avoid buying them because I really don't want to provide her with more money than she already has.  But, when I saw her new Craft Room App for the iPad, I was intrigued.  I wasn't going to buy it even though it had great reviews and even greater screenshots.  When I realized the app was free for the first few months, I was giddy, so downloaded it was.  Of course, then I forgot I downloaded it.

Well, I was sitting on a conference call today, bored out of my mind and I rediscovered it, so I decided to give it a whirl.  I'm so glad I did!  It's fantastic!  In the free version you are given the choice to use 4 different sets.  Each set includes, "glitter", "glue", text, papers, hole punches, stickers and bling that all follow a particular theme.  Of course, when more themes become available, we'll have to buy them, which, you know, goes against my general rule, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose.  For now, it's just fun. The best part is that you can send what you create (horizontal, vertical, and square cards) through snapfish to be printed.  So not only can you create fun art projects but you can keep them and send them.  You can also share them with Facebook, Twitter and Email. I can only imagine how this is going to streamline Christmas card making! 

As much as I hate to admit it, it's just about the most perfect app ever!  So even though it's killing me to be contributing to Martha's empire, I will most likely be buying more sets and more themes.  It's just too fun not to! 

 

Right Now...

Right Now~~I'm completely clueless as to what to write about.

Right Now~~I'm watching a repeat of NCIS I've seen about a dozen times.

Right Now~~I'm dreading going to work tomorrow to edit for more typos and periods, and am hoping to hear soon about the new job.

Right Now~~I should be reading the fantastic book I started over the weekend ("Holy Cow!") but I just can't keep my eyes open.

Right Now~~I'm realizing that this post sounds really grumpy but that's not how I'm feeling at all.

Right Now~~I think I might have the Monday Night Blahs...

Just Peachy!

I was feeling chef-y today so I decided to try this recipe out.  I'm a sucker for peach cobbler so this sounded like a perfect dessert on a Summer Sunday.  I changed up a few things.  I didn't want to use as much sugar as she did so I used Cinnamon sugar instead, and a little less butter.  While, they weren't nearly as pretty as hers (they got a little brown in the convectino oven)they were quite yummy!  Topped with vanilla ice cream, they totally hit the spot!

Before

 After

 Yum!

Ikea Road Trip!

Has anyone EVER visited an Ikea and not enjoyed it?  (Ok, the bestie has but I've sufficiently turned her over to the dark side)  Even if you're not looking for anything, you can ALWAYS find something.  Even if that something is inspiration.  I love all the colors, and arrangements and the lighting.  I'm kind of a sucker for the lighting department.  I've hoarded 5 lights for my bedroom alone, 4 of which have pretty much never been used but they certainly look cute.  I wasn't looking for anything special this trip but I managed to walk out with (only) a nifty storage solution for my over-abundance of 12x12 cardstock...and of course some inspirational shots for future reference.

P.S.: I told you I was a little obsessed with editing photos using Picmonkey...

Friday Five

1.  This courtesy of the SITS girls this morning on Facebook.  Love it because a. It's word art and how can you not love word art?! and b. It's pretty much what I've been focused on doing this year before I turn the dreaded 3-0 (yuck!)

2.  I've already confessed my love for all things British, as well as "A Bit of Fry and Laurie." (or maybe I just love Fry and Laurie: it really is a toss up!)  So it may not come as a surprise when I say that work's been pretty sparse this week so I've been indulging in some YouTube perusing.  This, so far has been my most favorite sketch.  The pay off is ridiculous but it makes me laugh every time. (of course, I have a sick sense of humor so that may explain that...)

3. Picmonkey:  As someone whose a little too cheap to buy into all the Adobe products, no matter how cool they are, I've had to find other ways of making my not so artsy pics, artsy.  Picmonkey is the perfect site to use to do that AND it's free to boot!  You can use all the fun lighting tricks that come with Instagram, but it also has tools touch up photos, add text and about 20 other things, as well as create collages of pictures.  It's about the most fun I've had with editing photos, ever.  I'm already dreaming of uses for the photo collages.  I see quite a few posts on photos coming your way!

4. Pinterest but it comes with a caveat.  Ok, so I joined Pinterest under protest.  I've been hearing about it for the last year but it's never really sparked my interest (heehee).  Two things happened that made me give it a shot.  1.  The bestie who just joined Facebook last year (she's a little behind the tech times) joined a few months ago: How in the world did she jump in before I did? and 2.  My aunt and my mom asked about it in the same week so I figured I should jump in with them so we could all be confused and amazed together. 
The verdict you may ask?:  It still confounds me!  It's been a week and I still haven't figured out all the intricacies of the Pinterest world.  I've got re-pinning down and I think I might even have gotten the hang of pinning, but how in the heck do you use it on an iPad?  Can you only re-pin stuff by using the app?  I've been trying to figure that out for the last 3 days and I can't seem to solve the riddle! Also, what's wrong with "favoriting" things, doesn't that work just the same?  On the other hand, I seem to have created my very own Tastespotting from the favorites on my Google Reader so I guess that's pretty cool...

5. The Instagram #photoadayjuly Challenge: I am without a doubt absolutely in LOVE with this idea.  (Thanks Aunt Mil!)  I've tried other photo challenges before but I get lost in my head and can't decide what to snap.  This challenge supplies a subject without the pressure of having to take millions of shots.  And others are doing it too so I get the added bonus of inspiration.  Too fun!  Below is the collage (made with Picmonkey: told you I was obsessed!) of the first 6 days of shots.  You'll notice that there are only 5 photos.  Why?  Because Tuesday's is too ugly to share again.  If you're that curious you can check the July 1 post (that's cleverly linked above) but I hate that darn picture and am choosing to not ruin a perfectly good collage with it (that reason AND I couldn't find a template of 6 pics to create.)


Happy Weekend and  Stay cool!



A Big Bang in Science

Let's make this perfectly clear: I claim to have no actual knowledge of astrophysics.  In fact, I never even took Physics in high school or college.  Pretty much everything I know about the subject I've learned from watching Eureka, Stargate or The Big Bang Theory.  That being said, I am totally engrossed in the news coming out of Geneva this week.

Earlier this week, at the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN), the largest particle-physics lab in the world, scientists shared that they were 99% sure they discovered the Higgs-Boson particle.  The Higgs-Boson is also known as the "God particle".  As far as I can deduce (I told you I wasn't a physicist), this particle, which scientists have been searching for for decades, proves that matter exists.  If this is in fact the Higgs-Boson, then all other theories of the universe will remain true.  Clear as mud, right?  A few years ago when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) made the news at CERN, I was equally impressed. I can't even fathom what it's like to work at a facility where conducting an experiment could result in the end of the world (According to myth, the LHC was trying to recreate the Big Bang and when they succeeded the world could have ended just like it did during the first bang). How fascinating is that?!  Of course, it would have been a whole lot less fascinating had the world actually ended, I'm sure.

I'm not even sure why it's so captivating.  I think it's one of those things that's so astronomically hard to understand that you (well at least, I) can't help being intrigued.  I have so many questions flying through my head.  Matter exists since we're here: why do we need a particle to prove it?  How does one build a machine that's so large, to smash together things that are so small?  How in God's name do you isolate things that are so small?  How do you decide to study one of the most confusing subjects in the world?  And most importantly: How in the world do you know you've found what you're looking for when you find it??

Maybe, instead of looking for Cary Grant-ish, I should be looking for Sheldon Cooper-ish...