Enjablog

So, this was another eventful Thanksgiving.

First Thanksgiving was at my parents’ house. It was raining, so there was no fried turkey this year. No worries, though. My mom tried out a brining technique and baked a turkey that even I had a second piece of. My sis made stuffing, as usual. Lenny and Steph brought their frozen fruit mold and some cheesecake. Both quite tasty, and the fruit was really good with ginger ale. Also on the spread: cornbread, green bean casserole, spare ribs, potatoes and mixed vegetables, lo mein, sticky rice, cranberry sauce, and a half-eaten loaf of wheat bread that my father offered up. On the dessert table: pumpkin cake, apple pie, pumpkin custard pie, pumpkin cranberry bread, and ice cream. I think I’m going to try making a sweet potato pie next year. I’ve been hearing lots of good things.

Other highlights: we had several copies of Thursday’s circulars, so everyone could decide where they wanted to go shopping on Black Friday. Wii!!!! Man, that was crazy fun. I also heard a rumor about Animal Crossing for Wii, where you actually fish and have to use the numchuck to reel the fish in. I’m very excited about this.

Second Thanksgiving at Ian’s parents’ place. Relatively quiet this year, compared to the past couple holidays where it was at his aunt’s place. Got a taste of some of the things I missed on my family’s usual menu: mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Mm! There was also turkey, of course, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, and olives (I’m making progress on learning to like these! I think I’ll like them next time I try them. That was #6, I believe.). And for dessert the options were home-made pecan pie and pumpkin pie, with hand-whipped cream on top. I’m disappointed because I was so stuffed by that point, I was only able to try one type of pie.

On the way back, I stood in line in front of CompUSA for about an hour and got inside to find no trace of the sale items I was interested in. Not even a sign and an empty shelf. I suspect they didn’t have what I was looking for. Cheaters.

Friday, I hung out at Costco for about three hours waiting to get 2 new tires. I wandered Costco for an hour, hung out at Borders for an hour, then read my new book (Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd) in front of the tire center until I saw my car come out. I even talked to some strangers. Conversation spurred by the book.

Saturday night, met up with DW and one of Ian’s coworkers at Lost Dog. Fun time. Haven’t been there in a while. Got plenty of gossip too!

Sunday, I worked on the new blanket I started. Not sure what/who this will be for, but I had a pound of dark green yarn and I couldn’t think of anything to use it for. I don’t even know why I have it, since I’m not particularly fond of the color. Otherwise, spent a lot of the weekend watching tv and reading. Finally getting around to “studying” for the GREs. Yeah, it’s half-hearted, but at least I’m making an effort. That’s more than I did for the SATs and that actually had an impact on my future. Well, technically, it did.

Anyway, my only new recipe this year:

Pumpkin Cake

Hellraiser: Bloodline buy

A Good Nightnd Good Luck. divx Be Cool movie download

• Brother Bear

5 Card Stud divx
INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 3 eggs
* 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon ground allspice
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup chopped nuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch bundt or tube pan.
2. Cream oil, beaten eggs, pumpkin and vanilla together.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined. If desired, stir in some chopped nuts. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a plate and sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar.

Notes: Replaced half the oil with apple sauce and made without nuts. It had a very dense, moist texture. Baked in a cake pan instead of bundt pan. The middle kind of sank, so I probably didn’t bake it long enough. The edges were cooked through though, so it probably needs something that would distribute the heat more evenly. If a bundt/tube pan is unavailable, these would probably do well as loaves.

Served with vanilla ice cream instead of the suggested cream cheese frosting. Might try making cupcakes next time for more variety… nuts, chocolate chips, frosting, etc.

QOTD: “you should start preemptively farting at the boys”

Zeus and Roxanne psp

*DISCLAIMER* Skip today if you are uninterested in my political opinions. *DISCLAIMER*

From the WaPo Prison of the Dead ipod How High

today:

“The message yesterday was clear: The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in an ethical manner, and work together to address the challenges facing our nation,” Bush said.

“I’m obviously disappointed with the outcome of the election and, as the head of the Republican Party, I share a large part of the responsibility,” Bush said.

Right, the message was clear. He’s obviously disappointed that Americans want to set aside partisan politics and expect politicians to behave ethically and collaborate. Good one.

And another:

“I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of the campaign,” Bush said. He added, “Win or lose, Bob Gates was going to become the nominee.”

Oh, yeah right. Why lie about it if you were going to replace him anyway? I’m kind of glad that he did, since that might have been one of the few things that could actually have helped the Republicans. But it’s a stupid thing to deny now.

I was mostly kidding yesterday about beating Ian up, but apparently it’s actually true. It’s old news in Ohio, but something to think about since it’s new to Virginia: Domestic Violence Charges Can’t Be Filed Against The Unmarried

The Prize dvd

• Evil Dead II movie

Domestic violence charges cannot be filed against unmarried people because of Ohio’s recently enacted definition of marriage, a judge ruled Wednesday.
…
Frederick’s public defender, David Magee, had asked the judge to throw out the domestic violence charge because of the new wording in Ohio’s constitution that prohibits any state or local law that would “create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals.”

Before the amendment, courts applied the domestic violence law by defining a family as including an unmarried couple living together as would a husband and wife, the judge said.

Now courts can’t do that because of the gay marriage amendment, Friedman wrote.

Apply to insurance, medical decisions, wills… This isn’t to say that I would be for this if they actually went to the trouble of specifying same-sex individuals, but this is writing into our Bill of Rights that we are to take away rights currently upheld in the Commonwealth. If I understand this correctly, my company could be prohibited from offering health coverage to my domestic partner. They weren’t required to before, but this would be offering rights/benefits and recognizing a “relationship of unmarried individuals”. *Gasp*

People who are gay already knew that they weren’t welcome in Virginia, but now we have it in writing! Thank goodness we now have protection for people like Britney and Kevin to uphold the sanctity of marriage. Right. Thanks.

QOTD: “Did you vote today?”
“No, but I gave blood.”

Hair dryers! They’re fantastic! If your hair is wet and, instead, you want it to be dry, you can use this device to to blow warm air around and make your hair dry. *Awesome*

So, my brother has this box of “door prizes” and every time people visit him, they can pick a prize out of the box to take with them. It’s filled with things like old CDs, DVDs, and magazines. Stuff he doesn’t want anymore, but someone else might find useful. The last time I was over there for Karoke Jam, I picked out a hair dryer because I’ve never owned one before. Why my brother had one, I don’t know. He’s been in the army for like 6 years and has no hair to speak of. Explains why he didn’t want it though.

In any case, I’ve been using it for the past couple weeks and it has made my hair dry much faster than normal. Doesn’t make it look any different since my hair is straight and that’s about the extent of what it does. But it was dry!

QOTD: “So it will suck too — I mean it will have the same features.”

P.S. Oooh, scary… It’s Friday the 13th. *gasp*

• Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent hd

  Die Hard divx

  Black Eagle movie

  The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D psp

  download Danny the Dog movie

  Superbad divx

  • download Anaconda 3: The Offspring movie
  Hellraiser: Bloodline film

  download Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever dvd

  Chemical Wedding full movie

Spent the weekend in Boston with the fam. Flew up on Saturday morning (Jet Blue!) with Ian and my sis, but the rest of the family drove up. Did most of our site-seeing and catching up with people on Saturday. Caught the T out to the hotel while the family was hanging out at Cheers. They got back shortly after we arrived.

Went to Bartley’s Edison for lunch, where Mr. Bartley sat outside and took our order. Hung out there with Sonny, Yenny, Ian, and DW. From there, we went to Burdick’s to introduce my sibs to their hot chocolate. Soooo good.

After that, my sibs went back to the hotel with the parents and DW, Ian, and I met up with Jessica and wandered over to the Science Museum. There was some new fancy exhibit, but we decided it was too expensive for us, especially since we were only going to be able to stay for an hour or so. Wandered off from there and went to the Dairy Fresh candy store. Oh, there was so much candy. Bought some for presents, some to share with the family, and some for us. :)

From there, we headed back to the hotel to drop off all our things before heading back out to meet up with some of Ian’s friends/former coworkers. Had dinner with them at Christopher’s, watched the Yankees lose, and caught up with even more people at Bukowski’s

• Tommy buy Rush Hour dvdrip

download P.S. I Love You dvd

Thick as Thieves divx Pinero movie download

Shark Tale ipod

. Decided to head out a little before midnight and made our way back to the hotel.

Sunday, got off to a slow start. My mother and L&S had looked up a local church, so they went to attend morning services. The rest of us slept in, watched sports highlights, and got ready for fantasy football. When the churchers returned, we gathered into the car toward Fenway. We had lunch at Beer Works and everyone got to try fried pickles. Yeah, they sound weird, but they taste good. Mmm!

While we were headed there, Ian and I got to point out where we rioted 2 years ago when the Red Sox won the World Series. We watched in Beer Works, so we were right across the street from Fenway and in the Eye of the Storm.

We all headed back after lunch and loafed around until it was time for the weekend’s main event: my cousin and her husband’s wedding reception. It was so fancy — table cloths and

name cards. It was a big traditional Chinese banquet, so it was a lot of drinking and a lot of really good food. She let her uncle emcee for her. I don’t know if she expected him to tell so many, uhm… jokes. ;) Lots of fun and definitely a good excuse to visit Boston for the weekend. And it’s always nice to see the cousins again.

The fam headed out after dropping Yenny, Ian, and me back off at the hotel. We spent one more night, got breakfast at the Busy Bee, then caught the T to head to the airport. Yay Jet Blue!

QOTD: “Buttbag. It’s a bag of butts.”

• Flatliners

Went out to happy hour last night with Sonny and his friends/gf. Lots of fun hanging out, a little drama, a lot of gossip. Even met a few new people! I haven’t seen Sonny in a few weeks, much less his friends. Probably not since his karaoke jam. I had talked to Ben, but only for a favor… ;)

Anyway, that’s about all. Stayed out a little

Popeye buy

too late, but it was fun. And then I had time to come home and visit the AC.

QOTD: “If I had to be an enzyme, I’d be dna helicase….because then I could unzip your genes.”

• Five Minutes of Heaven video

Yes Man ipod

• 007 Octopussy

So, in case anyone was wondering where the place to be for singles on a weeknight is… Apparently, it’s the Giant parking lot. I had four (yes four) guys give me a “How you

Merlin and the War of the Dragons divx

The Devil Wears Prada movie The Weekend movie download

• Downloading Nancy psp

doin’?” on my way into Giant. Maybe not that exact quote, but they were definitely channeling some Joey Tribbiani in there. Two of them were walking out to their cars and two were sitting in running cars waiting for … someone. A single woman to walk across the parking lot? A girlfriend who went inside to pick up some milk? I don’t know. But they were just hanging out in the parking lot. Uncool, I say.

I went to go pick up groceries today before the sales changed over. That’s another thing. What’s with Giant changing their sales on Thursdays? They claim it was to make my

Popeye divx

• download The Tingler movie

life easier. I think it was cheaper to get their circular in the Wednesday food section than to get in the Sunday extras. But maybe I’m just cynical. Regardless, this messes up my coupon/grocery list schedule.

Anyway, got my stuff. I’m all stocked up for Halloween and cold season. The checkout guy was even nice and organized my bags so all the refrigerated items were together. I was very disorganized taking things out of the basket, so that was thoughtful of him. Not as good as the girl I used to go to who would double bag all my heavy things, but still good.

Time to go dig for more fossils. Hopefully, I’ll find something plesio. :)

QOTD: “It’s called work, not naps and cookies!”A Civil Action trailer

I’ve been looking for this same Plesio skull for over 4 months now. I’m starting to get very angry with the fossils.

I’ve been trying to catch the coelacanth for almost 10 months.

My luck with the bugs isn’t great, but they’re coming along. I guess it’s not so much luck as my netting skillz. Indeed, they are lacking.

I’m almost out of room in my cabinets for gyroids. I think I need to start playing as Ian again so I can have more storage space.

Not much else going on. Wedding planning, back-to-school planning, figuring out how much I can get my company to pay for… see if they’ll send me to China. You know, the usual. Back to the crossing!

QOTD by the president of my company: “I wish I could buy a shipyard so I could fire them!”Save the Last Dance 2 full movie Freddy Got Fingered movie download

• Forever Strong dvdrip 007 Octopussy dvd
  
  Kissing Cousins
  download Downloading Nancy dvd

King Kong vs. Godzilla ipod

• The Salton Sea psp

• More to Love movie download
  • Landspeed ipod

What a day… The whole family crossed over the bridge to have dinner at my sis’s place in MD. My father was very concerned about this trek, so he made sure to arrange carpools and help others arrange them as well. Everyone arrived successfully.

We started out with some cheesy appetizers, one of which I brought back from my adventure in Wisconsin. I stood around getting all filled up on cheese and crab dip before the hot dogs and hamburgers were done. There were dumplings, green bean salad, melons, pineapple, and lots of other food. We spent the afternoon watching football and admiring the greatness that is HD.

Also got some good gossips. No idea how reliable it is, but good stuff nonetheless. :)

QOTD: “Wow, look how crisp that yellow line is!”

The Prince and Me 2 download

• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickeys Great Clubhouse Hunt psp

Helter Skelter

Gandhi movie download

download A Bugs Life movie

Whisper psp

Return Of The Magnificent Seven download

• download Darkman II: The Return of Durant dvd

Action-packed weekend scheduled… Highlights include brunch for my cousin and her husband who are moving out of the area, a scotch tasting, karaoke jam, and our annual family will-writing party. I’m going to eat too much food this weekend.

I baked cookies on Thursday night and used some of those peanut butter chocolate swirl chips. They’re very cool, but they have a lower melting point than regular chocolate chips and they are also dough-colored. So, I couldn’t be certain that the chips were distributed evenly. But it all worked out. The chips were all very melty/smooshed, but still tasted good. I think next time I would try these in a peanut butter cookie recipe.

QOTD: “I’m sorry to hear that you have neither a fiance or enough finger-fat”The Pink Panther film

Jack Squad divx

The Holiday buy From Dusk Till Dawn divx

• Bottle Shock dvdrip

Lady Chatterleys Lover video

Penguins die in car accident How the Grinch Stole Christmas! psp

:

One rockhopper penguin died in the crash and a further three gentoo penguins were killed by oncoming traffic.

Ok, so I know penguins can’t drive, what with not being able to reach the pedals and all. And I know they weren’t really driving that truck transporting them. But I can’t help but picturing the movie Madagascar in my head when I was reading that story. Penguins… Being transported from a zoo… Suddenly, there’s a car accident and then all the animals get loose. But none of them really know what to do? Real life stole from the movies.

Poor penguins.

QOTD (Weingarten, of course):

Deep down, I believe that gay men are just kidding. ‘Cause I just don’t get it. I want to grab a gay friend, and drag him to the movies, and FORCE HIM to stare at, like, Natalie Portman (speaking of hot Jewish women), and say, “NOTHING??? YOU GOT NOTHING?????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU’RE KIDDING ME, RIGHT????”
…
I can’t understand women who are NOT gay!

The Chateau

The Hunting Party full movie

When I graduated from high school, I needed a computer to bring to college with me. Like most of my friends, we all wanted shiny brand new computers. So, a group of 4 or 5 of us got together and ordered computer parts together. Everyone had their general specs in mind, but buying in bulk was where we were going to save. A spreadsheet was created, different options were considered, and purchases were made. In the end, we all had slightly different variants, but very similar computers. Externally, they looked pretty much the same: identical cases, the same CD ROM drives, etc.

Eight years later, these CPUs are pretty obsolete, but they’re still around. Cannibalized for parts or sitting around waiting for data to be retrieved and moved to other hard drives. As Ian and I continue to slowly collect our decade-old belongings from our respective previous residents, we come across things like this. Most of our furniture might not match, but we could have matching CPU end tables if we wanted.

QOTD from eHow

Old Hag trailer

Mum & Dad video

• Judgment Night dvd

: “Take care not to poke or gouge yourself with hair sticks.”I Know You Know video Mamma Mia! dvdrip

• Double Dagger movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow divx
  • Bringing Up Bobby ipod

  Total Recall download

Well, there goes my post for today… I was going to post up the lyrics for the horrible new TJ Alma Mater, but I left the sheet at Ian’s parents house on Sunday. I’ll get it back and post some other time. Also waiting for them to get posted somewhere on the TJ website. But don’t know when they’ll get around to that.

But for a taste, picture full orchestra with an 8-minute intro. Then the chorus starts:

“May the circle of infinity be unbroken.”

Oh, yes. Most pretentious alma mater ever. And ∞ ≠ O, so I don’t even know what they’re talking about. But the amazing part is that the lyrics get worse.

QOTD Tony Snow to CBS Early Show’s Julie Chen (Yes, I know this is so last week): “…you can’t talk about a program that we neither confirm nor deny the existence of.”
Oh, wait. I think she just did. Oh, snap!

Edit: I don’t know what happened. It only posted half my entry yesterday. I guess it posted the part that I saved halfway through.They Live movie download

The Hills Have Eyes

Watched Crash last night. Yeah, I’m a little behind the times, but I got around to it…

It was very cool how they intertwined all the characters. I understand that all the characters were supposed to be exaggerations of how people are in real life, but they were all so mean. It was hard trying to find someone to root for. No heros or heroines in the movie. Everyone had a very bad moment and most of them had a moment of redemption. I guess this was supposed to make me root for humanity or something like that… hoping that in everyone’s lives, the good moments out-number the bad.

Good movie, overall. The characters were so extreme at some parts (Sandra Bullock), they were unintentionally(?) funny. At the very least, I could empathize. And that’s something.

QOTD: “No I mean it, that is like death to me. I’d rather sit in church.”

• Rockula download The Sweetest Thing The Ghost and the Darkness video 28 Days dvdrip
  Agent Cody Banks ipod

The Mummy dvdrip

• The Hitcher dvdrip Maximum Risk divx

So much going on…

Highlights:

- Going last Friday to see Fashiongrrl dubbed Dr.

The Island buy

Halloween III: Season of the Witch divx

• Mousehunt ipod

Cactus dvd

Fashiongrrl.
- Date night at Dominion!
- Getting to level 262 in Tetris… On SPJ’s card because DW borrowed mine.
- TJ 20th birthday picnic thing — and introduction of the most pretentious alma mater ever
- Mushroom infestation

QOTD: “I have a question for you guys… Should I marry [my girlfriend]?”

Read an article recently which referred to the Wage Project

A Perfect World psp

The 11:14 (Eleven Fourteen Movie) film , which was what got me all riled up about my salary a few months back. That led me to finding a newer, better job. And now I take another look and 6 months later, I am again 20% below average. How is that possible? Who are these people who are getting paid that much? I think their numbers might be a little off. But maybe that’s just me making myself feel better about my negotiating skills.

QOTD: “We must delete deceased members from the list of members that owe dues.”The Tommyknockers film The Flying Scotsman movie download

The Little Mermaid

download Silver Bullet movie