a99kitten's Musings

What a stressful football weekend. My Gators won – yay! Keeping their perfect season alive and kicking. As Tebow keeps breaking moire records. I ordered my Tebow jersey last week – will be here this coming week – yay!

I won Survivor – chose MIN against DET. Should not have been a stressful pick at all. Although the first half was not so breezy. Won I survived. That’s what counts. But my last surviving opponent chose ARI and SEA looked like they were going to walk all over ARI at home…and then they started playing like SEA again :( So we both survived to pick next week – and we are getting down to the not so easy pickins’!!

In my weekly picks – I HAD chosen KC and GB to win when I made my picks on Tuesday night! But then I got stressed out since both OAK and KC suck but OAK is at home so went with the home team. Meh… And I bought the hype of DAL doing so well and coming back and blah blah. Should have known better. A Niners fan shouldn’t chose DAL…so lost weekly picks this week by 1 game when my original picks would have won easily. I also told my husband I wanted CIN over PIT today but took CIN. Again – dumb. Stupid. Idgit. Oh well.

In Fantasy – my 2 “star” wide receivers got me a combined score of 11 points. W.T.F? Hines Ward and Marques Colston = 11 points total. Thanks guys. I *almost* put in Cotchery or Bowe over Ward but then thought I’d be the idiot. No…would have been smarter.

Sidney Rice got me 80 points with 201 receiving yards. Amazing. Frackin’ amazing. And my BYE week pick-up of Ladell Betts looked dismal starting the day as he reportedly was still battling a sprained ankle…great…and then he got me 50 points! YAY! That’s more than any of my “star” RBs have gotten me all season. Nice.

My PIT defense got me 10 points. Not the 35ish they were projected. I swear if Polamalu isn’t playing (injured and out in 1st Q) the PIT D SUCKS!!!! Ugh.

Before the Sunday Night battle royale (IND vs NE), I made “The Waverly Inn Truffled Mac and Cheese”. Quite excited. Very simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb. elbow macaroni
1 tbsp. salt
5 tbsp. unsalted butter
6 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1.5 tbsp. Dijon mustard
5 cups milk
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese – shredded (2 cups)
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese – shredded (2 cups)
1 tsp. table salt
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
White-Truffle oil to taste

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch over over high heat. Add macaroni and 1 tbsp. salt; cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta and set aside in colander. Add a drop of olive oil to prevent sticking.

2. In the now-empty Dutch oven, heat butter over medium-high heat until foaming. Add flour and mustard and whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk; bring mixture to boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes.

Off heat, whisk in cheeses and 1 tsp. salt until fully melted. Add pasta and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through.

3. Top with bread crumbs and broil until crumbs are deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Drizzle truffle oil to taste. Cool about 5 minutes, then serve.

I made this with come cheeseburgers. YUM!! This was quite a tasty meal. And the mac & cheese was quite simple compared to some others.

Going into tonight’s game ahead by 30 points. I have my star TE – Dallas Clark. My opponent has Joseph Addai though. Stress….

I am watching tonight’s game wearing my Peyton Manning jersey :) GO CLARK! GO COLTS!

After trying the mac & cheese, I feel it is not as good as the others I have tried (all from my mac&cheese cookbook). Kinda bland. It’s mac & cheese. I’ll still eat it. It’s better than most food. But not OMGI”LLDIEYUM if you know what I mean :)

My doggies love Greenies. Love, love, love them. They get 1 a day. I give them the regular size even though they are technically the large size in doggie pounds. Don’t tell them :)

Usually I buy them on eBay as I get can get them shipped for about $0.81 per by buying several packs of them. At pet stores, they average around $1.00 per. At Pet Club, if on sale, about $0.81 (our joyous state sales tax kills it.) Plus the drive time, etc. and they usually limit the amount you can buy when at that sale price. So I like to order them online :)

I found the best deal ever on them right now! Sign up for bing.com’s cash back program (which I love.) Use bing.com to search for Greenies. Click on the drugstore.com link that shows the cash back icon. It will take you to drugstore.com using their tracking system. You are now eligible for (currently) 25% cash back on your entire purchase!

Sign up for drugstore.com and you get 6% back in drugstore.com dollars to use quarterly. I order the buds’ Frontline from there as well as other stuff so I love drugstore.com dollars :)

AND, right now they are offering Greenies at a “buy one get 2nd half off” sale! So go to the Pet Store –>Greenies section and click on an item. Then see the text link that says “Buy one Greenies pet treat and the get second half off!” and click on it. It takes you to a list of eligible items and you check the items you want and click “Buy Checked Items”.

So now – you are getting your 2nd Greenies pack at 50% off. Plus 6% in drugstore.com dollars to use later AND you will receive 25% cashback from Bing! If you spend $50 or more – free shipping too! I always can find an extra thing to add on (that I now don’t have to get at the drugstore!) for the free shipping :) Just with the BOGO sale, mine were $0.75 each shipped. Then calculate in the drugstore.com 5% back and the bing.com 25% back = excellent deal!!

Bing.com pays you back via Paypal too (can send a check I think as well but that’s highly inefficient!) They do this quarterly (although I did get instant cash back the other day for an eBay purchase – very nice.) I did hear of problems using bing and Google checkout together but since I don’t like Google or their products – no big deal for me. But maybe for you?

Plus using bing makes me remember Chandler on Friends who I LOVED! :)

Now, you can use this bing cash back option for other things other than Greenies (hello beauty.com!) but the buds wanted me to share this awesome Greenie find ;)

Tomorrow is Veterans day. It’s an important day. My grandfather fought in World War II. This was always a fact in my life. A good reason to remember veterans. Those that fought for the freedoms we all enjoy in this country. The freedoms that so, so many take for granted now. But it was never made a big deal either. Simply a fact. Because why would you do anything BUT honor and respect this?

Another reason I remember this day is because it was my parents’ wedding anniversary. Not sure what possessed them to get married on a previously established “holiday”. Seems like a bad plan to me. But I never forgot the date. Maybe my Mom planned that…But neither parent served in the military. Nor anyone in my family after my grandfather. But maybe because it was a big day? I don’t know. Never asked.

I was not raised with military ingrained in me. No one said this is something you have to believe. Just something I always have. I have always respected the military, the police…anyone who voluntarily puts their life on the line for strangers…to protect others. If you don’t respect that…well…frankly…you are an ass clown. Are there bad cops? Sure. Are there bad people in the military? Sure. But I give these men and women the benefit of the doubt (much like we are told to give those pesky repeat felons, pedophiles and terrorists…) There are bad people everywhere. In every walk of life. Every profession. Every religion. Get over yourself if you think otherwise. But there is good too.

I wish my parents would have gotten a divorce when they realized they were not happy with one another. Maybe then, they’d both be happy now. I probably will not call my Dad on Wednesday to avoid this day, and the memories it could bring him.

I’m proud that my grandfather served in World War II. I owe him, and all those that served with him, before and after him, my respect. My gratitude. We all do. Whether you recognize it or not.

This day means different things to me. But it will always mean you should honor those who fought for us. If you don’t recognize this…you need to read and learn history. And not just the crap they teach in public schools or on CNN.

Well, I lost my fantasy week. Very sad about this. Especially since I lost to a guy who was trying to snake a trade in with another team manager which I felt was completely bogus. The league vetoed this trade but when someone comes to me to justify something that I feel is ridiculous. Well, I tell them so. Sucks that I lost to him. If Brees and Colston would have just been more productive for me I would have won – damn it! So now I will be 6-3…not sure where that will land me league-wise. At least Hines Ward got me 2 TDs tonight for more points cushion.

I did win our weekly picks pool! For the 3rd time this season!!! This is a record!! Very happy about this :) I just found my cash from my last win in another purse yesterday :) I am keeping it aside for my shoe/bag fund! I think for the time invested – I am doing VERY well in the weekly pools compared to my fantasy team.

And I survived our weekly Survivor too. With a Seattle pick. Holy hell I was stressing into the 4th quarter of that game! Just 2 players survive – both girls :) The only 2 girls who played Survi. Hehehe…But now the picks will just keep getting more stressful! I’ve used most “sure thing” teams. While realizing no team is a sure thing…I’ve used most of them except for Indy. But really…Any Given Sunday…

And my Gators won! Yay!!! Of course I read more gator-hater articles and crap. But meh…And my Bucs won!!! They are sad this season but yay for them winning against Green Bay!! Was a great game! Oh! and I did order my Peyton Manning jersey! To go with my Joe Montana, Ocho Cinco and Alex Smith jerseys :)

I really do love football….

Good day today! A great walk with the buds to start it.  It was a gorgeous day out.  Blue sky with a few light, wispy clouds. Then the sun came up. Was breezy but not windy. The waves were crazy. Tons of sets coming in – great whitecaps and crashing into the rocks. Hard to get a good photo as the waves were much bigger IRL but I tried…

Waves 11.7.09

Then drove into SF and saw Wicked. My girlfriends and I have been trying to pick a date to see this show for months but something always came up.  But we finally just picked a date and did it. Not everyone could come :( but we ended up getting PERFECT seats! I think my friend Helen will never want to volunteer to be in charge of the ticket procuring again but she scored great tickets for this!! Center orchestra seats. Perfect view of everything. Close enough to see all details on every costume but not in the first section so you miss anything on the sides. So perfect. Yay for the flu (the original buyer of these tix had 3 of their 4 get the flu so they had to sell.)

The sick people behind us should have sold their tickets and stayed home as well. At least 3 of the people sitting directly behind us kept coughing. And not even bothering to cover their mouths. Who does this? Really? Were you people raised by savages? They were clearly not too bright as they were surprised by the some of the “reveals” of the play. Again…….Really? Yes…these are the same people that vote. Sigh….

But the show was too good and fun for that to effect the mood!

Seats for Wicked

The actress who played Elphaba (aka The Wicked Witch of the West) was so, so good. Her voice was so awesome. She was actually the Standby too. Amazing. Glinda was great too. Was imagining how Kristin Chenoweth was on Broadway – she must have been great in that role!  The cast really did a great job.  Didn’t like Nessarose (character or actress) much though – but since she was the Wicked Witch of the East, I guess that’s right.

I would see this show again. Thoroughly enjoyable. And it did remind me how much I love seeing plays and  musicals. I *hate* going into the city for any reason whatsoever but I would volunteer for a good show. The last play we saw in the city was Phantom. Front row balcony seats – perfect view. Husband fell asleep (?) So now I will just go with friends :)

Going back to the parking lot, we had to take an elevator from street level. The stairwells were locked to, I assume, keep the homeless out (man, I love the cesspool…I mean city…) Apparently we were riding with people who were raised by the same savages. This guy kept squeezing against me to let more people in. If he would have made one more move – I would have clocked him. As it was as soon as soon the elevator door opened I pushed him forward to “help him out.” My friends were across from me so they saw my face. Glad I provided amusement for them :)

After the show, we went and had dinner at Q. Very, very yummy. I got a spinach salad to add a healthy component to my mac and cheese with tater tots entree :)  But I didn’t eat dinner on Friday night and hadn’t eaten yet today so the calorie intake *must* have balanced out somehow, right? :)

Mac & Cheese with tots at Q

Came home to very happy to see me doggies. So I’m just hanging out with them now.  Why a matinee show and early dinner is great – not home too late so doggie time after!!  A great, fun day and then football tomorrow. YAY!

OMG! Saw this announced today! I haven’t bought my new, remastered CD set yet and now look – it paid off!! (see my excited CD blog here: https://a99kitten.com/?p=1147 This is perfect for me!

Limited Edition USB Stick – Contains Entire Digitally Remastered Catalogue
(BEA48315)

Release Date 12/8/09

Limited Quantity Subject to Vendor Allotment. Due to the overwhelming success of the Beatles Apple USB drive, we are unable to guarantee your order will be filled. TheBeatles.com is working closely with EMI to secure additional supply. We will fill the orders on a first come, first serve basis. Note the order will not be charged until the time of delivery and you may cancel your order up until December 4th.

Following the 9.9.09 debut of the digitally re-mastered catalogue on CD, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are pleased to announce the worldwide release of a limited edition of 30,000 Beatles Stereo USB apples on December 8th.

This unique, apple-shaped USB drive is loaded with the re-mastered audio for The Bealtes’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK art, rare photos and expanded liner notes. A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and the 16GB USB’s audio contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats, fully compatible with PC and Mac.

Albums:

-Please Please Me

-With The Beatles

-A Hard Day’s Night

-Beatles For Sale

-Help!

-Rubber Soul

-Revolver

-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

-Magical Mystery Tour

-Yellow Submarine

-The White Album

-Abbey Road

-Let It Be

-Past Masters

The Beatles Apple :)

Of course I pre-ordered it today!! Now, I have no idea if my order will be fulfilled. 30,000 sounds like such a small number considering how many Beatles fans there are. But I’m hoping most of them bought the CD set as soon as it came out :)

I’d be so, so sad if not fulfilled :( But I am going to keep positive thoughts that this awesome apple will indeed be mine in December!

So Please, Please Me and HELP! me by keeping all of your fingers (and toes) crossed fo me! :)

I would like this please…

Love suede. Love the mixture of browns and purples. Very pretty….

Good grief this is cute :)

So the new Hate Crime provision (expanding the existing law) has been signed. Well…it was attached to a must-sign Defense bill so that it would have to be approved after it has not been approved when submitted on its own. Yeah…that’s how the government should work…

Now, I have no issue with people being punished for committing crimes against gays, lesbians (isn’t that the same thing?), bisexual, etc. But why is that crime any different than committing these crimes against me? Or a straight, white adult male.

Yes, I’ve read all of the arguments for the provision. And for the law in general (which I disagree with.) I understand them. But nowhere in any of them do I see something explaining to me why a crime against someone…anyone…shouldn’t be treated and punished equally.

You drag me out behind the bar and beat me up – should be a penalty for that. You rape me – should be a penalty for that. You burn my house down – should be a penalty for that. So why differentiate the victim? The victim is the victim. The perpetrator of the crime should be punished. Same penalty for the crime no matter who it was against. It shouldn’t matter what color, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. (crimes against children should have harsher penalties however.)

Yes, I get that if you take a gay man outside and beat him BECAUSE he is gay it is bad. Of course it is. But if someone drags me out and beats me up or kills me, it’s not because he (or she) loves me, that’s for sure. So why is that different? Why is that not a hate crime? Yes, gender is “protected” too. But then every rape is a federally prosecuted hate crime? No, I don’t think they are. If a bunch of black, hispanic, asian or martian men take aside a white kid and beat or kill him – are they charged with a hate crime? All of these acts would be done with malice. With hate. Because one thing is for damn sure, they weren’t done out of love.

You can argue all of the delicate sensibilities and PC crap you want. If a crime is committed, there should be a penalty. Adding on a HATE crime label is dumb. They are all hate crimes. If you commit violence against another living thing – it’s not because you have some great affinity for it/them.

Treating one bucket of victims differently from another is wrong. Period. The definition of discrimination is:

treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.

So another bill was signed into law (expanding the language of a current law really) doing just this exact thing. So yes, this bothers me. A lot.

I believe I just found the 2nd book to purchase on my Kindle :)

I love Denis Leary. I have loved him for years and years. When Rescue Me started it was a bit of heaven to have him for an hour per week. Sarcastic, non-PC humor is generally my favorite and he is a master at it :)