It must be Monday

Monday's seem to sneak up on me since I started PoEvMoFoReOfThYe (or something like that). Sometimes I even want to post on a different day of the week, but I resist for fear I might use up all my material for Monday. Then it's Monday and I've forgotten what it was I wanted to post about on said "different days".


I even have a white board in my apartment, and I wrote "blog ideas" on it, so that whenever I get an idea I can write it down. However, this doesn't always work because sometimes I'm in my car, or at work when I think of an idea, then by the time I get home I completely forget to write it down.

So here I am, trying to think of what it was I wanted to blog about and it's slowly coming back to me, so I think I'll talk about that now.

First of all, it's my older younger sister's birthday today so I would like to insert a special shout out to her right now.

Happy Birthday Older Younger Sister!

Secondly, I would like to talk about my bowling league.

I started last Thursday . . .and if I could use one word to describe what my bowling skills have become it would probably be . . . HORRIFIC.

I thought it would be like riding a bike, and in a way it sort of is, but you can't ride as fast for as long, and you definitely can't do some of the tricks you used to be able to do.

Our team is currently known as "Team 7", and it is comprised of myself, one of my super secret job coworkers (we'll call him M), and a couple who I will refer to as R and D.

Myself and M sort of scored the same, D was a little worse, and R is kind of amazing. Apparently his family has been bowling his whole life. He knows more about bowling than me, so obviously he's really good.

As a team we lost all three games, but it was also our first week, while everyone else was on their second week. This is important because it means that everyone else had already established their averages and had been given handicaps to go along with them. We were playing without handicaps, so we lost each game by several hundred pins.

One thing I forgot in my 13 year absence from league bowling is something I find to be really annoying . . . high fiving . . . no, you don't just high five your team members, you high five EV-ERY-ONE. And it isn't necessarily because you got a strike or picked up a spare, sometimes it's just a "good effort" high five. So pretty much after every frame . . . for every person . . . your giving eight different high fives. Is this really necessary?

All in all I am happy to be back in the game, but I need to find the time to practice more.

Thirdly, I made another batch of cupcakes for a different friends birthday. I learned from my previous mistakes and set the oven to 325 degrees. I also added more vegetable oil to the batter. I felt that these cupcakes were ten times better than the previous batch.

Finally, I am currently watching "Who's the Boss", and I must say, this show is terrible, and yet, for some reason, I keep watching it. AAAAANNNND . . . in the opening credits there is a guy named BUD WISER . . . he's some sort of producer. Really? . . .REALLY?

cupcakes

First things first. It's important that you all know I will be joining a bowling league this summer. It's time I focused on my career.

Now on to my cupcake adventure . . .

Today I forced myself to get out of bed at 8:30 in the morning so I could make cupcakes for my friends birthday.

Those of you who know me well, know I can't cook, and since baking is along the same lines, I can't do that either. But I wanted to make them for my friend so I did what anyone who can't cook or bake would do, I bought a box of cupcake mix.

When I started to make them I pretty much got confused on the first step in the directions. They said " Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees for glass and metal pans, for darkly coated pans, preheat the oven to 325 degrees".

BUT WHAT IF MY PAN IS DARK IN COLOR AND METAL!???

Contrary to the capital letters I just used, I remained calm. "I'll call my mom" I thought . . . "No, my mom is never up this early" . . . "I know! I'll text T! . . . Wait, she's at work" . . . "The beast? . . . Will she even know the answer? . . . WHATEVER, I'll just set the damn thing for 350 degrees."

Okay, crisis averted . . . or at least overlooked.

The second problem occurred in step 2 . . . I couldn't catch a break.

Step 2 : "Blend in large bowl at a low speed until moistened" . . . as in, with a mixer . . . I have no mixer . . . I was surprised I even had a cupcake pan.

Luckily I'm really strong and can whisk my little heart out.

Side note: Whisking a bowl of cake mix should be a machine at the gym . . . it's a good workout.

I feel like if you asked anyone what the most annoying thing about making cupcakes is they would all say the same thing: pouring the batter into the little cups.

These thoughts might go through your head while you're doing so:

"Did I pour too much in that one?"

"Damnit, I got some on the pan!"

"Why is it pouring so fast?"

"Crap, I don't have enough batter for that last cup."

At least that's what went through my head while I was pouring the batter.

I put them in the oven and 20ish minutes later they were done. They looked pretty good. But how did they taste?

When they were cool enough to eat, I had to do a quality check. I decided to eat it without frosting, because . . . well . . . I didn't feel like frosting it.

The first bite was pretty disappointing. It was a little dry.

I don't understand why it was so dry because the box clearly said "Moist Deluxe" . . . liars.

I frosted them anyway, and did another quality check a little later. I thought "perhaps they will taste better with the frosting on them".

They sure did. The frosting covered up the dryness of the cupcake quite well.

Mission accomplished.

Oops

I woke up this morning and realized that I forgot to post yesterday.

Am I ashamed of myself? Yes

Am I a huge hypocrite? Yes

Do I feel empty inside? Yes

Do I have a good excuse for what I've done? Maybe

Did anyone try to remind me to post via twitter? No

Did someone else NOT post again? Yes

Does he have a good excuse? Doubtful

Can we pretend today is Monday? You tell me.

Did it snow last night? Yes

Isn't it May though? Sure is.

Well then why is it still so cold? Probably because the world is about to end.

Am I going to talk about my garage sale adventure some more? No, no I don't think so.

Can I change "Post Every Monday For the Rest of the Year" to "Post Once a Week For the Rest of the Year"? Yes, I think I have that kind of power. . . . PoOnWeFoReYe (Poonweeforyee)?

Problem solved? Yes

Garage Sales

On Saturday I went on my first garage sale expedition. Yes, I've been to a garage sale before, but not like this . . . this time was different. This time I went looking for them. The other garage sales I had been to were just ones that I had stumbled upon . . . basically when they were on my block.

A few of my friends and I met at 7:30 am on Saturday (keep in mind this is the earliest I've had to wake up in like 6 months) and set out looking. Three of us were amateurs, while the fourth one was an expert. She was our leader, she could just sense where they were . . . if she thought we should go left, we went left and so on.

We found some pretty great stuff too, but I won't get into the details of every item purchased . . . at least right now.

I think I'll finish this post next Monday.

Musings

Dogs - How come whenever someone is walking their dog and I walk past them, they quickly say " Don't worry, he doesn't bite!"

It's not as though I flinch in horror at the sight of their dog or something, they just assume I'm afraid of it. Well I'm sick of it, sick sick sick of it.

Green salad - I overheard a woman order a salad the other day. When she placed her order, she specifically said " I would like a green salad" . . . do salads come in other colors now? Did I not get the memo on this?

Jean shorts - Yeah, they still exist and I don't understand why. Were they ever actually in style?

Pajama Pants - Remember when it was cool to wear your pajamas to school? Well that's over.

Have a safe flight - Why do we say this to people about to fly as if they have some sort of control over how their flight is going to go? What we should say is " I hope your plane doesn't crash".

Water shut down

Last week I got a letter on my door. It said that the apartment complex was installing a back flow water valve . . . or something like that, and that they would be shutting off the water on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 8 am and 4 pm.

"GREAT!", I thought. I normally don't work until 11 am, so this meant that I would have to wake up at 7:30 am just to shower and brush my teeth.

I did this on Tuesday, but then when I was leaving for work at 10:30 am I checked to see if the water was actually off. IT WASN'T!

Those lying bastards.

I had the next day off, and this time when I woke up around 10 am the water actually was off, but only until around 2 pm.

On Thursday, I had to work at 11 am again, but I decided that this time I would take a shower the night before and use a bottle of water for brushing my teeth. However, I didn't have to do that because the water was not actually turned off again.

On Friday I was glad I didn't have to worry about it anymore.

Then, today, I get another letter on my door saying the water will be shut off again on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 8am and 4 pm.

I am extremely frustrated.

Brainstorm

You know how I love to make lists . . .

1.) This morning I went out to my car and discovered someone had broken into it . . . okay so I had left the door unlocked, but still, they went in there when they weren't supposed to . . . but here's the weird part, they didn't take anything. They took off the faceplate for my cd player, they opened my new car charger and threw it somewhere else, they emptied out my wallet ( i know, i know, why was my wallet in there?), but didn't take any of the credit cards . . . it almost looked as though they were searching for something specific, but I just didn't have it. I think they might have taken a pack of gum though . . .

2.) I currently have Wii buying fever. Last week I was in San Diego visiting my sister for Easter. While there I also visited some friends, and one of them had the new Super Mario Brothers game for the Wii. I had been wanting to try it ever since I bought it for my brother for Christmas. So when he asked if I wanted to play I said "HELL YES I DO!" . . . I was very excited. I don't care much for video games, but I love those crazy Italian brothers. We played, and it was everything I had dreamed of and more . . . now I must have a Wii.

3.) Strawberries - who doesn't love them? I helped a friend with a top secret mission on Saturday and there were strawberries involved . . . that's all I can really say about that . . . but strawberries are delicious and I feel sorry for my friend who is allergic to them.

4.) Shake Well - Whenever I buy something that says shake well, I'm always worried that I'm not shaking it well enough. Especially when the bottle or container is filled to the top . . . I mean, there's only so much movement that will happen . . . am I right? Does anyone else feel this way? And why is it always shake well? Why couldn't it be "Shake . . . kind of"? Do companies ever exaggerate how much shaking actually needs to happen because they think it's better to shake it too much than not enough?

5.) Hippos - My oldest sister sent me some more crazy hippo items for Easter. I think this will have to be a separate post though, because you wouldn't believe it if I told you.

6.) My new phone - my new phone is doing better. Right after I posted last Monday on the subject I took it to another T- mobile in the area and they were much more helpful. They gave me a new battery (plus I got to keep my old one) and a new SD card. I haven't had any problems since then. Unfortunately, I did drop my phone right when I got there (before I went inside) and the phone got scratches on it. I'm still pretty upset about that.

7.) Wednesday is my half birthday . . . I will be accepting gifts at this time.

8.) Flight of The Conchords - I've been re-watching all the episodes recently . . . I love this show.

9.) Easter Candy - i've been eating too much of it.

10.) Veggie Delight - try it, it's delightful. ( See what I did there).