New friend + new food = goodness

I met a new friend for brunch today. It's hard to meet people when you first move somewhere, or even if you haven't moved it's hard when your life changes drastically. M and I are both in the situation of trying to get out and meet new people to spend time with. Fortunately for us, we discovered that we get along really well and have a lot in common, so we now have a new friend in each other. And we're both looking forward to hanging out again in the near future.

I had expressed a need for pancakes and "diner style" food at one point, so M suggested we go to the Classic Diner for brunch. Apparently this place is a Philly institution and very popular. They are also only open for breakfast and lunch. Yup. That's it. They close at 3pm. So while it won't feed my need for a 24-hour diner that I can get waffles or pancakes at when it's 3am, they do have fantastic food. I had eggs over easy with sausage links and toast, substituting the potatoes for the fruit plate, M had a cream cheese omelet with the fruit plate, and we split an order of pancakes. And their coffee is excellent. And it's real maple syrup. Real maple syrup. I can tell the difference and the real stuff is so much better that once you know the difference, you really notice the difference and appreciate the real stuff.

And their portions are huge. Seriously. As we waited, I watched everyone that left and noticed that they all had a little to-go container with them. I figured they had just gotten something to go, but no, it was their leftovers. And like everyone else, M and I both had little boxes with our leftovers too. I think her omelet was at least 4 eggs. And stuffed with cheese. I only had 2 eggs with 2 sausage links, but then there were the nice fluffy pancakes. So I'm full. Like I probably won't eat the rest of the day full. So I do recommend the Classic Diner. It's a bit of a drive outside of Philly, but worth it. And according to their website, they'll be opening a location on 30th Street, which is much closer to me and in the city.

The Classic Diner on Lancaster Ave., in Malvern, PA

Overall, I'd say the day was a success. I have a new friend. And I ate good food. Even if I accomplish nothing else today (because after all the Oscars are on tonight, but I must tackle the disaster that is my home office sooner rather than later) I say it was a good day.

Saturday morning with children

Please Touch Museum entrance

This morning I went with a colleague and her almost two year old daughter to the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum, which is the area children's museum. The original plan was to go to the Philadelphia Zoo, especially since I live only a few blocks away and walk or ride my bike by it almost daily. The fact that I haven't been yet and have been in Philly for 6 months is, apparently, a tragedy. But the outside temperature is below freezing and that's before wind chill factors in. So we'll save the zoo for a warmer day.

I don't have kids. I've done a lot of babysitting in my time, and many of my friends have kids, but the only child I have is my dog. For now, that's plenty. But I do enjoy spending time with my friends' kids, which is why I agreed to accompany my colleague to the children's museum.

The Please Touch Museum is fascinating. Lots and lots of things to do: buses to drive, a water play area, a supermarket complete with stockroom and cash registers, music, a Mad Hatter tea party, the list goes on and on. I remember going to a children's museum in the Washington, D.C. area growing up, and loving it. One of the few places were children are encouraged to experience things. It's almost overwhelming there's so much going on. In fact, often you see kids just stop at the top of the ramp and stare as they try to take it all in.

Because it is still so cold out, and the museum is pretty much an indoor playground, and there was a birthday party today, there were lots and lots of kids there. The museum itself is geared towards the under 7 age range, which means lots of toddlers and pre-K kids running around. It was interesting to be a child-free individual and be able to step back and just observe. Over the course of the 1 1/2 hours we were there, I heard the following phrases many, many times:
"NO!" (usually from the child, but sometimes the parent)
"Not in your mouth, please."
"Share."
"Say thank you."
"It's the little boy/girl's turn now, so let's go someplace else."
"Why don't we go play with the x now." (not really a question from the parent, but rather a this-is-the-plan statement)
"Oohhh."
"Watch where you're going!"

Today they have a band there doing some "Latin jazz" (as the band called it), which added to the cacophony of noise in the building. Some children were interested, some even danced, but there were a large number of them that watched for 10 minutes and then wanted to move on. When the music stopped, my colleague turned to me and said: "Wow, it just got really quiet! Wait! They stopped the music. Ah." And it did get quieter, relatively, that is.

As the time got closer and closer to lunch/nap time, the number of meltdowns started to increase and there was a steady stream of people leaving. As we made our way out the doors, there were just as many people coming in. Cold weekends are a good business day for indoor playgrounds.

Identity update: it's MINE again!

So I'm out of the woods. All three accounts were determined to be fraudulent and removed from my credit file. The jobs and address for the b*tch who did this have also been removed from my credit file. This also means that I am NOT, I repeat, NOT financially responsible for any of it and have no record of her on my credit report. Nothing. I'm cleared. My identity is ALL MINE again.

This is not, however, stopping my vigilance. The fraud alert on my credit file has been extended until April. I will be requesting a final copy of my credit report from all three agencies then, and will most likely request another copy about 6 months from now just to be sure nothing additional surfaces.

In related news, two of the three creditors have contracted with reclamation agencies to find the vehicles (yes, plural, 2 to be exact) that were bought under my SSN. Apparently they have to try and find the cars before they can be financially reimbursed by their insurance companies for the loss. Both agencies have contacted me to try and track the b*tch who did this down. They both asked for all my previous addresses in the city to weed them out, as well as any previous employers in the past 5 years. One even read a list of names to me to see if I recognized anyone (I didn't). The third account was for an open line of credit, and I haven't heard anything from any reclamation agency for that, so I think that creditor is just filing it as a loss with their insurance agency. No physical property means nothing to find, I guess.

In addition, the loss of these vehicles is being considered theft (well, duh). So one of the creditors contacted the police department for their district and filed a report. The police are now investigating the vehicle theft and have contacted me for information and anything additional I can tell them (i.e. people I spoke with, anything else I may have learned since I filed paperwork, etc.) since it's related to my identity theft. Just to be clear, this is NOT an investigation of my identity theft, but rather an investigation into the missing vehicle bought under my name with my SSN.

Apparently an individual who had their identity stolen can do nothing to prompt investigation (see previous posts), all you can do is file piles and piles of paperwork, but when there's a $20,000 vehicle involved, someone makes a few phone calls, files a report, and investigations happen. That's so depressing...

Nighttime hilarity in NJ

Once B, E, and I made it back to E's apartment in NJ from NYC safely each night (the safely part became debatable a few times), walked the dogs (E and I braved the cold, B is a wimp), and after we thawed out our extremities (my toes are still cold, FYI), the three of us plopped on the couch for some bad TV (never channel surf on a sugar high), some good TV (Sarah Silverman's 'Jesus is Magic'), junk food, computer time, inappropriate text messages (Jeff, we apologize and we love you!) and general hilarity.

You know you're in a room of librarians when the first thing we all do is pull out our laptops, connect via wireless, and proceed to spend the next few hours uploading photos and making comments on each others photos and laughing. Constantly laughing. As if we aren't all sitting less than 5 feet from each other. Priceless. And the reason we don't have a picture of this scene...we were all sitting on the couch together, too busy to attempt taking a photo with making comments and notes on our Flickr photos. The dogs, having been fed and walked, frankly didn't give a damn. I think E's dog Elston went to bed and I know my dog, Aussie, snored rather loudly on several occasions from her dog bed in the corner.

Once the blogging and photo editing and photo commenting was complete, we broke out the junk food and drinks. [Note: this did get the dogs' attention, both sitting and staring and waiting politely for us to drop something.] We had the world's greatest sugar high both nights. Between the treats from Magnolia Bakery (cupcakes on Saturday and ice box cake on Sunday), the soda and vodka drink (now dubbed the Philly classic), chocolate in various forms, and honey bow ties, I think I'm finally losing my sugar high 18 hours later. We did add some salt to the mix, in the form of pizza and Pringles. Oh yeah, we OD'ed on junk food. I'm actually looking forward to my salad for dinner tonight.

With all the sugar in our system, things got goofy really fast. Now, B, E, and I are naturally a little (OK, maybe a lot) on the nutty side, but let's just say I nearly peed my pants more than once and damn if my stomach didn't get a work out from all the laughing. This is when we started channel surfing through really bad TV, sending inappropriate (not nasty or mean, just really really silly) text messages to friends, and taking goofy photos involving finger puppets and fez monkey swizzle sticks. Naturally, these photos were uploaded the next day for another round of commenting and laughing.

If you can't be goofy and off the wall with your friends, then who can you be goofy with? I, for one, am very grateful that I have friends like B and E who won't let me forget the stupid things I say and do, but know that I have just as much crap on them that I won't let them forget, and we all know that we love each other in spite of everything and because of everything. These are good friends. And we had a really good time with lots of good food. Which, I believe, is what we aimed for: comfort and laughter and general good fun and good food with some good friends. We reached our goal and then some. I call the weekend a success!

We're planning another get together sometime in early April. New York City, prepare yourself.

NYC, day 2

Today is Chinese New Year, so B, E, and I decided to head down to Chinatown for the festivities. Today we made a group decision to drive into the city. One, it's friggin' cold. Two, it's Sunday, so street parking (when found) is free. So we get E's car out of the frozen slush it's parked in, pile in, and head for the Holland Tunnel.
Lucky us, we do manage to find street parking, and not too far from Little Italy or Chinatown. We bundle up and start walking.

First stop, we decide we need coffee and treats. So we head for Ferrara, who E swears has the best cannolis on earth. Unfortunately, I can't vouch for them, because there was an hour wait for a table. But I can confirm that they have very nice bathrooms.

On into Chinatown. It was insanity. People everywhere, streamers and confetti in the streets, dragons and drums and cymbals, it's insanity, I tell you. Insanity. We wander for awhile, and then start looking for food. E leads us to a place that has 5 dumplings for a dollar. One dollar. That's it for 5 dumplings from heaven. We got 10 and split them. A nice appetizer.

Next stop, buns. We head to the Mei Lai Wah coffeehouse and bakery. We decide to go for a table, although it's not exactly warm in the shop with people coming in and out for take-away. There's 4 old men behind the counter, and 2 old ladies running around taking orders from people and giving orders to the men. E orders coffee and a plain roll with butter. B orders Horlick's (a hot malt, kind of like Ovaltine) and I order coffee. We also ask for 2 steamed pork buns and coconut buns. We're told they have no coconut buns and it will be a 10 minute wait for the pork buns. OK. We'll wait. In the meantime, let's have 2 orders of those deep-fried wonton bowties with honey. They disappear fast. Fifteen minutes later, we ask about our buns...10 more minutes. OK. We'll wait. 10 minutes later, we're still waiting. The people that come in behind us also ask for coconut buns and steamed pork buns. They are also told a 10 minute wait for the steamed pork buns, but they get coconut buns, and from a different lady than we have. So we wait a bit more. We inquire again, and are told 10 more minutes. OK. We give up. We get two more bowties to go, pay and head out, in search of pork buns and coconut buns.

We stop at every bakery along the way, and everyone is out of coconut buns. We are in Chinatown, searching for a Chinese restaurant that has steamed pork buns and coconut buns. Ironically, we have NO luck. None. The cold rapidly turning our feet into ice, we admit defeat and head for the car to drive to another part of the city for dinner. We end up at a great little Cuban place called Cafe Habana and get some burritos. Our tummies full, we head for Magnolia Bakery again. This time for Ice Box cake. Layers of chocolate wafers and whipped cream. We start drooling before we even leave the Bakery.

Our quarry safely secured in the car, the heat on high to thaw our toes, we find our way back to the Holland Tunnel. This requires several conversations including the following: "NO, not the Lincoln Tunnel!" and "The Lincoln Tunnel signs are green, the Holland Tunnel signs are brown" and "Alternate merge, dammit! Alternate merge! Let me in, motherf**ker!" and finally, "Stop tail gating me, you dirty little b*tch!".

Once we make it safely back to New Jersey, we have to find our way back to the house. This is not simple. From the backseat, I listened to the following:

B: "Uh, E, this is a two way street."
E: "Oh, yeah. Sorry."

Thank God there was no oncoming traffic.

NYC, day 1

So yesterday B, E, and I ventured into the city for burgers and cupcakes.

First priority was some lunch. We found our way through Chelsea, seeing an amazing display of Russian nesting dolls in a storefront window. Our destination was the Half King for some burgers and onion rings. Unfortunately, on Saturday they have a brunch menu until 4pm, which meant no onion rings. But burgers and beer were still available. So we all got the same thing, Boddington's and burger, but we did manage to vary on the cheese selection. Oh, and fries and a giant pickle on the side. I can't speak to the onion rings, but I definitely recommend the burgers.

To avoid the inevitable food coma, we decided to walk down to the Village for cupcakes at Magnolia. We did make a stop for chai lattes from Starbucks. And we saw a store called Shoegasm. My love of shoes is genetic, and they had to stop me from running across 4 lanes of traffic to do some shopping. We reached Magnolia, and queued up for cupcakes. After 15 minutes of waiting in line, with an incredibly annoying group of people behind us (like, OMG, like I totally love him...) that made all three of us want to commit homicide, we eventually reached the nirvana that was the selection of cupcakes available from Magnolia.

The cupcakes in all their glory...look at the sprinkles! And the daisy!

Once we had our quarry, we headed back across the river to walk the dogs and collapse on the couch. We successfully made it back to the car, cupcakes unscathed.

But there was one more event that had to happen to make the day complete. We start to leave the parking lot, pulling out through the line of waiting taxi cabs into traffic when the following exchange occurred:

E: "Look out for that cone!"
B: "What cone? I don't see any cone!"
E/S: "The one RIGHT IN FRONT of the car!!"
B: "Oh, that cone..."

As we pulled into traffic, dragging the yellow traffic cone under the car for about a half a block before it dislodged itself from B's car. Somehow, we managed to get back to the apartment without getting into an accident, despite the hysterical laughter that gave us all stomachaches. It was three hours before we were able to eat the cupcakes.

I wonder what day 2 in NYC will bring...

Fun, food, & comfort

I'm off for the weekend. Specifically, off to visit friends and seek some comfort in the varied restaurants of New York City. I'm sure there will be posts about our gastronomic adventures.

Food is the ultimate in comfort. So much can be tied to smell and taste, that certain foods always, always, make you feel better. After a weeks worth of nasty weather, some really nasty events in personal lives, and general chaos at work, we are all in need of some comfort and laughter and general good fun and good food with some good friends.

On the agenda so far is chocolate, more chocolate, cupcakes, mac 'n' cheese, fries & onion rings done diner style, and (as always) coffee. And, bonus, it's Chinese New Year so we will hopefully be making our way to Chinatown for some of the festivities and food. I'm packing my "jeans with room to spare" in anticipation.

So what's your favorite comfort food?

Mourning a loss

My hiking boots died today. I'd like to observe a moment of silence to mark their passing.

It's a sad, sad thing to have to retire a pair of boots. For those of you that don't backpack or hike, I'm not sure you can really understand just how sad it is. You bond with your boots. They see you through mud, water crossings, gravel, snow, ice, sand, dust and whatever else the trail throws at you. They protect your feet, keeping them warm and dry, and once they've really been broken in, they become one with your feet, molding to the shape of your foot and your own walking style. It takes miles and miles to really break in and bond with a pair of boots. You take care of the leather, cleaning them with a brush and lovingly rubbing Sno-Seal (or other wax-based conditioning and waterproofing products) into them before and after each adventure, keeping them supple and waterproof. Eventually you can wear your boots and they are so comfortable you may as well be wearing slippers.

My boots in all their broken-in glory

I've had this particular pair since the early 1990s, circa 1992 I believe. Yes, that's about 15 years. I've put somewhere around 300+ miles on them over those years, doing both general light day hikes and extended backpacking trips. They've supported my feet and arches when I've carried around a pack weighing 65 pounds on my hips (any good backpacker knows the main weight of your backpack should rest on your hips, not your shoulders and back) on a 10 day, 100+ mile trip. They've done double duty as my snow & ice, and general nasty/vile weather shoes. And they have become as comfortable as a pair of slippers, only better because they have arch support and my slippers don't.

This morning I discovered that, in the middle of a bout of nasty weather consisting of snow and freezing rain, the sole has decided to begin disconnect itself from part of the heel on one of the boots. This is not something that can be repaired without resoling both shoes however, because the sole itself is also disintegrating. So it's time to retire them.

Close-up of the disintegrating sole

It's a sad, sad day.

Valentine's Day

I am not a big fan of Valentine's Day. Particularly because I always seem to be one of the have nots. When you have displays of pink and red and hearts everywhere, sweetheart specials, and commercials focusing on love and giving gifts to or receiving gifts from those you love, the fact that you AREN'T dating anyone or don't have anyone special in your life is made painfully obvious. Painfully. This year I was disgusted to see Valentine's Day displays before Christmas. After weeks (or this year, months!) of this, having a pity party (my friend has raised this to an art form, so take notes) is quite appealing.

Even when I did have someone Valentine's Day sucked. There was the year I got dumped 2 days after Valentine's Day. Or the year the person I was dating completely forgot the day entirely. For years I've watched my friends get Valentines. When they did those pay $1 and give X to someone in school as a fund raiser I never got one. Never.

Me, I do get a Valentine every year. From my mom. No joke. She has always given me and my sister Valentines. All of my fond memories of Valentine's Day are because of her. When we were kids we'd come down to breakfast on Valentine's Day morning and there would be one of those giant heart-shaped boxes of candy sitting on the table with a card. She continued to send me a Valentine even in college. I always got a "care package" of candy with a card for Valentine's Day. Even now I know she'll probably send me a card. It's a reminder that someone loves you and cares for you. And I am grateful to her for reminding me of that.

I do give Valentines to my friends that are have nots like me, or in the middle of a break up, or in crappy relationships/relationship limbo, because I firmly believe everyone needs to be reminded that someone loves them. Even if I don't get one back (I usually don't, but oh well, I know my friends love me).

So this year I'm a have not (as usual). And my dating attempts so far have been failing miserably. But I will still be giving Valentines to my friends. And I'll be throwing myself a pity party. And you are not invited. So there.

When it's time to switch to a new ISP*

When you call the help desk because the piece of crap modem they gave you is acting up again (third time in six months, which is so not a good ratio) and you spend one and a half hours on the phone with them only to have them tell you "reset" your modem with a paper clip (yes, a paper clip) so they can "reprogram" it from their end.

When you could have saved one hour and 15 minutes of that conversation if they had just done that from the beginning like you told them instead of testing the line five times and checking every damn aspect of your computer's network software again (since you did all of this before you called).

When the technician you've waisted over a hour of your life with on the phone tells you at the end of your rather tense conversation (where you've spent a lot of time practicing deep breathing and counting to 10 so you don't scream) that they've learned a lot because you obviously know a lot more about computers and networks than they do.

Yeah. It's time to start shopping for a new ISP.

*ISP = internet service provider

Definitely still looking...

So I've been trying online dating for about a month now. And I've learned a few things.

1. No matter how carefully you word your profile, you WILL get people that don't read it all the way through. These people then contact you despite the fact they are a direct violation of a few of the things you've specified you're looking for.

For example, I have specified that I want someone that has at least been through college and have your bachelors degree. I'm not looking for a rocket scientist, just someone that has gone to college. I'm not being snobby, I just want someone that has been through some of the same life experiences I have. College is a BIG life experience for most people. It's four years of learning about yourself and what you want out of life. Therefore, I want the person I'm with to have had that life experience. Not only that, but I work in academia, so I'd prefer to be with someone that at least has a clue what academia is about. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.

2. There are a few surefire ways to get me to NOT respond to you. Most notable is spelling. If you cannot take the time to make sure all the words in your profile blurb(s) and messages are spelled correctly, then forget it. If you're overlooking that rather large detail, what else in life do you not pay attention to? Writing your blurb or message in all caps is another way. I do not need to be yelled at, thank you very much.

Another way to guarantee I won't write you back: focusing on only one element of my profile and ignoring the rest. Yes, I want someone spontaneous that can roll with the punches of life. However, you also have to be grounded and have a steady job. Yes, you must love dogs since mine rules my life, but there is more to me than my dog. I am a person, not just a doggie-mom. Spending an entire message telling me about how excited you are to be buying a parrot will not get me to write you back. Instead, I will run screaming from my computer (especially since while birds are nice to look at, I don't want to ever own one).

For now I will keep trying. I have met at least one nice person, but I think we both knew that we'd be great friends and that's about it after talking over coffee. In addition to that nice person, I've been contacted by scary trucker-looking person, the parrot-focused (pirate?) person, someone that can't spell to save their life (and obviously didn't see that one of my requirements is college), and someone in a different country. That's one nice person to four "run away screaming" people. I don't think I like that ratio. If this trend continues then at the end of 3 months when my subscription runs out I'm going to have to try a different tactic. Maybe I'll have more luck trolling bars...

Friendship rules

[In honor of my "week o' Mondays" last week.]

There are several "rules" to being friends. These are pretty standard and include things like loyalty, being supportive, willingness to hate someone just because they hurt your friend, etc. One of the most important rules, however, revolves around the idea of crappy days or weeks. I would consider this a cardinal rule of friendship.

Only ONE friend is allowed a crappy day or week at a time. This enables the other friend to be there and be supportive of said friend with a crappy week. This also enables the other friend to know when they need to call and check in on their friends. If you're having a fantastic week, you better check in on all your best friends because someone, someone is having a god-awful one. Rarely does everyone have an excellent week all at the same time. That would just be too much happiness for the universe and it might implode.

So the next time you're having a crappy week, be comforted by the fact that your lousy week is allowing one of your friends to have an awesome week. And know that while they'll support you during the crap parade this week, you'll be able to return the favor in the future when you're having a good week.

Pots and pans!

I have new pots and pans! Woo hoo! Happy dance around the kitchen!

I had a message when I got home from UPS telling me they had a package that would be delivered between 8AM and 7PM that day. I was a little confused, knowing I hadn't ordered anything. And given my past experience with UPS, I figured I had missed them but there was no little UPS sticky note on my front door. So I waited. And naturally, as soon as I went upstairs to change pants the doorbell rang and the dog went nuts. So back down I went, without changing my pants, to greet the UPS man. Who had a VERY big box. From Amazon.com. Addressed to me. Still confused, I signed for said package and pulled the box indoors, all while trying to keep Aussie from defending my honor and following the UPS man out the door to chase him down the steps. I'm not sure if she wanted to make friends or not, but she made a LOT of noise.

Imagine my surprise to see that the contents of said box had been ordered by my dad in Australia. My BIRTHDAY GIFT!! [Note: for those of you that have difficulty with dates, and you know who you are, this is a good month and a half early, so don't worry.] A few years ago, it was decided that we would dispense with exchanging Christmas gifts. His wife has 4 sons, who among them have 6 sons (so far). So my dad and his wife focus on the grandsons at Christmas rather than the daughters and sons and daughters-in-law (because wow, there's a lot of us) and we do big birthday gifts instead. I'm okay with that. In fact, I now do the very same thing with some of my friends. That way the costs of gift giving are spread out over the year and it helps ease some of the insanity around the holidays.

Dad had told me what he was going to get me, based on what I had ranked as "high" or "highest" on my Amazon.com wish list. I just didn't expect it so soon. So while I knew what it was, it's arrival was still a surprise. Pretty good deal, huh?

Back to the contents of the box. Inside was a set of Calphalon One Infused Anodized pots and pans. These are damn good pots and pans. "Investment" pieces for your kitchen. They are gorgeous. Seriously. I've been lusting after them for quite some time now. When I decided I wanted some really nice pots and pans, I did my research, and decided on Calphalon. Because they're fantastic. Oven AND broiler safe. With a lifetime warranty (provided you don't put them in the dishwasher, which I don't have, so it's not an issue). I should never need to buy pots and pans again. They're that good.

The box

The gorgeous pots and pans themselves

I've been slowly outfitting my kitchen with good quality tools. I started with my dishes. Denby Imperial Blue. Then my flatware. For this I saved up Betty Crocker points (unfortunately they've discontinued their catalog and points) and went with Oneida in the Paramount pattern. Over the years I've asked for and received several small appliances including a rice cooker, a blender, an electric kettle (beyond useful, highly recommended investment) and a good quality toaster. When I made these requests I received not only the appliance but many looks and "are you sure" questions. Apparently unmarried people in their early and mid 20s don't ask for small kitchen appliances as gifts. Go figure. A few birthdays ago I received the KitchenAid Artisan Series Stand Mixer. Not only an amazing kitchen appliance, but a work of art at the same time. Alton Brown painted flames on his.

A year ago I finally bought a good quality set of knives. I had been using hand me down knives for years, and they had gotten to the point that they just weren't holding an edge. And dull knives are a safety hazard. I did have one knife I really loved, by J. A. Henckels. So I ended up with a set of their International Classic knives complete with knife block. They cut through anything like butter. It's fabulous. Of course, since I had been using old knives, my cutting boards weren't all that great either. So to go with the knives I bought a set of bamboo cutting boards. They work great.

And now I have good quality amazing pots and pans. With the exception of baking pans (I don't bake much so I'm not too worried), a few random items, and adding to my dishes, my kitchen is pretty much complete.

So THANK YOU, DAD! I'm so very excited to actually try cooking with them. I'm going to go pull some chicken out of the freezer to thaw right now...

How prophetic...

My horoscope for the day (from Yahoo!):

"Not every day can be a fantastic day. Today there won't be much expansion or progress in any of your projects -- generally, excitement will be missing from this day. But one dud of a day doesn't have to get you down. Trust that imperceptible changes are happening all around you -- and they will soon propel you toward your goals. Be patient, and trust that things will happen when they are meant to happen."

I think this is a week of Mondays. Fortunately, tomorrow is Friday so the week is almost over.