Crap. I won.

The cost of winning

I recently discovered a song but could not, unfortunately, purchase it from ITunes (what is with this "partial disc" crap?!). I henceforth moved the search to e-bay and found the album in which the song was located. Since the cd was cheap and had a few other good songs I bid.....
Now, I promised myself I would not bid over the amazon.com price and, after adding shipping, could bid up to $10.00 without going over. This other bidder, however, kept outbidding me on auto-bid and I became annoyed and thus continued to bid. I am now the proud owner of the cd for the bargain price of $16.00 because I just couldn't stand to lose....
Should I have gone with Amazon instead? I would have saved money, true, but I would not have had the gratifying experience of winning! Thank you e-bay for the sought after song and the additional thrill of winning!

The proverbial "they" say e-bay is addicting....how true. I am the current high bidder on a much more expensive item ($51.00). The auction ends in about 20 minutes. Argh. Hope someone outbids me as do not think I can afford this presently haha!

Happy Easter

B came over Tue. after nuclear meltdown war with Dad re: wedding. Desperately in need of a drink, I whipped up martinis for us both while she downloaded her day. At some point AO was mentioned, which reminded me that I had posted "Death comes unexpectedly" on my office door that morning along with other inspiring quotes. B exclaimed that I was morbid and I countered that death indeed comes unexpectedly and that it would do most people some good to be reminded of that fact so they can do something productive with their time rather than standing at my door and whining about their miserable lives. B found this amusing, although I suspect that was the martini giggling...
At any rate, after encountering a series of sudden and tragic deaths this past year I am constantly aware of how fleeting this life is, how truly precious the time we are given is and how quickly a single heart can stop beating. With every breath we are one step closer to death...

inspired to bake

Arrived home from unexpectedly short teaching evening. After eating leftovers from Monday's cooking endeavors and finishing bottle of wine I was inspired to make a filthy martini which, for you non-martini connoisseurs, is a vodka martini with olive brine and blue cheese stuffed olives. Side note: while on vacation I had one of these puppies at least once a day. They are an acquired taste, but nevertheless addictive. A few olives into the martini I was overcome with a desire to bake and thus attempted a new recipe from cookbook mom gave me for Christmas: "Any Bitch Can Cook". Yes, my mother, the church secretary, actually gave me this book! Made most wonderful cake batter cookies but discovered recipe was not nearly large enough to feed entire office (as if I'm going to let those tasty suckers sit around my house where they can adhere to my womanly hips!). Being without more cake batter I opted to make a full recipe of chocolate chip cookies, which turned out beautifully, but took forever to cook. Additionally, wave of work/martini induced fatigue was not helpful in kitchen clean up. The lesson? Resist urges to bake late into the night after having olives and martini. The reward? Co-workers think I am Martha F'ing Stewart!

Cake batter Cookie Recipe:

one box cake mix (your pick)
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1 cup of your choice: coconut, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.

Mix all ingredients well. Drop by tablespoon onto cookies sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 425.
(I found that 10 minutes was not quite long enough as middles were slightly undercooked. However, as one who often makes cookies and never bakes them, this was perfectly suited to my tastes).

The new homeowner experience is not complete until one has encountered the pleasure of a clogged and overflowing toilet at 11:00pm on a Sunday evening...

I stepped out of the shower last night glistening and glowing (as women are wont to do after bathing) and noticed the toilet bowl water was low. Assuming a simple plunge would resolve this issue I extracted the toilet sucker from under the sink and began plunging away. After going at it a while with the plunger, and not getting one of those eureka-it's-fixed bubbles, I had the brilliant idea to flush the toilet; bear in mind that I am still stark naked from the shower. Flushing turned out to be not such a good idea. The water began flowing over the bowl like in that 1980's flick "Rattler" where the snake is getting into the house via the toilet. Meanwhile I am attempting to rescue my dry-clean-only bath rugs while tip-toeing barefoot through toilet water, all the while cursing like a sailor! After unceremoniously tossing my precious rugs into the hallway I grab my cute pink and black New Balance running shoes (on sale at Nordstroms for $35.00) and hightailed it to the laundry room in search of a mop and bucket.
Upon returning to the bathroom, mop and bucket in hand, I proceeded to plunge the #$%^ out of that toilet until my superior plumbing skills conquered the clog. I then spent the next 20min. mopping the bathroom floor (yes, still buck naked save for the shoes) and cloroxing the toilet and floor as I could not stand the thought of prancing across the bathroom with a film of toilet water everywhere.

A scant hour after stepping from the shower the bathroom was spotless, the toilet unclogged, and I, victorious and perspiring mildly, flopped into bed (yes, naked) and fell into a deep sleep.


All things considered the incident was humorous and a great learning experience...next time I will put on my shoes before tackling the clog and not in the midst of...