When you hear this song ...

... and you sing along, well you'll never tell ... and you're the fool, I'm just as well ... hope it gives you hell ...

I have that song stuck in my head something terrible! It's one of the kids at school that got me hooked on it. During some classes, I let them listen to their iPods. I know, I know! I'm not "supposed to," but a lot of them work so much better with some music streaming. Plus, it keeps them quiet, which is really the biggest goal in classroom management ... let's face it.

Speaking of "my kids" at school ... 2 of them (so far) have decided to use me as the subject for their current projects in Art & Graphic Design. I have NO CLUE how they created these in Photoshop (maybe Adobe?), but I think both are neat, neat, NEAT! How talented are some of these kids with technology?! Seriously. It blows my mind.









But, really ... I am amazed by how much more advanced the young'uns (even 7 or so years younger) are with computers. I have a hard enough time getting my digital photos INTO the computer ... much less CREATING a mock-photo with the paint tool in an application! What the ... ?! I do have this class for at least a few more days, though ... so maybe I can worm my way into having one of the kids show me a few, very simple tricks.

Yes ... that is one lovely perk of working with computer classes ... I can also be on the computer! It's beautiful.

Two hours and counting ...

You're messin' with a Southern girl.

By far, one of my favorite smells in the entire world is French Toast, still simmering in the skillet. Mix in the additional smells of coffee and the hint of maple syrup (not yet poured) and that just might be the best smell, ever. Really breathe it in next time.

I've channeled the Southern Dame within and will also be making Pot Roast (tomorrow), Baked Mushroom Chicken (Friday night), and Biscuits with Sausage Gravy (Saturday morning). I have been harboring a hankering for some really good, homemade comfort food, and these seem like the ticket to happiness at the moment.

Cooking has become a huge hobby of mine lately. I've been dabbling with quick and somewhat easy meals on the weekdays, and conquering the more difficult preparations on nights when I am not exhausted ... but visiting with Norbert (over many, many glasses of red wine) on Sunday night made me that much more ready to tackle some new, more involved recipes. The three above are mine, but he always has amazing tips to share.

We had slow-cooked ribs (about 8 hours on low heat) that night with potato salad and greek salad as sides. It was a HUGE crowd-pleaser. I think I'll try it the next time we have people over to our place. I would probably make cucumber salad and a mixture of grilled vegetables on the side, though. (Only because I have a lot of successful experiences with both under my belt, and have only made German-style potato salad twice.)

Save a few meals during actual travel this past weekend, and last night when we picked up some soup and spicy chicken at our favorite Chinese-Japanese-Thai place on the way back into town (Austin) ... and I haven't eaten out ... for any meal: breakfast, lunch, or dinner (of which I always have all 3) ... in over a month. That's crazy! Once you get used to eating at home, though, the thought of eating fast food is somewhat repulsive.

The biggest added bonus of cooking at home all of the time is ... well ... aside from saving tons and tons of money and feeling a thousand times better ... is the whole weight-loss factor. Without even trying, I have somehow dropped about 8 to 10 legitimate pounds since Christmas. I didn't even notice until my family pointed it out recently. I am perfectly happy with my body (10 pounds added, even!), and have been for years, so I haven't been trying to lose weight at all. I can only attribute it to home-cooking, as nothing else has changed.

As promised, I will definitely share some recipes I've tried lately on here in the next couple of days. A lot of my friends (and some of you guys reading this) have been asking about the things I cook (because they are fairly simple and literally ANYONE can cook them ... step-by-step instructions, not leaving any detail out, are the key). Right now, however, I need to start preparing for an interview I have at 1pm. (Details later.)

In the meantime, go throw some French Toast in a skillet, if for nothing else, than to bask in the delicious smell! :) Ah, and I do hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I did! None of us wanted it to end, but, alas ... "the real world" beckons. It's a bummer sometimes, but that's just how it goes ...

Chocolate therapy is, oh, so good!

It is my opionion that the only truly amazing thing that has ever come out of this Hallmark Holiday is the excess of chocolate-covered strawberries hanging around everywhere. Goodness me, talk about delicious!

Alex and I made the completely spur-of-the-minute decision yesterday afternoon to make a trip to Lubbock for the long weekend. (I had off yesterday, Alex had a half-day, and we both have off the normal weekend, as well as Monday.) His parents were thinking of visiting us in Austin, but they got stuck working in New Mexico. We were looking forward to some family fun times together, so ... here we are!

Right now, I am hanging out at Kay's while my mom is closing up shop and Norbert and Alex are out running around, doing whatever it is guys do when they frolick about town in packs. (Most likely, shopping for "man" things ... outer wear and gadgets and what-have-you.) Tonight, we are foregoing the insanity that holidays like this inspire and having a really nice home-cooked dinner at Norbert and my mom's house. (The Norb is a knockout cook!)

I will be contributing the aforementioned chocolate-covered strawberries. Norbert isn't much for sweets, and Alex isn't crazy about strawberries ... so it will really be my mom and I indulging for the most part. I must say ... this is just fine by us!

The Grammy's

I think I must be REALLY far out of the loop ...

I taped the Grammy's and watched it (fast-forward-style) right after work yesterday. I barely knew ANYBODY! I knew the obvious icons like Stevie Wonder and Al Green and, of course, Paul McCartney ... I knew Radiohead and John Mayer and Keith Urban and Foo Fighters and Jason Mraz and Coldplay and Justin Timberlake and Kings of Leon and Adele (I haven't completely been under a rock) ... I had even heard of Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, and The Jonas Brothers (working in schools makes this knowledge inevitable) ... but I had never, ever heard anything by them (I boycott radio) ... but who in the world were T.I. and Ne-Yo and Lil Wayne and Duffy and Lady Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan and Chris Brown (apparently, some sort of girlfriend-abuser; great role model for the kids; way to go, asshole) ... and, seriously, who, who, who, who, WHO was that horribly pregnant girl in polka-dotted spandex gyrating across the stage?! Horrifying!!! I was just waiting for her water to break right there on national television.

My point is ... I don't get the music of the younger generation ... obviously. All of the people I had actually heard before are "older" folk who have been around for a while ... and what I mean by "older" are musicians my age or older who have had more than a couple successful singles ... and, gasp! ... probably even multiple high-selling records. I think the term is "longevity."

I don't know; watching The Grammy's yesterday made me feel like a granny. I fast-forwarded through a lot of it, muttering "Rubbish ..." under my breath and rolling my eyes. I will say, though, those little Jonas boys did impress me with holding their own next to the fabulous Mr. Wonder himself. I was actually, physically nervous for them when I saw that pairing; however, they did hold their own. And, yes, while the young-girly duet with Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus was not my kind of thing ... those girls can actually sing. I'll give them that much! The rap, gangsta, "I'm bad" stuff, though ... I'll just never understand. It's not music to me. I guess I'm just square that way ...

I wear my sunglasses at night.

Crop my mom in (she was taking the photo) and it's a total keeper! (Also made evident by this photo is how anyone and everyone joining our family is doomed to absolute nerdom. Sorry, Corinne!)

When I go walkin', I strut my stuff

This morning, Alex took the LSAT. As anyone and everyone can probably imagine, this was a very draining endeavor for him. When he got home at 2, we decided to go see a movie at Alamo Drafthouse (where you eat *and* drink while watching a movie ... brilliant idea!). The movie we wanted to see was Taken (because I have a secret, dirty little girl crush on Liam Neeson and Alex thinks he's "cool"). It wasn't showing at the South Lamar location (where we normally go, as we live ... you guess it ... South), so we had to go to The Village location, which is a decent jaunt North up MoPac.

The movie was pretty kickass ... and I do mean that ... kick.ass. However, on the drive home (on Southbound MoPac), we got stuck in some awful traffic! On a Saturday at 6pm, traffic is not "supposed" to be gridlocked, with no movement either way. But, you know, this is Austin, after all, where lanes bottleneck at the absolute worst places, and you better leave your house with a full tank of gas if you expect to get anywhere with any certainty.

We were diverted, and ended up going in circles on some stupid sidestreet that winds halfway into town, then back to the loop (MoPac) only one exit down after about 10 minutes. Talk about frustrating! We never did see what the heck was causing the massive blockage, as we finally ... after an hour and a half!!!!! ... got off of the frontage road and found a familiar street.

You know, living in a bigger city is supposedly so neat and great, but if you can't get anywhere at any time of day, the luster begins to wear off really quickly. Maybe I'm just a small town kind of gal ... I don't know. All I know is ... this traffic crap really twists my knickers, and not in the good way ...

Ain't nothin' but a G-thang

Girl Scout Cookie Time finds me flummoxed.

It's a see-saw between deliciousness and guilt.