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Thursday, March 23, 2006
1:37 PM

The Three Stooges

It's that time of year again. Time for the wildlife to slowly begin to take over our yard. Many of you likely remember our travails with Spot the Bunny last Spring. Spot never really did leave and it appears that he either invited some friends over or decided to have some babies. Let's be honest. He/she probably had some friends over which led to having some babies. They are rabbits after all. And so the population grows.

We now have three rabbit residents living in our yard. And we know that it's only going to get worse. Good news is it's not our house anymore. If we end up totally overrun, we'll just move. (Actually, we love watching the bunnies and wish we could take them with us).

Faced with three rabbits we did the only respectable thing we could - we named them. Larry. Moe. And Curly. (Peter Paul & Mary was just a bit too goofy). And then we took pictures:

This is Larry. He is the biggest of the three (I forgot to mention that they are teeny tiny rabbits):

(Notice the carrots that some crazy lady put out in the yard for them.)

This is Larry and Moe together. They seem to hang out a lot:

And this is Curly:

I know that the picture is blurred, but to the extent you can see it, you can get an idea how small this guy is. He is about 5-6 inches in front of the lemon you see in the picture. Which means he is about the size of a smallish lemon. He is sooo cute.

That's about it in the bunny saga. We'll keep you posted.

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Monday, March 20, 2006
5:38 PM

Thing You Can't Learn From Food TV

With Tivo at my disposal, I can work at the new Fabulous Job and not miss any of my favorite cooking shows. At any given point, I have at least a couple of hours of cooking shows that I can watch at the touch of a button. And usually, after watching for a bit, I start to feel like a huge oaf for watching other people cook instead of cooking myself. Then I will chase a cat or two off my lap (they too love Food TV, or maybe it's just the part where we lay on the couch all day), drag myself off the couch and head into the kitchen to put some of the techniques to work. Through this process I have come to realize that there are a few key things that they just cannot teach on TV. As always, I am more than happy to share my discoveries.

1. Wet mushrooms are one of the most slippery objects on the planet. Man those things can really launch off a cutting board if you do not have a really really good grip on them when you are trying to cut them.

2. Our weird cats will actually try to eat wet, raw mushrooms that have just been launched across the room.

3. Wet mushrooms make much better cat toys than cat food. Turns out cats are also very good at launching mushrooms around the house.

4. Stepping on a wet mushroom-turned-cat toy with bare feet is not a pleasant experience. Neither is cleaning up the then smashed cat toy formerly known as a mushroom.

5. Garlic, in contrast, is exceedingly sticky when chopped. It sticks to your knife. The cutting board. Your hands. If you ever need but cannot find glue, just go dice some garlic and use that.

7. The only way to really learn how to toss food in a pan like they do on the cooking shows is practice practice practice. It actually can be learned. But it also can be messy.

8. Do not try to learn food tossing with sesame seeds that you are toasting. Unless you like having them everywhere in the kitchen.

9. It is literally impossible to get sesame seeds out of the very small gaps between the planks of wood flooring. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will get those suckers out. Actually, I have not yet tried using the sticky power of garlic. Hmmmm . . .

10. Do not practice food tossing while making scrambled eggs. Just trust me on this one. Really.

Having said all that, Food TV really has increased the frequency of my cooking. I highly recommend it.

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Thursday, March 16, 2006
5:36 PM

New Job, Day 22

Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying their week. Tomorrow is FRIDAY!! Woohoo. And we get to see Colleen, Terry and Dana who is in town tomorrow night. Another woohoo for that!

As many of you know, I started my new job about a month ago. Yes, the life of leisure is over. No more Food TV for me except on the weekends. But so far so good with the new job. As always there are pros and cons.

Pros:
1. A Paycheck. Man oh man how I missed it. It's just nice to see that direct deposit again.
2. I get to work with people I used to work with and missed.
3. I don't have to work with all the people I was sick of.
4. I have an excuse to call Auntie Lo all the time to ask all sort of dental-related questions. I am sure she’s getting sick of it and I am nowhere near done. I still need to have my root canal seminar with her. . .
5. Free toothpaste. Yes, in my orientation care package I received a toothbrush and travel-sized paste. Given that I love things that are free and I especially love cute little trial sized things, this is all good.
6. My office is way closer to the Hubby so we get to have lunch together much more. Like today for example.
7. Reasonable hours. I'm usually home by 6. A very nice change.

Cons:
1. Having to learn the quirks of all the new people. So far that's not a huge problem but it is an adjustment.
2. Not knowing what I'm doing. People come to me with the weirdest requests like "Help me get out of jury duty" (clearly my area of expertise) and "I need you to review this patient chart and tell me what you think" (again, bankruptcy and dentistry rarely overlap so this is a bit of a stretch - which brings Auntie Lo back into the picture.)
3. No knowing how everything is done. Where is the restroom (luckily I figured that one out back on Day 1.) How do I fax/scan/copy? Where do I put stuff to be mailed? All those little things that you learn and take for granted plague you when you switch jobs.
4. I have a whole new level of paranoia about my teeth. I floss all the time. And have dreams about losing my teeth. (I always had those as my standard stress dream, but now with the dental job, it's far far worse.) I'm sure Auntie Lo would say the paranoia is a pro, but I beg to differ.
5. Lots and lots and lots of meetings. We meet a lot. I spent 5 hours in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, 2 of it learning about a particular root canal tool. If only the State Bar would give me legal education credit for dental classes. I'm sure they'll consider it. Not.

I'm sure there are more cons, I just can't think of them right now. So far I love the new job. Very glad I made the change. Now I'm off to go floss.

P.S. I just remembered another major Con. No IM. At least through AOL. Our IT department is far too good for my tastes. But for whatever reason I can use Microsoft Messenger. If anyone wants to use it too, let me know and I'll give you my contact info on there.

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