Am I a Sucker?

First of all, yes, I went to see Transformers. I didn't want to go, but I went and actually liked the movie.

More importantly, I saw the genius trailer by J.J. Abrams about his upcoming movie. He didn't name it, but just had the date. I didn't think about it immediately, but he was starting a viral marketing campaign. So, now I'm interested in finding out about the movie ... of course, it's J.J. Abrams, so I'm automatically interested. Anyway, I'm suckered in with all the other internet geeks out there. Cloverfield is the working name of the movie, but it's easier to find by the date: 1/18/08.

Here's the latest from nightowl3090 on their theory:



Here are some of the web sites that relate to the movie:
http://www.1-18-08.com/
http://www.slusho.jp/

Now, this one is new, but I'm not sure it's from J.J. Abrams and his peeps or not:
http://www.slushozoom.com

Here's where you can see the official trailer for the movie:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/

Now, keep in mind that J.J. Abrams tried this viral marketing thing with Alias. I don't know if he made it too hard or people just got tired, but I don't think it continued after the first season or so. I also heard that he did this sort of internet puzzle/scavenger hunt with Lost, but never saw any of the sites myself. You think he did this for Felicity? ;)

Fuzzy Pink Bananas and more ... FINALLY!

Well, I finally charged the ol' batteries and took pictures of the fuzzy pink bananas so I could share them with you. I also have some other pictures as well.














Close up of those cute little bananas.

























Now, here's a moth from the front of my house and a bad picture of a bug I saw at my friend, Tiff's, house. Anyone know what it is? I've never seen one like it before:

Fantasy Football

Alright, it's time for Fantasy Football. This will be my ninth year of playing with the same group. We don't play for money, but for something far more important ... bragging rights. Something very important to me is coming up with a clever team name. I'll give you some of the names my team has had in the past:

Nemesis
TheAntiCowboyFaction
Bend it Like Zee Zee
BoomGoesTheDynamite
and last year's genius team name .... MamaSaidKnockYouOUT

Well, I don't have a name yet this year. I wanted to create my team so I went with APlayerToBeNamedL8r for now.

Right now I'm open to suggestions of what my team name will be. I am not promising that I will use your suggestion because I'm so picky, but I will definitely consider them. :)

p.s. The Fighting Michael Vicks is already taken, so that and Ron Mexico are already not a choice ... dang it, I wish I would have thought of that!

I love summer!

Especially when you can get fresh fruit for yummy desserts. Something about fresh blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries that just makes my tummy smile.

Honestly, this was not even for myself; this was Mom's. I made hers look much prettier than mine.

Van Gogh

I really like this painting. I think it's amazing and I love the colors. I think I'll show case it in the new butter yellow bedroom. That bedroom has made a 180! I used to have white primer walls with pepto bismol pink trim. Oh yeah, the vent cover was painted baby blue. I thought whoever had owned this house before was just making a kiddie room, but under the pink trim was baby blue trim. Yikes. Anyway, the room is now a beautiful butter yellow with white trim and I think this painting (I just have the print of this don't ya know) will look great in there. That and I just love Van Gogh's work and his story. It's a sad one, but one I can relate to.

My first glue book

I kept meaning to take this to our fine arts group to show the last two times and kept forgetting. So, I'm posting it here. I have changed one thing on the cover, but other than that, this is what it looks like! I put the images in order. The last one is the back cover and it has the table of contents on it. I had fun doing this one and will probably attempt more. I have finished one little one, in addition to this one, but it hasn't made it's public appearance yet!

This is not where I heard about gluebooks, but here's a site that talks about them: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gluebooks/.

Here's another site about gluebooks:
http://alteredsilver.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/02/13/infogb.html.

If anyone wants the original instructions I received, just let me know and I'll email 'em to ya. I have them in pdf form and they have pictures and everything! Thanks to Jef for the pdf!

More stuff from the yard

These first three are my lantanas in the front yard. I have three different varieties. The lavender one is always the first to come back, but the last to flower. The orange and red were the first to flower and then the pink finally came in. The lavender one actually has lived through the winter in the past. All are returning from last year (or longer - lavender). They are fuller than ever this year - I love them!








This is one of my daisies. They never die down, but only flower in the summer. The banana trees are left from last year also. I started with one and have four now. It's hard to see, but if you look in the middle of the big one it's about to have bananas. Now, these are not bananas that you can eat (they are pink fuzzy ones), but they are pretty! I need to get busy and dig one of these up for Tiffany! If you look behind the banana plants you can see this year's addition of purple fountain grass. I bought it for height and texture - not thinking my banana plants would be just as big as the grass! The bananas die after a freeze and come back when it warms up. I love 'em!






This is a picture of a couple of my jalepenos. They seem to be doing fine. I thought they were so cute that I took a picture of them. :)

This is my backyard protector - spiderguard. This is my attempt to get a better picture of him than a few days ago. I had one just like him/her last year down by my huge tomato plant (the tomato plant that grew huge and gave me no tomatoes :( ... what's up with that?). This year - son of the spiderguard has moved up by the house. He lives above the daisies and in the forsythia plant. I leave him be because he was so good to me last year - even fed him a hornworm that was trying to eat my gigantic tomato plant. Anyway, I like him and should name him. Any suggestions anyone?

I'm a Cougar

Okay, it is official. I'm a Cougar. I got a new job in Burleson at one of their middle schools! I've been a Hornet for so long I am not sure how it will feel to be a Cougar, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

I had my benefits meeting yesterday and took, what quite possibly could be, the worst ID badge photo every. I'm not going to cry about it like Jen on Big Brother, but I am thinking about losing it. ;)

I'm still taking my grad school classes and hopefully will be able to move into a library position next year or so! Hurray!

Yesterday's Backyard Finds

Here are just a few things that I photographed in my backyard yesterday.

A bit late, but still pretty

This a picture of my first peony of the season (which was back in April or May?). Also, some roses from garden as well. The colors are a little messed up on them - not sure what went wrong, but here they are none the less.

Asparagus and Chicken Carbonara

The main dish tonight was Asparagus and Chicken Carbonara. This recipe was also out of Cooking Light, June 2004 - page 150.

This was a really nice dish. It had great flavors from the parsley, bacon, asparagus, and garlic. I did change a couple of things with the recipe. I didn't have the dry vermouth that it called for so I used tequila instead. It did a fun little thing when added to the onions and olive oil that were being sautéed. I also substituted whole grain wheat spaghetti for regular spaghetti.

I really liked this dish and would do it again. It didn't take too long to make and it's a healthier version than the carbonaras I've had in the past (egg substitute and non-fat evaporated milk instead of cream and eggs). The preperation of this dish reminded me a little bit of a dish I make called Italian Stir Fry. When cooking the pasta, you add the pieces of asparagus in during the last two minutes of the boiling, which saves some time and helps flavors carry over. I don't know how the leftovers are going to be since the recipe warns about over cooking the dish because of the eggs in it, but I'm looking forward to it for lunch tomorrow anyway!

Italian Stuffed Summer Vegetables

Well, these were Mom's favorite tonight. It took a long time to prepare it all and bake, but they were tasty and low in calories and fat. The recipe for this was out of Cooking Light, June 2004 - page 144.

Arugula gorgonzola apple walnut salad

I recently bought the Young and Hungry cookbook by Dave Lieberman. There are great photographs in there as well as yummy sounding dishes. I bought the makings for Arugula Gorgonzola Apple Walnut Salad so my house/dog sitter could make it while I was in Vegas. It never got made while I was gone so I decided to try it myself. The most challenging part of this salad is the apples. You fry them so they are about caramalized (the book says golden brown). Anyway, the dish was delicious and I'm going to have the leftovers tomorrow. Even Mom said it was, "Wonderful" and "filling." I'm looking forward to making more things out of the Young and Hungry cookbook. I've also found some recipes from my old Cooking Light magazines that I hope to try soon. If I do, I will try to remember to memorialize the meal in photographs and post them here.