Even a monkey could do it.

I made brownies tonight for my "Secret Pal" at work (we were assigned these secret pals in the beginning of the year and we periodically do nice things for them). It was a box mix - so the recipe was ridiculously easy. Stir package of brownie mix with 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of oil, and 1/4 cup of water. I measured it out, stirred the batch up, preheated the oven, greased the pan, poured in the mix, and set the timer.

As I cleaned up the kitchen, I realized that the measuring cup still had oil in it. 1/2 cup of oil to be exact.

Damn you secret pal.

(Too much) Security Code

How come every time a website asks me to type in the randomly generated security code that is partially obscured and typically has 6 crooked alpha-numeric characters - there is always at least one TOTALLY AMBIGUOUS character.

Is that a zero or a lower case 'o'?
A 1? a lower case "l"? a capital "I"?
Lord have mercy. There are two dozen letters and about 8 numbers that are totally distinct looking. You couldn't pick one of those??

And the kicker is, when I'm finally forced to just make a guess - I inevitably guess wrong. Go figure (or number. . . . who can even tell?)

My Father, the Editor

My dad reads my blog regularly (hi Dad!). And then, lovingly, either calls or emails me with notations that include spelling and grammatical errors that I have recently made. He also makes recommendations on certain posts that I should remove. Sometimes out of concern for my continued employment. Othertimes out of concern for my reputation. If ever there was a question as to whether censorship was alive or dead - I assure you - it's alive and working in real estate in North Buckhead.

So, allow me to clear up one thing. Due to entertainment value and creative licensing, I failed to mention in my previous post (Going-Going-Gone) that Carmax had NO INTEREST in learning what was wrong with the car. In fact, when Husband began to say, "There are a few problems," . . . the Carmax representative actually responded, "I don't need to hear them." It's clear that they have a workable and successful formula for purchasing cars for auction and we did NOT take advantage in any way.

We are good people. Good honest people. Raised by good honest parents who love us very much. Thanks for reading, Dad. I love you too :)

Cuisinart Crazy

This weekend, we hosted the Ortho resident get-together at our house. I made enough Apricot Chicken for 23 people and there were TONS of leftovers. So on Sunday I decided to break out the Cuisinart food processor to make some chicken salad. I'm clearly still learning food processing techniques . . . because instead of chicken salad - I made a substance that could be described as chicken mousse. It's creamy, and on the scale of various states of matter - it falls a bit closer to the liquid than the solid end.

Tonight I ate my chicken mousse for dinner (spread on Ritz crackers). Husband was gagging next to me. He couldn't decide which was more disgusting - the chicken spread or the fact that I actually ate it.

Things I've recently given to Husband

Lots of love.
Clean laundry.
A nice J.Crew sweater.
Dedication and devotion.
The rhinovirus.

Going - Going - Gone

We finally took the Rodeo to Carmax today to get someone to take it off our hands. They checked out the interior and exterior and complimented us on how great the car looked for its age. Then the appraiser took it for a spin to see how it drove and check out the mechanics. We were fairly certain that he would return, probably laughing, as he told us they weren't giving us one-red-cent for our piece-of-junk car that has a blown head gasket (p.s. We had to JUMP START the car in order to even get it to the Carmax.)

The report from the appraiser was that the car looked great, the mechanics checked out, the systems were go, and they were willing to offer us MUCH more than we anticipated for the car. Somehow husband and I managed to keep straight faces as we accepted the offer and filled out the paperwork.

In the meantime, my Jewish guilt is killing me. Some poor guy is going to buy that car at an auction and realize that it needs over three thousand dollars worth of engine work. That is, if they can even get it off the lot in one piece. Best of luck.

Out Sick

That cold that I had last weekend stayed around. All week. Every morning I woke to the surprise of what new and exciting symptoms had come or gone over the course of the night. It was like a mini viral Christmas. Some days there was sneezing. Some days there was coughing. Some days were stuffed up and cloggy and on others mucous flowed freely and without pause. I'm so done with this.

My lack of posting was not as much because I wasn't feeling well, and more because I wasn't allowed to touch the laptop at home (due to possible contamination - the same reason that Husband slept in the guest room all week.)