30 July 2009

Thursday Recipe

The recipe hiatus is over and I'm back with an oldtime summer favorite - Jell-o cake! My great grandmother used to make this in the summer and we loved it. Quick easy and meant to be eaten chilled, sure helps to beat the summer heat.

Ingredients
1box white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box
1box (4-serving size) raspberry-flavored gelatin
1cup boiling water
1/2cup cold water
1container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed (3 cups)

Fresh raspberries, if desired

Directions
1.Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan).
2.Make and cool cake as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan.
3.Pierce cooled cake all over with fork. In small bowl, stir gelatin and boiling water until smooth; stir in cold water. Pour over cake. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Refrigerate 2 hours. Frost with whipped topping; garnish with raspberries. Store covered in refrigerator.

Note - you can substitute any flavored jell-o or jell-o pudding mix for this recipe. One of my favorites is butterscotch pudding and adding crushed toffee bits on top of the whipped topping.

29 July 2009

Movie Review - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

While I was home for Kelly's baby shower (so much fun, more details on that later), Melissa, Louie, Katie, and I went to see HP6. So good! Spoiler Alert...You can tell it was a "bridge" movie and that WB is saving all of the mad action and heroics for the final two movies, but I can say that they did a great job of getting the important things into HP6.

What they did well - Dumbledore's fall off the astronomy tower. It wasn't overly dramatic; and the memorial that immediately followed - while not as formal as the one in the book - was still fitting and full of emotion. Fawkes flying off with the song of the phoenix was touching as well.

Also - the burgeoning romances between Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. There was heartbreak, and angst as well as some fun and lighthearted moments. It's what you would expect of high school students of a certain age and the director and the actors captured it.

The only wish on my wishlist - while I know they are saving the big bangs for the final 2 movies, I still would have loved it if they took 15 minutes and put in the Battle of Hogwarts. I think that was the only major part of the book that didn't make into the movie that I felt was missing.

Sidenote - I would love to be Helena Bonham Carter for a day while she is filming. Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the craziest characters in film right now and it must be such a blast to just go all out with the crazy. Props to HBC for a mad, crazy, psycho performance of a reviled character. You want to hate her, but you can't not watch.

22 July 2009

Heroes

People like this deserve to be recognized in as many ways as possible. They really are heroes.


15 July 2009

House Hunters


Since I am going to be in Carolina for awhile, maybe a good long while, I've been thinking on possibly buying a house. As a first time home buyer, now is the time to do it with the tax credit and all. So, in light of that I have signed up for a homebuying seminar offered through the Duke University Credit Union. My boss's wife is a real estate agent who specializes in first time home buyers so after the seminar, maybe sometime next week, I'm going to meet her for lunch and ask her lots of questions. I'm kind of excited about the prospect of having my own place. I've been leaning more towards the condo route as I don't necessarily want to deal with caring for my own back yard, and there are lots of new condo developments in the South Point area of Durham, which is where I live currently and would like to stay. Since they're new, I don't necessarily need to worry about updating, or painting, or taking down wallpaper. Many of them have gas fireplaces which I am kind of excited about. My friends in Texas have one and it's pretty cool. You just flick the switch when you want to turn it on, which is great since y'all know I am not chopping my own wood.

**On another note - please keep darling Clare in your thoughts and prayers today. She is the young daughter of one of my oldest friends and she is having some medical procedures done today.

10 July 2009

Friday Fun

The Thursday recipe will return next week. I tried a new brownie recipe last night and am waiting for folks to try it before I post. They are frosted brownies, which I have never made before, so we'll see how it goes. Here is your dose of Friday fun...


and if you think this one is cute, head on over to The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee and check out Laurie's pics of her foster kittens. They are doing a fundraiser for the Seattle/Tacoma Humane Society. Their goal is to raise $15,000 and they are almost there.

07 July 2009

Can't a Girl Have a Glass of Wine

When you are on pain medication the answer to that question is a resounding NO. Add muscle relaxants to the formula and the No becomes a deafening NO. So it would stand to reason that given how today has gone, all I really want is to curl up on my couch with a book and a glass of wine and relax. The wine my friends, is not destined to happen tonight. Let's backtrack through my weekend shall we...

Saturday, 7:30pm
In anticipation of working at J.Jill all day Sunday and working at Duke on Monday and J.Jill Monday night, I attempt to iron my clothes for the week to kind of get ahead of the game. Unfortunately my iron had other ideas and decided Saturday night was the perfect opportunity to die and leak water all over the ironing board. Sigh.

Sunday, 8am
Run to Target, procure new iron. Woohoo. Although, kind of anticlimactic to spend money on the small appliance that will help you do the chore you detest.

Sunday 8:30am
Have breakfast. Shortly thereafter start to feel incredibly sick (it was only cereal and skim milk) and need to curl up in bed.

Sunday 10am
Realize the nausea will not pass and call J.Jill to say I can't work :(

Spend most of Sunday laying in bed watching the best Wimbledon final. But still feel lousy.

Sunday, 7pm
Start to feel better so I decided it would be a good time to start to prep my lunches for the week by slicing strawberries and storing them in little containers in the fridge. As I bent to get the mini tupperware from the cabinet, the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced ripped through my lower back. I wanted to CURL UP ON THE FLOOR AND DIE. Okay, so the dying part was extreme, but it hurt like the dickens. I manage to right myself and finish the strawberries and made it to my room where I collapsed into bed.

Monday, 6am
Getting out of bed and going to work was not an option. I was still in agony. I hardly slept given that everytime I rolled over, my back screamed in pain. I called out of work and called my doctors office and managed to get an appointment for 9:30am.

Monday, 10am
Prescriptions in hand and words of caution from my doctor (only take these when you are going to be home and NO ALCOHOL) I head to Target to get my prescriptions filled.

Monday, 12pm
Am home, propped on the sofa with the heating pad and my laptop because, OH YES, FRESHMAN REGISTRATION IS THIS WEEK. And I had things to do before the first group registered on Tuesday.

I made it through my emails, napped for a bit, ate some dinner, took the lovely pills the doctor prescribed and nodded off for the night.

Tuesday, 6am
My alarm went off and my back felt surprisingly okay. Moving was okay, sitting for long periods, eh not so much. But I could manage. I got ready for work and got to Duke in time for staff meeting, manager's meeting, and some final prep before the window opened.

Tuesday, 11:50am
We started getting some calls from students who couldn't access the registration site and it kind of snowballed from there - access issues, waitlist problem. Fortunately none of the issues were on our end, but we still end up dealing with the calls and helping figure out the problem and the best way to address it. So I ended up on a conference call for 2.5 hours with an hour break for lunch, a half hour to check on voicemail and follow up before I was back on a conference call at 4pm.

So it was one of those days. And since my back is starting to ache from sitting most of the day, I will need to take one of the pain pills and one of the muscle relaxants at bedtime. Which means no wine tonight. If all goes well tomorrow though, I may be able to indulge in a glass, finally.
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