Deadliest Catch, Seattle, and More! ...All Over Again!

 Me and my friends! (Photo courtesy of Discovery)

Yep! I'm heading off to Seattle tomorrow, as I've done pretty much every April for the past 3 years. It's time for Discovery's Deadliest Catch CatchCon again, and I'll be right in the middle of it! I'm hoping to see some old friends and make some new ones. For anyone who won't be going but wishes they were, be sure to check out the live webcam on Discovery which will be streaming from 12:30-6:00 PM PST on Saturday, April 9th! Who knows, you might even see me hanging out on the F/V Wizard!


LIVE WEB CAM! 

 Hope to see you there! (Photo courtesy of Discovery)

Somewhere Over The Rainbow...Cake!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Last night, my best friend and I got together to do a little baking. Of course, if you've met either of us, you know this wasn't a polite little get together to make dainty tea cookies. No, this was an exercise in creative insanity. Previously, I'd experimented with making a Psychedelic Rainbow Cake, and found that not only was it amazingly fun, it was magically delicious! Now Jenny, my best friend, happens to a Pampered Chef consultant, but not just any Pampered Chef consultant! No, she's the REAL Pampered Chef Consultant... and you should check out her blog: Real Kitchen. Real Life, which features this cake today. It'll be worth your time. Trust me.

Anyway, if you don't know us... this is Jenny:

And this is me:

And of course, you've met the cake already.

Jenny and I might have a slight flair for the dramatic, and honestly, we'll take any opportunity to make something more eventful than it would normally be. So, instead of just making the cake, we decided to add a St. Patrick's Day Flair by dressing up in as much green as I could wrestle out of my closet. What made it even better? The fact that nothing matches. None of those greens go together... at all.

 Here I am whipping some eggs together. I am, apparently, really, really happy about that, but why not? Those eggs make cake, and what's not to like about that?

Here's Jenny mixing the cake, and wearing my favorite pair of socks. Jenny's an unconventional kind of girl who sees a sink as more than just a place to wash dishes or fill stuff with water. She views it as a physical challenge. Balance, coordination, and the ability to mix a cake while teetering on the edge of a thin strip of counter are all skills Jenny aspires to perfect.

Of course, we all know the most important part of a rainbow cake is the color. Otherwise, it'd just be, er... cake. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Still, you might think coloring a bowl of white batter would be child's play, like melting crayons in the toaster, but I assure you, it's an exact science. Just look at that concentration!

Each of these colors were mixed using a very complex systematic equation to obtain optimum colorization. This might be above some of your heads, but I'll go ahead and write an example for you. Because, as an artist, I know all about the maths.

There are two bottles of blue, one neon, one regular. Here is the ratio: A bunch of neon blue to Not as much regular blue. Thus, your equation would be:

(a bunch of)Nb+(not as much)Rb="yeah, that looks good."

Exact. Science.

Now, like all exact sciences, take chemistry for example, you don't really have to pay attention when you're pouring stuff from one thing into another. Just assume it's right. It'll be fine.

See? It's awesome! That's what science (magic!) does.

After you've baked the cake and let it cool as much as your greedy face will let it, spread on some icing. Now, don't go thinking this is some kind of canned crap. Oh no, this is the homemade stuff, with marshmallow fluff no less. You don't get much better than that!

Slap those layers together, ice the rest, and cut into that rainbow on a plate! (Two layers! Double rainbow on my plate! So beautiful... What does it mean!? ) All memes aside, I have to confess that we didn't actually eat any of the cake, we just cut it to show it off for Jenny's blog. She's going to take it to her brother's birthday party, so others can experience the wonder. However, I did have some (most of) the one I baked last time, and let me tell you... if that's not a frosted lucky charm, I don't know what is!

Happy St. Pat's!

Home Sweet Home!

This is not my living room. This is some girl named Karen's living room, but it's doing an amazing impression of mine... or really, of any room in my house. But, that's OK because all of those boxes like these that I own, are at my house... MY house! I've been living there since Friday, and I love it. Finally, finally, after all the crap - waiting so long for it to hit the market after the bank took it over, dealing with the UNRIVALED MORONS nice people at the bank while buying it, the six months of clean up it took, the endless time, money blood, sweat, tears I shed, I'm there!

Thank. You. God.  -and I mean that!

Give me a little time to finish unpacking all those boxes (or at least hide them in the attic) and I'll post some pics of what the place really looks like. It's all going to be a bit mismatched, not like a magazine perfect home, unless it's Eclectic Hand-Me-Downs Monthly. But, I love all my rooms, love having my stuff there, having it feel like home, and also the little extras it has. It's a nice place...

chloe's blog

It comes with its own fruit, like these ^

 residential concrete

A basketball court set up, almost exactly like this ^

Darboy

I'm really excited that I have a cast iron fireplace like this one! ^

I know my posts this year haven't exactly been jam packed with awesome, but it's only February, and moving will keep a gal busy... and broke, ($30 for a shower curtain?! Oh, Target, you gots to be kidding!) but it's exciting to me at least! (However, I will say April's going to be an AMAZING month, having nothing to do with moving or houses, and I can't wait to blog about it!)

Well, I guess that about does it for now. :)

3 Blogs of Note!

At last blogging, I was excited about my move. Saturday, it finally happened! When I get the place set up a bit, I'll do a nice big post on that. Today however, on this Valentine's Day, this Single Awareness Day, as it's known to those of us flying solo, I'm going to deviate from the standard posting of hearts, flowers, and dangerously armed flying babies and tell you about something else.

There are a few blogs I'd like to post links to, because I think people should read them. I believe this, firstly, because I write two of them, secondly, because my best friend writes the other. Yes, shameless self promotion brought to you by The Shenanigan Files. 

I've recently started writing on a site called Bukisa. The things I put there really don't fit how I write on Blogger, but they are things that I want to say. It's a write for profit site, and assume I'll at least make enough to order something off the dollar menu once a year. I'd appreciate if you'd at least swing by and give it a look.

 I write other things here!

L.A. Douglas on Bukisa (Notice how I went with initials? That's professionalism! I write about different issues I run across, advice, "how to" articles, and various other musings. I've only published two articles at the moment so it really won't take much time to drop by and have a read.)

The second blog I'm going to recommend is anything but professional, and I have to think if you've read this blog, you're aware of my other one.

 I made it myself!

The Ugly Sweater  (It's about... well, exactly what you'd think it'd be about- ugly/tacky sweaters. However that is simplifying it. It's about all kinds of knitwear, some Christmas disasters, some intriguing art projects, and of course, animals in clothes. It's a good read if you don't like to take life too seriously.)

The third blog, is one that I really think you should visit! It'll improve your life through deliciousness!

You know you want them.

Real Kitchen. Real Life (Finally, I'd like to introduce you my best friend, Chef Jenny-Lyn. She's a Pampered Chef consultant, but her blog is so much more than that! Sure, she tells you the value of the products, how to use them, but she also posts wonderful recipes- like Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits! Plus, she's got a terrific sense of humor so you're not stuck reading a boring blog about kitchen products and bland food. You're reading a blog about great kitchen products and amazing food, and amazing food is my favorite kind of food!))

Finally Moving!

Well, here it is February of two-thousand lebben, and I'm still not living in that house I bought back in... September? Granted, the place was unlivable for a few months, and at first, downright deadly, but it's good to go now. Then, December happened and I got sidetracked by sickness and surgery, and January seemed to be the month of perpetual weather insanity. Thus, ensuring that every single time I tried to do any moving, a great and terrible snowpocalypse would rear its frozen head and shut me down...

...which of course meant it was time to play in the snow like a kid with a get out of school free card. Be sure to enjoy my cousin eddy style headgear, lack of make-up, and nerd glasses.

And, as I sit here today, and look outside the window I'm pretending I have beside me, I can see that the whole of the landscape is again, covered in a nice layer of "winter precipitation" as the cautious weathermen here usually refer to any sort of snow or ice. However, this weekend, they, the television prophets of doom, the conjurers of meteorological fortune have promised me fair winds and a balmy 65 degrees. That being said, I have a u-haul with my name on it waiting for me Saturday morning at 9 AM, and some friends who I've tricked into, er... who love me enough to help.

Here's what I woke up to this morning. The roads however were clear and dry, so work went on as usual.

Anyway, back to the house (of which I have no new pictures yet.) The place actually looks pretty good, and despite the albatross hanging from my moving van's rear-view mirror, I've even managed to get a few things in the place. It's a far cry from the mold infested, grease covered, cat pee saturated monstrosity I originally purchased. Still, like any older house... and it's hard for me to believe a house built in 1970 is over 40 years old, it has its little quirks. The other night, I was repairing a tile on the counter in the kitchen, just a quick fix until I can find an actual match, but as soon as I'd finished and stepped back to admire my handiwork, three tiles fell off the side. House, your sense of humor is a jerkface.

Well, for now, that's all I've got. Anyone reading this, enjoy your weekend, and if you're one of my friends, come help me move! I'll pay you back with baked spaghetti, chocolate cake, and the begrudged obligation to help you move when you need me.

Well, Well, Well...

2011 is bright, shiny, and new. Already, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

Show me what you've got, year.

So, I Had Some Surgery...

...and it went well, or so I assume, given the fact that I'm not dead. Although, when I first woke up, I felt as if I'd rather be. Pain and I are not close friends. I don't like it and it doesn't like me. However, it came to visit, and it brought its friend nausea along. Jerks. Thankfully, the whole ordeal didn't last too long. I was in there at 7:30 A.M. and home by 4:00P.M. I don't think my bed has ever felt better.

The doctor said I was an easy surgery, and that I should heal up quickly. My reply was something along the lines of  "I want drugs."  ...And drugs he gave me! Drugs that are right now making my head swimmy and my thoughts all wobbledygook, and I'm not going to lie, it's awesome. I really don't even know what I'm writing, so I hope it's coherent. I just popped another Percocet so I'm not long for the waking world, I bet.

What's great though, is that for the first time since before Thanksgiving, I can eat without being in tremendous pain afterward. Granted, I'm not eating a lot and I've lost 7 lbs in a little under a week, but what little I can eat, doesn't hurt me. I forgot how that felt. The incisions still hurt, quite a lot, and I feel like I've done a million crunches, but that'll fade. I'm just glad it's done with. The doctor said I needed to have it done as soon as possible. I didn't realize it was as serious as it was, but that seems to be the way I roll.

I'm hoping, later tonight, I can post a Christmas blog like I usually do, but if I fail to, thanks to my love affair with narcotics at the moment, know that I wish anyone who reads this a joyous, Merry Christmas!