The Power of Cheese

There's no way around it. I'm having a bad week.

I wore my "Power of Cheese" shirt from Cheese Days today. I was hoping it would help power me through.

"The Power of Cheese compels you!"

So far, all it's gotten me is a speeding ticket.

I keep trying to tell myself that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but then the little voice of evil in the back of my mind keeps cackling and says, "Yeah, that light at the end of the tunnel? Probably a train. Toot, toot! Peanut butter!"

Shut up! Stupid evil voice.

Where am I?

This is where I've been all day... 

... I have no idea why. 

Rhyming

The husband and I were watching Best Week Ever on VH1 this morning. They were talking about the controversy between Perez Hilton and Miss California. 

According to Best Week Ever, Perez called Miss California "the C-word."

The husband turns to me and says, "The C-word? Does the 'c-word' rhyme with cunt?"

Yes. Yes, husband, the c-word does indeed rhyme with cunt.

He followed that with, "Oops. I meant 'punt.'"

Yes. On both accounts.

ETA: When I read this blog to the husband he said, "I said 'bunt', not 'punt'. Bunt. Bunt. Punt isn't even a word." 

Thank God he's pretty.

iPod Journey

I went to visit my friend, Fatty, last month. He told me that he listens to his iPod play list alphabetically through all the songs since the iPod shuffle function is suck. He even took some artists (Daughtry) off his iPod because his shuffle function loved them so much and he didn't love them quite that much. 

At first, I thought he was crazy. What the hell kind of way is that to listen to music? Alphabetically? What the hell?

But then, I had to agree, the shuffle function does suck. You get the same songs over and over again no matter where you start.

So, I tried it.

I listened to all 1154 songs I currently have loaded on my iPod alphabetically. It took me one month and 20 days. I finally finished my entire play list today. 

On the one hand, it was nice to get to hear songs that don't come up on the shuffle play list very often. It forced me to slow down and listen to some of the lesser known tracks on some of my Cd's.

On the other hand, it made me very impatient at times. VERY impatient. Because, of course, there were rules and I since I made the rules I couldn't break them. 

Rule 1: I can skip Christmas songs, but I don't have to.

Rule 2: I can't skip a song I like just because I'm not in the mood for it.

Rule 3: I can't skip a song just because I don't know it.

Rule 4: I can skip songs I really hate, but only if I really hate them. 

Anything by Colbie Caillat falls in this category. I thought I would love her when I bought her CD, but as it turns out I don't. Her voice gets on my nerves the more I hear it. Oops.

It was an interesting experiment, but I'm not sure if I'd do it again. It took too long. 

Then again, I have to do something to combat shuffle suck, so it's always an option on the table.

Why do I feel like I've accomplished something worthwhile, like running a marathon, instead of something completely nonsensical?

Possibly because I'm completely delusional.

Or it's possibly because completing it thoroughly satisfies that OCD place buried deep within my heart.

I think I end up on the crazy side of the teeter-totter either way. 

Blogs and Belts

Bloggers are extremely useful. 

People write about weird stuff. They blog about their stuff in great detail. In insane, minuscule detail. 

Thank goodness they do. Our trivia team benefited from their bizarre cadre of knowledge. I don't know how we could have found some of the answers without them. We had to find a race car driver by his pit crew, which we only found from some guy's blog. 

Next year, we should remember to look at the saying on the Belt's sign, so we can actually get that question right next year. 

I'm tired. I'm glad we're on question 7 of hour 54. 

Trivia 40 Hour 3

So it begins.

The searching and questioning and googling. 

Hour after hour after hour. After hour.

But, now we're still in the beginning. When it's fun and exciting and I can't wait for the next question. Instead of when I'm addicted. When I want to stop, but I continue on, for just one more question. Just one more. And then, one more. 

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

You can stream it on-line if your interested. 

http://www.90fmtrivia.org/

If you know me and you know an answer, give the husband's cell phone a ring... unless you're here. Then just say the answer. No need to call him. 

Advice

Don't wear white when baking.

Especially don't wear white when baking red velvet cupcakes.

Really, really don't wear white if you're undoubtedly the type of person to make a mess and accidentally smear batter on your arms and face. 

It looks like you are some sort of demon child who has just taken part in a blood orgy. 

Well, maybe not that.

But something like that. 

If my husband thought words like "vampire," I'm pretty sure that's what he might have thought.

Something New

We got our summer mailer from the YMCA on Thursday. I've been wanting to try something new for awhile, so I decided to sign up for one of the classes they offered. This is the one I signed up for:

Hydro-Cuff-Core and More

Give yourself an entire body workout! Buoyancy cuffs, strapped to your ankles, engage your core muscles as you burn calories, build full body strength, fine tune your balance, and increase your endurance. This is an excellent cross training workout for beginner athletes or advanced athletes that want a fun and challenging high energy class.

Sounds fun... maybe? Hopefully. Or at least different, which is what I want. According to the mailer, the class started June 22. But, when signed up for it I ended up signed up for the class that begins April 20. 

Yikes! 

That's really soon.

That means I have to go shopping for a bathing suit. Today. 

Because Trivia is next weekend, so this is the only day I've got to go.

Double yikes!

Wish me luck.

Warning

There have been some people who are getting on my nerves lately.

One of them doesn't read this blog, the other does.

I've had it with the passive aggressive behavior. I don't do passive aggressive. I do plain old aggressive aggressive. So, you might want to think about the outcome you're looking for before you continue to press me.

I've been nice. I've been understanding. 

You don't want to like me. That's fine. Unlike you, I don't need to be liked in order to be okay and at peace with the world. 

But, I've had enough of the passive aggressive nonsense. 

We're not in competition, so knock it off already.

If the cards aren't dealt in your favor in the future, just remember, I warned you. That's the best I've got to offer.

Food Goodness

I had some amazing, amazing food in San Francisco. There is such bliss in eating truly excellent food. It's a good thing I'm not around it all the time or I don't know if I could maintain a decent level of self control, but having it is just so lovely.

One of the places I went with JR was Nolas, a New Orleans themed restaurant. We both got excited for an appetizer that had fried okra in it. 

Sometimes I feel so thoroughly "Wisconsin-ized" that I forget there are these parts of me, locked away, that belong to someplace else. 

Fried okra and corn bread stuffing (both of which were available at this restaurant) belong there. 

So, for the day when I go back to San Francisco...

The Catch

Where I had a warm arugula salad with white corn, bacon, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. 

And the seared mahi-mahi with white corn risotto. 

Nolas

There we had NO L.A. 'Frites' which was basically fries, sweet potato fries and fried okra. 

I had Andouille & Cornbread stuffed pork chops. 

I Left My Heart...

Seriously, this town is beautiful. I can see why so many people are willing to put up with insanely expensive real estate, high sales tax and income tax in order to live here. Every where you look it is just so gorgeous and scenic. 

I went sight seeing today with my friend JR and another guy from work that he knows.

We went to lunch at a restaurant called "Chows" in the Castro. Then, we went down that hill that curves a lot. And on over to the Golden Gate bridge. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

There is something kind of perfect about spending the day sight-seeing in San Francisco with two gay guys.  

Greek Conference

This morning, I saw that there were quite a few events having to do with some sort of Greek conference there. I thought they meant, Greek, like Greek. You know My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Athens, whatnot.

Silly me.

I came back to the hotel after work to find the place just CRAWLING with frat boys and sorority gals as far as the eye could see. 

Fantastic.

Sheltered Life

Normally, I live such a sheltered, routine life when I go on these work trips I'm like an ADD kid on crack. My mind moves over different subject matter at about a million miles per hour. Since, half of the purpose of this blog is to purge the junk from my head so that it doesn't torture me, here is some of the junk that has been piling up the last couple of days. 

1. I wish the Fitness Center in my hotel wasn't on the other side from the hotel rooms which means I have to walk across the lobby, entrance, hotel restaurant and hotel bar all hot and sweaty after I work out. 

P.S. This hotel is fucking giant and like a giant maze.

2. Traveling for work ruins traveling for personal reasons. For work, I stay in really nice, plush hotels. How could I stay in a shit hole for personal travel after that?

3. Sometimes, I don't have the television on because I want to watch it, but because I like the colors and the noise. Turns out I have more in common with babies than I thought.

4. There are trains in San Francisco. They travel really fast. I have watched to many movies, so it makes me really nervous every time one of them rushes by. I keep imagine myself, car stalled on the tracks. It is totally irrational, but my heart pounds a little bit when they zoom by.

5. In Madison, I saw a dude with totally crazy hair in the air terminal. It was kind of a mullet, only fluffier and curlier. But, not naturally curly, like he went out of his way to put product in his hair and make it look that way. Guess who I got to sit by on the flight to Minneapolis?

That's right Crazy-man Mullet. I didn't allow myself to look at him for the entire flight. I knew if I did, I would just giggle and that would be rude. 

6. Traveling alone is weird, but not unpleasant necessarily.

7. I was a good Samaritan yesterday. I found a credit card on the ground in the lobby and turned it into the front desk. I debated about what to do since if I were that guy I would probably comb the lobby looking for my lost credit card, but oh well, he can suck it because I tried to do the nice thing by turning it in so his identity doesn't get stolen. 

8. I love pepperoni. I love bell peppers. You'd think the combination of the both of them on a pizza would be awesome, but if I'm being honest I'd just rather have plain cheese. I don't need a lot of junk on my pizza mucking things up. 

I don't like fruit in my yogurt either. It's pretentious. The fruit, not eating yogurt with fruit in it. 

Okay, I'm coming down off the high of finally getting food tonight. Now, I'm sleepy. I don't have the patience for writing more stuff. I'm done for now, but don't get smug. It might happen again.