fondue.mmm.

I ate lots of food tonight. I was at *lw's* house for a fondue dinner. She and her husband *tw* had tons of stuff- steak, chicken, shrimp for the meat eaters, and eggplant, yam, broccoli, zucchini and banana for fruit/veggies. It sounds healthy enough, but if you consider the fact that we were dipping it all in boiling oil- some in batter first- it pretty much counteracts any health benefits that might have been present to begin with. For dessert we had a chocolate one. Foods to dip? Pineapple, kiwi, clementine, pound cake and croissants. Let's just say that I'm glad I've eaten pretty healthy the rest of the week because this sunk the boat. It was delicious though, and the company couldn't be beat.

hey.yo

I heard the song "snow (hey yo)" by the chili peppers the other day and I'm addicted to it. I've liked some of their songs before, but never this much. Hopefully it won't be overplayed on the radio since it's the third song from the disc. That always ruins it for me.

bad.dreams.

I've been having weird dreams recently. I wake up, and I feel like I never slept. Most of them I don't really remember- I'll just get little glimpses during the day- but one I had a few nights ago is still pretty clear.

I was in a bedroom with two or three twin sized beds. I think it was a kids room, but I can't be sure. The room was very long and L shaped, and the beds were spread out a bit. There were several pillows on each bed. There was some sort of bad spirit or something that kept hassling me. It seemed like he was a person who died, and stayed in the room haunting whoever happened to be there. I tried to get rid of him, but he'd keep coming back. I finally found him wrapped in a white sheet in front of a pillow on one of the beds. It was a stuffed squirrel. I yelled at it, grabbed a pencil from the desk, and stabbed the bottom side of the squirrel. I ripped the fabric back and it was full of both stuffing and those little plastic beans. I made sure not to drop any beans since that would keep the bad spirit in the room. Then I opened a window and threw the whole thing outside. It amazes me how terrified I was of this thing. I woke up with a racing heartbeat and covered in sweat. Even though I knew it was a dream I was still scared to death. Weird.

new.soup.

Yesterday during my 90mins of cardio (for the turkey trot) I flipped through a cooking light magazine and found two recipes that looked good. One of them was a butternut squash and leek soup, which was perfect since I had a squash sitting on the counter at home just waiting for something to do. The other recipe was a three bean chili. I stopped by the grocery store on my way home from the gym today to pick up all the ingredients, and spent the afternoon cooking. The chili was my favorite. It has tons of veggies and other healthy stuff- zucchini, carrots, red pepper, onions, garlic, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, crushed tomato, tomato puree, some spices and water- and it's super thick and delicious. The squash soup wasn't as yummy. It was a bit too garlicky. I think if I made it again, I'd cut down on the garlic and add some extra butternut squash. I think I may keep up with this new cooking thing. Even though I'm not usually excited about, every once in a while I find it extremely satisfying.

little.miss.sunshine

Last night, evil twin #1 (aka *mk*) and I went to see little miss sunshine. Since it opened on july 27th and everyone else has seen it, we made plans to go together. It was only playing in a few theaters (since again, it has been out for almost four months) so we made our way to the kendell theater in cambridge. The rumors were true. This movie was hilarious. There were so many amusing parts that I can't even pick my favorite. Today when I was driving somewhere, I turned the radio to npr, and they were interviewing greg kinnear. He talked about how they pushed the vw bus, but really had to give it some gas since it was way too heavy to push with just a few people. I thought it was a good sign that the interview came on the day after I saw the movie. A sign of what, I'm not sure, but a good sign none-the-less.

new.boots.

I just ordered new winter boots. I'm anti-uggs since everyone and their mother has them (plus I kind of think they're ugly) but I did want something snuggly and warm for the rough new england winters. The boots I'd been wearing for the past seven years were really my low ankle height hiking boots. It wasn't so much fun getting a boot full of snow everytime we got more then four inches. I ended up deciding on the merrell spirit tibet high, and after discussing it with my sister, choose the timber color. The best news is the price. They're listed at $142.95, but I got an e-mail coupon for 20% off boots and slippers from shoebuy (enter code "bootslipper06" in the promotional code area by nov 27th if you want to order something). I don't think it's supposed to work on merrells (I added another pair to my cart just to check the code, and it said that merrell's not participating in the promotion) but it worked out well for the ones I picked. So that knocked off $28.59, but it gets better. I got an extra 10% (or $11.44) off for registering my account, so the total (with free shipping) was $102.92 or $40. 03 off. Not that $102.92 is cheap for boots, but I wanted to make an investment in something good, and I'm a big fan of the merrell comfort. Excellent. Now I just have to wait for them to arrive. At least we're not expecting snow anytime soon!

bone.marrow

Last fall, I was contacted by the blood center at children's hospital and told that the antigens in my platelets had been matched to a child. Platelets aren't type specific (it doesn't matter if you have O-, AB, O+, etc) but when children are going through serious procedures, it can be helpful to have the antigens match in order to reduce their rejection rate. I went in every week during that six week period, and it really made a difference knowing that my platelets were helping this specific child. They weren't able to give me any info on him, but my platelet bag was labeled with his name, and after doing a web search, I learned that he had a rare disease called malignant infantile osteopetrosis (MIOP). It's a condition where the bones are overly dense which eventually causes bone marrow failure. Without a bone marrow transplant, babies with MIOP often die before they turn one. 70% of children with MIOP die by the age of six, and almost 100% die by the age of ten without curative therapy. I found a site that documents another baby's struggle with MIOP, and as I browsed through the updates, pictures and guest book, I couldn't imagine being in a similar situation. I put myself on the bone marrow donor list several years ago, and encourage you to do the same. The chances of being matched with someone are very remote, but the possibility of saving a life should be worth any inconvenience in getting yourself on that list. So go do it. Now.

j.e.l.l.o

During my freshman year at bu, my roommate and I made sugar-free jello on a regular basis. We made double batches, and kept it in the little fridge we kept under my bed. I haven't had jello regularly since then, but after watching the biggest loser, my interest has been renewed. I picked up a bunch at the store today, and made up two batches. The way I look at it, I can eat an entire box of jello (2 cups) and it's only 40 calories. 40 calories!!!!! It's sweet, so it satisfies the sweet tooth. Plus, it's so jiggly, it fills your stomach up, so you're not hungry. I think that jello might just be the magic ingredient for healthy eating.

calcium.lime.rust

After seeing all those commercials for c.l.r., I decided to give it a try. I have an old sink, and it tends to get some rust stains around the drain. The part I was most excited about was the part where the guy dips the faucet head into a bowl filled with clr. It made the water come out strong and even. I first scrubbed the rust. It worked pretty well, but didn't completely remove the stain. Then I tried to dip the faucet, but that didn't work at all. In the commercial, he dips the shower head, which bends downwards. My sink faucet doesn't at all, so there was no way to submerge the head. The experiment was fairly successful, and now I'm energized to clean my whole bathroom really well. I'm washing my shower curtains tomorrow.

phone.

I finally broke down and bought a new phone on ebay. It should be coming any day now.