I CAN cook! I promise!

Despite my best efforts to prove otherwise today in my labors of a boston cream pie (Brother's birthday) and brownies (visiting teaching), I really can cook! (We won't go into the terrors of my kitchen today.) I mean, really... I made a boston cream pie!

So why is it that we got two fire extinguishers for wedding presents? Do people not know me at all?! (Heartless, you may remain silent on this one.)

Plant Spotlight - Iris Daphne of Guild

This beautiful orchid was one of my favorite splurges at IKEA. Isn't she pretty? Soon after I got her, I decided that all of my plants needed to be named. I enlisted the help of my roommates in doing so. The Cold One was quite fantastic about helping me come up with names... except for this beauty. The Cold One insisted upon calling her Iris. I can't call her Iris! She'll have an identity complex. Problem is, Heartless also liked the name Iris and every once in awhile I'd even find myself slipping. [sigh] However, I liked the name Daphne much better for her. It seems a royal name... also, it's the name of my best friend when I was a small child. Finally, a compromise was struck. Her name is officially Iris Daphne of Guild. When I initially named her, it was a lot more complicated. Probably something inspired by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. The several names were forgotten, however, and it just became Iris Daphne. But that sounded... empty. It was missing something. It wasn't royal enough. So she got a place as well. Where is Guild, you ask? No idea. But I have the strangest suspicion that it was subconsciously influenced by Myst.

Sadly... she's down to only two flowers. However, I moved her to a windowsill and she has been much happier. There is a bud about ready to bloom and another one that I expect will bloom in a week or two.

Finally!

When you're done with the game, you can watch an instant replay. Typically this only takes a couple of minutes. As for this game...
Breakdown
Taking over all other colors: 2 mins
Battle over that one territory: 4.5 mins
Final takeover, once I broke through that bottleneck: 1 min

Dice Wars... indefinitely

This is a horrible position to be in.  I've been battling green for probably the past 20 minutes and it always comes back to this.  Unfortunately, Dice Wars is addicting, so I just keep playing... I wonder who will give up first, me or the computer.

Randomness for Sanity

Heartless and I went to a meeting today at work that was amongst the most chaotic meetings of my entire life. We took 4 pages of notes... not on the meeting itself, but commenting on the mayhem flying around us. We quite enjoyed them, so we thought it might be fun to share parts with you as well. And now you know the secret as to how we stay sane at work.

• I'm not a user.  :(
• Since when is red and blue opposite?
• Funny thing is, I think
• Sometimes you have to think
• If you chance to meet a frown...
• TOO MANY VOICES!!!
• Reskew = rescue?
• afghpqklmna  (apparently my attempt to recreate "asldfkjal; dfj;law klwe" (what I type when I'm frustrated) comes out in mostly alphabetical order when I actually have to write out the letters by hand.)
• "No.  That's a Kofax bug."  Isn't this a KOFAX MEETING?!
• Valid.  But dumb.
• Look how [coworker] eats her cheese.
• So, maybe we just need training.
• "Oh!  I can zoom!"
• "Hello!  That's what the list was!"  "Apparently not!"  (This reminded Heartless of a dinosaur comic (The 2nd frame of the comic))
• Can I go home?

And just for randomness with no context:

HHoowwardaraandndgered

angered

anGgeeorregde

WWWoWGooooodoo

Time to get up!

Yellow's alarm clock is set to the radio. This morning we woke up to the oddest words ever:

"Can Jesus and Satan worship God together? This morning, here to sing a song together, now we have Jesus and Satan."

I love working internationally

I just got off a work phone call where I was told to "make haste" and "give a shout out".

That long phone call was totally worth it for those two phrases at the end.

Just a little thing

I love it when books have obvious breaks in the middle of chapters. Like, a few extra lines or three stars or something. You know what I mean.

Why do I love them? Because it gives me a good place to stop reading where I can easily see where I stopped without being a chapter break. Because chapter endings almost always leave me on the edge of my seat wanting more. Half the time if I stopped 3 paragraphs before the end of the chapter I would be fine. But noooo... I always have to read those last 3 paragraphs and force myself to close the book, then spend the next several hours wondering what in the world is gonna happen.

I suppose authors are just smart that way.

It's creepy when these things are so true

You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

A+ to O-

So, remember how I was so sad about not being able to give blood? Well, I was free and clear to give blood again in July. But the beginning of June I went to France. I didn't know if that would affect my blood donor eligibility or not, though. I kept meaning to call and ask, but kept forgetting. I made Yellow promise to come with me because he has the most amazing veins that were made for giving blood. Yet, I still kept forgetting to call.

Today I got an email from the Red Cross reminding me to give blood and I decided this was the reminder I've been needing. So I called. After calling two numbers and talking to three different ladies, I ended up finding out that 1 week in France is nothing and I can still give blood. And one year after returning from Egypt is enough time. Then she even walked me through what I would have to answer on the little computer questionnaire thing.

Red Cross, here we come!