Karebear Central

I think the entire state of Wisconsin is in a snow depression.  We are so sick of snow.  It seems to be trying to trick us too.  Each time we think its going to melt away, then we get hit with three or four more inches.  I can’t take it anymore!   I almost would consider hiring a New York Moving Company and move out there.  Of course, they get snow too.  I can not wait until spring and summer.  I want to be able to sit on our deck and have cookouts again.  I want to go for walks.  I want to not be cold.  I want to not complain! 

I tried to do this last week, but my husband’s computer wouldn’t bring up anything.  (Whenever something doesn’t work it reverts to being my husbands!)  So here goes the Four Foods on Friday questions:

#1. Do you ever use scissors to cut any foods? Which? Raw or cooked?  Scissors, no.  Always a knife
#2. Popcorn. Homemade, microwave, bagged, hot, cold. How do you like it?  Microwave–always when watching movies.  Its not really a movie without popcorn. 
#3. Sushi. Love it or hate it?  Never tried it.  We are actually thinking of going next week for some. 
#4. Share a dessert recipe.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

12 ounces bittersweet or semisweet choc cut into pieces

3/4 cup butter cut into pieces

6 large eggs separated

12 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line 9 inch spring-form pan w/parchment paper.  Coat lining with cooking spray.

2.  Melt chocolate and butter in heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally; remove from heat.  Cool to room temp.

3  Place egg yolks in a large bowl and egg whites in a separate bowl.  (I had to have my mother come over and teach me how to separate–I don’t cook/bake very much) Beat egg yolks with mixer on high speed, gradually adding 6 tablespoons granulated sugar, until mixture is thick and pale, about 3 minutes.  Fold in chocolate mixture and vanilla. 

4.  Wash beaters.  Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Add remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.  Fold a third of the egg white mixture at a time into the chocolate mixture. 

5   Pour batter into the prepared pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, about an hour.  Cool on rack.  Loosen side of cake from pan and remove pan side. Dust top of cake with confectioners sugar. 

I thought a pretty simple cake from scratch, after you learn to separate eggs! 

I think that is what I am becoming.  It just so nice to see big checks after working 18 hours a week overtime.  I do not know if I could go back to working a normal 40 hours.  But maybe that will feel nice.   I’ve been pretty much working, eating and sleeping.  Not much more.   Plus, I signed up for more next week.  Crazy!

The mall was speaking to me on the way home from work this morning.  I went in for 4 hours for some overtime, and as I drove home, I could feel Kohls calling me.  I ended up spending about $40 on stuff I kind of needed, but not really.  A new pair of jeans, a couple under shirts, some cheap boxers.  Kohl’s really knows how to get me into their store and buy stuff!
I was hoping to find baby stuff on sale.  I have two friends who are pregnant and they both are not finding out the sex.  I know that’s their choice, but man does that does make it hard to buy for.  I like to buy cute clothes.  You know how hard it is to find asexual clothing! 

One thing that my husband has said that he loves about me is the lack of makeup I wear.  He likes that I’m naturally beautiful and don’t spend hours getting ready.  I am not afraid of walking out of the house after just waking up.  I hope that is helping my skin.  I also don’t do sunless tanning.  I am trying to do all this stuff so I do not have to look into wrinkle cream reviews to figure out how to get rid of the wrinkles that my obessive overtime is probably causing me. 

Speaking of obessive, I took 18 hours ot this week and 18 hours next week ot.  Hopefully my husband takes care of the house for me.  Maybe that will take some of the stress off.  I just hope I do not overwork myself and get sick. 

We got all our taxes back this week!  Yippee!  The reason I am so excited–we paid off Andy’s car.  The bad thing is, its almost on its last leg, so we have to get a new one soon.  We did want to go awhile without car payments, but oh well.  Rather trade in a car and get money for it, than have a dead car.  So probably in the next 3 months, one day we will come home with a new car! 

I’ve never had a new car.  I’ve always had used.  Its going to be so weird.  We are playing on getting a Toyota Prius. We will save on gas money and we will be helping the enviroment.  I only wish that there was still the tax incentive, but oh well.

I am so cold.  That is one thing I hate about living in Wisconsin.  The winters just seem to be getting colder.  There is no way to get away from it, it seems.  We are even running out of things to do to keep busy and warm.  One thing Andy has been doing is going to open house’s with his friend.

They did find a house that he put an offer on.  It sounds like a nice house with an attached garage.  He is already talking about putting in electric heaters so that in the winter he can work in the garage without freezing.  They are quick and easy to use.  Plus they do not take up too much space.  The other thing is, they don’t use electricity which is good.  It is helping the environment.  I know we have looked into heating the garage.  It makes the area more comfortable to be in and more work can be accomplished. 

On the way to work this morning, I heard an ad on the radio for Kessler Jewelers. The guy starts out saying “I remember when I bought my first engagement ring.”  I want to know how many engagment rings and why.  I do have to say, this is either good advertising to make you think or bad ad writing. 

It took me 1 hour to get home from work.  This may not be weird to most of you, but 40 minutes were spent in the driveway of work.  This so tells me I cannot work far away from my house.  I get too bored driving alone.  It really doesn’t help when I’ve been up since 3 and all i want to do is go home and go to bed. 

Last week for my boss’ bday, we decided to buy him pizza since he always wants to order pizza (my idea!).  We decided since Domino’s has the 5-5-5 deal, we would see how many people wanted to share and how many wanted their own.  We ended up with only 8 pizzas to order.  My team lead decided (okay I asked her to order–I don’t order pizza, never have, never will) to order from Pizza Hut because they have the Pizza Mia 3 or more for $5 each.  She called the night before and right away, I could tell there was a going to be a problem.  When she was giving the address, the guy did not know what a boulevard was.  She kept saying boulevard, BLVD and he wasn’t understanding.  So she tried to do a comparison stating like ave for avenue, but its blvd for boulevard.  His statement to that was so its Blvd Avenue?  (This was very amusing to just hear one side of the conversation)  Finally, he understood (or at least acted) and she moved on to the pizza’s.  Everything was going fine until he gave the total.  He said the first 6 were $5 each, but the last two would be $6.99 each.  He said we had to order in 3’s.  I checked the website for Pizza Hut and it says 3 or more for $5 each.  So she said she’d call Dominoes and they let her hang up. She said she would wait until the next day to call to order and maybe she’d have better luck.  The funny thing is, the week before she had order 7 pizza’s from the same place no problem. 

The next day, she called up and no problem with the guy with the address.  Next, she ordered 9 medium pizzas (found someone else who wanted one) and no problem. The problem came with the total–$89.  She said she didn’t understand, she thought they were $5 each.  He said “Oh you wanted that deal?”  Needless to say, when it was all said and done, we got 9 pizza’s for $5 each, but the hassle it took, no wonder I don’t order pizza often!