Today I finally called Verizon. They had me do the soft reset and it took about 10 minutes to boot again. This time when it came up, the screens were back to normal. Except because the boot time was way wrong and there’s clearly something bad with the phone, she transferred me to the REAL tech support. We do another kind of reset and discover there’s a force close error that shouldn’t be there. We delete all my personal info and reset it again. Error. Now we’re going to replace my phone. Great.

Except in the meantime, now all my info is on my SD card and whereas my phone was b0rked but totally functional, now I get this GD force close error almost EVERY time I do something. I can’t wait for Wednesday.

Tonight’s dinner experiment was prompted by a Food Network show. We’re making our own deep dish pizza.

We started with a refrigerated thin crust, a layer of sliced provolone, a layer of pepperoni, a layer of shredded mozz, a layer of sliced mushrooms, a layer of Italian sausage, red bell pepper, red onion, diced tomatoes and topped with pizza sauce. We’re cooking it in the oven at 375 for at least 30 minutes. I’m not convinced we’ll need to cook it longer because everything inside is already cooked.

ETA: At 30 minutes I put foil over the pizza to protect the crust and let it cook for another 20 minutes. Motherfucking DELICIOUS.

My plan was to go to a book club meeting tonight (The Magicians by Lev Grossman) but unless I’m feeling SERIOUSLY better that won’t happen. The book itself was interesting and borrowed pretty heavily from the Narnia mystique. Imagine if Narnia were a Real place – a place where four bumbling kids don’t manage to do everything more or less right and the inhabitants aren’t all thrilled by their presence. Imagine it had real rules with real consequences. Unfortunately the book relies pretty much on the story of the protag who’s not all that interesting (especially when compared to that original premise) and has a LOT of time devoted to him “growing up” before taking a sharp left back to the original premise (with predictably dire results). It also suffered a bit from dwelling in some minutae of this alternate fairytale-ish world such that I kind of skimmed sections. All told an enjoyable book despite an unlikeable protag.

We watched Capitalism: A Love Story yesterday. Generally speaking I’m not a fan of Michael Moore. His Sicko didn’t accurately represent the experience of MANY Canadians I knew who came over the border to Michigan to get health care they couldn’t in their country. If you want me to take you seriously, you’ve got to point out the good WITH the bad rather than glossing over the bad – which makes me feel like you’re blowing smoke up my ass. I’ve got politicians to do that so I don’t need documentarians.

In point of fact, I think he’d have been better served to make Capitalism BEFORE Sicko. Capitalism is pretty fantastic and does an excellent job of explaining how 1) we don’t actually HAVE capitalism and 2) why we don’t want it. THIS film points out all the things that are currently broken with our system and actually talks about what some people are doing to fight it. THIS is a great film. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything he says. When you’re talking about subprime mortgages, the “subprime” refers to the borrower. Some of the borrowers knew full well that they didn’t have the money to do what they were doing and did it anyhow. I don’t think that’s robbery. I also think that the consumer has to put some consideration into their actions – it’s not like these companies were out FLEECING everyone. You signed a contract – a contract which if you didn’t read, I’ve got limited sympathy.

We also watched The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo on Netflix streaming. My second viewing, Spouse’s first. You know it’s a good film when you’re still riveted after 1) reading the book and 2) having seen it once already. I fucking love Salandar. That is all.

I’m considering making this for lunch/dinner today as I picked up a lovely mango from the store yesterday. It will depend whether or not the local grocer has some fresh mint but I might just compromise.

Today is about more Netflix streaming and more Kindle books. Oh, and quality time with my Neti pot. Fuck. I hate being sick.

Michigan roadtrip is rapidly approaching. It’ll be nice to have a little break but I’m not looking forward to the humidity.

I got my hair trimmed yesterday and do you ever have that feeling where maybe it would have been a better idea to take the scissors to your own hair? Yeah. I was lazy and in a hurry so I went to Costcutters. The stylist sprayed down the edge of my hairline and starting snipping. To be fair I’ll have to wash and dry it to see what the actual results are but I’m not what I’d call “optimistic”.

I don’t remember it being such a pain in the ass to grow out my hair the last time.

Work fun fact:

The cantaloupe is apparently one of the world’s deadliest fruits. Because it is harvested and packed in mostly third world countries, without sanitation benefits in the field, and has a porous rind it is very hospitable to e coli. and a bunch of other delicious bacteria. Add to that, many places that prepare cut fruit don’t scrub the outside of a cantaloupe with a scrub brush before cutting into it, the awesome bacteria get into the fruit. YUM. I will never buy cut fruit again.

Dear Russell Crowe, Please learn the meaning of “metaphor” before talking about it. You’ll sound less dumb, I promise. For example, Gladiator wasn’t a “metaphor for death, and possibly vengeance.” It was a movie that was LITERALLY ABOUT VENGEANCE AND DEATH. Your mole freaks me out sometimes, you seem a little crazy, but I usually like your movies. Quit TALKING about them and trying to RUIN it for me. Love, Yg

Anna Paquin comes out as bisexual in defense of GLBT rights and CRASHES the website. LOVE HER. We should all be for equality anyhow but I’m sick of hearing straights (AND GAYS) claim that bisexuality doesn’t exist. It’s especially great that she’s in a committed relationship with someone because being engaged/married/committed doesn’t mean you’re LESS bisexual, it just means you’ve chosen to have a relationship with the luckiest person EVAR.

Sherlock Holmes. You have no idea how close this entry came to being called “No shit, Sherlock.” I loved it. Funniest fight scenes ever, while still being great fight scenes. Possibly the best role Jude Law has ever played. Irene Adler still kicks the most ass. All that and they managed to honor the tradition of Holmes not filling you in until the end of the book without making the film suck. I REALLY want to see Iron Man 2.

We rented Precious and Sorority Row. I’m not sure which we should watch first, though we probably won’t play Shane’s (awesome) drinking game. I maintain the only thing WRONG with his drinking game is that people haven’t reached the level of cynicism and/or pessimism about child abuse as they have with international natural disasters. Therefore Haiti Telethon drinking game = funny with a side of going to hell, Precious drinking game = OUCH, OUCH, THE FLAMES THEY BURN.

Jennifer’s Body was pretty fantastic. I love that it’s a girl movie – like Whip It but if your best friend wanted to kill/torture you instead of covering for you at the Oink Joint. Amanda Seyfried is GREAT.

The Princess and the Frog is growing on me. I love the soundtrack and I’ve watched the movie twice. It will probably never have the nostalgia of The Little Mermaid for me (I can probably recite the film BY HEART despite it being my favorite AND most hated Disney film) but it’s really good.

My rant about The Little Mermaid can take on its own entry. Seriously.

Surrogates was SURPRISINGLY good. I’m always willing to give Bruce a little leeway since I’m his number one fan (in a non-creepy, NON-MISERY, not even sending fan-tweets kind of way) but it managed to be a seriously decent murder mystery/action flick with some social commentary. Possibly my favorite kind of film.

I’m WAY over hearing about the sex lives of Tiger Woods and Jesse James. I think it’s a terrible thing to have attained enough fame to lose your privacy and have all of the details of your private life to become public fodder. If you like reading about the destruction of someone’s personal life, I’d argue that you’re not all that happy with your OWN life. Find something besides other people’s self-destruction to make you feel better.

In celebration of our Zombie Lord, we’ll be watching Sorority Row and eating steak and twice baked potatoes. I’m also going to make Deviled Eggs (which may seem appropriate – heh) for the Spouse even though I can’t stand them.

1. The chicken was awesome and (in keeping with RealSimple tradition) very easy and DELICIOUS. The boys were very happy.

2. I dig those fucking SteamFresh things. I’ve probably eaten more vegetables in the last year because of those bags than I have in the last five years.

3. That might be a slight exaggeration but probably not by much, unless you’re counting vegetables on pizza.

4. I didn’t use the olive oil called for in the breading recipe because I use pre-minced garlic that has a smidge of olive oil in it. Turns out the olive oil was totally not missed.

5. Beer is AMAZING.

I’m also apparently having some blog issues with regard to commenting. I thought it was maybe the theme, so I changed the theme and then ran into a whole other bunch of problems so I’ve resorted to IntenseDebate as a temporary solution. I do like that you can use your twitter login to comment so I’m hoping it works out until I have time to poke at the bugs going on here.

Spouse and I are both set up on XboxLive (yay for prepaid cards on sale) so I’m looking forward to LOTS more BandHero.

In unrelated and totally lame news, I bought a scarf today that matches my rainboots. I’m embracing my lame. I’m also considering dying my hair a pinkish blonde, just for the hell of it. That would also, incidentally, match my rainboots although that’s not my main motivation.

I am INORDINATELY excited to find out that other people hate noise-canceling earbuds. I LIKE being able to hear ambient noise. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me from being mugged or hit by cars. While there are definitely times when it’s good to block everything out, I’ve found I can do that by using my attention span/imagination which makes it unnecessary to render myself nearly deaf. Yay brains!

Something I’m not excited about: finding a dentist. I haven’t been to the dentist since we moved to Colorado and I’m working up one hell of a cavity on one of my right molars. I hate the dentist. HATE.

Best news of the week: Colorado FINALLY got around to sending me state certification as an EMT-B (I’ve had national certification since the fall). That means I can finally look for a medical job!

Supernatural was back this week and although I’m only halfway through the ep, I’m stoked. I missed the massive amounts of sarcasm and creepy/scary (not to mention hawt). Mercy is on a par with the sarcasm but balances it out with more humor (and laugh out loud, at that). This weekend’s movie lineup includes: Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row, The Informant, Tenure, The Princess and the Frog and Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, we are random. I may also do a Yg + Spouse recap of Twilight/New Moon because we cracked me up.

I’ve been reading Finch but I’m not gonna lie, the CONSTANT use of. Fragments. Is Really. Annoying. Probably it’s supposed to convey. Speech pattern. Or tone. Mostly. It makes me want to throw. My fucking Kindle across the room. So I keep putting it down. Listening to Oryx and Crake on my ride home from work each day and it just reminds me how much I love Margaret Atwood. The listen is a refresh before I start In The Year of the Flood (ALSO very excited about).

That pretty much sums up all the immediate stuff. I’m going to do a yoga post before the weekend is out (shocking, I know) but for now I’m going back to my chocolate chip cookies and delicious Coors Light. Shut up, I like it. I don’t critique YOUR beer.

I don’t generally care for spinach unless it’s in a salad, preferably slathered with some dressing, or creamed and served with schnitzel. That this recipe is WICKED easy and very tasty works in its favor. In fact, I liked it so much that I made it for dinner TWICE in the last week. I made it with the pork chops and then last night I made it with fried chicken. So. Good.

2 packages of Old El Paso Spanish Rice (the kind that preps in a minute)
1 value pack of chicken breasts (I think it was 5 breasts)
1 package of Fajita seasoning
2 sm 10 oz cans of RoTel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chiles, drained
1 large pkg (4 cups-ish) shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 can black beans, drained
1 large can Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce
Flour tortillas

So first I made the rice and while it cooled, put the flour tortillas in a 13×9 pan. I put them in propped together taco-style but you could also just make a top/bottom layer probably. I filled the bottom of each tortilla with the Spanish rice

I put fajita spice on the breasts and put them in a pan with a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil. Cook until browned on one side, flip them.
While the chicken is cooking, put the tomatoes and beans in a bowl and stir to blend. Once blended, scoop beans/tomatoes into each tortilla.

Once the breasts were browned on both sides, I took them out and sliced and then cubed them, then putting them back in the pan to finish cooking and added the rest of the fajita spice.

Once the chicken was done, I scooped it into the the tortillas, put in a handful of cheese each, and then closed the tortillas. I had to use toothpicks but whatevs. Poured in the can of enchilada sauce, covered the whole mess in cheese, and baked at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes. When I took it out of the oven, I took out the toothpicks, put them on plates and put on more cheese. Served with tortilla chips.

Dudes, it was WICKED AWESOME. Delicious and since I didn’t use more than half of my chicken meat, we’ll have another pseudo-Mexican meal later this week.

The muffins allowed me to test my new silicone muffin pans and they are FANTASTIC. I love them. If I could, I’d replace most of my bakeware with silicone. On the current wishlist: those measuring cups/spoons that flatten, as well as a colander.

My Xbox is wending its way to the house as we speak. I’m very excited about it and picked up some used games from GameStop. Fatima promised we could conference and watch bad movies on Netflix, so I’m looking forward to that.

My hands ARE pretty thrashed from work. I’ve been having issues for the last year/year and a half with dry nails that peel (rather than split or break) and recently discovered that a fix seems to include 1. No nail polish and 2. Lots of lotion. I trimmed my nails tonight and there wasn’t a single peeler. The hands ARE hella dry from all the cardboard though. I might actually have to get out my lotion gloves overnight.

New current playlist is an autolist with Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson, Britney, Gaga and Katy Perry. I’m REALLY enjoying it.

Other random news. Brit Hume- WTF? Because Christians, especially FAMOUS Christians, NEVER have extramarital affairs? WTF *SouthCarolinaGovernor* cough. I think Brit’s a first class idiot. See also: not everyone subscribes to your idea or need for forgiveness. Jackass.

Tomorrow’s post-work excitement will consist of seeing Avatar again and/or cleaning the basement. Piper was mad that we left today and got into the coffee grounds in the laundry room garbage. Mmmm. Coffee grounds. This would likely be less annoying if I 1. drank coffee and 2. thought coffee smelled good. Damn dog.

I might do some more reading before bed tonight- Middlemarch is even more effective than Ambien.

.5 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 sweet potato, grated

.5 cup chopped spinach

1.5 c shredded cheddar

2 sheets frozen puff pastry (thawed)

Brown ground beef and garlic. Add grated sweet potato and spinach. Cut puff pastry sheets in half. Add ground beef mixture to pastry sheets, split cheese between pockets, seal. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

I used a package (1.3 lbs) ground beef so I doubled the garlic. I also had a MASSIVE sweet potato but only about a 3/4 cup of frozen chopped spinach, so those things seemed to even out. Was short on puff pastry, so I used refrigerated pie crusts instead and it worked perfectly. Very easy to make, surprisingly flavorful. I had enough that I made a batch of 4 pasties on Sunday and another batch for dinner tonight and STILL had a bit of ground beef mix left over.

Tonight’s dinner-cooking was inspired by my email inbox again. I did a variation on Meatloaf Wellington – made my usual meatloaf (1.5-2.0 lb ground beef, 1 pkg French onion soup mix, 2-3 T of A1, 1 egg, breadcrumbs) and after I cooked it for about 45 minutes, I drained the fat. Then I took a package of crescent rolls and unrolled them, layering them over the top (and slightly overhanging the sides) of the meatloaf and cooked another 15 minutes. It was FANTASTIC and will definitely be added to the regular line up. I didn’t make a gravy and, because I knew I’d be using the crescent rolls, I baked it in a small round casserole dish and angled the beef in away from the sides. It worked really well.

The other day I got an email about a southwest chicken bake using green chilis and tortillas. I sauteed diced chicken with the two shallots leftover from Thanksgiving and 1/4 of a red onion, salt, pepper and some cumin. I took 5 small cans of diced green chilis and put them in a bowl with 1 small jar of salsa, 1 can of kidney beans and about 1/2 c of chopped frozen spinach. Just before combining with the chili mixture, I added the remainder of a package of frozen corn. Stir everything together and then I put a tortilla on the bottom of a round casserole dish, filled it with the chicken mix, topped it with cheddar cheese, then continued layering. I topped it with a tortilla and cheddar cheese. Bake for 1 hour at 350. It made enough that I have dinner for tomorrow and leftovers for the weekend, plus a casserole that I put into the freezer for baking later.

Considering I won’t be home from 8am until almost midnight tomorrow, I’m feeling pretty good about my advanced prep skillz. Now I just have to clean the kitchen before I leave for work in the morning.

The old hard drive remains impervious to my efforts to access files. I’m searching for things which will let me at them but in the meantime the only thing I’m really MISSING is my holiday card list from last year. Damn and blast. I was quite proud of myself for having done that, too. This year I’ll upload it to Google docs and save myself this sort of aggravation in the future.

TV this week has been awesome. The Glee midseason finale was about as close to perfect as you get on television, plus a fantastic closing number. Criminal Minds cranked it up a notch by forcing a leadership decision. Also, the killers who want to pretend to date their victims still creep me out the most. The Mentalist was great tonight and it was nice to see the chemistry returning to normal. The odd insertion of a new Red John team didn’t really ever fit right for me but Jane is funny enough that I didn’t care.

I’m still plugging through East of Eden, though I’ve been distracted by work lately and not making as much progress. I’ll take it to job 1 tomorrow and get some pages in while it’s slow in the afternoon.

Mom is headed to Mexico this weekend. I hope she has a great trip – she deserves it. My next (last?) holiday task is to bundle up cookies and mail them out.