I warned you about the reality show thing.

So in the NY Times today there was an article about my favorite MTV reality show!

Has anyone ever heard of this before? (Via Kottke.) Apparently in dictionaries and encyclopedias the publishers include fake entries to protect their copyright or whatever. So weird and cool. (And even cooler is that someone felt it necessary to go through all of the E's in the New Oxford English Dictionary to find the fake word!)

I had the exact same lavash bread pizza for dinner tonight (except I added olives!) so I have nothing new to report, culinary-wise. Ooh, but has anyone had this Edy's Light ice cream (Dreyer's for those of you on the West coast)? It's "slow churned," which means "magic process to remove fat and calories while leaving in freaking amazing ice cream flavor."

Tomorrow's Trivia Night should be interesting. First off, Fred (the host) has another gig, so we're getting a substitute question-asker. And my normal ACLU-based team is going to have to split up--the team limit is 8, and we have about 14 coming. Hopefully we can keep the civil liberties infighting to a minimum and concentrate on getting both first and second places.

Ennui.

I used this word in an email the other day and I was inordinately proud. See, even though I may know a lot of words, I rarely think to use them in conversation. (Instead, I overuse "like" and "delicious" and "really" and "actually." And I overuse parenthetical expressions too.)

But about ennui, I've been experiencing some lately. How does one get out of the boredom/sadness rut? I am sure a job would help. But if I had a "real" job, I'd have to wear something other than pajamas all day. Maybe that would be a good thing? I was here yesterday and I really really wanted to buy work-type clothes until I realized that would be a complete waste of money.

Anyway, the feeling is nothing that a good spinning class (I told the instructor she should add "Hey Ya" to a new CD she's making!), my patented easy delicious pizza dinner (piece of lavash bread, olive oil, sliced tomatoes, salt/pepper/hot pepper, feta, shaved parmesan--bake at 400 F for 11 min), a glass or two of this (shiraz variety), and a new episode of this can't fix.

All of you Seattle people, if you like Jamie Oliver, request this DVD set from the Seattle Public Library. I watched the last episode tonight and it's totally making me want to go to culinary school. (All head chefs look like Jamie, right?)

Outed.

So some people actually know about this page now. (I was attempting to keep it a secret until I determined whether I could consistently update.) Oh well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime--and hello, to the 3 or 4 people who might visit once, see that's it's all about food and MTV reality shows and conveniently "forget" to bookmark it. I warned you!

Yesterday I made the most delicious pasta salad I've ever made. (Warning: this site will also feature overuse of the word "delicious.") It was just roasted cherry tomatoes (with olive oil and garlic), yellow wax beans (steamed), pasta (cooked, duh), red onion, a non-spicy (non-Bell variety) yellow pepper, and some goat cheese. The super amazing thing is that no recipe was involved. My pasta salad success made me cocky while I watched 2 episodes of this later in the afternoon. "I could do that!" "I should work in Jamie's restaurant!" Etc.

Tonight could possibly involve more karaoke, but I'll try to refrain from any more drunken post-karaoke posting because Nate REALLY made fun of that.

Oh, I guess it would be nice.

Yes, that's right, I did some karaoke tonight at the Beacon Pub. ("I know not everybody's got a body like you...") It was actually REALLY fun, and I am worried by that. Will I want to do karaoke all of the time now?

Regardless, the Beacon Pub is the greatest place ever. You've got youngish hipsters, 80s new wave kids, Aretha Franklin-esque ladies, and older Marvin Gaye types. All who sing along to "Hey Ya." Oh man, that song reminds me of Somerville house parties.

I shook it like a Polaroid picture for all of y'all back in Boston, don't worry.

Delicious turkey (semi-) meatballs.

Tonight I made these turkey meatballs that I found on Orangette's site. (Yes, I do use recipes from other places.) They were delicious, but not so meatbally. They wouldn't hold together. Maybe I used too much onion? I grated the onion--should I have chopped it? Maybe I didn't use enough bread crumbs? Anyway, I first tried sauteeing them in ball shapes, but they all fell apart. Then I tried sauteeing them in patties, but that still didn't turn out well either. Finally, I broke out the George Foreman. Oh well. They still tasted really good.

Before the meatball problem, I went to the super insane class at the gym. This guy is the instructor. At one point he said something like, "Okay, you guys just all have to do 100 push-ups (no cheating and putting your knees down!) and if anyone cheats we're going to have to add on an extra 50." We all said "NO!", which is pretty unusual for a class to talk back to the instructor like that, so he changed the plan. One hilarious part was when he was making fun of everyone for not being able to keep the beat. This is from the man who continuously bops around to the beat, sings along to the music, and just generally looks like he's having the greatest time of his life while lifting really heavy weights. Well, I am sorry if I can't keep the best time to the music when I'm sweating and feeling faint and thinking my arms are going to fall off if I have to do one more shoulder exercise.

I did feel a tiny bit tough because the guy next to me was using the same weight dumbbells that I was (5 lb.) and he chickened out earlier during the tricep curls. I am buff!

Trivia Night report, 8/24.

We came in second place tonight. Not bad, considering our team name was "Run, Chavez, Run" and the winning team was named something about Pat Robertson. Kindred spirits and all. If only we knew which Michael Jackson album "Man in the Mirror" was on... Or else in what year Elvis Presley died.

OR that Kelly Clarkson is YOUNGER than either Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera??!!

Thankfully, I left before karaoke got into full swing.

I am smart.

Look, links! And I actually edited the HTML template to change the way they looked. Success!

In other news, Nate has strep throat. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that this is true and that some people get sick from strep and others don't, since I don't think I've ever gotten strep. In order to speed along his recovery, I made him Orangette's chicken soup tonight, except I substituted spinach for leeks, I used only 1 lb. of chicken, and I used dried thyme instead of fresh. Otherwise, exactly the same!

I also made the best freaking stir-fry I have ever cooked, ever. Like, I would have paid $6 for this stuff in a restaurant.

And finally, a confession, although it won't come as a huge surprise to those of you who know me (ie, everyone seeing this). I am completely addicted to Laguna Beach on MTV. How are these kids in high school? And they are drunk in every single show! And Jessica totally needs to dump Jason!

(In case you didn't notice, I also figured out how to insert hypertext links! Why isn't Microsoft banging down my door with a web developer job?!)

Finally.

So, I've decided to enter into the world of the blog. (I know not a thing about HTML or other computery stuff, so can I even do this?) I'm not sure who else will read this (hi Mom and Dad!), but whatever.

Obviously everyone who reads this knows these facts, but I'll restate the obvious: I moved to Seattle from Boston about 6 months ago, then started looking for a job here while still working for my job back in Boston. I am still looking for a job, and I am still working for my job back in Boston, both of which are very depressing activities. To anyone who is reading this and can give me a job in the medical writing field, hello! I'd also welcome any open positions in food tasting or music listening.

Next steps: figuring out how to change the links on the side and how to post pictures. Then, blog domination!

Another one.

These posts are going to be mighty boring for a while.

Test.

Testing!