Finger-lickin' good...

Just for you!

So is this deal limited to babies, or can persons of all ages enjoy a hearty Breast Meal?

KFC, I hate your fried chicken but I do love your coupons.

Multicultural fail....

In case I ever doubted I was living in a state bordered only by other parts of the Midwest:

Nice effort. The sign's even better (worse?) from the other side, where "Mexican Food" ends up in the middle and looks even more like an odd afterthought.

College students can't buy groceries

Really, it's a wonder we don't all die of malnourishment on Ramen noodles and/or run out of money instantly after discovering a cool new overpriced store.

See, my shopping strategy is "only buy stuff that's cheap or on sale UNLESS it looks cool or I might need it for a recipe at some point or I'm really hungry or there's shiny stuff in a vending machine."

As a result, my backpack and pockets are full of Twix wrappers and my pantry currently contains:

1 bag glutinous rice

3 cans assorted tomato product (always have tomato product and chicken stock, you can make a base for anything)

3 packages Maruchan Ramen (this, frozen chicken stock, canned tomatoes and mixed veggies are the only things I always have, in case I need to make a meal fast - the stock and veggies mean I don't have to use the seasoning packets)

2 jars peanut butter (sale)

1/2 packet dried porcini mushrooms

1 small jar instant coffee (I do not drink coffee)

1 bag dark chocolate-peanut M&Ms (sale)

1 container dried apricots (I'd forgotten about this until today; there are maybe six withered apricots left in the bottom)

1 box rolled oats (for the morio worms)

1 box quick oats (for me, if I decide at some point to like oatmeal)

1 box pumpkin Pocky with 3 sticks remaining (it was the last box in the display, had to buy it)

1 bag evil-tasting puffed-wheat cereal (sale)

1 bag marshmallows

1 bag black walnuts

1 can chili-lime flavored almonds (sale; these taste like heavily-salted evil)

baking soda

baking powder

salt

honey

imitation vanilla (I have had this forever and do not use it; I think it's mostly just evaporating)

giant tub of ground cinnamon (I sort of inherited this, I will never have to buy cinnamon)

flour

sugar

cocoa powder

cornmeal

bread crumbs (I don't think I've ever used these)

The high proportion of "I don't use this" items explains why there is so much stuff in my cupboards even though I can never find any ingredients to make food with and I have no money. It may also explain why I have no money....

Electroshock

No, not a treatment program.

I have recently discovered, to my surprise, that I am a character on The Electric Company.

This is mostly surprising because I thought The Electric Company went off the air in the 70's.

As it turns out, there's a new one, and 8-year-olds everywhere (and by "everywhere" I mean "at the library") are just familiar enough with it to instantly conclude upon seeing me that I am "from TV." Never mind that I am not, in fact, a 15-year old Latina rapper; we have the same hair.

Well, I guess it's always good to have a fan base.

In other news, I realized how frighteningly easily-amused I am. Quick backstory: I have a useless habit of repeating things in a schizophre-- eh, poetic -- way and putting the wrong word endings (usually from another language, though I likely get them wrong in that language as well) on things when I'm saying them in my head, just for the sake of making them sound different. Things like -dad or -itas instead instead of -ity or -ness, -mente instead of -ly, and -en instead of -s for plurals. I don't always notice I'm doing it, which I suppose should be worrisome.

Anyhow, it was the last one that figures in today's tale. I was ... well, you know I have a gecko, right? Because that will cut down on a lot of explanation here about why I was putting morio worms in an ashtray. Anyhow, I was talking to myself about how the dish was deep enough to contain the beetles, but was it enough for the worms ... the wyrms ... the wyrmen ... VERMIN! And then I ran to my dictionary to confirm that "worm" was in fact the root for "vermin," and was excessively pleased that it was, because I do not have a life.

Some of you may be slightly more squeamish than would allow for my safely posting an image of my tub-o-worms, so we'll go safer and post some pretty pink blumen:

Pretty, yeah? Go outside, enjoy the weather, don't be like me and sit alone in your room inventing a new type of screwdriver ... wait, no, that was someone else who also spends most of the day living in a box.

420 views ...

ONE DAY LATE.

Well, since I've started a post I guess I have to say something interesting in it. Stupid rule, if you ask me. Have a drink while I think of something.

Okay ... Pandora. Finally got around to using this site, and for one of my channels it's great. Gave me lots of nice, mellow songs. All good.

The one that was intended as a nice, upbeat, 80's/90's channel, went a bit wrong. First I kept getting lazy, slow music and shifting it to the other station. Definitely not much resembling my seed songs (which included Layla, Ballroom Blitz and Roll to Me). Finally I made the mistake of thumbs-upping "Rocky Road To Dublin" from the High Kings, because it was the first song that wasn't slow music or rhythmic screaming.

Whoops.

Here's what happened next, to the best of my knowledge:

Me: That's more like it. :)

Pandora: Ohhh, you like *that*? Awesome, I have lots of that!!! *plays three Irish folk songs followed by two other versions of Rocky Road To Dublin in a row*

Me: Wait, wait, what? No! Stoppit! *thumbs down* What happened to all the other songs I gave you?

Pandora: But ... but you liked it. Do you want me to go back to the slow music?

Me: NO!!! *thumbs down*

Pandora: ... Fine, I'm just going to give you whatever's on top of the pile.

Me: "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)"? Well ... not your best work, but yes, this is the right direction. *thumbs up*

Pandora: O_o But ... but ... I thought you liked the Irish music. Okay. Breathe. Think, Pandora, think. Celtic folk song, yes. Irish folk songs, no. All other folk songs, no. Repetitive pop music ... yes. WTH. Um ... um ... OMG WAIT I KNOW WHAT SHE WANTS!!!

Whether this was in fact Pandora's thought process, its next move was to very enthusiastically present me with "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles."

Bless its little robot heart.

Job Security

So, guy walks up to the desk at the library the other day, looks around suspiciously then turns to me.

Guy: "You ever think of having an off-duty cop patrol this place?"

Me: "... Hm?"

Guy: "Ever think of having an off-duty cop patrolling this place?"

Me: "Ah, why?"

Guy: "C'mon."

Me: "..."

Guy: "You know."

Said it as if I were deliberately avoiding a subject. I mean, he wasn't as interesting as the next guy who kept insisting he was in a Very Big Hurry while checking his watch-less wrist and asking me questions he could have answered more quickly by looking them up himself ... yeah, I don't know what it is about Mondays.

And also it's snowing now. So.

It's been a stressful week and we're just beginning. Have some balloons I found on campus:

Yes, I also feel strangely drawn to guess which one's bigger. Which reminds me, you know that thing they always have in "mind tricks" books, where the words say one color and are printed in another and you have to say the printed color aloud? Turns out I'm really good at that one. Does that mean I have poor reading comprehension or am just too familiar with the "magic trick" for it to work?

Bad Girl

Just realized how incredibly ungrateful it looked, posting that I found my camera waiting faithfully in the cold where I'd abandoned it, and then posting that I wanted a new camera.

But y'know, the new one is red. And shiny. And my old one never would let me take this picture, for some reason:

Also, the penguins. I sort of forgot about/ran out of penguins for a time. But there's one staring down at me from this weird box of generic frosted flakes on top of the fridge (and it's fishing in the bowl of cereal ... I do not know what they are trying to imply about their product here), so now I'm feeling guilty again.

But I'm avoiding Zazzle because it keeps asking me to consolidate my accounts, and it's kind of awkward because I only have one other account and don't particularly want to consolidate it. Avoidance is my solution to everything.

Speaking of which ... I can't think of anything clever to say, so g'bye.