Lemon Lime Slushies

I haven't made one of these silly collages in a while. This one is ultimately cheesey but I don't care.

I was driving home today and all I could think of was getting home and making my slush. Todays temperature seemed to be hotter than usual (it said 89 but it felt hotter). The sun was also out which intensified the heat.

Cinders greets me as usual. I change from my office clothes to my hang out cottons. I'm almost outta ice so I turn the ice maker back on. Hopefully I won't have to throw the first few batches away like last time.

Pop the ice in shaver and walk away. Take the frozen glasses outta the freezer, the syrup outta the fridge. Pack it all in the glass. Have a seat on the floor in front of the fan. Instant cool down. Oh yea, life is sweet.

Gotta love grandma's

This past weekend I spend some well deserved time in the salon, before I left the studio I went to the restroom and left my sweater. Oops. I called on Tuesday and lucky for me it was still there. Too bad I can't say the same for the glasses I lost @ Target.

Oh well.

I went to pick up my sweater @ the Salon and since it's kinda in Grandma's neighborhood I gave her a call and asked if it was ok to stop by. Lucky for me she wasn't outside in her garden or at the market.

I've always loved going to see her and now that I live so much closer and don't have the financial restrictions I had last year I can see her as often as I want. The best thing about going to see her has always the food she would make while we would visit. I believe the food has gotten better over the years, especially since I have a more adventurous palet and try all those spicy salsas.
When Eddie was overseas he always wanted my grandma's salsa's in his care packages. He would tell me they never lasted more than a day. No matter how caliente they were, it was always finished and then he'd ask to send more.

I really need to sit down with her and write all her recipes down. One thing I learned long ago when Eddie sent me to grandma's to learn to cook was that she NEVER measured anything which is something I've pretty much never done either. This is something that my mom could never figure out (but she still buys me measuring spoons and cups). It annoyed Adam because sometimes I would mess up meals and they would be over or under flavored cause I never measured stuff. Sam would point out and wonder why I didn't use the tools my mom bought me. Eddie never cared, he ate anything and never watched me cook. I would usually say that I was never taught that way but the real reason was I didn't want to clean the spoons and cups.

The funny thing is when I watch the food network cooks unless their stuff is pre measured and put into those cute tiny serving size dishes they tend to 'eye-ball' the ingredients they toss in. So guess me and grandma are doing something right, right?

One of the last times I was there she had mentioned that she wanted to give me a fryer for my fish tacos. She couldn't find it at the time but after looking inbetween visits she found it. It's one of the classic fryers and not like these new ones with multiple parts that may or may not be dishwasher safe or may or may not be washable. I know those fry vats at fast food and fine dining establishments rarely get cleaned... but still, I'd like to be able to clean my electronics from time to time without worrying about electricuting myself. Basically it's one piece and has adjustable temperature.

Sweet!

She asked me when I was going to see my parents again, I told her I wasn't sure so she went ahead and gave me a book of photos of my grandpa to deliver to my mom when I next saw her. In the book are some photos I've not seen. When I called my mom later, I asked her to bring her scanner if she comes to visit before I do. I want to make some copies of these photos and hang them on my wall or better yet, flickr 'em. Some of them are very arty and I see where my eye comes from.

We spent some time in the garden too and she sent me home with a fresh seeded pot of rosemary and another filled with basil. You just know I'm gonna be cooking soon.

How do you freaks find me?

So I was getting ready to go to bed and I happen to log into myspace just for kicks. I read this message from this girl who claims she WAS engaged to this guy that I was seeing earlier this year. As it turned out he was too good to be true. Mannie suggested I ditch him and long story short I did.

Seeing her email made me curious as to what she was referring to, so I looked at moe's flickr page. Funny how seeing things after you put them behind you will just piss you off again.

Just as I was soothing myself down for the night I get all wound up again. The question is ~ do I want to take on this drama? I mean, if I was a girl that WAS engaged to that guy, I personally, at least as an instant reaction would want my questions answered. But then I would think about it and wonder, "Do I *REALLY* want to know the answers to the questions I'm asking?"

Despite me trying to leave my drama behind me, it seems to find me somehow. Here's her message:

Hi. My name is CHICK* and I was engaged to LOSER*. Our engagement was on hold for these last several months while we worked things out. I was searching for some things online and ran across your flickr page. There are several pictures of the two of you together back in January. We were still together at that time and needless to say I'm a little shocked at what I saw. I recently ended our relationship, but I just wanted to know a little bit about what happened. Did he ever tell you about me? At one time I had my suspicions that something was going on with him but I ignored it. Turns out it was true. We were even together on New Year's Eve and it looks like he was then with you less than 2 weeks later. I'm not at all accusing you because I get the feeling that you had no idea that he was with someone already. I just want some answers so that I can have some closure about all this. How long were you seeing each other? When did it start and end?

I have no intentions of bothering you at all, I just want to know what was or is going on. If he deceived you like he did me, I am sorry that you had to go through that. He is very smooth and will tell you everything you want to hear and then some. He was too good to be true. We have been together since Jan 06 and we got engaged in March 06. We were best friends for months before we even dated. For the first couple months of this year he was acting strangely toward me so this would explain some of that. I truly believed that we were working things out and it was understood that we were still exclusive. He assured me several times that he wasn't seeing anyone.

I hope you can find this as a kind e-mail and not an accusatory tone.

Thank you for any insights you might have.

*NAMES have been changed, blah blah blah

She sounds like a smart girl, at least she understands the simplicity of forming coherent sentences and paragraph structure. She even said thanks. I know this one time when i was 22 I found out that the man I was seeing was married. I tried to tell the wife, but she didn't want to hear it. I ended things with him of course, but he really didn't like what I did to his life after that.

Seeing that email seems kinda like the same story 10 years ago. I didn't know the LOSER was engaged, but he did have some issues that just didn't fly with me. The only difference now is that I found out 5 almost 6 months after the fact while before I found out while I was dating the married guy. I'm sure Ally, Rach, Mannie and Danny can back me up on the LOSER boy stories.

Whatever. It's something to think about.

Who came up with these names anyway?

This morning the traffic report mentioned there was an accident on the highway I usually traverse and that two of the four lanes were closed.

Just great.

Lucky for me there is a TOLLway parallel to my usual commute route that I would be driving on this morning. I continue getting dressed and decide it would be wise to leave about 5 minutes early since I've never been down this road before. I walk out the door and drive half way down the block before I realize my GPS friendly cel phone is still sitting at home on my bed.

Great place for it right?

Especially since I don't know how to get to work from the TOLLway. I take my chances and keep driving.

So far so good, when the TOLLway ends I realize that I've gone too far, but the prior exit was 4 miles ago.... Who came up with THAT bright idea? My GPS sooo woulda come in handy. The good news I'm about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. The bad news I'm downtown, hello I work uptown.

I find a street I'm familiar with and head north. Eventually I wind my way to that tall ass building that's next to the building I work in. I'm so glad I can navigate by land marks cause seriously trying to drive on these streets is confusing. I make it to work right on time. If I had my GPS I prob woulda been 10 mins early.

~*~*~*~

Before lunch, I check on my TOLLtag, it's been 11 days since I've ordered it and it's still not in my mailbox. I call up the company again they said I could come to their office and get a new one for no charge.

Great, I can pick up my cel phone at home too. Good thing the TOLLtag office is in the vicinity of my apt. I pick up my phone and then head to the TOLLoffice.

After 5 minutes of being there, I decide I NEVER want to come here EVER again. It's right up there with going to the post office and the bank. When I got there nobody was in the office but the workers and it was quiet.

Next thing 5 random other people walk in and two of them decide that talking LOUDLY on their cel phones was more important that the task at hand.

TAKE IT OUTSIDE PEOPLE!!!!! THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW YOUR BIZNESS!!!!

This causes the 4 other people that are with reps to raise their voices to the reps in front of them so they can be heard. Mind you this office does not have those nice little mini cubicle partitions that the Triple A offices have to suck up noise and keep your conversation between the CSRs and the Customers private.

I don't want to be here anymore.

When I get my tag, I say my thanks and leave. I'm so flustered with those two stupid cel phone so I give them both dirty looks to which they are oblivious of course. I slam my car door and I hear my tires screech as I speed away.

My bad. Oh well.

I turn on my GPS and try the TOLLroad again.

I swear, I'm getting madder now. Who named these fucking roads anyway? I'm driving SOUTH on the road labeled NORTH TOLLWAY. This TOLLroad is just as dumb as the road next to that other highway. The one way road that goes SOUTH on the ONE WAY ROAD called the NORTH expressway. WTF?

Also, I have to get used to NOT calling these roads FREEways cause there ARE no free roads here. There are highways and expressways, and tollways. I really miss those Eastwood commercials. "Freeway, it's that thing you're speeding on."

Stupid cowboys with their stupid naming conventions.

One of my friends laughs at what I trip on. He says that if those are my only problems then my life is good. Guess he's right.

365 days

Flickr has this group called 365 days. I've been a member for quite some time and before I left CA I wanted to participate in this group but my life changed and those plans never panned out.

The rules are simple, take a self portrait for the next year and post them to the group. It's tempting but my hindrance excuse for the moment is that I'm using ancient technology camera wise. (Canon A40)

Before I moved into my new apartment I wanted to buy myself a new Canon D30 DSLR and the 28-135 IS Zoom Lens (my favorite lens aside from the 1.4 50MM) That didn't happen either. I was too happy spending time in Salons, going clothes shopping and getting old clothes tailored to fit my new shape. Those sprees were fun, but I do wish I had exercised some self control and got the camera instead. Oh well, it will be mine eventually.

Back to that group. I should get over myself and my point and shoot digi and just join. Have fun and learn more about self photos, right? I mean it seems to be the thing now days away. It's funny, when I was learning about photography in school they would always say that the self portrait is the hardest photo you will ever have to take.

I think they wrote those lessons before they invented cel phone cameras.