Muffin Top

Congratulations folks in the Northern Hemisphere. You made it through winter. I don't know how you feel about winter, but it makes me want to scowl out the window and rub lotion on my dry digits. Very depressing.

Now it's time to put away my frumpy winter clothes and get out my frumpy spring clothes. It's hard to give up my (hopefully) slimming black wardrobe in favor of pastels, too. I've done a trial run with a couple of pieces, and it doesn't look good. It's a good thing Foodie Kimberly is dead, because it will take some work to get ready for spring fashion.

I'm determined to do it. My favorite spot on the couch has my permanent imprint, but that's going to change. Here's the plan:

Eat less more often.

Drink water.

Eat more fruits and veggies.

Physical activity besides opening the fridge and mouse-clicking. Guess I'll be getting a new battery for the pedometer.


This is the last time I'm going to talk about it because my diet will probably end tonight because people that do that are annoying.

Foodie Kimberly is dead

Never underestimate my ability to completely freak out. At some point on Wednesday, I realized I had a couple of relatively mammoth assignments to turn in on Monday. I think I realized it in the middle of teaching a piano lesson. I hate telling a student, "Uh, sorry. I had a minor panic attack while you were playing. Could you start at the beginning and play that song again?"

I have been overeating since the dawn of the realization of my impending doom. Somehow I find food comforting. It doesn't even have to be good food. This week I've eaten fast food and cafeteria food more times than I care to admit. Just now, I had to get away from my homework for a bit. Where did I go? Rosa's, of course, for queso and enchiladas. I need some motivation.



My mantra is "Don't freak out! Don't freak out!" I also try to tell myself helpful things like: This assignment is only worth x points. You still have plenty of time to finish. You're a smart person. What's the worst that could happen? You'll fail the course and waste hundreds of dollars retaking it. That last one doesn't help so much.

My coworker is pregnant. That is probably what started all the overeating lately. We snack all day, and when we're not eating, we're talking about food and recipes. Well, it's got to stop. I am not eating for two! So, I am going on a diet. I refuse to buy a new wardrobe of larger-sized clothes. If the health concerns of overeating didn't motivate me to stop, the thought of plunking down the cash for new clothes will. If the shame of being a pear-shaped loser didn't make me kick the habit, looking at myself in a dressing-room mirror surely will.

What's the best diet plan out there? South Beach? Atkins? Liquids-only? My diet starts Monday after I turn in these assignments. Ha! Back to work.

Related: Eat Your Money's Worth at Any All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

Happy New Year

Current Netflix rental:




Tonight we're celebrating Chinese New Year. I googled "Chinese New Year recipes" trying to find a dessert recipe I could take to dinner. I'm not sure how brave I'm going to be with my cooking. So far, only these Chinese Almond Cookies sound promising--marginal Chinese at best. I think I'm about to go tour the local Asian markets and see if I can come up with anything better.

Katie wrote me this week that she ate some Stinky Tofu for the first time. She wrote: "It was honestly the best tofu I've ever had. I don't know how they make it, but the lady that gave it to us fried it up, put pepper and soy sauce on it, and served it with cabbage. I've come to the conclusion that I do not like tofu, but if I came across stinky tofu I would eat it again." I got my passport in the mail this week, and that is the first food I'm trying when I get to Taiwan.

The night before Valentine's Day I made some Bibingka. I stumbled upon the recipe for this Filipino dessert. It's different than any dessert I've ever made. It's made with sweet rice flour, and it makes a spongy cake that doesn't really melt in your mouth like the cakes I'm used to. It's one of those things you probably just have to try, and I would make it again. I made it for Valentine's Day so that I could say, "Will you beebingka my Valentine?" I didn't get anywhere with that line. I also terminated my online dating experiment. No good could come of it.

Xīn nián kuài lè (新年快乐)
Happy New Year! 2007 is the year of the Pig!

My Chinese Zodiac sign is the Dog. I thought my horoscope was pretty accurate. What do you think of yours?

Rat	Ox	Tiger	Rabbit
Dragon	Snake	Horse	Sheep
Monkey	Rooster	Dog	Pig

Burnout

I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Finding Mr. Right

Okay, well I had a typical single Kimberly experience last night. My dad, mom, and grandmother were sitting around the table eating dinner. My grandmother randomly said to me, "Do you wear your wedding ring?" I am not sure who she thought I was or why she asked me that. I said something like, "No, I don't have a wedding ring..." Then I started making jokes about buying myself a ring, being a nun, being happily single, blah blah blah. I can't remember how Mom managed to interject that I'm too picky and don't try to meet new people.

"That's it! I'm going online!" I said to myself. I hopped on a site and created a profile for myself, and we'll see what comes of it. Let the psycho e-mails come rolling in....

I always say I am becoming a librarian because I'm an old maid, but actually the library is a great place for Finding Mr. Right. And Mom had given up on me!

Shades of Doubt

I suddenly have the urge to decorate the house. This usually causes some drama. First, I'm a miser, and that generally inspires some sort of ill-advised do-it-yourself behavior. When will I learn that nothing good can ever come of DIY? There's a reason I work all of the time. It's so I can pay someone else to do that stuff.

It's confession time. I should probably find a cutesy way to send it to PostSecret intsead, but alas--

The trim and molding in my bedroom have been taped off with painter's tape for a year and a half. I haven't finished painting. That door stays shut.

I bought fabric and a pattern (picture C - yellow) for kitchen shades about a year ago. Of the five windows in my kitchen, one window now has a valance, and the rest are still mini-blinded. I gave up on myself to sew the shades long ago, so in May 2006, I hired a friend to sew them for me. In August, one shade was sewn, but still minus cord or a way to mount it. In December, in the midst of finals and all manner of holiday craziness, I got the other three shades. They were really pretty. I have good taste. One problem: they were about a foot too short for my windows. I said a choice word and threw the shades in my storage room (3rd bedroom) and am still too mad to think about how I'm going to fix that. The lady that sewed the shades for me had a baby a day after I picked up the shades from her. I haven't talked to her about my problem.

My third bedroom being a storage room is a whole other confession. I have been in my house for a year and a half, and I still have a room devoted to boxes. I have a great plan for that room. It just hasn't happened yet.

Last week I went to buy two more kitchen chairs like the four I already have. I was immediately accosted by a salesman. I wanted to look for my chairs in the store, but he didn't think they had any on display like what I described. So, we hopped on a computer (still in store) and did some online shopping. Although that is my most comfortable medium for shopping, I prefer not to do it next to a hawkish salesman. Excuses aside, I ordered two chairs that are NOT part of the line I have. Look at the pictures below. I saw the first picture and mistook the chairs in that picture for those I have, seen on the left in the second picture.



Okay, maybe they don't look alike at all. I didn't realize my mistake until I got a little "Thanks for shopping at our store" coupon in the mail with a picture of a cherry wood kitchen chair on it. My thought process went something like this: "Whoa. That looks a lot like what I ordered, but that's not it. How strange that they would send this picture that looks close to what I ordered but isn't..." First chance I got, which was this morning, I hopped online to see what I bought according to the store receipt. Oh dear.

I called the store. They said I needed to talk to a salesman. I went to the store. I found the same salesman. He was less flirty today because I had crazy frizzy hair, no makeup, and grubby clothes. He said we could fix the problem by refusing the shipment of the other chairs. Problem solved, I hope. I did see a bed I like before I left the store. I've been waiting for the Martha Stewart Penobscot bed to go on sale long enough. Also, guess what was on display right next to the bed. There were my chairs, of course!

Today, Daddy and Mom helped me hang my ceiling fan that I got for Christmas. That was funny. My Dad will be the first to admit that he is as much of a grouch about do-it-yourself as I am. The manual was less than helpful in its installation instructions, and Dad got a literal shock. Mom and I almost fell off the ladder. I was worried about the light in my living room being too dim, so I bought some of those GE compact fluorescent lights. I bought the 90 watt bulbs. Wow! My retinas are still burning. We're back to soft light now.

There's a picture of the new fan. I put my Smith+Noble shade in the picture, too. I'm happy with it. No more mini-blinds!

So what should I do about the kitchen shades? Chalk the experience up as an expensive lesson learned and forget about the short shades? Demand a refund or repair work? Shop for something totally new? I'm still too mad to think about it. Be my lifeline, and tell me what to do.

I'd rather be reading Atlas Shrugged

That picture is me in five minutes. I just finished my first panic-inspired marathon homework session. I am having trouble getting into Back to School mode. Specifically, tonight it was hard for me to put all my energy into creating an index about peanuts. You people think that those indices at the ends of books just create themselves, don't you? Oh brother. I really don't know if I can make it through this semester. I'm already tired of school, and we just started. Shame! I need some perspective. Today I told Pauline (my good friend, co-worker, MBA student), "Well, really the semester will be over in three months." She said, "Yeah, but those three months could be absolute torture." I count on Pauline's daily doses of realism to keep me grounded.

Yesterday was the birthday of two of my favorite people, my grandmother and my cousin. I made a cake for my cousin. He requested chocolate. I found a recipe called "Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake." The cake was airy like a génoise, which is what it was supposed to be. I did an oops! on the frosting, though. The aim of the frosting recipe was to find a perfect balance between a rich ganache and a light, fluffy buttercream. I got halfway through the frosting recipe before I realized that I was supposed to put the mixer bowl in an ice bath to cool the melted chocolate and butter. Somehow sticking the mixer bowl inside a big bowl of tepid water and putting both bowls in the freezer for five minutes didn't have the same effect. My frosting was all ganache and no fluff. It was so thick. It looked pretty fluffy in the mixing bowl, but even as I was frosting the cake, it was seizing and falling. The cake tasted like a rich chocolate mousse cake to me. It was a lot of chocolate! Couldn't have been too bad. My cousins wanted to stick their fingers in it. All it needed was a John Deere tractor on top. Check. And candles. Check. Check.

Back in the Saddle Again

Current Netflix rental:


I'm still trying to decide whether or not I want to claim this school. I started the semester by going to Denton last weekend for an "Institute" to get me started on one of my classes. It can't be by accident that it sounds like a euphemism for sanitorium. As much fun as it was sitting around joking with librarians about metadata, I was glad when it was over. I hate PowerPoint presentations. I would rather just sit and listen to a lecture. I guess I'm old-fashioned. Peter Norvig created this hilarious Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation. One of my few great undergrad professors showed me this parody a few years ago, and I thought it was hilarious. Also, I do not like the cliché, "There are no dumb questions." There are lots of dumb questions. There are lots of irrelevant questions. I already have an overdeveloped hubris, and grad school seems to be exaggerating it.

On to more fun endeavors: The first night I was down in the Metroplex, I stayed with James and Michele in Ft. Worth. That was fun. First, they gave me a librarian action figure that is apparently not without controversy. Nancy Pearl comes all decked out in a wild red outfit and Easy Spirit shoes. She has a button on her back that you press to make her raise her finger to her lips in a shushing motion. If they had given me the (related?) Crazy Cat Lady action figure, you can bet I'd be checking myself into an Institute right away.

The three of us had dinner at Joe T Garcia's. It was pretty good, but there was a birthday party for someone turning 21 at the table next to us. Obviously, we had trouble carrying on a conversation what with that racket.

Friday and Saturday night, I had fun with my best foodie friend Matt. We went to La Duni for dinner on Friday. The restaurant was really gorgeous. I had Frijol con Puerco for dinner, and it was fabuloso. Then for dessert, I tried the Cuatro Leches Cake, as if tres weren't enough. I'm going to try my hand at that recipe someday soon. Matt had the Rollo de Canela y Nuez for his dessert, and that was yummy, too.

There is so much to do down there compared to little ol' Lubbick. Country girl goes to the big city again... We talked about going to see the Dallas Symphony Saturday but couldn't get tickets. Instead we went up to Plano and the Shops at Legacy. I wonder if I would think all of this was so über cool if I lived there. We ate at Taco Diner. I had the Crispy Enchiladas Verdes. Cute restaurant. We were going to see The Queen at the Angelika - the theater has a chandelier in the lobby - but we arrived in time to sit on the front row, so we skipped out. I like Matt's house. It has a turquoise range and oven from the 1950s.

Sunday night I met James and Michele for dinner again. This time we celebrated James's 31st birthday at the Macaroni Grill. Then I had to hit Whole Foods while I could. Missing that is not an option. I was rushed, becuase they were about to close, but I had time to grab my favorite Cranberry Orange Scones and some Chocolove bars to take home to the fam. That's the story of my whirlwind Interstate tour of the Metroplex. Can anyone tell that I'm trapped in foodie hell in Lubbock?


I'm trying to avoid my homework. It's been calling my name for days, despite my best efforts to avoid it. I don't know what it is about being back to school. My schoolwork doesn't really take all that much time, but it seems like just enough to push me over the edge sometimes, make me curl up into the fetal position and not want to get out of bed. Maybe it's the cold weather, too. I cannot stand winter. It's like getting dumped - dark and depressing - the literal cold shoulder. It makes me want to pull the blankets over my head. Spring cannot come soon enough. I'm just being a drama queen. Here's a funny: At the time of this posting, the Texas Tech homepage has a picture of a snow skier jumping off a mountatin. (It's next to the campus life links at the bottom of the page.) I have lived in Lubbock many many years, but I have yet to go snow skiing here.

Vegas Royale 007 - Countdown 2007

Currently reading:


Well, I wanted to post a bit about my New Year's in Las Vegas, even though it feels like old news now. The above link is to the Vegas CBS station with a news snippet and a video of the fireworks show. I watched the show from the airport parking garage. Great view of the Strip without the danger of being trampled to death or anything else equally unseemly. I didn't know at the time that the theme for the party was "Vegas Royale 007." We saw Casino Royale on New Year's Eve, and I loved it. Maybe it was just the atmosphere of seeing it in a Vegas casino, or it could have been the actor's accent and blue eyes, but -gush- it was my favorite movie of 2006.

Here's a night shot of the traffic...



We took a break from the Strip and walked around Red Rock Canyon.


Somehow every time I go to Vegas, the only good casino shots I get are of the fake Eiffel Tower.


Texas girls don their pink cowboy hats to ring in 2007.

My New Year's resolutions are always the same:

1) Get organized and/or stop procrastinating.
2) Lose 20 pounds.
3) Have someone to kiss next New Year's.

So far, the goals have stayed perennial. Anyone else have resolutions to share? We can check in and monitor each other's progress.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

but you'd think it was the apocalypse. I tried to swing by United on the way home, to grab a couple of things for my weekend cooking. There was a long line of people just waiting for shopping carts. Goodness. They are forecasting some snow and ice this weekend, but geeze! With so many people out stocking up for the winter storm, my dream guy was bound out and about, too. It made me wish I had gone to the sexy new United, instead of the ghetto United by my house. The ghetto United riffraff didn't look promising, so I left. "It's getting harder every day to be an optimist." What a catch I am. I came home and made fast friends with a group of buttered, jellied English muffins and a hazelnut steamer.

I have a few pictures to post from the holidays. What says the holidays better than overeating? So I kicked off the season by making dozens of cookies.





Of course they were
as good as they look.

Christmas Day: There's the fam opening the gifts from dear Sister Katie, or "Wen Ming Rou" in Taiwan. We got to talk to Katie on the phone, and she's doing fine and loves her mission.



More gifts to open at my house...



New Year's in Vegas. Country girl goes to the big city. And so does everyone else....