Money money money money...money!

Money....Thank you for Turbo Tax. Thank you Intuit for a fine product, thank you for making it easier for me to give money to the US Federal Government. I entered all of the pretty numbers from my W2 and I owe a whopping $27.00. I'm glad it is a low amount. Sure I'd rather receive a refund than shell out money, but Turbo Tax makes all of it so....so.... almost enjoyable. Jeff if you are reading this -- thank you for going to work for Intuit to make Turbo Tax support and the product even better for future generations of people who like myself are inept when it comes to understanding tax forms.

Money....before I did my taxes, we were out and about. We went to Target to do some browsing and got a photo printer. Decided that we needed a late afternoon snack and being indecisive as I am we ended up at the mall because the food court has endless choices; Sbarro, Thai, Panda Express, ice cream, Ivar's, Kidd Valley, Taco Time, SBUX and Red Robin (I'm not name dropping on purpose nor am I receiving endorsements for doing so, just filling you in on the great mall that is Northgate)... we settled for Taco Time and garlic fries from Kidd Valley. After a dozen mints a piece I treated myself to my first psuedo-impulse buy: a 5 speed Kitchenaid hand mixer. I had a Macy's gift certificate, so why not right? Joe if you are reading this -- I am FINALLY going to give you the Salad Shooter with all of the attachments so you may shred your cheese as you please for your bean dip. :). And Regina if you are reading this -- the Salad Shooter lives on! Back to the money... so after the purchase at Macy's, I asked Chris if there was anything else he wanted to look at -- a last minute turn to the Brookstone store. We walked into Brookstone and made a B-line to the Tempurpedic beds and..............................

Money....yes, that's right, I bought us a new Tempurpedic bed. MONEY. You may call that psuedo-impulse buy number two. The bed is supposed to be here in a little over a week so I am VERY excited because I've been wanting one of these beds for a while. Just like I've been wanting a new hand mixer for a while, hence the "psuedo-impulse" terms. I just happened to pick the same day to drop a buttload of MONEY.

I'll give updates about the mixer and the new mattress as they roll on. There is only a little bit of the Red Velvet cake left so next up will be a Coconut cake? Something I can use the hand mixer on...if anyone wants to give me ideas as to what kind of cake to make next, I'm all ears--send your recipes my way!

Money....you earn it to spend it, such is life. Now if I could just win the lottery....

Red Velvet Cake

I've been asked by quite a few people including Annelise who actually left a comment (yay, Annelise) what exactly Red Velvet Cake is and what it tastes like. From what I can gather, Red Velvet Cake is simply a chocolate cake with a LOT of red food coloring added. What also sets this chocolate cake apart from any other is that the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of buttermilk. Chris found out that there is a chemical reaction between the cocoa powder and the vinegar and buttermilk -- which apparently give the cake the smoother, more "velvety" texture. I would like to say it is as smooth as velvet, but considering I have never consumed velvet in my lifetime, I can't really make that claim.

The chocolate taste is less intense and quite honestly -- the cake probably wouldn't be very appealing by itself. Think of it as this BRIGHT RED cake that is way more dense than a sponge cake....I made a cream cheese frosting for it and as much I as abhor frosting, the frosting on this particular cake makes it taste gooooooood. I folded in some shredded coconut and some chopped pecans, so there is definitely something "tasty" in the frosting. I found that at least with the cake mix version -- you can't taste the food coloring so that is a start. I particularly enjoy the cake with a glass of milk.

If you look at wikipedia for this cake -- it claims that most Canadians associate Red Velvet Cake with a now defunct department store chain called Eatons. Who would have thought that? All this time I thought it was a southern thing (which is apparently not true even though grocery distributors along the west coast do not carry Red Velvet Cake mix)...

Updates get your updates!

I finally updated our home page, check it out on the side nav link or simply use this link to get to Chicken and Cheese. It is easier to read and I have included some handy chicken and cheese links. The links I'm sure will be subject to change, but it's a start.

More updates -- I also added new photos to our album; again use the link on the side nav or simply use this link to get to our photo album. I realized that I needed to take more pictures and post them so that my friends far away can see what is going on. The newest album is called Wintertime Fun or something like that.

Also--the snow has finally gone. The rain came and washed it all away. We went to Target earlier today and as we drove by the Les Schwab store (tire store in the Pacific NW) the parking lot was FULL. Wanna bet that those people were buying snow tires??

And for those of you (who like myself) just want something fun to look at...I made a red velvet cake today--from the box. Thanks to Andrew for sending me some cake mix all the way from Alabama. Here are some photos....yummy??

As you can see--it is very RED.

I thought that my bowl would be stained, but it is OK.


Wa-lah. I am waiting for it to cool still so I can cover it with frosting.

My Work, Your Work -- It's all WORK

Have you ever had someone take credit for work that you've completed? That happened to me yesterday. Someone was recognized, given credit for, nominated for an award and then in turn happily received the award for work that I had done. The most unfortunate part is that I don't think the nominator, the award presenter nor the award recepient (aka the person who took credit for my work) had any idea what they were doing. Picture this... someone is standing in front of a group and describing what was done that was so outstanding.... a majority of people in the room turn and look at me thinking "wow, good job Jonell!"....and then the an unexpected name is called. ......

It only bothered me for a few seconds and then I thought -- the most important part to me is that my friends and a majority of my other co-workers know what really happened. So that in itself makes up for any oddities of knowledge. What made yesterday even more ironic was that later on during a separate meeting of the entire Seattle staff -- I was surprisingly recognized for some work I had done for someone else, and I thought "wow, I'm getting credit for something that I did, neat-o! What a funny way to end this day".

In the end--it's all work. My work, your work -- I don't care how work gets completed or even who does it as long it is completed right the first time -- and that credit is given where it is appropriate and true.

Snow...and my garbage can (lousy neighbors)

Happy New Year to everyone. My apologies as it is slightly belated. Already in 2007 Seattle has had a lot of rain and in fact...there is a Winter Storm Advisory for SNOW. I woke up this morning totally expecting to see like 4 inches of snow, but no...only about an inch and even then it was only on the rooftops and trees -- the roads are just fine. I ask -- where is the snow? Come weather people -- where is it? I have some co-workers who are working from home today in total expectation of this SNOW...which hasn't arrived nor do I believe it will arrive at least not to the Seattle Metro/Downtown area as the forecasters had originally predicted. I saw a Metro Bus driving around with chains on already on bare and dry roads. Ghetto.

Totally not related is our garbage can and recycling bin. I was originally only going to post about this, but with the Winter Storm Advisory in effect I just HAD to make a comment about the snow (or lack thereof). Back to the bins...

I like many other people who have weekly garbage collection service diligently roll out our garbage and recycling bins every week. They aren't always full and yes when they are rolled out to the street they are in a public area. However the rates for disposal are high and also have weight restrictions. The recycling bin cannot exceed 60 lbs. and the garbage can cannot exceed 50 lbs. (something ridiculous like that). Why am I blogging about this? Because our neighbors always always always stuff their excess waste into our bins. And this gets me irked. We have yet to be charged in excess of weight, but why do they feel it is OK for them to utilize our bins (and other people's bins too, it isn't just happening to us)???? How much waste can a family of 3 produce every week? Not only do they overstuff bins every week, they also "by mistake" (the count is up to 6) throw their daily trash into our garbage can as well. This would require them to walk out and cross the driveway to get to our bins to do this. How do you make this mistake 6 times? We have had to remove cat litter, fast food packages, shoe boxes, broken glass, etc. and every time we ask them nicely "Do not use our garbage can, please use your own". The response is always "Oh, sorry, it won't happen again". And yet...it keeps happening.

I feel better. Rant is out. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! Bring on the snow!