Little Boxes on a Hillside...

Little boxes on a hillside
little boxes made of ticky-tacky
little boxes on the hillside
little boxes all the same
there's a pink one, and a green one,
and a blue one and a yellow one
and they're all made out of ticky-tacky
and they all look just the same.

Dudes...I love the show Weeds. Seriously. I know I mentioned it briefly in my last post, but I'm going to expand on that today.

I had never seen it until a couple of weeks ago, but I have known of it's existence for years thanks to my tenure at Blockbuster back in the day. I've never had Showtime, so how would I have watched it before shows came out on DVD, but when they came out on DVD I was like, "Um...what is this show? Whatever, I'll just get The Notebook."

Well, enter Netflix. Travis and I have had Netflix for several months now, but it's only lately that I'm discovering the magic that a mere $8.99/month gets me. I mean you get your mailer, (I currently have Changeling and have had that one since May 8th, I kid you not. I still haven't watched it.) but you also can watch movies instantly online and on your XBOX, Wii or PS3. Since instant streaming came to the XBOX, I can honestly say that I am glad that Travis has one. He's probably jumping for joy at me recognizing that something good can come from the XBOX.

So as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I was finishing off the Nip/Tuck series just as my best friend, Kim, (BFF 4 LIFE, Y'ALL!!) had decided to tell me about a show that she picked up on Netflix called Weeds. She was like, "You know, I think you might like it. I mean, you might not, but you might. They're like, all sarcastic and you're pretty sarcastic. Actually, I think you're going to like it. You should watch it."

I then opted to give it a shot, and a few episodes later, I texted Kim and declared my new found love for the show. I definitely appreciate the humor. It's quick-wit and I love it, but not like in Sex and the City (a show that I do love, I'll admit) and it's pun after pun after pun. SJP, I love you, but all the puns got old. I didn't really notice/care about the puns until TBS started rerunning the show over. And over. And over.

I'm currently in season three of Weeds and have yet to tire of the humor being laid before me. I think that even more than the script, it's small choices by the actors and directors that I love so much. I love that when Celia's husband, Dean, got fired from his job, he attacked a former co-worker on his way out and another coworker immediately pulls out their phone and snaps a picture. I don't know why, but that little part of that episode cracked me up.

And of course there's Doug, the CPA/City Commissioner who is played by Kevin Nealon, and that he is fantastic as that character. He always does random things or throws out little one-liners that make the episode great.

If you're looking for a show to watch, I vote that you get your hands on Weeds. It's only a 30-minute show, which seems so rare nowadays, (C'mon. The Bachelor/ette is 3 hours long a week) and you never seem to be thinking, "is this episode over yet?"

After I finish Weeds, I think I may try Dexter. My Netflix suggests it to me all the time. Any Dexter watchers out there?

War of the Crickets.

Since we have moved into our apartment, we occasionally have moments with crickets being really loud. Once there was a cricket that had gotten into the wall for a few days and I was moments from getting a sledge-hammer to find that little sucker because it was driving me crazy.

If I lived out in the country and had this fabulous porch wrapping around my house where I could sit in my rocking chair from Cracker Barrel and drink fresh sweet tea in the evenings, I'd probably love the sound of the crickets as I rocked slowly back and forth taking in everything nature had to offer.

I don't live in the country.

I don't have a Cracker Barrel rocking chair on my porch with a great view.

I certainly don't live where the weather is nice enough to sit outside and feel a "cool" breeze.

I do however live in an apartment where my porch has a grill and a small table that when I sit there looks at another building in our complex and the weather here is hot and humid. So in the evenings, my husband and I will curl up on the couch (with a laptop nearby, of course. It's 2010. Technology is in our lives.) and watch shows together until he decides that he ready to go to bed. I kiss him goodnight and go back to the living room or spare room and watch things on the DVR that don't interest him or random items that I can instant stream from Netflix. (Weeds, anyone? I love that show.) Everything is great, right.

Well, except for the crickets that have currently taken residence in the plants right outside my front door. They are so loud it sounds like they're IN MY HOUSE and I can hear them even in our bedroom with the door closed. I have decided that when it's just one cricket, it's more annoying than when there are many crickets, but still. If they could go to the grass across from my apartment, I'm sure that the crickets and I could get along fine, but since they've set up camp outside my door, tension is being set up.

Did you know if you go outside and just randomly spray your Raid for Flying Insects it won't kill the crickets? I probably sprayed half a can all over the plants and ground outside of my door, (which will probably kill the plants, but hey, they aren't mine. The complex can deal with that.) and the crickets have still made it.

I will say, however, that the day I decided to go out there and spray, a cricket got into my apartment, and that cricket lost the battle of his attempted invasion. I'm sorry, PETA, but crickets are freaky.

If you have any cricket-repellent pointers, please, tell me. It's been a nightly issue for the last few days and it's getting old.

Le sigh.

Since I have billions upon billions of readers, I'll apologize now for keeping you all on the edge of your seats waiting for a new post.

What have I been doing, you ask? Well, you didn't ask, but you're going to hear it.

Last week I was having a Nip/Tuck marathon via Netflix (the only perk of my husband having an XBox) and let's be honest here: watching those episodes was for more exciting than me finding something to ramble about. Of course everyone finds me delightfully entertaining, Nip/Tuck is still better than me.

We were house-sitting this weekend, and I really had little to do, so I managed to get through the rest of the series. (I was on season 5 of 6). I know, major waste of time, but whatever. What else am I supposed to do? I'm not cool enough to get hired for a job that I definitely meet the qualifications for and then some.

Let's talk about that.

HIRE ME NOW, mkay? No? That doesn't work?

I feel like I have submitted ninety-trillion resumes with a personalized letter of interest for each job for each school for each district. I applied for 6 different jobs, and it's looking pretty grim. Hardly any other districts have any openings left, (openings which I have applied for, wasn't called back on and then the jobs closed) and it's just so frustrating. I know, we have a huge population of unemployed people in the world, blah blah blah, and it didn't really bother me that I wasn't working, except I feel like working. My husband makes enough for us to live comfortably on, but we can't afford any trips or, oh, I don't know, a house or something.

Students in the area start school on Monday. If things don't work out for me, (which I'm sure they won't) then I'll just go and try to find a job doing something else, that not at all in my field that will do nothing to build my resume.

Sweet.

Can you tell I'm frustrated?

Let's talk about Big Brother.

And I don't mean the government, because television is far more exciting.

I remember when I was in high school and this show, Big Brother was being introduced. I think I watched one episode with my family and was bored with it, but now, I'm older, I'm wiser, and frankly, I have more free time. My sister has been an avid Big Brother fan for years and I never understood her interest, until now.

A few weeks ago, I was at one of the Schlitterbahn water parks in Texas with my church. I had volunteered to drive a van so that the teenagers could go. Travis came too, as well as a few of my friends, so I figured it'd be a day well spent. In our youth group is a student named David, and David loves watching television. It's crazy how much t.v. he is able to watch. Anyway, so he was asking me if I was going to watch the new season of Big Brother and I told him no. He then told me about how this season was different, and as he was explaining that there was going to be a saboteur on the show, and that's what I found to be intriguing. You see, there was once this show called The Mole where there was a saboteur to throw off the missions and screw up everyone else's game, and I loved that show! I was pretty upset that it was canceled.

So, I opted to give Big Brother a shot, and I'm pretty glad I did. Who knew that there were 3 hours of reality tv drama a week in the summer time, just when you're getting tired of summer programming?! Well, I guess the millions of Big Brother viewers knew, but whatever. Now I'm hooked. I like that right when you're wishing for the next episode, there's one to air that evening. Ok, let's talk about THIS season.

Annie, the Saboteur

I couldn't believe that the original saboteur was out during the first week, and that wasn't even why they tried to get her out. They had no idea that Annie was the saboteur.

Rachel

Brendan

Then, week two, my absolute least favorite person on the show, Rachel is the HoH (head of household, they get to nominate 2 people for elimination, only vote for the nominee if there is a tie, and they obviously can't get eliminated that week) and she puts one of my favorite people, Brittany, up for nominations, and I was a little bummed. Rachel is a girl from Vegas, she has an annoying laugh, and is just obnoxious in general. She's a "chemist" and has started in a showmance with Brendan, a high school coach and physicist. They've bonded over science and are known as a power couple. When she was HoH, she wouldn't make decisions without Brendan, and it was really obnoxious. Most of the house seems to find Brendan to be tolerable, as do I, but Rachel...not so much. She always, always, ALWAYS says something along the lines of, "Nothings going to come between me and MY MAN!" She needs to learn that saying, "MY MAN" is dumb.

Monet

Britney

Britney is a young girl from Arkansas, and I really enjoy when she talks about Rachel. It makes me laugh, and I'm pretty sure that she'd be pretty fun in real life. After she had been nominated for eliminations, (aka "being put on 'the block') she was in the Power of Veto competition. This is when the 2 nominees as well as 3 other house members compete for the power of veto, which can take someone off "the block" and then the HoH will put someone else in. It's the chance that a nominee has to save themselves, or for someone else to save them, however, if someone wins the PoV that isn't on the block, they don't have to use it. Luckily, the PoV went to Britney that week, and she was able to stay, while her friend Monet went home. I'm pretty happy that Britney got to stay, though I think that Monet tended to bring out her funny-judgmental side.

The Brigade: Matt, Enzo, Lane & Hayden

Andrew

Kathy

The third week, the winner of the HoH competition was Matt, a self-proclaimed genius, who is telling everyone in the house that his wife is sick, when she in fact, is not sick. He's playing the sympathy card with his housemates, and they all seem to believe him. His wife, however, was not quite as happy, but whatever. Matt is a member of the Brigade, a secret alliance comprised of Matt, Enzo, Lane and Hayden. If Matt's a genius, you would think that he would put Rachel and Brendan on the block, because you want to break up any known alliances in the house as soon as you can. What did Matt-the-Genius do? He put neither of them on the block, instead, he put Kathy and Andrew. Andrew, at times, can be annoying as all get-out, and his plans pretty much always backfire on him, and Kathy, though she has tarantula-eyelashes, is nice to everyone and I thought she was an odd choice, but apparently, she had made Matt mad, so he put her up. When asked by Julie Chen, the host of the show, to give a last minute plea for votes, Andrew decided to share secrets about everyone in the house, in hopes that everyone would realize that everyone's lying, but instead, everyone decided that he was a jerk and it was a unanimous vote that Andrew would go home.

After eliminations, was the next HoH competition, and who, of ALL people was the one to win HoH?

Week 4 HoH, Rachel

Kristen

The root of all that is evil in Big Brother: Season 12, Rachel. It's going to be another long week in the Big Brother house. I'm pretty sure that she's going to put Matt up, and normally, I like him, but his failure to put Rachel on the block makes me think that he deserves to go home. However, I think that she just may be smart enough to add a twist, and put Hayden up against his newly revealed showmance partner, Kristen. Part of Andrew's final plea included him throwing Kristen and Hayden under the bus, revealing that they've been in a showmance hat had fallen under the radar, and because Rachel likes being the center of attention, I can see her putting Kristen and Hayden on the block. After all, nobody is going to break up her and her man, right?

Ragan

The show producers have also thrown out something new, since Annie got eliminated the first week: they're going to offer a housemate the position of saboteur. They get $50,000 if they can stay for a certain amount of time, and it was America's vote for who they would offer it to. If the votes weren't $1 each, I would have voted, but since I didn't, I'm just going to hope that it's someone good. I think that Ragan, a college professor (who has kept his Ph.D secret from the house) would be an excellent candidate. People trust him. He's funny, he's nice, he's charismatic, and I think that he's creative enough to pull of being the saboteur without anyone knowing that it's him. I guess well see who it's going to be.

I'm sure that you were really curious to know all of this information about Big Brother, but I'm bored and it's what I was thinking about. :) Have an excellent Saturday & Sunday! I will leave you with a question, so that I can find fellow Big Brother viewers.

Are you a Big Brother watcher? What do you think about the season so far?

Happy Friday!

I decided that since Travis, my family and I enjoyed those rolls from the other night so much, I'd share the recipe, since I have 3 people that read my blog, and I'm sure it'll make me FAMOUS!!!!!!!!

Or not, but you know, whatever.

In case you're wondering what on earth Texas Roadhouse is, as I mentioned before, it's a chain of restaurants owned by Willie Nelson. The first one was in Indiana or something like that, and people here in Texas always say, "WELL WHY IS IT CALLED TEXAS ROADHOUSE?!?!!?!1?!!!!?"

Well, friend, that's because it was meant to be like a Texas roadhouse. Duh.

Anyway, it's delicious.

Texas Road House Rolls

Ingredients:

•3 c. all-purpose flour

•2 (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast

•1 tsp salt

•2 tbsp sugar

•1 c. milk + 1/4 c. water, warmed

•1 large egg slightly beaten
•1/4 c. butter + 2 T butter, melted

Instructions:

1. Place 2 cups flour in a large bowl. Add yeast, salt, and sugar.
2. In another bowl (I used a large glass measuring cup), combine water, milk, and egg. Stir.
3. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; pour milk mixture into the well.
4. Mix by hand, approx 150 strokes, frequently scraping bottom and sides of bowl.
5. Add 1/4c. melted butter & stir to incorporate.
6. Add remaining flour, 1/3 cup at a time, and stir after each addition.
7. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Set dough in a warm, draft free place such as an oven with a pan of the hottest tap water on the rack below.
8. Allow batter to rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour.
9. Coat 12 cup muffin pan with butter, shortening, or spray. Make sure to do this liberally.
10. Punch down batter with spoon. Dough will be VERY sticky. I’d recommend not using your hands. I sprayed down two rubber spatula-spoons with non-stick spray.
11. Drop by spoonfuls into muffin tins. Keep in mind rolls should double in size. Brush rolls with 1 tbsp. of melted butter.
12. Let rise for another 30 minutes in a warm place; rolls should double in size.
13. Bake rolls on middle rack for 16-18 minutes at 400 degrees. After removing rolls, brush top with remaining melted butter.

Personal note: I made these in the muffin pan, and I believe that next time, I will try to put them on a flat pan in small rectangular-ish shapes, lined up next to each other. I think they may bake better this way.

Cinnamon Butter

•1 stick real butter (softened)
•4 tsp. cinnamon
•1/4 cup brown sugar
•1/4 cup white sugar

Beat ingredients together until smooth. Cover and refrigerate.

Personal note: When I was making the cinnamon butter, I doubled the recipe since I was having a large number of people over. I beat it for quite some time with my stand mixer, and it was REALLY dark in color and quite grainy in texture. I added another stick of butter and that helped a little, but it was still grainy. I decided to add a small splash of milk, (maybe 2-3 tbsp) and it helped a little. Had I not been in a time crunch, I probably would have played with it more.

I suggest for a single batch using 1/8cup of the sugars, (that's 2 tbsp if you don't have a 1/8 measuring cup), mix it and taste. If it's not sweet enough, I would gradually add some of each maybe a tbsp or even a tsp at a time.

I would also suggest beating the butter by itself first to give it a good, whipped texture. Whipped butter speads so well on warm rolls.

So there's my Friday gift to you. Let me know how it turns out! :)

Ok, quickly, I would like to add that I am so excited for the events in my life today. Travis's cousin is in the Navy and was able to get his leave a little earlier than planned to make it to a family wedding that we have tomorrow. The whole family is greeting him today, and we are just super excited to be a part of it. I'm even more excited because his aunt asked me to take pictures of it all, so that she can have pictures to remember the moment. To me, that's a special opportunity and I can't wait. :)

1950's Housewi--what? No.

I've said before that if air conditioning was available in every home and building I went to, I think it'd be fun to live in the 1950's.

I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't.

I came up with the brilliant plan to have a large dinner for my mother and siblings last night. Not only did I want to cook them a nice dinner, I wanted to: try new recipes I had never had before and make the meal entirely from scratch. As far as timing goes, I really can't do anything but pat myself on the back for my good work. The main dish was coming out of the oven just a few minutes before Travis got home. I was a failure because I hadn't set the table in it's entirety, but at least I got the place mats and napkins washed and dried in time for everyone to get here.

The menu was oven-barbecued chicken, scalloped potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls with cinnamon butter, and cheesecake for dessert. The plan was to make the cheesecake before I went to bed on Tuesday night, (this is what I almost always do if I'm making cheesecake, I bake it the night before and let it chill overnight. It seems to set better if it has an entire day in the refrigerator) but when I opened the first cream cheese block, though not expired, it had gone bad. Probably because some jerk at the grocery store set it down on a shelf when they decided they didn't want it, and an idiot employee decided to put it back, because, you know, warmed dairy products are fine and all.

So, I woke up bright and early yesterday to run to the store and buy more cream cheese as well as chicken, since the grocery store I went to on Tuesday night didn't have any chicken. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I got in and out of the store pretty quickly, and immediate got to work on the cheesecake. It only takes a matter of minutes to get it ready, especially since I decided to make the crust the night before, and enjoyed what I would find to be my last minutes of sitting lazily on the couch while it baked.

Once it was baked, I figured I may as well do the scalloped potatoes, and then just warm them before it was time for dinner, since I only have one oven, and almost everything required using the oven at different temperatures. It was an easy dish to make, and once that was in the oven, it was time to get the cheesecake out of the pan, put it in the refrigerator and clean the kitchen up from everything so I would be able to cook everything else.

There's a chain of restaurants called Texas Roadhouse, owned by Willie Nelson. If you've ever been there, you've experienced their amazing rolls and cinnamon butter, and if not, you're missing out. A girl I met in college posted a recipe on her blog that was supposed to be the same as these rolls, and I decided to put it to the test. While the potatoes were baking, I embarked on my first-ever attempt at any type of homemade bread. The dough had to sit in the oven, (while it was off) for an hour to the yeast could do its job, and while that was happening, I realized it was just getting later, so it was time to my apartment in order before everyone arrived. My older brother and his girlfriend hadn't had the opportunity to see our apartment yet, so I wanted to make sure that everything was to my satisfaction.

Once the rolls had been baked properly, I was done cleaning the house, but it was time to work on the chicken, and in that process is when everyone started to call to let me know they were en route to my apartment and that I should be expecting them shortly, which led me to prepare chicken and clean up the counters as much as possible.

When everyone got here, they all said it smelled really good in the house, which is always a good sign. I started making the green beans, put the potatoes in the oven to keep them warm, took the chicken off the bone and started putting everything into serving dishes. By the time Travis got home, it was time to eat and if I must say, it was all absolutely delicious. The rolls were just as good as I expected. The texture was slightly different, but the taste was the same. My only disappointment with the whole meal was that the chicken wasn't quite what I was expecting in flavor, and that's always frustrating, but I think that the name of the recipe is what threw me off. It tasted almost like something you'd find at an Asian restaurant, not like barbecue, but it was still good.

I tell you all of this because by the time it was all said and done, my back was killing me and my feet were aching. I am not cut out to be a 1950's housewife, dressed in heels and pearls waiting for my husband to get home with a martini in hand. While it's a picturesque moment, I wonder if that ever happened as often as we see in the movies. Did Lucy always greet Ricky with such a smile when he got home each day? Probably not. She probably told him if he wanted a drink, he better make it himself, and that he better make her one while he's at it.

Moral of the story? I'm a 1950's housewife failure.

In case you're wondering...

...though you probably aren't, I have changed the name of my blog.

First of all, the previous title was just way too long.

Secondly, I felt that it just didn't fit, and it was just way too long.

And last, this title just came to me, I find it to be more fitting, and it was just way too long.

That's all. :)