Darth Vader going through airport security. Design your own Star Wars airport poster: Fark Thread here. Inspiration is here.

Chili Cheesy Creamy Chickey Crock Pot, now available on my recipe page, and also the halffull recipe index. I printed this recipe off of Recipezaar.com and stared at it for a long while before trying it. It just looked too weird. But it did have 50 ratings, with an overall rating of 4.5 stars (out of 5), so last night I whipped it up.

Let’s explain where I’m at with “whipping up dinner” lately. I’ve been working late, going to school, my time with Tom is limited, and I try to write my book every single night - writing my book is an obsession and I just can’t help myself. By the time I get home, I still have to defrost chicken which takes quite a while. So you can imagine that by the time dinner is ready, it’s almost 8:00, Tom’s covered the cats in BBQ sauce and he’s out back, getting ready to cook them up on the baby Weber.

That’s why my dinners have been relegated to recipes of the easiest common denominator. This recipe fit in perfectly with that scheme. Granted, I don’t have time for a crock pot recipe because I’m hungry NOW and don’t have six hours to wait. No problem; that’s what Pyrex and ovens are for.

I want to convince you to try this recipe, even though it’s slightly weird. If you aren’t really a cooking guru and you want something that you can throw together in 5 minutes, go with this dish. In case you’re a little worried about all of the cheese that’s listed - don’t be. It wasn’t at all overpowering. Brown up your chicken breasts in a frying pan (I used a little oil), then start layering all of the ingredients accordingly: chopped onion, cheddar cheese, cheddar cheese soup, chili powder (I didn’t even measure, I just unscrewed the top and started sprinkling), cream of chicken soup, Rotel tomatoes (I only used one can, although the recipe indicates 2). Now leave them layered. Don’t stir. Cover it tightly with foil and bake on 350 for 1 hour, 15 minutes. You can stir the sauce up when it comes out of the oven if you need, but I found that I didn’t because the ingredients all blended together fairly well while it cooked. Serve it up with rice or flour tortillas — I served them up as breasts, but I think next time I will cut them up and serve them with flour or corn tortillas, rice, guacamole and sour cream. Seriously, it takes all of 5 minutes to assemble this dish. Throw it into the oven and let it cook. I served it with a side of corn, which was a great, sweet contrast to the spiciness of the dish. If you are looking for the nutrition information, you can find it on recipezaar.com here.

I have finally finished up this school year, which, I admit, has come as a bit of a relief. Thanks to my crazy teacher, the last month was the most unpleasant school experience yet.

According to the syllabus, were were supposed to have been assigned four case papers and given four tests throughout the semester. When only four weeks of class remained, she realized we had only taken one test and been assigned two case papers. Now, we all know what the logical thing to do is: Change the syllabus. Of course, that’s not what she did at all. Instead, she announced that we would be having a test that Thursday, followed by another test about a week and a half later, and she would cram the last four chapters into two class sessions for a test the following Thursday. I spent every single weekend in the same chair, studying all day Saturday and Sunday, until the end of the school year. And yeah, I’m bitter. Meanwhile, she gave us “extra credit” assignments that were not geared to the class at all. No, she had heard so much complaining about the drafting class that she decided to give assignments based on that class and not our class. You know, the class I’m not taking. Because that makes sense.

So I did the first assignment. Well, let’s be honest and say that Tom did the first assignment. There was a lot of math involved and I was feeling a little overwhelmed. (Thanks, honey!) With the next assignment, she handed out a huge, stapled pack of blueprints and a big worksheet of questions about the blueprints. I am not taking the drafting class, so I can’t do it. I sat down and tried to do it, but I just don’t know what 2/3 of the questions are asking me to do. So at the next class when we turned in the assignment, I went to her and explained that I wasn’t taking the drafting class (which she should have known because I’ve told her twice) and so, I was not able to do the assignment.

She blinked at me, totally confused, and said, “Oh, so you want to turn it in on Thursday?”

“No,” says I. “I am not taking the drafting classes, so I don’t know what you’re asking me to do on this assignment.”

Silence. Then, “Oooh, I see… I didn’t know that you weren’t taking the drafting class.”

She probably forgot. Whatever. I explained then that I just didn’t want to be penalized for not turning in the assignment. She said she would work something out, although I wouldn’t be able to get any extra credit because I didn’t turn it in. You know how subtle my facial expressions can be, so I’m not sure why she quickly changed her statement and said she would figure something out with my grade.

The test was given on Thursday, and it could have gone either way. I really want an A in the class, but I’m not sure if I will get it this time around. My guess is that I will end up with a B+. Still, not bad, but I wanted an A.

I’m still working on my novel. Things are coming along really well and I’m enjoying the process a great deal. My writing isn’t brilliant, but I’m enjoying it. I even wrote my first fight scenes! It was more than a little awkward at first, and it was obvious to me when I re-read it that my fear of writing it was coming through. Luckily for me I accidentally deleted it, which gave me a chance to write it again. The next time I did it came out much better. At least, I think so. It’s probably a pile of crap, but I feel like I’ve accomplished something. Tom and I talked a bit about what might help me with a fight scene, and he thinks perhaps because I’ve never punched anyone before, it might be holding me back. After some serious discussion, we decided that night when we go to Rich’s house for dinner & 24, I should get into a fight with Rich in the kitchen while Tom takes notes on what it looks like. We had some pretty good ideas about what a kitchen fight with Rich would look like… more to come on that later.

That was chapter five, and I moved right along to chapter six, which I wrote pretty darn fast considering the other chapters took me days and days and days to complete - and this one included a fight with cyclops! I read a book that suggests people can write a minimum of one page per hour. That was pretty discouraging, because sometimes I torment so much over the words that it takes me an hour to write a paragraph. Sad, I know. But I hit chapter six, and I knew what I wanted, and bam - it all just came out. Now that it’s over I feel pretty tired, and I’m going to take a few days off to plot and plan the next stages of the book. I know the beginning, I know how it ends… time to start working out the middle.

So things are good right now, and I’m going to enjoy my summer break.

I found this on the front page of YouTube. Why do I click on these things? This guy is right up there with Gunther in the creepy department. The worst part is that this song has been stuck in my head since I heard it over the weekend. Creepy. And wrong.

All hail Richolio!

At my job, I assist relatively four people: Three Vice Presidents and one Corporate Director. Reporting to them is the entire Company’s IT department: a plethora of Directors and Managers all the way down to your regular worker-bees and contractors (who are not actual people - sorry, Tom). I often quip to my VP’s that the entire company is made up of VP’s, Directors, and their Administrative Assistants, and there are probably only 10 regular people who do the actual work around here. They laugh because there is a lot of truth to it. Because of who I assist, I have a lot of contact with most of the IT department. And my job is to be nice and friendly and helpful, as well as provide a great deal of the sarcasm that helps with the day-to-day life. As far as I know, I am relatively well liked by everyone unless I make it impossible for them to like me (such as B.O. woman).

A couple of weeks ago, one of the guys in the Architecture group - and this is embarrassing because I can’t remember his name - wandered up to my desk and started to chat with me. This is not unusual, because a lot of people do that. So we get to chatting, and the conversation turns to coffee. It turns out that we both love coffee, and we were comparing favorite Starbucks drinks. In the summer, I like grande light iced hazelnut lattes - the hazelnut is pretty abrasive, but when they go light on the ice, the extra milk they add to it softens the syrup a great deal. The problem I have with going to Starbucks is that I no longer have one on my way to work, so I never go. Instead, I make Americanos every morning with the espresso machine Kerry and Mel gave me a couple of Christmases ago. This does not bother me, because it’s less expensive and I love Americanos. Anyway, the guy says he goes to Starbucks every morning, and he will bring me a latte. I laugh and tell him, “Okay.”

So he does. The next morning, I find a grande light iced hazelnut latte sitting on my desk. It’s awesome. When I see him later on, I thank him. Now, once or twice a week, he’s been dropping lattes off on my desk. What I feel bad about is that I barely know the guy, and he’s bringing me a $4 coffee once or twice a week. And I’ve never even shown him any leg. This, of course, is probably for the best because the blinding white of my skin would cause him permanent loss of vision, but still, the point being is that I have absolutely no clue why he’s doing it.

In the meantime, I’m going to inhale this latte.

Over the past few months I haven’t been all too interested in trying new dishes, which seemed really strange because I usually love to cook. In order to get back into the routine of cooking, I printed up a few new recipes from recipezaar.com. So far this week I have tried three new chicken dishes that I felt were worthy of being added to the Recipe Site. Unfortunately, these are the first new recipes I had added in quite a few months, so I have updated the Recipe Index - the link to this page is at the top of the blog. They are notated with the “NEW!” marker - I’m going to see if I can’t have Tom change the color to red, as the orange just doesn’t pop with the new site theme.

Chicken Curry in a Hurry I made this one last night, and I must admit that I was a little worried about it. The recipe says that it only takes 20 minutes to make, and I never believe those kinds of statements. However, it really did only take 20 minutes, and there was very little mess. It’s an Indian curry; the golden raisins and dollop of plain yogurt really make the dish. Tom even loved it, and asked that I make it again. You can find the nutrition information off to the left side on the Recipezaar site.

Creamy Peanut Chicken Tom loves peanut sauce, which is the only reason I tried it. He’s tried many, many peanut chicken dishes and says this is on par with restaurant dishes. It’s a really fun change of pace for dinner, and I will be making this one again. Here is the nutrition information if you want it.

Greek Chicken & Potatoes I made this for 24 night — my favorite part about this dinner is that all you’re basically just throwing your ingredients into a glass baking dish and mixing it around. It is so easy to make and it really did have a lot of flavor. Baking time is only 30 - 35 minutes, any more than that and your potatoes start to become too soft and mashed. I may add a bit more lemon juice next time, but other than that, it was really delicious. Nutrition information is here.

Surf: oh honey, pearl jam puts them to shame in the suckage department if nickelback is the Dyson of suckage, then pearl jam has to be at least a Shop-Vac me: LOL

Live Grenades has postulated what a Lolcat television show would be like. According to their think tank, it would be Star Trek. Enjoy!

Click for full size version. Brilliant, xkcd.com!