Christina is my hair lady and I love her. She knows my hair pretty well. The wavy. My lazy. She can work with it. And I can work with what she gives me. Every time I go to other people, I can’t help but wish I’d gone to Christina. So today, I went to Christina and I’m so glad I did! I went in thinking I was going for maybe 2 or 3 inches off. Mind you, I only told her layered, no bangs, long enough to tie up. That’s what I always say, to everyone I go to, variance on the bangs though. Anyway, this time, she took off a bit more than 3 inches. It’s barely long enough to tie up, especially the shorter layered sections, but it’s the exact haircut I wanted and I just didn’t know it at the time!

So today, I fessed up to her that I’ve gone to some different people since I last saw her. She remarked that it’d been a while since I’d gone back. I felt kinda’ embarrassed about wandering but she was fine with it – hair grows back so it’s fine to experiment, but I had to tell her that in all my ventures, she’s still the best. By the way, do you notice the dull hair at the top photo and the shiny on the bottom? I think that’s Fekkai Glossing Cream. It’s magical.

Ugh! Ate way muy mucho. Belly-clutching, floor-rolling full. I went to Cici’s Pizza tonight. My first time dining at this pizza buffet. Yes, me and buffets are just bad news. The pizza isn’t great but its crispy crust and greasy pizza was just what I wanted. Not that frou frou Neopolitan-style stuff. I don’t know why but I’ve had a craving for junky pizza for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I lost count at how many slices I ate so you can imagine it was a good amount, maybe 9 slices. Some better than others, but the nice thing about this place is, you can try a slew of them. They just keep on coming. It hit the spot but uh… I probably won’t be having pizza again any time soon.

Went shopping afterward and turned this Thursday night into a Friday night. Home Goods for a lamp shade. Came out with a kitchen sink drain strainer. Then TJ Maxx for the lamp shade. Came out with nothing (yay!). Then Target. Came out with handsoap (non-antibacterial) and the lampshade (double-yay!)!! I stayed on task tonight. It’s 11PM and I’m still up (thanks to the 2 cups of Starbucks I had this afternoon, what was I thinking?!).

While every one was onto broadband, I was stubbornly, frugally clinging to $5/month dial-up. “I hardly ever use the Internet!” “I’m on the computer plenty enough at work all day!” One day, after much convincing and peer pressure from the sister, I finally gave in and got DSL. I got the low end (768 Kilobits per second upload, 1 mbps download). It was wonderful. I could even talk on the phone and be online at the same time! Years later, to last year, I was again hearing it from my sis about how unacceptably, inhumanly slow my Internet was. I told her to can it. Then Verizon started to bill my Internet and phone funny. $40 became $60 and I called to ask about it. That’s when the sales pitch started. After all was said and done, I became a convert to FIOS. After the Verizon guy left this past Saturday to install the FIOS, I tested the Internet. It’s amazingly fast. Here all along I was blaming my 5-year old slow computer when really it was the connection speed. I love it love it! Every saved minute is worth what I pay for it.

This past weekend I went to a couple of hardware stores looking for new sage seeds and a third rosemary plant to kill. The one we went to Saturday had sage seeds. After battling weekend traffic in the shopping centers, I got one packet of seeds. Sunday, we went to another hardware store and finally found rosemary plants. I also got new chili pepper plant seeds. Serrano this time. And on a whim, brussels sprouts. Yes, I am attempting one vegetable in a pot on the balcony. I got a big pot planter to go with it. I will find out exactly how big this plant gets and how many brussels it’ll yield. Experiment!

After working late tonight, the boss treated us to pizza and we decided to try Domino’s touted National Taste Test winner, above Papa John’s and Pizza Hut. The truthery/puffery advertisement. We got a pepperoni and mushroom and double cheese. In conclusion, I still like Papa John’s better. I think I still like Pizza Hut better too but it’s been a while and I’m not sure I remember Pizza Hut pizza. And I definitely like Ledo’s better but I’m not sure that qualifies for fast food pizza. And this was on top of the fact that I was starving because it was already 9 PM by the time we ate.

In short, my picks:

1. Little Caesers (Are they even around anymore??)
2. Ledo’s
3. Papa John’s
4. Pizza Hut
5. Domino’s

Last night, I went back to reconcile the various iterations I did and finally figured out the errors. Yay! I submitted my Federal taxes and it only took me 3 weekends and hours of cleaning and $25! Then I went on the state website to file my MD state taxes. Lo and behold it took me all of 10 minutes. I love their online system and the tax process they have established and it’s free! To boot, after the submission, they had a feedback box. I couldn’t figure out how to save a .pdf file of my return rather than printing it. So I told them I thought everything was wonderful and I loved the simple system but I couldn’t save a .pdf. This morning, I got an email from an employee there instructing me how to do it! I was so impressed with their customer service! Such personal and prompt attention. Kudos to the Comptroller iFile division of the MD state government. They are doing it right!

Dining at Thai House can be described as consistently inconsistent. Some days, the food’s the BEST THAI I’VE HAD IN THESE HERE PARTS!!!, the service is attentive too. Other days, the chef doesn’t show up and you go next door for Greek food instead. Last night was another evening of surprises. The food was wonderful.
We tried curry fried rice noodles for the first time and we couldn’t decide if this was better or the stupendous pad thai.

I would’ve loved their green curry too I’m sure… had it arrived at our table. As it were, the owner/sous chef/busboy/waiter was so swamped with in-house business and carry-out that he delivered our check forgetting about the green curry. 2 hours after we arrived for dinner. Coming here is always a treat for my taste buds but you have to have time and patience to enjoy this place. A family of four came and almost left but the owner told them it was almost ready and to just hang tight. A table of three got wonton soups and decided that was enough for their evening. I love that they’re getting enough business to stay afloat in these tough times, we saw 2 or 3 shuttered businesses in that stripmall, but this barebones business operation is hard on customers. Luckily, their food is just too good to resist.

Yesterday night, we had big plans! Plans to go out to dinner, see a comedy show, stay up late and maybe even meet up with pals. Alas the convivial evening out was not to be. The chinchillas wore us out and we had our convivial evening in. I did taxes (a first try), and made granola (a second try). Then off to sleep where I dreamed about, wouldn’t you know it, food.

This morning we headed off to the Kettler Iceplex to watch the Capitals practice before their game against the NY Rangers. Incidentally, it’s playing right now. The rink looks a lot smaller than on TV and so do the guys. Without all that gear, they’re pretty skinny. It kinda’ gave me a nice feel for what a live game would be like, especially if you had front row seating. You can feel the cool air as they skate by and the puck thuds pretty loudly against the walls. After they finished, you could see Coach Boudreau giving a television interview. He wasn’t actually on the ice coaching, that was left to the assistant coaches.

Then it was off to Raaga for all you can eat Indian food. And believe me, I ate all I could, and then some. Still feeling full. Raaga’s naan is so good. They don’t leave it in the buffet line, rather they bring it out to you as you’re eating. It’s one of the few naan’s I feel like are good enough to eat alone. Crispy on the bottom, chewy on top. All the dishes pictured here were tasty enough to end up on my round two plate.

After that, it was off to go grocery shopping. I can skip one week, but there’s no way I’m going to go 3 weeks without grocery shopping.

Look what I made!! Hamantaschen! They’re little triangular cookies with fillings in them. I made two kinds, almond, and prune. Baking for me is a bit challenging because it’s so labor intensive and requires attention to detail and some amount of precision. You actually have to measure!! I whipped out the measuring cups and spoons for this one. The cookies came out well though. Crumbly and still triangle shaped after baking. They go well with wine. As do many other foods.

We got our GSC’s on Saturday night. By Sunday a box and a half – Gone! I don’t know what happened. It’s like I had a cookie, or six, or whatever, and then wham-o! They disappeared.

Here’s how we’d rate the 3 types we got this time:

1. Lemon Chalet Cremes
2. Thank U Berry Munch
3. Tagalongs

Tagalongs use low quality peanut butter and chocolate. You’d think for $3.50 a box, they could use gourmet organic free range fair trade peanut butter, but no. They use the kind with 20% rat poop in it. It was hard to decide which was better, Lemon Chalets or Berry Munches. The Lemon Chalets have partially hydrogenated oils which make them crumble nicely whereas the Berry Munches don’t have those oils, so they’re a bit dry/crunchier. But the chewy cranberries went perfectly with that hard crunch texture. For someone who dislikes white chocolate (they have white chocolate chips which almost made me not get them but Special K raved and raved about them) these cookies were tasty. That’s an empty box in the photo. The creme in the Lemon Chalets were tangy with lemon flavor and there was a hint of cinnamon. So tasty! Next year, I’ll want both of these again.

First full week back to work. As much as work can aggravate me at times, I find the familiarity of coming back to my usual routine to be comforting. Plus, now that we’re nearing March, the Sun’s pretty much up when I’m heading into work (particularly when I’m running late) and it’s still mostly out when I leave the office. Thank goodness for that little bit of blessing, otherwise, coming back from Florida would’ve been even more depressing what with all the ice, slush, and dirty snow piles, which incidentally melted a good amount this weekend in 40-degree weather. I enjoyed the sunny warm climate in Florida so much that pretty much right after coming back I started planning my next vacation. To where else? Cali! I still have French Laundry, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Hog Island to visit.

I’m watching the Olympics right now and ice dancing is so much more pleasant to watch than figure skating. And I think curling must be the only Olympic sport where you can have pregnant women participating (Canadian team). Plus they wear make up and dangly earrings. If I got to choose what sport my kid did, it’d be curling.

I love this rice cooker! When I first moved, my parents gave me a rice cooker which they got as a gift from a newspaper subscription. It was one of those traditional rice cookers with the nonstick inner pot. The kind that can only cook rice, although it did have an inner steamer basket. Overlooking the fact that it was made in the P.R. of China, seeing as how it was free, I tried using it a few times. The first batch of rice came out dry and kinda’ hard. The second batch burned the bottom and patches of it were undercooked. It had no on and off button either. If you plugged it in, it was at least on “warm” mode. And the warm mode burned already cooked rice. To make up for the dryness and burnt bottoms, I added more water, which resulted in mushy rice on top, with still that layer of burnt. To be sure it wasn’t some other reason besides the fact that it was just a crappy rice cooker, I even tried Asian rice purchased from the Asian market! To no avail. So after a batch of mushy rice which was terribly hard to turn into fried rice, I finally gave in and purchased this rice cooker yesterday night (Incidentally, it was my first time out since last Friday afternoon.). This thing can steam eggs, buns, make soup or rice porridge, reheat foods. It is a multifunctional rice cooker, made of stainless steel (no Teflon)! AND, get this: it has an on/off switch.