purple_stardust

So I stayed up and watched the second airing of The O'Reilly Factor. Sometimes I agree very much with Bill O'Reilly, and other times, I swear I just want to pummel the man.

So last night he was talking about the judge in Alabama who won't take down the enormous statue of the ten commandments. Bill claims that most Americans don't object to G-d. As always, he cited good ol' "Judeo-Christian values". He uses that phrase a lot, and it never ceases to send me into a tizzy, especially since what he means by that is "Bill O'Reilly's Christian values".

Anyway, according to him, the ten commandments are just about G-d in general, any G-d, that members of ANY religion can appreciate. Well, no Bill. The ten commandments are a Christian symbol. Then he goes another route, and says the ten commandments are a historical document, and if the judge had displayed them next to the Magna Carta, everything would be copasetic. THEN he brings up an interview that he had recently with Dick Gephart, in which Gephart said that it was okay to use the word G-d in the Pledge of Allegience, it was okay to use "in G-d we trust" on money, but displaying the ten commandments in a public courthouse was not okay. Bill couldn't understand this. Well Bill, it's because using "G-d" in the first two instances really could be anybody's G-d, but displaying the ten commandments is a specifically Christian symbol.

To make things even worse, he wondered aloud during the intro if Americans were "anti-Christian". Well if the ten commandments could apply to anyone, why bring that up? Sometimes Bill isn't too cohesive with his paranoid ramblings. Ugh. So I muttered and growled and ranted at poor Rusty, and finally fell asleep, and then woke up and caught the 4am showing as well.

I really need to learn to turn the TV off at night.

purple_stardust

jacquez listed five essential food items because telesilla did it, and both of them make me realise how horribly under-stocked my kitchen is. Not that I didn't already realise this - every time that I watch cooking shows, I end up thinking, well who the hell has that on hand?

And now I see, jacquez does. muridae probably does too.

I, on the other hand, am horribly under-stocked. My freezer contains only dead rats, ice cubes, and frozen burritos. My pantry contains various pre-packaged snacks for the daughter, a can of green beans, and microwave popcorn. I do have a few spices, only because I had to buy them for a specific recipe, and only used them once. My refridgerator contains science experiments, none of them edible. Oh, and one lonely beer, left over from when Jeff was here.

I know what the problem is. I suck at food planning. I suck at grocery shopping. I would love to have fresh basil on hand, but if I bought some, I wouldn't know what to do with it, and then it would go bad, and become another rotting thing in my refridgerator, and then I would see that it is pointless for me to keep fresh basil on hand. To make matters worse, a week later I would certainly find a really cool recipe that called for fresh basil, but I wouldn't have any.

Welcome to my world. There's nothing to eat here.

purple_stardust

Ziggabella.com is back online! Finally! I'd registered the domain through E-nameco, but hosted through Dreamhost. Unfortunately, E-nameco was using my old AOL email addie, so I didn't get the renewal thing in time, and the domain expired. More unfortunately, I couldn't re-register it with Dreamhost, and had to use stupid E-nameco again. Fortunately, I can (and will) transfer it to Dreamhost now that it's back in service. Hooray! I have websites again!

purple_stardust

For future reference: Whitecarp Web Design - http://whitecarp.com/html/rates.html.

purple_stardust

Well, I may not know what to do with fresh basil, but I think I've mastered carb cooking. I just made latkes for lunch, and yesterday I made a loaf of uber-tasty cinnamon raisin bread. Yum!

I would never survive on the Atkins Diet.

purple_stardust

Last night, my mom and I went out to Walmart with Dawn (she works there), who pointed out a nice set of stainless steel cookware that had been marked way down. It included a 4 QT dutch oven with glass lid, a 2 QT sauce pan with glass lid and a steamer pan, a 1 QT sauce pan with glass lid, and an 8.5" saute pan. It's 'Tramontina' brand, which I hadn't heard of, but it does seem really sturdy. I also found a gloriously huge 5 QT non-stick covered pan, so I bought that too. Now I really need to buy something to cook in my cool new cookware. Something with basil.

And then we went ghost hunting with the local group. Nothing like spending Friday night in a darkened funeral home! After that, we went out to eat with Susan and Dawn.

Today we went shopping - I bought some pretty purple lilac stickers for scrapbooking, plus crimp beads, clear glass crackle beads, and cute little silver mouse-shaped beads!

purple_stardust

I desperately want these things for the kitchen:

* Chrome spice rack and spices
* Chicago Cutlery 8-pc. knife set

* Wrought iron French wall pot rack

purple_stardust

Today I made crab cakes, and pasta tossed with olive oil and herbs. Tasty! My new stainless steel pot worked A LOT better than my old Corning Visions stuff. I love it.

purple_stardust

I just saved my entire journal onto my hard drive... all 2567 entries worth. Whew!

purple_stardust

So of course I had to stay up and watch the California recall results. I don't live in California - never have, never would - but their politics tickle me. So Schwarzenegger is the new California governor, and I am thrilled. Of course, again, I don't have to live in California.

But I am happy about the results for one reason - in the last week, FOUR women came forth of tales about Arnold groping them. This, to me, reeks like week-old fish. As far as I can tell, the only reason that a woman would have for coming forward (years later, mind) is for notoriety (Paula Jones comes to mind) or for monetary gain. But Arnold has been rich and famous for years, and not a peep from these women. So if they weren't after money/fame, if they were genuinely traumatised by these alleged events, wouldn't they have contacted the authorities when they happened? You know, back when there might have been witnesses? But no. They all waited until Arnold was ahead in the polls, and then FIFTEEN of them suddenly came forward. Isn't that convenient? Convenient for Gray Davis or Cruz Bustamante, anyway.

Also, career politicians annoy me muchly, so I'd love to vote for somebody who isn't one.

purple_stardust

I had my hair cut again today. No, correction: I had my hair done. I really just want to get the bleached part cut out as rapidly as possible via frequent trims, but Rhonda insists on doing my hair, even though I explain to her that I won't continue to do it, once I get it home. I do not like having my hair done. I do not like blow dryers, curling irons, or styling goop. I would like for my hair to just sit on my head and be hair-like. I would like to be able to run my fingers through my hair without getting them stuck there. Sadly, Rhonda has other plans. I swear, if I could afford a decent wig, I would just shave the shit off and start from scratch. Stupid hair.

purple_stardust

I ran the usual every-other-Thursday errands, and then stopped at Happy Fun Land Target for some kitchen goodies. I ended up getting a pretty set of knives, a spice rack, and some mixing bowls. Oh, and I got some purple spatulas, because everyone on the Food Channel has coloured spatulas. I can't possibly be expected to cook with plain old white spatulas when Rachel Ray is flaunting her cool red spatula in my face. Yes, I have a dreadful case of kitchen envy.

I still want the Tramontina 12 QT stock pot and a non-stick skillet for eggs.

purple_stardust

I just Googled my name, which fortunately turned up few results. This old Ratlist post was one of them though, and it amused me. August 2000; holy crap that was a long time ago...

> > First of all! Your name: Renee Ludwig

> > 1.) How long have you owned Rats? Five or six months.

> > 2.) What is your Rattery name? No rattery, but the collective is known as the M-Rats.

> > 3.) Do you breed rats? Good Lord, no! I have enough by just dragging in strays!

> > 4.) What Do you "specialize" in breeding? Contempt.

> > 5.) Where are you located? In my living room. Har har har. Okay, near Washington DC.

> > 6.) Anything Else you would like to say: No, I don't guess so. But thank you for asking! :)

--

Renee and the M-rats <:3)~~
RC(0.1) 5m4f B-- C D+ F N+ S! O1c2d OCU? a+

*************************************************************
www.redrival.com/stardust95 * stardust95@earthlink.net
*************************************************************

purple_stardust

* Took the broken coffeemaker back this morning and got a replacement.

* Stopped at the produce stand and bought tomatoes and onions to freeze for use over the winter. I also bought some pretty coloured peppers at the supermarket for the same purpose.

* And then I got groceries, including rice, pasta, chicken, ground turkey, and bay leaves.

Hooray, I have things to chop up with my new knives and cook in my new pots! I also got a new cutting board for meat and some of those tiny glass bowls to put ingredients in.

I still need to clean the rat cages...

purple_stardust

Sandy came up and dropped off my new rat boy, BN Tangelo. There are many twisted things happening right now (like a bunch of rat breeders testing positive for rat parvo), and I think we're going to just stick to our own stock, and Bella and her co-breeder, for the time being.

That being said, Sandy has a nice new manx, that I might have to borrow...

purple_stardust

It isn't even 9:30 am, and already I've browned ground turkey with onions and pretty coloured peppers, started a huge batch of spaghetti sauce, made the coffee, fed the cats, fed the fish, taken care of the daughter, and started a load of dishes washing. Rusty is still asleep, the bum.

In other news, my cable access is down and so I'm posting via slow-ass AOL dial-up.

purple_stardust

Become a God or Goddess. by zerogirl
Name:
God/Goddess of	The Stars
Element:	Metal
Animal Companion:	Crow
Weak against	Polka music
Weapon:	Staff
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

purple_stardust

Is there any common household shtuff that would dissolve rust? We made a pot rack over the weekend, and now I need my drill to hang it, but a certain red-headed doofus left my drill bits outside (!), and now they're all rusted. Any advice, other than to buy new drill bits?

purple_stardust

Coca-Cola dissolves rust. This is a disturbing fact, considering how much of it I drink.

purple_stardust

And now, for the exciting conclusion of Renee's Drill: A Tragedy in Three Parts...

After finding that the drill bits had been left outside and rusted, I spent most of the day soaking the bits in Coca-Cola, and then scrubbing and scraping the rust away. Rusty came home and I proudly produced the drill and the mostly-cleaned bits so that he could install my beloved pot rack. Alas, we turned on the drill to find that it produced only sparks and a foul odor. Argh.

It is speculated that one of my charming male cats peed on the drill, most likely when we first moved and were keeping them (and the tools) on the porch while we (and they) settled in. Grrr.

There was an emergency trip to Walmart, in the pouring rain no less, where we got a new (and better) drill, a nice (and bigger) set of bits, and a masonry bit just to be on the safe side.

Who knew that installing a pot rack would be such an adventure.

purple_stardust

A quick question for Laura or anyone who cooks on a gas stove: I am making chicken broth. The directions say to bring to a boil and then let simmer for 2.5 hours. The question is, is it safe to leave a gas range on for that long? Is it practical in terms of my gas bill? I should probably be doing this in the crockpot, but then I wouldn't get to use my new pot, now would I.

purple_stardust

My chicken broth is simmering nicely. I notice that most of the stuff that I like to cook, has ingredients that I would never eat. I love using onions and colourful peppers and mushrooms. Unfortunately, I don't eat any of those things. Still, they look really pretty in food.

I'm not sure what to call my imaginary cooking show; 'The Obsessive-Compulsive Chef' or 'The Art of Not Touching Gross Foods'. I do have this overwhelming need to mess with everything I cook, and also to add ingredients by numbers I like (three carrots instead of two, for example). I have also perfected the art of not touching yucky stuff, like raw meat or bananas. And that reminds me, I need to go find a pair of latex gloves, so I can shred this chicken for the rats.

Speaking of my kitchen, it sucks. I need to have the washer/dryer hookups put down in the basement. Whenever I can get that done, I want to have a long curved counter built where the washer and dryer are now. As it is now, I'm using my dryer as a coffee island, and my washing machine as counter space. I need some place to put my small appliances, at least the microwave and the taoster. As it is now, the toaster is in the pantry and I have to drag it out every time I need it, and the microwave sits precariously on the counter next to the sink. Very annoying.

In other news, I found some cool Food Network communities today:

purple_stardust

I really have nothing to say today. Oh well.

purple_stardust

1. Name five things in your refrigerator.

Fresh (well, it was) parsley. Fresh rosemary. Chicken stock. Coffee creamer. Cheese.

2. Name five things in your freezer.

Ice. Ice packs. Spaghetti sauce. Frozen burritos. Frozen peppers and onions.

3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.

GooGone. Kaboom. Orange cleaner. Windex wipes. Swiffer stuff.

4. Name five things around your computer.

Used Kleenex. Cigarettes. Carpal Tunnel gloves. Cell phone. B-Complex vitamins.

5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet.

My toothpaste. Rusty's toothpaste. My toothbrush. Rusty's toothbrush. Deodorant.


[fridayfive.org]

purple_stardust

I have nothing to say.

purple_stardust

So what happens when you can't find an apron that you like? Design your own, of course.

purple_stardust

Having failed miserably at trying to knit, I asked my grandmother for one of her extra crochet hooks. She gave me two, plus an old magazine that had a basic stitch guide in it... and I can now crochet a chain stitch, woohoo! So I went out to Walmart and bought a learn-to-crochet kit and a skein of fuzzy purple chenille yarn. I want a fuzzy purple scarf and a pompom hat.

purple_stardust

I tried to learn the "slip stich" today. Next time I decide to try something that involves needles, I hope somebody jackslaps me upside my big stupid head. I have no business even trying.

purple_stardust

I wormed the cats this morning... THAT was fun. Actually, it wasn't bad for a while - all four kittens were good about it; just layed on their backs and swallowed the pills readily. Mazel wasn't thrilled with the idea, but she didn't fight it. I'm pretty sure that Mojo swallowed his before he even realised that it might be something bad. And then there was Max.

I swear, I really think that Max is posessed. It was a struggle just to get his mouth open, and when I did manage to shove the pills in, he spit them out several times before I could clamp his mouth shut. And that was another problem - Max is a Persian, so he really doesn't have a lot of face to get hold of. The whole time he was kicking and clawing. He nailed me in a knuckle with his claw, at which point I resorted to holding his backend with my right arm and leg, holding both of his arms very tightly with my right hand, whilst using my left hand to pry/shove/clamp. He still managed to spit it out a few times, but eventually he gave up and swallowed. For a toothless old geezer, that cat is strong. He's all mad now, and glaring from under the futton.

Since he was such a shit about that, I may sit on him later and give him his earmite meds.

purple_stardust

I won a trophy for Best Miasma Photo of 2003 from The West Virginia Society of Ghost Hunters. Neat, I guess. And what the hell AM I going to do with a freakin trophy? Dunno.

purple_stardust

Rusty bought me a Peanuts "Great Pumpkin" sweatshirt for Halloween! =)

purple_stardust

Thanks to angelsil, I have become obsessed with visiting Cape May NJ.



From Washington/Baltimore

Coming from DC, you can opt for blacktop all the way... or take the ferry.

If you're sticking to highways, take I-95 North to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Once across the bridge, you'll be on Route 49. That road will take you through Salem and Bridgeton and eventually lead you to Route 55 South. Take Route 55 south until it ends at Route 47. Route 47 South becomes Route 347 for a short distance than becomes Route 47 again. Stay on it, and it will take you through Rio Grande and right to the Garden State Parkway South. The GSP ends at Route 109 South, taking you right across the bridge into Cape May. About 4 hours, door to door.

The Scenic Route:

If the journey's as important as the destination, then go this way.(It is longer, and you will have to have ferry reservtions, but it is a very pretty drive.) Take I-95 North to Route 50 East. Drive through Anapolis, MD. Cross the Chesapeake Bay. Route 50 leads you to Maryland Route 404. Follow that through Georgetown, DE to route 9. Route 9 will take you to into Lewes and to the Cape May Lewes Ferry Terminal. Take the ferry across the Delaware Bay, then follow Route 109 South into Cape May.

[MapQuest Directions]

[Cape May Ferry]

purple_stardust

We carved pumpkins and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" with Sarah.

purple_stardust

Hello,

I won the following Ebay auctions on September 30:

#2660286104 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads S/L ROYAL3/8"
#2660286025 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads S/L RED 3/8"
#2660285919 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads S/L MULTI COLOR 3/8"
#2660285919 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads S/L MULTI COLOR 3/8"
#2660285836 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads S/L GREEN 3/8"
#2660285357 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads OP MULTI COLOR 3/8"
#2660285186 - 30gr. BUGLE Seed Beads BLACK RAINBOW 3/8"

After contacting you several times for a total, and being unable to use PayPal, I sent you a check on October 9. I realise that most sellers wait until a check clears, but since I am a previous customer and I was only paying by check because your PayPal account was "unable to receive money", I would think you could make an exception. That aside, the check cleared my bank on October 17 - well over a week ago - and yet I still hav't recieved my beads. I haven't recieved communication from you that the beads have shipped, or any reason why they have not.

In the time that it's taken to complete this transaction, I have won, paid for, recieved, and left feedback for other transactions, and still no beads from you. I am becoming very dissapointed and frustrated with this transaction. Could you PLEASE let me know the status of this order?

---Renee Ludwig (stardust95)

purple_stardust

No entry.