Pumpkins

Nice Pumpkins, eh?

I was pretty excited for some roasted pumpkin seeds, let me tell you! I made two different kinds. One was just with some salt and pepper and the other, oh the other...

Pumpkin Pie Seeds
Roast 1 cup pumpkin seeds at 250º-300º for 45 minutes.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet.
Add roasted pumpkin seeds and 4 tsp of sugar to the skillet.
Stir until all the sugar is melted and the seeds are covered.
Remove from skillet and toss with the following mixture:
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves)
2 tsp sugar
Spread out on plate to cool so they don't stick together in a big glob.

Enjoy!

Lotion

Can hand lotion spoil?

I suspect that something is "wrong" with the hand lotion on my desk at work. It is supposed to smell like Black Raspberry Vanilla (not one of my favorite scents, but not terribly offensive either for the workplace). I definitely think the lotion no longer smells like Black Raspberry Vanilla, but rather...Nasty Laundry Detergent Public Restroom Soap No Vanilla. This is unacceptable. Granted this bottle is probably three years old by now...maybe four...a Christmas gift from the pre-marriage days from a friend of the family. I still have just over half the bottle left (obviously this is a mental note to all not to buy me full-sized versions of lotions) and have quite a dilemma on my hands...do I throw away what may still be perfectly good (effective) lotion due to it's now offensive smell and buy a replacement? I'm sure that Bath and Body Works is running a sale on travel sized items...since they are always running a sale on those types of things... Or do I suffer on with the scent of Black Raspberry Vanilla But Not looming overhead in my cube?

I wonder if people outside my cubical can smell my lotion...


(By the time I checked the mail this evening, guess what was in the mailbox? That's right, a coupon for Bath and Body Works...apparently even they know I need new lotion!)

Snuggles

I love Kitty snuggles. I probably would not enjoy snuggles from Kitty in she wasn't so darn fluffy and soft. Husband is gone on travel and Kitty makes for a great companion. She is excited to see me, although still remains at the back door in the hope that Husband will return and play with her, she follows me around the house, and most importantly she crawls on the bed and curls up next to me each night to sleep. She purrs and provides much needed comfort and warmth.

Especially since it has become a tradition that "something" happens to my car while Husband is out of town and sometimes you just need something soft to dry your tears.

Tow

So my car *almost* got towed Tuesday night. Not cool. I was shocked when I saw five guys standing around the parking lot with two tow trucks and two cars getting loaded onto them. Why it required so many guys, I have no idea. Three of them were tow-truck guys and two were HOA rent-a-cops. Still far too many men if you ask me...were they planning on lifting the cars onto the trucks using only their brute strength?

In the end the guys laughed at me and my nonsensical question of "How do I get my car off of there?" (In my defense, they had done *something* to the car and started walking away saying, "You're free to go now." after I handed them $25 cash...which I'm sure is not technically policy...I could continue, but for the sake of boring my few readers I will not elaborate.) And of course when it was over and I was safe and sound in my car I burst into uncontrollable sobbing tears and called Hubby. I cried for a good 20 minutes...it was ridiculous and I just couldn't stop.

One of my gals informed me that all tow truck men are mean. This is how she thinks the interview for being a tow-truck man goes:

"I want to be a tow-guy."
"Well are you a douche-bag?"
"Yes I am!"
"Okay, you're in."

Perhaps my tears would have turned into giggles more quickly if I had known this prior to Tuesday night.

Science

An interesting discussion occurred this week touching on many related topics, but at it's core, the questions boiled down to "what is science?"

Science, according to Webster's, is: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method and concerned with the physical world and its phenomena.

From Wikipedia I confirmed that; essential to the idea of "science" is the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws.

I believe the confusion begins when natural science and social science are taught in conjunction with one another. Attempts to incorporate social science into natural science is only asking for trouble.

To what degree is the current body of scientific knowledge can be taken as an indicator of what is actually true? Has science become it's own theology?

How difficult it must be to be a scientist with a Christian world-view. Assuming their world-view is not compartmentalized into various areas, but they view the entire world with their Christian world-view...

Church

It's official! The Frontline Internet Church Campus is open. From the website you can now view Frontline LIVE on Sundays at 5:30pm. You can take part in the worship as well as the message along with your fellow Frontliners. How cool is that? What an awesome idea. For all of you that I've been talking about Frontline to, now's your chance to see what I'm talking about! Of course you're still always welcome to come with!

Check out the new Internet Campus by going to this website:
www.frontlinedc.com

I hope you can check it out some Sunday real soon!

TV

So it's about that time. Time that I sit down and consider what is rotting my brain...on the TV that is...Fall 2007 Edition.

So I started out with a HUGE list of new shows I wanted to check out, only a few even made it to "pilot viewing" and less have made the cut. It looks like my choices are pretty solid (except for one, maybe two) so let's see what I have been tuning into...

Dancing with the Stars - my family is into the show, the only show they watch, gives Mom, the grandparents and me something to talk about in the pop-culture realm...this is a first...I shall hang onto this show considering how much I love movies/tv and never get to share that with them...with the exception of my Grandma who has a love for the movies...probably where I get it from...

Heroes - no explanation needed.

Journeyman - I could probably live without, but Husband loves it and I am not opposed, not sure how this can run more than one season though...and from the network chatter it seems this show is doomed (much like our well-loved Justice from last season...so sad...)

Chuck - love it! Needs to continue...'nough said.

Beauty and the Geek - our favorite reality show has taken a downward turn with the addition of a girl geek and boy beauty...so not the same or fair...should totally come up with Hottie and the Nerd or something if they want to reverse the genders. Still a keeper though!

The Office - hilarious...when Michael Scott isn't the center of attention that is...some of these hour-long episodes have been rather painful. Loving the Pam/Jim subplot and Angela and her accounting crew are representing as usual =)

Smallville - totally rocks this season...quite possibly our favorite show on TV right now.

Scrubs - makes it's return for their final season this Thursday...of course I'll be watching...and if I were able, would have already pre-ordered the DVDs on Amazon.com.

Big Shots - another newbie...probably going to get canned (by the networks) but I just love Michael Vartan...I can't just sit by and watch ex-Alias stars get new shows and not watch...it would be wrong...Sark on Heroes, Vaughn on Big Shots...excellent, excellent. Not sure this show is going to last though...too many guys...too many sub-plots.

So there you have it. LOST isn't back until February, so then I'm sure the line-up will become shuffled yet again...it may be time to say good-bye to Journeyman and Big Shots by then...only time will tell...

Yes, I know that I am a dork.

Iggy

So much talk over a little dog. I didn't even have to hear the whole story to figure out the problem though...as soon as I heard, "Ellen got a dog from a rescue agency and gave it to...." I knew it was over. You can't do that.

One of three things the cat rescue agency we got our kitties from said before we were even allowed to apply for them was "if you chose not to keep the cats for any reason you must return them to us so that we can find them a good home," (in addition to they must be spayed/neutered and you cannot get them declawed). We asked for how long that rule applied, they said forever. "So in 5 years if we decide to move and we can't take them...." Hubby and I started to say. "We'll take them back regardless," they said. That was that. We learned how to clip nails and made appointments for sterilization (check and check).

Six weeks later when Tucker was still not recovering properly from the tail fiasco we knew we could not keep him. So we called up the cat rescue agency and arranged to drop him off at their animal clinic with the vet of their choice. We were refunded our adoption fee and that was that.

We followed the rules.

I am not an animal fanatic, but I assume rules are there for a reason, and the people who choose to make their life's work around animals certainly are more capable of setting these rules than I am. This is not a crazy rule, but rather standard for pet rescue agencies as opposed to humane society programs.

Duh.

Sweet

I love sweet things, don't get me wrong, but dumping an extra sugar packet into my tea was not what I anticipated this morning. Ick.

How long is socially acceptable to wait before helping yourself to "meeting snacks" for a meeting to which you were not invited? Breakfast snacks from 8am...by 10am those are fair game right? That's what I thought.

Obedience

"For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it. But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago."
~Romans 3:20-21

This was the passage from my e-devotion this morning. Talk about starting the morning off with a bang! I know I have felt this passage so many times in the last 10+ years that it is an incredible reminder of God's grace. No matter what I do, there's only one thing that will give me security for the future; knowing, accepting, trusting, and believing Christ is the only way to heaven and that his life, death, and resurrection were to allow us into the presence of God. It's be His grace that we are saved. Sure their may be all of these "laws" that we have yet to conform to, but that's okay. Life's not a report-card...it's more pass/fail...and there's only one thing we can do to "pass".

Men

I love it when men encourage other men.

This was a challenge to the men of Frontline by a fellow Frontliner:
I want us to step up as men for Christ. As I said during our time, we don't have to be meek, nice guys to be Godly. We need to be passionate, Christ-centered dudes that get what it means to sacrifice, suffer, and fight for the gospel in our workplaces, homes, neighborhoods, nation, and world. Jesus doesn't have to be your boyfriend. Jesus is our King and he is worthy to be praised and worthy to be followed. Don't be a pansy. Flip the switch and man-up. Follow after Christ like your life and this world depended on it…because it does.

Thanks Justin, for helping to encourage young men to stay on track and "man-up"! We ladies appreciate this immensely!

Controversy

Controversial issues are not controversial because there is no right answer. Controversial issues are controversial because there can only be one right answer. People will always fight for their beliefs, but in the end (and I do mean The End) there will be only one Truth. The idea of relativism and tolerance is so widely taught in our world today, that I believe people have forgotten what those words mean. Th essence of tolerance is love, not acceptance or efforts to condone. Relativism, the idea that there is more than one possible truth and what is true for you is true for you but what is true for me is true for me regardless of whether those two truths are the same, is in a word, ridiculous.

Just because you believe an apple is a pear and I believe an apple is an apple does not make the apple both an apple and a pear does it?

Nose

Fact: My nose is too small (acording to the ENT visit in June).
Fact: My nose is too big (personal opinion).
Fact: I have no allergies (according to the allergist and her prick test).
Fact: I have had seasonal allergy symptoms for as long as I can remember.
Question: Why does my nose itch constantly during the spring and fall?

Fact: I get headaches when I continually use nasal spray.
Fact: ENT prescribed nasal spray for my small nose.
Fact: ENT said only "cure" for chronic breathing issues was rhinoplasty.
Fact: I have always hated my nose and have longed for a new one.
Question: Why am I now scared, now that my "dream" has become a "recommendation"?
Question: If I could pick any nose for my face, which one would I choose?

Fact: Ragweed season is a killer.

Quotes

Guy from 1957 team sitting behind me: "Why are they still running that play? It didn't work in 1957 and it doesn't work now!"

Man in Beachers: "Are you from the 1957 team?"
Grandpa: "No, the 1947 team."
Man in Bleachers "Wow!"
Grandpa (to me) "Hey, that guy thought I looked young!"

Man in Bleachers 2: "Look, there's a sign for 1947! Those guys must be 80 years old!"
My Aunt: "Yes, that's my Dad."

Man in Bleachers 3: "There's more men from the 1947 team than from the 1997 team!"

Guy from 1957 team: "Media time-out? What's that? I have never heard of that!"
His friend: "It's for the TV commercials."
Guy from 1957 team: "TV commercials time-out...we didn't have those when I played football!"


I love football...have I mentioned that before?

Football

Football, oh football,
Oh, how I love football!
The breeze in the air,
The fighting so fair.
Hot dogs and peanuts,
I surely won't go nuts.

Football, oh football,
So perfect for the fall.
College ball is best,
NFL I leave to the rest.
Thursday through Saturday,
Could there be another day?

Football, oh football,
You are my favorite sport of all.

Yes, that's right, I wrote a poem. About football. What can I say? Free tickets to any football game make me light up, especially when I get the chance to see a guy from the 1947 team which took the Terps to their first bowl game ever walk onto the field and be cheered on by thousands of people. Knowing that guy is my grandfather, makes me smile inside and out. I love football, but not as much as I love my family.

Absurdity

$5 million here, $10 million here, oh look $22 million over there...

What in the world?! All we hear Congress talk about are the budget constraints they are facing, not enough money for the war, not enough money for health care coverage, not enough money for stem-cell research, I mean science (which is far too tied to federal funding in my opinion anyway, but a blog for another day) not enough money for all Federal officials to be able to fly first-class (so sad for them). Perhaps if they used their mad fundraising skills for good I would feel more positively about any one of the presidential candidates running amok, most of which scorning their elected duties of being our Congressmen and woman by running about the country in search of supporters and funds. I am not sure about you, but if I decided not to show up for my JOB and instead pursued my "next" career that would not be taken well at all. I doubt the my current employer would be very happy, but lets not forget about the potential replacement employer. Who wants someone who is always focused on "the next big thing" and avoids completing their current task by any means possible? I'm sorry, but when I vote you into office, you had BETTER be present and voting (preferable in my chosen mindset if the person elected is the person I voted for in the first place) and EVERY Congressional vote. None of this abstaining and none of this "not present at time of voting". I mean really, you get insanely long breaks from being "in session" and really, is it that hard to show up for work? I mean, I do it. How in the world am I supposed to believe you will take the "interests of the working middle class" to heart if you freaking can't be a hard-working individual?

But back to the issue at hand...all this money. Use it where it's needed. We live in age of the Internet and Podcasting, and online journals...why do you physically need to travel around the country wasting that precious money that could so be used for a greater cause? Why?

This is absurd.