Geaux Tigers

Since tonight's LSU game is starting I figured now would be a good time to write about yesterday's LSU game, right?

We had been hoping to go to last night's regional game LSU vs Baylor. Last year we showed up at the stadium ticket-less. After waiting in line a while, some nice guy walked up to us and gave us two tickets for free. So we were hoping to have it happen again this year. Unfortunately on our walk to the baseball stadium we passed several people with their fingers up showing the number of tickets they were looking for. Not a good sign. We finally got to the ticket line, which had around 40 or 50 people in it. And this was around 2 hours before the game.

So instead of waiting for 2 hours in a line and not getting tickets we decided to walk across the street and watch the game at Walk-Ons. We get there, and put our name on the list. They told us it would probably be about an hour, and they took our cell phone number so they could call us if need be. Of course it was so crowed that every time they tried to seat a table the yelled the name a couple times. And it looked like each time they tried calling them on their cell phones. Some people did get seated, but overall they were not met with a lot of success. We were were smart and sat right next to the hostess stand. And after trying to seat a table and not being able to find 6 different parties (phone calls and all), I'm pretty sure the hostesses gave a little cheer when they called our name and finally had someone to seat.

Wasting Time While Waiting to be Seated When we finally got seated we figured we'd start out with an appetizer. After all we were planning on staying for the whole baseball game. We went with fried mozzarella, which turned out to be some of the best fried mozzarella I remember having.

Fried Mozzarella at Walk-Ons It came in little balls which surprised me at first. I'm not sure I've ever seen fried mozzarella that way before. But when you think about it, you normally buy mozzarella in little balls, so it makes a lot of sense. The best part about them was that they were a little spicy. And the marinara was pretty good too.

For my main course I went with stuffed shrimp. Although it wasn't real descriptive of the name. They we pieces of shrimp wrapped with more shrimp and crab and fried. So maybe coated shrimp would be a better name? Either way they were good, but not as good as the cheese.

Wrapped Shrimp? The shrimp also came with fries and hush puppies as you can see. And if you're curious the Boy had a bacon cheeseburger. Sorry for the lack of picture, I have a hard enough time getting him to take pictures, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let me take pictures of his food.

Again, since we were there for several hours, we felt a bit obligated to order dessert. I present you with a messy martini...

YUM We "shared" this. Which meant the Boy took two bites of only the brownie, and declared, "I feel sick." Which last me to polish of the rest. I happily obliged.

This was my first time eating at Walk-Ons and overall I was pretty happy with it. I have technically been there before. Once for drinks and another standing in the bar watching an LSU football game. It can be a little expensive (especially if you're ordering both an appetizer and dessert). But either way its fun, and the fried mozzarella is pretty good.

Some Walk-Ons product placement And if you're curious last night we won 2-1. Right now we're beating Minnesota 2-0. Geaux Tigers!

~Shoshanah

P.S. While my computer was on hiatus, Jennifer at Crazy Shenanigans gave me a Mender of Broken Hearts Award. She's almost always the first one to comment on any of my entries, and said some of the sweetest things about me. If you aren't reading her I suggest you check her out!
With that being said I can't find any official rules for the Mender of Broken Hearts Award. But luckily, I haven't needed anyone to mend my own broker heart, and hopefully won't in a while. If I ever did here's a few girls who I'm sure would come to my rescue:
Amber at A Little Pink in the Cornfields
Amber at the new Girl with the Red Hair (Think of it as a blog-warming present!)
Carissa at The Lovely Dove
Anais at Through Green Eyes
CeeCee at Ceecee's Cozy e*home

And if you wanted to know, LSU is currently up 5-0!

Mushroom & Olive Pizza

Amy's Mushroom & Olive Pizza
I have to say Amy's, I'm a little disappointed in you after this. I've loved pretty much all of your other meals to death, but I wasn't a big fan of this one. Overall, there just wasn't a a lot of flavor, and the sauce was a little too sweet for me. Trying to stay positive, the outside crust was just the perfect amount of crispiness. Actually, after the first bite of crust I really thought I would like this. But not quite. I'll still buy Amy's of course, and I might even try one of their pizzas again. But probably not this one.

On a brighter side Amber at The Girl with Red Hair has a bunch of giveaways going one to kick off her new blog. There's Cliff & Larabars, a book, and even a date night! So go check it out!

~Shoshanah

Triple Review

Normally I wouldn't be posting this many reviews a once. But after not posting this weekend and knowing I'll have yet another movie review to post after tomorrow, this is how its going to have to go. Now you may be surprised, but I didn't actually go see the new Terminator movie this past weekend. So at least something good happened this weekend, and I didn't have to suffer through it.

Night at the Museum - Battle at the Smithsonian
Yes, this movie is technically targeted at kids. But if you haven't seen this or the original you don't know what you're missing out on. Is this better than the original? Not necessarily, but it was still good. A few of my favorite things about it... First is Amy Adams as Amalia Earhart. Although really, I love her in everything she's done. Second are the 3 singing cherubs played by of course, The Jonas Brother. Then I also loved the cameos by Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch.

What didn't I like? Well, all of the funniest scenes were in the previews. Now if you don't go to the movies a lot and don't see a lot of previews this wouldn't be a big problem. But we do. The the funniest scenes in the movie already seemed to be a bit overplayed to me. Also on a similar note, Seth Rogen's bit in the film? Well again, if you've seen the previews you really since his whole part.

Overall, the movie is a lot of fun and I would definitely say to go see this and the original (if you haven't already seen it.)

Diary of a Mad Bride By Laura Wolf
I read this book over about a 24 hour period this weekend. I wanted something light and easy to distract me from my dead computer and this was it. And it did exactly that. The book was written in a diary type form, which I don't normally like, but didn't seem to mind here. One thing though it that the book felt a little dated. It was written in 2002, and that was pretty evident. Mainly due to the fact the Backsteet Boys were mentioned several times. No don't get me wrong I was ok still am a pretty big Backsteet fan, and it was nice to seem their name in print. But every time I read that, I couldn't help but think, "Wait, when does this take place." Overall, I did enjoy it, and the next time I want a little easy read I'll pick up the sequel.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Moving to the complete opposite type of book.. I actually finished this last Thursday, and was planning a long entry on it over the weekend. Clearly, that didn't quite happen but I don't want to forget to write about this.

The briefly summarize, this book is about a 10-year-old Jewish girl in Paris during the Holocaust. During a round up of Jews she decides to save her little brother by locking him in their hiding closest, hence the name of the book, the key to the closest. This is intertwined with the story of a modern day American journalist living in France researching what happened to the Jews in France (specifically Paris) during the Holocaust.

Don't really know what happened to the Jew in France? Well there are some countries, like Denmark, that managed to save most of their Jews. Unfortunately, as much as I love France, it wasn't one of those countries. The Germans basically told the Vichy government that they would need round up their Jews. So the government in France went to all their records and looked up where all the Jew were living, using what should have been somewhat confidential census information. Not only did they turn over the names and addresses, but in some cases the French police themselves went out to homes to find families, and basically send them to camps. Yes, there was a Resistance in France, but overall there wasn't a big fight put up. It is interesting to note that France no longer collects census information such as a person's religion anymore. That way if France were ever put in such a situation again, they wouldn't have the information to give up.

Going back to the actual book. Partly because I am Jewish I have read my fair share of books on the Holocaust. But Sarah's Key I haven't been able to stop thinking about, and honestly there were nights while reading it when I found it hard to go to sleep. Basically, its not a good summer beach read. But if you're looking for something thought provoking this is it.

~Shoshanah

Where Did You Go

Yes, myself and my computer have returned. Where did we go, you ask? Well remember when exactly 2 months ago I wrote about how my computer needed to be reformatted. Well turns out that didn't quite fix the problem...

This past Sunday I made myself a cup of coffee and sat down at my computer to start the day. Except I couldn't get windows to load. I couldn't get to windows through safe mode. It tried to scan my computer first and froze one and produced an unspecified error a different time. But I did finally get to windows, only to have 3 error messages pop up. Giving up at trying I my own I decided to call India, aka Dell Support. I was told based on the error message it had something to do with my video driver, and absolutely nothing to do with my prior problem. Once we got to the Internet via windows he would be able to save my computer.

But after several unsuccessful attempts of loading windows, an unsuccessful attempted at a reformat, 3 hours of being on the actual phone, 3 unsuccessful attempts to reinstall windows, and about 12 hours total... the guy in India said they would send a new hard drive next day delivery. Except this was now 8pm on a Saturday. They couldn't mail Sunday. Monday was Memorial Day. But they were able to mail my new hard drive yesterday.

So my computer officially has a new hard drive. Let's home I can go more than 2 months without my computer dying this time.

My regularly scheduled posts will return tomorrow. For now I'm attempting to catch up on my google reader, which has less than 100 posts. Only a mere 98.

~Shoshanah

Open or Closed

I've written about some of the quirks that make me, me before, and I figured it was so fun I should do it again. So here goes.

I can not sleep the any doors in the room open. None. It doesn't matter if its the door to the closet, the door to the bathroom, or the door to the hall. Of course this is fun now, because they are currently FIVE different doors in the bedroom (3 into closets, 1 into the bathroom, 1 into the hall). Every night before I go to sleep I walk around the perimeter of the room, making sure all the doors are closed completely without even a crack left open.

And what happens if one of us forgets to shut all the doors? Well if I am in bed, I will normally ask the boy if he will get out of bed and close it. He always sleeps on the side of the bed closest to the door. Yes, another slight quirk. I don't care what side of the bed I'm on as long as its the side further away from the door. I think its so if any robbers were to break into the room they reach him first and not me. I mean it makes sense to me.

Then what would be the reasoning for making sure all the doors are completely shut? Well, I think it goes back to growing up with cats. All my life we had cats living in the house. Except for maybe a span of 2 months in 2nd grade, besides that, there were cats. And I hated having the cats in my bedroom, mainly because I didn't want them to ruin any of my stuff. (Can we talk about the year a cat peed on my Halloween candy?)

Of course that isn't the complete reason why I didn't want the cats in the room. See we had one or two cats that would see your toes under the blanket. Would see them and think to themselves, "That looks dangerous! I should attack it!" So you would be woken up in the middle of the night with bite marks on your toes. Yes, I do so how it could be fun to cuddle your kitty when you're going to sleep. But it is most definitely not fun when the kitty then doesn't let you sleep.

Of course you might now be wondering if we have any cats in our apartments. That's a definite no. And yet, I still can't get it out of my mind that if I don't make sure all the doors are completely closed, well.... who knows what might happen!

~Shoshanah

P.S. I'm so sad all of my shows are done for the summer. What am I supposed to do tonight then? I think in protest I won't be posting a Frozen Thursday post tonight. Of course, it could also partly be due to the half turkey, brie, and fig sandwich leftover from my lunch at Wholefoods today.

Sir (or if you prefer Saint) Thomas More

The King's Confidante by Jean Plaidy
I believe this is the first Jean Plaidy book I'm reviewing on here, but I can assure you it won't be the last. Haven't heard of Jean Plaidy? Its not because she hasn't made it big yet. Its because she already made it big. She was an English writer who lived between 1906 to 1993. In her almost 90 year life she published over 200 hundred different books on under various different names. Unfortunately, most of her books are currently out of print, but Random House is slowly starting to republish them.

As of now Random House has republished around 20 or so of her books. They started publishing them somewhat randomly with books on Queen Victoria, King Charles II, Princess Mary Tutor. But in the last year or two started publishing a specific series. Last year all 11 titles in her Queen of England series made publication. There are currently 7 books in her Tudor England series available. The most recent of which is The King's Confidante. However, this is actually book 4, book 5-7 were published a few years ago.

I started reading her books summer 2005, just before my visit to France. I started with Mary, Queen of France, which is now listed as book 7 in the Tudor series. (Confused yet?) I haven't read all of her republished books, but I have read most.

But the actual book. If you couldn't tell from the title of my post, the book is about Sir Thomas Moore. The cover lists it as "The Story of the Daughter of Sir Thomas More," but I don't feel like that quite defines it. I didn't know much about Thomas More going into this group except for the basics. He wrote Utopia. King Henry VII killed him. I did know he had a daughter, but only because most historical novels who mention Sir Thomas More's death mention he had a daughter that greatly mourned him. But that was really it, and it might be more than the average person knows. (The boy on the other hand went to a Saint Thomas More Elementary school so I would hope he knows a little extra. Then again I went to John C. Fremont Elementary and I couldn't tell you who Mr. Fremont was.)

The book itself was really enjoyable. I think it did help not knowing the story. For example, I love reading historical fiction about Anne Boleyn. But I've read so much of it I know what's going to happen. Sure, I knew how this was going to end, but not a whole lot of what happens in the middle.

Also what was interesting was reading about how a family lived in Tutor England, that wasn't very wealthy. As Thomas More increased in favor, the family's positions increased and that was interesting to see as well.

Overall it was one of my favorites of Jean Plaidy. But honestly, there haven't been any that I haven't liked. If you've never read her or have never heard of her I strongly urge you to give her a chance. Especially if you've read and enjoyed books by Phillippa Gregory. I do like her as well, but I like Jean Plaidy better. And if by chance you have read anything by Jean Plaidy, do you have a favorite?

~Shoshanah

Yes, I am watching American Idol. I kind of want Kris to win, but think Adam might. Although I think if I were Adam I might want to come in 2nd place. Only because he'll wind up with a far better contract and more creativeness than what the official American Idol winner receives.

The Cheesiest

Currently in the fridge we have 9 different cheeses. Yes, 9. Some are mine. Some are his. But still 9 in a lot of cheese to have in the fridge for two people. In case you're curious here's a list of the type of cheese

• Brie
• Dubliner (Its similar to a cheddar.)
• 2 kinds of feta. (One in the basic Athenos version. One is more traditional and has actual Greek letters on the package. And yes, I eat feta as a snack!)
• Provolone (This is his, its in slices up for sandwiches)
• Aged Gouda
• 2 blocks of parmesan (One is almost finished, so we bought the second to replace it. But we still have both.)
• Fol Epi (He wanted to try this. It tastes similar to a Swiss)

Clearly we like our cheese. Its hard for us to buy groceries without picking up at least one type of it. But I figured it is at least good for me. I figured I don't drink milk so I need to get my calcium someway. And Cheese (and ice cream!) are really the only ways I get this taken care of.

But its taking a while to go through them all. Luckily none of them had gone bad in the fridge yet. So in an attempt to eat it all and save money, I've been trying to come home for lunch and make cheese my lunch.
Here we have one of these lunches. Going clockwise we have hummus, focaccia, pita, summer sausage, aged Gouda, fol epi, dubliner, and Brie.

So tell me do you also have a million types of cheeses in your fridge? Or what do you have multiples of in your place? Peanut Butters? Salad Dressings? Salsas?

~Shoshanah

Laundry Day

Yesterday after the Boy got home from work he said he wanted to do laundry. Probably a first from him, since I'm normally the one who insists its time to do it. We didn't have a lot of laundry to do, but since he's out of school for the summer his job schedule has changed. So instead of needing to wear a black polo shirt two days a week, its closer to 5. Besides the black polos there wasn't a whole lot else, only 1 load of clothes plus our sheets. The problem wasn't the amount of laundry we wanted to do, it was that everybody else wanted to do their laundry Sunday night too!

This is a problem since we don't have a washer and dryer in our aparments. While our apartment does have washer and dryer hook-ups we haven't made the big purchase yet. Luckily the laundry room is right by our apartment, just on the other side of the pool.

We carried our laundry over and there were two men currently put clothes in the dryer. Now our apartment has about 8 dryers, of which 2 require quarters, and the other 6 take money cards. The two men had already filled 4 of the 6 money card washers. We were able to put the sheets in one washer, but when they started filled the last washer we could use before us (since we had money on our money card, but no quarter). So we let out sheets wash, and brought the clothes back to our apartment.

One hour later we brought the clothes over, and moved the sheets to the dryer. No problems there.

One hour later we went back. Turns out someone had needed the dryer our sheets were in. The sheets were sitting on the table, still warm even. But all of the dryers were full, which meant we had no where for our clothes to go. The next dryer to end was in 30 minutes, so we brought the sheets back, made the bed, and waited.

30 minutes later we went back to move the clothes to the dryer. We checked the dryers, there was one open. Success! So we went to move the clothes. Except someone else's clothes were currently being washed in the washer we had used. But where were the clothes. The weren't on the counter. They weren't sitting in any of the dryers. They was a woman doing her laundry, but she said she didn't know, and there was no one in the room when she got there. On a whim we decided to check the washer we had used. The Boy pulled out a pair of jeans from the hot water (not fun I'm sure). Of course it was his jeans! Someone had decided our clothes still looked dirty maybe? And paid the $1.25 to wash our clothes? I'm not sure how that happened, but at least the clothes weren't missing.

Luckily, that was the end of our problems. A hour later we went back and move the clothes to the laundry. An hour after that we moved the clothes to the dryer.

But to sum up, two loads of laundry which should normally take 3 trips to the laundry, instead took SEVEN separate trips! Seriously! We've already decided our first big purchase as a couple will be buying a washer and dryer, and after yesterday I'm ready to buy one now! So we'll see, hopefully sooner rather than later.

~Shoshanah

P.S. The Bachelorette stars tonight! I'm so excited! If you really want to get ready feel free to read all my past Bachelor recaps! I can't wait to see Jillian, and here's to hoping she finds what she's looking for!

Angels & Demons

We decided to go to a matinee Saturday and see Angels & Demons. Going to the movies is our little way of saving lately. If we are going to the movies we might as well save a few dollars or two. Of course we would save far more if I didn't buy candy and a soda, but that's a different issue.

First, I have read this (and The Da Vinci Code), but it was several years ago, when they were really big. So while I remembered a few key plot points, I didn't know exactly what would be happening. Of course throughout the movie things would happen and I would remember what came next.

I do think this was better than The Da Vinci code movie. Mainly because I can't remember a whole lot about the movie, except that it was slow. And while Angels & Demons wasn't especially fast, slow wasn't my number one thought about the movie.

I guess my biggest complaint was they left out what I thought was a pretty major revelation in the book. I told the boy my feelings, and he said it really didn't add much. That it really wasn't necessary. But still! What was it that I thought was missing? Well if you haven't read the book and don't want to hear spoilers then stop. Still here?

It was the reason why the previous Pope was a fan of science. In the book he fell in love with a nun. And while neither one would give out their vows for sex, they wanted to had a child. So they used her eggs and his sperms and she became artificially inseminated. Thus, they had a kid without ruining their vows. Of course their son was Ewan McGregor's character. Now while I understand the movie didn't need this, it would have been nice to include it.

Overall I'd say see the movie. And read the book too if you haven't already!

~Shoshanah

Chicken Tikka Masala

Sukhi's Chicken Tikka Masala
Yes, I am changing thins up this week and not showing something that is Kashi or Amy's. But I saw this in the frozen food freezer and went a little crazy.

The actual chciken is ok. The sauce is better. But the best part (by far) was the frozen piece of naan! I put the actually meat in the microwave and the naan in the oven, and the naan came out perfect. It was great for sopping up all the extra sauce.

I guess my biggest problem with it was that it was really a meal. I wasn't hungry afterwards. But whereas the Kashi and Amy's meals tend to have a lot of vegetables and starches (and meat in Kashi meals), the was just meat and bread. So not the well-roundest of meals.

I might buy this again, but I wouldn't necessarily make a point to. However, if I could buy just the frozen naan I totally would.

~Shoshanah

Dragon Slayer

I think I might be the only one out there who still watches Survivor. (If I'm wrong please let me know.) I haven't watched every season, but I have watched most of them. I am watching this one, and I'm really glad because its turned out to be a really entertaining one.

Mainly because of one of the contestants, Coach. No, that is not his real name. At least I don't believe so. He is a coach (I think a soccer coach), and decided to have everyone call him Coach on the show. It could be that he didn't want his real name to go public, or it could be he liked the idea of being know as Coach. And if you think that's odd, I haven't even started.

Every season they have an episode where they bring in loved ones as a surprise. In past seasons it has been wives, husbands, mother, fathers, sister, brothers, and even a son once. So who was Coach's loved one? His assistant coach! That's the person that means the most to him that he wants to see on the show. Again, I'm not really sure why he brought his assistant coach, maybe the guy was actually his lover and he didn't want to come out to the world. Or maybe the closest person in his life is truly his assistant coach.

But it doesn't stop there. Every episode Coach tells a true life story about what something he has done. About how he knows meditation techniques that can't be flown on a helicopter. About how he was flown into the Amazon on a military helicopter and while going down the river was captured by cannibals. Every time he tells a story you can see the contestants holding back their laughter. Even Jeff Probst, who normally stays completely out of the game can't help asking questions at tribal council such as, "Are you going to tell us a story out how you rescued orphans from the wilderness?"

It wouldn't be so bad if you thought he was perhaps elaborating a bit. But instead, Coach claims that he has never told a lie in his life. And that all of these things truly did happen in his life, and you can choose to believe or not, but he knows they are true.

Of course since this is a game you might want to know her strategy to win. As he's said multiple times, he wants to bring the absolute strongest players to the finale with him, because he is a warrior. Thus Coach made a warrior alliance with the two guys he feels are the strongest. And every time he feels he masterminds who is going home he calls himself the dragon slayer. One week he cut off the head of the dragon, the next week he said he was cutting off the tail.

Will Coach win? Probably not. My guess is he'll go home tonight unless he wins immunity. But who knows, there are only 5 contestants left. If there's anyone else out that who does watch Survivor I'd love to hear your thoughts on this season. And if you haven't been watching the season is almost over, but its still on tonight and Sunday. So...

The tribe has spoken.

~Shoshanah

Coach image found on Google Images.

Marriage Meatloaf

Over the weekend the Boy and I were going to the grocery store and were trying to come up with what we wanted to make. The Boy said he'd been craving meatloaf, so my first thought was, Marriage Meatloaf! You can check out the link to read about it and see the recipe, but to overview briefly, it's a recipe from Glamour. It's supposed to be so good that if you make it for your guy he will propose and you will get married, aka the name marriage meatloaf.

My first mistake was instead of saying something along the lines of, "I have a great meatloaf recipe," it came out more like, "I can make marriage meatloaf!" Of course after that introduction, I had to explain that if I he ate this meatloaf he would decide to propose to me. Not the smoothest of of hints.

We still went out and bought all the ingredients for the meatloaf (along with focaccia and 3 different cheese, aka the essentials). This was on Sunday and since we had a dinner with his family for Mother's Day, we decided to make it on Monday. I can home from work Monday and basically started cooking (if you remember, that's the reason I was late posting on Monday.)

I assembled all the ingredients and realized I had a lot of chopping ahead of me. So here's mistake number two. Not wanting to chop everything myself I recruited the boy to come help me. He did help with everything except the onion. He's allergic to onions, or really the chemical that makes you cry in them. Assuming they are cooked really well he's ok to eat them, but chopping onions makes his eyes water more than most. He did help with chopping, to which he said something along the lines of, "I don't think this counts as marriage meatloaf if I have to help cook it. I think that pretty much makes in UN-marriage meatloaf"

I did get everything chopped and cooked and mixed and ready to go into the oven, with one slight problem. When we went to the store we bought meatloaf pans, both permanent and disposable. Turns out after reading the recipe we didn't need meatloaf pans but parchment paper to put on a cookie sheet. But we decide to use the disposable ones. We though we'd be clever and poke holes in the bottom to allow the fat & liquids to drain.


Unfortunately, it wasn't quite a success. If we had made a loaf on the cookie sheet it would have had a dome type shape which allowed the fat to drain off. While the hole in the bottom did help with that, since we had a flat top there was a good bit of fat on the top that couldn't escape. Not the nicest of images, sorry for that.

The actual meatloaf was really good. Nice and most, and I loved the pieces of red pepper!

My attempt at Marriage MeatloafOverall I'd recommend if, even if you're already married and don't need marriage meatloaf to do the trick. And if you are hoping for it to work and it doesn't, there's always Engagement Chicken to try!


P.S. I'm really hoping Kris makes it through tonight! I'm crossing my fingers for a Kris & Adam finale!

Live Long & Prosper

Star Trek
As promised here's are my thoughts and my review of the new Star Trek movie. First have no fear, I am not going to reveal my hidden Trekkie past, after all if I was a real fan I would be referring to myself as a Trekker, but that's besides the point. I will admit that this is not the first time I've watched anything Star Trek. Growing up I did used to watch Star Trek Voyager with my mom. Which I like maybe because of the female captain. I have seen a Star Trek movie, it was First Contact which if you've never seen any other Star Trek movies and want to watch one this is the one I would recommend. I think i might have also seen Generations but I'm not sure if I've seen the whole thing.

So that introduction was basically telling you any type of Trek film I've seen did not feature the original cast. Which means I know nothing except for the basic plot lines that everybody else knows, aka "Beam Me Up Scotty." Which means without any background I really enjoyed the movie! First Chris Pine as Captain Kirk was hot, so how could that not be enjoyable. The plot was easy to follow, in general. It had good action, it had good drama, overall not a lot of criticisms.

There was main thing watching the movie did remind me of, and I'm pretty sure no one else cares except for anyone who had my 4th grade teacher. Mr. Kanser was a big Star Trek fan. So much that our class quiet sign was the live long and prosper Vulcan sign. The only reason I can do the sign is so I could hold up my quiet sign in 4th grade. I mean along with the rest of the girls in my class we used to draw pictures of hands in that sign and hold them up to get the boys quiet. But thanks for putting up with that bit of reminiscing.

I will also so I do my best to avoid posting any sort of spoilers in my reviews. But I will let you know I'm about to post at least a small one, so you've been warned....

I don't really agree with the way the portrayed the time travel in the book. Not that I, or anyone else has any idea how time travel works. But I don't think you can change time. If you were to go back and attempt to change time, well it already happened. It's like you were destined to go back and do that thing so times go on the same. Like a big circle.

I do get that the only way you could actually change the past is if there were parallel universes involved, which is what the movie does. But the idea of parallel universes is just so abstract to me (and everyone else) that its hard to image. I will say that by creating a new parallel Star Trek universe it really freed them up. Now if they make any sequel to this movie (which they probably will considering its looking to be the highest grossing Star Trek film ever) they don't have to worry about contradicting anything that happened in the original series.

Now that I've written my longest movie review ever I will say go see the movie! Even if you're not a Star Trek fan and have made a point to avoid it before. This is the one to see!

~Shoshanah

P.S. There is far to much t.v. on tonight that I want to watch. It's looking like I'll be flipping back and forth a lot. This is why I need a tivo. We have:
Top 3 on American Idol
3 hour season finale of The Biggest Loser (I REALLY want Tara to win!)
New episode of 18 Kids & Counting
Reunion show of Real Housewives of NYC

I can't wait!

Lemonade Means Summer?

Yes, I am posting a little late today. And yes, I promise to explain, tomorrow perhaps. I am keeping you in suspense. Yes, I saw Star Trek this weekend. And yes, I will post my review. Again, suspense. So what will I be posting?

Cyndi at Just An Everyday Bitch sent me an Awesome Lemonade award!


Of course, I'm immediately start thinking about how lemonade is a sure sign that summer is almost here, my first summer that I don't have off from school. But that isn't quite the point. So here I am listing 7 awesome things about myself:

1. I built a shelf for the apartment for the weekend, completely on my own.
2. I actually started attempting to decorate the apartment of the weekend.
3. I went to both Japan and Israel last year.
4. At the end of the summer I will have officially held my first full-time job for 1 year.
5. I earned a M.S. in Mathematics almost exactly 1 year ago.
6. Two years before that I went to Preakness (aka the second of the triple crown horse races)
7. Also two years before that (aka 3 years ago) I graduated from college with a B.A. in Mathematics & Chemistry.

And now I'll send out a few pieces of awesome-ness myself.

1. Amanda at One Happy Panda
2. Erin at Cardigans and Kisses
3. Jennifer at Crazy Shenanigans
4. Lora at Honey Nut Lo
5. Melissa at New Girl on the Post
6. Mrs. Ruby at Ruby Red Slippers
7. Sara at Sara in Israel

Again, thanks for the award! And even more thanks for coming back and reading! And thanks for all your comments! I love reading them!

And I promise an actual (on-time) post tomorrow!

~Shoshanah

Lemongrass Coconut Chicken

Kashi's Lemongrass Coconut Chicken
Yes, this is a little late, but better late than never right? So to start off with, here's the official Kashi description taken off their website.

"Chicken with broccoli florets, carrots, and sugar snap peas are all served over our Kashi Seven Whole Grains and Sesame® with red quinoa pilaf. It’s then topped with a lemongrass coconut sauce and coconut flakes."

First off, I'm not a big broccoli fan, I'm just not found of the taste. I did my best to pick out the pieces of broccoli when it was still half frozen. But since they were such small pieces you can tell I missed a few pieces.

Now the good part. I love the lemongrass coconut sauce! Its honestly one of my favorite flavors. I used to even buy a coconut lemongrass soup until I stopped being able to find them. So basically its one of my favorite flavors. The chicken was in good condition. That's really my only overall complaint about the Kashi products, that sometimes the chicken is a little fatty. But this time it wasn't. The other vegetables, besides the broccoli, were really good. I think I say last week I really like sugar snap peas. I can be picky about carrots, but these were cooked perfectly.

Overall, I would say this could have potential to be a favorite, except for the broccoli, which unfortunately keeps it at the bottom of the list for me. But, if you like broccoli you should love this!

~Shoshanah

Down by the WHAT

When you move halfway across the country there are things you expect yo be different. Maybe the food, the people, the slang, the manners. But there are somethings that you never would expected to be different depending on what state you were living in.

When I was growing up in California, we used to play a hand clapping game. Maybe you'll recognize it. We all would sit in a circle with our right hand on top of the girl sitting next to us and our left hand under the girl sitting on your left. We'd say a rhyme and pass the clap with each word. Of course if you were the last person hit you would be out. You'd keep playing and playing until you had a winner. And what did we call this game. It was, "Down By the Banks." Sound familiar? Just in case here's the rhyme we all used to say when I was growing up.

Down by the banks of the hanky-panky
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky
Where the epps, opps, soda pops
Hey Mr. Lily and he went kerplop
With a cherry on top
Kerplop

My first two summers in Louisiana I spent as a camp counselor. On one of the first days there, one of the girls wanted to play, "Down By the Riverside." Turns out its the same thing as "Down by the Banks." I'm guess because we're close to the Mississippi River, they say riverside? Either way I didn't think it would be a problem, I would just substitute river for banks and be set. Of course it was that easy. Here's the version of "Down By the Riverside," I was taught.

Down by the riverside hanky pank
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank
Where the a, e, i, o, u
Beetlejuice
I pledge allegiance to the flag
Michael Jackson is so bad
Coca-Cola burned his butt
Now he's drinking 7-Up
7-Up has no caffeine
Now he's drinking gasoline
Gasoline is made for cars
Now he's munching candy bars
Candy bars have too much fat
Now he drives a Cadillac
Cadillac's are out of style
Now you have to walk a mile

Not quite the same right? Now maybe its not just a regional thing. It could be a generational issue. For all I know little girls in California are singing about Michael Jackson now. So I'm wondering, do you remember playing,"Down by the Banks," or "Down by the Riverside," or "Down by the some other type of water," when you were growing up? Are either of these versions what you used to use? Or did you play a different game all together?

~Shoshanah

Pasta! Pasta!

The first year I was living in Louisiana ALL I cooked was pasta. Granted it was my first time not living at home AND not having access to my college dinner hall. I loved pasta so I would cook pasta ALL THE TIME. I would literally boil the noodles on Sunday and heat up bottled sauce. The I would eat leftovers Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. (Of course then I would change it up for my Frozen Thursday.)

After a while I did start getting creative and adding whatever I had in the apartment into the jarred pasta sauce, which is normally Classico brand sauce. Which normally comprises of adding capers and olives. Here's a look at my recent creation using Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic Sauce.


I love Pasta
After about a year of eating this way I started to get tired of only making pasta, and pretty much started cooking it all together. I do occasionally make pasta still, but don't want to eat the same thing ALL week long, which posses a problem. What to do with the leftovers?

Now that I'm living with the boy, the leftover noodles aren't a problem itself. The problem really is the leftover sauce since the boy doesn't eat most tomato based sauces (he'll normally have his with pesto or Alfredo). So I've come up with creative ways to use up the sauce.

The first is really just an egg fried on top of tomato sauce. I do still add the capers and olives, and normally a little graded parmesan cheese as its frying. As simple as it seems I actually found this in a cookbook. It was published by the magazine Real Simple in a section called "No-Shop Meals." It's a great cookbook with sections on "No-Cook Meals" and "Shortcut" meals among others.


You can't tell, but this egg actually had a double yolk!
A few months after first making this dish I went to Israel. Turns out they have something similar that is pretty mainstream. They call it Shakshouka there, and while they normally use actual tomatoes instead of tomato sauce it winds up being almost the same.


Shakshouka in Jaffa, Israel
Of course the other option I have to change up leftovers a bit is also from the same Real Simple cookbook, in the same "no-shop meals" section. They called this one "Crisped Leftover Pasta," which is really just fried pasta. Of course its fried along with the sauce (and if you're me capers and olives). And actually is what I'm planning on making for dinner tonight!

So I'm curious what creative solutions you have to use up your leftovers? Do you have any good "No-Shop Meals"?

~Shoshanah

P.S. I'm thinking it will be Kris or Danny going home on AI tonight. I'm hoping its Danny over Kris, but I guess we'll have to wait and see!

P.P.P. Daily Goods is giving away a bunch of Indian spice mixes!

Mommy Blogging

One Sunday when I gave my review of Rattled, I mentioned that Storked! was the first blog I started reading. But I didn't quite explain how I went from reading to to writing my own, so I figured a little explanation was necessary.

Most of the blogs I started reading after Chrissy's were due to her recommendations. There was Matt, Liz, and Madeline, which is the blog of Matt whose wife Liz gave birth to their daughter Madeline and died the next time. It's really a record of how he's survived this year, and almost a time capsule for Madeline to remember her mother when she's older.

Chrissy also lead me to the blogs at Babble. I read most of the blog there, but some of my favorites there are Baby Squared written by a mother raising twins (feeding into my multiple birth fascination) and Love is Blind written by a mother raising her blind toddler.

I also started reading the personal site of one of the Babble bloggers, Rebecca Woolf at Girl's Gone Child. Rebecca, like Chrissy wound up having an unexpected pregnancy in her early 20s. Almost four years later she's now raising two children (Archer and Fable, pretty much the best names ever) in Los Angeles.

Yes, you might have noticed these are all so-called "Mommy Blogs". Considering I stumbled onto them through Chrissy, who is a mother herself, it made sense that this was what she was recommending. And even though I'm not currently a mother, a small part of me wants to be. Of course the rational thinking part knows that this will still be a few years away, but by reading mommy blogs I'm still able to have my baby fix.

Also since I was really only reading mommy blogs, I couldn't see myself writing anything but a Mommy Blog. If you look at my back entries you'll see I did start this blog back in 2007 (when I started reading blogs), but was rarely if ever writing in it. It was watching a Momversation episode that changed my mind.

I started watching Momversation since Rebacca posted episodes she was interview in on Girl's Gone Child. The episode that changed my mind was about what a blogger will choose to write about. Also on that episode was Heather Armstrong of dooce.com. I had heard of dooce (if you're blogging, who hasn't?), but hasn't taken the time to really go to her site. Heather said in that video that she had been blogging since before she had children and before her marriage, back when she was a single girl living in Los Angeles. I figured if she could blog about her un-married, un-child life than I could too! Hence, From L.A. to LA was born, before that I was just calling it, Shoshanah's Blog, not too original. And if you're curious to go back and read my first few "real" entries. They start on December 20, 2008

Now that I've shared my story, I want to hear yours! What made you start blogging? I'm sure there's a wide range of inspirations out there!

~Shoshanah

Ghosts of Wolverine

Yes, I am sure you are all chuckles about my title. Combining the two movies into one phrase. Just be happy I didn't see Battle for Terra too (not that there's really anyone out there who did).

Wolverine
I know you're expecting this to be the boy's pick, but no. Although it wasn't mine either. We have a pact that we'll go see blockbuster movies and that they don't count as anyone's pick. It's really the only fair way to do it, since we both want to see most of the blockbusters that come out.

Unfortunatly, while I can agree that this was a blockbuster, I still wouldn't have picked it on my own. When the very first X-men movie came out I did want to see it, but never did. Then when the sequels came out I never saw them since I hadn't seen the first. Luckily for me, this was actually a prequel so I wasn't missing any major plot points. I did of course wind up confused at some points, but over all managed to figure it out. Really, I wasn't expecting such a sad ending. I'm sure if you've seen the X-men movies parts of the end wouldn't be such a shock, but to me it was. Also if you are going, be sure to stay till the very end of the credits!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
This was of course my pick. Overall a nice, cheesy romantic comedy. It had its tender moments and it had its funny moments, but wasn't overly memorable. You all no where the story's from and it really didn't deviate to far from there.

In terms of the acting I do like Jennifer Garner and Matthew Mcconaughey, but the real actress I wanted to see in this was Lacey Chabert. She is probably one of my all time favorite actress from back in the day when she was on Party of Five (still my favorite TV show). I thought she did really great as the bride in the movie. Definitely the highlight for me. A bit of a side note, during the movie the boy wanted to know what else Lacey had been in. I started listed them out, "Party of Five, Not Another Teen Movie,Mean Girls,..." Finally I said, "Lost in Space." Sure enough that was what he recognized her from. Seriously? Out of everything she's been in you only recognize her from Lost in Space? (And did I mention Lacey is also from Louisiana?)

Anyways I did enjoy both of the movies. (You might have noticed by now a movie has to be REALLY bad for me not to enjoy it.) But as much as this may surprise you, if I were telling you to pick between the two, I'd say go with Wolverine.

~Shoshanah

Rattled

I just came in from laying out at the pool. Except that it was cold and windy, and after 10 minutes or so I cam inside. So no I am here. And I figured I would tell you about what I finished reading by on the pool on a much warmer day.

Rattled by Christine Coppa
This is the book written by the author of the Glamour blog Storked, which was actually the first blog I ever started reading. I saw a blurb about in a Glamour magazine probably June '07, and thought it sounded interesting and started reading. Through her recommendations I stumbled unto more and more blogs, and then eventually decided to start my own. So its fitting I'm writing about the author who really got me into blogging.

Before I get into my feelings about her book and blog, a basic outline might be nice for anyone not familiar with it. Christine Coppa (turns out I've always pronounced her name wrong!) is living the sex and the city life in New York City. And winds up getting pregnant. She decides to have and raise the baby (even when the father decides not to). And its about what happens when you're 26 and life throws you a turn you weren't quite expecting.

First let me say I love Chrissy's blog (Yes I feel like I am on a first name basis with her. Clearly I am not really, but we are Myspace friends!). So I knew I would like her book. But I didn't realize just how much!

Since I have started reading her from the start (and even went back and read her back entries), I didn't really want to read a rehashing of her blog. I have read books by bloggers who do that, and it do still enjoy the book. But Rattled didn't just recycle old material. Yes, there was some information that I was familiar with, but far more information that was new to me. Its funny because you read a blog and you feel like you know someone, but you really only see a small part of their life. A fun little fact for readers of Storked, on the blog Chrissy always calls her son JD, but in the book she reveals she never calls him that, she only uses her first name Jack. And its not just small details that are different than the blog. It actually feels like a story, and its impossible not to relate even if you haven't been in that exact same situation.

She does talk a little about how hard it is writing such a well known blog and all the backlash she gets. Which I understand (not from here, I've luckily had nothing but positive comments), but just by reading her blog. It seems like her fights are always breaking out in her comments, so much that most the time I won't post just not to get involved. But this made me feel that I should comment more, so that she (and everyone else blogging really) knows that I do appreciate and enjoy what she writes. Hopefully, she'll continue to write for a while, but if not at least I have her book. I encourage you to read it! And stop by Storked if you haven't before!

~Shoshanah

Punk Rock Prom Queen

I know I don't normally post on Saturdays, but I was tagged by Amber to post my prom picture and couldn't wait! Of course it has turned into an ordeal since I didn't have any prom pictures saved on my computer and since my reformat I no longer had my scanner drivers on my computer. But thiry minutes later, here we go!

Official rules:
1. Upload your prom picture. If you don't have one, email your mom and have her send it to you.
2. Don't forget to include the year it was taken. Again, don't be shy. The older the better.
3. Grab the "Prom Queen" button on Jill's sidebar and add it to your post.
4. Copy and Paste the rules to your blog
5. Tag 5 others!

This is our officially picture. In case you can't read the picture it was May 26, 2002. Most of my group of friends went to prom without a date, Myself included. So we were all each others' date. We all went to Macaroni Grill before hand and then headed over in our chauffeured car together. And yes, two of my friends are wearing the same dress. We went to the outlets to shop and that red dress was on sell for around $20. They both bought the dress, but one of them wasn't planning on wearing it to prom. She was planning on having her mom make her actual dress, but those plans fell through. I on the other hand heard her mom was planning on making her dress, so decided to have my mom make my dress.


Here we are not too long after arriving. As you can tell we were a little early. We had prom at the Gene Autry Western Museum.

Which meant I got to take fun pictures like this one in the Wild Wild West! You can't actually tell by I am sitting on a saddle. The dress kind of took it over. They also had a stagecoach I wanted to take a picture in, but every time I went by it, they was a couple "occupying" it.

One final picture clearly from the end of the night. As you can tell by the nice shine on my face I had spent most of the night on the dance floor. I had a lot of fun at prom, and can't believe it was 7 years ago! Crazy how time flies by like that!

Now I'm supposed to tag 5 people, but this was so much fun, I want to see every one's pictures! I can't wait to see them all!

~Shoshanah