Our Run in With the Cops

On our jog today, yes we have been working out regularly for the past week and a half. Its a post-college post-soccer record for me. We had just run a spring up the hill we use and we walking back around to sprint a few more. Of course doing so we walk by a parked police car. As we walk by he slowly rolls down his window, "You know its over 100 degrees outside right?"

The boy responds, "Yes, and she wants you to arrest me for torture." Unfortunately, the officer did not agree and I was forced to sprint up the hill several more times.

And to counteract all my hard work, my dinner has just arrived. We ordered pizza from Papa Johns. Papa Johns because Pizza Hut will not deliver to our apartment and the boy does not like Dominos pizza. We used the 3 medium pizza for $7 and now have a peperoni pizza for him, a half peperoni half cheese pizza for us to split, and a chicken, olives, and green peppers pizza for me. Although I won't be eating my whole pizza tonight. I guess I have lunch for the rest of the week!

~Shoshanah

Cupcake Scented Air Freshener

When the boy and I moved into our apartment together we never really divided up the chores. We more of did what felt naturally. Which means there are some things we both do separately, somethings we do together, and some things one specific person does.

To start with we will both do general tidying up around the apartment, but at different times. Not only at different times, but we clean up differently as well. When I clean I do something small a few times a week. Say clean the stove or counters in the kitchen or vacuum part of the carpet. The boy on the other hand will clean less often, but when he does will get inspired and clean the entire living room at once.

Laundry is something we do together. I don't want to do this on my own mainly because it would take me several trips to bring everything to the laundry room. And there is the fact that I have to carry the clothes next to the pool to get to the laundry room. I'm always afraid I'm going to drop something in. Which is why I make sure he is here when I want to do laundry. However, its hard for him to do a load of laundry on his own because he isn't normally in the apartment for long stretches of time.

The dishes are a chore I have claimed on my own. Partly because he doesn't seem to remember to put his dishes in the dishwasher. And there is the fact that he doesn't load the dishes the "right" way. So whenever I put things in I will normally rearrange the dishes to maximize space. Since we have a big dishwasher and its just the two of us we normally only run the dishwasher once a week. I normally time it so I'll unload the dishes Saturday or Sunday morning while I'm making me coffee.

Taking the trash out is something I refuse to do, which means it has become the Boy's responsibility. There is the fact that trash bags and heavy, and the dumpster is on the complete other side of our apartment complex. Which means the Boy either has to carry the bag ridiculously far, or put the trash bag in his car and drop it off on his way out. This has some interesting consequences.

A few months ago the Boy picked me up at work for lunch. I got into his car and noticed an interesting smell, "Does it smell like cupcakes to you?"
"Yes it does! And I've searched the car and can't find anything in it."

Almost I week later I walked by his car and noticed a bag of trash in the back. A bag of trash that he been in his car for a week. A bag of trash the contained some imitation Easter peeps candy I had thrown out because they weren't very good. So the cupcake smell wasn't actually cupcakes, instead it was melted peeps. Even now, several months later, whenever he uses the air conditioning in his car you get a nice whiff of cupcakes.

~Shoshanah

Let Me See Your Funky Chicken

I'm not a big hamburger person. Actually let me correct that, I'm not a big fast food hamburger person. At a bbq I would prefer a hamburger over a hot dog, and every once in a while I will crave a restaurant burger. But a burger from a fast food place? Not going to happen. (Unless of course its an In-N-Out Burger, but does that really count as fast food?)

This creates the question what do I eat when I get fast food. I would love to be able to say I am healthy and never give in to the temptation but let's be realistic here. At any fast food restaurant I will always order the chicken nuggets. Or the chicken fries at Burger King. Or chicken selects at McDonald's. Either way, you get the picture.

This is the main reason why I love fast food restaurants that specialize in chicken. For example, Chick-Fil-A, which I say as its spelled Chick-Fil-A. You can't tell me that's isn't more fun than just saying Chick-fillet. Boring. But since I can't have Chick-fil-a all the time, especially not if its a Sunday, I have Raising Canes!

Raising Cane's is a chicken based fast food restaurant that was originally founded in Baton Rouge. Which means there's probably 15 or so in this city alone. I know they are slowly expanded, but I'm not sure what states they've made it to. I believe I heard something about Florida and Texas. Anyone want to deny or confirm? But what exactly are you getting at a Raising Canes?


Raising Cane's 3 Finger Combo
To start with each of their meals come with a piece of Texas Toast (after all it is taking up almost the whole picture). I can't say I ever had a lot of Texas Toast before moving to Louisiana, but I love it now. You can't really tell because of the toast, but this is a 3 finger meal, aka 3 chicken fingers. I normally get the 4-finger meal otherwise known as the "Box Combo" but I wasn't particularly hungry this day. The Box Combo also comes with coleslaw, which isn't bad, but I'll normally exchange if for an extra piece of toast. Of course like all fast food restaurants it comes with fries. Honestly, their fries aren't that good either. However their chicken is awesome. Definitely the best fast food chicken I've had.

You can also see in the picture the Cane's sauce. I think its a combination of ketchup and mayonnaise of some sort. I'm not really sure. I'm not a big sauce person so I don't normally eat mine. Of course people who are big sauce people love this stuff. On their menu they actually list out the price for a drink cup filled with the sauce. Not really sure why you'd need that much.

Speaking of drinks I normally get their fresh made lemonade. They also make a sweet tea, but I still haven't developed a taste for it yet. You can also buy large jugs of either the lemonade or the tea so you can drink it all the time.

There is one thing I like about Raising Cane's that doesn't necessarily have to do with the food. They're similar to In-N-Out in that they seem t o treat their employees well. They are closed almost every holiday and always have a sign up saying they are closed for the crew. And I don't mean just big holidays. I mean they are closed for 4th of Jule, Father's Day, Mother's day and not just for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If I had to pick my favorite fast food restaurant in Louisiana I'm pretty sure Raising Cane's might be it. Yes, I do love Taco Bell, but even Taco Bell tastes different outside of California. Have you ever heard of our tried Raising Cane's? Any thoughts? Or do you have a favorite fast food restaurant?

~Shoshanah

Ice Enemies

Or if you'd prefer "Public Age." Not quite the best weekend to play with the titles, and maybe even not quite the best movie weekend.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
I love 3-D movies, and will see almost everyone in the theaters. Ok, maybe I won't go see G-Force, but when Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and A Christmas Carol come out I will be there! Like most of the 3-D movies you really only notice the effect at the start and at the end. At the start because its new and exciting. And during t he credits because the 3-D is made to look way overdone. During the actual movie they want you to pay more attention to the story than the effects. But if you ever stop throughout the movie and actually pay attention to what you're looking at it looks awesome. For example, the fur on the woolly mammoths looks crazy good.

But moving past the effects to the actual movie. This was actually the first Ice Age film I've seen, but I don't feel like I was missing anything. It wasn't like there was a huge back story that I was missing. Overall though, I thought the movie was only ok. According to the boy the first was a lot better. It was fun, but I thought it seemed really long. And I'm sure if I thought it seemed long it must have seen even longer for the kids. Really though, the only reason I'd recommend seeing this is for the 3-D effects. Although if you haven't seen a 3-D movie yet, there are better ones out there.

Public Enemies
After the movie the boy said he was hoping for more action scenes. After the movie I was hoping for less gore. I guess that's where the went, right down the middle of the road in an attempt to not turn people off of the movie. I'm not normally big on these type of gangster movies, however I am big on historical movies. So I guess that made it a good compromise.

But if I'm being honest, the real reason I wanted to see this. Of course its because of Johnny Depp! I mean look at the poster. And Christian Bale's also in the movie if your partial to him. I did like this movie, but I think you might be better off waiting till its comes out on dvd.

So my thoughts if you want to go see a movie soon. I'd say avoid these two. If you're looking for an action movie, instead of Public Enemies go see Transformers. And if you're looking for a 3-D animated film instead of Ice Age go see Up. I hope this was at least a little bit helpful as always, and I hope everybody had a happy 4th of July!

~Shoshanah

Channa Masala

Sukhi's Channa Masala

In case you're wondering exactly what channa masala, we have taken directly from the box, "Vegan Garbanzo Beans in a Sweet & Sour Sauce." Yes this is once again one of the Sukhi products. I'm pretty sure I'm gone through most of them by now!

Again my favorite part of this was the naan. Like last time I microwaved the meal, and warmed the naan up in the oven. I think I could have left the naan in the oven a tiny bit longer this time.

The actual main dish could have probably been in the microwave a tiny bit less. (If you look closely in the picture you can kind of tell on the edges.) It was still really good though. I love garbanzo beans, and the sauce was good too. It didn't start out very spicy, but the more I ate the spicier it got.

There was actually two servings in the package which I'm not a fan of. In a prepackaged meal like this, are you really going to share it? I will say I started to feel full before I had finished. Of course I wasn't very hungry in the first place, but well I'd been looking forward to trying this one. Of course when I started getting full there wasn't really enough left to save. I could have always thrown the last little bit out, but that feels wasteful to me.

Overall it was good. However, I will say that if you want to try a Sukhi's product, this does not come anywhere near to their samosas. I would say start with those, even though they are more of a party appetizer. I guess if you're looking for an actual meal for yourself the channa masala might be the way to go though.

~Shoshanah

And Isn't It Ironic

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
This book is inspired by the Sarajevo Haggadah, which is a version of the Haggadah that was original written in the 1400s and the original still exists today. (In case you didn't know, a Haggadah is the Jewish prayer book used to lead a Passover Sedar.) One significant point is that the book includes illuminations, and while illuminations were common in Christian Bibles, they are very uncommon in Jewish texts. Very little is known about the history of this book and why it was illustrated and written. We do know it survived the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, that a Catholic priest saved the book from being burned with his signature in the 1600s, and that it made it through the Holocaust without being destroyed while in Sarajevo.

The book is a fictional tale surround fictional women who was given the job of restoring the book in the 1990s. As she inspects the book she finds several clues that might give a sign as to something in the books past. With every piece of evidence she finds the narration switches and we get to see what in history produced that stain or change to the book in the past. We then get to see a wide range of stories from a wide range of people, showing how each person left a mark on this book.

What I found interesting with each flashback was that it covered a period of time I knew little about. When I think of Sarajevo I always think of the aftermath of the cold war. But this books shows what it was like for Jews during the Holocaust in Sarajevo. While I have read I large number of books based during this time period, the was the first I've read focusing on Western European Jews. There is a chapter mentioning the Jews in Venice during the 1600s. Again this is a time period I enjoy reading about, but normally read books surrounding the Kings & Queens of England.

A second interesting aspect of this book is some of the science used during the restoration parts. It similar in a way to an episode of CSI, where they are able to take a single piece of evidence and piece together the whole crime.

I bet you're wondering about the title? As I've said the central plot line to People of the Book is book restoration. While I left my book in the car when I was working as normally. I sometimes read books on my lunch hour, and always like to have the one I'm reading handy. Well, the Louisiana heat and humidity was not kind to my book. It actually melted in the car! The glue that was holding all the pages to the cover just kind of disappeared. And everytime I tried to read more, the pages themselves unconnected. I will say that this book is currently in 9 separate pieces... or 10, one more section broke in half as I was counting. Since I borrowed this book from my mom, well, Sorry Mom! Maybe I can get the main character from the book to come and restore it for me?

~Shoshanah

Finally Getting Honest

Lacey at Perks of Being a JAP sent me a Honest Scrap Award. The funny thing is I was awarded this a few months ago from CeCe but never actually listed 10 honest things about. This time I'm sticking to the rules!

"The Honest Scrap award comes with a caveat or two. Firstly, you have to tell your readers ten things about you they may not know, but that are true. Secondly, you have to tag 10 people with the award. Thirdly, let all the people you've given the award to know that they've gotten it (comment on their blogs or something). And finally, make sure you link back to the person who awarded you."

1. I drink a lot of water through out the day. I'd say easily 6 or 7 glasses. If I had to pick anything to drink most times I will go with water. Even for breakfast.

2. When I was drinking all the water as I kid I would get a new glass every time, and leave them scattered around the house. Now that I do my own dishes, I kept the same glass and refill it multiple times. I guess its payback because at any given time the Boy had 5 or 6 glasses he's used around the apartment.

3. In first grade I wanted to be either an Astronaut or an Ice Cream Man. Way to have a wide range of expectations.

4. I like the idea of scrapbooking but never actually make the time to sit down and be creative.

5. In high school when they were filming The United States of Leland at my school (I've never seen it, but it does star Ryan Gosling.) my friend and I sneaked into to the closed off areas of the school and ate doughnuts from the craft services table.

6. I haven't tasted a drink of milk since 5th grade. And that last experience in 5th grade still traumatizes me.

7. I can't ride a bike. I've actually forgotten how to do it. Seriously.

8. When I was little I assumed I'd get married when I was 18 because I'd officially be an adult. Thankfully that didn't happen.

9. I always have my toilet paper come off from the top of the roll. And will actually change it if its not.

10. The first time I took my driver's test it started hailing in the middle. It was raining so hard that I couldn't see the lines on the street. I thankfully passed the second time.

And I'm awarding the Honest Scrap Award to the following bloggers! I'm trying to spread the love and send these along to blogs I've never tagged before. If you haven't been to any of these before, I suggest you check them out!

1. Baker Girl at An Extended Vacation
2. Emily at The Adventures of Little Miss Pissy
3. E-Money at Bros Before Hos
4. Erin at Cardigans and Kisses
5. Kim at Perfectly Cursed Life
6. Mallory Ann at Just A Preppy Beach Chic Girl
7. Meg at Southern Pathways
8. Mishi at The rest of my life so far
9. Suze at 30 Before 30 List
10. Rachel at Rachel's Pink Thoughts

~Shoshanah