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