Ways to Anger a Drive-Thru Customer...

I drive a lot. The result of which means that I drive thru a lot. I love places that have trash cans in their drive thrus (but why are they always after the window?). I am SERIOUSLY annoyed by places that have FULL trash cans in their drive thrus. Seriously people!

Where there is smoke...

There are cupcakes?


Allow me to explain...

As is a fairly regular occurrence for me, I baked cupcakes for work last night. I started the oven to preheat and turned my back from the oven to create the batter. (It's really tough: open box, dump contents into bowl, add 1 cup of water, 1/3 cup oil, and 3 eggs, beat).

When I turned around to grab the cupcake pans, I gasped and yelled for the hubby. Why you ask? Because smoke was pouring out of the oven and filling the kitchen and dining room.

I quickly shut off the oven and then opened it, expecting to find something burning. Nope, no flames, just more smoke.

This is about the time that the hubby confesses that it's probably the drippings burning from the last time he broiled something. He used the cookie sheet without edges rather than the broil pan, so everything ran off the edges.

We then attempted to let the oven self clean (which I've never done before) and apparently the fact that it smoked even more and had to be stopped was to be expected.

I ended up taking my batter over to my aunt's and using her double oven. Now I just need to clean the oven....yuck!

(Note: Further proof that we share a brain, Queen B has the original post with this name.)

Breakfast of Champions

On Saturday, the hubby and I went to IHOP for breakfast. Guess who had what:

A) eggs, hash browns, and sausage
B) orange juice
C) wheat toast, dry
D) omelet (egg beaters) with ham, peppers and onions, and salsa
E) chocolate milk
F) chocolate chip pancakes

Some clues: Both of us are on meds for various diet/health conditions. Only one of us is actually eating the diet to match the meds. :)

Happy Graduation Nicole!

In lieu of making us all sit in the sun baking to watch my sister walk across the stage in a group of hundreds of people earning their Sociology degrees from Cal State Fullerton this year, my sister opted to go to the Angels vs. Dodgers game yesterday.

My sister is a Dodgers fan. The rest of the family are Angels fans. My sister and uncle made a bet - whichever team lost, the corresponding fan of that team would have to put the logo of the winning team on their car/truck. The Dodgers won, so my sister is now searching for the largest sticker ever made to slap on my uncle's truck (sorry KT).

Nothing like car photography...

Or stadium photography courtesy of Mr. Pearl:

The woman on the left is the reason that I contemplated ripping off my ears several times during the game:

She spent the ENTIRE game gossiping about other people gossiping and causing drama. She seriously did not shut up. In fact, the girl in the middle was one of the women she spent the first half of the game talking crap about (they were in a group of 6 and the lady in the middle had been at the opposite end of the group).

And possibly the biggest rip-off on the planet:

A 5x7 print is $10.99 and one of the more curious items offered is a 13x16 Frame with 24KT Gold Overlay Team Coin & Minted Bronze Coin with Field Dirt for $149.99.

The hubby was happy to partake in their faux Dippin' Dots:

When attending baseball games, I tend to spend the majority of my time eating stadium food, yesterday was my typical food fest: hot dog, peanuts, licorice rope, faux dippin dots, portion of pretzel, and several bottles of water (and yes, I'm aware that Anaheim Stadium should be shut down by the health board - I figured if Queen B could survive eating in Mexico for 8 days, I could survive a buffet at the rat infested stadium).

The most memorable part of the day was in the parking lot when we were leaving. There were two particular vehicles of complete idiots. The first was a Toyota Tundra that cut off the hubby and almost took off the front bumper of my precious Pilot. The hubby had to flip into reverse to avoid the scraping of paint. After this occurred, we were sandwiched in next to the passenger side window of the Tundra allowing my aunt and the passenger to exchange words. :)

Then there was this idiot:

The self-proclaimed bandwagon jumper a la his bumper sticker (sorry again KT), was a complete jerk (and believed to be heavily intoxicated). When pulling out of his parking spot to force his way into the line of cars exiting, he scraped the rear fender/bumper of another truck. The Avalanche Idiot then proceeded to stop his truck in the middle of the lane to get out and exchange words with the owner of the other truck. The hubby honked his horn to motion for the AI to pull back into the spot he had just vacated so that we could pass. AI flipped hubby off and told him to drive around. This resulted in the hubby making a maneuver that could have easily scraped paint off of AI's other bumper and my aunt exchanging a few words with AI.

Things I learned yesterday:
-Sitting at a baseball game is not much better than sitting at a graduation ceremony when it's 100 degrees outside (even if you are in the shade).
-Baseball games are great for people watching and blog material.
-My stomach can still handle food fests :)
-My aunt should probably be forced to sit in the back seat behind dark tinted windows on our next outing that will undoubtedly involve idiots

My Mom went to Hawaii...

...but I went to Kahunaville! It's at Treasure Island in Vegas. It's a "Party Bar" and totally fun. We just ordered appetizers and this is the sampler platter:

Science Lesson of the Day

I showed called the hubby over to my laptop to show him the picture of the twin yolks that Jane discovered.

That led us to a debate that is perfectly illustrated by this.

Who knew?

Another Saucy Policy

Seriously, what is this world coming to? Let me enjoy my BBQ sauce! I thought this was exclusive to McD's but apparently it's spreading. And I want my extra sauce for 10 cents please! Doesn't the lower price always prevail?

Birthday Extravaganza - Sunday

I've been having quite the celebratory extravaganza for my 27th birthday. Sunday night was dinner at The Melting Pot with the family. We sit down with our rather rambunctious party of 8 and my Uncle begins to heckle the server. My sister and I at the other end of the table immediately think that we both know her from somewhere. We think high school, but that doesn't seem quite right.

Dinner progresses and we still can't quite figure it out. The server mentions she's been married about a year. My mother and in-laws are deep in conversation naming our as-yet-unconceived children (father-in-law wants a granddaughter and mother wants a grandson). They are throwing around both girl and boy names and are trying to come up with "cool" initials (i.e. I'm JAK). They ask the server her initials - DLS, for Dustin Leigh.

BINGO! How many girls are named Dustin in California? (One of you nutty HCBC girls will Google that, so I'll just continue). I instantly know that she's one of the "Beauty Queens" aka "Blondies" from the Amazing Race. I tell the fam when she runs off for our next course and then make my father-in-law confirm that she is in fact who I think she is.

The family then hits her up with a bunch of questions and I request a picture with her - hey, it WAS my "birthday"! About this time I've texted the Champ and Rach (huge Amazing Race fans - sorry Jane, I didn't have your cell until today), and Kim of course replies that I must get a picture for the blog...here you go:


And thus, this is why we need to go back to The Melting Pot in Brea on the last Tuesday of the month for Girls Night Out. That way we can stalk poor Dustin and make her an honorary member of the HCBC!

BTW - while I am not a small girl, Dustin is itty bitty of Rachel proportions.

Why my sister ROCKS!

Not a surprise that I'm addicted to chocolate covered fruit. Since I'm taking my birthday off of work (and going to Burke Williams!) my sister and hubby sent their "work gifts" to me on Friday.

My sister sent me this Edible Arrangement along with a box full of the chocolate covered bananas which are my absolute FAVORITES! YUMMY!

THANK YOU SISTOR!!!

I'm waiting for the flowers from the hubby to open all the way before I take a picture :)

It's gonna be a great month!

While at Panera Bread for my birthday lunch with my team on Friday, my number was 3!

Who thought this was a good idea?

Not-so-blonde Moment

While dining at Chili's last night with Pickle I made the revelation that my driver's license was MIA. I vaguely recalled having it in the back pocket of my jeans last Friday at the Kings game, but couldn't remember putting it back into my wallet, so I'd assumed it was there.

The problem was that no license = no adult beverages at Chili's. Now please keep in mind that I only get carded half of the time, and usually only at places that card everyone. Chili's is one of those places. I did have a photo copy of my license on the back of my gym card AND my license with my maiden name that had expired.

I offered both non-license, licenses to the server (who Pickle and I guessed to be 22) and who then apologized that she couldn't accept my non-licenses (or my wrinkles) as my proof of age, because she could get fired. Sigh...

I lieu of adult beverages we consumed replacement calories in the White Chocolate Molton Cake - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


BTW, license was later found in a random pocket in my purse. I'm a dork!

Dream Dinners Open House!

This Friday at the Anaheim Hills location. Details can be found here.

Kat, Jinjer, and anyone else...let me know if you want to go and I'll go make a few extra meals with you. I know that Rachel will be making an appearance...

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Nothing is better than an edible arrangement!!

Hey Bunny - the ladies in the office would like to request that you send me another one of these suckers for my birthday - LOVE the white chocolate covered bananas!

Dream Dinners Update

The hubby and I had the Cider Braised Pork Chops - TASTY! Of course I forgot to take a picture...I'll work on that!

For more on Dream Dinners, visit Kim's blog.

Dream Dinners

If you've never done this, you should!!! It's a little overwhelming at first (and you could be an idiot like me and make a different beef meal than the one you ordered) but it's totally awesome!!!! I've wanted to do this ever since Kim blogged about it and finally got to go!

I went tonight with Rach and she showed me the ropes - thanks Rach! It was totally fun and we've already booked our next visit in March.

Reasons I LOVED it:
-I prepped 12 dinners in a little over an hour
-I didn't have to spend any time in a grocery store
-Everything was ready and waiting for me
-I didn't have to clean up ANYTHING
-They packed my cooler for me and then carried it out to the car
-I got a free meal when signing up for a March session tonight
-All of the choices were things that I'd never make because I'd never have all of the ingredients
-It doesn't really cost much more than if I were to make something similar myself

Reasons I didn't love it:
-The stupid lady that took FOREVER at the last station I needed. I tried really hard to take a discreet photo of her but I didn't want to be kicked out after I'd already made a meal I didn't order. (Thankfully they were really nice about the meal and just let me keep that one. The one I'd originally ordered didn't really seem that appetizing anymore anyhow). She took up the entire counter space that was intended for three separate stations and moved really slowly. I hung out with Rach while she made 2 different meals and FINALLY the lady finished.

Note of caution: Those that are really picky eaters (or have spouses that are - sorry Kat!) might not find too many things that are plain enough. I consider myself fairly picky though (no seafood and not too many veggies) but I found that almost all of the meals sounded appetizing. If there's something you hate in a recipe, you can always leave it out.

TINSTAAFL or TINSTAAFB?

TINSTAAFL = There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (in this case I'm going with Breakfast) There's my educational Economics reference for you. :)

Yesterday was my sister's last day working for "the mouse". Since graduating from high school 5 1/2 years ago she's worked in one of "the mouse's" restaurants in one capacity or the other. She was only at her last restaurant for about a year and thus I hadn't managed to visit her there while she was working because she only worked during breakfast hours.

I told her that the hubby and I would be coming for breakfast on her last day. I then secretly coordinated to have my mom, aunt, uncle, and uncle's parents join us. When I called my sister for specific directions she refused. After a little "flexing of the muscles" the hubby got the directions.



My sister stuck us in the back corner because we tend to create a ruckus when we're all out together (the mimosas may have had something to do with that). Her boyfriend, Alfonso, was our server (poor guy) and the back of my head aka scar and "boy hair" were the main attraction for everyone that worked there. They were nice enough to take a group picture of us and that server in the background is Alfonso!

Then came the favorite part of any meal with my family - the bill came. Regardless of where we are or who paid last, my mom and aunt (and any other working adults present) fight over who gets to pay the bill. Money gets thrown around and there is a tug of war over the little black bill holder. The debate raged for a good 5 minutes before my sister came over to our table and asked if any of us had bothered to actually look at the bill. My mom opened the bill holder thingy and saw this:



Guess she wasn't going to earn very many Southwest Miles on this bill!

YUMMY!

I love carrot cake, Hostess cupcakes, and 100 calorie packs, so I figured these were worth a try.

I give them 4 out of 5 stars. They were tasty, moist, flavorful, and satisfying.

However, they are smaller than they look on the box. They are literally bite size, but I was able to resist the urge to open up a second pack, so I suppose they did their job.

They are also "lighter" than traditional carrot cake and cream cheese frosting which I liked.

Cupcakes

Proof that I can bake...68 cupcakes...now I just have to frost them...oh boy...

The people at work better appreciate this!