"I'm headed out west with my headphones on"

Hoooo whirlwind weekend! Kicked it all off with Ed's birthday on Friday, the big 3-0. Cannot believe it... (Often I think about how in a few short months I will be 27, the same age my mom was when she had me - startling, to be sure) I jumped out of bed to get to work on my birthday morning surprise:

Breakfast pizza!!!! I knew when I found it here and here, that I just had to save the recipe for Ed's big day. He's pretty much in love with any kind of pizza so this was a winner. (Side note: Remember what I posted before about my horrific plating/making food look appetizing skills? Compare my photo to the photos of the other lovely pictures and it becomes all too clear exactly what I was talking about) Ed said he was ready to go back to bed after eating it :) Ed had to work most of the day, but around 3pm we took off for Yosemite.

It wasn't a short drive, but it sure was easy. We narrowly avoided rush hour, insert applicable Californians reference from SNL about driving in these parts, and made pretty good time.

Dad and Debbie knew this amazing hotel right on the river so we stayed there the first night. Grilled burgers and had celebratory cheesecake and champagne for Ed. Eating outside by the river was refreshing, even though four raccoons tried to come join the party, eventually herding us inside. Of course, as soon as we left they rolled around on the ground trying to be cute to get us to feed them. Little did they know we were all immune to this behavior because as we've learned from cats, they're reeeeal cute until they're jumping from the highest shelf right onto your face at 3am.

Saturday was our main event day, waking up early and heading straight into the park. Our first stop was the Tunnel View which was just stunning. It looks nothing like it does later in the day when the sun is full on and it's bright and too much in my opinion. In the morning, the sun comes through in shafts and falls on the cliffsides selectively, while the valley floor is still hazy and shadowed. The first thing I said was that it looked exactly like a Bob Ross painting. Ok maybe some of grander artist... damn, this is where that Art History class from UMCP would come in handy if I wasn't actively blocking out my UMCP memories at all times... shucks.

Next we headed over to Bridal Veil Falls... not much for falls, but just the size of everything is so unreal. Who needs waterfalls when you have massive towers of rock surrounding you completely. You feel like an ant! And for those of us with a touch of fear of heights, you feel pretty dizzy most of the time too.

Post falls, we made our way over to our big hike for the day, the trail up to Vernal Falls/Nevada Falls. Saw a really cool rock that had just cleaved right off... Side story, when I was a kid I used to have a recurring dream about a kindergarten class that was out at recess and there was a rock that looked like this one below - enormous - and that at one point a kid would hit it with a paper airplane. It would then come to life and slowly roll forward and crush all the children. I had that dream so many times... not sure I wanna know what it means!

The hike up was steep, but beautiful and shaded so even though you're working for it, it just feels so good to be out in the thick of it. We discussed bear safety - outrun at least one person in your group. Women's rights. Different kinds of hiking types - the slower 'pack mule' and the quick paced 'gazelle.' 

Then the hike sort of... changed. What was once a path through the woods turned a lot steeper, rockier and steppier...

We could see Vernal Falls ahead! But we could also see our doom one foot directly to our left. Dad started freezing up pretty quick, announcing to everyone repeatedly that this was VERY UNLIKABLE for him. My dad is not a fan of heights. :)

I myself started to freeze up at this picture above. I may not have a fear quite like my dads, but when I start thinking about it, I do not trust myself to be graceful and avoid accidentally tripping over the edge. Didn't help that we saw one dude taking a picture with his girlfriend and he literally stumbled in the direction of the edge saved by his girlfriend grabbing his shirt. So needless to say when we saw what the stairs looked like ahead, Dad and I said, yeah I think we're good here. Can you see where they lead? It's really difficult to see, but there are steps that continue past where the railing ends against the cliffside leading all the way up to:

Vernal Falls! The path would've taken us up the right hand side and up the the top of the falls. There's a railing up there on the right but it's too hard to make out.

Very slowly and with great care, we made it back down those steps. Many a person older than me offered me a hand as I slide down the steps on my butt and all fours. :) The rest of the hike back down was actually incredibly painful, whatever injury I had with my knee from moving back in August was re-aggravated by the steps and the steep descent. (I'm still laid up with an ace bandage, ice and Advil). Verdict: Still  so worth it.

We walked around to see Ahwahnee Hotel, which was stunning. Then for our picnic lunch we went out into this picturesque field. Surrounded by all the mountains and with the wind blowing through all the golden grass... I said I felt like I was Maximus in Gladiator!

This one above is hands down my favorite picture of the field. It's like a painting!

On Dad and Debbie's way out we stopped by this lookout, which I thought was perfect. It included all the things I love best about nature, the water, the green, the blue sky, the mountains and the fields... just all rolled up into one little place of perfection.

After Dad and Debbie headed out, we took their advice and drove up to Glacier Point. It was so worth it. Some of the scariest roads we've EVER been on. Sheer drop offs and teeny tiny roads that Dad agreed, are only appealing to drive on when you're in a SmartCar or a Mini. 

Look at all those teeny tiny cars in the parking lot!

You could see everything. 

It was a great place to end our adventure. Thanks Dad and Debbie for guiding us around and thank you for sticking with me through the long post! :)

"Eyes on the prize, reboot the mission"

With it being marathon season again, I feel as if all the blogs I read are chock full of challenges and proud moments of accomplishments. I'm a bit envious. I've not really had anything big accomplished, (well, yes, the wedding and all) but nothing big for me personally. I've been cooking more but I'm not 100% sure how to morph that into a challenge. Something about making a challenge out of making more vegan dinners and delicious healthy meals just feels a bit blah right now. If I weren't worried about us both ballooning up I'd do a Julie & Julia-esqe challenge involving our Eric Ripert or Voltaggio brothers book. Food does not seem to be the way to go. 

I do have more races coming up... this past weekend was a 5k where I did decidedly not awesome 38mins or so, but I had fun and it was my best time in awhile. In December there is the trail 10k in the mountains. I'm very nervous about that but glad that it's not about my time, just about surviving. I'm really enjoying the onset of Northern California's rainy winter season and the Los Gatos Creek Trail near us.

Los Gatos Trail and also the scene of the crime for the 5k

Ed loves pictures pre-race

 You should have seen how excited I was for rain the other night. Ed looked at me like I was insane. I do enjoy training so I thought maybe I could do a challenge involving activities. Some sound a little intimidating (i.e. 1000 push-ups in a week) but I think maybe I can make it work for me. So for the month of November I'm going to pick one or two exercises per week and see how many I can do that week:

1st Week (1st-8th): Running & Walking (essentially on-foot travel)
2nd Week (8th-15th): Visiting Ck in L.A. so squats and lunges. Doesn't require much space!
3rd Week (15th-22nd): Push-ups. This exercise needs no partner the way I struggle with it.
4th Week (22nd-29th): Right over Thanksgiving time, so I'll go for planks and crunches this week.

The rule of thumb I was given was to take the most you can do in one set and multiply it by 35 and there's your number for the week. 

1st- Current longest distance ~ 3.5 miles so let's just say at least 3.5 miles traveled each day = 24.5 miles
2nd- 40ish for both probably = 1400 of each
3rd- Real push-ups? 5. On my knees? 10. So let's start low and hope for high results = 175 - 350
4th- Sadly, I can probably only do about 35 crunches and my planks only last 60 seconds = 1225 crunches and 2100 seconds of planking.

I'm just guesstimating/modifying the numbers and rules. I mean obviously I could NOT run 122.5 miles in a week. I'm hoping actually that I'll be surprised at how low these numbers are compared to what actually gets done. Wouldn't that be nice?

Another challenge I've found to balance out the activity is Deepak Chopra's 21-day Meditation Challenge.

Anyone else have any favorite challenges they want to share or want to join in on this one?

Update wise, Ed's birthday is this Friday and we're off to Yosemite with Dad and Debbie! I'm pretty excited. Ed bought a new bike since his was stolen a week or so ago. I'm getting twitchy about the holidays. Missing family and friends and excited for all the holiday festivities.

I finished three more books:

- Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness: the second book in her trilogy about supernatural beings with a heavy dose of the historical. It follows a romantic relationship between a witch and a vampire and I cannot get enough. They are looooong books though so prepare to settle in. They aren't hard to read, but there are tons of characters and back story to keep straight.

- Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes: NOT for the faint of heart. It is frightening and graphic and intense. Frankly, it's 'unputdownable.' But yes, very graphic violence and sexual situations, but they are separated by long tortured moments of psychological terror. I love a good scary book (P.S. Kindle readers, as I'm posting this, it's only 2 bucks on amazon! I still wait for all my books to come thru the library but for those of you that buy, that's a great deal)

- Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti: This book about modern motherhood and the push for 'natural' parenting is also terrifying and yet for me, reassuring. It's terrifying because a lot of things I was taking for granted are rooted in not so great things, like tying women to homes and children and pushing them away from the workplace. Subverting women's happiness for the happiness of the child (or - even scarier - for the happiness of a possible future child). I'm glad things like this are being talked about. I think this is a really good book for every woman and man to read about what is happening with motherhood and parenting.

And last but not least, I joined a new roundtable! This is for The Walking Dead on AMC. I'll post links to it when it goes up. :)

"I'm gonna smile when I take your life"

Like I said in the last post, I have been cooking up a storm my friends! I figured I'd show you a bit of what I've been up to...

The one thing I was super excited about was the chicken fricassee. It just sounded so very.... Julia-Childs-y! It almost sounds as good as saying I've made a souffle (I have not). I love having lots of little pieces to prep and sort out like I'm on my own personal cooking show, and then throw it all together. I recognize this will never ever happen after children come and I'll have to learn how to make things in a hurry with 2 ingredients, but for now, I'll enjoy all this ridiculous prep time.

Yeah, I loved making that little herb bundle.

The cajun supplies in the background, the seasoning and green pepper and beans, are all for the red beans and rice soup I made alongside the fricassee. I was feeling ambitious.

Mirepoix ALWAYS makes me feel like I'm at Omi's house. It would smell like mirepoix even when she wasn't cooking! Maybe she has some perfume I should know about....

It really is a bit ridiculous how much enjoyment I got from this little herb bundle. It just looked so.... professional! I don't mean in that it's neat or perfect, but that, here I am, the girl who used to eat peanuts and cheese sandwiches because no one was home to feed me in high school (high school!!), making a dish that has a bazillion steps and calls for tempering, an herb bundle and mirepoix. 

Amazingly, despite being so proud, I do not have any pictures of the finished product. But to be honest, my plating skills? Suck. Suck a LOT. Food looks terrible when I put it together. I wonder if there are classes on how to make food look good. It seems to be a running joke in the blogosphere and pinterest that people post tons of food pictures and they all look kinda terrible to everyone except the poster. Even my own mother has commented that some of the people we know that she follows on Instagram are guilty of yucky looking food. (Aside - why is there not a webpage dedicated to terrible looking food and pins??? I found this earlier this week: http://www.pinterestyouaredrunk.com/ but there should really be one where you can call people out for posting hot mess dishes! Someone get on this. And immediately post all the pictures I take of my own dishes for examples) And that my friends, is why I will always post food in the process of being cooked, and rarely post finished products.

Excellent example. Zucchini ricotta shells in tomato sauce. Looked ridiculous when done, but it's state of messiness in this picture can be chalked up to 'hey I hadn't baked it yet!'

A rare finished product sight! This was a bit ridiculous - a 'lighter' chicken cordon bleu. The lighter part being chalked up to baking it instead of frying. I thought it was delicious, but it was also a bit large... 

Oh the things you learn when you get married. One thing you learn is that you may not have an accurate grasp on particular words. The word in question here is: Salad. I believe salad is anything from a kitchen sink salad with eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, tuna, carrots... to lettuce with some salad dressing on it. Ed believes this is blasphemous. Plain lettuce? That is not a salad. That is lettuce. With dressing. A salad, according to Ed, has other stuff on it. So... my 'salads' which I suppose are akin to my cheese sandwiches of high school, have mutated into the riot of toppings you see below:

Is no one else here in my camp? Do you all call lettuce plain lettuce? Do you say I would like a side of lettuce if it has nothing other than dressing? I mean, I think Ed is right about this not actually being a true 'salad,' but.... who says I would like a side of lettuce. I mean really. :-P

Fun fact? Peeling and de-veining fresh shrimp is GROSS. It is a pain in the butt and gross and the apartment still smells like shrimp. I made this dish, cornbread stuffed shrimp, on Friday and it is the smelly gift that keeps on giving. At least it was delicious!

And when it all gets too much and you need a break from the world or a place to find something that may make your home more perfect than it has been seeming, where do you go? IKEA! I love Ikea. I love Ikea so much I even have a bag that matches their color yellow exactly. I also love pickled herring apparently. Ed was brave enough to try the pickled herring in sour cream and it was mind-blowing good. So we grabbed the marinated herring with onion and the plain pickled herring to see how they taste. Verdict? Sour cream is still the best. Onion takes second place and is delicious. The 'matjes' herring will never be purchased again. It's like... herring in a fall-spice cider-y seasoned sauce. No bueno. 

(Side note: Omi - "Mmm I love pickled herring. So, what's the deal with all this pickled stuff hmmmmmmmmm?????" Me- "Ah, no. Not pregnant, Omi.") 

:)

And since it's fall, I must of course inundate our apartment with fall related products. Gazillions of apples, teas, pumpkin butter, ciders, and my favorite - apple crisp! I wish we had more friends to share it with out here... wait what am I saying! No way, I ain't sharing this deliciousness with any of ya! :-P

Truly though, what would fall be if not for Oktoberfest time? We are anxiously awaiting our time at Mountain Lake, but until then, we'll settle for our local events. The one below is at a restaurant called Naglee Park Garage which was on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives. Next week is downtown Campbell's Oktoberfest (and a 5k on top of that!).

Ed and I's personal tradition is to attend as many Halloween activities as possible. We've already done Goat Man's Hollow and the Haunted forest in MD, the Forest of Fear in Tuxedo Park, NY, and now we can add Great America's Halloween Haunt and Fright Night at Winchester House.

Unlike many, I've never done an amusement park fright night before. I think... there were parts that were really awesome. Like riding roller coasters and flume rides at night. There were some elaborate cool mazes built up over closed rides like one that circled around the rapids ride... But all in all it really takes away from from the terror when it's flooded with teenagers and teeny tiny kids. I wish there were more people who wanted to be scared instead of judging the actors and trying to 'be cool.' Although, a group of pre-teen boys trying to be cool led to my favorite overheard (shouted) quotation of the night: "Abraham why you holding me like that man?!?!" Poor teenage boy. He may not live that down.

Winchester House... was. INCREDIBLE. So, incredible. I mean, I jumped feet off the ground, screamed til I was hoarse.... It was so scary and so good. I've been to Winchester house with friends 3 times now during the day. The night activities includes a flashlight tour of the house, but it goes in reverse, so for those of us who feel like we 'know' the house, it makes everything fresh. Especially with all the lights off... creepy. There are kinda longish lines, but they have food trucks out - that had tater tots, so automatic win right there - and if you do the preview nights through Groupon and LivingSocial it's not too crowded. And the maze? The maze! It was amazing. So frightening and disturbing and shocking and just... everything you want it to be. I had nightmares for sure. So basically I loved it. Anyone wanna come visit us so we can make an excuse to go again????

The famous doors that never let anyone in... or out! Muahahaha!

"Life seems so much slower with your toothbrush by the mirror"

Boy, talk about a lull! Settling in after all the wedding and honeymoon craziness has been interesting. Thankfully I've not felt any of that post-wedding blues. It's more like... aimlessness? Weird not thinking of wedding things at every moment and preparing for travel. Our next trip won't be until later in October: one to Yosemite for Ed's birthday with Dad and Debbie and then a trip back to the east coast for Oktoberfest at Mountain Lake Hotel (the Dirty Dancing hotel).

We're still waiting on wedding pictures so I don't wanna post anything about the wedding yet. I consider it an exercise in delayed gratification.

To fill the time I've been doing three things.

1. Cooking

I've been feeling so very uninspired with my cooking lately but all of our lovely wedding gifts have really lit a fire under my butt. It's a conflicted passion because I really don't want to gain weight and I struggle so with just maintaining... but I've also always asserted that I value eating well and eating real foods. Not fast food, junk food, soft drinks, and candy. That means I have to cook and I have to take time to make tea instead of just going out and buying drinks. I just have to. And in line with that I just have to learn to deal with food. Maybe by embracing my enjoyment of cooking and food, I'll learn to have a more controlled relationship with it? Here's hoping. Some of the things I've been enjoying most from our kitchen goods:

• My fancy mesh nesting colanders. I adore these. They are beautiful and if you knew how much produce we go through you would think these were the cat's pajamas as well.
• Hyper absorbent dish rags. I feel like we use much fewer paper towels and I could not be happier about that. Having a seeming endless supply of rags to wipe up with is a dream. Yes, it's more laundry, but let's get real. When I have kids it's gonna be laundry non-stop anyways so hey, it's just practice. For now I'm feeling pretty good with some of my green-guilt alleviated!
• My Bamboo Utensils! I'm a sucker for wooden tools and a little on the paranoid side these days when it comes to plastic anything... half for my health, half for future baby health... so getting a ton of wooden tools is like heaven for me. You can see it in action in the fricassee picture below.
• Cast Iron Dutch Oven. I used this to make chicken fricassee on Friday and it was fan-freakin-tastic. I love cast iron for a variety of reasons. One, they remind me of Omi and Mom who use cast-iron for pretty much everything. Two, did anyone ever read Thomas Harris' books? Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal? This passage from Hannibal.... I think I read it over and over and over and it just sticks to my soul:

“Do you have a black iron skillet? You are a southern mountain girl, I can’t imagine you would not. Put it on the kitchen table. Turn on the overhead lights.

Look into the skillet, Clarice. Lean over it and look down. If this were your mother’s skillet, and it well may be, it would hold among its molecules the vibrations of all the conversations ever held in its presence. All the exchanges, the petty irritations, the deadly revelations, the flat announcements of disaster, the grunts and poetry of love.

Sit down at the table, Clarice. Look into the skillet. If it is well cured, it’s a black pool, isn’t it? It’s like looking down a well. Your detailed reflection is not at the bottom, but you loom there, don’t you? The light behind you, there you are in a blackface, with a corona like your hair on fire.

We are elaborations of carbon, Clarice. You and the skillet and Daddy, dead in the ground, cold as the skillet. It’s all still there. Listen.”

-Hannibal Lector in a letter to Clarice Starling, “Hannibal” by Thomas Harris

For those of you who actually have or have seen a truly well seasoned, well-loved skillet, it is exactly like a "black pool... a well," and it is mesmerizing. 

Mmmm mirepoix for fricassee!

The other tools we received as gifts are in line to be used and we can't wait to get to it all. Think happy thoughts for our waistlines and willpower....

2. Running

Yes, I'm finally running again. About time right? We've got a 5k in two weeks that should be humbling. I've not managed to break the 2.5 mark in my runs since I started up this past week or so, but I know it'll get back to where it was. 3 miles was my 'comfortable' run distance before at the height of my real training. I'm not distance training anymore despite the 10k in Dec. It's a 'mountain run' so being able the run the whole time isn't a goal for me, or for the race organizers who encourage us to walk up the hills and run down. It feels good to be moving more and running again, even if it's sluggish and hard. I miss feeling strong. I miss being active instead of wrapped around a pole of worry over my weight. Which just leads me to eating another cookie. Hopefully I can really push myself to stick with this again. 

3. Reading

Ok so in reality, three should actually say, "Applying for Jobs." But since I've had little to no luck with hearing from people or reaching people or sealing the deal, I'm going to write about reading! I have been on a ROLL. I even signed up for The New York Times again like in college so I can read it daily. Turns out, when you are waiting for people to call you back, or waiting for laundry to finish, or waiting to fall asleep as you worry about your purpose in life, you can sure get a lot of reading done! Over the honeymoon and up til today I have read:

• Falling for Me by Anna David - An autobiography on her search to become more... dateable? Loveable? I do not recommend this book. Unless you like Julie from Julie & Julia (I'm referencing the character in the movie and the woman Julie Powell behind the book and blog. Also behind the book Cleaving which was eh). I find both Anna and Julie similarly a little on the insufferable side. Full of complaints, very few lessons learned, unpleasant to people around them and generally just irritating. They both have some interesting tips on bettering oneself and improving your lot in life in general, but somehow that results in them still not being very nice to the people closest to them. Sorry ladies!
• The Kite Runner by Kahled Hosseini - I'm sure a bunch of you have already read this. I struggle with books where the narrator has a huge flaw so I had to push myself into this. I started to enjoy it more about 100 pages in, but... I don't know, I'm still digesting this book and what I think about it. My initial response is still: I'm not sure if I liked reading this (not that every book is supposed to be 'enjoyable')
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - This was nothing like what I thought it would be... just another sappy genre piece about a couple who no longer got along trying to muscle through an anniversary, but then the wife disappears! But I was so surprised by the writing and the weird dark thoughts that would pass by almost unnoticed until I reread a page. I actually had nightmares after reading it, but I can't exactly say why. Not particularly gory, but sure spooked me.
• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn - This on the other hand was very gory. And also gave me nightmares. It concerns a girl who survived her family's very violent mass murder as a child and the question of her older brother's innocence, despite being convicted of the murders years ago. Mrs. Flynn is one creepy lady and I love it. I have Sharp Objects on my hold list at the library and I cannot wait to get my hands on another of her spooky stories.
• When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman - Good grief did this book make me weep. It follows a young girl through her awkward, unique youth and then jumps to her young adult years. It focuses on her childhood friend and her sudden removal from her life and her experiences with her brother and parents. A lot of the most fun passages come after her parents purchase a bed and breakfast and have the chance to meet characters of all kinds. It's beautifully and interestingly written. Her childhood years have that perspective of abstraction that children have, seeing so much more in the mundane. It was just so different. It moves quickly, and feels like you're reading straight out of life - everything passing by before you can get a grip on it all. There's a section of the book that like I said, really kills you to read, but I promise there's a great ending. Just a really refreshing touchingly human read.
• Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin - Look I could talk about this series all day but I'm not gonna bore the people that haven't devoted days of their life to make it through these tomes. I love the series... this book was 50% awesome, 50% 'is it over yet?' and it was, unfortunately, not split down the middle of the book. It does not 'pick up' after a couple pages, or even a couple hundred. More like, every 150 pages something amazing happens. But you gotta make it through those dividing 145 pages in between... Onto the next book - A Dance With Dragons
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I laughed out loud over this book and it's about cancer. It is fresh and light and at the same time it has so much heart and soul. It's about a handful of terminally or temporarily seriously ill teenagers, namely two that develop a relationship named Augustus and Hazel Grace. I loved the characters. I want to be friends with them and hear their voices. I loved the thoughtful contemplation of life and the meaning of suffering, but written in the context of teenagers trying to cope and not get bogged down in the dour, 'adult' discussions of dying. I pretty much plowed through this book - even reading some of it aloud to Ed.
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - This book was like dessert for my brain. Much like When God Was A Rabbit, reading this was so touching. It's hard to explain, but it follows three story lines  an old man, a book, and a young girl. There are other people drawn in, but it all revolves around a book titled The History of Love and how it has this web of influence. A really great contemporary piece, using the layout of pages, blank pages, and repetition...exciting to read. Some really beautiful passages that to me, made the descriptions of the inanimate and feelings actually tangible. As if she gave these objects breath.
• Happier At Home by Gretchen Rubin - I read The Happiness Project and really enjoyed that. Then I won this book to read and turns out, I think I like this book better. It's a bit more focused and it just has a better feel for me. More family oriented. She continues her struggles from the first book, trying to follow her resolutions, and I appreciate her openness with her struggles.

Hopefully I'll continue this big push for reading... I'm quite a few books behind on my plan to read... what was it, 50? 60? books by the end of the year? I'm sure it'll be a struggle now that all my tv shows are coming back on... It's a little sad how much tv I watch. Just in case you watch any of the shows I do and want to talk about them here they are (including ones not currently on):

Game of Thrones, True Blood, How I Met Your Mother, X-Factor, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, Top Chef, Raising Hope, Guys With Kids, Modern Family, Go On, Smash, Whitney, Rules of Engagement, Ben and Kate, The Mindy Project, 30 Rock, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Grimm, SNL, Glee, Revenge, True Blood, Dexter, Amazing Race and most importantly Homeland!!! 

Clearly I'm most excited for Homeland. The writing and acting on that show is nothing short of (despite the over use these days) epic. And also it is clear that I watch way too much tv. I should probably hook up with a place that does reviews or something.... Or get someone to freakin' hire me. That would probably be the best solution. Take note universe! :)