September 2009

The Vampire Diaries

by noelle on September 11, 2009

the-vampire-diaries-cast-pictureI have the books.  They have been sitting on my bookshelf for months.  I am dying to read them, but I haven’t had the time yet.  OK…so I am not a teen aged girl, but I love reading YA literature, especially about the supernatural.  So sue me.  The TV show based on the books premiered on Thursday on the CW.  I was so excited to see it.  I wasn’t blown away, but I wasn’t disappointed either.  This show seems to be right up my alley, and I am excited to see what it has to offer during the season.  So far, so good.  I am definitely going to start reading the books.

A lot of accusations are flying around that The Vampire Diaries is a blatant rip-off of Twilight.  It is not.  L.J. Smith wrote the first book in The Vampire Diaries over a decade before Stephanie Meyers wrote Twilight.   So if anybody ripped off anybody….I think you know where I am going here.

I will admit it.  I am not ashamed.  I have been bitten by the vampire bug.  I am obsessed with all that is vampire.  I am a huge fan of HBO’s True Blood, and I loved the Twilight series (even with the possible plagiary).  I loved Buffy, both the movie and the series.  I have all of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris.  I don’t know what is is about the undead (of the vampire variety) that I am so drawn to.  Who knows, but at least I have something to feed the hunger.

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Latest Projects

by noelle on September 8, 2009

I have been working on a hat that I found on Ravelry called Ishbel Beret.  The pattern is by Ysolda Teague.   I love all of her stuff.  Here is a pic of what the hat should look like when it is finished.  It’s perfect for Fall!

beret

I decided to make it from Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere from elann.com in Serengeti Sand.  I really like the colour.  It should go with most of my jackets and sweaters, as I tend to gravitate towards browns and neutrals.  Anyway, I am about half way done.  Here is the hat so far.

Her is a close up of the lacy pattern.  I heart this hat!  I can’t wait to finish it.

I am also almost done the Cotton-Ease Baby Blanket that I have been working on FOREVER!  I really have been stuck at this spot for a while.  I just can’t decide what colour I want to use for the border.  And all those ends!  I am sooo dreading weaving in all of those ends.  I think I will wait until I am pregnant to do it.  The baby will give me the motivation needed to finish this.  I know it will be worth it in the end, but OMG that is a  lot of weaving in.

http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq320/_noelle_/Shared%20Images/IMG_0647-1.jpg

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Eye-of-Round Roast

by noelle on September 7, 2009

I was at Costco one day, and decided that I was going to buy some roasts to make.  I found a lovely looking roast that was pretty inexpensive, and brought it home.

When I got home I went on the Internet to see if I could find a good roast recipe for the eye of round roast.  To my dismay, I found that this cut of was a very dry, tough piece of meat.  Luckily, I was able to locate a recipe on allrecipes.com for a High Temperature Eye of Round Roast.  It is a very strange way to roast a piece of meat, and I was skeptical at first, however, I have tried this recipe a few times now, and each time, the results have been spectacular.  The unique process in which you cook the roast takes a lean, tough piece of meat, and makes it tender, moist and delicious.

Here are the instructions:

Ingredients:

  • 1 beef eye of round roast (make sure that you know how much your roast weighs)
  • salt and pepper and additional spices to taste

I rub my roast with a combination of olive oil, garlic powder, parsley flakes, celery seed, salt and pepper.  The combination of spices is up to you.

Directions for Roast Perfection:

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).

Season your roast with desired spices and place in a roasting pan or baking dish. Do not cover or add any water to the pan.  I like to place my roast fat up, so the juices flow down through the meat.

Place the roast in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Roast for seven minutes per pound and then turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the hot oven for 2 1/2 hours. Do not open the door at all during this time!  This is KEY!  No peeking!

Remove the roast from the oven, the internal temperature should have reached at least 145 degrees F (65 degrees C).

Carve and serve.

Enjoy this juicy, tender, perfectly cooked roast with garlic mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies.  Mmmm.  Sooo good!

Original Recipe can be found here.

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (3 pound) beef eye of round roast
* salt and pepper to taste

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What to Drink?
Wine     Merlot
DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F (260 degrees C). Season the roast with salt and pepper and place in a roasting pan or baking dish. Do not cover or add water.
2. Place the roast in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Roast for 21 minutes (seven minutes per pound) then turn off the oven and let the roast sit in the hot oven for 2 1/2 hours. Do not open the door at all during this time!
3. Remove the roast from the oven, the internal temperature should have reached at least 145 degrees F (65 degrees C). Carve into thin slices to serve.

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Shiny New Things

by noelle on September 6, 2009

My trusty old, and I mean old, laptop finally became too old to use anymore (RIP little friend), so I had to go and buy a new laptop.  I really loved my old Compaq laptop, and for the past four plus years, it has given me little to no grief, and has served its purpose extremely well.  All it ever needed was a memory upgrade to keep up with the demand of newer software, and a new AC adapter when the old one broke (my fault though…the way I rest the laptop would cause the cord to bend, which eventually caused failure).  My Sister on the other hand was not so lucky with her Dell laptop.  In the past two years  it had needed several parts replaced, and then had a total hardware failure causing Dell to have to replace it with a new one, which continued to give her issues.  She finally gave in and bought an HP, hoping to have the same luck that I did with my Compaq, which is now the owned by HP, or vice versa, I don’t remember.  So far, so good.  Anyway, I decided to stick with HP too.  Here is my new baby, the HP DV4-1454:

My Laptop

I love it!  It is so much faster than my old laptop.  I don’t even mind Vista either.  My only complaint is the design of the keyboard.   The changed the size and shape of the shift and enter keys.  They are smaller than they used to be, and have another key in the place where the key used to be.  This is causing me to hit the ‘\’  key in the place of shift or enter quite frequently.  I am sure I will get used to it though.

I also got a cute clock and a couple plaques for in the kitchen from Pier 1 and Home Sense.

And these wire Live, Laugh, and Love signs from Pier 1.  I hung them up over the window in the living room.  I think they look cute there.

But my favourite purchase is by far the cutest coat hooks I have ever seen in my life.   I have been looking for coat hooks for by the front door for a long time now.  I didn’t want plain old hooks.  I wanted something cute and unique.  Well, I found them!  These door knob hooks from Pier 1 are my favs!  They are so cute and colourful and very functional as well.

Aren’t they cute?  I LOVE them!

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No May Baby and Gout

by noelle on September 3, 2009

I am sad to say that there will not be a May baby joining us next year.  I thought we did everything right.  I am so bummed about this and am really beginning to worry about maybe having fertility issues.  For now I am hoping for a June baby.  This month, we are going to try the “Sperm Meets Egg” plan.  Hopefully, this works out for us.  The plan can be found here.  I am willing to try anything to get us a baby as soon as possible.  It’s probably better that I ended up not being preggo this month anyway.  Here’s why…

The foot pain that was has having only intensified to the most horrible, indescribable pain you can imagine.  By Friday, I was ready to hack my own foot off just to alleviate the pain.  The Tylenol I was taking was not touching this devil pain that I was experiencing.  So, I caved and took Advil, even though I may have been pregnant.  I know, I know, I am already a horrible mother to my unborn children.  I promised myself I would only take one dose of Advil, but one dose turned into every 4 hours…on the dot.  I eventually couldn’t stand it anymore and went to the doctor.  He then proceeded to give me an X-ray; another bad mommy move.  The doctor said it would be fine, but the X-ray tech ended up scaring the shit out of me.  She looked at me and said “Did you tell the doctor that you may be pregnant?”  “And he still sent you for an X-ray?”  She made me sign a waiver that I knew that I may be pregnant, and that she would double shield me.  Oh, I should add that at that point, it was way too early for me to test, so there was no way for me to tell if I was or wasn’t “with child”.  Anyway, there were no broken bones in my foot.  The symptoms I was having made the doctor believe that I was suffering from gout.  Yes…gout.  A disease that affects mostly men, and women after menopause.  It very rarely affects women my age.  Also, I have no family history of it and do not indulge in foods high in purines.  I am now waiting for the blood test results to see if I indeed do have gout.

So now, after reading all of the information that the internet has to offer on the subject of gout, I am convinced I am suffering from one of the following ailments: Renal Failure, Leukemia, or early menopause, just a few of the many possible causes of gout.  I will just have to wait to see if it is actually gout.   Anyway, whatever it was, I would not wish it on my worst enemy.  It was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life.  It felt like this:

gout-cartoon

Like Satan himself was gnawing at my foot, but 1,000,000 times worse.  Unbelievable.

On a totally unrelated note, Michelle Duggar is announced to the world that she pregnant with her 19th child.  She is 42 years old and got pregnant “by surprise”.  Her last baby is merely 8 months old and the woman is already incubating another one.  I am so jealous.  Anna, her daughter in-law, is due to deliver Jim Bob and Michelle’s first grandchild in little more than a month.  How is this woman getting pregnant so easily?  Can you pass some of your magic fertile Myrtle dust my way Michelle?  How many kids will they end up with?  My money is on 20.  I just pray that Michelle gives birth to a healthy child.  At 42 years of age, she is extremely high risk for genetic defects.  Those are some old eggs!  Ugh…the obsession continues.

theduggars

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