useless morsels from the wisdom of the food network:

I'm a pretty avid Food Network viewer. In my years of watching I've noticed a few recurring themes and redundant bits of knowledge. I honestly think these hosts just need to fill up their 30 minute time slot and revert to these little cliches... Either that, or they think I'm stupid.

Oh and by the way, I don't mean to insult you if you've never heard these tips before. Feel free to use them, I use some of them, I just wanted to mention the ones I hear way too often.

If you want to make a pizza from scratch, just run around the corner to your favorite pizzeria and ask them for some pizza dough.
>I'm sure the guys at Little Caesar's would LOVE that!< 

Don't buy an expensive pastry bag, just cut a hole in the corner of a plastic bag, it works just as well! 

>If I had a nickle for every time they said that, I'd be able to afford one of the cakes from Ace of Cakes< 

Don't stress over garlic, just smash a clove under a heavy skillet of the flat side of a knife. >Seriously?< 

To remove the pit of an avocado, just hack the seed with the a knife, twist ever so slightly and the pit comes right out! 

>It really isn't that difficult to remove an avocado seed, and is guacamole really worth a hospital visit?< 

Don't buy a double boiler, just place a heat safe bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. 

>These chefs double boil on an unnaturally frequent basis.< 

Mix butter and olive oil when sauteing, the oil has a higher smoking point than butter and gives food a nice flavor. >What about using Pam, should I still mix it with something, and does Country Crock count as butter?<

Roll a lemon on the counter back and forth for a few minutes, it'll loosen up the juices and make it easy to squeeze. >The nice people at ReaLeamon made it so that I never have to roll a lemon again. (I know, I know, fresh squeezed it always best.)< 

"I'll make a delicious meal in under 30 minutes." 

>Don't make promises you can't keep Rachael Ray.<

chinese food and mexican boxing

It's Friday night, Brandon wants to watch Mexican boxing on one of these obscure sattelite channels that we have...

I just ordered Chinese food for dinner...

I said, "so we're going to watch Mexican boxing and eat Chinese food?"

He said, "Yes, this is America, and we're a melting pot."

I'm so glad we can do our part to encourage diversity.

lets do lunch...

So, I'm super happy. I just had a wonderful lunch with my friend Marjo. She was one of the first people to take me up on the offer to "do lunch" (I mentioned it an earlier post, but the invitation is still open!)

We ate at Swanky's Taco Shop... YUM! I had fish tacos, something I've been craving for the longest time. It was a total power lunch, OK, maybe not a power lunch, but we did power through it. The line was seriously out the door! By the time we got our food we only had a few more minutes to actually eat. I felt like I was a real 8-5er. (Which as we all know, makes me really excited.) I love feeling like I'm on a regular person schedule. I did NOT feel like I was on a regular person schedule at my previous job.

Today's been sort of boring. I'm filling in for our receptionist, she's at home sick. As I started typing the phones started ringing... never mind about being bored!!!

i think i've decided.

I will name my car Skipper! (Like Barbie's little sister.) It really seemed to fit the car. I'm still in love with it.

That is all I have to say.

tadaaaa!

It all worked out...
So, I looked at some other cars. I thought about how much I wanted to spend on a car payment, and then I thought about the car in Dyersburg. This was the car I mentioned in my previous post. I really wasn't crazy about it on Saturday, but the more time I spent looking at other cars, the better its price tag sounded.

So today my dad called the car dealership and talked to the salesman, he made the price shrink even further, and then he called the bank. I had already gotten a loan from my bank, but I had to sign for it. On my lunch break I drove to the bank, got the fastest explanation in the history of loans, and signed for my loan.

As soon as I left work I headed home to meet my best friend Abby. She had agreed to drive me to the dealership in Dyersburg. (They closed at 6, so we had to hustle!)
The drive was fun....
When we got to the dealership, I signed for the car, hopped in and drove away! For an almost 3 week ordeal, this was the easiest part of the process. Here it is, my 2006 Kia Spectra5. It really grew on me. It gets great gas mileage (something like 33-35mpg) and it was a fabulous price! I love love love it! It has a sunroof/moonroof (what's the difference anyway?) It has power windows and locks (a feature missing from my '03 Kia Rio, "Peri," may she rest in peace.) It has keyless entry, and cruise control (another feature missing on my previous car.) I fell in love with the hatchback style. Oh and in case you can't tell from the picture, it's silver. I wanted to document the signing of the title, but I forgot.

Isn't it adorable!!!
I seriously have the best friend in the world! I mean, who would drive all the way to Dyersburg only to drive back alone. We did get to eat at Sweet Peppers for dinner. Abby and I worked at the old Cordova location a couple of summers back, we hated the job but loved the food. We were both terribly sad to see it close. I think Abby only went with me for the Sweet Peppers.
We had such fun.

I'm a much happier camper now. I'm super happy to have my own car (actually in my own name) and I'm even happier to have less debt, the thought of a more expensive car made me feel sick!

Now I have to name her. A couple of options are: Ilver (one of the doccuments in the car has the color listed as "ilver" instead of silver.) Also, Skipper, the car really reminds me of Barbie's kid sister. (I never really identified with Barbie, Skipper was so much more my speed.) Decisions decisions!

OK, new invitation: Add this in addition to the invitation to "do lunch," I would love to take you for a ride in my super cool car!

wow, car shopping isn't fun.

Today, Saturday, my first Saturday free of work in many many months, was a waste of my time!

The plan was to drive to Dyersburg to look at a car. The car wasn't exactly what I wanted and so we looked at other cars. I found the cutest little Nissan hatchback. It was gunmetal gray, fully loaded, it had this smart key thing that made it possible to get into the car without even taking the key out of my purse, and it even had an iPod input. I was in love...

About an hour later we left the dealership, I came so close to driving a brand new car off the lot, but ended up leaving with tears in my eyes. Unfortunately, even an inexpensive hatchback car is out of your price range if you don't make enough money.

Pretty depressing. You see, I wasn't planning on buying a car any time soon. I was about to drive my little Kia debt free. I was $600 dollars away from freedom when I got hit, sitting still at a red light. Meribeth told me "nobody ever wins in a wreck." I didn't quite understand how true that was until today.

I had finally become sensible about my finances, I said to myself: "I will save up enough money to pay cash for my next car, or at least have a substantial down payment." When your down payment consists of a tiny insurance settlement check, substantial is the last word to come to mind. I guess sometimes plans don't exactly equal reality. I didn't factor a wreck into the plan.

If only I made more money, if only I had saved more money, if only I hadn't gotten hit by another car... I really understand the insurance commercials that say "Life comes at you fast." It does.

And much of the time, it just isn't very fair. Now, back to the drawing board.

I made it through my first day, and I've got the blisters to prove it!

Well, the new shoes turned out pretty well... Until around hour 4:00 pm. Honestly they were seriously comfortable, I just got new shoe blisters. I promise I'm not only excited about the job because of the wardrobe implications.

I think this momentous occasion warrants one of my "Day in the Life of Caitlyn" posts. I'm pretty sure that nobody has ever been this excited about an 8-5!

• 6:05- Wake up! (I only hit my snooze alarm once today!)
• 6:15- Make coffee (in my brand new french press) and pack my lunch.
• 6:20- Get ready for work. It's pretty exciting to wear my hair down for work, I've had to rock the ponytail for the last two years at the SBUX. (My outfit: black pencil skirt, black and white blouse, brand new red shoes, my oh so chic big black leather bag, and red coral earrings)
• 7:15- Hop into my rental car with my coffee and drive....
• 8:00- Begin my very first day!
• 8:30- Monday morning meeting.
• 9:00- Begin new job paperwork, oy!
• 11:00- Finish paperwork, go to staff meeting. (Enough with the meetings already.)
• 12:00- Lunch Break!!!! I ended up ditching my sandwich (it didn't look good to me anymore) and went for a veggie burger at back yard burger.
• 1:00- Meet "file students" they're high school kids who do filing work for the company a few hours each week. This was when I actually worked today! By this point I was ready to do something constructive
• 1:00-5:00- learn all about the file room, and put away files. Not very glamorous, but I had a nice time.
• 5:00- Drive home.
• 6:00- Stop at Target to buy Naan for Mom's celebratory Indian Food Feast she prepared for me.
• 6:30- Now we feast! Brandon came over and we enjoyed the delicious food, THANKS MOM!

Overall, a pretty good day... I probably sound pretty square.

P.S.- Anyone up for a lunch date? I've got an hour long lunch break Monday-Friday with YOUR name on it!

in the morning...

.... I will begin my new job. I will be a full-time "file clerk." This means I get to wear grown up clothes (not black pants and polo shirts with a green apron) and find out how the rest of the world operates on an 8-5 schedule. (Don't worry, I'm not dropping out of school.)

I am so very excited!

My coffee pot is ready and my outfit (with the world's cutest red patent leather shoes) is laid out. Now all I have to do is get to bed. I'll tell you all about my first day tomorrow night!

Like the shoes? I got them at Payless (yay!) they're very 1940's secretary chic, OK, maybe not, but I really like them!

P.S.- My car has officially been "totaled" so I will be looking for a new one at some point this week. :~( Maybe now I can get that Prius I want... probably not, but it doesn't hurt to dream!