I highly recommend NOT getting a wheat allergy

GOD this sucks.

I hate being grouped in with all the trendy people jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon.  You do it because it is trendy.  I do it because if I don't, the damned skin rash on my hands will come back and I don't like waking up at 3AM just to itch my fingers.  And my issue is not gluten (thank God, I'd be even unhappier if I had to give up beer right now) is just wheat.

I'm not missing the bread all too much, and I have discovered that some non-wheat pasta is OK.

I've learned that Rice Crispys make a very nice breadcrumb-like coating.

I've learned I'll react to french fries that are cooked in the same oil as onion rings, pizza puffs and other things with flour.

I've learned I can't trust that the chicken rice soup and the spanish rice served in the cafeteria in our building at work apparently have flour in them.  Yay.

I've learned I can't eat any traditional condensed soup, even when used as part of a recipe.

I've learned that when offered the choice between gluten-free frozen pizza and a slab of cardboard... eat the cardboard.

Did you know Taco Bell uses wheat in both their taco shells AND their beef?

Did you know most fast food chicken - even in non-fried form - contains wheat and/or gluten?

"No wheat" is also a problem when you're headed off to a party - no pasta, no bread, no pizza, no fried chicken, no crackers... which is some pretty unfortunate karmic payback on me, since I usually try to even make stuff that is vegetarian-friendly when I'm bringing food to a party where I know there will be vegetarians.

Grocery shopping is taking twice as long now, since I have to read product labels on half the things I buy.

On the plus side... I've lost ten pounds in the past month.  It's pretty easy to do when you're afraid of eating anything that doesn't come with a product label.  And yes, I do mean afraid.  I don't want that painful rash back.

The Store-Bought Roasted Chicken

I know (at least thanks to Thomas Keller's high-heat roasted chicken) that it is not hard to roast a chicken.

But being a busy, typical American housewife who works 40+ hours a week, I do sometimes enjoy the ease of a Store-Bought Roasted Chicken.

Sue me.

I do have problems with the prices some people charge, but at least at the produce/deli place I go to, they are pretty cheap. I paid $4.50 for the most recent one I purchased.



But where did all the chicken go??

People.... one thing that us Americans have gotten WAY too used to is waste. I've been to stores around here that offer the same sized roasted chicken for eight bucks. EIGHT BUCKS. To me, that is a nice lunch at Roly Poly with a regular sized rolly and some soup and a drink. Which is usually my Friday "treat".

I took the meat off the chicken, diced it up, and some of it will be chicken salad for a chicken salad pita for me to lunch tomorrow. The rest of the chicken will either be used by the hubsy tomorrow night, or I'll throw it in the freezer for a lazy day.

The skin and bones of the chicken went into a freezer bag right away, and they'll be used to make some stock at a later point in time. So for my $4.50.... or even EIGHT BUCKS.... I'll get a couple of meals and about two quarts of homemade chicken stock. I couldn't get two "eat out" meals and two quarts of store-bought stock for that price. And neither is as good.

It makes me sad, to think of people that just throw away those bones. Stock ain't hard. Throw the bones and the veggies that are about to go south in the crock pot, cover with water, add some bay leaves and herbs and pepper, and let it go for 8 hours. The hardest thing is draining it. And it's all so worth it.

Trust me... since I started doing work for my old company and having an Actual Billable Amount For My Work Per Hour, I understand the concept that some things are worth your time to pay others to do. It's the American way. But one thing we have forgotten.... make the most of what you have. Think back to your own mother and how she'd manage to stretch out the turkey from Thanksgiving, or the ham from Easter. It was there... best to USE it and not just toss it in the trash.

/end ranty rant

Adobe Framemaker.... take me away!

Geek filler technical writer-type post ahead. Ya been warned.

For awhile, Adobe Framemaker has been known as one of the best & biggest pieces of software out there for people who have to create professional documents.

Older versions used to have their problems... like having to uninstall and then re-install the software to fix problems... but with the recent versions, it's been my experience that your problems come from buggy, bogged-down files, and not the program itself.

Buggy? Bogged-down?

Think any recent Microsoft operating system. One of the big criticisms people have about Micro$oft products is that they just keep building and building and building on the base code of their operating system, which can lead to a lot a lot of crap. Think about it like a fridge... if you never go in an do a deep cleaning, it can get pretty nasty. And eventually, the nasty will start to take over.

At my work, we use a piece of software called Ventura (made by Corel). The most recent version is ten years old. A ten year old piece of software. Windows 98. The Lewinsky scandal. The birth of XML (which good publishing software actually does WELL now). OLD.

Being so old, is it ever buggy. And unlike Framemaker, it's buggy for no good reason. Usually, with Frame, the problem is within your files, and you can find it and correct it. Ventura? No such luck. So much suck.

Today alone, working with Ventura, I had the program crash ten times. TEN TIMES. One for every year it is old. I spent my entire afternoon stripping out formatting that was just adding to the baggage of the files. My version runs slow because I have it set to make a backup of the file I'm working on every minute. The delay of making a backup is worth it, seeing as the program can crash very unexpectedly.

I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. There are so many better tools out there now. Not even just Frame. I'd take anything at this point. Like MCI/Worldcom, it might have been a good idea at the time, but it is so very very wrong now.

What is it with airlines now anyway??

I've traveled more on planes since 9/11 than I ever did before that. A couple of trips to LA, and then the (mostly) bi-annual trips to Vegas.

First two trips to LA, people were still a bit freaked out about air travel, and it was nice to have not packed planes and have a little breathing room.

The Vegas flights have been packed flights on smaller planes, on "Ted", which is United's discount airline. I like United. We fly out of O'Hare, and it's one of their hubs, which usually cuts down on some of the problems of air travel.

Ok, airlines... I know that fuel is more expensive. I bought an SUV right before prices went up. BELIEVE ME, I know. I've seen the costs of my groceries rise because of rising fuel costs. I understand where the higher prices are coming from.

I don't mind the "discount" airline. I liked Ted, I even preferred paying five bucks for one of their snackboxes over any dried out turkey sandwich I ever got on any other flight. If your "Light Bite" box didn't have tuna (seriously... tuna on an airplane???) and the world's most disgusting hummus in it, I'd probably buy two snack boxes each leg of each trip. But it's getting out of hand.

Some airline wants to charge for pillows and blankets? Ok. Any time I have ever asked for one, they're out anyway, so I always have a jacket and a travel pillow to keep me happy. But this checked baggage fee in a time where there are restrictions on what I can have in a carry on? C'mon. Please. Just raise the ticket fee across the board.

I did find out, thru United, as long as you have a confirmed Economy Plus seat, they wave the baggage fee. So, for our trip to Vegas... I can fork over $50 for extra legroom and that covers the $15 I'd have to pay to bring liquids with me. If you would have just raised airline fares across the board, you'd have that extra $15 plus the $50 because that legroom IS worth the money.

I understand that they're finally getting what many other companies/industries are well aware of... it's all about the extra "service" fees. Charge me for some snacks. Charge me for a pillow. You can charge me for a beverage only IF you have it on board (another reason not to travel in the back of the plane, they tend to run out of everything). Charge for water for those people who don't bother to buy a bottle before they get on the plane. Hell, sell upcharged bottles ON the plane (those dudes on the streets of Vegas make out like bandits selling 16 ounce bottles of water for a buck... take note!!). A charge if you have Wi-Fi on the plane? Bring it on. What a way to lure in geeks like me who just MIGHT need to check Wikipedia, and way to ensure you get that business traveler money of people who even just want to look like they're working on the flight (look... I can bill those hours... my bill shows I paid for WiFi!). Take out the back row and make a mini-business center with a printer and charge Kinkos per page prices for print outs and watch the dollars flow in.


I don't mind paying for the extras. But this bag fee is just crap. If the hubby needs to have a checked bag because he wears contacts and those little travel sized bottles aren't made for the brand of stuff he uses, it's not fair.

The grocery store you hate....

There is a grocery store two blocks away from me.... actually more of a produce mart. I do like a lot of things about the store, but it will never overcome the hate.

Is it way cheaper than the chain store two blocks in the other direction? Yes. Do I usually find everything I need? Mostly (how the heck can you not have fresh mint around here??). Do I hate the people who shop there with a passion? Oh hell yes.

It's not really the store. It's laid out well, I could easily find most non-drugstore-ish things I need there any week. But the people... the people. The people.

I made a trip there on Sunday. Before I left, I walked up to the hubby and told him that if I did not return, he should feel free to remarry. The sad thing is we both know there is a molecule of truth to that.

It starts with the parking lot. People who think they have more rights to EVERYTHING than anyone else, and the fire lanes are full of people sitting in cars, waiting for someone to come out of the store. And it's not someone running in for one or two items... these cars in the fire lane are loaded up with the contents of full grocery carts. Excuse me??

You walk in, and there is the fight and rudeness of the produce section. The other produce-ish place I shop at, there is at least human decency. When your cart is obviously in someone else's way, you move it and everyone is happy. Not at this place. At least 50% of the people there are oblivious that anyone other than themselves exists in the world. And when you decide to fight back with a little rudeness (after a proper "trying to be kind" waiting period) they look at you like you have two heads..... like you just asked to buy their women... like you just took a shit on their shoes. Hello... I am just a hausfrau trying to get the weekly shopping done. Work with me, people.

The deli counter is a demilitarized zone. And a stupid zone. On my most recent trip, there was a lady who was arguing with the OWNER of the store about something, saying she was going to get home and call the office to talk to someone higher. Um... smoke crack, much??

While standing in line to check out, a woman of at least 50 tried to cut in front of me, after I'd been waiting there for 10 minutes and she rolled up. Seriously. I had to chew her out to get her to give it up. Can't ya just play nice in the sandbox???

But... there is love.

When the dude behind the deli counter sees my Sox hat and throws me some love? Great. Actually finding turbot at the seafood counter? I love it. Every ethnic ingredient I could hope for? I loves ya.

The last trip.... some lovely serrano ham and some artichoke focaccia that has provided lunch for five days under ten bucks? Damnit. I'll be back.

Even though this is the place... when they opened a few years back...... they were offering a "free" case of bananas the first time I went there. No thanks... I have no need for a case of bananas. I told them I did not want it. Several times. But, while they were packing groceries and loading my cart.... they slipped one in. I ended up bringing it to work, proving that in most workplaces, people will love anything that is free. They were gone by the end of the day.

Other news... tomato number 2 was picked from my patio plant today. That was the bestest $4 impluse purchase I have made in a LONG time.

Like a good neighbor......

(..... State Farm is theeeeeeeeeerrrrree.......)

(oh, and Carrie, if you're reading this... go to another page. Now. There will likely be much swearing and bad will towards others following this)

Why are good neighbors so hard to find??

A good neighbor (at least to me) is someone who is not trying to be your best friend, or someone who is up in your face about everything.

Something must be in the air along with spring and massive amounts of pollen.... a huge bug up many of the neighbor's asses.

(see Carrie? I told you to leave.... get out while you still can!!!)

It started last week with neighbor on the right. Came over at 11pm to bitch about us parking in front of his house. Now, we're in an odd little situation on our little section of townhomes... we actually legally own the paved surface in front of our house. But the guy was being a bit of an ass about it all.... there are ways to be neighborly and ways to a complete tool about it and he was sure HAMMERing home the point.... whatever. Hubby (after I told him about the exchange... didn't call him down while I talked to the guy 'cause I knew Hubby would get hotheaded) groaned and moved the offending car. Oh... might I mention... these people don't put an actual car of theirs in their garage... it's filled with boxes that have been there since they moved in. Yeah, I judge.

Neighbor on the left is actually OK... he's an old dude, and gets that a good neighbor is polite conversation and asking for things nicely. He mentioned he's got some people working on his place, and he'd appreciate if we left the space in front of our adjoining lots open so the dudes can park there. Fine... you asked nice, we get it, not a problem.

After the work-type dudes were obviously gone, the Hubby parked a car out front. Yeah, he did it badly, parking on the section of "lot" where the plow dudes totally hacked up our grass. But Monday morning, the neighbor two doors to the left - the daughter of old dude - was knocking/ringing our bell at 6am. SIX AM, PEOPLE. I don't want someone doing that unless our OWN townhome is on fire, especially on a Monday morning. The Hubby went down for that one, and if he was not in a sleep-haze I fear what would have happened. Let me say right here.... as a total attack on some of my gender... there are reasons some women are unmarried. Just try to learn how to be a little civil and not such a self-centered BLEEEEEEEEEEEEP BLEP BLEEPETY BLEEP about things. Please. If you could realize that people are people and they very often have more things going on in life that whatever is your cause for that ten minutes, you'd likely be a lot happier.

And... might I mention our lawn might not be so hacked to bit if she, as part of the association board, tried a little harder to pick a landscaping crew that could tell a weed from a lilac bush??

Let's just say that last night, the Hubby and I were dreaming of winning the lotto and having a contest to give this place to somebody who is the most annoying neighbor EVER. C'mon... we try to keep quiet. We keep the place up. I try to make the yard look nice. I'll have conversations with neighbors when it seems fit, but let them escape or go on their way when I think that is what they want to do. Am I such a bad neighbor??

Randomosity

Been meaning to say something.... was very sad to read about the passing of Dan Savage's mom last week. I've been reading him for years, spoken to him via email after reading his book "The Kid" when my brother and sister in law were in the throws of the adoption process.... just a great guy. Funny, insightful... and I've been a fan long enough to know how big of an influence his mom has been. And I know how much it sucks to loose the parent you're the most like. My heart goes out to him. Hopefully right now he's in a bar of the sout' side somewhere with his family getting very, very drunk and remembering hilarious stories about his mom.

Pulled together a pretty nice dinner tonight.... but you get a rant before you get the details! One of the things that irks me the most about Rachel Ray is that the cooking is so rushed. It's yet another show that seems to stress what a chore cooking can be, and isn't it great to burger-fy your meals so you can be out of the kitchen in 30 minutes (and... I'm a fairly skilled person in the kitchen, and any of her recipes has always taken me at least 45 minutes... I'm just sayin'....). Sometimes it's nice to spend some leisurely time in the kitchen. Not being rushed, just giving the cooking process the time it needs to do its lovely magic.

Sometime last year at the end of tomato season, I found myself with a couple of very beautiful tomatoes on hand, ready to go south, and a couple extra cups of heavy cream on hand. What to do? I tossed the cream and some garlic confit in a small pot, put it on the simmer burner on low, and let it go for about an hour and a half. Then I added the flesh from my wonderful summer tomatoes, and we had a lovely tomato-cream pasta sauce for dinner.

I've done it a few times since, and as long as you give it about an hour and are around to stir it every five minutes or so, you are rewarded with a wonderful sauce that a lot of Italian eateries can't compare to.

This week, the roma tomatoes at the produce mart were looking really good, so I bought several. Ok, about three to four pounds worth. We had some with the tacos/nachos last night, but tonight, as soon as the cream (oh wait, I used half & half tonight... not quite as good but still very tasty) came to a simmer, I threw in the whole tomatoes (with the bottom scored) for a minute, then peeled/seeded/chopped them and threw them in. I started cooking at 6pm, and dinner was ready by 7pm. I was not rushed, I spent my time dealing with the tomatoes, peeling some shrimp, getting my pasta water to a boil... and it all came together, but none of it rushed. And it was a zillion and a half times better than any sauce fromajar. Who needs a recipe when you have decent ingredients? The only thing that might have made it better was figuring out how to work bacon in there.....

Work.... ugh. Yeah. There is an industry standard program for producing "print" manuals, and we don't use it at my place. We use a program that has not been updated in ten years. Some people are fanatical about it, but I have yet to be convinced. It's not nearly as feature-rich as the industry-standard tool at this point in time (hello! Program has not been updated in TEN YEARS!) and I've just had a lot of problems with it crashing. It's even more crash-happy than the industry standard program, which can be a little crash happy sometimes, but there are at least ways to fix it. Anyway... today, the program crashed on me, and took an entire chapter of the book I was working on with it. Poof. GONE. No where to be seen. Not in the recovery file. Not in the auto-saved "backup". Gone gone gone. A day of work down the drain, since luckily I don't really trust the program and I at least make a PDF of my work at the end of the day, so I at least had the text I needed. Sigh. Man, I do not like this program. I really, really want to go back to the industry-standard program we used at the last job.

Hopefully a quiet weekend ahead... looks like my bro is getting sprung from the hospital tomorrow or Saturday, so I'll be happy to leave him alone and let him get some rest over the weekend.

Is it Friday yet???

More adventures in crap-tacular food...

Kraft Mac & Cheese. Etouffee from a box (hey, I added my own sausage and shrimp at least). It's not been a week of large cooking efforts around here.

Tonight dinner was McDonalds. I had a salad, and a Big Mac for the hubby since whatever animal it is that they use to make the RibWich has gone extinct again (that's an inside "Simpsons" joke, for those who may not get it).

I had some individual pizzas I had planned to pull out in a pinch this week, but the hubby's work "surprised" them all with a pizza party for lunch today. I got home late - I was trying to solve some software issues and also go stuck trying to make Word 2007 somewhat reasonable to work with. Microsoft is just being downright stupid and stubborn right now. Yes, you can offer me a whole new interface and everything, but it's damned stupid to make it so I can't make it work like the old one. Let people ease in to it. Because you've already assured me that my old Word 2000 is still damn fine, easier to use and a friendlier than anything else you've put out since, Microsoft. And at the current job, I actually have to use Word for some stuff (no more FrameMaker, sniff sniff), so in every way it lacks from the high-powered and feature rich tools I am used to, I gonna be bitching. And feeling stabby. Especially since we were also seeing some weirdness in how it plays with docs that were originally done in an earlier version of Word. Not pretty.

I did make it to the grocery store on the way home, got the fixings for the Creamy Mushroom Phyllo Triangles and Chile Crab Wonton Cups I'm making for an Xmas party on Saturday. If I don't get the fillings done tomorrow night, it shouldn't be a big deal to do them on Saturday.

Hell, I might even do them tonight.

Breathe in... breathe out.....

So.... tonight was continued Turkey Day prep.

Drained off the turkey stock/giblets that I started this morning. Giblets/meat is in the freezer, and the stock is in the fridge. I may even clarify it tomorrow, we'll see.

Also started to plug in the stuff I still need to pick up at the grocery store this weekend in to my Palm, going recipe by recipe. And then I went to find my tart pie shell and pecan filling recipes. And I. Cannot. Find. Them. And it is Freaking. Me. Out.

They are on two copies sheets, with various notes. I usually keep them tucked in to The Joy of Cooking, but they're not there. And I've checked every cookbook and cleared my cookbook shelves to see if they just got tucked in somewhere else by accident. No luck.

Checked Mastercook on my laptop and my desktop, and I don't have it on either machine. Damn.

I can just get them from my mom (they're her recipes) but this means in the already busy weekend, I'll have to get over there to jot them down. And be guilted in to visiting for awhile.

Normally, I wouldn't have a big problem spending the morning wandering around TJ Maxx with my mom and then having lunch, but I *know* the stores will be filled with women out looking to pick up the perfect discount tablescape item, and I really don't need that. I might end up bashing someone in the head with a faceless pilgrim, and while that would be funny, I don't really want it on my record.

At least the stress has me being productive. I de-condiment-ed the fridge and toss some old stuff to help make room for Turkey Day stuff.

Ok. 'Nuff goofing off. Time to go clean some dishes and prep pot roast fixin's for tomorrow's dinner.

Random sighting......

The other day, driving home from work, I saw a sign in a yard.....

"GARAGE SAEL"

The scary thing, this was in a neighborhood of $400k homes.

America really is getting dumber.

I was tempted to drive down the street to see the actual sael. Because, you know, someone that stupid might just be selling rare artwork or collectables for a quarter. If ya can't correctly spell "SALE" on a sign, you just might be that stupid.

Is it Vegas yet???

Another Ugh.

I can't even recall what the heck I made for dinner on Monday.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day at work, and we'd gotten a heavy enough rain the night before that caused some water to leak in to our (thankfully unfinished) basement. But, that meant getting home from work and cleaning up that mess. And I needed to run to Menards. And it was a zillion degrees out. Yeah. We had Jimmy Johns for dinner.

Tonight was a downer of a day at work. Our "weekly status meeting" basicly turned in to a speculation session about how the expected next round of layoffs will go. My boss suspects she's on the chopping block, and they might keep one writer. Frankly, I don't see how the company can work without my boss. No one has their pulse on the company like she does. Or knows when our vendors are outright lying to us like she does.

The day was already a downer, and rain started to come thru. Out having a smoke with a co-worker, some joking led to me saying "If your 'sunny attitude' was really ruling the weather, there'd be a tornado blowing thru right now." Cue the tornado sirens. Seriously.

Ok. I have lived in the midwest my whole life, but I am not good during a tornado warning situation. Really, really, not good. And especially bad in a single story building where there is NO emergency plan and the whole damn building is nothing but knee-to-ceiling windows. It took every bit of courage I had to not hide in the bathroom or under my desk for the half hour the warning was active and we were right in the predicted path. I was a wreck by the time we got the all clear.

Figured I'd be coming home to at least some wind damage (quite a few microburts in our town in the past few years.... we're a typical suburban town, but the towns to the west of us are more rural) and more water in the basement. Thankfully, not too much water in the basement. And no wind damage to anything, not even any of my plants.

Dinner was sauteed shrimp and cherry tomatoes (from the garden) with some shrimp butter I had left over, tossed with pasta. Simple but good. And no fuckin' clue what I'm making for dinner tomorrow. I'll think about it after noon, when I can be somewhat certain that no layoffs are happening on that day.

Still have a zillion things to do before we leave for Vegas. And no time to get them done. Despite facing possible layoffs, I've currently got eight - count 'em, eight! - projects that are pretty damned active. Stuff being translated, stuff to process from the translations group, stuff that still has to be edited and changed.... and I am a complete idiot who is still working hard, knowing that I'd feel horrible if I had to hand all this shit off to the other writing in shitty shape. Yes, I am an idiot. I have a funny feeling I may even be staying late a couple days since I hae the wonderful task of creating some docs by going from an HTML to Frame Maker situation for 3 pesky languages (I'll spare the gritty details, but it ain't fun. Far more complicated than a copy/paste. It's like a copy/paste, then another copy/paste and then having to format the text all over again). Damn you, work ethic!!!

Where was I going?? Oh yeah. A list for my own personal use. Feel free to skip it.

Scrub kitchen.
Make dips and pita chips for a party on Sunday.
Shop for presents and cards for the birthday parties that are Saturday AND Sunday.
Do laundry.
Straighten up rest of house.
Pray to a higher power that I don't get laid off.
Pray to a higher power that the market improves.
Pray to a higher power that one of the few companies I've sent a resume to in the past couple days shows interest in me and calls me back.
Finish Vegas packing.
Try to keep container plants from drowning in all this rain.
Clean out fridge.
Move around basement again so if we get more water, our stuff will be safe.
Hope I didn't miss anything super cool at the Comic Con on Saturday (hubby is going, I usually go but I just don't have it in me this year).
And a zillion other things.

I just hope, hope hope hope, if there are layoffs, it won't be until after Vegas. I want to have fun, not be worried about dropping a cent on any gambling.

I am addicted to the Nicoise Tuna Tartine

Had it again for lunch today. Forgot my herbs at home, and it was even still good.

The home cooking was unexciting... pork tacos. But with some fresh guac and a nice lime cream, still tasty. A pot roast, a crock pot and some salsa can be a very good thing sometimes. After the non-stop day at work (reload operating system.... try installation of new product... doesn't work... try another way... still doesn't work... try a third way... still doesn't work.... rinse and repeat for the 6 other operating systems to test....)

And the Hausfrau duties are not yet done for the night. I did get to relax for a few minutes before dinner, but after dinner was a workout watching the World Series of Pop Culture (easy questions tonight. And how could you miss Ed Wood?!?!?) Some watering of the tomato plants (one needed it, badly). Cleaning off the door mat out front that some mysterious creature keeps taking a shit on during the night. Application of a general anti-critter spray to the area so hopefull tomorrow morning I'm not stepping over shit as soon as I walk out of the house (I like to wait until I'm at work to deal with the shit.... RIMSHOT! Thanks folks, I'm here all week. Don't forget to tip the wait staff). Got a load of laundry done, and some general cleaning. Watched some stuff on the Tivo. Still have to clean the kitchen and clean out the fridge as the pre-garbage day ritual.

Not sure what will be for lunch tomorrow. I was going ot use up the last of the tomato confit with some pasta and leftover chicken from Sunday... but now I've got a couple tablespoons of guac still in the fridge, calling my name (this time... covered with the leftover lime creama to keep it from going brown - usually I'll just top it with salsa to keep it from heading south). Might be some tostadas for lunch tomorrow. And I believe dinner will be a glorious dinner from the world-famous Steak and Shake... got a doctor's appointment after 6pm, and it's on my way home.

Sometime this week, I have to go on a rant about how much I hate weddings. Not even just other people's weddings.... if we hadn't gotten big feedback from the families after we returned from Vegas married to put together some type of big bash I'd have never done it, I do not have the weddig gene. Not at all. I wish I'd gotten married in my favorite leopard print PVC dress rather than the Cheongsam I did get married in. I hated being the center of attention for it all. Just eat some food, have some drinks and dance, people! My cousin is getting married on Friday, and I'm not even involved in standing up (thank you GOD) but it's still putting a crimp in my usual routine. Is it over yet???