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      I Barely Refrained from Freaking Out!

      April 24, 2008 /

      I went to Sung Son for lunch with mah BFF Beth, and we were eager to try out their new lunchtime buffet. It was terrific. At one point, I believe I said, “I don’t even know how much this is, but it’s freakin’ AWESOME!”

      For the record? $8.99. Dudes & dudettes? They have SPRING ROLLS on the buffet. And Vietnamese egg rolls, made with those lovely thin wrappers. And a noodle soup bowl selection of like, 10 different kinds. And bun. And a bunch of chinese dishes, too. Hog-freakin-heaven, since spring rolls are my Achilles heel. And a vat of peanut sauce? Died and gone to heaven, folks. You normally pay $4 to get 2 spring rolls. It was phenomenal. And to me, the glorious part of Vietnamese food is that it’s healthy (as long as you don’t ladle the peanut sauce onto everything!) so I feel pretty good right now. It’s very filling, tasty, well-prepared – mm. I’m pleased as punch & it seems to have picked up their business, too, so it should be a win-win situation for them.

      As long as they keep that spring roll wrapper person on staff. Man. They’re just so good!

      RaoK, P Nuggy Style

      April 10, 2008 /

      Well, it’s a gloomy day here in Kansas City, spitting rain and overcast. After meeting a couple of pals down at LuLu’s for lunch, I really wanted some comfort coffee. I came to this realization partway back to the office, so I pulled into -yes- the megalopolis Starbucks. As I did this, another vehicle entered towards the drive-thru, but stopped to let me go. The guy could’ve been a real jackass and cut me off, but he didn’t, and I was struck, a bit, by the notion of doing one of those Random Acts Of Kindness all the bloggers like to write about, and challenge others to do, but I never do them because I don’t want to do something because I’ve been challenged to do it, but rather I want to do it because it really feels like the right thing to do. Sometimes my heart is a tiny lump of coal, ya know? And maybe my shoes are too tight. ;) And drivers sometimes just bite. Or life is so busy and filled up it’s easy to forget to do something extra when you’re worried about forgetting the next six things you need to do today. (To her credit, the first place I really started reading about this regularly, Sheri at the Loopy Ewe has to be the kindest person alive, I swear. She does RaoKs all the time and makes the world a better place. Me? I am usually screaming at people from the safe bubble inside Mimi Murano about their horrid driving.)

      So I put in my order – nonfat Venti Cafe Mocha, and cave for the whip, because hell, I just made the dang thing nonfat, why not have a sweet li’l whip on top? And pull around to pay. A very nice, hippie-sorta dude leans out the window as I explain that I want to pay for my drink, as well as the guy-behind-me’s drink, because he was so nice to not cut me off and I’m blathering about being random, and I’m a little worried he thinks I’m not only crazy but I’m stalking the guy behind me (how hard would that be?) and instead, he nods and takes my card, and says something about how the guy behind me got the same drink I did. (Crazy! And super ESP for a stalker, I’d say!) The windows close, and I see him talking to the barista making our drinks, and then he swipes my card & comes back, and hands me my receipt. And says, “You paid for his drink, but I paid for yours, because you were being nice.” And I kinda open-mouth fish gaped and then had the where-with-all to remember to tip him.

      Now, I love the independent coffee shops. I met my husband in one, we got engaged there four years later, and I always feel a twinge guilty when I give my money to the 800-pound gorilla. But – but – geeze. What a nice thing to do, and the guy behind me followed me out to the stop sign & honked & waved, and we all went on with our days, a little happier and reminded of the fact that a little kindness and generosity go a long way, no matter what’s going on in the world.

      And, I guess it shows that even big mega-corporations can have a soul if they hire the right people, hm?

      Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, OR, My, What Fast Response Times We Have With The Local Fire Department!

      January 28, 2008 /

      Yesterday evening, I decided to bake a pie. A strawberry-rhubarb pie. I had a recipe from Ye Olde Internet, and I quickly threw everything together. I followed the directions – I do not understand this brushing of the milk on the crust, it pooled and sat there through the entire process and grossed me out. But I did not follow the direction that said, “Put a baking sheet under the pie to catch the drips.” Whatevs! The oven already had some pizza cheese burned on – what’s a little extra pie, hm?

      So I checked the pie at the lowest time allotment for baking – still not done. I took my pie crust ring off, so the whole thing would brown. Apparently (or at least this is the conclusion I’ve drawn) this is what started Pie Armageddon In The Oven. Suddenly the pie decides to leak. And when I checked it 10 minutes later, there were just a few little red drizzles, and I thought, “Well, hell, I should have done that baking-sheet-thing” and I put a piece of aluminum foil under said pie.

      Roughly six minutes later, we were alerted to Pie Armageddon by the whooping of our smoke alarm. And not just any smoke alarm, but the one tied to our security system. So the whooping was also taking place on the outdoor siren (free! due to excellent negotiation skeelz). I ran to cancel it, meanwhile, James started opening windows and I dragged a fan around to start airing things out. The house phone rang – but nobody was on the line, I knew it had to be the alarm company, so I also got out my cell phone (second on the call list). As I looked up, I saw a white light sweep across the side yard.

      Giant fucking fire truck. Less than 5 minutes, people. Can I tell you how AMAZED! and GUILTY! But still AMAZED! I was? Four (handsome, uniformed) firemen piled off the truck as I walked to greet them. (James? Inside fanning at the smoke alarm and canceling the alarm every time it went off.) They seemed a little disappointed, all this fuss over a pie, but then they smelled the burnt sugar carried on the wind behind me, and they knew I wasn’t covering for a pyromaniac nephew living in the basement. One fireman offered a fan, to air out the house, and I was so dreadfully embarrassed, I declined.

      James noted it would be nice if the police response time was as fast, maybe we wouldn’t have lost all our stuff. He also went to the freezer to get out a large summer sausage that we’ll be taking (along with some cheese) down to the fire station as a thank-you for the unbelievably fast response. Granted, the station is less than a mile away, but I was agog at how quickly they were there.

      FWIW, the pie? Pretty good. But not worth all the ruckus! And next time? Baking sheet under said pie.

      ….and I shouted, "I ATE GOAT!"

      July 2, 2007 /

      ….upon returning to the office from lunch.

      I’m adventurous with limits. I like to try new things, but I’m also a flippin’ princess about what I do and don’t like. I can be exceedingly timid, and I usually sail right by the “Goat Curry” on the Taj Mahal buffet. But I took my IT co-worker there for lunch today, and he tried a small spoonful of everything. So after the first go-through (wherein I declared, “Nope. I can’t do it.”) I decided to nut up* and take a tiny piece of goat. With bone. (I’m also reeeeally not a gamer for meat on the bone IN sauces, soups and whatnot.) It wasn’t bad! It wasn’t awesome and I’m not running out to the GoatMart or anything anytime soon, but I’m glad I tried it. After all, the selling point to me for that buffet is that you can sample a wide variety of things without committing to an entire plate of any one thing. And whatever was in the vegetables? Lit me up like a Roman Candle. Holy Toledo. The crazy thing about the spices is that they have a slow build, but the crescendo is enough to make your eyes pop out of your head. And after four bites in, you’re screwed, there’s no turning the spice bus around!

      The best part about dining there is the bottomless cups of chai tea….. iced or hot….. yummmmmmmy!

      Oh, yeah, and the best part of my week? I’m only working two days. And since one of those days is half-over, dude, that’s even LESS time! I have already fooled myself into thinking I’m turning 40, so it’s great to re-correct myself and adjust to turning 39 on Friday. From what I hear, many people remain 39 for – well – years and years!

      *Can girls nut up, technically? I think so. I just know it’s more a boy-term, but I catch myself saying it in my head, so it applies when I’m applying it, I guess! You know me and the tautologies. I just told Kristin, “I believe what I believe!” and two weeks ago I declared, “All we can do, is what we can.” I am a walking bumpersticker machine, friends.

      Foodie Fotos

      June 5, 2007 /

      Last night, we had homemade pizza for dinner:

      Homemade Pizza

      I usually make the dough from scratch, but since I’d bought extra bread dough for the calzones I made a few weeks back, I thought, hm, I’ll just thaw that & try it out. It was pretty good – it wasn’t as pliable as my dough, and I like the chewiness a fresh yeast bread has. That said, I loaded it up with spicy sausage, vidalia onions, black olives & mushrooms, and it was quite yummy!

      On Memorial Day, I made spring rolls.

      Spring Rolls
      These are a lot of work, and I still have a long way to go on learning how to roll them as well as they do at my favorite Thai & Vietnamese haunts. I also made homemade peanut sauce, um, quite a lot, so we utilized that for lunch the next weeked over noodles & some broccoli thrown in for green goodness.

      We had quite a few leftover rice noodles, so the dogs got those, and of course we had to have a little fun with ’em – here’s Suzy looking scary, but in reality, just driven to get the dang noodles off her nose & into her mouth….

      Rice Noodles on Suzy

      Dudes, it’s lunchtime & with all these photos of food, I’m hungry!

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