So yesterday we had our individual-serving pot pies and they were very good, though I didn’t bake them quite long enough, so the dough in the middle of each pot was a wee bit raw.
After we were done eating, Fred said “I can’t believe you made these in souffle dishes. I’m horrified.” HA.
But before that, because I am SUCH the idiot and I do not ever learn, I preheated the oven, and I kept thinking “What the hell is that SMELL?” Well, that smell was egg shells that I’d put in to dry three days ago, turned off the oven, forgot about them (and in fact forgot until just now that I could have microwaved them for 90 seconds to dry them out instead, like FarmWife told me. DUH.).
I swear to god that if I had a brain, I’d be dangerous.
Okay, so, who’s still watching Oprah? I have the DVR set up to tape all her new shows and most of the time I glance at the description of the show, decide whether I want to watch it, and 9 times out of 10 I delete it.
She had Dr. Oz on earlier this week, and I don’t always watch the Dr. Oz shows (though sometimes I do; it depends on my mood), but this one was the best moments of Dr. Oz, so I gave it a try. Turns out it’s the Oprah/ Dr. Oz finale and can you guess why? I bet you can: Dr. Oz is getting his own show starting this Fall.
Now, I generally like Dr. Oz – the Oprah episodes he’s on that I don’t watch aren’t because I don’t like him, but rather because I decide whatever specific topic they’re discussing doesn’t interest me. The episode (was it his first? I honestly don’t know.) wherein poop was discussed in full was probably my favorite Oprah episode of all time.
But I don’t know that Dr. Oz needs his own show. What’s interesting once or twice a month on Oprah is going to be overkill when it’s on five days a week, is my prediction.
You know I’ll be checking it out, though.
I also happened to watch the episode with the Elizabeth Edwards interview. That was one that I would have deleted if I’d known what the subject was, because I am not so interested in Elizabeth Edwards (nothing personal, you understand, just a lack of interest). But the summary on the DVR just said something like “Oprah discusses topics with her audience”, so I had to start watching it to see what it was about. And I got pulled in, and I watched the whole thing.
I thought it was a really good interview, actually, and Elizabeth Edwards came across as very sincere and open. There’s clearly a lot of anger toward “the other woman” and I think she made a couple of really good points – about the other woman wanting to “stand in the light” (of John Edwards’ fame) and that after all she and John Edwards had been through, she had to decide, does this horrible thing he did negate all the good things he did throughout their marriage?
I will say that I honestly never thought about it in that light. After 30 years of marriage, do you end it because of one horrible thing?
(Although the part where he first told her it was a one-night thing, they spent a year and a half working through it, and then? “Oh, did I mean it only happened once? Oh, I meant it happened once THAT NIGHT. It actually went on for some time…” Well, that’s pretty fucking horrible.)
So I don’t know much about John Edwards aside from the knee-jerk cheated on his cancer-ridden wife what a douchebag reaction I had when the news first came out, and if I’ve ever seen him speak before I certainly don’t remember it, but there was a point where Oprah got to talk to him after a tour of their house (hello, BASKETBALL COURT) and boy. He certainly came off as completely insincere in every word he said.
Yeah, I thought the interview was very interesting, but I don’t think I’m interested in reading the book.
OH MY GOD, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this! Speaking of books!
There’s this site where you can trade books – basically, you list books that you’re willing to give to someone else; you get 1/10th of a point for listing them, a point if you send a book to someone in your country, three points if you send a book to someone in another country (you can specify whether you’re willing to send a book outside your country). Then you can “mooch” a book that someone else is willing to send out, and it costs you 1 point if they’re in your country or 2 points if they’re in another country.
The person sending out the book is responsible for the cost of shipping, but since you can (at least in the United States) mail out a book via Media Mail for less than $2.50 (unless it’s one of those really heavy books, I imagine it’d cost more to ship those), it’s still a pretty damn good deal.
Here’s the site: BookMooch.com.
And here’s a widget showing the books I currently have available:
BookMooch.com is a book trade site
It’s not perfect – newer books are harder to come by (though you can set up a wish list, and when someone lists that book, you’ll get an email), but for someone like me who’s got books on her Amazon wish list that were added back in 2005, it’s certainly a bargain!
These kittens love their sleep. I mean, they LOVE their sleep. They throw themselves wholeheartedly into sleep for 20 hours of every day (the other four hours are taken up by eating, scratching around in the litterbox, and racing around like their tails are on fire.)
Brudderly love in the back yard.
Previously
2008: The hetred will never steer you wrong.
2007: Ugly, but somehow oddly appealing to me.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Memeriffic.
2003: “One of the cats brought in a baby possum and it appears to be dying.”
2002: A mother can dream, can’t she?
2001: I almost shot a red bean out of my nose, I was laughing so hard.
2000: No entry.
Beulah reminds me quite a bit of a friend’s cat, Victoria. At least in her coloring. Vic was a very dignified cat, choosy about who she let into her life. I was ecstatic when she “accepted” me on my first visit. Her person, John, had warned me that I probably wouldn’t even see her on my first visit, but by the time a couple of hours had gone by, she took food from my hand. Vic lived a very long life, a very happy one.
I hope Beulah does the same. She’s certainly getting a great start at Crooked Acres!
Have you ever had one of the cats reject the medicine you just shot in their mouth with
the medicine syringe thing? My evil cat, Lytning, (the one who bit the vet tech and
pooped on the doc), well, she had surgery. A tumor was removed – benign, thank goodness.
She is OCD and literally licked off the skin around the incision. Doc said to give her
1/4 tsp on benadryl to “sedate” her before tackling the neosporin and hydrocortisone
on the site. I shot it into her mouth and she literally walked around the house
with her tongue out, mouth open, dropping gross strings of drool all through-out just to
not swallow!! My son freaked thinking she was foaming at the mouth & was reacting to the
benadryl. I was like “no one reacts to benadryl”, she just doesn’t want to swallow.
Cracked me up and pissed me off all a the same time. Spoiled brat!!
We had a cat who would instantly grow Fu Manchu whiskers of drool the second I put a pill in his mouth. He was the absolute king of pill refusal. Just when you think you had finally gotten the little dude to swallow the pill out it would float on a sea of drool. He was famour for it.
I have to say that we’re very, very lucky when it comes to medicating the cats. We use a piller to shoot pills at the very back of their throat, which makes them swallow reflexively. If we’re giving them liquid, we’re lucky enough that they usually swallow it pretty quickly (though if it’s nasty-tasting they’ll walk around with a drool beard).
Mostly, our luck is that we don’t have to medicate all that often, thank god. I’ll say that if Stinkerbelle ever develops some sort of illness that requires her to be medicated, I don’t know what we’ll do – she barely tolerates being touched, I can’t imagine trying to shoot a pill down her throat!
Hi Robyn,
I totally get the Beulah thinking. I sometimes feel like I have slighted one of our 3 it I pay attention to another one of the gang. Your reader is right (I am sorry but I forgot her name) that you all probably are at your maximum. After all we love our kitties so there will always be another one who catches our attention and we want to keep them. You are doing such a great job helping our little furbots make a good start in the world. Beulah will do just fine, but only if Miz Poo decided to let her go…..
By the way, Dave wants to know what settings you use on your camera. He is having trouble with his Sony. He is getting a lot of blurry shots and a lot of the shots are showing up with an amber color. Any ideas?
Elaine, I don’t really mess with the settings on the cameras, just stick with the default. I do tend to use the “p” setting – not because I have ANY idea what it means, but because that’s the setting that seems to result in the best pictures.
Not very helpful, huh? 🙂
There is another book swap site called http://www.Paperbackswap.com .
We’ve been using it for 2 or 3 years. Awesome way to recyle.
I use paperbackswap.com too and its really great!
I’m also a HUGE fan of paperbackswap.com! Can’t recommend it enough!
and paperbackswap isn’t just about paperbacks. You can trade hardcover, audio CD, audio cassette and large type print. They also have a sister site that trades DVD’s.
I love that PBS site.
I had no idea that Paperback Swap isn’t paperback-only. I’m going to go check it out right now. Thanks, you guys!
Paperback swap rocks! My mom works at a small town library and uses it to trade out the 30 donated copies of “we were the mulvaneys” for good stuff that people actually want to read! HAH!
Another vote here for Paperbackswap. I never knew about bookmooch.com but I went and signed up today to see if I can unload some of the books that no one on PBS seems to want – and whaddya know, like six of them have been claimed! I still like PBS’s interface better, I think, but I’m really glad to unload some of these extra books. Thanks, Robin!
The idea of the individual chicken pot pies intrigues me. Ever since you posted that recipe, I have wanted to try it, but being alone now, I couldn’t do the whole pie.
So, when you did the individual ramekins (which is perfectly fine by the way no matter what the cashier said) what did you do for the crust. Or, maybe the question should be: HOW did you do the crust?
Lynette, I rolled out the pie dough (I buy the premade stuff at the store – I’m not ready to try making my own just yet!), then put an empty ramekin on top of the dough and used a pizza cutter to cut around the ramekin, leaving a little extra space as I cut. Then just filled the ramekin with pot pie filling, put the dough on top and pressed firmly around the top to seal. It was pretty simple – though I did have leftover pie dough that is currently sitting in the fridge begging to be used! 🙂
I also came to recommend the Paperbackswap site that was mentioned by Amanda above. It’s so much better than bookmooch, and from what I understand has many more members and a many more books available. It’s been featured in People Magazine as well as a few others. You can read those articles here……
http://www.paperbackswap.com/press_media/index.php
I’ve been there about 3 years now, and have gotten so many books from there, as well as found homes for a bunch of books. I’ve also made some great friends from there.
Check it out if you get the time. 🙂
I have to say that I much prefer Bookmooch to PBS. I’ve found so much more of what I’ve
wanted on BM. I think it just depends which system you use. If you are online a lot and
like receiving emails that books are available which you can get to quickly, BM is the best,
as it’s first come, first serve.
If you prefer to just make a list and have thing show up when they are available, PBS will
do that for you as you are placed into a waiting list and when your number is up, the book
is automatically yours.
I rarely watch Oprah, but I did see the Elizabeth Edwards interview. I had much the same take as you did. I read an exerpt of her book in Time I think – it was compelling. more so than I had expected. And, yeah, didn’t John Edwards seem totally disconnected when he showed up for the last few monutes of the Oprah show. The guy is pretty much washed up now, I’d say. Even with the children and her cancer diagnosis, I think she would be better off without him.
You know, I’m not convinced that she’s 100% on staying yet. I’ll be interested to see what happens as far as that goes.
I watched that episode of Oprah also.Poor Elizabeth, the humilation, do’nt know how she stood it all. John running around smiling like nothing bothered him at all. he will be married again befor Elizabeth is cold in her grave. When I was a little girl I remember my step dad would cheat on my Mom. He would be gone for days and when he decided to come home if she said one word to him he would beat her to the floor. My Mom had no work talents outside the home so she stayed with him. In his late fifties he found God and became a good husband to her. She told me many times that it’s too late now for forgiveness, the hurt was too deep. They both died within six months of each other. both were 64 years old.
Shirley, what a sad story about your Mom and StepDad, I’m so sorry to hear it.
I only watch Oprah if I happen to be at home which means *maybe* 3 times a year, and I happened to be sick last week when the Edwards interview was on. Oh, she is still so very angry, I can tell. I agree with you that she seemed mostly sincere and John was his usual snake oil politician self. I also agree with Leslie that he will be married or engaged within a year of her death. I am certain if Elizabeth did not have this cancer diagnosis hanging over her, she would have been GONE with that second revelation of “oh yeah, did I say it only happened once? Hah. Well…”
Beaulah is too adorable in that sleeping position!
WOW the caption on the last pictures sounds dirty.
HA – perv!
That reminds me of the sign I saw in a store once (and bought for Fred’s office) that says “Back door friends are best.”
I don’t have TV reception at home, so I only watch television in hotels and doctors’ offices. We were in Las Vegas this week and I saw Elizabeth Edwards on Larry King (I hate him, btw).
What I don’t get is how in the world Elizabeth Edwards can be shocked that her husband cheated. John Edwards is attractive, famous and traveled on his own a LOT. When a couple spends as much time apart as the Edwards’ did (and still do), it seems inevitable that one or both will stray. I’m NOT saying it was okay, just unsurprising.
I am somewhat peeved that John Edwards won’t step up and get that paternity test. That baby deserves to know who its father is.
Didn’t Dr. Oz already have his own show on Discovery Health? I wonder what happened to it?
You know, I think you’re right – I wonder if he’ll get more control over his show if it’s done under the Harpo umbrella or if it pays better.
i’m not surprised that elizabeth edwards (or any woman) might give a cheating husband another chance. if he’s good in other ways, and you think the marriage might still be a strong one if you can work through the infidelity, i think it is OK to forgive a cheating spouse (so long as work can be done to repair the damage).
what got me was the way she completely dismissed the child who MIGHT be john’s. she kept saying it didn’t affect her. BULL! i would send my husband out to figure out that paternity mess before i even thought about forgiveness. if she wants to stay with him and that IS his daughter, the baby is going to be part of the equation. for me, it is worse to dismiss the kid and pretend she does not exist than the cheating itself. he can’t go back and unring that bell, so he needs to do the right thing. and so does elizabeth, if she wants to stay with him. if she can’t face that part of it, she maybe should end things with john. although i UNDERSTAND completely that she does not want to face the fact that she might have a stepkid in the picture, esp. b/c she is dying.
I think that comes under the heading of still being very angry about the other woman – I wonder if her feelings on the topic might change if given enough time.
You might like to check out http://www.bookcrossing.com/ – it’s a site that advertises where people have left books for others to find and read 🙂 The idea is:
Leave it on a park bench, a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym — anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel. Track the book’s journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person.
It’s funny you mention it, because just last week, I too was deleting almost every Oprah episode saved on my DVR. The whole time, I was thinking about how much her shows suck these days and wondering why I have it set up to record everday. I can’t stand the Oprah Fridays Live. Mark Consuelos? Why?
Also, I am a citizen on the fence between conservative and liberal and when Oprah decided to start giving her opinion on politics it really turned me off. Oprah, I will watch CNN or NBC if I want to be inundated with the liberal agenda. Please go back to feel good stories!!
Yeah, I don’t quite get those Friday shows – it’s like they’re trying to be The View.
Hi, Robyn, just wondering if anyone knows what happened to Noreen,Coppertop”. I had been reading her daily and it now says it’s been deleted. Hope she is OK, she has gone though alot……. Thanks.
Lynn, I have no idea what happened to Noreen – I’m sure she’s okay and I’m hoping she’ll pop up again in the future!
I don’t like Oprah as much as I used to either. I think maybe her ratings were slipping or something-seems like the people around her have changed. I am vey much a liberal and have great compassion for gay and transgender issues. Still the pregnant man story pissed me off. Regardless of how he identifies HIMSELF biology renders him still female. Too may latch key kids home at 4 in the afternoon for this to be an appropriate Oprah topic in my book. I always thought Oprah was above cheap stories like that but not any more. I miss the feel good stories too. Dr. Oz was good on her show but I agree it will be too much.I wonder if Dr. Laura Berman will be next.
Annette, that whole media frenzy over the “pregnant man” was annoying as hell. When a person who was born male and has all his male parts shows up pregnant, THEN have the frenzy for god’s sake!
I’ve been using bookmooch for almost 3 years now and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I have mooched over 300 books and sent over 200. Right now I have 17 books to send out and several waiting to arrive at my house. It’s addicting and I’m wondering if I will keel over before I get around to reading all these books.