Out & About

Today I did something I have never done before in my life. I signed up for a gym membership. I haven't worked out there yet, but I feel healthier already since I made a stop on the way home and bought these awesome running shoes.



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more cooking with jenn


These Yakisoba noodles are pretty good. I would never know which ones to buy, except that I had Japanese friends in college, and these were the most popular choice. They are best if you mix them up with a bunch of chicken and vegetables.





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In church on Sunday I kept hearing this constant buzzing noise. George said he could not hear it, so I was like, "Am I hearing things? Is there a buzzing in my ear? I know something is buzzing!" Turns out it was this woman sitting in front of us, fanning herself throughout the service with her battery operated fan.


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We recently got a Starbucks. I go there for the regular coffee. I like their regular coffee better than the coffee at our local place. But I feel like a bit of a traitor to our other coffee shop when I go there, because they bought all of my greeting cards, and even put up a pic of me as the artist with a short bio.


I was in there today (this is a camera phone pic of the place.) Their special drinks are better than Starbucks, because you can get them in a fancy mug. Today I got a cappuccino in a tall glass mug. It makes the whole experience nicer than drinking out of a Starbucks paper cup. You can see all the cappuccino layers, and it just tastes better that way.

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I sat in there daydreaming with my sketchbook and the local art paper. I'm glad I'm not out looking for a date in the "meeting place." Here are your two choices:

more misc.

We watched this movie, Freedom Writers, last night. It was good. I recommend it. The cover they chose for the DVD does not do it any justice. I don't know why they put the guy's big face on the front, because he really played a minor role.





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Wasn't it so thoughtful of Hanes to package my new socks in a resealable bag? How many times do you put your socks back in the bag, and they just won't stay fresh?


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One of my pet peeves is the phrase "pet peeves." The first person I knew who was always talking about pet peeves was the worst school teacher I ever had. That, and she would say, "I have a bone to pick with you." Oh, and "We need to have a heart to heart talk." I refuse to say any of those phrases.

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We got the new couch! I am happy with it. But now I feel the need for a new coffee table. We have this funny little IKEA table. Actually, I wanted to get the couch from IKEA, because we wanted one more modern than this. But the modern ones are extremely uncomfortable! This was the simplest & most comfortable choice we could find.



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We keep watching a show on the Discovery channel called Stunt Junkies. And I can't get over how this guy who's the host resembles a cartoon character I created in high school in the 80's. Not just his little earring, and the hair that swoops over to the right side, but also that he is quite short, and the way he wears his shorts and sneakers looks a lot like my cartoon character "Ben."

a new baby, an old couch, some food, my cute dog, and an interview

There is a new, (human, not dog), baby in our family! Yesterday my brother's daughter came in to the world. We will go and see them in Michigan sometime after all the grandparents have had their turn visiting.

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In other less important news,


A final goodbye to the old couch. George bought this couch from a furniture store's discount room back in 1996. I have wanted to get rid of it for so long, because I can just imagine the millions of dust mites that live in there, that have been afflicting me for so many years. We're getting a leather couch delivered on Friday, my dream finally come true. The Buffalo City Mission came this morning & took the old couch away. I'm sure it will find a loving home, maybe one day retire and grace someone's front porch downtown.

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COOKING WITH JENN



Want an easy meal? Here's my fried rice recipe: Take a bunch of veggies and chop them up really small, maybe include some small chopped up chicken. Cook it all in a pan with some oil & butter. After that looks good, toss in some rice. Stir it up, cook it for a while, and dinner is served.

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An even easier meal? Buy some of this Wolfgang Puck soup. This is the best canned soup I've ever tasted. Not just this flavor, but all of them. The tomato soup is probably my favorite.

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Cutie Skippy pics of the day.

Cute...


Ferocious!

Cute again.


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BADOOZIE'S INTERVIEW WITH ME

BaDoozie: What kind of cereal is in your cupboards right now?

Me: The only box of cereal in my cupboard right now is a box of Health Valley real oat bran almond crunch, which George bought, and apparently decided he doesn't like it very much, because it's been there for a while. I need to go grocery shopping.

BaDoozie: If you could have a new car, what kind would you buy?

Me: I would buy a Mini Cooper, and an SUV, maybe a RAV4. If I had the money, I might change my mind... I don't have the money, so I don't really give it much thought.

BaDoozie: What brand of sunglasses do you prefer/wear

Me: Really cheap ones.

BaDoozie: Are you allergic to any foods?

Me: Not that I am aware of.

BaDoozie: What is something adventurous you would like to do?

Me: If I was brave enough, and had the opportunity, I would like to go hand gliding. If it is at all possible though, I'd rather start from the ground and slowly go up higher and higher, rather than leaping off of a cliff, but I don't think it can be done that way.


Want to be interviewed? Let me know.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE INTERVIEW MEME

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone
else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them
five questions.

more random stuff

INK BLOT TEST
What does the ink blot look like to you?

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I used to like Applebee's. But there is something yucky about their meat. The past two times I ordered chicken, it was a very low quality, like something you'd find on a chicken sandwich at McDonald's. There is something very soft about it, with lots of chunks of fat that need to be spit out. I don't know if I just have better taste now, or if they've really gotten worse.

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After all the complaining about winter, here is a photo of the return of spring. It smells like Easter outside.

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Some doodles from the Answers in Genesis conference we went to last weekend in Binghamton, NY.

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some other doodles.

doodles, profound thoughts, dumb mistakes

Some doodles from "mom's morning out," the preschool thing I've been helping out with at my church. "Head and shoulders knees and toes" is the only workout program I have right now.

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Sometimes when I have an upset stomach, I get a craving for gummy bears, and they seem to help.

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I rescued these flowers from my cold, snowed-over little garden. They were surrounded by their relatives who didn't make it.

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You know, apples taste better if they are eaten outdoors.

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Some doodles from a three hour early morning lactose-intolerance test. No coffee allowed. I was under the influence of an orange flavored gritty nasty lactose drink.

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I get my share of those fake Ebay emails, the ones that insist you need to update your information because it's been accessed by a third party. I delete them right away. But for some reason yesterday I was taken. Duh. It wasn't even a very good knock-off compared to some others I've seen. But since George recently sold some items, when I got this email with a link saying there is a dispute about an item, I clicked on the dispute link, typed in my password on "Ebay," and was directed to a page saying that there was an error. I immediately realized what I'd done, went in to the real Ebay and changed my password. This page has been reported since yesterday, because now if I bring it up, Firefox gives me a warning that it's a fraud.

whadayagonnado?

And Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring this year.

misc.

Every time I login with new Blogger it says, "remember me?" and I say "YES." And the next time I log in, it says, "remember me?" I give up!

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Here is a cartoon I drew for the cartoon correspondence course I signed up for over three years ago.

I never finished the course, because every time I send in another assignment, I literally have to beg the guy to send it back to me, months after I send it. Over and over again, he cannot remember ever seeing it, he lost it, he finally finds it, and sends it back, after I send him letter after letter (he prefers not to email). I have been selling my cartoons anyway, so I don't feel so bad about not finishing the class. On the other hand, maybe he wouldn't lose all my things if I'd paid him using the three-payment plan, instead of sending him one check for the entire course.

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I love my dog. He is the cutest dog in the whole world.


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I think the grossest food that people eat is ham salad. Ever since the first time I laid eyes on it as a child, I thought it looked like lunch meat that somebody chewed and then spit out.

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I learned something last weekend. I had no idea that the sleep ingredient in Tylenol PM/Advil Pm/Unisom is the same ingredient in Benedryl, Diphenhydramine. I find it very strange that on one product it's called a sleep aid, and on another an antihistamine. And that being the case, everyone knows that Benedryl can cause drowsiness, but that doesn't stop people from using it while driving, operating heavy machinery, performing brain surgery, etc... while one would be less inclined to do those things if the same product is labeled as a sleep aid.

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We watched the Pursuit of Happyness again on DVD after seeing it once in the theater. That was a really good movie. If you are an Amazing Race fan, you will notice that Tyler Mcniven, of the "hippies," was in that movie. The extra DVD features were very interesting.

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This is the first time I've used little starry things to separate the topics in one blog post. I got the idea from Doozie a long time ago, but this is the first time I've used it.

in need of some new inspiration

Usually a cup of Starbucks coffee gives me plenty of creative energy. Nothing is working lately though. And the coffee seems to only hurt me in my never-ending battle against sinus infections. Nevertheless, here is a page of recent doodles.

Here's another doodle from when we went carpet shopping in February. We went with "too boring" for our basement carpet. Cheap and simple. We would have chosen a berber carpet, except our dog loves to "fluff up" the carpet before he can lie down on it comfortably. For that reason, I wasn't going to buy anything too loopy.