when your Sims are cooler than you are.

I just splurged and bought Sims 2 Apartment Life and I have to say it’s both fun and mildly depressing. I’m not positive, since it’s been months since I played Sims, but it seems they’ve added new pet interactions, which is cool, cuz, you know, I’m a crazy cat lady. Or at least one of my Sims is. I made one “test” sim with 5 cats, and man I tell ya, those damn cats destroyed about 6 beds in no time before I got them trained not to. Sheesh. Good thing money is easier to come by in the Sims than in real life. And later, with another Sim, I was in the local coffee shop, singing karaoke, and a stray dog comes up on stage and starts GROWLING at me. Yeah, I was bad, but sheesh. I love the new witches though, and one of the supreme witches is apparently also a crazy cat lady cuz she made friends really fast with my crazy cat lady sim, and then she … well … apparently the witch is lonely or somethin’. ::cough:: Anyway, one of my sims is now a green evil witch.

One downside of the game though is it’s full of bugs. And I don’t just mean the cockroaches spawned by bad witches. Fortunately I haven’t found too many myself due to my restraint with the use of cheats and not using any custom content in the game. But one annoying thing I did find is that there isn’t apparently a way to move a family from one of the old ‘hoods to the new apartment ‘hood. So I had to start all over with new families which kinda sucks. But at least this way they’re “clean” and not tainted with all those boolprop cheats and stuff. And one other thing is I have one sim who invites another sim in the same apartment building over, and the other one comes, but as soon as they get to the door, my sim says she’s not in the mood right now and the other sim leaves, even though my sim is “greened up.” I dunno if it’s a bug, or if it’s cuz both of those sims are ones I created. I have no problem inviting other sims over from other buildings though. Another thing that I’m not sure if it’s a bug or not is that my witch doesn’t seem to have the ability to summon a spectral cat. But she’s merely evil, not atrociously evil. So we’ll see. And I wonder if spectral cats can breed with normal cats.

Speaking of cats, I went to PetSmart today to buy some good food for my cat now that I’m working and have money, but the stuff I used to feed her, Nature’s Best has apparently gone from expensive to fucking no way I’m spending that much. I used to balk at paying the $10 then $11 then $12 for a 4 pound bag, but today I went in and it was $23.99 for a 6 pound bag. WTF? Now, I know prices on everything have gone up recently (even my ramen noodles are only 5/$1 now not 10/$1.) But good grief you gotta be kidding me. Just because they changed the package art doesn’t justify jackin’ the price to wazoo. Anyway, my poor cat just isn’t good enough to spend that much on, so I bought another bag of the crapass Purina One junk I’ve been feeding her for the last few months, at least the first ingredient is chicken (probably chicken toes and noses, but hell at least it’s chicken hehe.) I’m sorry but I’m not gonna spend more on cat food than I spend on people food for me. If I can live on ramen noodles and hot dogs, my cat can live on Purina.

For handing the next presidency back to the Democrats! A few days ago I was a bit sulky because Hillary didn’t pull some strings and manage to eke out the nomination for the Democratic candidate, I was hoping for a fight to the bitter end. I was kinda glad Obama picked Biden and not some major loser, though. And I was very glad he didn’t pick Hillary as his VP. But I figured welp, thanks Obama and Hillary for handing the presidency to McCain.

But today, what a glorious day! McCain pulled yet another maverick move and nominated someone that I don’t think anyone was expecting: A gun-toting, moose-hunting, PTA “hockey mom” from the sparse state of Alaska, where men are men and so are women. Yeehaw! The woman probably has cahones bigger than Obama’s. Not that that’s a bad thing! And I have to admit the rebel in me beamed a bit when I heard the news, but unfortunately she’s on the Republican side and has a few, well … flaws …. But the good news is I doubt any former Hillary supporters will be lining up to vote for McCain and his staunchly pro-life Christian running mate. I’m not sure how the conservative Christians feel about this choice though. The women can probably relate and might be happy about it, but there’s a lotta men out there who are probably steaming right about now. I mean, what if McCain did get elected then choked on his denture cream one morning and ::gasp:: a woman got sworn in as President!?!! God help us. Hehee.

Anyway, things just get curiouser and curiouser, and whoever wins, sparks will fly and heads will roll. Or maybe Bush will declare himself Emperor and stay in office forever. It ain’t over yet, folks. But at least my choice is easier now … I’ve always rather liked rainbows and unicorns. I just don’t believe they’re real, but well … maybe they are … ::eyes glaze over::

This food blog I read had a link to this blog entry which has a food meme. Mmm … food and memes, two of my favorite things. So, OK, I’ll give it a shot. This is a list of 100 foods every “omnivore” should try at least once, and the ones in bold are the ones I’ve personally tried, and the ones crossed out, are the ones I wouldn’t eat unless I was obscenely drunk and confused. The snide remarks next to some items are, well, snide comments. I must warn you though, I’m really not much of an omnivore, I’m more of a semi-vegetarian munch-mouth with deviant junk food fixations.

1. Venison my uncle shot it, family loved it, I thought it was gross
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare I used to eat beef, and yes it was better raw than cooked
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue yum
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho yum
13. PB&J sandwich budget dinner
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart NYC
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns - is this the same thing as dim sum? if so, bold it
20. Pistachio ice cream yum yum!
21. Heirloom tomatoes home grown
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras brunch at the yacht club, yuck-o-rama
24. Rice and beans yum
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche yuck
28. Oysters most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten (raw)
29. Baklava in Greece
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas Trader Joe’s baby!
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut I love kraut especially on hot dogs or turkey ruebens!
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat - the curried sounds great, not so sure about the goat though
42. Whole insects I ate grubs once at camp
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk does cheese made from goat’s milk count?
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel in sushi, does that count?
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut yuck
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear does jelly count?
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal used to eat these too often as a kid
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores also at camp
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs in Arizona, of all places
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain some lady at work brought some to a potluck
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini - on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie too many times
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict homemade, just last weekend!
83. Pocky yum
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef I don’t do beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers at my brother’s wedding on the food, I asked if they were edible
89. Horse I’m sure it’s disgusting
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam disgusting
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta yuck
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake rattlesnake, at a restaurant in Arizona

Some of those things on the list I dunno what they are and I’m too lazy to look ‘em up, so they might be things I wouldn’t eat. But I’m pretty open to most things, except MEAT I really don’t like meat much, even stuff like chicken kinda grosses me out unless it has sauce or something on it to cover up the taste. The only meat I like is BACON. But I guess technically it has stuff (salt) on it too.

I went back to the store and took some pictures of the glorious, wonderous Oscar Mayer Weinermobile:

Isn’t it gorgeous? ::drool::

I got to get my picture taken with it too! They make you stand behind these goofy hotdog standup things and stick your head through, smile and say “WEINER!” Fun, and I got a Weenie Whistle too for being brave enough to get a photo taken. They gave me a card with my code on it to download the picture “by tomorrow morning” too, but we’ll see if I’m brave enough to upload it. Don’t count on it. At least not without a bit of editing. Haha.

I uploaded the pictures I took to my Flickr page. Lust as you like. I know you’re jealous.

Yes, old Lady Luck slapped me across the face yet again today. I was out grocery shopping at the local store, and there was a “Grand Re-Opening” going on, and while shopping I heard over the PA that someone on checkstand 7 had won an iPod. Cool, they’re giving away prizes, but of course I figured well that sucks, someone won, so they probably won’t be giving another one away for at least an hour. So I go about my business, then get in line to check out and there’s two people in front of me. The first one, guess what? BEEP congratulations you’ve won a free iPod! Fuck. So the guy behind him is all wow I just missed it, blah blah. Then he checks out and BEEP congratulations you’ve won a free iPod! WTF? OK this is just cruel. Well, to make a long story sad and pathetic, I of course, didn’t win a free iPod.

BUT one redeeming factor was the OSCAR MAYER WEINER MOBILE was in the parking lot! Now, I’ve been tryin’ to clean up my eating habits so I didn’t go up and see if they were giving away free hot dogs or anything (the sign on the side said “All Beef” too and well, I don’t do beef.) But my little heart went pitter patter when I saw the giant red weiner. I used to be quite obsessed with the weiner mobile as a child … I had the whistle, and I even to this day still have a weenie bank I got free decades ago by sending in Oscar Meyer weiner wrappers. I just might go back later and take a picture. I really should keep my camera with me at all times cuz you just NEVER KNOW WHEN SOMETHING MAGICAL MIGHT HAPPEN.

No, not mine. My cat’s:

My cat watched and growled and hissed through the window while I cavorted with him outside, trying to get a decent picture. He’s very friendly and made it hard to get him far enough away to snap a picture because he kept rubbing against my leg. She hates him. And she looked at me with her ears back givin’ me dirty looks for petting another pussy. But he’s very polite, he just sits outside the window and looks at her, trying to figure out why she’s HISSING and GROWLING and BANGING against the window telling him to go away in almost-English: momomowaaaynoooOOWWWWWwww. Oh well. Maybe she prefers more aggressive men. Hehe. BUTCH was manly enough to stand up to little Miss Bully Kaia, this guy is maybe just a bit too wimpy.

Random Thought #1: I really hate NBC and their coverage of the Olympics, why on earth they keep showing stupid stuff during primetime on the west coast instead of the good stuff simultaneously with their east coast coverage is beyond me. Are they really getting better ratings on the west coast at 11pm than 8pm? Just because people on the east coast have to suffer and stay up late to watch doesn’t mean we on the west coast should have to because, oh I dunno, they get it LIVE and we don’t. If it was LIVE I might stay up but what’s the point of staying up until 12:30am to watch an event that you already know the results of because your friends on the east coast already watched it and the internet has already reported it? If they do the same stupid thing in 2012 from London I’m gonna boycott NBC altogether. Like it would really matter, given right now I watch them oh, never. Well except for Biggest Loser but that’s not on right now.

Random Thought #2: I was at Target the other day, and on my way out I saw a gray-haired lady riding a shopping cart like a scooter and it made my heart all warm and fuzzy. I’m glad I’m not the only older person who does that, and I too, shall continue to ride on shopping carts like a scooter until I am DEAD thank you very much. And with my luck, riding a shopping cart like a scooter will probably be how I die, but dammit, at least I’ll die happy.

Random Thought #3: The price of gas is less than $4/gallon it only cost me $38 to fill up. ONLY THIRTY EIGHT DOLLARS WTF IS WRONG WITH ME? Thank goodness I have a job, or I’d be dying with the cost of gas and food. My gas budget 3 years ago was $40/month and my food budget 3 years ago was $200/month. Can you guess what they are now? I’ll give you a hint. My gas budget is more than three times what it was 3 years ago, but my income isn’t. And you know, I’ve gotten quite used to eating ramen noodles and oatmeal almost every freaking day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked down the aisles of the grocery store recently and thought, no that costs too much, no that costs too much, no that costs too much. I did splurge yesterday at work though and bought food from the little onsite “restaurant” … I had a grilled cheese sandwich and coleslaw and it cost me about four bucks and I thought, man I just can’t afford to spend this much for lunch.

Random Thought #4: I actually won a special promo PokePlushies adoptable because I picked Canada to win a medal in diving. I didn’t win one for picking the USA for running because they TOTALLY CHOKED ALMOST EVERY RACE. Thanks, USA. Musta been the fact they can’t do “performance enhancing drugs” anymore I guess. And I also lost out on a promo because Italy choked in soccer and didn’t even make it to the semi-finals. I thought Italians were good at soccer? I shoulda picked NIGERIA instead. Grrr.

Random Thought #5: My cat has a new boyfriend. At least he thinks she does. She, apparently, has a differing opinion and considers him enemy number one. He’s kinda cute though, black & white, friendly, well-groomed … and quite the gentleman, he doesn’t fight back when she growls and hisses and lunges at him through the window, he just sits there and lusts. Awww. Kitty love. We’ll see if they end up friends. I’m a bit afraid to pet him, or she might see me and HATE ME MORE THAN SHE ALREADY DOES FOR ABANDONING HER ALL DAY WHILE I WORK. I am a bad cat mommy. BAD BAD BAD ::bite::

Random Thought #6: I used to think women who claimed they got PMS every month were lying and just using it as an excuse for being bitchy. But ever since I’ve entered that stage of life called HELL, sorry, “peri-menopause,” I know now they weren’t lying. Who knew that I would have to go through puberty all over again? Pimples and all. And I haven’t even had a hot flash yet. Yeah. I just hope it doesn’t take me ten years until it’s over ….

Well, I went to Bernadette Peters’ concert at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts last night and it had the potential to be a great concert - the concert was a good two hours long, with a rare intermission. And not one but two slinky, translucent and sparkly new Bob Mackie dresses to boot (one of which, emblazoned with “fifteen thousand Swarovski crystals” was literally at times, blinding.) But … something seemed just a little off. I’m not sure exactly what it was, she sounded a little hoarse, so she might have been sick, but I’ve heard her perform when she’s sick before and she usually pulls it off superbly anyway due to her impeccable vocal control. But tonight she seemed somewhat uneven and struggled with not just a note or two here and there (she is human after all) but several songs were scattered with signs of struggle. She seemed somewhat distracted as well, she even forgot to introduce the orchestra … twice … until she’d left the stage after her encore and Marvin (bless him) summoned her back. She also seemed very emotional, more so than the usual tears at strategic points she usually does … this time she was emotional even on songs like “Shenandoah.” What’s up with that? And “Some Enchanted Evening” was almost unbearable to sit through because she seemed on the verge of breaking into uncontrollable tears at any moment. So I dunno if something’s going on in her life, but being the showbiz vet that she is, the show must go on, or what. One thing the woman does do exceedingly well though is act the song. And whatever was going on, she at least tried to use it to connect to the material, the only problem is it made me, at least, a bit uncomfortable, because I kept wondering what was up and if she was gonna completely lose it. She didn’t of course, but she came close enough at least once that she not only had to wipe the tears from her eyes, but I could hear her sniffling too. I’ve often wondered in the past how she could cry onstage without getting a runny nose, but I guess at least last night, she couldn’t. Of course maybe it was just that she wasn’t feeling well and the decongestants started to wear off. Who knows.

Given the fact the show was about two hours long though, that meant more songs. Unfortunately she did nothing new; instead, she pulled out songs from the graveyard of her career, “I Never Thought I’d Break” for one, and “Time Heals Everything” (which she hasn’t done much at all lately, so that was nice to hear again.) I was really hoping for a tidbit of something new. It might have been my imagination but it seemed the arrangements to some of her songs were a bit more “jazzy” than usual, but maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part that she’d do some material from her promised upcoming CD “Body and Soul” (that is, if it ever actually gets finished, she’s been promising a new CD of “jazz songs” or “standards” depending on which interview you read, for years now.) But alas it was not to be. Not even a tease of the second lullaby she wrote for her recently finished second children’s book about her other dog, Stella, tentatively titled “Princess Pig” (after, I assume, Stella’s nickname Piggy cuz she looks like Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.)

The new dresses were nice though. I think last night was the best version of “Fever” she’s done yet. That new white dress that’s cut up to there uhm … is uhm … well I just hope that was underwear I saw. The black one was quite nice too, it was a black version of that tired old champagne dangly bits dress. Come to think of it, I think the new crystalized one was a white version of that tired old champagne spangled thing. I guess Bob (or Bernadette) didn’t wanna bother with using a new pattern. I liked the black one better though, partly because it didn’t blind me with its blingyness and partly for uhm … other reasons.

Another minor disappointment came after the show, at the stage door, where about twenty people waited over an hour for her to come out (a few got tired of waiting and left) but she seemed very rushed there too. Not at all her usual overly gracious, greet every single person and give them undivided attention no matter how long it takes self. She barely even talked to anyone, and hurriedly signed a few things and took a few pictures. And she skipped me completely. Bah. That’s what I get for forgetting to bring something for her to sign (but seriously, I’ve got a freakin’ box full o’stuff she’s signed I really don’t need any more.) All I wanted was a quick picture of her as she walked by, but I didn’t wanna be aggressive so I just kinda let her go and didn’t whine about hey you just skipped me you little twit (yes, that’s what I was thinking, only I used different words in my head hehe. ) She was obviously in a rush to get somewhere (my guess is there was a late-night flight to catch, given the fact her assistant had been packing trunks and boxes (as opposed to the usual bags and flowers) into a car. And Bernadette was wearing flip flops. Hehe. AND she didn’t get into a limo, she got into a normal car, and Patty drove it away.) So anyway, all I got was one lousy, far away, non-flash shot of her from the side:

I’m glad I went to her book signing last June afterall where I got quite a few good pictures.

I had a few questions I wanted to ask her, but I guess I’ll just have to wait and hope she answers them eventually. Or I could pull a major dork and write her a fan letter. I haven’t done that in over twenty years, I feel dorky enough waiting by the stage door, but writing a fan letter is just a bit too much methinks, at my age. Especially since I have a tendency to ramble and I’m sure she probably doesn’t even read 90% of them anyway, her poor assistant Patty probably has that unfortunate job. In fact her poor assistant has to do a lotta crap I wouldn’t do for anybody … like lugging huge heavy trunks all by herself into the trunk of a car. WTF is up with that? I almost offered to help but she looked a bit uhm … harried and unhappy and I get more nervous asking her a question than I do Bernadette hehe. I was too scared to ask her if Bernadette was gonna come out.  But Marvin came out a few minutes later and assured the crowd she would be coming out. Thanks Marvin! Nice car, BTW.

Anyway, I’m undecided on whether it was worth the $75 I spent, the seat was actually not bad, it’s a small venue and the row was elevated so no big bobble-heads blocked my view. And the concert was two hours long. I just wish she’d been more “on” and she’d done even just one or two new songs. I probably won’t be going to any concerts again for awhile, until/unless I hear she’s doing new stuff. But at least I caught her a few times this year just in case the “offness” this time was a sign of things to come. It’s rare she does more than one concert in the Los Angeles area in a year, but this year she’s done three. And I caught them all.

Well OK for me it’s bust. I guess I’m not going to BlizzCon this year since a) I work all day so didn’t get a chance to buy tickets and b) they sold out earlier today when I tried and c) the website wouldn’t load when more went on sale this evening and by the time the page loaded they were permanently sold out (I assume … given there is no more little ticket thingie on the BlizzCon page now, only a pay per view thing for DirecTV.)

It’s sorta OK though cuz it looks like the panels are pretty much the same as last year (which was the primary reason I went last year) and the ingame goody is a polar bear mount and well, being the lamer that I am I rarely use mounts, I prefer to stealth. And it doesn’t say on their site that they’ll have Diablo 3 to test (not that big a draw for me) or beta access (I’m already in WOTLK beta so uhm … that’s all I need for now.) SO … I’ll just look at it as saving myself $100 and if I really want an inflatable Frostmourne, I can buy one overpriced on ebay. Not.

Oh! And last night was the finale of The Mole and well, I was right, Craig was the mole, and I’m glad Mark won cuz he was very focused playing the game (the dude’s journal was his savior methinks.) And I’m glad Nicole wasn’t the mole cuz she was trying to pretend she was, and I’m glad she didn’t win cuz she was just snotty to the other players.

In the little Mole game I played with my imaginary online friend, I scored 30 points and he got 7. I woulda slaughtered him more but we restarted at episode 4 cuz of a differing opinion on who the “winner” should be so we redefined the rules and started from 0 again. I picked Craig as mole from week one though, woot! Body language for the win!

Lemme see what else, uhm … I’m working now I forget if I said that, job is OK, there was some overtime the last couple weeks but none now so that’s good, more time for WOTLK and Travian and Travians and oh yeah, the Olympics which are causing me sleep deprivation why oh why can’t they show it live on the west coast grrrr. I hate NBC.

Oh, and this Saturday is another Bernadette Peters concert in town. ::yawn:: I heard she’ll have a new Bob Mackie dress for it. We shall see, I’m getting a wee bit tired of that champagne colored sparkly thing with the dangly bits that get caught on the microphone stand and almost topple her over. Hehe. I had to mention Bernadette Peters cuz my blog hits go up when I do. They go up more when I mention BlizzCon and Wrath of the Lich King beta though. Anyway, I figure she’s doin’ a lotta concerts in California this year so I’m playing catchup and seeing most of them, since the last year I saw one was 1993. And she likely won’t do any nearby next year cuz she tends to skip years. And I hate to say it but her voice is starting to go just a wee bit and I wanna see her while she’s still near her prime.

There was a Murloc meetup in Wrath of the Lich King beta today. It was a bit underwhelming and I died about 5 times trying to get there because they held it in a place that’s not exactly newbie friendly. But it was still kinda fun, I wish more murlocs showed up though, I know more than about 30 people have murloc suits from BlizzCon 2007.