Bad Heartburn Pizza
Bad Pizza
As has been documented here, my digestive system is not what it used to be.

I have to be careful about stuff with fat. It’s built in portion control.

Last night, I came home late from yoga and was fried and wanted something quick and yummy so I chose this pizza.

Holy moly, digestive system on fire. I ate half of it and it wasn’t huge. And sheet-howdy if I didn’t taste that freaking thing for a full 24 hours. I can still taste it. It’s still burning me. I told Bob how miserable I was and he’s afraid of it, too.

The leftovers sit in the fridge. Holding court. We tremble in its shadow. Bad, scary pizza. Bad.

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My Bedroom 1982
My Bedroom: Senior Year
(Note: we are having major technology problems here at casa pam and bob. I am imbibing massive quantities of cheap Trader Joe’s red wine to combat my frustration: always a good idea. We’ll see if the problems are sorted out before I throw myself on my pillow in tears or start driving around because dammit: I own this town!)

I was out and about downtown this week and saw some Sbiccas (shoes) in a store window which helped inspire this post. My Sbiccas were one of my fave shoes ever. If they had my shoes in the window, I might have bought them again.

I was a big fan of the Love’s phallic-ly packaged fragrance line back in those days. I loved Baby Soft (pink) Didn’t it smell like cotton candy? I also wore the Lemon Fresh (yellow) and Rain (blue) and I had the Musk (brown) but it wasn’t my favorite.

Frampton Comes Alive was one of my first two albums. The other one was Wings Over America. I think Wings is still in the closet. Frampton was the unfortunate victim of sunlight when I moved my turntable next to my bed and it warped. (The disk with “Show Me The Way”)(Why doesn’t the radio play old Frampton in place of Billy Idol, once in awhile?) I would love to own it again if I could get it on eMusic. No one has ever looked as cute as Peter Frampton on the inner fold of that double album. (Except Fabio Cannavaro, of course.) For 8-tracks I had a Rod Stewart and Air Supply.

I wish I could remember the story about the clothes hanging over the chair but I’m a total blank on that one. I still use that desk, although in a different configuration which I would love to link to except the technology seems to be hiccuping again. I still use that desk lamp. UPDATE: try this link scroll to the home improvement photos.

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Perch Creek, Orleans Awesome Green Suit
Awesome Green Suit
I did a million things today. I’d write a list but you’d be jealous. One thing I did was finish scanning a huge stack of family photographs.

I was tempted to put a bunch of humiliating old photos of my cousins up because they don’t read this site and aren’t here to defend themselves. But I resisted. (And besides, tomorrow is another day.)

But I had to put this photo up. It’s a picture of me and my sister walking into the Pearch Creek Property but the real star of the photo is the unidentified person in this killer green checked suit.

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s Aunt Trudy. (My grandfather’s sister, if you’re joining us late.) What a kick ass outfit to be wearing in Orleans (or ever). I love it.

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Publishing this (this being the remodel in case you haven’t been by lately) is probably premature since I haven’t double-checked anything and the links are going to remain forked up. Also: I still have no idea what I’m doing.

I see that my archives are completely bungled up, too. And I’ve been doing this all afternoon and am tired. Don’t look at the archives. I’ll fix soon. UPDATE: Fixed!

Meanwhile, check out the husband link. Bob was domained today.

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Pendleton Roundup 1925 by Frederic Allen Williams
Pendleton Roundup 1925 Frederic Allen Williams
Hey, did you know about the New York Public Library Digital Gallery? It’s amazing. I looked at the pictures of Indians first, but there is tons of other stuff.

NYPL Digital Gallery provides access to over 480,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.

This is the kind of stuff that makes the Internet good.

Plogic At Its Finest

Several weeks ago I constructed a primo Target list. I compiled from other lists. I cross-checked with my to-do list so that I could grab items for various projects, gift giving and domestic tranquility needs.

It was a beautiful list and I had it in my hands when I got in the car to go to the store. When I arrived at the store it was gone.

I looked in my purse. I looked in my bag in the trunk. I took every single thing out of my purse. I took every single thing out of my bag in the trunk.

Yes, I was frustrated because I couldn’t find my list but it wasn’t the end of the world. I was more aggravated because how could that even be possible that a list can disappear like that?

I looked in the ashtray and took everything out of the glove compartment. I looked in the cracks in the seats. I looked under the seats, in the backseat and in the little pockets in the door. I could not find that list.

I repeated all the above steps several times just because I knew with 100% certainty that I’d had the list in the car. There was no way the list could have vanished.

At last, I gave up and developed a weak theory that it had blown out the window. It had been open at one point. I was probably so absorbed in driving/climate control/music selection that I didn’t notice my beautiful list, flying into the wind.

I bet you know where this story is going. Earlier in the week I saw some scrap paper back behind the passenger seat and last night I picked it up and set it on the front dash so I could put in recycling. When I finally turned it over on my way into the house I saw that: IT WAS MY LIST.

My beautiful list, sitting there mocking me right to my face. How is this even possible that you can tear your car apart looking for a list that isn’t there and then it appears?

The only explanation: time travel.

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Sorry I Haven’t Been Writing But I’ve Been Cranky

I think to myself, there has got to be something to write about besides complaining about the weather, the traffic or my woes with hair care products. But I have nothing so I avoid this place.

Today I’m going to complain that both FoodDay (Oregonian) AND Dining Out (NYT) sucked mighty cheese this week. The Food section is the best part of the papers. Whenever I’m freaking out about the piles of newspaper in the dining room (generous word for what is essentially a nook between the kitchen and living room) I realize that if we got rid of the papers, I would not have my regular food section fix.

The Oregonian’s two main articles this week were on (1) cooking with kids (the kids help you cook, you don’t cook the kids) and (2) throwing together a quick meal when you happen to bump into your neighbor at the mailbox and begin visiting and decide to have them over to dinner. (Like that would ever happen to me.)

They sell the whole kids in the kitchen thing as an alternative to watching TV and go on about how the kid can learn math, science and hand-eye coordination. Who wants someone without hand-eye coordination in the kitchen? And they have helpful hints like giving the kids age-appropriate tasks. Really? You mean I shouldn’t hand Luis the electric knife and tell him to go to town on the roast chicken? Or toss Josa a blow torch and instruct her to finish off the Crème brûlée?

The “drop by” dinner article is equally educational. Either you can throw together a dinner from what you have on hand or you can’t. A recipe like smoked oyster spread is not going to save you (or really make much of a meal). The spread is made with: cream cheese, mayo, garlic, soy sauce, fresh parsley and a can of smoked oysters. There are only 2 ingredients on that list that I have on hand: garlic and soy sauce. That’s not going to get me far. Another recipe calls for a pound of bacon, another anchovy fillets. Raise your hand if these are the kinds of items you always have on hand to whip up a quick dinner for company.

Dining Out was equally worthless this week. The Minimalist, which I cut out almost every single week, was talking about some sort of tuna burger. Gross. I hate tuna. I hate how it smells. I hate how it tastes. My spouse has to turn on every fan in the house and eat quickly by the window if he wants tuna — even if I’m not around.

But the item that really had my head spinning was the article about a personal chef for babies. Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently babies are turning their noses up at those jarred baby foods and their mothers are too busy with their glamorous lives to fix something themselves, so they can get vacuum-packed and/or frozen baby foods from a personal chef. A black and white photo that accompanies the article, shows frozen lumps and tells us that designer baby food includes spices like coriander. yah-fuking-hoo Doesn’t this make you fear for the future of America? At least a little bit?

Does anyone else remember reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells in 7th grade? It’s been awhile so my details may be a bit off but as I recall in the future world there was a race of fragile, pampered worthless “people” who floated around doing nothing and another race of big tough “people” who had to do all the work and were pissed off. Doesn’t this seem like it could be happening?

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Movie Time

Yesterday Bob and I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Scoop. It’s hilarious. If you hate Woody, this probably won’t change your mind. But if you’re ambivalent or like some of his movies, I think you’ll find this entertaining. It stars Woody, Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman. Scarlett plays this nerdball aspiring journalist and Woody plays a goofy magician named: Splendini. They are hilarious together.

The theater was about 90% full which was amazing. Usually when we see a Woody Allen movie it’s just us and a couple of angry looking foreign ladies. It was fun to see it in a big crowd with everybody laughing. Plus Woody’s demographic is people our age or older so everyone was well behaved except the lady next to me was unable to go the full 96 minutes without eating something from her bag which was wrapped in crinkly paper which she unselfconsciously took her time peeling off. Also, I hate the sound of other people chewing so it was extra distressing for me but luckily she ate pretty fast.

There were two trailers for movies that looked good, another surprise as normally during the trailers I’m looking at Bob and going, “That’s a movie?” I even did that yesterday with some stupid looking poker movie which, based on the trailer, I think is about a charming young woman played by Drew Barrymore who falls for a dreamy guy (the guy from the Hulk) except instead of having a job, he plays in poker tournaments and has Daddy issues and in the suspenseful climax, plays in the World Championship Poker Match and the last two players are he and his dad who is OF COURSE played by Robert Duvall. Please.

The movies that look good are The Science of Sleep directed by Michel Gondry who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and which stars Gael Garcia Bernal who was in the The Motorcycle Diaries. During the trailer I leaned over to Bob and said, “I love it already.” (And by the way, congratulations IMBD for adding those hideous animated mortgage ads to your site. They look like shit, bravo.)

The other movie is called Trust the Man and stars Dave Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup and Maggie Gyllenhaal and is about friends and relationships looks funny and good.

After movie time we went to the park where the Hawaiian festival was going on and were hoping to score some killer dinner even though I really wanted to eat leftovers at home because the refrigerator is too full. Sadly (or gladly) the food vendors had been cranking out the food all day and all that was left were two pitiful looking banana lumpia, some panini and some yakisoba. Not sure how panini fits in with the Hawaiian theme. I’m guessing someone coughed up a bunch of money for a panini machine and needs to pay it off. I was not about to stand in line for yakisoba so we had leftovers served in taco shells at home. It was awesome.

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I Want A Sea-Monkey Now

Last week I saw this exciting news online:

Empire Pictures has signed a deal with Transcience Corp. to develop an animated film and possible franchise from the infamous children's toy line "The Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys," reports Variety. Under the deal, Empire acquired entertainment rights to the line, which has been on the market for 45 years and sold in more than 50 countries.

Full item here

Someone commented: Oh great, a movie about brine shrimp.

I read a lot of comics books as a kid and let me tell you, I wanted those sea-monkeys. Remember those ads with the sea-monkey family and their happy faces? I really thought that’s what you were getting. They still advertise like that. How many kids are crushed when their sea-monkey’s hatch and they’re just brine shrimp, well “amazing new hybrids [that] live longer than any “natural” variety of brine shrimp.”? Notice how few photos of actual sea-monkeys are on the website. Other troubling news: on the trouble-shooting page it says if you’re having trouble seeing them, look more closely “Sea-Monkeys are as tiny as a pinpoint sized “dot” of white.” Having fun yet kids? Be sure to click on the video. Love that groovin soundtrack.

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Friday Morning Find

This morning we did a crepe walk. We walked downtown to have breakfast crepes at Mon Ami, a new place that opened about a month ago.

During the walk we stopped at a big garage sale which is going to benefit something with animals. They had all kinds of donations they were trying to organize.

I’m not a big garage sale person because I see it as more junk you’re bringing it into the house but when I saw these cookie cutters, I had to have them.
Cookie Cutters Cookie Cutters
These are the cookie cutters we used when we were kids. Mom or Erin probably still has them. There was a scary moment when I thought I might have them but the box is behind a bunch of stuff and I don’t want to look right now.

Cookie Cutters Cookie Cutters Cookie Cutters

I picked through the whole box for all the familiar ones. I thought I might even make sugar cookies for the writers tomorrow except I’m not sure I’m up for the effort right now. I already had planned to pick up another half flat of blueberries and throw together a quick crisp. I already know it’s yummy and whatever’s leftover won’t go to waste.

When I put on my shorts this morning I found a dollar in my pocket. Perfect for my purchase. We needed two more cookie cutters to make it a dollar. And I found two we didn’t have.

Cookie Cutters

A witch. How cool is that? Also note I realize these photos are crap. I have a lot to learn.

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Peter B Lewis Building

Peter B. Lewis Building
Here’s another shot of the Frank Gehry building in Cleveland. If I was a bit more energetic I could Photoshop that lamppost out of there. Running late, decided to keep it real.

We finally had a cool night last night and were able to open the windows up again. I don’t like to sleep with the air conditioner on if I don’t have to. Bob grilled some portabello mushrooms, green pepper and onion for dinner. He’s got the routine down now, they were awesome. We had some rice and cleared out a dab of leftover bean salad and green beans. I had a lime popsicle while I watched my Battlestar Galactica DVD.

When I watered the yard, I found two tomatoes that are yellow-y orange. Getting closer. Also a couple of cucumbers. I remember planting tons of cucumber seeds but looks like I only have two vines. That’ll be enough.

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