Neverending Story I and II come out on DVD next week... Yay!!!

Hahahahah this is such a great photo...

create your own visited country map

I should travel more. That's only 22 countries.

So, as you recall, I mentioned that Frye boots are going to be hip and trendy some time in the near future. Another trend I'd like to apprise you all of is chai. Yeah, it's been around forever. Starbucks has had chai tea latte bullshit drinks for years. But I think that it's going to be the next trend. I think those chai/bubble tea bars are gonna be popping up all over the place. Unfortunately, Tealuxe tried to open up a store near Columbia that only lasted about a year (*sniff*) but have a feeling that if they tried again, they'd do way better.

Why? I think it's because of the surge in popularity of Atkins, and with that, people are looking for more lower-caffeine and healthier alternatives to coffee and soda. And there ain't much better than chai!!

I even noticed that Trader Joe's has got new packaging on their chai, with the word chai prominently features. Used to just be called "masala tea" and they mentioned that it was called "masala chai" in India in small text on the back; masala being the spices and chai being the tea.

At any rate, I'm pretty much convinced that I've tried every single brand of bagged chai out there. There's a whole slew of pre-sweetened concentrates out there, but since I've been avoiding the whole sugar thing, I haven't really tried many of them. Used to drink quite a bit in college, but that was always with soy milk so the whole experience was kind of different...

My favorite brand so far, believe it or not, is the Tazo chai that you can pick up at Starbucks. It's a little pricier than other brands ($4.99 or thereabouts a box if you buy it at Starbucks; you might find it cheaper online), but it's also got a little bit more kick to it... of course nothing beats making your own with plenty of cloves and allspice and cardamom and blakc pepper.....

So remember, you heard it from me first!!!

While I'm on the topic of shampoo, I'd like to mention something that I thought everyone knew but I guess not... if you're flying and you have bottles with liquid in them, keep them from exploding by squeezing some of the air out of them before closing (so they're a little crushed). That way, when the pressure drops, the air inside will expand... if you don't squeeze out air and the air expands, it will force the cap to pop open or the bottle to explode... and you end up with shampoo everywhere. And don't keep pens in your checked luggage!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've tried a lot of shampoo in my time. I've tried nearly all the drugstore brands. I've tried Nexxus products (they work ok). I've tred Sebastian (awful awful awful if you need any sort of conditioning). System Biolage (ok), Aveda (not worth it in the slightest, though the rosemary mint smells absolutely fabulous) etc etc etc etc etc etc... I've tried them all... but for my money... actually not even for my money, just in general... nothing works better than Pantene for my hair (long, dry ends, oily roots, very fine hairs but very thick). I buy the big (40 oz) jugs of it at Costco for $6.98 a piece. Of course I'm always on the lookout for new products... so last week I bought their "Rosemary Mint" shampoo & conditioner... $6.98 each, smells soooo good (like the Aveda) but... it's awful. I can't brush my hair afterwards at all... but I also bought their house brand of Kirkland shampoo & conditioner - it's only $4.98 each for TWO 40 oz bottles/shampoo and conditioner (i.e. $10 for 80 oz each)... and it works so well!!!! Okay, so $14 isn't that much shell out for shampoo and conditioner every month or so, but $10 half as often is even better, right? :)

Who was googling "Nancy Atlas Grant Aya" ??? ????? ?????????????

Three people decided TODAY that they're dropping out of my program. That leaves a lot of classes without instructors, but it also means that everyone loves me since I decided two days ago to teach this semester. They REALLY need me now. But everything is totally nuts.

Ok, maybe ConnerLingus was right. Moblogs are pretty fun. For me, at least. Y'all will probably get bored of seeing pics of my dogs and my lunches.

I now have a moblog, since the Don assures me that they are hipper than blogs.

Now, if I could just get my hands on a pair of Uggs, there'd be no stopping my hipness.



Who am I kidding? I'm pretty fucking hip already.

My brother (who lives in Boston) was in town last night for some reason or other, so my dad decided to fly down so we could all go out for dinner (he was only going to come down if Grant could go, though, because I think he likes Grant more than he likes me).

Anyhow, we made reservations at Shabu Shabu, our favorite Japanese restaurant in the city, but last minute we cancelled those (Grant called and said we wouldn't make it because he had the hiccups) and went to Maloney and Porcelli instead.

As a steakhouse, it seems to vary a bit... I had a bone in sirloin that was good, if somewhat difficult to get at, but the reason you really go there is for the crackling pork shank. It's a whole pork shank that's confitted and then deep fried. Last night they seemed to have not quite been confitted long enough because the skin was a little leathery, but they were still so fucking good... it's served on a bed of pineapple coleslaw and with a jar of "firecracker" applesauce.

My brother is such a pain in restaurants, though. He ordered a rib eye steak, and asked for mustard with it. It took them a while to bring the mustard. "Excuse me," he said, "I asked for mustard 6-8 minutes ago. Can you heat this up for me please, and bring it back with mustard?" What an ass. Besides, only pretentious french snobs would eat their steak with mustard. Although actually his steak wasn't all that good. Last time I was there I had a porterhouse, and that was as good as any steak I've had in the city. I suppose the moral of the story is if you really want a steak, go somewhere else (like Spark's or the Old Homestead), but if you want a pork shank... wow...

They also had berries and (unsweetened) cream on the dessert menu, which rocked. Drives me nuts when they only thing I can have on the dessert menu is the cheese platter.


Oh yeah, if you want to make the shanks at home, it's not really that hard, just a little time consuming. I found the recipe on the food network site, in case you're one of those folks who likes to follow recipes: click here. Personally I'd probably do the confit on even lower heat and probably let it go for like 4 hours, not 2 1/2.

Camera phones are cool.

Well I went to the Discovery Channel store today to sign up for the big weigh in dealie (free three month membership to Bally's, can't go wrong right?) and I went to schmooze the guy who was running it so I could sign up Grant. He apparently doesn't work for the Discovery Store but rather he said something about production and that if I ever wanted extra money he wanted to hire me, because he needed smart, attractive (and I had a sense he was trying to say "ethnically ambiguous", though he didn't come out and say it; ethnically ambiguous people are pretty hot right now for commercials and ads and shit like that) people to work and run shit, I couldn't quitre figure out exactly *what*... anyhow, sounded kind of vague and sketchy, but he certainly wasn't trying to hit on me, and he gave me his email address at a company that seems legit, so, well I can always use extra cash...

Ha ha ha ha ha. VH1's Totally Obsessed's producer wants me to send them a video of me to them so he can pitch me to the executive producer.

Now, to just figure out what to put into my 10 minute video.....

Britney Spears, #1?. So sad!

Go New Jersey!!!

Maybe someday ALL states will allow stem cell research.

I hope Mitzy gets adopted soon; that is just the cutest picture ever!