One of my biggest pet peeves is people not closing the tupperware lid all the way. The other pet peeve associated with
tupperware containers is not washing the tupperware when you ate the last cookie or any other goodies stored in the container.
You are already eating out of the
tupperware by sticking your hand in it and grabbing whatever you are grabbing. Close the lid to the tupperware
and don't walk away until you know for sure it's completely closed. The point of storing food in a tupperware is to keep
air out. Why open it and barely closing it after you grab goodies from it? It's careless and irresponsible! On top of
it, if you ate the last piece that was stored in the tupperware, don't just leave it on the countertop or wherever it
is. Wash it, dry it, and leave it there for the owner to pick up. Don't leave an empty tupperware container with
only crumbs left. That's another sign of being irresponsible. Yes, I am passionate about this. Again, don't walk
away from the container unless you hear a clicking noise to indicate the lid is completely closed.
August 29, 2017
The weekend sometimes can be a blurr. I often ask myself, "What did I do on Friday night?" I then realized it
was game night at Jim and Sarah's. Baby Colin stayed up almost until the very end. He likes to hang out and be
part of the group. Speed is a stupid game but it can get competitive. The Bullard family is very competitive in all
aspects of life, including games! They go in for the win no matter what. Get out of my way because I am going to make it to the top while
you stay behind. Therefore, it's wise always to team up with a Bullard and stay clear of games involving individual
performance. You can hide in a Bullard team knowing that winning is the outcome. I used to care about winning but
I don't care anymore. Go and get your imaginary trophy! As of right now, we have three separate orders for next
Saturday. We need to plan this out and be super efficient. This is the biggest same day action to date so we can't
mess up. We need to somehow use the same colors for the different orders so we won't have like 10 piping bags
all over the place. I think we are good on the cookie cutters for now. Sarah needs to let me know which stars she
wants. We should use the edible markers when we can. The dehydrator should come in handy at this point.
Monday nights are all about home cooked meals. I am obsessed with the mushroom seasoning. I can't talk enough about it.
After cooking up some broccoli stir fry, I whipped up some snickerdoodle cookies. The recipe I used made way too
many cookies so I took more than half to work and let a few at home. Armando has started the fencing project.
He got rid of the basketball goal and dug up holes for the posts. I met my neighbor next door who was back at his
house to remove the bush all along the fencing we share. He and his wife will return to the house in about a month
after they sell their house closer to Sprouts. Nathan came by and gave our lawn a nice cut so Armando can have a clean
slate to work with. The house on 21st is probably haunted. The owner of the home died in the house a couple months ago.
She lived there for a very long time. Thank you to Devon and the Yelp OKC team for two tickets to tonight's
live performance at the local NPR station. I have no idea who the band is but I think it's a combination of
storytelling and an acoustic performance.
August 28, 2017
This got me going today.
August 25, 2017
I agree with Blain. We don't need to do the Thursday trivia again. There were definitely cheaters in the crowd because
they took forever to submit their answers. They sat behind walls in groups hovering over each other. Someone was
definitely using his/her phone to cheat. This is why the top scorers had inflated numbers. Of the five teams, we were
in fourth place at the very end. It's because we were honest! Taylor, thank you for your professional opinion. I
think we will stay on course and stick with the original plan. I need to figure out a way to not snack so much.
It's taking over my life. I really think it's an addiction. My problem is I don't eat a lot for meals. I need to train
my stomach to fast in between meals and have big hearty meals when it's meal time. Congratulations, Sandrine! I knew
you would find something in the very end. As I mentioned, keep your distance and play it cool. Hurricane Harvey is
fast approaching the Texas coast. To all my Texan family and friends, stay safe out there!
August 24, 2017
I really think we need background music in the office. It's been dead silent since Minhaj left us to go to his SOX
clients. It was the same last year. Minhaj and a couple other folks would come to us in late Spring and stay until
the middle of Summer. They provide commentary to break the silence throughout the day. Since he left, no one really
talks to each other unless we really need to. We do get quite excited now when the monthly snacks come in. Speaking
of which, today may be delivery day. Christmas comes to us once every month now. We don't know what we get in the
monthly snack box. It's pretty much slim pickings at the moment. The available snacks are the ones people don't really
want. It's like getting picked last in elementary school when two team captains pick from a pool of kids.
I was scrawny back in the day and was never tall so I was always one of the last few to get picked. Yes, cry me
a river and yes, diary of a wimpy kid for sure!
August 23, 2017
Rally Trump vs. Teleprompter Trump? I prefer Rally Trump because he is amusing and quite entertaining. He really does
speak from his heart. He tells it like it is. He doesn't think about others except for himself. It's literally a reality
TV show. One minute he is forced to give a speech that sounds very presidential...scripted and all. The next day,
he goes batshit crazy back to square one again. Getting rid of his advisors and replacing them with others
will never replace our very own Trump. He's in his 70s and will not change for anyone. He calls out his enemies and berates them. This is the
Trump people voted for and this is the Trump that will not go away. "You better build that wall or I will
shut down this government!" Yay for America! Fake News was never a thing until we got our fake president.
August 22, 2017
Nathan finally cut our lawn and it looks amazing. Actually, it's only been two weeks since he cut it. The grass has been growing because
of the rain we've gotten the past couple of weeks. Poor guy was out there for about two hours. I think he also worked
on our neighbor's lawn. The house next door is coming together. I can see through the side windows that
they refinished the floors and painted the walls. The house has been vacant for about two to three months. They leave
the lights on in the house so I can pretty much see everything. I think they are fixing it up to sell. I doubt they
will have renters in there again. Paul finally made it back to reality. No more living in this magical world of
the Sea Org. Speaking of which, Leah Remini's new series about Scientology is so good. It's way better than the
"Going Clear" documentary. People need to see her new series. This "church" needs to lose its non-profit status with
the government and start paying taxes. That's the only change I want to see. They are taking money from people and
pocketing all that cash to fund their lavish lifestyle. I am no longer a vegan but I whipped up a cauliflower and
tofu stir fry last night. That mushroom seasoning is pretty much a lifesaver when it comes to cooking. Just sprinkle
this seasoning into whatever you are cooking and you're set. I also added minced garlic and some red pepper flakes
to enhance the flavor even more. I sound like Taylor and her detailed cooking instructions!
August 21, 2017
August 18, 2017
Thanks to Devon I was given two tickets to the Cookies and Cocktails event. The food was okay. A couple of the dishes
were good, but others were not so good. Sarah was able to join me at the last minute. I do not have that many
people to choose from to join me on these events, but I was happy Sarah made it. She even won a massage package for
only $20 in raffle tickets. I got to meet Kaci and Jacob J, plus Stephen Salewon. I think the highlight of the
event was meeting Superintendent Aurora Lora. I heard her earlier that morning on NPR that four OKC
public schools will be changing their names because they currently have confederate names attached to them. I wanted
to thank the superintendent that what she is doing is a good thing and reflects the values of her constituents.
She was thankful and appreciative of my support because she has been getting hate emails and telephone calls from
a lot of folks. She's doing a great job for the public schools and I hope she stays in place for a while. We need
a strong leader such as Aurora to get us moving in the right direction. So we sort of stalked Jacob J and Kaci for
awhile until we finally got up to their table and introduced ourselves. They were both very nice and were on their
break. I'm telling you...this small talk thing is easy when you have wine in your system. After the event, we
visited with Blain and Tess and the boys. Ben was asleep and Noah was getting ready for bed. He really does pay
attention to everything. News Flash: the mother of the victim who died in Charlottesville does not want to meet with
Trump because he equates her to white supremacists. Good for her.
August 17, 2017
This is for Marci...
August 16, 2017
Just when you think it's going well again, he throws out a bombshell. He really can't keep his mouth shut. The good
thing about what happened is we get to hear how he really feels as opposed to reading a script from a teleprompter.
He really is something. To give equal weight between the two groups is just outrageous. I believe in freedom of
speech but when it comes to spewing hate and animosity towards another group, I draw the line there. He just doesn't
get it. Fox News decided to focus on the two sides as opposed to digging deeper into what the president said.
We clearly see that Fox News wants to stay on his good side. They say that a sitting president is the leader of his/her
political party. I'm not sure the GOP can look to their leader anymore. He will continue to do and say outrageous
things that are disrespectful to the American people and to the Office of the President. We understand that you are
not part of the establishment, but let's exercise some restraint and respect humanity. How can he side with
these marchers that chant "Jews won't replace us!"? His own daughter is now a converted Jew and his son-in-law
is a Jew. Both are his closest aides, yet he gives credit to the KKK and other neo-nazi sympathizers. I can go on and
on, but I think I am going to stay clear from his shenanigans for awhile. I'm wasting valuable real estate on this page.
August 15, 2017
Halfway through the month of August and it's steaming hot here in OKC. It is extra humid this morning. The grass
is completely wet and so am I. The worst feeling is after taking a shower and walking out with your
work clothes on and you sweat underneath. It doesn't make for a comfortable walk to work. The walk I am referring to
is a one minute walk from the gym to the office. I am not talking about the Avana walk to the office. Those were
fun walks, Taylor! I didn't mind the sun in the afternoon either. We would cut through the memorial as a shortcut
as opposed to doing 90 degrees on the street. The post office next to the memorial opens at 7am and closes at 6pm
so that was also a plus. The eyesore on the walk was the bus station that all buses feed into. You had some
serious transients hanging out and begging as well. Anyways, the days of walking to work are long gone unless I pick
up and move to a bigger city. I am envisioning some place on the west coast where the weather is comfy all year long.
Speaking of which, can we call out Shannon for being very dramatic? She is very defensive in how she communicates
with others. Kelly was pushing her buttons for sure, even to the point of telling Shannon to stop stuffing her face.
That was certainly a dick move. Kelly also has some anger issues and she takes them out on the other girls...mostly
the vulnerable ones like Shannon. It's all very high school. It makes very great television but sometimes I am
disappointed in myself for watching all of it versus doing something productive.
August 14, 2017
Let's work our way backwards. On Sunday morning, no one responded to my text to go get breakfast so I went and
got banh cuon from Nhu Lan. I may have been their first customer for the day. I ransacked whatever they had on their
menu, including their banh gio. They only make these bad boys on the weekends. It's the Vietnamese version of a tamale.
Instead of corn meal, banh gio uses rice flour and has ground pork and mushroom stuffing. The tamale is wrapped in banana
leaves. I coat a bit of nuoc mam while eating the banh gio. This was a tip that Jacqueline taught me from back in the
day. It really does enhance the taste. I finally got my phone screen fixed. I dropped off the phone at the mall
and went to Walmart to pick up a few things. One thing I didn't need to get, which I bought anyway, was family size
double stuff oreos. I miss these guys. They have always made an appearance in my pantry until recently. Well, they
made their comeback and they are now happily sitting in my pantry. Never go to the grocery store hungry!
I thought I need a tip 1 to write on the cookies, but according to Wilton, all you need is a tip 3. I already have that
tip. I think we just need to be better in our decorating and improve the consistency of the icing. Armando was
able to fix the garage door, but now the garage door opener does not work. The sensor is not on for some reason and
the button to open the garage door is blinking. I read up on this and it says the sensor is blocked. If the sensor
is blocked, the sensor light will not come in. I was too lazy to deal with it yesterday so I left. I caught up
on some housewives and took a 10-minute nap. I joined Blain and Tess for the ballgame. I went a bit crazy with the
all you can eat food service. On Saturday, I brought coffee to Marci and went with Tess to the judges clinic.
We learned a lot at the clinic. I dropped Tess off at Sharon's and I sat with Chris that afternoon. I would have
taken him around but the weather was bad. I picked up Marci and we headed over to Sam and Suzanne's for Lucy's going
away. After that, I dropped Marci off and picked up Blain at his house. As I am typing all of this, I am realizing
I was an Uber driver all weekend. I don't mind the drive so much. Blain and I hung out for a bit. We stuck our heads
into the Bunker and drove around. On Friday, I hung out with Marci before heading over to the Bullards for Chris's
birthday. John brought over some coffee mugs that he made for us to choose from. I picked out the only white one.
Paul is on his way to New York now as we speak. I finally scheduled an eye appointment to take place tomorrow
afternoon. I have been putting it off because I still have my supply of contact lenses. My vision may have changed
since my last appointment.
August 11, 2017
Praise be for all the rain we have been getting. I have been a stickler for watering the lawn on the days I'm supposed
to. When it's an even number day and it rains, I am excused from watering the lawn. Tess, are you taking notes?
Heather did not know about the water rationing rule. Apparently, Sharon's lawn guy is half the price of our lawn guy.
Our guy sprays stuff to kill the weeds, which has helped a lot. The weeds will eventually disappear...one
would hope. As if Trump's "fire and fury" was not enough, he has added more aggressive language to his narrative.
Yes, this sounds like CNN commentary. The word narrative all of a sudden appeared in last year's elections. Just
this morning, Trump said the military is locked, loaded, and ready to go at the South Korean border. This guy is
definitely the American version of Kim Jong Un. They are both little kids yelling at each other and drumming their
chests to see who is stronger of the two. It's ridiculous. Mike, let's hope your vacation to Guam in a few weeks is
not disrupted by an all out assault on Guam and its neighbors. Apparently, a missile can get to Guam in about 14
minutes from North Korea. So the drama that went down in Mexico was insane. Just like Sarah said, the New York
housewives were at it again. Ramona is a super diva. She needs to have the best bedroom in the house on any vacation
or girls trip. This lady is insane. I'm glad Bethenny put her in her place. I wanted to stay up and watch the
remaining episodes but I was beat. Armando didn't come by to fix the garage door because of the rain, but he's
supposed to come by on Sunday.
August 8, 2017
I doubt that Melania can continue pursuing her cause to end social media bullying. I mean...look at her own husband.
He is out there tweeting to his heart's content. If it's not the attorney general he's after, he's now after a Connecticut
senator. He talked about how the senator lied about his service in Vietnam and to take a long vacation in Vietnam
now to say he was there. Last time I checked, Trump dodged the draft a handful of times for a variety of reasons.
He never enlisted and here he is bashing on people who actually enlisted. The guy is insane and will not end his
rhetoric. It's his way of distracting the people who are trying to do good work. He likes to create a firestorm and
get his ignorant supporters to follow his lead. Speaking of which, that stupid blonde commentator on CNN who always defended
Trump is now on a cheesy news show that is broadcasted on Facebook. It has Trump's logo in the background while she
broadcasts "real" news to the general public. She talks about what Trump is doing for the country and focuses on
the positives and not the negatives. Is this the administration's idea of a state-sponsored news outlet? Last time
I checked, we Americans do not condone such news outlets because it's a sign of government interference in the
independent media. Next thing you know, we will end up like Russia where all news outlets are managed by the state.
So back to Melania and her cause to end bullying...good luck, my dear. You have a long way to go. People who live
in glass houses...
August 7, 2017
The drive to Grand Lake wasn't so bad. I had my podcasts, Pandora stations, and NPR to keep me company. Steve took
us across the lake to the clubhouse for lunch and drinks. A couple hours later, we were on the water to the
mouth of the big lake and back to the house. Marci and I made a run to Dollar General and picked up pizza from
Gambino's. We thought the pizza had one pepperoni per slice until Marci found pepperoni underneath the layer of cheese.
It was a pleasant surprise for sure. Minhaj
told me about Throwing Shade not too long ago. I finally got to hear their podcast. It's very much my cup of tea.
The one I listened to was about the transgender ban in the military and the two female senators constantly voting
no against the Obamacare repeal. Anyways, their podcast was a good balance of politics, personal opinion, and current events. Ben had his
first birthday yesterday afternoon at Pop's. He's beginning to warm up to all of us. I was able to hold him for
a few minutes. He would look at me and looked the other way, yet he didn't push me away. He allowed me to hold him.
I think he enjoyed all of the attention he got yesterday and rightfully so. It was his first birthday party. The
drag show on Friday night was good. I laughed a lot and so did Tess and the rest of the gang. We got to get up
closer thanks to some no-shows. Riane and her friend Joey didn't make it out so late. We took them home after about
15 minutes at the bar. Tess and I went for Empire Pizza after we dropped them off. The pepperoni is always the way
to go at any pizza place.
August 4, 2017
There are business women who do business lunches in their business suits...not just men. Thank you, Jones Assembly,
for getting this wrong. We got third place at trivia last night. The questions were quite easy early on and they
actually got more difficult as we moved along in the rounds. For third place, we were supposed to get our appetizer
comped but since we already closed out our bill, they gave us a $5 gift card instead. Our appetizer was about $8.
My latest electricity bill is the highest it's ever been. I am expecting the next bill will be as much or a bit
less. After these two big bills, we should be okay for the rest of the year. My goal this weekend is to sort out all
of the trash for big trash day this coming Wednesday. There are quite a few things still lingering in the garage
that need to leave. Kaci had some visitors over at the house last night. They stayed for about an hour. Our night
to get crazy turned into dancing and singing at the house. This was more for Tess and Riane. I couldn't get up this
morning at my usual time and my stomach is not sitting well. I ransacked the almonds and snack mix last night.
Paula Dean, safe travels with all of your connections today! Happy Birthday, Tammy!
August 2, 2017
Ba Loan oi! Cam on nhe. I had no idea the production value of vpop is up there. On my first day of driving the Pilot,
I get to fix a flat for the front right tire. The service light showed up immediately. It seriously needs to get patched.
Yesterday's home tour committee took place because I asked John about it. He didn't have it on his calendar and
didn't send a reminder out to folks like he normally does. Anyways, we are out to publish the flyer on the website
by this week and social media postings will follow thereafter. Rain will likely stay with us all week, which is
great for me because I do not need to water the lawn. I timed it last time and it took about 1.5 hours to water
the entire lawn. I didn't even consider the space behind the garage and behind the house. I'm ready for sprinklers.
August 1, 2017
Happy Birthday, Mamma Cay! As of this morning, Paul is off to his multi-city and multi-continent adventure. I was
telling Sharon she has two days to water her lawn back to back because yesterday was an odd number day and so is today.
Lucky for me, it rained a bit yesterday afternoon and quite a bit this morning. My goal is
to have suitable lawn by September. I need to get rid of the weed at the end of the path leading up to the front door.
So a lot is happening with GOT and a lot is not happening with GOT. The dialogue among the characters are getting
quite snarky and super funny compared to prior seasons. Everyone is on edge and replying with sass remarks. It
makes for entertaining tv. Ozark is my newest favorite show followed by Friends From College. Jason Batemen is pretty
much the same character in every movie and tv show. He plays the same family guy who wears either a button down or
a polo shirt even if it's in the middle of summer. Today is only Tuesday and I'm ready for Friday. Indira and Avery
finally got to try Chow's last night and they were very impressed. My newest favorite dish from them is the
tofu salt and pepper. The tofu literally just melts in your mouth.