Oh, programmable Crock-Pot, I love you so.
Why?
Because I hate to cook.
Mr. Martini can verify this. I hate cooking. I have no patience for it. If it weren’t for him, I’d live entirely on take-out and cereal. Which is why Mr. Martini does most of the cooking.
So even though I don’t technically use the Crock-Pot, I do enjoy the benefits of having it in the house. Mr. Martini does all of the prep, and gets it ready to go. I’m usually the one tasked with “Don’t let me forget to turn it on.”
The best part of our version is that it’s programmable, in increments of 4, 6, 8 and 10 hours. So if you set it to cook for 8 hours, and it finishes before you get home because the trains were delayed (AGAIN), the cooker swithches over to “warm” mode. Which means it keeps the food warm at a safe temperature without overcooking. Brilliant!
As I type this, our lovely 6-quart Crock-Pot is working away, baking us some potatoes to have with tonight’s dinner. Which Mr. Martini will be cooking, of course.
I’m not one of those people who can sit down and play a videogame hours at a time. I don’t have the attention span or the patience for that. I like games that I can pick up and put down easily, that don’t require a large learning curve, but are still fun to play.
How excited am I that we picked up a copy of Rayman Raving Rabbids
for our Wii? Very, very happy.
Apparently, the Rayman series of games goes back to 1992 (thank you Wikipedia) but I had never heard of it before. When Mr. Martini picked up a used copy of this game, I figured it would be something he’d like to play.
It turns out, this is exactly the kind of game I was looking for. The Story mode is a series of minigames, and if you complete at least 3 at a time, you get to play the “boss” game to complete the level.
The minigames have a little variety, some are harder than others, but knowing that I only need to complete 3 of the 4 on each level gives me a little leeway with the harder games. Plus, the Score mode lets me go back and play some of my favorites.
A die-hard, “I just spent the last 15 hours trying to get through Level 18″ gamer might find this a little boring and silly. But for the new gamer with a new Wii, I have to recommend Rayman Raving Rabbids. The learning curve is quick, it uses the Wii remotes to great effect (I got a little winded at times, which simultaneously amused and humiliated me). Plus, the evil bunnies are cute.
This is absoloutely, hands down, without a doubt, my absolute favorite lotion, ever. EVER.
I am notorious for buying cheap lotions, and then tossing them before they are even halfway gone because I get sick of the smell, or they’re too greasy, or they’re not moisturizing enough, or for some other silly reason.
But I knew I had found the perfect lotion when I not only finished one bottle, I purposely went out and bought another. Then finished that entire bottle as well.
The trick is that it’s more than just the basic Neutrogena Body Lotion – it’s the Light Sesame Formula, which mean it contains some of their awesome sesame oil. This is the key ingredient that helps my incredibly dry skin in the winter. Just a little rubbed into the skin after each shower has done wonders to ease the itcy, flaky skin I get every single winter.
After going through two 8-ounce bottles, I discovered that it is available in super-sized 32-ounce containers. You can bet I ordered one immediately.
I know it probably goes without saying that Haagen-Dazs makes some mighty fine ice cream.
I don’t usually reach for Haagen-Dazs first, though, if I’m letting myself get some fancy ice cream. I’m usually a Ben & Jerry’s girl – I like all of the extras in their ice cream, while I think of Haagen-Dazs of just your basic plain-ish flavors.
However, when I saw this flavor, I had to give it a try. It was just so… unusual. Even though I always avoid nuts in my ice cream, I had to try it.
It. Was. Delicious. I had figured it would have a vanilla ice cream base, but instead it was an amazing pear-flavored ice cream. They managed to make it very fruity and not too vanilla-y without tasting like a sherbet or sorbet. The amount of pecans was generous (almost too generous for me), and there were even large pieces of pears in the ice cream as well.
I’d be willing to give up on the crazy Ben & Jerry’s flavor combos if Haagen-Dazs would release a version of this ice cream without the pecans. It was really that good.
Is this not the cutest little piglet, like, ever?
Read more about him here.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
When I was in college, my roommate’s friend smelled like vanilla. As in, she doused herself with some sort of pure vanilla oil extract concoction. She seriously smelled like vanilla to the degree that for years afterward, when vanilla-scented everything became vogue, just a whiff would give me a throbbing headache.
I managed to avoid vanilla scents for years. Then, when visiting a friend, she lit a French Vanilla scented Yankee Candle. With that, I finally found my perfect vanilla scent – it’s mild, and doesn’t have the sugary undertone that many of the fakey-smelling vanilla scents have.
Be warned, though – the Sparkling Vanilla version is a little sweeter. For me, it has to be French Vanilla or nothing at all.
I’m a little late on this band-wagon. I missed Gossip Girl on its first go-around on the CW last fall. I figured it ws just another The OC/One Tree Hill knock off, and since I didn’t really like either of those other shows, I probably wouldn’t like this one.
But everyone out there raved about it. And with the (soon to be resolved, thank goodness) writer’s strike, I didn’t have anything else to distract me when the CW started re-running the show from the beginning on Monday nights.
And now I’m hooked. It requires a complete and utter suspension of belief to watch this for more than 5 minutes – there’s underage drinking at public bars and impossibly pretty people and all of that. But once you put that aside… it’s fun. It helps having Kristin Bell as the voice of the narrator/blogger that comments on the action of all of the characters – she makes the dialogue sound whip-smart and delicious instead of just meanly snarky.
I’m only 2 and a half episodes into the season, and I’m not bored yet. That’s a good sign.
I may get tarred and feathered (or shot with a very large and impressively silenced fiream) but, well, I really didn’t like this movie.
I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t love it, either. I think Josh Brolin has been incredibly overlooked, as he played a really engaging character with almost no dialogue. Javier Bardem played a baddie with gusto, but… meh. Whatever. He was “scary.” Big deal.
Basically, what starts out as a really interesting cat-and-mouse chase ends as a(nother) commentary on how violent our nation is becoming. Le yawn. I’d say more, but I kind of stopped paying attention when everyone in the movie just kept telling me over and over how violent we are becoming as a nation. It was a bait-and-switch I didn’t think was fair: don’t get me to start enjoying a violent movie only to tell me that my enjoyment of said movie is leading to the downfall of a country. I cry foul.
The scenery was pretty, there were some nice touches with period details. But was it worth the $10 price of admission? I could have waited for the DVD.
Friday night, Mr. Martini and I saw this movie:
And had a blast watching it. The title says it all – it was an hour and a half of gunfights and car chases and your basic videogame fight scenes come to life.
As long as you weren’t expecting any sort of deep, meaningful movie, weren’t afraid of a little (OK, a lot) of violence, and were willing to suspend belief and let some HUGE plot twists happen that just shouldn’t have happened, then this is one enjoyable little flick.
I had a flashback to Clive Owen in Children of Men at one point (if you’ve seen both movies, you’ll know why). I gotta say – I like Clive Owen more the older and grizzlier he gets, rather than all dapper and Pierce Brosnan-y.
So – Shoot Em Up. Fun popcorn movie with lots of firepower and bloodshed. You’ve been warned.
I took this picture a couple of years ago at our family reunion in Florida. We’d end up on the beach each night as the sun went down, and I got a few pictures of some amazing sunsets.
Mr. Martini and I are thinking of taking a trip sometime this year. We had thought of taking a March trip somewhere warm, but it looks like those plans are going to fall through. I’m not that disappointed, because it just means we’ll be able to afford a longer, nicer trip later in the year.
I still find myself daydreaming about beaches and palm trees, though. When my parents call from Florida and tell me about walks and bike rides and their need for sunscreen, it helps to look at these sunset pictures instead of all of the snow outside.
Oh, programmable Crock-Pot, I love you so.
