Food, Glorious Food!

Elka, I just want you to know that I decided on this post title solely for your benefit :). And Julie, Elka said that makes her sing a song in her head, so I went to youtube to see if I could find it, and turns out... Here it is. So I guess I do rock... I made a song title for my post without even intending to!

So yesterday I got off work at 3:30 and headed to the public library to re-check Crisis and also to get a few other suggestions about medical horror books from the librarian. For one of my assignments in the Adult Services class, we have to read 5 books from a specific genre (mine is medical horror) and we are supposed to use "tools" to find these books. A librarian counts as a tool. I had already selected books on my own (Crisis and a Michael Palmer book), but figured I'd better use a tool to find the other three. The librarian with whom I ended up talking was very helpful. Somehow she started giving me authors for crime fiction (which was a tad off-topic), but I did get her to give me a book called Genreflecting, which suggests books in various genres, so that was helpful. And at the end, she wanted me to note that we did NOT use the Internet, but rather that we used the library catalog, print books, and good old-fashioned librarian know-how. A little extreme of her to be so adamant about it, I think. But she wanted me to note it, so I'm noting it here :). For your benefit. So, I have 2 new authors to read: John Saul (an author I'd always intended to try out, just for my own information), and Patricia Cornwell. I've actually read a lot of Cornwell's earlier books. So I couldn't remember the last one I read, and I was trying to guess. Well, the one I picked out I have already read (back in 2003), so I will have to swap that out later. But the important thing is that I have her as an author to read. Oh, and although adding stuff like this is what makes my posts notoriously never-ending, I will add this: While I was the Ashford Branch Librarian, I was doing a lot of reading. This was helpful, because I was able to recommend books to patrons, etc. So, my goal was to read at least one book from each of the incredibly popular authors, just so I'd have a feel for their writing-style, etc. That's why I say John Saul was an author I always intended to try. I even tried Danielle Steele, although I wasn't very impressed with her writing. But hey, she (or her 'team of writers' - we librarians are sure she has a team of writers) cranks out about 4 to 5 books a year and they are always on the best-seller lists. So, I felt it would behoove me to be at least vaguely familiar with her books.

But, as usual, I digress... So I did do some more note-taking last night. I don't know, I'm disillusioned with my topic so far. I thought I was going to be researching the service of things like bibliographic instruction and offering free computer classes at the public library. But the topic my professor says that all falls under is information literacy, which, from what I've read so far, is something akin to "learning how to learn." Not exactly what I was anticipating. So, I have emailed the instructor to see if I'm even on the right track. But I need to get on the right track soon if I'm not, because I have to present my findings to the class next Thursday. Yikes! I also read more of Crisis. I also talked to Elka. It was nice to get a phone call out of the blue. And Elka cracks me up anyway. So she was driving around and is about to go on base, so she has to show her ID. So she tells me she's about to put the phone down and go through the gate. So I'm like, "Okay." So then I hear about a minute of silence. And then I hear Elka again, "Hi!" And so I say back, "Hi!" Because I'm thinking she's playing around. And then I hear her say, "How are you doing?" And I still think she's playing, so I playfully say back, "Well, I'm just dandy." And then I hear her say something else unrelated to my response and it suddenly occurs to me that she is not even talking to me; that she can't hear any of my responses; and that she is talking to the guard at the gate. I'm such a dork. So I told her about this when she got back on the phone and she laughed. So then a few minutes later, she goes, "Oh, hold on. I have to go through another guard gate." So I'm like, "Okay." Now, you would think I'd have it together this time. But you'd be wrong. I hear some silence. Then I heard, "Hi!" And I say, "Hi!" Luckily, this time, I figured it out faster... But seriously. What is my problem? I guess I just expected her to simply show her ID without talking ;). Which would mean that, if she was talking again, she was talking to me :).

While talking to Elka, I went and made dinner. I decided I wanted to use up more of my red bell pepper that I had bought for the pinwheels I made the night April was over. Because seriously, what is the deal with red bell pepper costing so much more than green bell pepper? And the taste is not the same, so I don't really think you can always just interchange them. Like I don't think the green bell pepper would taste as good on those pinwheels. But I never use the whole pepper, and the one I bought in December, I only used about 1/3 of it and ended up having to throw the rest away. I didn't want to do that this time. So, I decided I'd make chicken quesadillas. So I used canned chicken, green onions, red bell pepper, tortillas, and cheese (of course, this is a given if you know anything about Mexican food or me). Now, it was an experiment, since I'd never done it before. And I wasn't following a recipe. But this is how it looked when it was all said and done. Oh, and I made a total of 4 of them, because we ran out of cheese...Not too bad if I do say so myself. I probably should have cut it in half again to make the triangle wedges, but it was just me, so this was good enough. And actually, it's quite healthy, all things considered. The cheese probably puts it a little closer to unhealthy, but you have to have dairy, right? And I have to have cheese. And then I finally got around to eating this chocolate creme thing that April brought me when she came for girls' night.
Sorry for the blurriness of it, but I was trying to zoom in. But you get the drift. Like how I took a picture after I took my first bite? And I bet you also like how I made a visual contrast by propping the package up against and placing the pie in front of the two vitamin bottles behind it. I think I will name this particular piece "Naughty and nice." Okay, not for nothing, but I crack myself up. Oh yeah, and so, between the yummy chocolate creme pie thing last night and this delicious Publix bakery cheese Danish that Virginia just dropped off at my cube, I would have to say that I feel I'm well on my weigh to recovering from that 1.8 pounds gained last week... And no, that was not a misspelling.

And finally... Well, let me first interject this statment: I was going to put a remember-when story in this post, because I've been jotting them down whenever I think of them. And I have some doozies. But, as you can see, I have gone on and on long enough. So I will leave you with one final thought. My co-worker William informed me that NKOTB (and if you do not know what this stands for, you have not been reading my blog sufficiently, because I have educated you on this before...) has announced a reunion tour. I know, I know!! Several of you are probably fighting fainting right now at the thought of this! At first I did not believe him, because I couldn't find evidence of its truth. But now I know it is true. They have not, however, announced a date. Which is tragic. I bet there's a good chance they might have gone to B'ham. Of course, there's probably an even better chance they'll hit Seattle. And yes, I am seriously considering this. So, their website is here. Okay, I just spoke with William and he said the official announcement (which will have the dates, I assume) is not supposed to come until February. Which is tomorrow, but I'm sure it's not the 1st of February. Anyway, I went to that website last night, and it's totally useless. You can sign up to receive exclusive information (but I'm not giving them my mobile #, so forget that) and you can watch 2 videos. One of which is Hangin' Tough. So "listen up everybody if you wanna take a chance"...I don't know about you, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! And don't forget to wave your hands like they do :).