because I can taste the difference in bottled water

I have my quirks, as we all do. One of those quirks is to find flavors that could rival my favorites, such as the Fuji apple, Country Time Lemonade, and Kung Pao Chicken from Chung King. I have yet to find anything nearly comparable, but I am very hopeful and optimistic on my journeys.

If I am at a Chinese eatery, I will search for the particular restaurant's Kung Pao Chicken and try it just to make sure that Chung King's is the best. I have found that the Kung Pao Chicken from P.F. Chang's is the worst; it has no characteristics of a Kung Pao Chicken dish, just soy sauce and some dried chili peppers. I had to season it so much myself just to finish it. I do like the kind of Kung Pao Chicken I have tried at other restaurants that are made with marinated chicken and have a char siew-like taste, yet not many other characteristics of the Kung Pao Chicken from Chung King that I love so dearly. It's all in the sauce. I do, however, have a problem with the Chung King version: the meat is cooked so quickly that sometimes it doesn't absorb the sauce and the chicken tastes like plain, unseasoned chicken. I have to have my seasonings! Whenever that happens, I always wish I would've ordered it without the chicken; then I would've gotten more mushrooms.

I do try different things, but I just can't resist trying different versions of things I love. I almost always order lemonade at a restaurant if it is available. I've only been failed terribly once, and that was when the Subway at school decided to switch to Minute Maid Light Lemonade. It was so gross. Indescribable. I already like Minute Maid Lemonade less than Country Time Lemonade, so just imagine the expression on my face when I took my first swig. We just got a gallon of Hawaiian Punch Lemonade and that was a disappointment, too. What's the problem with these? Too much sugar, not enough tanginess. I always want to thoroughly brush my teeth after drinking other lemonades because of this. Total buzzkill.

Photos from the camera phone

Isn't this the cutest thing ever made for a dog?


Jack!


Ira!

Found: Deer head

How does one simply stumble upon the following? I don't know, but I did.

I didn't know what to think except for, "It was such a cute deer." Poor thing.

Thanksgiving, Powers hamburgers, and panda rings

We spent our Thanksgiving at his uncle's house with the rest of his family. It was pretty simple and low-maintenance, which I appreciated.

On the way there, we listened to:

Brand New's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

("too slow" for him)

The Killers' Sam's Town

(my favorite track? "Bones")

and My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade

(mutual favorite out of all 3).

What did I think? Brand New's not as catchy anymore; The Killers are pretty awesome; My Chemical Romance is amazing! They were so upbeat throughout the whole album, which kept him awake and me entertained.

We wanted to go to Powers after watching the Krystal hamburger eating contest on ESPN, so we called our friends and executed our plans. Afterward, we rented Mission: Impossible III, which I loved merely for the scene in which they got married with toy panda rings.

(Image credit here because I was too lazy to use my own camera)

New news

Back when I worked late-night shifts, my friendly co-workers and I would have nothing to do but wait for phone calls and come up with anything to do to pass the time. We often went through news websites and shared bits of news we read. Now that I don't work there anymore, I guess I can just share the news with you. Some of our favorites?

• BBC News
  
• Magazine Monitor: 10 Things We Didn't Know Last Week (My absolute favorite! I would go through the archives and anxiously anticipate every day for the next list.)
• In Pictures (This entire section is great. I would spend hours sifting through the "Week in pics" and read touching stories in the "Photo journals".)
  
• MSNBC.com
• Peculiar Postings ('nough said.)

...and for the bit of news that caught my eye today: Santa who gave strangers $1.2 million gets cancer (Video, via CNN.com)

The guys at work always gave me a hard time because I would tell them such sad news stories, but I couldn't help it -- they were so touching!

Happy Feet!

I really enjoyed Happy Feet! We saw it at the Cinema Grill, which meant that we also got to have dinner during the movie. He had the Mushroom & Swiss burger and I had the Spicy Chicken Finger Basket. The movie was filled with so much cuteness, singing, dancing, and jokes that I sat there tickled the whole time. I highly recommend this as a movie to watch with some kiddies.

While waiting for about 20-30 minutes in line to enter the theater, we were able to witness the following:

The little girl from the family in front of us needed to use the facilities, which were just to the left of us, so her Mom went over to the door to help her. They came out. We overheard her Mom telling her Dad that they walked into the aftermath of the previous lady's #2 and the girl wanted to confront her. She was looking up and down the line to find that lady, saying in her broken words, "Her did it! Where she is? Phew!" You gotta love kids.

silly things i love

• bird, frog, turtle, penguin decals
• extra fine-tipped pens
• postcards
• journals
• scotch tape
• photography
• Volvos
  

ThisNext: The Ultimate Shopping Tool

I first found out about ThisNext through Oh, Sweetheart!'s shopcast and I quickly became obsessed. I must admit I am a bit jealous that I hadn't thought of this before. They have more programming brains than I do, of course, but the idea is pretty simple: share wonderful items of clothing, furniture, whatever with the rest of the world. How many times have you seen an adorable peacoat you just had to show your friend? I do it all the time through e-mail, but this way is much easier. Not only do you find out about certain items, you find out about the stores that sell them, and you know how that goes from there. Well, I'm off to discover new things, now!

Here are some things I've found and love:

Yak Pak's Ika

KAPELA shades from IKEA

Hello, how do you do?

Here are some things about me. I put them in a list so that you could choose to read them and because I don't know how I could ever put them into paragraphs.

• I am a girl full of emotions, opinions, and ambitions.
• I usually do not make any sense.
• I once won $1 at a group job interview (weird, I know!) for saying that a bag of Skittles best describes me because I am a little bit of everything. I am, really.
• I can't lie.
• I prefer reality; I don't ever sugarcoat anything. That makes me seem cold sometimes.
• I am often told that I harbor a lot of bitterness inside of me. I think it's true.
• I used to worry that I would become a failed artist and have to resort to designing romance novel covers.
• I love animals. I am a pet parent to 1 cat (Vada), 2 dogs (Ira and Einstein), and some fish (J. Mizzle, Cream Puff, Alfred Lunch, et al.)
• I love to bake! I would like to go to pastry school someday.
• I am addicted to the Internet.
• I have had the general rules of grammar branded into me since the fourth grade. This makes me a bit of a Grammar Nazi at times.
• I have mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
• I am highly lactose intolerant.

Other things people usually wonder about:

• I go to college. I study French there.
• Current job field:
• human services
  
• Previous jobs:
• web designer
• bookstore clerk
• sales associate
• call center representative
• helpdesk representative (IT department)

That's all I can think of right now.