CPA

Isn't it funny that this is

is the first picture to show up in a Google Image search of "CPA" ? Ha. I had a little laugh. This sums it up quite well, actually. One month into studying for it, and I can already see Adam resembling the old man nerd herd. Old and decrepit by the time he's finished with it, me entertaining myself well into old age as I do now every night for 3 hours experimenting with oriental pan foods and talking to myself and my blog and my laundry. That reminds me. Gotta run.

Pa Jun

Good news all you Kim Jong Il fans. Korea has a pancake and its got his name on it. Or you can call it simply: Pa Jun. As a lover of all-things-dipped-in-soy-sauce, I love this pancake. Try it tonight!

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon corn, grape seed, canola or other neutral oil, more as needed
5 scallions, green parts only, cut into 3-inch lengths and sliced lengthwise
20 chives or 5 chopped scallions
1 medium carrot, peeled and grated
1 small yellow or green squash, trimmed and grated
1/2 pound chopped shrimp, optional
1 tablespoon rice or white vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, eggs and oil with 1 1/2 cups water until a smooth batter is formed. Stir scallion greens, chives, carrots, squash and shrimp, if using, into batter.

2. Place an 8- inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, then coat bottom with oil. Ladle in about a quarter of the batter and spread it out evenly into a circle; if first pancake is too thick to spread easily, add a little water to batter for remaining pancakes. Turn heat to medium and cook until bottom is browned, about 3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Repeat with remaining batter.

3. As pancakes finish, remove them, and, if necessary, drain on paper towels. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Cut pancakes into small triangles and serve with dipping sauce.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

You're wondering: is this from the Kim Jong Il Cookbook? I wish there were such a book! Ship it to me if there is. It's from a great fellow at they NYTimes.com called "The Minimalist." His less-is-more cooking style is refreshing. He's dull on video. And he cooks a mean pancake. If you try this recipe, you will be delighted to see that just once in your very own lifetime you, too, can experiment and have your result look exactly like the picture.

Why they hate each other...

If you are confused about the Sunni-Shi'ite conflict -- and basically the whole war at this point -- read this article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1592849-1,00.html

It explains so much and now I understand the why/when at least....

Sandlot

I have officially joined the company softball team. Our names is: SEO Inc. Names we are considering: TCPIPP, LOL, WTF and SofaKingdomFriends. Some vulgar. Some nerdy. Some scream: I type www all day, what can I say? And to intimidate, we yell: "Yeah, well, you don't even know what the Internet is!" and "Google THIS." Trash talk at its ultimate ferocity. We played game 3 last night. The Icers were a team akin to us: really bad. But they had a great batting practice last night as we patiently stood in the outfield watching them hit. And run. And hit. And run home. And hit and....Finally by inning 6 or 7 or 8 I had HAD it and, as catcher, made a little extra effort and actually caught 2 of the 3 outs, much to all amazed bystanders...and the hitters who said "she did NOT just catch that." Truth is, when I did catch the first one, I looked at the ump and guessed outloud judging from the cheers "is that out?" Learning the softball rules as I go, yep. We are indeed the ragamuffins of the bunch. We come late if we come at all. We have to beg the ump to come back because...well...we're late. We laugh when the other team has game face. We don't wear the same t-shirts; some wear jeans and skate shoes. And sometimes we get upset at little unjustices because, after all, we've all begun our softball careers in our mid-to-late 20s and .... come on, it's just a game, right? That Team was our first competitor. Yes, That Team. We had the obligatory Abbot and Costello moment on the field, too. "You're playing That Team? What team? That Team. No, we're playing you guys. Yeah. That Team." Hahaha. I guess it was a good laugh, a nice start to a relatively friendly competition. Second game was Legoland Extreme....the extremely loud and raucous and rude and lousy bunch. They killed us. With their words and their skills. There were some hard feelings afterwards ...but hey, it's just a game, right? Gotta play a quick game, then I gotta get home for lunch. Yes, I do think of my beloved Sandlot. And the beast. And the s'mores. I envision us really rising to the occasion, someone shining forth as Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez did, just one game. One game!.. and knocking the knickers off those well groomed, seasoned softball players. Albeit they are often all drunk, so why CAN'T we beat their knickers? Probably because we shun the ball, we avoid it, and when we have it we don't know what to do with it. Well, we've got the rest of the season, and with last night's large scoring on our part (3 runs), I think we're on our way. But right now I'm ok with being Squints.

Pioneer Woman Wins Big

It's official. Confessions of a Pioneer Woman won the "best kept secret weblog" at the 2007 Bloggies Awards [http://2007.bloggies.com/] today! Congrats PW. The prize is 2,007 pennies. That's $20.07. Yeehaw.

This has become a baby blog

You know those people who are obsessed with all the children that are born into their family or friend circles? Nod your head. And point that finger right back at yourself because every one of us has been this person at some time or another. Indulge me with a few more pics looted from Heather's blog. Because I'm selfish and I don't you to go to her blog. I want you to stay on my blog. Check out the pink afghan I made the girl. Three months of crochet hook madness. Now that's love. Alright, alright, I stopped at two pics. If you want to see more go to Heather and Tyler's blog: www.elisonblog.blogspot.com. Some trivia Heather left out: I, too, was blessed in this dress. And not to be outdone, I was blessed three years before Heather even considered being blessed.

Mayer Mayhem

Interview with the former love-of-my-life-before-I-met-A-Bomb.com:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7765148

he looks his weirdest while crooning. this picture reminds me that my husband kicks this dude to the curb. and hits him with his own gee-tar.

forgot one

how cute is this wide-eyed little cuddle possum?

Happy International Women's Day!

A little Chinese man told me today was Int'l Women's Day! He said in China the women take a half day off of work. A half day in China is 9 hours, so if I were them, I'd be working overtime today. Instead of doing that, let's celebrate this day by viewing the newest, sweetest, cutest little woman to grace this world: Haven Edith Elison. 1 month. Seen here with Uncle Allen and Aunt Martha and her 2 cousins Isabelle and Hunter and their parents Roger and Karie. Heather and me at Chili's. Haven chillin' on the couch past her bedtime with the TV all to herself -- just how she likes it.

Blogging Efforts Thwarted!!

I had a great weekend with the new niece in Logan, UT and took about 100,000 pictures of her sweet, diverse facial expressions... only to find this morning that my camera was STOLEN by some sticky fingers Delta bag-moving employee. I shake my fist in the face of that bag mover! It was definitely a she because she also took my cute winter gloves from the outside pocket. And my camera is in a green oriental-like coin purse. She probably thought it was full of coins, poor gal. Well that poor gal can have the gloves and the coins and the purse but those pictures....!!! I guess I can blog still but the pictures will be MIA.

Sushi is Delishi

Leslie, my co-worker, invited Adam and me to a sushi making (& eating) party last weekend. the dear gal gave me one of these darling bamboo mats to try this whole thing by myself at home. going thru the process under her watchful eye made me excited to do it on my own. but then i ate so much that night i thought i'd burst. and subsequently dreamt about piles of sushi all night, woke up feeling very sick, and don't want to eat sushi for a very long time. but i did feel at home with the chopsticks. whatever snide remark i made about them in Jerry Seinfeld's voice whilst living in Taiwan, i apologize. they are so much more than pool cues.

my baby is good at making sushi. here's Leslie, the hostess and my co-worker, giving some tips to the hot man behind the mat. and ta-dah! chow time.

the process goes something like this. put your little sushi mat down, put the seaweed square on that. put a row of rice and whatever else you want near edge of seaweed closest to you. then roll as tight as you can. seal seaweed edge with a dab of water. cut on cutting board, wet knife with water if it sticks. quite simple, eh? Leslie laid out a load of choices: shrimp, raw tuna and salmon and eel, avacado, cucumber. and to make the rice sticky and tasty you add rice vinegar to it!

the resident Asians show us how it's done. although the 3 Asians present were not Japanese...they really had a knack for it! something to do with just knowing all the ins and outs of rice, i guess.

Haven in the flesh

I couldn't help myself from kifing these from Heather's blog and posting them on my own. I will be seeing this baby in the flesh in less than 24 hours and I'm nearly jumping out of my seat just thinking about it. Haven is 6 weeks old, my third niece/nephew and -- dare I say -- the cutest one yet. Ok, they're all cute. But man. You're going to have to pry this one from my clenched hands in 3 days when I have to turn around and come back. Here comes Aunt Martha! Heather, don't you think you should put some clothes on her? Logan's pretty cold this time of year. Look at those all-seeing eyes. And that electrically shocking hair. She has definitely fattened up since the stork dropped her off, too. She's come a long way since her wrinkly, squished up days. Stay tuned for more adorable pics of this one when I get back.