I saw my high school French teacher, who was one of my favorite teachers, at work today. She retired a few years ago and she’s got 3 grandkids now. She actually looks younger than she did when she was my teacher. Good for her.

One of my customers gave me information on graduate school. I might look into it. I don’t know. The job hunt is making me more and more depressed. I know I’m not the best designer, but I think I’m not that awful. I don’t really know what I’m doing wrong.

I don’t really care what new features are part of Wordpress 2.6, but I am thinking of updating just to get rid of that annoying “Please update now.” bar at the top of the page.

Paul Westerberg is releasing 49 minutes of music (or noise?) for 49 cents.

I saw the Dark Knight with my Pop yesterday. He liked the first one more. I like both of them. I’m not a huge Batman fan, but: Heath Ledger’s Joker > Jack Nicholson’s Joker… also, I like Christian Bale as Batman, but maybe it’s because I like looking at him more than the other actors who have played Batman.

It’s still more than one month away, but I think I should start making a list of what to bring to Seattle.

Oh yeah.

I’m going to Seattle during the last weekend of August to hang out with Maurine and Tina. I plan to draw my ass off, spend my money on posters and crap that i don’t need, and then see the Black Keys, Saul Williams, and Stone Temple Pilots perform at Bumbershoot. I’m hoping to be drunk for the rest of time.

Not really.

Maybe.

Dad: Denise?

Me: what

Dad: What’s a “BLOG-GER”?

Me: [ thinking ] Oh boy.

I showed him Dooce.com first. After he told me This is nothing…, I mentioned how many readers she has and how the website is supporting her family. I think he changed his mind after that. I showed him CarlosRull.com, BurntLumpia and the Philippines section of Ricebowljournals.com to show him that a lot of Filipinos around the world have blogs. And, man, was he excited when he found out that he could set up a blogger account with his gmail address.

By the end of the day, he was upset that no one left comments on his first post. Great. He’s one of those people. Next week, he’ll be threatening to shut down his blog because no one reads it, but will go on hiatus instead.

I guess today was a beach day or something because no one was shopping today. It was so slow and boring and I felt like I was in there for 24 hours.

A woman came in at 6:59PM and announced that she had to buy something. We close at 7PM and I was already in the process of counting the register.

Ugh. Fine. You had the entire day to pick something out and you had to do it ONE MINUTE before we close.

She spent 10 minutes picking out what she needed, paid for it, and headed for the doors. I went back to the paperwork and heard this loud CLUNK! from the entrance.

My co-worker closed one door while the customer was shopping and I guess the woman didn’t notice. She ran right into the clear, closed door!

Sigh. That was the freaking highlight of my day.

I just got back from White Castle. My cousin and a bunch of his friends bought a Crave Crate and finished it. I only had 5 and I feel like hurling. I think I am going to avoid meat for a month.

Those are only the ones I decided to pick early. The rest are weighing the tree down. I hear that is really bad for the tree. Oops.

Right now, I’m trying to decide what to do with them. Although fruit leather looks really tasty, I am not comfortable with leaving them in an oven overnight. I don’t want to make a cobbler. Peach butter seems like fun, but I’ve got to make sure that I have/buy the right things to make it. Anyone have other ideas?

I am not going to throw them at cars, houses, children, pets, annoying teenagers, and the elderly. I am also not going to use them in place of sports equipment. Peach bowling is a dumb idea, by the way. Especially peach bowling at night. They just split in half and then you lose good fruit.

We received a box about the length of my arm from UPS today. We opened it up and it was packed with those plastic, air-filled bags.

Besides those plastic bags, the only thing in the box was a sign that said “Live Green.”

This is one of my favorite things to eat when it’s wintertime. It’s also the only dish my dad cooks that reminds me of my mom’s cooking.

So this is arroz caldo according to wikipedia:

Some provinces prefer the Spanish-influenced arroz caldo (literally hot rice), which is often mistaken for a European dish due to its name. Arroz caldo is actually a Chinese congee that was adapted to the tastes of the Spanish colonial settlers who patronized Chinese restaurants in the Philippines. As the Spanish could not pronounce Chinese, they gave it a Spanish name for easy reference.

Arroz caldo is most usually spiced with saffron and black pepper in place of or in addition to the more traditional ginger and scallion. Arroz caldo more closely resembles risotto than congee, and is clearly recognized by the bright yellow hue contributed by the addition of saffron, and the larger pieces of meat. Arroz caldo is more popular among those of Ilokano heritage, although people of other provinces, such as Cebu, often add Philippine prawns, olive oil, bay leaf, and Chinese sausage.

Whenever I see my dad and aunts cook this, they usually cook without a recipe. When I ask how to cook it, they’d name all the ingredients and then “They go into the pot and you cook!” … Yeah. I could do that and end up with something completely different. I need measurements, times, instructions…

Anyway, here is a link to a recipe.

but can you blame me? I just saw them launch something into our new neighbors’ backyard and fireworks have been going off right above our house. I’m this close to running circles around the house just to make sure nothing catches on fire.

Why can’t they set off fireworks above their house?

Lately, things that are too sweet have been making feel gross.

I found a job. My first day was pretty uneventful, but look at what my coworker gave me:

John Deere Fruit Snacks

How odd.

Green = Tractor
Red = Barn
Yellow = Bulldozer
Orange = Sun