18 posts from September 2007

Came home from work and the boyfriend is asleep, and I am bored.

I am a major, die-hard, over the top San Francisco Giants fan. It is a sickness, a disease that will never die. I was in 2nd grade trying to brag about how much I loved sports and the Giants, and being a tomboy was my goal in life. I eventually grew out of the tomboy part, but my love for the Giants never faded one bit. My dad promised he would take me to see the Giants games, but he never did. I always resented him but as I got older I took any chance that I could to go to a game. My first game (of many) was when I was 12 years old, with a friend named Aaron that I had met at the mall. His dad took us to Candlestick Park and Barry Bonds had only been on the team a few months, however he was already the up and coming superstar of the team. I regarded Barry as any average player, it was not until I got much older that I started really appreciating the sport and my team.

I went through a phase where I was all about football and Steve Young, not so much Giants. It was definitely a phase, at the time I didn't think so. I followed football and the 9ers, but after a while I just got so bored. I started watching the Giants again in about 2001. The Giants were doing awesome then and I started remembering how the sport worked. After a few weeks, you could find me at the same bar, drinking the same beer, watching the game night after night. One may call that a problem, I called it love! It was such a great release to watch my game every night (well, with baseball, your team plays almost every night) we just were doing so great I was having so much fun! I called Barry the hometown hero. That is what a lot of people called him, actually, not just me. He really was our hometown hero. If it was not for this man, we wouldn't have AT&T park, a lot of people will tell you that he not only built that stadium- he sold the food, filled the seats and made SF recognize wht a team we had. Any Giants fan will not want to even relive the devastating loss of the World Series from 2002 so let's not even go there.

The point was, we loved Barry. I know he has a bad reputation, and whether or not he is a prick in real life, I don't know, cause I have never met him. I remember watching the games and sometimes he would be happy, he would smile, really big. It made ME HAPPY when I would see him smile! I was in complete awe of this person. He doesn't even have any idea what he means to me, and so many people in the bay area. He made me a happy person, he made me feel joy on a lot of occasions. He is a great player. He always will be remembered, and while a lot of people do not feel the way I do, it is because they didn't grow up with him, they didn't have him there making them feel good almost half of their lives. This in my opinion is no different than watching someone you love grow up and move on. Barry Bonds is my friend. He has been there for me. I was 12 and he was there. Now I am 26 and I saw him leave last night.

I went to the game, thank god that my boyfriend got us tickets. He said last week that he would try, but I didn't think it would happen. It did.. he found tickets at the last minute, and we went. Watching Barry tip his hat and wave as he ducked out in the bottom of the 6th inning, making his final exit, sparked tears. A lot of tears, I hadn't prepared myself, because I was too busy watching and eating and having fun. Then suddenly it hit me, this is it. This is the last time I will see Bondsy in his uniform. All of the years came rushing back to me, the joy I felt, the heartbreak from the last world series. MY Bondsy is leaving, and the Giants as I have known them are going to be different. I cried for 10 minutes. The walk back to the train, I cried the whole way, and in the train station bathroom I cried. This was my life, a part of it anyway, and I witnessed my favorite player duck into my dugout for the last time ever.

The game wasn't a good one for us, we lost terribly. But seriously, it was the best game I have ever been to. I remember hating myself for not jumping on these tickets that we could have gotten to see him hit his 756th home run. I have to say this right now, that game would have been a nice memory. The game I went to last night means oh, so much more. I am so glad I was able to be there as he left. The emotion I felt seeing him leave would have been unparelled to that if I saw him hit the world record for home runs. Someone may break that record someday. No one can break the feeling I have for Bondsy. The emotion he has given me throughout my life will never be forgotten. Just a cute note to add to this story, my Chorkie (Chihuahua-Yorkie mix)'s name is Maysie. She was named after Willie Mays, Barry's Godfather. Barry is always with me somehow! 

MySims is a brand new game for the Wii the just released on September 18th. I have spent a good 5-6 hours playing it now and I wanted to give a mini review. For one thing, the game is CUTE. It will appeal to kids and women, but also everyone that loves cute cute things. I think it will be fun for a few hours for most people, but in my opinion, the real fan base will be super creative people. I always liked Sims and Sims 2, but after I could afford to make the house I wanted, I lost interest. This game cures all of my boredom with the Sims franchise. Mostly this is because the game is 99% building furniture and decorating other little Sims houses. Since that is my favorite aspect of the game, there is no doubt about why I love it so much. However, I could see this getting way too reptitive for most people. You don't really make "Best friends" with people or get to know them much at all. Once you have done all of the tasks for one sim, another will come along and you will make a whole line of products for them as well.

I feel the need to compare this game to a VERY similiar looking game produced by Nintendo, Animal Crossing for the game cube and DS. Animal Crossing also let you trade items with real people in the outside world by exchanging codes. You got a code, then gave that code to your friend by email for instance. As long as they have the game, they can talk to a town person and enter the code. They would get the item and even know who is was from. I like the Animal Crossing feel of MySims but I do kind of miss the friendship aspect. With Animal Crossing, I always had favorite neighbors in town, for example. In MySims, I don't really have a favorite, the neighbors are all nice to me, and I give them what they ask for. Then they are pretty much done with me. That's no fun. :(

I do like that you do not have to watch your hygiene, or go to the bathroom, etc (like in other Sikms games). I am very interested to see what happens once I reach a "5-Star town". I am now at 1 star, and you start off with 0 stars. The town used to be a great town, but over the years people moved out, so the point of the story is to make a 5-star town again and it's a fun idea. I highly recommend the game to creative people that love drawing, painting, and building new designs. There are a ton of possibilities and it is always fun to see how the finished product looks. At the end, you will see that you have pretty much created the whole town from scratch, from the buildings themselevs to almost every piece of furniture. How rewarding is that? Well, I say very!

If you are interested in how to build, and other options, please check out this review.

Thankfully, Maysie is healthy. She has a major flea problem but we got lots of advice from the vet, so soon they should be gone. And her fur will hopefully grow back :D Shes got yorkie hair from her head to her mid back, then she looks like a chihuahua from the waist down. It is cute, and funny, but she should be all curly. I am looking forward to her being herself again.

Oops I'm drunk

4 Hefeweizens and 1 Lemon Meringue Martini

It was fun

Taking Maysie to the vet in a few hours

Hope the little critter is ok

Tiff

Yeah I know I have been not-so-writey lately but it is because work is brutal! I also am lame because I started playing MySims and boy that game kicks ass. Very kiddish and cute and right up my alley. My character is a cute freckley pink-ponytail sim named Sunnie and she lives in HappiTown. She is thrilled to live there.

Oh I went to my new job today, it was pretty kick-ass. For one thing, it was so quiet! And I loved it! I concentrated on my work, didn't get distracted, so far it's great. Working with a friend of mine is pretty cool also, but the interesting thing is that we are peers and we get to share some responsibilities while others are our own. It is quite a difference but I can tell this will be good for me. I am looking forward to seeing what I can do for this company and that is one thing you don't really get an asspect of at a big huge company like my last employer. This is a teeny tiny company, and I am expected to make it better. It really does something for me.

The hours are long, though. I get to start at 9 AM which lets me sleep in a bit, which is why I am up right now!

I am not a fantastic cook, but I do have a talent for making tasty meals on very little money for 2 people. If you wanna make meals on the cheap, my first suggestion is to go to the grocery store right when you get paid and get a bunch of meat to store in the freezer so you can pull it out when you need to eat! I spend 20-40 bucks a month on meat on average. I get a big bag of frozen chicken breasts (10 or so pieces) for 8 or 9 dollars, about 6 lbs of ground beef (I spend a little extra on the lean beef) for 20 or so dollars, but if that is not importasnt to you, you can get it much cheaper. Every few trips, I pick up a bag of frozen pre-formed hamburgers. It helps to have these on hand for hamburgers, so you can use the ground beef that you bought on other dishes as you feel like it. I also pick up at least one top round roast (London Broil cut) for 5 bucks or so.

With that in the freezer you will need a few more supplies on hand, you will need to buy these items but do so when they are on sale only. It can be hard to spend more than you want to but you will be happy when you have cupboards full of what you need, reducing your store trips.

• Cream of Mushroom soup or Cream of Mushroom w/ Roasted Garlic soup (I recommend only Campbells, which is why it is important that you buy a bunch when they are on sale. I hoped the generic would taste close to the real thing, it was very disappointing and bland.)
• Macaroni and cheese (If you have a bulk club membership, Mac and cheese is a better deal, take advantage of it)
• Canned tuna (any kind is fine but get white albacore when it is on sale, it tastes much better)
• Ritz Crackers
• Hamburger Helper goes on sale every other week at my local grocery store, Safeway. The generic Safeway brand Hamburger Helper is very good, and is even cheaper. I find the safeway brand on sale for $1 a box regularly.
• Spaghetti can be used for many things besides the old fashioned italian favorite. This goes on sale for 80 cents a box regularly, and that box can feed a small army.
• Stock up on spices. It took me a while to realize this as an amateur ghetto fabulous chick but spices make food taste better. It's true! I never wanted to waste my money on them but I started buying one bottle of spice every other shopping trip, now I have a nice supply to experiment with.
• Frozen vegetables have a long shelf life, and generic on sale is your best bet for saving money, stock up on your favorites.
• Sloppy Joe Sauce when on sale (Generic is fine)

The one thing I never stock up on is fresh veggies and fruits. With the two of us we just see them get rotten before we get around to eating them. However, I make a small trip to the store when a recipe calls for them and it really helps save there as well.

I have lots of recipes I plan to share in the future. They will make moms and people that actually cook regularly laugh about how simple (& ghetto) they are, but if you are low on money, don't think that you can cook and you find you never have food, you will appreciate them I am sure. This one came out well recently so I will post it first.

Ritz Fried Chicken (Recommended side dish: Mac & Cheese and cooked vegetables)

1-2 Eggs

3-4 bonesless chicken breasts thawed

1/2 cup of butter of margarine melted

1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

Crush crackers until fine. One good way to do this is to put the crackers into a ziplock bag. Then use a potato masher or the flat end of a big spoon and bash! It will take some elbow grease to get them all fine, or 2-4 minutes of bashing.

Pour crumbs into a shallow dish 

Crack egg into large bowl and wisk until beaten

Dip chicken breasts into egg, and swirl them around into the crumbs until covered.

Place on a greased cookie sheet

Pour melted butter or margarine over breasts until covered. This will make them golden brown!

Into the oven they go!

Bake 30-40 minutes

Can someone tell me why my vox says I have tags like Chris, crocker, britney, spears, vma, perez? I did not put these here! Is vox planting crap in my tags somehow? I can see some could be related to posts I have made, but I never made these tags. WTF?

Update: Ok, I think there are tags hidden within videos and such and they are automatically generated when I refer to a certain video. All of those tags appear to have come because I embedded the Leave Britney Alone video in one of my posts.