Emma's Fantabulous Blog

Devon’s site 10minutemail.com (which i mentioned here) has been getting a steady amount of traffic for a while now. Not enough to retire on or anything, but the revenue from Google ads has provided a little bit of pocket cash to pay for our server costs and whatnot.

I just found that 10MM was mentioned on the CBS news in San Francisco back in December! Pretty rad. If you click here, you can read the summary and view the video of the report on disposable e-mail services. Devon’s site was the first one mentioned. Pretty cool…
Alright. I’m done bragging.

Whoops. I haven’t done one of these in 3 weeks. My bad.

1. D stands for _______
2. If you were to make a donation, which organization would be first on  your list?
3. How long does it take you to get ready for the day?
4. What time do you usually go to bed?
5. Would you rather loose your keys 3 days in a row, or have your dog/lizard/cat eat your birthday cake?
6. What was your first car?
7. Have you ever run your car out of gas?
8. Please fill in the blank. My car is always full of ______.
9. Are you planning a vacation/travel?
10. Kristin, Dan & I are going to San Francisco in a couple of weeks. What should we make sure to see/do?

Lemur, our resident drug addict… I mean hedonist has been quite depressed in recent months. In November, there was a huge cocaine bust, this month the DEA raided a house in Pullallup, WA which was part of the “B.C. Bud” growing operation.

“Over the last week, detectives raided that house and eight others in southeast King County and Puyallup. Urquhart said deputies seized 4,991 marijuana plants with a street value of about $5 million and found large grow operations at each house.”

5 million dollars worth of weed!?!?! That’s a massive amount! I saw pictures of it all on the news. It was all packed away into maybe 50 moving boxes that filled up an entire room!

Crazy stuff. What can I say. People in Seattle really love their weed along with their coffee. I’m sure it has something to do with why we have so many terrible passive drivers.

View the rest of the article here, at komotv.com. 

Remember my post last month about Flora, the komodo dragon in England who was reproducing without a male counterpart?

Well, as of last Wednesday, 5 of her 7 eggs have hatched. (one of the cutie lizard babies is pictured below.)

“Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad,” said a delighted Kevin Buley, the zoo’s curator of lower vertebrates and invertebrates.

“When the first of the babies hatched, we didn’t know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars.”

Read the complete story here, at cnn.com.

Paris Train available from Pier 1 Imports

This CD is a compilation of various songs in French and songs about loving France. My mom got it for me, as we’re both francophiles and thought that I would appreciate a CD that boasts about being a mix for someone traveling from Paris to the seaside town of Bandol so they can sip rosè vin while sitting at a cafe.

I have been listening to it non-stop. Its really really great. Très, très charmant.

I just LOVE Urban Dictionary.

It has 3 definitions for the word “Snorgle“. I like this explanation the most.

” To snorgle is to snuggle a cute item in a manner meant to drink in or experience its overwhelming cuteness.”

I would use the word like this: Fifi is super grumpy when I snorgle her belly when she’s sleepy.

So some of you may have noticed my absence for the past 2 weeks. I was on the east coast. Seeing family and friends, meeting my new niece, being sick with the plague or something and surviving ice storms along with subzero temperatures.

This recipe makes 8 servings. I tweaked a recipe I found on allrecipes.com to make this variation. It received rave reviews at my “dinner and a movie” night.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound dry ziti pasta (1 box)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 TBLS olive oil
• 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Traditional, which was kinda sweet, but went perfectly with the sour cream)
• 6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream (I used light)
• 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
2. In a large skillet, brown onion in olive oil over medium heat until it is translucent and almost caramelized. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes. Take off heat and mix sauce with cooked pasta
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 ziti and sauce mixture, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 ziti and sauce mixture and mozzarella cheese. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.

1. C stands for _______.
2. What did you want to be when you grew up?
3. What was your favorite toy as a child?
4. What clique were you in, in high-school?
5. Do you prefer escargot or caviar?
6. The last thing you burned while attempting to cook?
7. What is your sinful snacking weakness?
8. When someone gets your answering machine/voicemail, what do they hear?
9. Do you ramble when you leave a phone message?
10. California grape pickers are on strike and organizing a boycott. The store only has California grapes and you really want some. Do you buy them?

In an effort to become more social, Devon and I decided to host a “Dinner and a Movie night”. We rented “The Godfather” and I made a created an Italian themed menu. Then we invited 10 of our friends and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

We have a bunch of friends, and they all seem to have different eating restrictions. Everything from vegetarians to hard-core Atkins. So it was kind of a mission to come up with something that would make everyone happy. I ended up starting with an antipasto platter of various cured meats, provolone, roasted red peppers, olives and homemade tomato brushetta. For the main courses I made a Chicken Cacciatore (which was decent) and Baked Ziti (which i thought was amazing, and I’ll share the recipe for in a later post). We also had the obligatory garlic bread and red wine. I also made a tomato and mozzarella salad and a big garden salad, but I totally spaced out on putting them out when everyone sat down. And then for dessert I finally used a trifle dish that we received from our landlord as a wedding gift. I filled it up with layers of Devil’s Food cake (from a box), store-bought chocolate pudding, light cool-whip (shh… don’t tell anyone that I used light) and sliced strawberries…It was very yummy and insanely easy to make.

I had never seen “the Godfather” before, but it definitely lived up to the hype. It was made in the 70′s, and was supposed to take place in the 1940′s. There were a few costumes that seemed totally 1970′s inspired, but other than that I think that the movie translated extremely well to current day. It also made me realize that “The Sopranos” is a total rip-off of it. Like how in “the Godfather” one of the characters says “Bada-boom, bada-bam”, and in “The Sopranos”  the main character’s strip club is named “Bada-bing”.

I really enjoyed the movie and thought that it was pretty enjoyable for everyone. (Especially on our 13 foot projector screen. Not to brag or anything. j/k) It had the romance and weddings stories for the ladies (even though one of the new brides ended up getting blown up.), explosions, guns and street-fights for the guys, and some really humorous moments for everyone. But yeah. I totally recommend checking it out for anyone who hasn’t yet….

And having “Dinner and movie nights”. Ours was a blast. I can’t wait to do it again. And hopefully some day we’ll be back in New England and I can include some of my friends and family. Then we can watch stuff like “Chocolat”. Now THAT would allow for a killer dinner part of “dinner and a movie”.