dinner today

so the pasta isn't fetuccine. i was too lazy on this holiday weekend to drive ALL THE WAY to the health food store in Granger, so it's gluten-free spaghetti instead.

truthfully, the pasta was the worst part of this dish. the shrimp and green beans in the tequila-cream sauce with garlic and cilantro is quite scrumptious.

the best part? it takes about 15 minutes to make, start to finish.

take that Racheal Ray!

and the dessert!

man, oh man. perfect texture and consistency. and the taste rocks pretty hard, too.

yum!! i can eat cake!!!

food a go-go

this Labor Day weekend, i am a single woman with an empty house!! weeeeeha! don't get me wrong, i love my parents and appreciate with my entire being the open house generosity they show me each and every day.

but i am normally a solitary human. i have lived on my own for many years and enjoy my own space and energy. this is my mother's house. her kitchen is not my kitchen. i do not feel as if i can truly cook the way i cook with her here. i eat what she cooks, cuz its just easier that way.

i tell ya, i am really hating fried potatoes and bratwurst right now.

so, since they have gone north for the holiday weekend, i have spent an inordinate amount of time in the kitchen. i was inspired by Mario Batali last night. i prepared his Polenta with Sausage Ragu. it was my first foray into polenta. i'd had it as a on-the-bottom-of-the-plate-sauce for dishes in restaurants but never jumped into the preparation of it.

holy crap it was easy...and delicious!! i made it with water, cooked it for 6 minutes on the stovetop and then let it set up in a 9 x 13 pan. after a 1/2 hour, i cut it into wedges and fried it crisp on each side.

on top, a sausage ragu...kinda like a spaghetti sauce, but not as tomato-ey.

it was filled with flavor and textures and scrumptious!

then it was on to whipping up creme brulee for dessert for the next few days. currently, i am baking gluten-free vanilla pound cake, something i have wanted to try for months! dinner today will be rice fettucine covered with Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Tequila Sauce. i modify it by sub-ing shrimp for chicken and green beans for broccoli.

how funny is it that when they are gone, i am ALL ABOUT the cooking!!?!?

the top story

on E! News weekend:

David Duchovny has checked into rehab for sex addiction. the TOP STORY!! they grabbed old quotes from Playgirl magazine, circa 1997, with him saying he didn't have a problem, and old video footage (2001) of he and Tea joking with each other at one of her movie premieres.

my hope is that they WILL be left alone as they asked and that there won't be a lot of digging. i know, it's a naive hope, but it's my hope.

here we go again

another hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, headed for New Orleans. i am sending out good thoughts, vibes and prayers. let everyone be safe this time...

when Steve's on...

Dahl Shifts Earlier At Jack FM/Chicago
CBS Adult Hits WJMK (104.3 JACK FM)/CHICAGO is moving morning host STEVE DAHL to 5-9a CT from the former 5:30-10a slot. DAHL told the CHICAGO TRIBUNE, "Morning drive has shifted, and 5 to 9, I think, is the time to be on. By 9, you're done with your morning rush-hour-type radio. ***You're ready to kick back and enjoy some HUEY LEWIS, or whatever it is we play." He also noted that the change may have been prompted by the market's changeover to the Portable People Meter and a need to have music start by 9a for in-office listening.

***this is why i love the Stever...

don't these words just suck...

"temporarily unable to dispense cash". especially at 7:32am when you are running late for work, and after waiting for the 4 cars ahead of you...drag.
shelley<>

the ring

not exactly the one worn on my right index finger but a replica. this one is worn on Chris' right index finger. he gave it to her years ago. i dont have filmed evidence of my ring, but Chris does...in "The Forsaken."

i giggled and giggled when i hit the guide on the dish tonight at 10:24pm and it was playing on the CW. giggled cuz i haven't seen him on tv in months. giggled cuz we have had email contact a few times this week..and then there he is...in all his vampire-hunting glory.

funny how these things work,huh?
shelley<>

spaciness and forgetfulness

since the Chakra Bowl meditation a week ago Wednesday, i have been walking around, driving around, living in a fog. my head is all spacey (and not echoes of Kevin...Spacey. get it? seee how goofy i AM!!). i have been losing things since then

*Wednesday night thru Friday morning i lost my brand-new debit card
*Thursday i couldn't find my phone
*Friday thru Sunday my purse was missing

i have left keys, sunglasses, coffee cups, proposals and other things. i have felt non-grounded. like my energy was all up in my head and it was pulling me off the ground...floaty.

so, i took my b-day money from mom and dad and headed to gemisphere for a look around, for something that would help me get rid of the spaciness and help pull my energy back down to earth.

i clicked on the first favorite i had saved on my explorer...which was agate. the first words of the description:

Indications for Wearing aTherapeutic Agate Necklace
When one or more of the following apply—
You are experiencing—

•
Spaciness or not feeling grounded

i laughed and pulled out the credit card for the immediate purchase. it came in the mail yesterday while i was feeling icky. its so beautiful!!! i can wear it with anything!!!

i have kept it either on me or next to me, except for the shower this morning, ever since. i can feel the energy of it working with all the excess energy that i'm hanging onto. i have a feeling it will get worse before it gets better, which is fine. whatever happens is fine. i have my agate!!

more Boris

last night (and basically all of yesterday) i was recuperating from a day and a half of ickiness...sickness and the like. i was listening to my meditation stuff (holosynch ROCKS!) on the iPod when my text message went off..

"sorry i missed your birthday"

i shook out the brain cobwebs and we had a half-hour text message session. :) i learned a bit more about where he is, or i guess i should say where he has been, and cryptically, what he's been doing. i must admit, i had to push back the fear and send out those good positive vibes instead.

my heart expanded and felt like it was beating again. it makes my eyes tear up today when i think about it. when i think about him. don't know if its sadness or resistence, but it's there.

the glass is half-full, isn't it?

Friday: a REVELATION!!

so, i'm hanging with the Bud Guy, waiting to talk to a client. he and i had been pitching clients for a few hours and he asks me if i drink beer. i tell him i have a gluten-allergy. he says:

you mean celiac's disease?

i stare at him astonished. i stammer out a "yeah," and he says follow me, and we walk over to one of the cooler doors. he points at the two different brands on the top shelf and says

these two beers are gluten-free. they are made without wheat or barley.

what? beer behemouth Annheiser-Busch makes GLUTEN-FREE BEER???!?!?!?!? i was swooning.

he bought me a six-pack. i brought it home, tossed two bottles in the freezer, waited 10 minutes and cracked one.

it was heaven. sheer heaven.

(cue the Cinderella tune "Don't Know What You Got 'Til It's Gone") the last time i drank a beer was almost three years ago. three YEARS! it was cold and frosty and beery delicious...

i am lovin the RedBridge!!! Thanks John! you completely rock...

friends and food

the birthday week last week was filled with friends and fun and food!!

Monday: Chris and Tressa and i checked out the new Granite City Food and Brewery. yummy yum yum!! really good wine, perfectly cooked steak, strawberry cheesecake! as mentioned in the name of the place, they are also a brewery. Tressa had one of their brews which she said she liked. i wish they had something gluten-free in the brewery department...


Tuesday: Mom and Dad and i did the traditional birthday dinner. this year we checked out the Chubby Trout. yes, i said it, the Chubby Trout! sauteed blue gill and martinis. it was our first time at the Trout. i daresay i will return for more blue gill and MORE MARTINIS!!!


Thursday: Lori and Lynnaie took me to Bar Louie for drinks after work...which turned into MORE MARTINIS!! a bit of spinach-artichoke-crab dip to put down a base and the dirty martinis were rollin!

i love we didn't once go to a place i had been before. i love trying new places and foods. it was such a FUN week! i appreciate the time spent together with friends!!

Tropic Thunder

i am all about the Ben Stiller written and produced movies. Zoolander was/is brilliant. Starsky and Hutch i loved. (i know i know. i was the ONLY one)

Tropic Thunder is the funniest thing i have seen in a movie theater in a LOOOOOOOOONG time. i laughed more than i didn't...and not just little "ha - that's funny" kind of laughs. these were burst out from your diaphram type laughs. the performances are all pitch-perfect as the spoiled, taking-themselves-too-seriously actors. Robert Downey kicks such major ass it isn't funny. Ben has some great moments, especially the Marlon Brando Apocalypse Now moment. classic. Jack Black is toned-down and spot on.

DO NOT get to the theater late or you will miss:

*the Booty Sweat commercial
*the Fatties Fart 2 trailer
*the Sorcher parts 1-5!
*Satan's Alley...with Tobey Maguire...classic!!

Nick Nolte and Matthew McConaughey were a fun surprise. and Tom friggin' CRUISE??? hysterical!!!!!!!

my favorite joke is the name of the rapper/actor, the actual African-American in the movie. his name is Alpa Chino. he has a line of pants called Alpa Chino Chino's. funny stuff.

i will see this one twice...and laugh twice as hard!

Michael Phelps and some contemporaries

i thought maybe i'd wake the entire neighborhood when they won the medley last night. too cool watching LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in the crowd, cheering them on.

amazing.

the man's accomplishments are things of which legends are made.

you know i'm into the games when i watch the ENTIRE women's marathon...all 2 hours and 2o odd minutes of it. it became more compelling as the race went on and Romanian runner Dita's lead stretched to over a minute from the pack. at 38 years old.

like Dara Torres, the female American woman swimmer, 41 years old, in her fifth Olympics game. impressive accomplishments all.

spontaneous saturday

yesterday was the day to just GO. i didn't care what we did or where we went so we just...WENT. turns out Lisa's Ion knows its way to Grand Rapids. :)

we walked the mall, popped into a few stores...i can NEVER pass a Pottery Barn...i picked up some yummy Satsuma shower gel from The Body Shop, too. the clerk at the BS gave me a rewards card as a birthday gift (abundance!).

then we were off to a non-chain restaurant for an amazing lunch. tapas downtown at San Chez. Don and i frequented this really cool place when we dated in the 90's. i am always happy to see they are open and humming with business. it really is a cool place.

we had a pitcher of Sangria along with a selection of yummies not on your midwestern, small-town restaurant menu...hummus, crawfish, portobellos. and...miracle of all miracles...they had a number of desserts that were gluten-free! flourless chocolate cake set atop three dark chocolate truffles...heaven!!

more abundance as Lisa bought lunch for my birthday!

it was a really good day...

for my birthday

a wish:

Happy Birrrrthday to Youuuu,
Happy Birrrrthday to Youuuu,
Happy Birrrrthday Dear shelley,
Happy Birrrrthday to Youuuu!

A few years back… not so long ago, heaven and earth erupted into a major celebration with the news of your impending adventure into this very time and space. You see, someone like shelley doesn’t come along all that often… in fact, there’s never been a single one liked you, nor is there ever ANY possibility that another will come again. You’re an Angel among us. Someone, whose eyes see what no others will EVER see, whose ears hear what no others will EVER hear, and whose perspective and feelings will NEVER, ever be duplicated. Without YOU, the Universe, and ALL THAT IS, would be sadly less than it is.

Quite simply:

You’re the kind of person
Who’s hard to forget,
A one-in-a-million
To the people you’ve met.
Your friends are as varied
As the places you go,
And they all want to tell you
In case you don’t know:
That you make a big difference
In the lives that you touch,
By taking so little
And giving so much!

shelley, you are so AWESOME! For your birthday, friends and angels from every corner of the Universe, including buddies you didn’t know you had, will be with you to wish you the HAPPIEST of Birthdays and an exciting new year in time and space. You won’t be alone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, shelley!

Mike
Orlando, Florida , USA

pretty friggin cool...

branding works!

whilst in the reptile house Saturday at the Lincoln Park Zoo, i overheard at least 2 adults call the Gecko a "Geico." that particular advertising message has made it into the collective consciousness, huh?

too funny...

i filled up the gas tank this morning. the total? 51.50.
Sammy and Eddie would laugh! i know i did :)

Chicago

a summer Saturday spent in Chicago with Tressa and Chris.

lunch at the Twin Anchors, sitting in the booth where Bob Rueland had his first (blind) date after his wife had died. it was where he met Grace, and where Bob and Grace fell in love.

it's the story in the movie "Return To Me."

after lunch, it was off to drive by Wrigley Field while the game was going on...and catching the action with Ron Santo and the guys on WGN. a quick trip down Lakeshore Drive brought us to the afternoon's destination: the Lincoln Park Zoo...Chicago's free zoo...the setting for more scenes from "Return To Me." i was enthralled by the lion and his women, the tiger pacing his cage inside the lion house and the inhabitants of the monkey house. gorillas and chimpanzees. wow. astonishing to be separated from our primate brothers and sisters by glass. their energy had my hands shaking as we walked out of the enclosure. i was exhilarated by the meeting!

a few things to look at:

he was magnificent. we spent time in front of him and his two companions twice during the afternoon. the second time, he was sunning himself. he got up from where he was lying, let a couple of growls out, altho they weren't full on roars, just like he was clearing his throat. he then turned his back and plopped back down the warm rocks. he was truly the king of the jungle. wow.


he paced around and around his cage while we all ooohed and ahhhed. i believe it was because he was seized by the scent of another cat in the building as the zookeepers cleaned the cage of the leopard. i mean, me, with my human nose found the scent overwhelming, so i can only imagine what he was experiencing. he was fluid and graceful and wild.

one of the gorilla families were active, with one of the youngest pestering the elders. the little snot would jump on them or get up close and then throw something at one of them. it was funny to watch and you knew that if it was too much, he would be put in his place rather quickly.

you know, life couldn't get much better than this...lying in a cool pool basking in the sun on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon!

opening ceremonies

8/8/08, the 2008 Summer Olympics open in Beijing China.

the ceremony was tranquil and eternal, filled with peace and hope and astonishing human (and not computer programmed) accomplishments. it was jaw-dropping.

look! up in the sky!!

flying above the house this afternoon. why?

I HAVE NO IDEA!!! maybe its the universe's way of getting me to take a look at my tires, i don't know. but it doesn't matter. it

was waaaaay friggin' cool...

another Boris thing

after i got home Tuesday night, i sent him a text telling him thanks for calling. that hearing his voice and his laugh made my week.

last night i went to bed EARLY. i took off a bit early from work to get a massage to get the HUMONGOUS knot out of my shoulder blade and neck. i downed three glasses of water before going to sleep/passing out :)

close to 11 my text message rings. it's Boris (but you knew that didn't you?) saying "made only your week? i guess i'll have to settle for that"

i sent him back that i was toning it down cuz you know, i didn't want it to go to his head.

he laughed and sent back...ahhh i see how you are :) and he was losing the satellite so bye!

so...twice in two days...Boris stuff. it makes me happy!!

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

Tressa arrived at the airport Saturday night, Chris (and Brit and Katie and Brandon) and I met her at the airport, grabbed dinner at Logan's Roadhouse, did a quick bit of stalling-til-the-movie-starts shopping and bought our tickets for:

The X-Files: I Want To Believe

i thought Chris Carter could have come up with a better name, until i watched the final episode of the series earlier on Saturday. while Mulder and Scully are on the run, in a darkened hotel room, Mulder gives us insight into what he wants to believe.

and then, during the movie, the understanding deepened.

on the surface, it was "i want to believe we will find these women alive" "i want to believe in Father Joe" "i want to believe God will save Scully's patient." there have been spiritual and religious themes woven thruout the XF episodes, but i never felt they were this deep. Scully continues to wear her gold cross necklace while struggling with issues of faith. i could feel her heaviness, the weight she was carrying, and it was suffocating. a tribute to Gillian's talent to feel how restricted Scully felt.

Mulder emerges from hiding to assist the FBI in their search and we watch him come alive again. from shaggy to clean-shaven, the facial hair to cover up who he is disappeared once he engaged in life again. as Jimmy Stewart's character described Katharine Hepburn's in "The Philadelphia Story," he was "lit from within." a tribute to David's talent to watch Mulder be reborn and to re-engage with his world.
i wish it had felt more X-File-y. there was a definite creep-factor in the plotline, but it didn't thrill me like the first movie had. was it because there was so much time between the series end? was it because the visuals didn't stun the way the episodes almost always seemed to? it seemed to me it would have had the feeling i was expecting if one of the series directors had been at the helm. Chris Carter, XF creator, was directing, and while he was the guy on a number of episodes, i wish Rob Bowman had directed this installment as well. he did such a great job with the first movie.

one thing: we were kept in the dark as to whether Mitch was in the movie or not. the scene before Skinner is revealed we saw/heard this:

Dana Scully: Listen to me! I need your help!
Agent Mosley Drummy: I'm sorry. I - I can't help you.
Dana Scully: Then let me talk to somebody there with some balls who can.

the next time we saw Scully, she was with Skinner. Tressa and i squealed and Chris laughed. Skinner definitely pulled out the big balls!!

another thing. i hear ALL THE TIME about how David and Gillian hate each other. do these look like two humans who hate each other?

great news!!

she got her license, too!!!

i shoulda posted this five days ago...

Dru Nicole is 16. Saturday August 2nd is the 16th anniversary of the day of her birth. she is the light of my life, even if she lives on the west coast and i don't see her every single day. thanks to my brother and sister-in-law being practical people, she has a cell phone, is a text-queen and sends me texts. she and i talk a few times a month, too.

i LOVE the young woman she has become. she's always been intelligent, but she is compassionate and loving, street-smart and a smart-alec, funny and random (her favorite word!).

i may be biased, but she is gorgeous and brilliant. pretty potent for only 16, huh?

the best surprise EV-ER

Chris and Tressa and I went to the Silverhawks game last night. good game...Hawks won 3 to 0. i left my phone in the car, turned off and hidden.

we walked out of the game about 9:50pm, i opened the doors to the car as Chris was finishing her cigarette, grabbed my phone and powered it back up. there was a text message on it, from Boris, asking if we were having a good time in Chicago. as i went to reply, the voicemail indicator popped on.

i dialed voicemail and heard him tell me to not be angry that he called when my phone was turned off. :) i was excited cuz i thought " i just may be able to reach him before he gets on the plane."

i did. we talked for exactly 13 minutes and 33 seconds (Doreen says the number "3" is all about the ascended masters. maybe they are behind some of what is happening with us as a couple or as friends?) while i was standing outside my car, while Tressa and Chris waited discreetly on the other side of the car.

the last time we talked was my first day on the job at the station...Tuesday April 1st. A little over four months. sure, there have been emails and text messages, but hearing his voice and feeling it wrap around me and turn me to jelly? it's been four months.

there are times that i hate that sleep, as Roy H. Williams says, is the "great eraser."

i can remember the feelings and remember the scent of the trees i was standing next to as we were talking, but i can't remember a whole lot of the conversation. i remember his laugh. i remember some of his questions. i remember the bit of awkwardness as we were hanging up, neither one of us knowing whether it was okay to tell the other we loved them. i remember the sound of his voice...the raspiness of it...as we said goodbye. his voice caught just like mine did. i guess that's really all the confirmation we needed, huh? he loves me still, as i love him.

even as far away as he is, across the planet, he loves me.

and that makes me happy.

i LOVE this...

from Abraham:

"The words that we're wanting to find for you are these, when your desire, and your perspective about your desire are in alignment, it feels far less than the desire you all think desire feels like. It's interesting, what most people call desire is really a mixed bag of wanting something that I don't know how I'm gonna get it. You've become comfortable with that mixture, that feeling. So it feels like excitement, adventure, trepidation, uneasiness. When you want purely, there's no downside to it. It just feels done. It feels done. And, there is an interest in the way it will unfold but not a strong interest because it's done. It's done. We so want you to capture the spirit of that which we know. When you ask, it goes into your vibrational escrow and it is answered vibrationally and it is done. It's done. It's really, it's done. It's DONE. It's done, it's done, it's done, it's DONE, it's done, it's done! We're getting carried away we want you, it's done, did wetell you, it's done, it's done, it's done, it's done...."

--Abraham-Hicks www.Abraham-Hicks.com Ft Lauderdale 4/2/08

breaking dawn theory

my theory? Bella's baby is a werewolf baby. amazing growth. Carlisle said humans have 23 chromosome pairs...vampires 25...werewolves 24. a human and vampire mating could put together one gene less than a vampire and one more than a human, couldn't it? i mean, this IS fantasy, right? that way, the werewolves would have to accept her and not attack the Cullens for breaking the treaty.

just a thought...

the scent of rubber and leather

i LOVE walking into a Harley dealership. i take in huge lungfulls of leather and rubber and if you can smell chrome, i would inhale chrome too. don't know which life that particular fetish came from... :D