Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I'm really falling down on this Happy Thing effort, but it's more because I post happy things and forget to number them than for lack of happy things. (How did I not count that Japanese gum video of the cat carrying the man to work? That still makes me happy after countless viewings! And Hannibal is currently eating my brain (haha), that should have totally made the list!)

Happy Thing #15: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and Niel D. Tyson. First off, that man all but makes me melt. Not only is he good looking and has a wonderful voice, but his intelligence is the most attractive thing about him! I could listen to him talk science forever (me and the rest of the world, I know).

The show itself makes me so very, very happy. It's like the best times in school, learning interesting things in interesting ways. Even though some of what he covers is familiar, I'm more than happy to hear about it again.

I'm happy to see that, at least according to one source, its ratings are pretty good. Though I still boggle to hell and back that it's on FOX networks, I hope they'll keep airing it even if the ratings get worse, just because of what it is. (Long shot, I know.)

Blue Apron: Two good meals this week, one that I'll likely have to skip on making.

Swedish Meatballs & Braised Kale, with Lingonberry Jam & Creamy Mashed Potatoes: I've never had kale any other way than as chips, but I'm willing to try it. Everything else should be MMM!

Chicken, Baby Artichoke & Spinach Casserole with Gouda Béchamel: Never had artichokes (even though they have a thistle in them!), never had gouda, but the meal sounds interesting and I'll try it.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Stewed White Beans, Gremolata & Brussel Sprouts: Everything about this one sounds eh. First off, they sent me a whole butternut squash -- I'd likely cut off at least one finger trying to hack it apart. Second, I'm kind of iffy on beans after last week. The Gremolata sounds good, but I don't think I've ever had brussel sprouts before. I have a couple ideas for this one: I could go out and buy the pre-cut butternut squash and otherwise follow the recipe. My other idea is to roast the brussel sprouts and make the sauce, but toss out the squash and beans part of the recipe. (Not literally toss out -- I'd rather not waste food if I don't have to. I'm not sure if it would be weird if I brought it to work to try to give it away though...)

I wish they sent more instructions with the food. They send a ton of vegetables and herbs, but give no indication of which should go into the fridge (so I generally put most everything in there). I continue to be impressed with the amount you get for the price -- the price is higher than I would like, but I don't think it's out of line for what you get. The box weighs 15 pounds and has to be shipped fast since there's raw meat in it (packed in ice). The only way they could be making money off all this is that they buy in bulk and split it up.

For me, it saves money because, for example, otherwise I'd have to buy a whole bundle of mint when I only need a couple sprigs -- they send the exact amount you need.

I'm really impressed with how well packed and labeled everything is. So many little bottles, plastic containers, and things in ziplock bags of every size. I don't like cooking, but opening the box is like Christmas: You take out item after item after item, seemingly never getting to the bottom of the box, everything carefully wrapped up and new, and it's all just for you.

The one complaint I have is I wish they let you pick your meals. They have six options per week, but you don't get to pick the three you want. I'm guessing it has to do with the weight of your final box and the cost on their end.

I'll probably cook a meal tomorrow night. I don't want to end up having to cook three times in a row over the weekend again, that was too much.

Happy coincidence that the numbers synched up!

Happy Thing #12: US Air/SE/"Winning"

Back when I was in the hospital, at first the doctors told my mother that what I had was a common infection, happens all the time, no need to fly in, blah blah. Then it changed to she could come if she wanted, but don't worry. Then it became 'You really should come or we'll send your daughter to a home'. However, even then, no one could tell her when she could fly back, so she made her best guess when buying airline tickets. (One-way tickets generally cost a lot more than round trip, so they're not an option.) Eventually the day she was due to fly back arrived, and I hadn't even been released from the hospital yet.

Long story short, she was with me a month, and had to deal with US Air about changing the ticket. The woman on the phone said no problem, just send a copy of the hospital bill and the original ticket would be refunded.

Once I was on my feet, I did that. Then we waited and waited and waited. No record of the request online. While I was poking about their website, I found a long list of things you needed for a medical refund (including things like a note from your doctor that you were in the hospital for a (fatal? mortal?) injury -- I forget the exact wording, but that you could die from it). Took me a while, but I got all of that together and was ready to fax it in. Just before I did that, I got an email that they were refunding my mother's ticket -- apparently the hospital bill had been enough.

There were so many hoops to jump through to get the money back, I was worried we'd just have to give up. It's nice that the right thing happened -- we "won".

Related, though silly: Square Enix finally accepted that my credit card is good, so now they'll take money out each month instead of me having to do it by hand. Yay? Since I had extra "money" in non-money form (the in-game currency), I upgraded to the collector's edition. I still have $25 sitting in my Stream Wallet that I can't make apply to the site, but I suppose I'll figure out something else to do with that.

Book #12:
Outpost by Ann Aguirre
Rating: 3/okay (1/hated-5/loved)

This is book two of the trilogy, a followup to Enclave which I reviewed last week. There are two main statements I can make about it:

1) It could have been worse.
2) I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again: It would have been a much, much better book without the teenage love crap in it.

The love triangle I was dreading wasn't too bad, as once the main character understood what was going on, she had no problems with telling one of the boys it was never going to happen. (She had lived underground for all 15 years of her life, during which even being alone with someone of the opposite gender was banned, so she was often clueless about relationship stuff.) The boy (Stalker, the Wolf gang leader of the rapist teenage boy gang) still thinks he'll get her in the end, but Deuce (the underground girl) has eyes only for Fade (the underground boy). Unfortunately this lead to lines like her loving Fade so much she wanted to "crawl into his skin" to get closer to him.

Teenage love stories, blech.

In Outpost, the foursome (Deuce, Fade, Stalker, and the victim of his gangrape gang whose name I can never remember) found an actual town of real, non-zombie people named Salvation.

Like everything in this book, nothing is subtle. All women feel X way, all men feel Y, all humans as a whole feel Z. The town's name set off warning bells in my head.

And, because nothing in this book is subtle, my worries came true. I really don't like the "She doesn't act like the bible says to, so let's kill her to make all of our troubles go away!" plots.

Stalker and the rape victim became friends in this book, too. Friends to the point where they joke around with each other. The teen who not only raped her, but was the one who could have stopped the rest of his gang from doing so too but did not. I'm really, really, really worried they'll end up as a couple by the end of the last book.

This book annoys me because it has potential. There's a lot of good in it: I like the world it's set in, that the creatures aren't zombies, I liked a number of the adult characters, and I don't mind Deuce at all (other than her name, HATE IT). There's so much wrong with it though. Blah.

I suppose I'll read the third book, since I've gotten this far.

ru_cats_daily is back. For those who hadn't heard of it before, it's been a popular Russian LJ since before Russia took over LJ. There are lots of cat picture comms/journals out there, but ru_cats_daily has been known for posting higher quality, more interesting ones.

Today's made me smile:


Unfortunately the journal seems to go dead on a regular basis (sometimes for years at a time), but (thus far) it always eventually comes back.

A year ago, I would have said that just plain "Big Brother" made me happy, but the US version of the show has become a cesspool. Last season a large chunk of the cast was horribly racist and homophobic. They know they're filmed and broadcast 24/7, but that didn't stop them from such disgusting behavior. A number of them were so awful they lost their jobs while in the BB house (and didn't find out about it until after the show ended). Worst of all, the producers of the show didn't stop it, didn't even discourage it, and are doing nothing to prevent it in future seasons.

Luckily there are different versions of Big Brother. UK, Australia, and Canada to name a few. All of them have rules against racism and homophobia, so the same issues won't crop up there.

Canada's first season was last year, and they had a really nice thing: A lot of their players were older than reality TV show norm (annoyingly, most people on reality shows are in their 20s). Unfortunately this year seems to be tending towards younger people, but I have hope that Canada will go older again in future seasons.

If you'd like to check out BB Canada, the first ep of the second season is online for free. The previous season is around to download too, if you're interested.

Thanks, local electric company. The power went out just after 6 AM this morning, and you called me just now at 8:15 to tell me the power was out in my area. You think?

It was an annoyingly dark weekend. On Saturday night, just after 6 PM (important timing), a circuit breaker in my kitchen blew. This was a problem as it was the circuit that my fridge was on. So I called my apartment office, but apparently they close at 6. Bah! I called the 24 hour service number, but the mailbox for it hadn't been set up, so there was no way to leave a message. Double bah!

A search of my apartment and I found the breaker box. Which had been 100% painted over, sealing it closed. Handle, hinges, everything painted solid. I had to use a screwdriver and a knife to cut through the paint to struggle to open it, then my mother's electrician boyfriend walked me through resetting it.

So thing #5 that makes me happy is electricity. I never think about it much until I don't have it anymore, but it powers all the things that make me happy and make me able to function.

So here's to you, electricity, and the good things you enable in my life.

LJ recommendation: antarctic_sue. She posts a photo a day while at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. So cool it's frozen!

For some reason, ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to live in Alaska or Antarctica (I was too young to know the latter wasn't an option). I'd still like to, though as I can't stand being cold, I'm not sure how practical that wish is. Looking at blogs like that, full of everyday pictures, makes me very happy. Wistful, but happy.

And in 100 things that make cats happy news:


What a good idea! I'm surprised sellers haven't targeted pets directly sooner.

And lastly, I like Tom Hiddleston as much as the next person, but I don't get some people. Someone posted this picture of him with the caption of "so beautiful :3". I... I just don't get it. He can look attractive, but that picture? His eyes look sunken in, the lighting makes his skin look dirty, and the way the photo is cropped? tilted? makes him look like he's balding. Different people have different opinions, I guess...

Edit: Bonus happy thing: I love this icon, it's one of my favorites, but I never have reason to use it. It makes me happy just looking at it! The background is so well done, especially knowing it took him only seconds to do. Such a cool snow/sky effect! (Should this count as #3? WHY NOT!) Edit 2: I just wish the wolf eyes were colored. Wonder if I can touch it up myself...