what?! You slackers.

I have now been at work for an hour and a half, and glanced briefly at my friendspage before even leaving for work, and I can safely say that in over three hours, not one of you slackers has updated!!
What! Do you all get today off? Are you all lying snuggled deep in your flannel sheets with your down comforter over your head on this cold, cold cold morning, a mute kitten batting idly at your toes and the wind rattling in your windows?

Or maybe you're sitting at your kitchen tables in your fuzzy slippers, a mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream steaming gently at one hand as your adorably sleep-groggy and tousled boyfriend sits across the table with his own mug, gesticulating in his peculiar spidery way as he explains about C++ restricting private members.

Perhaps there are even some of you who are perhaps in bed but not sleeping. I won't go there, poetically.

Because these are all things I would probably be doing if I had today off.
Not updating Livejournal.

But you have a duty to amuse me that you are neglecting. Stop having fun and come back here and amuse me.

OK, you don't really have to. Fine. Take the day off. Grumble.
I'm actually (*gasp*) doing work-- I've been astoundingly busy being amazingly competent all morning, and it's so odd I just don't know how to deal with it.

Can it be that I wrote nearly 15,000 words this weekend?

That might have something to do with it.

Man what a difference it makes in my mental outlook.

posty mcpostypants

Two minor items. OK three. In the interests of not posting a jillion times, I'm combining them into an unrelated mindspew via the mechanism of a numbered list.

1) There are several people on my f-list who are trying to reduce the empty calories in their lives via the route of drinking more water and less Other Stuff. I already recommended, to one, that she invest in a citrus fruit of some kind (lemon or lime, whichever she prefers), cut it into wedges, keep the wedges in a plastic bag, and occasionally squeeze one into the water she's attempting to force herself to drink. It helps you get used to drinking something "unflavored", while adding almost no calories, and a few trace nutrients, notably Vitamin C.
But something I didn't think to recommend was brewing your own iced tea. This is easy as pie to do, and you can then sweeten it or not as you prefer. Then you can have your own tasty soft drink. I'd brew things in a pitcher, tupperware thing, or big Mason jar, and then repackage it while still fairly warm into used Lipton/Snapple/whatever bottles. This means that they get sealed. I'd still keep them refrigerated, and they still eventually might go moldy or something, so I'd use them relatively promptly, but you can do stuff like, say, Lapsang Suochong sweetened with a tiny bit of molasses, or green tea with real honey, and know there are no preservatives or corn syrup in it. Then you can get a slight caffeine kick too, or not if you prefer-- but you know exactly what's in there and aren't drinking all kinds of gross artificial sweeteners against your will.
Also it's virtually free, as opposed to the $3/bottle you pay for the nice stuff flavored with *gasp* real sugar.

2) I have been retyping pseudo-legalese documents, and I would like to lodge a formal complaint against the use of the phrase "and/or". It is almost never necessary, and is usually misused. That's all I really have to say about it.

3) Overheard at work just now: "You dumbass, that wasn't Hawaii, that was Alaska!!"

4) Overheard at a meeting this weekend, which was being recorded so the full minutes could be transcribed later: "Well, then they're fucked. Oh, pardon my language. That's my second-favorite word."
"What's your favorite word?"
"'The.'"

more recipe

Continuing the theme of Eating Stuff We Have In The House Because We Haven't Gone Shopping... which is aided and abetted by the fact that I am in the habit of buying far too much food... we were going to go grocery shopping tonight, but there was an awful blizzard from about 4:00 until 5:10 or so, meaning that the roads were absolutely awful for the ride home. Didn't really feel like chancing Wegman's.
So.
Got home.
Stared at one another.
"What is there?"
"Dunno."
I have the fixins for beef stew, but that takes hours. (I will post that recipe when I make it, though.)
Hmm...
Z finally cracked first. Here is the "stupid-easy" recipe for what we just had for dinner. It was delicious. Also, high in fiber, lowish in fat, kinda up there in sodium but if that's no issue for you... well, it's still not bad. It can also be vegetarian, even vegan with a few substitutions or omissions. And it's high in protein.

( Stupid-Easy Beans N Rice )

You could do it with white rice and it would take a lot less time, but I'm not sure how much shorter a time. Probably about 20 minutes less.

I'm really fond of non-white-rice. Z came up with an excellent mix of grains that's tasty and we use it often when normally one would expect white rice. It fills you up more and is more satisfying on its own instead of as a side dish. He figured out that barley, brown rice, and wild rice all have approximately the same cooking time needs. So:
( Grains! (funnier if you say it like a zombie says Brains!) )

I don't know if anyone likes these recipe posts, but I sure like doing them. :) (In other words, tough titties! At least I'm lj-cutting.)

ow.

I have chapped lips. I'm trying to drink water to heal them.

I am in bed. Chita is tearing around the house on a formidable crack binge. She was behind the headboard. I leaned over to see what she was doing. She leapt up and raked her claws down my lower lip.

I look like Scully over here. Good thing I trimmed Chita's claws so they're not at full sharpness. But this freakin' hurts.

No blood. I suppose I can't call in cat-scratched to work, so I might as well get over it....