Two 1972 classics in ONE photo!

One of the businesses created a Stanley Cup out of aluminium foil as a show of support for the Flyers. And although I’m a Devils fan, I want the Flyers to win the Cup because that’ll be another Philadelphia team to win their sport’s championship before the Eagles do. And I hate the Eagles.

There were even nationally known celebrities there!

And the Courier-Post had a booth, too. I couldn’t NOT be a ham. You’ll forgive me, right? (subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, save my job, save my job…)

My kicky hat is from Eugenia Kim’s Target line.

Yesterday I found a recipe online for homemade peanut butter cups, and I thought I’d give it a whirl since I had all the ingredients on hand.

Mixing the inside parts was easy enough – I didn’t even have to break out the mixer. The chocolate was more difficult. I used a bag of semi-sweet morsels and melted them using a double-boiler. Chocolate is a pain. If you melt it too quickly, it can seize up. So patience is the trick. Patience and a bit of vegetable oil to make it more liquid.

Why, yes, that is a Christmas-themed candy cup. Sweetest Day tradition. Okay, I'm lying.

Once the filling was done chilling, I rolled them into little balls and poured the chocolate over top. I THINK it was supposed to go all the way around the peanut butter, but mine seemed to glorp on top and stay there.

I don't like to call it ugly. I prefer artisan.

The only other complaint (of mine, WM loves them) is that the chocolate melts super fast on your fingers when you hold the candy.

Notes for next time:

• Make the peanut butter balls smaller to give the chocolate a fighting chance to cover them.
• See if I can find chocolate that melts better, but doesn’t melt so quickly at room temperature, if that makes any sense at all.

We patronize a certain starbucks every Sunday for breakfast and we have a favorite Barista. She wrote this on the cup for me.

Dreams have been odd too.

LG: I had a weird dream last night. (member of our WoW guild) became addicted to prescription meds and poker.

WM: I dreamt that the piano player from High School Musical blew up the high school right before prom.

LG: …

Today we are spending the morning in Disney Hollywood Studios and tonight in Epcot.

Having a blast! Wish you were here!

Which is freaking $75! That’s a lot if antenna toppers!

We started at animal kingdom, lunched at Epcot and finished at the Magic kingdom.

Observations:

Lunch at the Rose and Crown – the food was great but the waitress stopped caring after the appetizer. Drinks were not refilled and plates were left on the table even though dessert came.

And seriously, Rose and Crown, I said it’d be his birthday when I made the reservation weeks ago. I said it at the check in stand. We told the waitress. And he was wearing the birthday pin. Could you have thought to put a candle in the dessert? Grrrr.

We got to Animal Kingdom 15 minutes before park opening and it was great. We ride Kali River Rapids 2x in a row first thing. And I can’t believe people still don’t use fastpass!

I liked the rehab to the first half of spaceship earth in epcot. I think they cheaped out on the 2nd half. I’ve seen Jib Jab movies and touch screens don’t impress me any more.

Wishes, the fireworks show at the magic kingdom still makes me weep like an orphan. It’s gorgeous.

And I still love Small World. Sue me.

Tomorrow: Disney Studios and Epcot.

Dog update: Ollie is carrying his toys everywhere and Max is peeing in everything.

Me: Hey, what kind of toilet paper do we get again? Bears, puppies or babies?
WM: We get the puppies.
Me: OK. There’s playful puppy and sleepy puppy.
WM: We get sleepy puppy. He’s cuter.

He’s having a loud conversation on his cell phone as he wanders over to the racks of newspapers and picks up the competitor’s paper. I’m wearing my Courier-Post jacket and I say in a quiet-but-audible voice, “Noooo!”

“Yeah, I stopped to pick up a paper,” he says to the person on the other end of the line. “I got (insert competitor’s name here). You want a copy of the Courier?”

I say in my quiet-but-audible voice, “Get the Courier! Save my job!”

Still engrossed in his conversation, phone dude goes back to the rack and grabs a copy of the Courier-Post.

In my quiet-but-audible voice, I cheer, “Yaaaay! Yay Courier-Post! Thank you!”

As we leave Wawa, WM says to me, “You need to stop wearing that jacket.”

(whoa…this is wordy and history-based. Bet WM will eat this up)

1. On March 6, 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first Periodic Table of the Elements to the Russian Chemical Society. What memories do you have of your high-school chemistry course?

My high school chemistry teacher, Mr. S. was a very sharp dresser in his early-60s. (I remember him being older. He was probably 36. :/) At times, he’d even wear three piece suits! My best friend and I tracked his wardrobe choices in our chemistry notebooks, and he went almost four weeks without repeating a suit.

Wait, did he mean academic memories? Oh. Um. If you chuck a chunk of Potassium (K) into water, it sparks and almost explodes.

2. On March 6, 1899, the Bayer company registered aspirin as a trademark. When did you last take medication for pain?

The Vile Goddess Menstrua (remember when she used to be a semi-regular blog character?) made not one but TWO appearances in the last 30 days. So I took a Naproxen (I may be divorced from the pharmacist, but I still know that generics are a better deal!) early this week.

3. On March 6, 1853, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata premiered in Venice. How do you feel about opera?

Not very interested at all. I was never exposed to it as a young adult (through much fault of my own) and now all I like is the Rabbit of Seville.

4. On March 6, 1947, American film director Rob Reiner (Meathead!) was born. Which of these Reiner-directed films have you seen, and what do you think of them?

Ugh. I’m not a movie person.

* The Bucket List (2007)Didn’t see it. Why grow attached to characters I know will die?
* Rumor Has It… (2005) Didn’t see it. Aniston’s best movie work was Office Space. And I’m Team Angelina, anyway.
* Alex & Emma (2003) Didn’t see it.
* The Story of Us (1999) Didn’t see it.
* Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) Didn’t see it.
* The American President (1995) This one I saw many times and still love. Andrew Shepherd is my 2nd favorite fictional president. My fave is the president in Independence Day.
* North (1994) Nope.
* A Few Good Men (1992) I know I have seen this, but all I remember is the Nicholson quotes.
* Misery (1990) Not a suspense person
* When Harry Met Sally… (1989) Didn’t see this until 2 years ago, when WM promised me it’d cheer me up after BvP and I separated. It was okay.
* The Princess Bride (1987) I avoided this one until 2 years ago. Inconceivable. Very sweet movie. Makes me miss my grandparents.
* Stand by Me (1986) I saw this in 1986 when I as 14. It had cute boys and a dead body.
* The Sure Thing (1985) Nope
* This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Nope

5. On March 6, 1972, American basketball-player Shaquille O’Neal was born. How do you feel about basketball?

Don’t like it at all. Why spend all that time watching the back and forth when all you have to do is watch the last 5 minutes? Also, I think basketball has single-handedly ruined college education for many. They should just draft out of high school rather than make these players pretend to play school for four years and waste money and slots that could go to more qualified and willing students.

***
I’m on furlough today, which means I’m technically not a Gannett employee. So unlike a vacation day, I can’t even be called if something goes wrong. The five days unpaid is a hardship, yes, but I think we’re going to squeak out of the first fiscal quarter without layoffs. Which is good.

Shameless self-promotion: I blogged on the newspaper’s gadget blog yesterday about a World of Warcraft-related product: Authenticate me! I’m now listed as an official author to the blog even though I only have that one post. Which is pretty nifty.

I’m accruing a readership on the World of Warcraft blog too. Which is weird, since I never thought it would catch on. Many of the readers are not local but they certainly love to comment. Makes me feel good.

Of the top five blogs on the C-P site, two are not written by newsroom staff members. One is mine, and the other is Fish Head, written by Coworker A in our IT department. It’s hysterical, and I don’t even fish. If you do fish, check it out! We’re proud of our blogs, because up until now we didn’t have the benefit of name-recognition or promotion from the paper like the reporters do.

Although I’ll likely never see a dime from it, I want to call myself a writer. And the more I’ve been writing, the more ideas I have. Which is good for me, and good for my blogs. Probably not as good for you.

As always, thank you for sticking with me through the writers block and countless memes.

Case in point: About 2 weeks ago…

Me: Do you know what song I have in my head?
WM: No.
Me: Jungle love.
WM: Wha?
Me: Jungle love! (singing, poorly) Jungle Love! Yeah! Oh ee oh ee oh. Girl I wanna show ya, show ya!**
WM: …
Me: And there’s monkey noises in it too.
WM: I’m sorry…I was never into 80′s music.
Me: Okay. Whatever (to self) Yeah! oh ee oh ee oh…

Fast forward to this past Saturday. I’m working on my PHP book, like a good little mid-life career focus-changer, and WM’s flipping through the TV. The last third of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is on, so he stops to watch. At the end of the movie…(warning:f-bombs in the video)

And I immediately start squealing “Jungle Love! It’s Jungle Love! That’s the song! Oh ee oh ee oh!!” And he remembered that was the song I was talking about way back when and recognizes it and life was, again, good.

**In writing this post, I just realized that one if the lines in the song is…
“I, I drive a little dangerous” and not “I, I drive like Danger Mouse.”