Poor Neglected Blog

Well, it has been exactly four weeks since I updated. A record. And a testament to just how busy my life has been this past month. School ended, I got my papers in (two A's and an A-), took a vacation to California, moved all my stuff from storage in CA to UT, entertained my sister and Mother for four days, taught two FlexNet courses the whole time, started the Senior Design course I am working on in Engineering, went to a UOP faculty workshop, converted my conference paper into a presentation for ASEE in June, started working on my novel, and put together the preliminary data for two research projects I'm doing this summer. It's been a difficult haul, and spontantously becoming allergic to my house hasn't helped. Neither has losing my two housemates and looking for new ones. Thank God for the neighbor who mows my lawn and the mom and sister who helped me weed my yard last week or my garden would look as haggard as I feel.

I have been under so much stress the last month, I am surprised I didn't land in the hospital. And that's a good thing because I didn't have time to sign up for summer insurance, so I'm uninsured to boot.

One of the bright lights in my month of unending work has been my boyfirend, Patrick. My fondness of him and my attachment to him has grown exponentially this month. I am so glad my family liked him so much. But how can you not like him? He's great. He always has a smile for me, and always makes me smile. He fits right in with the people who are always there for me and ready to help me: my family. So the trip we took out to California was great.

We spent a couple of days with Cathy and her family in Rancho Mirage. It was like staying at a resort. We watched Fantasia 2000 in the private theater, went swimming in the pool, passed up the jacuzzi for Cranium in the great room, and took a beautiful walk around the neighborhood where I decided we must buy the $1,499,000 house on the block adjacent to theirs. Sadly, we were having so much fun, the camera accidentally satyed in a suitcase all weekend!

When we came back to LA we went to Hollywood. We stopped at the Universal City Walk outside Universal Studios where we looked at video games, played really big guitars and posed in front of the world's most animated Jamba Juice. Here's a picture of us on the red carpet. I'll continue the story of our trip in the next post.

Cheap Chocolate Shots

Chocoholic Martini

A couple of nights ago I really needed a drink. My last class of this incredibly, ridiculously busy semester had come to an end, and even though I have 50 pages of papers to write, I wanted to celebrate and take a load off.

So Patrick and I moseyed on over to the Utah State Liquor Fishbowl--which I think is a bastion of the third or fourth most discriminatory and unconstitutional regulations in this bizarre state--to get something to take the edge off.

I decided to make chocolate martinis. And what a good decision that was!

I perused the pricey Smirnoff, Absolute and Sky Vanilla Vodkas to mix with the cheap, sweet Crème de Cacao I found. In the end I decided on the really cheap can't-even-remember-the-name plain Russian Vodka to which I thought I would add a drop of the Pure Mexican Vanilla I had purchased on my last trip to TJ. Good Plan.

Here's the drink that really spruced up my night:

1 Shot of Clear Crème de Cocoa
1 Shot of Vodka
1/8 tsp. Pure Mexican Vanilla

(If you like it stronger and less sweet, cut the Crème de Cocoa in half or add 1.5 shots of Vodka)

I've seen these with sugar on the rim or a mixture of sugar and cocoa powder on the rim, or garnished with a chocolate curl. Feel free to embellish, but this drink is great all by itself.

YUM!