After Christmas, Skye gave her best effort to try to explain Webkinz World to me. Oak and I got her a webkinz pig for Christmas that she named James (I think an attempt to name it after Oak by using his middle name). It was all pretty complicated – playing games to earn money so you can buy food, toys, etc. for your pets to keep them happy.
Virtual pets and I have a bad history. Sometime in high school (perhaps circa 1997) I had a tamagotchi – one of those little keychain pets that you have to care for and feed. Sure, my little dinosaur survived for awhile, until I forgot about him for a few days and had to reset the game. By the way, my dinosaur took possibly the largest bowel movements ever – they were seriously the size of his body.
As if she didn’t remember my failure as a tamagotchi mother, my mom got me a furby as a gift in college. I was so excited to receive a package at the school post office, until the post office worker informed me that my package was… talking. No kidding. There was a live furby inside. Well, the furby-ness went well for awhile. I learned furbish, how to tickle its belly, and how to play games. Then, one day I had to go to class while it was awake. I left the furby (his name was Toe-Loo… as he told me) with Allan as a babysitter. When I got back to my room later that day, Toe-Loo was sitting outside of my dorm room door. Still talking.
So, imagine my delight when you can have a completely passive, lazy virtual pet experience on iGoogle. I set all my site feeds up on there (so I can check all the blogs I read without actually visiting the sites to see if there’s anything new), and you can customize the banner for each tab you set up on your page. My favorite is this little kitten, who can be seen doing different things throughout the day, such as tending to her garden, entertaining friends, and eating with chopsticks. So cute. And I don’t have to worry about killing her! Ding. Oak has a monster that we also enjoy checking on every once in awhile. Get your own virtual pet today!
Just before Christmas, we got another recipe to test from America’s Test Kitchen. This is “Pasta with olives.” There’s also a breadcrumb topping which I think helps make the dish interesting with some crunchy texture. We had to frantically run to CapriFlavors, our local Italian specialty market, to buy the anchovies for this dish. You couldn’t really taste them at all in my opinion, but I’m sure they are the basis of the saltiness in the sauce.
You might notice that you can’t actually SEE any of the olives in this picture. We were supposed to use mini zitis in the recipe, but we had regular ziti at home so we figured we might as well use it. Well, it turns out that olives like to slide into the ziti tubes and hide in there. It’s a nice surprise while you’re eating!
While we were gone, we got another recipe to test for Blueberry pie, but we missed the deadline already. Sigh!
I know, I know. I should be writing more about our trip! I’m completely swamped at work and am trying my best to stay focused on getting that stuff done. But, I just had to take a moment out of my lunch hour to share this amazing beauty product find. I was looking through one of my magazines from the huge pile that was waiting for me on the return home (I think it was a copy of All You), and came across a helpful review of this nail product.
I never give myself manicures. I find they chip way too fast and aren’t worth the effort (Who can paint well with their left hand?). Even when we went to the manicurist for Sarah’s wedding a few years ago, I loved how it looked but again, one load of dishes when I got home and the whole thing was ruined.
In comes Sally Hansen natural shine. It’s similar to clear nail polish, but unlike clear nail polish, it creates a more subtle shine on your nails, like you’ve buffed them. It goes on and dries in seconds and , instead of ugly chipping, it seems to simply begin to fade. My nails are still shiny and I’ve taken two showers and done dishes since I put it on. It comes in clear and a pink tint. I got the clear, but I like it so much I might have to try out the pink as well. A definite must for any of us who are lazy about manicures!
On our trip to India, we became very familiar with the South Indian breakfast. In the US, you can get these foods at Indian restaurants but, since the restaurants are not open for breakfast in the US, we’ve only had them as a lunch or dinner item in the past. It was a little strange to eat these savory foods early in the morning, but when your belly is grumbling it hits the spot.
The most common breakfast item you’ll see in South India is idli. It’s kind of hard to describe – it’s basically a flavorless steamed cake that’s made out of rice. You commonly eat idli with sambar (a spicy soup) and coconut chutney. Idlis are on every hotel breakfast buffet. Needless to say, we got a tad idli-ed out by the end of the trip. At the beginning of our trip, Oak bought one of the special idli steaming racks (as shown on the wikipedia page) but I’m sure it will be some time before we make idlis at home again! haha. 
India also has their own version of pancakes – dosa and uththaapam. Dosa are almost like a crispy french crepe. They can be filled with all sorts of things, most commonly vegetables or paneer, which is Indian cheese. I enjoy the potato masala dosa – masala-spiced boiled potatoes are put inside of the crepe. Uththamaapam are more like the pancakes we’re used to, but again they are savory. Usually tomatoes, onions, and other veggies are mixed into the batter before they cook them. Dosa and uththaapam are served with the same sambar and coconut chutney that you eat with the idlis. Because they’re a little more labor intensive than idli, we mostly ate dosa and uththaapam at restaurants.
Breakfast items that we’re used to that are common in India are omlettes, corn flakes, toast and jam, fruit juices, tea, and coffee. You’ll rarely (or never) see breakfast meats (sausage, bacon, ham), thick oatmeal, the sweet pancakes we’re used to, biscuits, or hash browns. Because of our western breakfast withdrawal, we’ve already devoured a bacon egg and cheese sandwich in NY and a Bojangles breakfast in NC. 
