The other night I made Stir Fried Shrimp in Orange Sauce.


I don't remember where I saw the recommendation to try this recipe but I got it from Cooking Light. Sounds right up my alley.

Of course nothing I make from one of these frou-frou recipes ever goes the way they say. Cornstarch? Eh, I can skip that (even though I have some). The honey has crystalized because it's a few years old - regular sugar will work. What is sambal oelek? You're getting regular chili powder, buddy.

All told it came out really well. I made half shrimp and half chicken and the chicken was good with it too. And the sauce did thicken up in about three minutes, but that was in super-high heat. I think I used too much OJ.

But this has got to be way better than Panda Express.

Did you know that you can be extremely happy and excited but at the same time be really stressed and crazy? I'm so much of both lately because there's so much to be happy about and yet so much to do.

• I'm technically starting my new position in the middle of vacation. So I'm missing a few weeks that otherwise would get used for training, which doesn't seem to bother anyone but me. Plus, I don't really want to leave my current rotation. It's the best job I've had in years!
• I screwed up with our apartment. Long story short, it seems new apartment manager has it in for me even more than old apartment manager.
  
• That being said, I want to move. But I hate moving; I don't want to do the actual moving part and I don't particularly want to shell out for it either. Plus, I don't want to shop around for somewhere suitable to live for years. Especially because I always seem to get carsick.
  
• I can really see why people need honeymoons after weddings. There's so much to do, so many people to coordinate and contracts to navigate. I can't wait to go!
  
• Plus it's almost as if I've forgotten how to shop at a physical store, I order so much online. But, I'm running out of time for that! Half my email is order tracking.
• I used to always print. Then I addressed the invitations and it took forever because it was so hard to write in cursive after so many years. Now, I can't seem to stop!
  
• I was pretty sure of my guess for the guest count, but so many people who were certain they'd be able to make it suddenly aren't able. I know why, and I understand, but I miss everyone!
  
• I hate Verizon. But I love this new phone. Damn.
  
• My school email password somehow broke. Who cares, right? But it broke just when I actually needed it!!. Luckily everyone still checks their mail often. (thanks guys!) Something similar happened right before I graduated from undergrad too. That said, I got a letter from school inviting me to join the honor society. I'm so glad it's official! And I'm excited about graduation, even if no one can make the ceremony.
  
• I like my new car but my little Civic seems so sad and lonely.

And I'm supposed to keep everything straight. My notebook isn't big enough for my to-do list. So while I'm babysitting everyone, can someone go ahead and babysit me? I need a personal assistant. I'm.So.Worn.Out.

I don't know if I want to curl up and watch Sleeping Beauty or if I want to dance around. Maybe I should do both?

Reasons why I am melancholy today:

• A family just RSVP'd no to the wedding. I know it's tough times, but it still bums me out that they can't make it.
  
• Verizon is being awful to me.
  
• I'm discovering that I get off work at a peak gym time. Meaning, no gym time for me.
• I have a crazy long to do list.
  
• I thought I lost a spreadsheet I worked two hours on at work. I recovered it, but you know that awful feeling? Yeah.
• I had a super fun mini vacation, and now it's back to work.
• It's March and the year is just flying by.
  

Reasons why I should not be melancholy today:

• I had a super fun mini vacation!
  
• I have many thank you notes to write.
  
• The neater side of my desk:

Today my manager was telling me about how his daughters have been looking up dialects in the United States, as we were discussing how easy it is to tell if someone is from St. Louis.

So I looked it up and, indeed, the St. Louis dialect has its own Wikipedia entry.

In college people said I talked a little funny, but most everyone was from Chicago. I couldn't tell the difference, but I got a little self conscious and tried to compensate by enunciating really carefully. I'm not sure that it worked.

Every now and then I work with people in St. Louis. Now I get on phone conferences and I can tell right away if anyone from St. Louis is on. But who would really sit down and itemize the distinct differences? Even after reading the article I'm not sure I quite understand what the differences are.

Dear singers/rappers/etc in the United States:

Please stop taking international music and "Americanizing" it. Ick.

Exhibit a:



This isn't all that bad. But the original song is great. Yes, it's the numa numa song. But have you ever done the numa numa dance? It's kind of fun.

Exhibit b:



The original singers have great voices. They don't breathe heavy all over and call it sexy. They just sing well.

So, let's work on that.

p.s. - Victoria's Secret, if you could go ahead and put up pictures of models with butts in your bikinis, it would help out the butt-ed customer population a lot. Thx.

I just had the best idea for an invention on the way home!!

We all pretty much have cell phones now. So we all have caller ID. Remember before caller ID? Anyway, now most of us are moving toward bluetooth headsets. Especially since you can't talk on the phone any more while driving, and that's when I got all my goooood phone time in (I hate driving and talking on the phone).

So, what about voice caller ID? The phone number reads off when you get a voicemail. Why not when the phone rings? I mean, I could probably figure out who was calling by the area code, if not the first couple of numbers, so it's not like it would take forever to answer. Then I'd know if I could answer the phone with a "Hello?" or a "What??"

Hm. So maybe it's a service rather than an invention. Still, though. Kinda want it.

Lately it seems like the everyone has so many troubles. The whole freakin' country's got troubles.

Me? My biggest worries are the wedding guest list (only 50% of everyone has responded), and all of the other little wedding projects that I'd like to do. Although, these aren't too big of worries. They're all things that, if I don't quite get around to them, the world won't end. You won't even know.

I have plenty of food. I am healthy. I have a place to live, am gainfully employed, and I can pay my bills. This weekend nearly everyone who loves me is going to be in the same place at the same time, and on top of that even more people will be in the same place at the same time in just about a month.

I'm really not trying to brag. Just last year I was so jealous of the brides-to-be on the blogs I read every day. Their biggest worries were fonts, and cream versus blush flowers. While I was just trying to get by day-to-day. At the time I couldn't even fathom a consuming worry over shades of white.

Feeling very, very blessed right now.