Woman on a Mission

There is a 75% off shoe sale at Riviera Euro-Comfort in Beverly Hills. Woman at left is on a mission to get there, find a great new pair of shoes for Spring/Summer and get home within a couple of hours. (Yeah, right... this is LA, after all). Piece of cake, you might say.... the drive is 19 miles. Mapquest predicts 26 minutes from door to door.

Four (yes 4) hours later she is back in the 'hood shopping Barnes & Noble for an appropriate children's book to accompany a handmade baby gift for a baby shower. No worries. Who wanted to read about Network architectures and software (well, I did, actually, but never mind.)

TWO (yes, 2) pair of excellent shoes were purchased at the advertised price of 75% off. Now don't get me wrong... Aunt Melissa has shoes from Walmart in her closet, but she likes the $130 pair marked down to 75% off much better. Same price, better quality. Yes, we like this very much.

I settled on one of my favorite children's books "Time for Bed" by Mem Fox and wrapped it up with diapers and a pair of booties I somehow crocheted without a pattern. (The first one was easy. The trick was getting the second one to match. Ha!)

What? No knitted item, you might ask? I know! I picked up the knitting needles yesterday and they just weren't speaking to me. I had to answer the baby gift call with my crochet hook instead. It's okay. The basket-weave baby sweater will be completed some day. (Katy, maybe for you?) =)

Have a most excellent rest of the weekend. Aunt Melissa's kitchen is closed.


Aunt Melissa

Chai Orange Banana Smoothie

Aunt Melissa's Smoothie of the Day - Chai Orange Banana

1 scoop Trader Joe's Chai Latte mix
1 cup Orange Juice
1 ripe banana
1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder (optional)
Ice to top off mug

Blend. Enjoy. =)

Have a Smoothie Day and a Happy Weekend!

Aunt Melissa

Whoo Hooooo Smoothies!!!!

Yummm.... I just tried a new smoothie combination that ROCKS! Unfortunately, I'm all out of protein powder, but threw together this little number that has quite a zing! I use the Magic Bullet blender and blend directly in the mug, but use any blender you like. Enjoy:


Aunt Melissa's Whooo Hooo Smoothie:

1 scoop Trader Joe's Spicy Chai Latte
1/4 cup frozen berry blend
1/2 banana
3/4 cup orange juice

Top off the mug with ice and blend.
I'm betting Vanilla protein powder would be an excellent addition.


Enjoy!

Aunt Melissa

Long Lost Friends

Aunt Melissa's kitchen has been strangely quiet this week. Oh, the normal and mundane is served daily and tonight I fried some tasty fish and hush puppies to go along with black-eyed peas, cabbage, various and sundry leftovers. This hardly seems blog-worthy, though, does it? I'm even posting a random photo of fish found on my hard drive which, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must add was neither prepared by me nor in my kitchen.

Between studying, job hunting, family matters, housework, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo there's not been much blogging of late, and frankly nothing interesting to talk about unless you are particularly fascinated with:

1. Formal procurement processes,
   
2. writing of RFP's,
   
3. drafting standard agreements,
   
4. learning about internet protocol,
   
5. network architecture….
   

Right! I didn't think so. You come to Aunt Melissa's kitchen because it's a kitchen. Hmm… well I suppose other things have been occurring at the kitchen table this week: homework and talk about the economy. Is it just me or are you feeling a little better about things, too? I'm noticing a little less gloom and doom on TV, the stock market has made a few gains. My student loans arrived. (Oh right, well maybe that's something to do with the lightened mood.) But really, I'd love to know if you are feeling a little more positive about things, too.

There's more school work to do tonight and tomorrow, but on Friday I plan to knit for a while in hopes of completing a basket-weave patterned sweater in time for a baby shower on Saturday. Once complete, I'll post a photo, of course.

In regard to the social networks, are you as thrilled with them as I? I'm hearing from friends I haven't seen or spoken to since childhood. Just last night I made contact again with the crazy friend who performed our wedding ceremony and his hilarious and wonderful best friend… I've been smiling for hours. About the social networks, though, I will say that of 3 of the better known, I've personally decided that Facebook is my current favorite, followed by MySpace and then Bebo. You ask me why I mention this? I don't know, really, but I spent considerable time looking at those particular three for a group term project associated with my Master's program last session. The consensus of the group was that for our particular theoretical advertising scenario MySpace gets the most exposure, but Facebook is closing in with regard to traffic. Perhaps because of my particular demographic, more friends, family and acquaintances appear to be using Facebook.

I would love to hear your preferences and opinions on the matter, so please feel free to comment. I would also like to hear if you feel the economy is making a slight improvement, as well.

Be well, be happy, be healthy, and connect with an old friend. I highly recommend it!

Aunt Melissa

Experiment Results + Keep a lookout for $1000 day email.

FYI : Clip Arts and Graphics don't post from Word 2007.

The Experimental blog below contained a cute little clip art of someone sitting at a computer. Also lost was an encouraging little circle graphic with catchy motivational phrases. Poof, gone.

So now ya' know. Blogging with Word 2007 isn't that much better than the using Blogger "Edit Html" tab. Once the to-do list is knocked out, perhaps I will experiment with fonts and colors.

Have a great Weekend! And if you know me, look for an email coming soon. I'm holding a $1000/day on my Mary Kay website. Place an order tomorrow and the moment I hit my $1000 goal, one lucky person gets their order for FREE. Up to $200 retail value for FREE once I sell $1000 in one day. That's tomorrow.

Have an incredibly blessed day!

Aunt Melissa

Experiment with Word 2007

While looking for templates today, I stumbled across this blog template in Word 2007. I've no idea how it will work, so here's the beginning of a simple test post.

To do list:

1. Finalize new resume in functional format.
   
2. Upload to Dice.com.
   
3. Check for new openings and apply, apply, apply.
   
4. Trade DVD for Beverly Hills Chihuahua (before school's out and the remaining copies fly off the shelf).
   
5. Take Bob on a shopping adventure to Trader Joe's for dog food and Buddy Biscuits.
   
6. Stop by Smart & Final for mega-tray of eggs and Folger's decaf (on sale!)
   
7. Pick up Thank You notes, to finish mailing to my incredibly generous friends.
   
8. Type up Veggie Lasagna recipe and email to Mom.
   
9. Post comments in response to Networking Fundamentals assignment.
   
10. Study the PMBOK and begin work on RFP for Contracts & Procurement term project.
    
11. Study up on Application Layer, Physical Layer and Data Link layer of Internet Networking.
    
12. Clean the Bathrooms
    
13. Enjoy Beverly Hills Chihuahua, you earned it!
    

That's all. Let's see if it works.    

Thanks, today, Mom for the cute email reminder:

************************

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...

It's about learning to dance in the rain.

What's New with You?

Hi there!

I'm just stopping by for a quick hello and to share the lovely still life at left, compliments of my amazing friends ... the flowers held up an amazingly long time.





Below are two examples of Bob "helping" me study... Happily, first session's grades are in, and we managed a 4.0 in both classes. The new session began last night, so we'll see if Bob continues his interest in this Master's program. =)

Photo 1 - Bob learns the differences, advantages/disadvantages of 2-tier, 3-tier and n-tier client-server networks....
Photo 2 - Bob contemplates the overlap in skill sets between Contracts Managers and Project Managers...



We enjoyed some pretty amazing Vegetable Lasagna this week.

If you'd like the recipe, just make a comment or send me an email and I'll write it up. My sister gave me the recipe (totally decadent and awesome) and then I made it a second time this week using only the ingredients I had on hand and it was just as great or better. The original recipe called for bottled Alfredo sauce, cream cheese and no-boil lasagna noodles. The second time I made it with homemade Alfredo sauce (which is almost easier than opening a jar). I used traditional noodles and I happened to be out of cream cheese but it was just as awesome. The husband was LOVING it! It also makes a huge quantity, which I especially appreciate, needing to be job-hunting and studying, not whiling the hours away in the kitchen.

I baked a pretty decent chocolate pie this week, too, but it's so long gone. I didn't have a chance to take a photo.

The other culinary adventure this week was the substitution of SPAM lite in both my southern black-eyed peas AND in a huge crock pot of Cajun Red Beans and Rice. They were both GREAT, and I'm not laughing at SPAM again. It was good!

Have a great week and remember, lean times offer increased opportunities for creativity.

Keep cooking, and let me know what's new with you!

Aunt Melissa