Survivor - Week Two

Thank you, vivian, for the reminder!! Yes, I was very sick toward the end of this week. So much so, that I almost postponed watching Survivor on Thursday....but as a hardcore Survivor fan, I couldn't do it!!! So the post did have to suffer, due to the illness :(

And now my thoughts on this week's episode!!

Well....I think this may be the first time I can remember a team purposely throwing a game just to get rid of some dead weight. I want to say I remembering it happen once before, but I can't recall when. Anyone know?

Yep, that's right folks...death metal rocker Billy wasn't pulling his weight around camp this week and that got him the axe. I remember hearing him comment that he was saving his energy for the challenges and he didn't think it was smart to use all his energy helping out around camp. He thought the others had more energy to burn. This kinda attitude is not what you want around camp on the second week!!! Well, I have to say it was a pretty good pick this week.

The FUNNIEST part of the whole thing was when he said that he and Candice had a "MOMENT" at one of the challenges. Did he say that they both mouthed "I love you" to each other or did he just mouth that to her? LOL...either way, it was hysterical. He started to say he was playing the game for love....love for her...oh man! Okay, if you don't know who Candice is, I have decided to add another picture to this post...that way we can see how they would look as a couple....hee hee (she is a looker!)

Okay...so for the rest of the episode...all I have to say is
GO ASIANS!!!!
w00t!!! That's right, leave it up to the Korean to find the immunity idol. Didn't I say it wasn't going to take much to find that thing? The island is so small and it is all sand!

And he caught two chickens too! The guy is the bomb! I know the hispanics caught a chicken too, but two chickens!!! That is awesome. They are also the bomb at catching fish and crabs...did you see how much stuff they were getting...LOL

I have to be honest...that Cowboy guy is freaking me out! I can't believe how strange he is. I think he will be the first voted off of the Asian group!

Okay, so overall...I think the Asians are running strong. My initial thoughts on the hispanic team being strong was crushed this week because they lacked the commitment to eachother. They shouldn't have thrown a game just to get rid of someone...that's stupid. The whitey's didn't impress me much this week and the african-american group also didn't do much to impress me either.

I think next week we will see the Asians on the chopping block to lose someone. If so, Cowboy is sure to go!

See ya next week!

Survivor: Week One

Well, I have decided to try and keep up with Survivor on my blog (for my Survivor junkie friends!). The first episode was quite interesting. I am not sure how I feel about dividing the teams into races....except, GO ASIANS! w00t!

I really like the Hispanic team out of all the teams because I think they are strong and will be loyal to one another, based on the hispanic stereotype of course. I do believe they will end up being the strongest team.

Did you notice how the Asian team has mostly American Asians on it? I am not sure about that only because alot of times you see that American Asians don't have as much pride in their ethnicity. I know the crazy dude was way irritating with his jokes, but they absolultely did not like his stereotypical jokes. I also thought it was funny how the token homosexual of the season was Asian...a very muscular Asian...but you could tell that fashion designer was seriously gay.

Speaking of muscular....props to the Survivor committee who chose the cast...there are some good looking guys on this season. Not like the big-boobs mcgees we usually see running around all skimpy like!!!

This season's exile island is weak! It isn't even that big....just keep digging, you will find it eventually--there isn't that much territory to cover! LOL.

I thought out of all the members on the African-American team, Sekou should have been the one to go...he was holding everyone up in the challenge. He also tried to take charge too fast and boss everyone around. People don't like that!!

Well, post any comments on what you thought about last night's episode and check back each week as I update my opinions and predictions for each episode. Also, if you see me slacking feel free to let me know...I tend to do that sometimes!!!!

VICTORY!!!!!

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!! Finally, my hard work has paid off. I don't know if you remember from last year, but I wrote a little rant about how I entered a dessert contest with a fantastic 'Chocolate Oblivion Truffle Torte' and lost to chocolate chip cookies (see the Sept. 2005 archive). It has really bothered me all year long....I know it's stupid to say, but I hate losing!

Well, this year was my year. Our Aftermarket/VSBU had their annual celebration event and this year's event was "World Class Flair". It had an Ethnic theme...so we had Brazilian BBQ, a soccer tournament (which I kicked butt at! I had one assist!) and focused on all the countries of the world. In order to keep with the theme, this year's dessert contest was an "Ethnic" dessert contest. So chocolate chip cookies were totally out!!

BACKGROUND:
Each contestant was to create an ethnic dessert and it had to be something unique. At first, I tried out two desserts: Argentinean Carmel Pastele Crescents and a Mexican Tres Leches Cake. Both sounded soooo good, but turned out soooo bad.

I had forgotten about the contest and someone at work reminded me (thanks Brooke!) that we had the contest on Friday. So Wednesday night I tried out the two desserts and they didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. So I was frantically looking for another recipe. I was unsuccessful in finding something I wanted to make. With the pressure on I decided to pull a cookbook from Spain out of my cabinet. I have never made anything from this cookbook...it just sits on top of my cabinets as a decorative piece in my kitchen.

I flipped through the pages frantically looking for something....anything. Then I saw a Spanish Almond Tart called "Tarta de Santiago". It was my last hope because time was running out!!!!

I bought the ingredients the next day and planned on making two of them. I always do a trial run to make sure it is good....if it wasn't, then I was going to drop out of the race.

The recipe called for finely grounded almonds and they just don't sell that around here. So I bought some almonds and ground them up in my coffee grinder. It worked like a charm. One hour later, I was ready to put it together.

I made the dough from scratch and mixed all the ingredients together and followed the instructions. I made everything double so that I could make the tart in the morning too. At 11pm, my masterpiece was done.....but I ended up over-cooking the crust and it burned....note to self: remember to cover the crust with foil next time.

After trying it, it was good...except the crust! So I went to bed satisfied with the dessert. In the morning I rolled out the crust and cooked it with foil over it. It looked beautiful coming out. I put the filling in and cooked it as directed. I finished getting ready and was ready to take the tart out...everything looked fine! It was beautiful! I was completely happy.

THE CONTEST:
My arch-nemesis brought a "French Apple Dessert" with caramel sauce. First of all, you can't just bring an apple caramel cake and call it "French" just cuz we are in an ethnic dessert contest!!! The other desserts were Figs stuffed with Walnuts (Turkish), Some weird Indian bread balls soaked in some sweet sauce (yuck), a Red Velvet Cake (yet, another betty crocker dessert dressed up like it was ethnic...she said it was from South Africa...c'mon!), and some Irish Oatmeal cake.

So my competition was weak and I was pretty satisfied with my dessert. While I was nervously watching the judges...it seemed they like most of the desserts. Mine was the last to be sampled. When they got to mine, they began to cut into it. The crust was so freaking hard that they couldn't cut through the tart! My heart sank and I instantly knew I had lost because they were all laughing and one of the actually had to hold the tart while another had to muscle through the crust. THE CRUST SCREWED ME AGAIN!!! (Later, I found out that the recipe called for a 10" tart pan and I used an 11"...so I really needed to leave it in there for a shorter amount of time and it would have been perfect).

Despite the fact that the crust was such a problem...when they took a bite of the dessert their eyes got big and one of them even said, "This tastes exactly like the one my Grandmother used to make". I wasn't sure how the rest of them felt.

After the judging, we were allowed to sample the desserts. So of course, I was going to try the competition. My arch-nemesis had a wonderful dessert. I actually preferred hers over mine. I think everyone did too. I thought for sure I was going to lose to her again and hung my head low.

THE WIN:
So as the day went on, I forgot about the contest and thought for sure I was going to lose. They were going to announce the winner after the pizza eating contest. I ended up being in the pizza eating contest because we were missing a person. I ate 4 tiny pieces and had everyone else around me help me...I finished first...LOL. The real contestants were good sports about it, knowing that I wasn't serious.

As we sat there listening to them announce the winners of all the competitions, I already had it in my mind that I wasn't going to win this year with my hard-crusted almond tart and so I wasn't really paying attention. I almost fell off my seat when they said, "And the winner of the dessert contest is....Marii Thompson!" I was so surprised that I tastelessly jumped up, threw my arms in the air, and screamed "whoo hoo". Then I gave a lightning punch to the air and I was totally pumped. I know I shouldn't have show-boated like that, but I was completely thrown off! They gave me my envelope and I didn't even care about what was in it...it wasn't the prize I was after....it was the win, the recognition, and the joy of beating chocolate chip cookie lady!!!!!

P.S. So if you are dying to find out what I won, like everyone else at the celebration...It was a $50 gift card to Barnes & Nobles. I personally like last year's prize of a $50 GC to Carrabbas. But like I said, I don't care about the prize....now I can get LT a few books!

P.P.S. Someone told me later that day...when they announced me as the winner, chocolate-chip cookie lady made a funny look on her face like she was disgusted that I won...hee hee.

Pierced ears!

Okay...so here are some recent pictures of LT with her pierced ears! These were taken today when her 4 year old best friend decided to share his hat with her. She was so cute that my friend Heather had to take pictures.

It's about time!

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I posted. My last post, "Waiting on Vivian" doesn't count. It has been almost a year since my last real post! Well, alot has happened in the last 10 months! We had a baby girl...YAY!
She is wonderful and brings much joy to my life. A joy I have never felt before. I just thank God for this amazing blessing in my life. When she giggles and smiles...it melts my heart!

And as a result of this joy, I haven't been able to spend much time on my blog. I liked using Vivian as an excuse, but really I have been buried in stuff going on in my life. Originally, I used to post at work because I didn't have much to do, but now I hardly have time to check my email! Then when I get home, I am constantly doing something in the house or with the baby--by the time I sit down to get on my computer, there is no time for blogging. Well hopefully Vivian has lit a fire under me and I will feel that passion to write and keep you updated again.

Let's see....since my last few posts, I have been to Ribfest again. I opted out of getting the Elephant Ear this time because the thing is just dripping with grease and sugar. I don't think I want to add anymore weight to this already pudgy body! I opted instead for a pulled pork sandwich, which was fabulous! I wouldn't call it a sandwich though, it was a paper boat that was overflowing with pulled pork and I think there was a bun somewhere on the bottom down there...ha ha.

Holloween is coming up again...and I am going to try and top my pumpkin from last year. I am thinking about getting a giant pumpkin and scooping it all out and sticking LT in there with a green stem hat...ha ha. For some reason I think that it would make a cute picture to have her head popping out of this gi-normous pumpkin!

I can't believe we have been in Michigan a year already! It just seems like yesterday I was doing all these things in my previous blogs! Time flies so fast now!

I am looking forward to my friend Vivian and her husband Keith coming out to visit us. They will be here at the end of September and I just can't wait!!!! Finally, LT gets to meet her favorite auntie!!!

LT update: My mom just came out to visit her this past weekend and she had a blast playing with her grandbaby! LT thought she was the bee's knees and giggled and laughed and smiled the entire time. We went to have her ears pierced (the day before her 7 month birthday) and she looks so adorable. I was glad my mom was there to hold her steady because LT is such a strong baby!! Eric didn't want to be there to witness the trauma. However, it was not as bad as I imagined it to be. She was more upset that she was being restrained than getting her ears shot with a piercing gun. After it was all over, she stopped crying the moment she was free to move around. Her big old alligator tears were just a show! She was all smiles as soon as I held her. She had quite an audience of people watching too....they wanted to see her reaction and were surprised when she didn't really act bothered by it all. She is a very tough girl!

That's about all I can write now because I am going to die if I don't get any sleep! I told myself I was going to be in bed by 9pm and its already almost 12am!!!

So life, as I know it, has it's ups and downs...good days and bad. All in all, I am thankful to be alive and have such a wonderful family and a wonderful set of friends...LOVE YOU GUYS!