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So I thought I’d devote another entry to it. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a little random entry about the Fruit of the Loom guys. No, not the hot firefighters in the new commercial, but the actual fruit guys. And to both my amusement and amazement, I’ve had more responses to that particular entry than any other. Here are some of the theories on what that fourth guy is:

A leaf (close but not quite)
A pineapple (my original guess)
A peach
Pot (hmm…going for the stoner demographic)
Tobacco

But I think that the best answer is fig leaves. That makes the most sense to me. So that’s where I’m leaving (no pun intended) it. Fig leaves. Oh yeah, and the purple grapes are played by an African american guy, in response to another comment.

So I know I can write this 2 days late without fear of any repercussions since she doesn’t check my blog on a daily basis….Happy 50th Birthday Mom! I love you and I hope your day was everything you wanted it to be.

In other news, Jon and I went wine tasting last weekend for the big Memorial day winery thing. For those of you out of state, all the wineries/vineyards that aren’t usually open to the public are open on Memorial Day weekend (and Thanksgiving) for people to come and taste. We went to 9 total, three on Saturday and 6 on Monday. On Sat., we went to Abiqua Winds, Champoeg, and Paradis, all of which were very nice, and more importantly, free. I had a really nice Reisling at Champoeg. On Monday we went with a couple of my friends, took a picnic, and ended up doing six wineries instead of the four that we’d originally planned. We went to Ponzi (didn’t like anything and the service SUCKED), Argyle (really good late harvest reisling), Sokol Blosser (mostly pinot noir, which I’m not a fan of, but I really liked Evolution), Hauer of the Dauen (cheapest at $2 for tasting 16 wines, also had the best variety including three late harvest wines), Silver Falls, and Willamette Valley Vineyards, which had the most beautiful scenery, as well as the nicest glasses that we got to keep (Reidel Crystal Cabernet Glasses). I think I’ll be good with a wine-free exsistence for a little while now, although I did really enjoy it.

So Jon and I spent the week in Milwaukee. It was nice to spend some time with my dad and to see some of my friends again. It wasn’t an amazingly hectic trip, although it was a little difficult to spend as much time as I wanted to with everyone that I wanted to see. I enjoyed eating at some of the restaurants I hadn’t been to in a while as well, although I need to hit the gym this week to make up for it.

On a different note, the pics from Vegas are up in the Gallery if anyone feels the urge to see how we spent our time there.

More Books:

Dead Beat
Storm Front
Summer Knight
Fool Moon
Blood Rites
Death Masks
Grave Peril
…all by Jim Butcher

The Unhandsome Prince
Heroics For Beginners
…John Moore

Life Expectancy
…Dean Koontz

Napalm and Silly Putty
…George Carlin

A Stroke of Midnight
…Laurell K Hamilton

So we got back from Las Vegas last night late. I didn’t want to leave. I think that when I win the lottery, I’m buying a condo there so I can go back on a regular basis. It was, needless to say, a highly enjoyable trip. We got in Friday night at about 11:30 and didn’t end up going to bed until 3 am Saturday morning. While we were there, we stayed at the Luxor, which was pretty cool despite our toilet overflowing with bubbly bathwater from one of the rooms above us at 3:30 Sunday morning. It did get us a new room, and one in the Pyramid, though, so it was worth it.

We saw Nine Inch Nails on Saturday night, and it was amazing. I was a little nervous that the crowd would be really rowdy, but everyone was super nice and polite. The concert was at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel, which is an awesome venue, only 1500 people. The Dresden Dolls opened, and although I really tried to like them, in the end I just wanted them to shut up and get off the stage, even if it just meant waiting another hour for NIN.

On Sunday night we saw Penn and Teller, which was also highly enjoyable. The show was really funny, and some of the tricks they did were pretty cool. After the show, as we were leaving, we noticed that both Penn and Teller were hanging around in the lobby, so we went to get pictures taken and got our tickets autographed.

Apparently we picked a good night to see them, since when we were waiting to get Penn’s autograph, Jon noticed Ron Jeremy standing to one side of the lobby. Only in Las Vegas. Anyways, it was pretty amusing to see him there. And in true porn-star fan fashion, I had him autograph my boob with a pink sharpie. I mean, how many opportunities do you get to meet an icon like Ron Jeremy?

So all in all it was a good trip. Hopefully I should have pictures up in the gallery by tomorrow night.

I’ve been really bad about writing recently, mainly due to laziness, not lack of material. Today, as both an intellectual excercise and because it’ll help me decide what to have for luch, I thought I’d come up with a list of some of my favorite chain restaurants. Not fancy, not expesive, but tasty, quick, and reliable. And sometimes that’s all you can ask for! So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Burgerville:
Mmm…black forest shakes…and since I only eat vegetarian-feed beef (no mad cow for me!) it’s one of the few burger joints that still go to.

2. Bugatti’s in Cedar Hills:
More expensive than fast food, but still pretty reasonable, with a great happy hour menu including $3.99 Painted Hills beef burgers and $2.99 pizzas big enough for 2 people. Even if you miss happy hour, most of the pizzas are under $10.oo and are big enough to share. And they give you foccacia bread with garlicky olive oil dip as soon as you sit down. Can’t argue with that.

3. Noodlin’
I really wanted to hate this place. It’s a knock off of Noodles & Company, which was one of my favorites when I lived back in WI. But despite the fact that Noodlin’s mac and cheese doesn’t hold a candle to Noodles & Company’s cheesy goodness, the rest of the food is better. And it doesn’t require a plane ticket to get there. Noodlin’ is owned by the Burgerville people, so they also use Oregon Country beef, which is a definate bonus, although I usually get somthing with chicken anyways.

4. Bandito Taco
I don’t think that this place is a chain, but it’s fast food, so I thought I’d include it. Bandito Taco is one of my husband’s favorite restuarants. The food is always fresh and yummy, nine times out of ten it’s the owner that takes your order, and they have 55 cent tacos on Sundays. And as an added bonus, it’s next to a bubble tea place, so I can satisfy my craving for coconut bubble tea while Jon eats super nachos.

5. Big Town Hero
I’m not a huge sub sandwich eater, but when I have a craving for a cream cheese, cheddar, cucumber, lettuce and mayo sub (I know it sounds wierd, but it’s good) I hit Big Town Hero. The only drawback to Big Town Hero is that the closeset one is a 20 min drive, and Jon’s not really a fan.

6. Cha! Cha! Cha!
One of my friends introduced me to this place, and I’m so glad they did. The food is cheap, filling, and good, everything Mexican food should be. Lately I’ve been into making my own Mexican stuff at home, but when I lack the ambition and time, Cha Cha’s is a nice alternative.

Well I’m sure there are places I’m missing, but for now, that’ll have to do, since it’s time for lunch.

So what a shock, it’s been a while since I’ve written. But seriously, not that much has been going on. I’ve been reading obsessively for the past 3 wks or so, so the end of this entry will have a rather extensive addendum to my booklist. In other news, Jon got a new car on Saturday. It’s a ‘05 Mazda 3. Very cute and sporty, with all the bells and whistles. I found it amusing that when we went to “look at” cars on Saturday, Jon swore high and low that there was no way he intended to by a car that day. And then 2 hours later, we drove home in one. I think he’s got pics of it up on his website in case anyone is curious.

I got a new ‘puter yesterday too. I’ve joined the dark side; it’s a Mac mini. It’s been a little frustrating to have to figure out how to do what I want in OS X since I’m used to Windows, but I’ll get it all down eventually. I’m amazed at how small it is, but it’s nice to have more space on my desk. And Jon assures me that once I get the hang of it, I’ll like OS X much better than windows. Time will tell.

I decided to be ambitious and actually plan our dinners for this week instead of running to the store at 5pm every night and trying to figure out what to eat on the fly. It seems like we’ve been going out to eat a lot, too, which is both expensive and not too healthy. Anyways, I’m making tortilla soup tomorrow night, and so I made chicken stock today. The house smells so good. I got the tortilla soup recipe from a Rick Bayless cookbook, so hopefully it’s yummy. The recipe calls for epazote, which is a mexican herb, as one of the seasonings, so I took that as an opportunity to go to a little Mexican grocery store down the street and explore. I didn’t see too many things that I couldn’t get at a regular grocery store, but they did have epazote, and I also got a tortilla press, which I’ve wanted for a while, for $6.99. So all in all it was a productive trip.

And now on to the books:

Faerie Tale….Raymond Feist
The Overnight….Ramsey Campbell (sucked sucked sucked!)
Carpe Jugulum….Terry Pratchett
Archangel….Sharon Shinn
Jovah’s Angel….Sharon Shinn
The Alleluia Files….Sharon Shinn
Angelica….Sharon Shinn
Angel Seeker….Sharon Shinn
Equal Rites….Terry Pratchett
The Language of Baklava…..Diana Abu-Jaber
Songs of the Gorilla Nation…..Dawn Prince-Hughes

So the trip to the coast was really nice. We stayed in Seaside, and the hotel was pretty nice, although small. We discovered a really cool waterfall (Munson Falls) and just hung out. Tomorrow it’s back to work…but I like my job so it’s ok. As a matter of fact, I got a raise. A dollar an hour! I was so excited. It’s the little things with me…Anyways, Jon and I are about to watch the final episode of Carnivale, so I’m going to keep this brief. I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and the return to work/school etc. tomorrow isn’t too jarring.

So since Jon and I aren’t in any way religious and therefore have no desire to go to church on Sunday morning, we’re spending the weekend in Seaside. We usually stay in Lincoln City when we go to the coast, but we thought we’d try something different this time. It should be fun, although I have the feeling it’ll be both crowded and kind of chilly.

So it’s been a while since I’ve written, just busy I guess. I went to the zoo with a couple of my friends and their daughters today. It was fun despite the extreme crowding due to the Portland schools’ spring breaks. It was so nice out for a couple of weeks, but lately it’s been kinda cold and rainy. It didn’t rain while we were at the zoo, but it was really windy and cold.

I just downloaded the new Moby album off of Itunes. So far so good; I like the first two songs. In other music news, I got tickets to the Jack Johnson concert. It’s in Bend, and not until August, but I’m still excited. I’m going with my friend Alison and her daughter. She lived in Bend for a while, so it’ll be nice to explore the city with someone who knows it relatively well.

Jon’s birthday is coming up…I’m so excited to give him his present. I think that it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever gotten for him. I hope he’s as thrilled with it as I think he’ll be. I’d say what it was, but Jon reads my blog and I want it to be a suprise.

Earlier in the week, one of my friends and I went to a little restaurant in Hillsdale called Capitol Coffee House & Bistro for lunch. After perusing the menu, I decided on the special: Four-cheese ravioli in a white wine cream sauce. And I’m so glad I did. They were probably some of the best ravioli that I’ve ever had. The only complaint I had was that there weren’t enough of them…they were so tasty I could’ve eaten about 10 more. Dessert was a flourless chocolate torte with a really yummy mixed berry sauce that tasted mostly like blueberries. I’m generally not a big blueberry fan, and I wouldn’t think to pair them with chocolate, but this combo really worked.

My positive experience with the ravioli prompted me to ask the waitress exactly what four cheeses were used in the filling. She told me they were Taleggio, Mahon, Provolone, and Mozzerella. With this in mind, I thought back to the pasta sheets I’d noticed last time I went to Pastaworks, and started to plan when I’d try to duplicate the ravioli in my own kitchen.

Between one thing and another, I didn’t get an opportunity to try my hand at ravioli making until this afternoon. I called around, and found that New Seasons in Orenco had all of the required cheeses. I figured that since they carry fresh pasta from Pastaworks there, I’d be able to get the sheets with no problem. However, I was mistaken. Apparently, Pastaworks doesn’t sell the sheets to stores, they only carry them in their retail outlet, which is a 45 min drive from our house. So despite a disasterous first attempt at fresh pasta-making about 5 years ago, I decided to steel myself for another attempt. I bought all the cheeses, with the addition of whole milk ricotta, and headed next door to Kitchen Kaboodle to buy one of those nifty pasta roller attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer. One hundred dollars and 10 minutes later, I emerged, bag in hand, ready to try my hand at ravioli-making.

And hallelujah! It was a success! The dough, which was just 3 eggs, two cups of flour, and about a tablespoon of water, came together and rolled out beautifully. The filling turned out really well; I basically just grated and mixed all the hard cheeses together, added in the taleggio and ricotta, mixed in some garlic and parsley, and bound it together with an egg. I made a cream sauce with some white wine, parmesean, and heavy cream, and tossed the cooked ravioli in it. As an afterthought, I added some finely chopped chives from the pot growing on our front porch (the only thing I haven’t managed to kill) for color. I’m glad I did, the flavor of the chives added a nice contrast to the creamy sauce.

I brought the ravioli over to our neighbor’s house for dinner, along with a spinach salad with oranges and almonds and some ciabatta bread. I’d made a chocolate-almond cake on Tuesday, so I pulled it out of the freezer and made some ganache to glaze it with for dessert.

I’m sooo full. And proud of myself. I consider myself pretty fearless when it comes to baking, but I find savory cooking to be a lot more intimidating. It was really cool to make something at home that was on par with something I’d order in a restaurant. I can’t wait to play around more with the pasta maker. Hmmm…linguine con pesto…or lasagne…the wheels are turning…