Alice hates ...

I've been browsing worryfriends.com this morning. It's good for a giggle. Personally, I'm excited to start miming asterisks with my fingers to emphasize certain words in my conversations.

Mum and Dad have been cruising all this week. Some place, in an ocean, near Mexico. I haven't gotten a call once, so naturally, I've started to assume they've been murdered by pirates and now must soldier through life an orphan.

Really, I've spent the week caring for Dinah, Miss Ma'am, China, Zucchini, Matt and Pepper. None have been too much trouble. Zucchini has been way less annoying than Pepper, even.

Matt's got tonsillitis (which would be the Itis not associated with greasy bacon-peas) , compacted ear wax, and maaaaaaybe mono. Which means the poor boy has been sick all week. I've been doing my best impersonation of a caring girlfriend, and I think so far he's buying it.

I've also been cooking all this week. I'm kinda proud of myself. I made a nice dinner on Tuesday night, which I brought to Matt at work. (He had to work late because it was election night.) I made lemon-sage chicken with buttery saucepan carrots*, grilled zucchini and garlic bread. *I burnt the EF out of the carrots. I managed to charcol all the bottoms by following that "if I turn the heat up twice as high, it'll cook twice as fast" train of thought. Strangely, though, the carrots were still tasty. Even the charcoled ends weren't bad, but I wouldn't blame a soul for throwing that part out. Matt said overall, it's the best chicken he's ever had, including restaurant kind, and he fed the leftovers to a coworker who said equally kind things.

Wednesday Matt was feeling extra sick, so I made him grilled cheese and made some mac and cheese for Marcia. And me. Cause I love mac and cheese. (And now, I have a whole dish of it in my fridge I better start eating...)

Thursday I had Rachel and E over (thanks for coming, guys!) and I made Chicken sauteed in cheese and milk, Greasy Bacon Peas, boiled potatoes and more garlic bread. That was fun, too, but my favorite part was the potatoes, since I love potatoes. Mmmm...

(After dinner, we played Guitar Hero 3. I had a good night. :)

Friday Matt was extra sick again, so I wimped out and made myself tuna salad sandwich.

Saturday I made beef stew! Again, proud of this one, even though I nearly ruined it. See, I was supposed to be browning the onions with the beef cubes, when I got distracted by cleaning the kitties water dish. So when I turned back, I had charcoled most of the onions and burnt some of the meat. That turned into a serious pout. I wanted to throw it all away, but Matt stopped me. (I'm a quitter, what can I say?) Anyway, he said very nice things, bolstered my confidence some, and I ended up finishing it after all. And it too, turned out tasty. :D You could barely taste the charoly onions.

Today, Matt made pancakes for breakfast. From the pancake mix that can only be described as pancakes for idiots. No reflection on his breakfast-making skills at all, they were quite tasty. For lunch, stuck at work, I have a salad I made for myself earlier this week, and I'll likely have leftovers, all lonesome at dinner time.

So those are my cooking adventures for this week! Seriously, it's been a lot of fun, because I get surprised and happy when I cook something and it doesn't suck. It's great.

Just think of it as practice for my 2008 All-Potato Bash (otherwise known as my 22nd birthday, happening in February.)

Now, I've got two stories to write at work, get some questions together for an interview on Monday, and get through some homework. Oh, and see if there's anything new and exciting from the mail lately. :D

See you!

A