A sugar high...

Here are a couple "recipes" (if you could call them that) to add a little sweet to dessert or just summertime in general: Imitation Chocolate Pudding Cake My mom always raved about Great Aunt Helen's Chocolate Pudding Cake. Well, I made it last year. And soon afterward, I made this with leftover chocolate cake at Rich's mom's house. This was much better. What you need: 1 box chocolate cake (any kind, the chocolate-y-er, the better) Whatever else the chocolate cake requires 1 tub chocolate frosting (optional, but again, the chocolate-y-er, the better) Hershey's syrup (we've tried a few off-brands, but nothing quite compares to the classic) How to make it: Make the cake (I told you this wasn't a real recipe!) according to the directions. It's up to you whether you want a 2-layer with frosting, a single sheet, or cupcakes. You can even use store-bought or leftover chocolate cake. Cut off your serving and put it on a plate or bowl. Squirt the chocolate syrup over the cake, until it's covered the top and sides, and has left a little pool around the outside. Put this in the microwave for about a minute. I like to cut up my cake and get it all gooey in the chocolate syrup, but enjoy it however you prefer! My kind of Slurpee I was never successful at making slushee drinks as a kid, but I also usually forgot about them, had to leave them out to thaw, and then drink them as juice - never very fun. But I've gotten the hang of it and thought I'd share my not-so-secret. What you need: 1 can (or plastic-can-thing) of concentrated juice, in whatever flavor you want. I use frozen, but I'm sure the unfrozen ones work, too. Water How to make it: Here's where it becomes my kind of Slurpee - I like them pretty strong and in the more liquid-y stages. I also use bigger cups - like a plastic Steak n Shake cup. I use about half the container worth of concentrate per cup. For a regular glass, I would use 1/3 to 1/4 the container, depending on how strong you like your slushees. Then just fill the rest of the cup with water and plop it in the freezer. This is where finesse, part 2, comes in. It takes a few hours to get the slushee to your ideal slushiness level, which is why it's best to make these when you're going to be home for a while. Which is why it's a great summer idea - at least for those few days you may have off. But if you check on it after an hour or so, and then every hour to half hour after that, you can be pretty sure you'll catch it when it's just right. Now that I've oversimplified a couple really easy eats, I think it's time to get back to work.

I got the job!

I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB! I GOT THE JOB!!! I'm really excited! Here's the scoop: the company makes healthcare software - like what your doctor uses to make appointments, to check your chart, and to bill your insurance. It sounds boring, I'm sure. But the company is like a grown-up IMSA! It's only been around since 1979 and its nearly entirely composed of nerds. I mean, they celebrate Pi day, c'mon. Let me highlight some of the benefits:

They believe you are most productive when you are comfortable. You define "comfortable" for yourself: jeans and sandals, business suit, etc.
There are fireplaces and plenty of artwork. For snacking, coffee, tea, cocoa, milk, fruit juice, mineral water, and microwave popcorn are free. At lunchtime, they pay the delivery charges for orders from area restaurants. And they welcome pets on weekends.
They offer many social activities, including an annual anniversary dinner and a company picnic (steak and lobster on paper plates, I hear). Employees receive fine chocolates on Valentine's Day and their birthdays. They also offer a Halloween contest, a Choca-holic Challenge, and a Pi(e) Party. They also sponsor employee sports teams.
They also make an annual donation on your behalf to a charity of your choice.
If you wish to purchase a home computer, they offer interest-free loans.

Anyways, I went out and interviewed Tuesday and they called me today to make the offer. Plus, Rich is refrring me to his apartment complex, so everything is working out perfectly! I think it's time to call grandma with the good news!

Quite possibly America's most perfect pasta

So I spent the day interviewing at a company in Madison. It's an awesome company and I'd really like to work there - the people are fantastic, the benefits are great and it's quirky in just the right ways! On the plane to Madison, we flew right over Lake Monona so I got to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace and the attached Hilton which I would be staying in. Then on the way back to Cincinnati, we flew over the airport and right over downtown I saw the ballpark, the stadium, and the big convention center thing! I tried to look for campus, but there were some clouds so I couldn't get a clear idea of the direction we were heading. But soon we were way outside of Cincinnati and all you could see in every direction was this huge flat expanse of clouds - the tops of them. The sun was shining and I was wondering how dark and dreary it was beneath those clouds. Eventually it came time to circle back and land, so we first had to break through the clouds and we were right between two cloud layers! I was like being in bed and seeing the sunlight come through the sheet over your head - it was just a little darker, but after going through two more layers of clouds, I saw the ground again and we landed. But wait, it gets better!
Rich came to pick me up and we were both starving. I only had a backpack, so it didn't make sense to drop stuff off at home before grabbing dinner. Plus Rich had someplace in mind. Actually, two places. But he wouldn't tell me what they were. We drove through downtown looking for a Sycamore Street and got up to Over the Rhine (the ghetto of Cincinnati, if you could call it that). I was a little confused. But then I saw a restaurant tucked next to the apartment buildings and remembered having ripped out an article about it and telling Rich I wanted to go there for lunch sometime. Well, it certainly wasn't lunch, but we parked and went in.
It looked like a great restaurant from the beginning - well-decorated and definately upscale. It was good I was wearing a skirt and Rich had dressed up. We sat down and the waitress struck me as very friendly. We refused the wine list and I immediately decided on the tagliatelle bolognese. Rich chose the gnocci with pesto (I'm sure it had an elegant Italian name). Our waitress brougt out a basket of impressive breads: for small, flat rolls which were slightly sweet and had a baked on slice of either tomato or zucchini, each. there were also some crispy parmesean breads that were surprisingly moist and tasty - not your usual toast. Of course, there were a couple slices of what appeared to be plain Italian bread. Then, we were brought "gifts from the chef" - something I've never experienced unless I've had a complaint! We got little pieces of toast with pâté (which reminded Rich of his grandma's liver and onions), little tomato geleés (like tomato jello) about the size of an ice cube, and shallow servings of a shimmery black calamari soup. All three were definately unique tastes that would require some getting-used-to, but it almost became an adventure to figure out which utensil to use with which dish. Finally, our meals came out. The plates were large enough to make any dish seem small, but I could only get through half the tagliatelle. Rich could have finished it. But we didn't have room for dessert in the end, that's for sure. Thankfully, they had a dish of amazing melt-in-your-mouth chocolate mints near the door, which were better than any I've had before and appeared somewhat homemade. It was a fantastic ending to a superb meal. It almost makes me regret leaving Cincinnati - almost. I think we're going to take whoever helps us move to lunch there. Now that we can afford it.

How would you like your Tt?

So I saw this while I was reading my daily CNET news (sponsored in part by Google iG). I'm loving the critique - why wasn't I clever enough to think of something like that? In any case, I didn't. And now I'll get back to soliciting job references...

Houses

Rich and I have been looking into houses around Verona, WI (a suburb of Madison) in anticipation of his starting a job there and me (possibly) getting a job at the same company. Unfortunately, the area consists mostly of subdivisions. I don't like subdivisions. Something about sending three big boxes with cream-colored siding through the copier (on collate, of course) and then slapping on rules like "no tables on the driveway" would drive me nuts. Today I've been looking up some news articles and ran into these prefab houses, to which I was introduced in a couple of lectures back in my architecture days.
Here's a picture of the Glide House:
I like the 3- and 4-bedroom models...
Houses by hive are a bunch uglier in pictures, but we could pick exterior colors and finishes to make it look less campus-y and industrial. Plus, their c-line works great for bigger lots by putting two modules (between 16' and 18' wide and as long as a truck allows, I guess) next to each other to make a more traditional house.
Clever Homes also has this "kit" home available - they're construction is much more traditional, except that the walls are built and shipped in panels to add quality and efficiency. The house would be shipped just as the name suggests - in a kit - and it would be assembled on-site.
The Flatpak House is the last of the ones I like - it also seems the "easiest" and most cutomizable since you can really do whatever you want with the 8' sections.
Possibly the biggest plus is that most of the houses are "green" - being prefab means less waste (since factories make less error and don't need as much "wiggle room" in measurements), most of the houses I've looked at have some form of efficient design (like passive solar design or design for optimal breeze to travel through the building), and they're just plain small, which means less space to clean, heat, cool, maintain, and fill with junk. Plus, I've always preferred small houses. And they look cool. Maybe it's time to start looking into lots. Or to go home and have dinner.

Spring cleaning

Well, now that August's here, I decided it was time for some spring cleaning and finally cleared out all those dark, sulky posts that have made me embarassed to share my blog with people (or even post at all). Here's the beginning of a new age in bloghood. Let's have a new post to celebrate!