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Things Not to Do During A Rainstorm!

Sooo... I learned a few things from last night's massive storm.

1. Don't run outside in the hail to cover your plants with towels.  (Hazardous to personal well being.)
2. Don't cover your plants with towels when its raining or will rain. (Hazardous to plant well being.)
3. Don't try to drive in water.  Your car is not a submarine, even if it looks like one. (Hazardous in multiple ways.  DO NOT DRIVE OR OPERATE MACHINERY IF YOU ARE... UNDERWATER.  If you have any serious changes in mood or behavior, or thoughts of suicide... please pull over.)  

So to go into more detail, I was getting ready for work yesterday afternoon, and it started raining really hard.  I decided to wait out some of the storm because I was getting reports of hail, and OH! ANOTHER THING!

1. Don't drive in hail.  No bueno. 

So as I heard it start hailing on our house, I suddenly remember "Oh no! Not my rose bushes!!!" So I ran to the closet, grabbed the ugliest towels I could find, and ran outside barefooted into the hail, covering my head with the towels.  Of course, about halfway to my bushes I'm starting to realize that once I cover my bushes with the towels I won't have anything to cover me with, but ya know, health, who cares (point number one).  I covered them up carefully and bolted back inside.  Thankfully the hail didn't get any bigger, and I wasn't really at all affected by the hail. About 2 minutes later, the sun is out.  Thanks Colorado.  By then I was late for work, so I decided to leave the towels on the bushes and take care of them when I got home.  After work, the three employees closing the store with me locked up, and we walked outside.  The storm was back with a vengeance.  It was pouring rain.  We all stood under the awning and decided whether to run out to our cars. The employee closest to the building decided to make a run for it, and then she picked us up and dropped us off at our cars which was very kind.  

I started driving home, and about 1/3 of the way home I had my wipers going as fast as they could, and I was slowly losing sight of the lines on the road.  Not only that, but there was at least an inch of water on the road itself.  I pulled over and waited (because I knew my car wasn't a submarine!! YAY!).  After it had slowed and then picked up again, I decided to try to get home again, and I got back on the road.  Despite having seen the 'FLASH FLOOD WARNING' messages on my phone, I kept going.  At one point, the rain started falling in heavy waves, and every time I hit a huge rut of water it scared me half to death.  Then I came to an intersection which, in the dark, looked just like all the others.  Wet, and black.  (Quite the description, I know.  *Bows*) But as I drove into this one, it turned out not to be road at all, but about 12-14 inches of deep running water.  Of course as the car splashed into this one it scared me even more and several things flashed into my head. 

1. AHHHHH!!!
2. Oh yeah, I can get out of this, its just like skidding or hydroplaning.  No big deal.  Wait, yes it is.  I COULD BE FLOATING!! WE NEVER WENT OVER THIS IN DRIVERS ED! AHHHH!
3. Why on EARTH don't they have police here with traffic cones so people don't FLOAT AWAY?!?!
4. I should call the police and tell them to get over here.
5. But wait, I'm driving in a foot of water, I can't call anyone, I'm awful at multitasking. 
6. Why haven't they said anything about flash flood warnings on the stupid radio yet?!
7. Can water get IN the car? Maybe I should have brought a swimsuit. 

Yeah.  Adrenaline makes your brain work about a billion times faster.  I didn't actually start floating, I didn't hydroplane (strangely...), I never drowned in my car, and I never called the police.  But the lesson here is, just don't.  Don't drive in a storm like this. Ever. You could float, you could hydroplane, and you could drown.  Okay probably not drown, but yeah. (Point three).

Lastly for point two.  When I finally did get home, I went out to take the towels off my roses, and found them to be completely waterlogged and weighing down my rose bushes.  I carefully peeled them off and found some of the new growth on them broken off because of the immense weight.  Thus, don't put towels on plants, but tarps instead.  Tarps don't absorb water.  Towels do.  There's my helpful spiel of the day! Enjoy :)

Solution to Riven Freezing

Hey everyone!  With the relaxation and time off provided by summer, I've had time to actually play some games!  One of my favorite game series is Myst.  Some of you may have heard of it, others probably not.  It is a pretty old series, but its basically the mother of all escape games.  If you want to find out more about it, please visit this article.

Anyway, after already completing the first game of the series, Myst I, I started playing Riven, the second game of the series (I know right, playing games chronologically?? Who would do such a thing?!).  Although both of them are old, and both of them need to be run in 'compatibility mode' on Windows 7, they should both run fine.  Or so you would think.  For me at least, Riven wasn't working very well.

I would start up the game, it would run for a little while and work just fine, and then, very randomly, it would freeze.  It would lock up so bad that I had to go to Task Manager and end the process to kill it.  But I was always able to restart the game and run it for a little while again before it repeated this.

But for those of you reading this for the solution and not just to hear me yammer on, good news!  A solution is here! Thanks to the help of one of my friends, I was finally able to fix this problem!  I believe the problem occurred because I run a 64 bit system and not a 32 bit.

1. Start Riven as you normally would.
2. As soon as it gets to the main menu in the game, hit CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.
3. This should bring up Task Manager.  Click the "Processes" tab.

1. If you are not already running as an Administrator, click on the "Show processes from all users" button near the bottom of Task Manager. 
2. Once that loads, look for "Riven.exe" and click it.  

1. Now right click it, and then click "Set Affinity..." 
2. De-select all of the CPU processors except for CPU 0.  It does not have to be CPU 0, it could be any of them, but make sure you only have one of them selected.  Riven is an older program, and it does not know what to do with more than one CPU processor running it. 

1. Click "OK" and return to the game!  Simple as that.  

Hope this helps somebody!  Please comment! 

Single Serving Cinnamon Roll

Hey everyone!  So, for some reason I've recently been craving a cinnamon roll, but unfortunately I'm (A.) too lazy to make a whole batch, (B.) too impatient to spend so much time making a whole batch, and (C.) not really wanting to make a whole batch, because it uses so many ingredients.  Or, I should say, a lot of what ingredients it uses.  That didn't really make sense.  That's okay.  ANYWAY.  I was scouring the internet for a recipe that was (A.) fast, (B.) small, and (C.) delicious! The first qualification was easy to find, but unfortunately called for using yeast.  Let me tell you, for a single serve cinnamon roll, you don't need yeast.

The second qualification was harder to find, and the third even harder because it is difficult to taste a recipe from your web browser.  In fact, impossible.  You can only imagine what it would taste like.  Now I'm picturing someone licking their computer monitor, which is a rather disturbing image and therefore I had to share it with you!  You're welcome :)

Yes, I did just Google search that.  :)

Anyway, I found this recipe here that is a single serve, and supposedly delicious, fast, easy-to-make cinnamon roll.  I scrolled through the pictures and the ingredients, and decided that I would have to modify this recipe to make it to my tastes.  No offense to the creator of that yummy looking cinnamon roll, but the dough looked kinda crumbly when she was making it.  Not only that, but I didn't have dates readily available, and I wasn't about to peel a banana just to use two tablespoons of it.  

So, after that long winded explanation, here's the recipe that I created, using that one as a base.

Time: 30-40 minutes at the most.

Servings: 1-2 (sharing is caring!)

Ingredients for the dough: 

1/3 cup + 1 tbs flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt, scant

1 tbs butter, melted

1 tbs white sugar

1 1/2 tbs milk

Ingredients for the filling:

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tbs butter, melted

1 pinch of salt

Directions for dough:

1. Mix together all dry ingredients in a small bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar).  
2. Melt the butter in a small dish in the microwave, and pour it into the dry ingredients.
3. Add the milk, and mix all of the ingredients together until you get a soft dough.  If you get little clumps of dough, try adding a tad bit more milk, but not too much.  You only want all the ingredients together in a dough clump, not in a soup.  If you have added too much milk, or it just seems too soupy, add some more flour.  
4. (This is the best part.) Squish the dough with your hands until it is all gathered into one ball, and the mixture seems even.  Set it aside.

Directions for filling:

1. In another small bowl, mix together the cinnamon, white sugar, brown sugar, and pinch of salt.  
2. Melt the butter in a small dish in the microwave, but DO NOT add it to the sugar mixture. 
3. Now we get to add it to the dough!  Take a small cutting board, or even your counter, and sprinkle a little flour on it.
4. Take your dough ball and roll it out into a log shape, then squish it out into a long flat rectangular shape.  Don't make it too wide, or you will have to do what I did and cut it in half.  That is why my picture seems like it has two cinnamon rolls instead of one.  The longer your strip of dough is, the thicker diameter roll you will get, so its better to make it long than wide.  
5. Take your melted butter and drizzle it onto your dough strip.  Using a spoon, smear the butter evenly across the whole strip.
6. Next, take your sugar filling mix and sprinkle it onto the length of the strip.  Again using a spoon, spread it into the butter so that it evenly coats the dough.  
7. Using your fingers, begin to roll the dough lengthwise until it is one little bundle. 
8. Grab a mug and stick it inside.  If you made the roll to wide, it will likely stick out of the mug, or fall over.  If this is the case, cut the roll in half and stick both little bundles into the mug.  
9. Microwave it for 1 to 1:30 minutes.  If might look pretty soft on the top, but keep in mind that the bottom will cook faster, and the longer you cook it, the crunchier the bottom of the roll will be.  This recipe also has no eggs in it, so you could even eat it without microwaving it at all.  

Voila!  You have a cinnamon roll, ready to eat!  Unless of course you want to add some frosting to the top, which is highly recommended! ;)

Frosting ingredients:

2 tbs of butter

2 tbs of cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp of vanilla extract

Directions for frosting:

1. Put both the butter and the cream cheese into a small dish or mug, and microwave it until the butter is completely melted. This will make both ingredients much easier to whip into a frosting!
2. In a small bowl, add the powdered sugar and the vanilla, then add your butter and cream cheese mixture.  Using a spoon or a whisk, mix all the ingredients together until smooth.  If it seems a little bit watery, that's okay.
3. *OPTIONAL* Chill the frosting until a thicker consistency is achieved.  You can even put it in a little baggie and stick it in the freezer.  It will not freeze into a frosting ice cube.  This is due to the alcohol in the vanilla extract.  It will make it into a nice thick consistency, but it will not be frozen.  
4. Pour the frosting over your cinnamon roll, or put it in a dish for dipping.  

TADAAA!! Your easy, single serve cinnamon roll is ready to eat!

Introducing "Professionally Tacky"

Hey everyone!  So my recently graduated friend has a brother. Well, two actually.  But the older one started a band called Professionally Tacky.  They even have a website!  She had told me about them, and actually mentioned their music was pretty good.  So the other day I got bored, and found them on YouTube!  I like their style of music, and I wanted to share it.  They're both funny and musically talented, a great combination for performers.  I sincerely hope they put more music on the internet.  I want to hear more! Anyway, the brother's name is Jadon Lindburg.  Forgot to mention that.  Anyway, enjoy!

And although the video quality of the next video is not that great, here it is anyway! :)

Driving

Some of you who know me, know that I just love driving.  I don't know what it is about it that I love so much.  Its probably a combination of freedom, and 'rite-of-passage', and 'being an adult' (though I'll never be adultish), and the ability to get myself places when I actually want to.  This means NOT BEING LATE!! Well, at least not being MADE late by other people being late.  At least now I can choose to be late.  Its up to me.  Anyway, I really love it.  But there is something about being a passenger that I really miss.  When you're driving, you're in control for the most part, and you can do things and go places.  But when you're the passenger you can think, you can relax, you can stare out the window, you can watch the clouds roll in, you can daydream, you can philosophize, the possibilities are endless.  Oh, and you can also eat without making a huge mess, because you can look at what you're doing instead of just stuffing your face blindly.  I wish that I could both drive and stare at the clouds, observe the weather, and eat.  Doesn't safely work that way though.  I did realize something about this the other day though.  You know how adults are always commenting that the younger you are, the more creativity and imagination you have?  I believe that is indeed true.  Not because of age, but really more because of life.

That was very vague.  Let me elaborate.  When you're young, you have limitless time, you can do fun things, and you have the freedom and naivety to be carefree.  But as we grow older, we are thrown into the Pit of Responsibilites, Deadlines, Schedules, Work, Coffee, and Stress.  We go about our lives like robots.  

"Wake up, work, sleep, repeat." 

So now it begs the question, who is more free?  The youngster skipping through the grass day by day who is forced to go to bed at a certain time, has to follow rules, and has to be ferried around everywhere, or the average adult who can drive, can earn money, can be 'independent,' but must follow the monotonous rhythm of life? 

My Archenemy, Salad.

Okay, I know salads are great and stuff.  I love salad.  With some meat, and some cheese on it, mmmm.... I'm getting hungry just imagining it.  But I'm pretty sure salads were invented by rabbits, who didn't have to use forks in order to be accepted by society for having manners.  Sure, forks are very 'civilized.'  But I'd honestly much rather eat neatly and quickly with my fingers.  That might sound gross, but let me give you some reasons why.

1.  Croutons.
I'm sure you've all run into this problem before.  You're eating a delicious salad with one of those wicked inventions we call a fork, when you stumble upon a tasty bit of stale bread which civilization calls a crouton.  You viciously stab the crouton with your 'fork' and it disintegrates into a billion smaller pieces of stale bread. Now your crouton is ruined, and you can never successfully eat it unless you forget your manners and lick the bowl.  I know, I know, first world problems.

2.  The Lettuce. 

This part especially irritates me.  Lets use our earlier example, just for the sake of not making too many salads ;)  So you're already in tears because you just destroyed your crouton mercilessly with that weapon of mass destruction called a fork.  Now you have to chase your lettuce around in the bottom of the bowl because it doesn't have a big crunchy, juicy stem like the other lettuce you already ate.  At this point, I usually just forksake (ha. ha. PUN INTENDED!) the fork and resort to using the tools God gave me. MY PHILANGES!!! (Speaking of using the tools God gave me, I've never understood why my parents were like "DON'T OPEN THAT WITH YOUR TEETH!! GOD GAVE YOU TOOLS, USE THEM!" and I'm thinking, yeah, God gave me tools called teeth... I am using them...)  This guy here is doin' it right.  By the way, not my photo, nobody arrest me or sue me or anything. :)

Aaaand this picture also leads me to my third point.  

3.  Those big honking pieces of lettuce. 

See that guy? Eating that giant piece of lettuce?  It looks like a lettuce pizza its so big.  Most romaine lettuce is like that.  And when you get a big unwieldy piece of lettuce, you can't just stuff it in your mouth, it looks like one of those heartburn commercials where your 'food is fighting back.'  But this guy is doing it right, and taking it one bite at a time by using his fingers!!!  

Anyway.  Public Service Announcement.  Well, and my personal opinion.  (We'll call this a BSA, and no that's not an abbreviation for some form of swearing, it stands for Biased Service Announcement.)  Eating salad with your fingers is easier! :D