Sideways

February's Without is not going well.  The charity fund is growing a lot this month but I'll update you more on that next week.  Josh, Leonard and I are taking the camper up to Crystal tonight to enjoy the expected 1-3 feet of new snow.  Should be a good weekend!  Here is something to start it off right!

I grew up listening to and loving Santana and other phenomenal blues/classic rock.  I also love Citizen Cope.  This song is perfect blend of the two and one of my favorites.  It never fails to put me in a fantastic, chill mood.  Enjoy!

I don't know if we'll have enough time

For Christmas, Josh bought me the book "Fifty Shades of Chicken".  It's a parody of the book "Fifty Shades of Chicken", which I have not read but I found the idea of the book hilarious, especially after I saw the trailer below.  I think that is Patrick Stewart talking


I decided to try my first recipe "Chicken with a Lardon"  which is a whole roast chicken with paprika, orange zest and covered in bacon.

To roast my first chicken, I needed a roasting pan.  Off to Bed Bath & Beyond!  I found myself a pretty red roasting pan and headed back to the car.  There was a man standing outside, and I noticed that a couple of preteen girls were staring at him.  I looked, he was wearing a leather jacket and some weird, shiny pants.  I didn't think too much about it, until I backed out of my parking spot and saw the guy walking toward the parking lot.  He wasn't wearing shiny pants.  He was wearing nylons, and a tiger print thong!

This picture isn't super clear, but you can tell whats going on - it wasn't a long leather jacket.  And, in retrospect, the lack of clarity is not a bad thing.  Who is this man and what kind of life does he lead that on a Tuesday, at 3:30 in the afternoon, this is appropriate mall attire?  I consider myself fairly liberal and open to different lifestyles, but I found myself severely distressed and feeling oddly conservative about the whole thing.  A drag show, a Lady Gaga concert, or a club (all of which I've attended) are appropriate venues for this ensemble, not the SuperMall parking lot.

I didn't realize the humor in this until just now.  I went to the Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a roasting pan for making "Chicken with a Lardon", from a Fifty Shades parody cookbook, and saw a man wearing a leather jacket, a tiger print thong, and nylons.

Naturally, as soon as I left the parking lot I called Belle and left her a long message detailing the experience.  I got home and tested out my new roasting pan to make sure it fit in the oven, it didn't fit!  That means I have to go back to Bed Bath & Beyond, oh dear.

In spite of the setbacks, the chicken was delicious, and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!

Not bad huh?

Thievery

I checked our credit card statement online this morning and I found two charges for about $350 each to Royal Jordanian Air.  Either Josh is leaving me, going to the Middle East, and has no sense of stealth at all; or, my credit card got stolen.  Based on my last post and my confidence in his intelligence, I'm going with thievery.  Bummer. 

Luckily, my credit card is protected, and we won't be responsible for the charges.  I called my credit card company and the woman on the phone was (I think) able to get everything taken care of.  Although, I was very disappointed that she didn't make me feel confident about it.  She asked me several questions more than once, and got irritated with me when I asked for clarification on important details such as "how do I make sure that I am not held responsible for these charges?" and "Is there any way we can figure out how this happened, so it doesn't happen again".  Then there was this gem:

Operator:  "And you didn't make those charges"
Me: "No, I did not."
Operator:  "Is it possible that someone else did?"
Me: "Yes, that's why I'm calling you.  Someone else made these charges."

You work in the fraud department....REALLY?

I will be following up with the credit card company to make sure everything gets handled, but its pretty darn frustrating.  If it weren't February, this would be a fantastic time to swear.