A whole new level of frustration

This whole low iodine diet thing is going to kill me one of these days. Not only is it a hassle to have to cook all of my meals, with very limited ingredients... but I'm also staying with friends right now, so I don't have all of my normal kitchenware and spices. Then to top things off, since I am staying with friends, my entire life is packed up in boxes in the garage... which, up until 5 minutes ago, included all of my cookbooks and loose recipes. Just about an hour ago, I began the endeavor to hunt for these materials... and I have just now finally gotten to sit back down at my computer, finally having achieved my goal. I had to, quite literally, climb around, over and THROUGH all of my belongings. I opened nearly ever box that I had packed in the hopes that these were in there. Now, I know what you're thinking... cook books, the box should be labeled "Books". That's what I thought. Next logical guess.. "Kitchen". Nope. Then I started going through the unlabeled boxes, of which I had plenty. I packed and moved in a bit of a hurry. By the time I got to the last 2 boxes, I was about ready to give up. One of the boxes is nigh impossible to get to without removing half of my other belongings first. The other box, which was in fact right out in front within easy access, I had discounted right off because it was far too large. Certainly I wouldn't put books in a box that large. ...right? Oh well the hell, so I tried it, and lo and behold, there are my freaking cookbooks.

Damn that sucked.

At least I can say I got a good workout today. Even if it wasn't rock climbing, my thus-far limited experience with it certainly helped, finding foot holds and hand holds through that mess.

...now I have to spend the time actually cooking something. Ugh.

I think I may just go get some of The Joey Pizza.

The Joey Pizza

Alright so I've been enjoying this pizza so much (in fact, a few cold slices served as breakfast this morning -- yes, it is incredible cold) that I decided I should post it up here to share with the world. Really, I can't take credit for the creation myself. That credit goes to Eric Geryol, owner of Boulders on Broadway, which is a bar I happen to frequent. The reason this pizza is that I was on a low iodine diet at the time, and there was no way Eric was going to let me be stuck at home because no restaurants would cater to me. Out of the many dishes I tried, this one stood out in amazing glory. Now granted, there is *some* iodine in this pizza, because there are minimal amounts used in the dough and perhaps a bit in the pizza sauce (I have also gotten it without the sauce though and it is still wonderful.) This pizza can be easily made at home, however, using the pizza dough and tomato sauce recipes from ThyCa's low iodine cookbook.

Anyhow, without any further ado, the pizza is as follows:

• Thin crust (essential!)
• No cheese
• Pizza sauce (optional, as noted above)
• Artichoke hearts
• Garlic (actual chunks, not just powder)
• Basil
• Balsamic vinegar

The vinegar should be drizzled over the top before cooking. In my opinion, you can't really be too liberal with this. The sweet/tart flavor of the vinegar really makes the pizza. Cook it until the crust is a light golden brown and enjoy!

Not only is this pizza one of the staples of my low iodine diet, I have continued ordering it regularly since... and other people have actually called me up to ask what was on it so that they could order it as well!

If you try this pizza out, let me know what you think! Also, if you happen to be around Tempe, AZ and craving a pizza, I highly recommend stopping into Boulders on Broadway and trying out the original! This place has the best pizza in town, by far.

Enjoy! Also keep a look out, I may be posting some more recipes soon, as I'm starting back on the diet for a few weeks.

The last bit of my sanity is officially gone

I just proved this to myself a minute ago. You see, for anybody who didn't know, I'm a bit of a weather nut. I enjoy monitoring and learning about the weather... so I've got all kinds of notifications going on my computers for different kinds of weather events. So just a few minutes ago, a severe weather alert pops up. Curious... these are usually just for big storms, and our cloud cover just rolled out of here last night. After clicking and waiting anxiously for the page to load, I am presented with the following:

...RECORD BREAKING HEAT EXPECTED ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWEST ARIZONA DESERTS...WITH NEAR RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE GREATER PHOENIX AREA THIS WEEKEND INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK...

A STRONG RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE THAT HAS BEEN PARKED ALONG THE WEST COAST WILL SHIFT EASTWARD THIS WEEKEND...FOR SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER WEATHER ACROSS THE DESERT SOUTHWEST. RECORD TO NEAR RECORD HEAT IS EXPECTED SUNDAY AND MONDAY...BEFORE A COOLING TREND BEGINS MIDWEEK. TEMPERATURES ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWEST ARIZONA DESERTS WILL NEAR 110 DEGREES SUNDAY...WITH A FORECAST HIGH OF 112 DEGREES AT YUMA ARIZONA MONDAY. THE CURRENT RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY AT YUMA IS 109 DEGREES.

ACROSS THE GREATER PHOENIX AREA...THE FIRST 100 DEGREE DAY OF THE SEASON IS EXPECTED AT PHOENIX SKY HARBOR AIRPORT SUNDAY...WITH A FORECAST HIGH OF 103 DEGREES SUNDAY AND 106 DEGREES MONDAY.

Now most people... normal, sensible, sane people anyhow, upon reading this would react with something along the lines of "Aww crap. Not more heat. Just what we need." That would be the sensible reaction. Of course, me, being far from sensible, my instant reaction was a very emphatic "YES!" accompanied by pumping my fists in the air and doing a little dance of joy in my chair. I think that right there is definitive, irrefutable proof that I have no shred of sanity left in my mind.

Oh well, it's more fun this way! Now I can go swimming this weekend, get another sunburn the color of a fire truck and not care! Hooray! :D

Moving haiku!

Moving is teh suck
I hate packing all this shit
Will it never end?

People are cheap bastards!

It really is true, people are cheap bastards. Especially on Craigslist.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Craigslist. You just won't catch me trying to sell things on there anymore. It doesn't matter how cheap you try to sell something on there, chances are nobody is going to jump on it.

Over the past week, I have been giving away ridiculous amounts of things away on CL and people have been all over them, since they've been free. I've received probably *at least* 50 responses per item, with the first response being only minutes after it was posted. I did try selling 2 items though: a small stereo, and a queen size headboard/frame. The stereo got zero responses. I moved it to the free section and it was gone within hours. The headboard/frame got 2 responses. The first person had an emergency and bailed. The second person came, looked at it, nitpicked, and left. Now I moved it to the free section and, despite the fact that it's 2 days old and not even on the first page, have already received a response.

Damn you, people! Stop being such cheapskates! I've spent probably $300-$400 on items from Craigslist myself. Am I the only person who actually goes on there looking to spend money? Sheesh!

Feeling a bit lost here...

Life really does happen all at once... and it really does suck. I've been through a fair bit in the past year, which has thrown my life into total chaos. Anybody who knows me is well aware of that. Right now, however, seems to be the most troubling for me. I'm supposed to be moving out of my house by Sunday. No big deal there. I'm buying a house, right? Well, we haven't closed on the house yet. In fact, we've run into a snag which may prevent it from closing soon. We're in the final mile and just now being told that it's not going to happen. Of course, this is just my luck. So now I'm supposed to be staying with friends -- the ones who are selling me the house, in fact, until the house is finalized. That's great, don't get me wrong. The problem is, I have a LOT of stuff. They have offered to let me use their garage for storage... but I don't think they understand just how much stuff is involved here. So now I've decided that I'm just going to start giving things away on Craigslist... and I don't mean just one or two things. I mean... well, a lot. Almost all of my furniture. Even my couch is going tomorrow. It feels pretty good to be giving all of these things away... and with this, I'll be able to get new stuff, which is good. I just feel very frantic right now. I'm not really sure where I'm going to be living, and for how long... and I'm not sure where all of my things are going to be, or how long they are going to be there.

One of my biggest problems is going to be my VW Golf. It's in my garage... back in one piece again... but it doesn't run. It doesn't even start. It's been sitting too long as an unattended project. This one could suck.

Anybody got some free space? :)

...and my list of issues grows even longer.

Not that my new issue is a particularly bad one... or even a new one for me. I just have a name for it now. This particular one is called, apparently, Islomania. Islomania, according to this Wikipedia entry, is an obsession with islands characterized by an irresistible attraction towards them. This would explain my recent longing to visit pretty much any island I can find. It would also explain why I have, at different points in my life, been determined to move to each of the following: Hawaii, The Philippines, Mauritius, Reunion, Isle of Man, Guam, Bermuda, along with a few others. I know that there were some Micronesian islands as well.

I really like the quote from the original identification of the condition:

We islomanes, says Gideon, are the direct descendants of the Atlanteans, and it is toward the lost Atlantis that our subconscious is drawn.

That sounds like a good explanation to me... I'll accept that idea. :)

Atlantis, here I come!