Inked

Before today I had never stepped foot in a tattoo parlor. They always seemed frightening and unhygienic. Today I learned that they are not that scary ( as long as you're not the one getting the tattoo ) and actually very clean. The place wasn't filled with a bunch of guys named Big Mike covered in a million tattoos. Instead I met a lot of nice staffers, who were not at all scary or intimidating. They all did have tattoos, but nothing too extreme.

The most interesting thing that I noticed about the parlor was the atmosphere. People would just walk in and ask if an artist was free. Their manner was so casual, as if they were just stopping in for a walk-in haircut. Its almost as if they were just walking down the street and decided that they needed a tattoo right at that very moment.

While waiting to be seen I could overhear one of the walk in going over his tattoo idea with one the artists. From what I could hear it was to be a woman's face on his chest with the hair flowing up onto his shoulders. To me it just sounded very intricate and painful.

I guess I should mention that I wasn't there to get a tattoo, my friend Paul was. I tried to provide moral support, but I don't think I did a good job. Seeing as how I was just as freaked out at the idea of him getting a tattoo as he was. It also didn't help the situation that while waiting one of the tattooing room doors was open and we could see and hear someone getting a tattoo. My grimacing and cringing probably did not make him feel any better either.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, Paul's turn came and he was told to go the third door. The next hour was filled with cringing, moans of agony, and an almost fainting episode. In the end it was an interesting learning experience. I was very interested in all the tools the artist used and enjoyed observing him. With that said, I don't think I would like to return to the parlor anytime soon. Paul probably won't be needing my moral support for another ten years or so.

Today was definitely enlightening. I had never seriously considered getting a tattoo. It was always just a silly idea floating in the back of my head. Well after today, that silly idea has been killed and it will never return. I really think that if you're considering getting a tattoo, you should watch someone else get one. It is quite the experience and one I never thought I would witness.

Showtunes

I have been working on building my collection of musical cast recordings for a little over a year now. At the moment I have 101 cast recordings and I am still collecting. Out of these 101 recording I would say that there are still five that I haven't had a chance to listen to. The issue is that one or two cast recordings end up being my favorite for a couple of weeks and I only listen to them on loop.

The following is my current collection. Let me know if you have any recommendations for my collection.

1. 1776
2. 42nd Street
3. A Chorus Line: OBC
4. A Chorus Line:NBC
5. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
6. Annie: OBC
7. Annie Get Your Gun
8. Anything Goes
9. Assassins
10. Avenue Q
11. Bare
12. Beauty and the Beast
13. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
14. Billy Elliot
15. Bye Bye Birdie
16. Cabaret: OBC
17. Caroline or Change
18. Chicago
19. Children of Eden
20. Company: OBC
21. Curtains
22. Damn Yankees: OBC
23. Evita
24. Fame
25. Fiddler on the Roof
26. Follies: OBC
27. Follies: London Recording
28. Follies: OBC Live
29. Fosse
30. Godspell
31. Grease
32. Grey Gardens
33. Guys and Dolls: 1976 All Black Cast Recording
34. Guys and Dolls: 1992 U.S. Revival
35. Gypsy: 2003 Revival
36. Haare
37. Hair
38. Hairspray
39. Hello, Dolly!
40. How to Succeed in Business without really trying
41. In the Heights
42. Into the Woods
43. Jersey Boys
44. Jesus Christ Superstar
45. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
46. King and I
47. Kiss Me Kate
48. Legally Blonde
49. Legs Diamond
50. Les Miserables ( English
51. Les Miserables ( French )
52. L'il Abner
53. Little Shop of Horrors
54. Mamma Mia
55. Man of La Mancha
56. Mary Poppins
57. Music Man
58. Nine
59. Oklahoma
60. Oliver!
61. Once on this Island
62. Once Upon a Mattress
63. Pal Joey: 1955
64. Pippin: OBC
65. Ragtime
66. Rent
67. Rocky Horror Show
68. Seussical the Musical
69. Shrek
70. Singing in the Rain
71. Snoopy
72. South Pacific
73. Spamalot
74. Spring Awakening
75. Sunday in the Park with George
76. Sweeney Todd: 2005 Revival
77. Sweeney Todd: In Concert
78. Swing
79. The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee
80. The Boy From Oz
81. The Color Purple
82. The Drowsy Chaperone
83. The Light in the Piazza
84. The Lion King
85. The Little Mermaid
86. The Pajama Game
87. The Producers
88. The Rink: Broadway
89. The Rink: London
90. The Wedding Singer
91. Thoroughly Modern Millie
92. tick,tick...BOOM!
93. Urinetown
94. West Side Story
95. Wicked
96. Wild Party
97. Xanadu
98. You're a Good Man Charlie Brown
99. You Never Know
100. Young Frankenstein
101. Zanna, Don't!

Merlin

I went on Hulu today and one of the recommended episodes was Merlin from NBC. I had heard of the show a couple of weeks ago, but had not been interested enough to make time to watch it. This time around I ended up watching five episodes and really enjoying it.

The show is loosely based off of Arthurian legend. As with any historical interpretation there are many inaccuracies and anyone who is well versed in Arthurian legend would probably not enjoy the BBC's take on it. For example, Merlin is traditionally older than Arthur and serves as his mentor, but on the show Merlin and Arthur are the same age and are both fairly young.

The show has been doing well with American audiences this summer and hopefully NBC will air the second season either this fall or winter. Though if they don't American fans will most likely be able to find season two online after it airs in the U.K. this fall.

The Shack

Apparently the people at Radio Shack have decided that their name is either too long for us to handle or that its not hip enough. Their solution was to rename the store 'The Shack'. According to their new commercial that's what their friends call them. Really?

Now can someone please explain to me how the name The Shack conveys what they sell at all. When I hear The Shack I imagine some small restaurant by the beach that sells greasy food. Not an electronics store. Do they really believe that by making the name "cooler" more people will go there. I highly doubt that "Radio" is the reason people are not going to the store.

Raspberry Lime Cheesecake Tartlets

I have now reached the point in my cooking adventures where I no longer like to use recipes. I find its much more fun to experiment.

Today I was bored and decided to go in the kitchen to see what I could cook. I found mini phyllo shells, yogurt, cheesecake mix, a lime, and raspberries. My final creation was raspberry lime cheesecake tartlets. They were really easy to make and took no time at all. I wish I had an actual recipe for you, but I don't believe in measuring cups and I eye everything instead of measuring it out.

Raspberry Lime Cheesecake Tartlets

15 mini phyllo shells

1/4 cup Jell-o No Bake cheesecake mix

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup unsweetened apple juice

2 Tbs sugar

2 tsp lime juice

15 raspberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F and crisp the phyllo shells for 3-5 minutes.

Put the apple juice, sugar, and lime juice in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Mix the soy yogurt and cheesecake mix thoroughly until the mixture thickens. Add in a couple of teaspoons of the apple juice mixture to the yogurt/cheesecake mixture. Pour the remaining apple juice mixture over the raspberries and let sit in the fridge. Divide the yogurt/cheesecake mixture equally into the shells. Refrigerate for an hour. Place raspberries on top of the mini shells and serve.

A Vow of Silence

The idea just popped into my head the other day. I wonder if I could actually go for an extended period time without talking. I want to try doing it right away, but now is not a good time. I'm working at a children's theater camp and I need my voice. Though once I start thinking about it, there is no good time to take a vow of silence. I remember when I lost my voice two winters ago, I had the toughest time not being able to talk. I feel as though this would be an interesting experiment to see how long I could last, but I also feel as though I'm would be making my life more difficult than necessary.

Grilled Romaine Lettuce

I was inspired to try this after seeing this recipe on Fat Free Vegan.

Here is my version.

Grilled Romaine Lettuce

1/2 a head of romaine lettuce

basil

rosemary

salt

3 Tbs olive oil

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup sliced red onion

I'm not a big fan of measuring everything out, so just use your judgement when adding the spices. It all depends on your taste preference.

Separate the lettuce into individual leaves. Combine the basil,rosemary,salt, and olive oil in a small bowl. Spoon the olive oil onto each piece of lettuce and try to cover the entire leaf with the olive oil. I found it helpful to apply the olive oil on a leaf and then use another leaf to rub it all over. After applying the olive oil to all the leaves, toss the halved tomatoes into the bowl to soak in any off the remaining olive oil.

Place the onions on the grill.I used my George Foreman gr ll for this. Once the onions are close to being done, Place the lettuce and tomatoes for about three minutes or until the lettuce starts to wilt. Place on a plate and serve while still warm.

Can't Wait

The countdown now reads that only 29 days are left until September 1st. I am extremely excited to return to school. I have had to resist the urge to start packing up all my things and making a pile in the living room. Though I will probably give in soon enough.

This vacation has gone by a lot faster than I thought it would. I was really worried that it would drag on and never seem to end. I think it helped that I had a lot of stuff to do with my time this summer. For example, this blog proved to be something fun for me to occupy my free time with. Hopefully I will still be able to update once I get back to school. My goal is to update at least once a week, though my real goal is three times a week. I have a heavy course load, a job, a musical, and possibly research. Though with me doing all this, I should have more interesting things to write about. Well, we'll see what happens in these upcoming months.

Homemade Veggie Burgers

I have been wanting to try to make my own veggie burgers for some time now. I finally got around to it the other day and they came out really well. Though next time, I would want to incorporate more vegetables and substitute brown rice for the bread crumbs.

Quick and Easy Veggie Burgers

1 can cannellini beans

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup parsley

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt

basil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. I added the ingredients in stages in order to make sure that everything was well blended. Form the mixture into patties. I was able to make 4 medium sized patties.

Heat up a skillet and then add some olive oil. Allow the olive oil to heat up. Cook the burgers until they brown on each side.

1,000 Smiles

Hello everyone. Yesterday I started a second blog. The new blog is called 1,000 Smiles. On it I will be compiling a list of 1,000 things that make me smile. I had the idea the other day and thought it would be fun to do. You can check it out at http://laughteryearround.blogspot.com/. With each post of something that makes me smile, there is a button that says 'me too'. You don't have to be a follower or signed in to agree with a post, so definitely click away if something also makes you smile.

Well, isn't that funny?

I keep forgetting that Sarah Palin is a real person.

What I mean by that is whenever I see a video of her speaking I think of her the way I do of Stephen Colbert's 'character' on his show. She is just too funny and ridiculous. It really amazes me that her adoring fans don't notice how ridiculous she is. Just listen to any one of her speeches and you'll understand.

Here's a snippet of her farewell speech from earlier this week.

"In the winter time it’s the frozen road that is competing with the view of ice fogged frigid beauty, the cold though, doesn’t it split the Cheechakos from the Sourdoughs? And then in the summertime such extreme summertime about a hundred and fifty degrees hotter than just some months ago, than just some months from now, with fireweed blooming along the frost heaves and merciless rivers that are rushing and carving and reminding us that here, Mother Nature wins."

Here is the clip of her performing her free-verse poetry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBRT46cW-h4

Another fun clip from her farewell speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWr7-PlpRc4

Though it all stops being funny when I remember that people actually voted for her to be Governor in the first place and that she was almost the Vice President of the United States.