Crocus Pr0n for Michelle

Occasionally it's necessary to slip flowers a little money to get a good pose. (Yes, I'm nuts) Explanation is in the comments here.

Pet Peeve - Unnecessarily "Sexy" Websites

Note to my credit card company:

Adding animation, videos, and other random web bling to your financial site does NOT make me a happier customer.

In fact, it annoys me.

No, even the spiffiest Flash in the world doesn't make paying my outrageous bill more fun.

How NOT to Prevent Identity Theft

I finally sat down and did my WV taxes earlier this week. I don't know why I put it off so long. It took all of about 5 minutes thanks to my pathetic lack of deductions.

Sealing the envelope, which contained my social security number, of course, and a (thankfully small) personal check, I recalled the advice of identity theft prevention gurus and decided not to attach it to the mailbox by my front door.

No, this precious envelope should be delivered directly to a post office or official USPS mailbox.

The Next 72 Hours
Day 1
Packed envelope in work bag so I could mail it at lunch.

Worked through lunch...but never fear, I'll put the envelope on top of my desk so I won't forget to mail it after work.

Midafternoon: envelope is gone! OMG, did someone swipe it? Who would want my tax return? Wait, maybe it's in the car.

Thorough evening searches of the car, work bag, and house yielded nothing. WTF? It must be at work.

Day 2
Desperately searched desk and cubicle. Nada.

Lightbulb comes on: check behind the desk.

Crawled underneath desk and wedged hand & arm behind drawers. Found the envelope!

Congratulated self on sheer brilliance.

Got into car that evening and placed envelope in passenger's seat so I wouldn't forget to swing by the post office.

Day 3
Discovered envelope on passenger's seat in plain view, with address up so all who passed could see it was for the State Tax Department.

Congratulated self on sheer stupidity.

Deposited envelope in post office box at Kroger -- I think.

Left Kroger with a cart full of groceries and absolutely no memory of depositing the envelope. But if I didn't mail it, where did it go?

Monitoring checking account to see if (thankfully small) check clears.

GAH!

Cooking Adventures: Mussaman Curry

Mussaman Curry, from "Perfect Thai" cookbook
Key ingredients: Beef, potatoes, onions, peanuts, curry paste, tamarind paste, coconut milk
As my guest put it, if this had been on a buffet, we wouldn't have gone back for seconds. But since we put a lot of time into making it -- not to mention quite a bit of cash for the ingredients -- we managed to eat most of it. It wasn't bad, just blah. Perhaps we didn't have the right kind of curry paste.

The next evening, however, we totally made up for this so-so creation by going out to eat at a new Asian restaurant -- Lavender Cafe -- where I tried bubble tea and Taiwanese chunk chicken.

I liked both but really fell in love with the Taiwanese chunk chicken, which was recommended by the server. It's not marked as spicy on the menu, but it is, especially if you happen to bite into one of the hot peppers (yikes...). No kidding -- I've been thinking about that dish ever since I had it, trying to decide when I can justify going back to get a take-out order of it.