poppydawn

What Lammy said. The first show's on my kid's birthday, so I doubt if any of the shows are possible for me. Still, how cool!

When I was suffering from panic disorder/depression, I had similar reactions anytime I had caffeine. So, for about 10 years I avoided it (and all drugs except some alcohol) like the plague. Now (and for the past couple years) I drink about 2-3 cups of black tea each day with no issues, with an occasional high test espresso after dinner. So far so good.

 

So, my suggestion would be to consider what else is going on in your life -- xmas stress, relationships, professional career etc etc. TBH, 2 pots of coffee can't be good for you, so cutting back can only help.

Word.

I experienced the same thing. If I'm having an anxiety/panic flare-up, caffeine's effects are definitely intensified. When all's well in my life, I drink crazy amounts of coffee and tea, and maybe the occasional Coke. But as soon as I start getting stressed, I cut back.

A friend of mine recently described the same thing about caffeine affecting her differently now than it used to, and it definitely seems to be related to the levels of stress in her life.

I'm barely 5'3" tall, but was predicted to be 5'8" on those silly growth charts they whip out when kids are little. My granny started giving my coffee - boiled in a perolator, no less - when I was 7 or 8. I also drank lots and lots of caffeinated tea as a kid. So yep, I'm stunted.

damn, forgot he was in that. gonna have to rewatch that one. he's great in short cuts and is also in the new indy flick, wristcutters.

And "Coffee and Cigarettes". I thought everyone was great in that, though.

I'll grab "Mule Variations" from my Gigatribe network when I get home.

Weren't a problem for me.

I guess your palette's more well-defined than mine. Oh well.

How about this? Frozen custard, toasted ravioli, and gooey butter cake are just about the most awesome things in the world. Seriously!

Considering that the food item my hometown is best known for is a hamburger smeared with peanut butter, I understand feeling slighted when outsiders rag on the weird local chow. Even when it's merited.

forget you guys - I looooove Imo's Pizza and it is a staple of every return trip to St. Louis.

 

When you want pizza, you get something else......when you want Imo's, you get Imo's

Spoken like a true St. Louisan.

I think that's my problem. I came to St. Louis as an adult, so my palette and gullet haven't had the opportunity to grow accustomed to Imo's. Yeah. That's the problem.

When you're in Belleville, I'm taking you to Fletcher's for a veggie pie. You'll die of joy.

Here is the deal with Imo's. It is very different than most pizza. That does not mean that it's bad. The cheese is Americanish, but there is a solution to this problem: eat the pie cold or luke-warm. At this temperature, the cheese has a wonderful tacky consistensy. This, combined with the cracker crust, makes for a great combination of flavor and texture.

While I whole-heartedly embrace and appreciate your plea for pizza peace, I still have to disagree with you about Imo's. Hot or cold, it still taste like hinder. It certainly doesn't represent all St. Louis-style pizza. It's about as representative of that style as Pizza Hut is of traditional Italian pie. Give me a St. Louis-style cracker crust from someone who's making pizzas by hand, and I'm a happy girl.

As for good frozen pizzas, oh my word. Trader Joe's and Target both have excellent frozen versions. As does Oberweis Dairy's delivery program, if you can believe that. I'd make sweet love to their spicy sauce, if it was possible.

Lots and lots and lots of vibes your way, Froggie. I hope all's well soon.

Chloe the Hound Dog and I send our birthday wishes! Here's to the beginning of a wonderful new year!

I think our daughters are about the same age (mine was three in September). This is the most exciting Christmas for her yet...she's old enough now to really get the whole thing. She has further enhanced our Christmas tree decorations by adding Garfield shoelaces and one of those plastic lei necklaces just randomly hung on the tree. Christmas + small children = awesomeness!

Clara Jane (my daughter) will be four in February. You're so right - this has been the most fun Christmas with her yet. Although last year she did the tree-trimming. Every day I'd find something new and unexpected stuck into the branches. Like shoes.

This year, she's all about Santa for the first time. We've done multiple practice runs for her visit to Santa. She makes me wear a Santa hat, then brings all of her stuffed animals to sit on my lap and tell me what they want for Christmas. I'm hoping this helps her have a good time when we go see Santa on Tuesday. It would be lovely to not have the annual Santa freak-out.

Yeah...it was the cheese thing that I remember. It was nasty. I remember thinking, "Surely they didn't mean to do this".

 

Provel? Ew.

 

My trio of pizza cheese is usually smoked provolone, pecorino and parmesan either grated or in the pesto. Gorgonzola or bleu frequently. The only 'processing' occurs on top of the stone in my oven.

 

Home made pizza tonight biotches!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ... gorgonzola. Yum! Your trio sounds awesome, too. I love love love pecorino. Have you tried the pecorino with whole peppercorns in it? That would divine.

My current favorite is from Marco's on Main in Belleville. It's St. Louis style thin crust, but with good sauce and without the nasty fake cheese. I love their spinach salad pizza; fresh baby spinach leaves, fresh mushrooms, bacon, parmesan and feta. Oh my cod. I want one right now.

oh

my

cod.

can he get me a gross of sixlets?

Probably. He's been known to send 2-pound tubs of Laffy Taffy to some friends of ours in London who are addicted to the stuff.

I ate it once when the first Imo's opened in KC and I thought it was joke pizza. But the way other people rave, I wondered if I had just gotten a bad one.

That's hilarious! Joke pizza ... that sums up Imo's better than any other description.

That "cheese" is just vile. It's a locally-made concoction called Provel. It's mozzerella, parm, and provolone that have been processed, giving it the texture of something between Velveeta and kindergarten paste with some lard mixed in.

I've had St. Louis-style pizza at other places where they'll replace the Provel with real cheese, and it's excellent. The crust can be great when it's not sopping up processed cheese residue.

The dragonflies and kitties !

The kiddo insisted on making three cat ornaments: one to represent our cat, one for my parents' cat, and one for the extremely creepy cross-eyed cat who lives next door.

not at all. as a deep dish enthusiast, my definition of 'thin-crust' pizza is a lot different than that.

 

kate will chime in w/ the st. louis favorite of Imo's at some point, if she didn't already earlier on...that's more in line w/ what you are talking, tully. i'd never testify to it in a court of law, but the few times i ordered Imo's when i lived down there...i actually didn't hate it.

Last time I had Imo's, I got the worst case of food poisoning of my life. We were driving 13 hours to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the next day. Nothing like vomiting Provel cheese through three states.

My first college roommate used to get bacon pizza from Imo's. Now, I love bacon in a big way, but bacon + Provel? Might as well soak a piece of cardboard in lard and dab it with ketchup.

Mmmmmm ... orange SweeTarts!

My husband works for a company that's owned by Nestle, which makes all of the Wonka candies and SweeTarts. Just about every public area in his office building has SweeTarts. A few years back, he kept swiping well more than his fair share. He saved all the orange ones in a pint jar and gave them to me for Valentine's Day.

Must ask him about the SweeTart rope.

is it the standard thin crust? the kind of pizza that's pretty much cheese and sauce on a cracker?

That's only standard in St. Louis.

I hear rumors that we're going here for dinner tonight. We'll see how Chicago-style pizza is done in a small German town in the Ozarks. I have a feeling it'll be a biscuit stuff with catfish.

I have NEVER been able to "get" Tom Waits... I have tried and tried, but I just don't like listening to him. I liked him in Mystery Men though...

Here's one of my dilemmas (and I use that word tongue-in-cheek because good lord, how lucky am I to have access to any music I want?) - I love the bits of Tom Waits I've heard. But there's so much that I don't know where to begin collecting. I'm on a Gigatribe network with some of my friends, one who has the entire Tom Waits catalog. I could download all of it, but then I'd still be overwhelmed with quantity. I could download them chronologically, but my attention span is so shot that I probably wouldn't make it past the third album. So I'll just keep listening to the 15 songs of his I already have, wishing I had more, knowing I'd be totally irritated if I did.

Mp3 players are both a blessing and a curse. Honestly, I love having everything on one little box. My wife was probably going to divorce and/or kill me if I didn't do something about my sprawling cd collection. And I'll admit that it did get to the point that it stressed me out, too. The worst for me was trying to figure out what cds to take with me in the car and shuffling those cds in and out of my travel case. That guaranteed that there was always stuff lying around and I was always fiddling with that stuff. The ipod solved that problem for me and I love it for it.

That's the main reason why I finally bought an ipod. I got so sick of my CDs being in transit, getting beat-up, not being able to remember what was where, etc. That part, I love.

that sounds good but I don't have access to meat. I will have to do inventory but I think I can use pasta, breed, chease, spices, mabey eggs, butter, tofu (yuck) soy milk, and whatever in the walk in freezer I can't open.

You could do a strata. The night before, soak torn-up bread in eggs and milk that have been whisked with salt and pepper. Before baking, mix in grated cheese. For veggies, frozen spinach or broccoli are usually a good combo. Bake at 350 degrees until it's golden and bubbly on top and firm when you press in the center. If you can do a simple salad on the side (any lettuce but iceberg. Make a dressing by whisking 1 part olive oil to 2 parts citrus juice or vinegar with salt and pepper).

If you've got eggs, milk and cheese, you can do a quiche, too. Quiche or strata with Graham's veggie soup would be very yummy, especially on a chilly night.

If you need real recipes for strata or quiche, I concur with the recipe sites Loretta recommended. Allrecipe.com should be able to set you up with lots of options for either.

Edit to add: a frittatta would be another option. It's basically a big, simple Italian omelet that you cook in the oven. Simple, cheap, and always impressive. Again, great with soup or salad on the side.

For dessert, plain ol' homemade sugar cookies. If they're fresh-from-the-oven, you'll blow him away.

Ahhhhhhhh!!! So many possibilities! I could make the trip to Cleveland to see them with my buddy Kristina, if she's not swamped with school. Des Moines, Nashville, and Tulsa are all possibilities. I'd really like to see them at the Ryman. Guess I need to get out the ol' calendar.

Alanis?

Snow?

Neil Young definitely needs to be included. So do the McGarrigles.

I just can't get into the torrent thing. That would overwhelm me. When there's a concert I want, I have my husband download it for me. I don't even want to know how to do it.

I go through spells with music. I've acquired very little this year, because I haven't had much time to get into anything new. The new Springsteen, Wilco, and White Stripes releases were givens. I got Andrew Bird and Ray Lamontagne after seeing their live shows with friends who were fans. That said, yesterday I uploaded five new CDs to my computer, all by bands that are new to me. And I'm totally overwhelmed!

As much as I love having a wealth of music at my fingertips (11,000 song on my ipod? Dreams really do come true!), there's a part of me that misses the rush that I used to get when I'd hear an obscure song that I loved on the radio or on MTV, and how much I relished it because I didn't know when I'd hear it again. As much as I love music, it turns out that the surprise was a part of the pleasure. I still get that a bit if I listen to my ipod on shuffle, but more often than not I find myself skipping over songs I have no interest in hearing, eventually returning to old favorites. Truth be told, I could probably whittle my collection down to 20 CDs and be happy.

no, the guitar riff is nearly the same as an L7 song, i can't think of which one off the top of my head, that's all i was referring to.

The opening riff does sound a little like "Pretend We're Dead". I had to listen to them back-to-back to get it.

The only Teagan and Sarah song I like is "Walking With a Ghost", and I only like it when it's being covered by the White Stripes.

As for songs that make me want to throw things, I don't really have any. Probably because I'm so out of touch with pop music. Because most of it makes me want to throw things. I can't name bands or songs anymore. I do know that I've got radar for that emo crap and it makes me want to punch people. Panic! At the Disco comes to mind, if only for their exclamation point abuse. The fact that their music sucks just makes the desire to inflict violence somewhat justifiable.

It only took three days, but the tree's finally finished.

Here's the ornaments the kiddo and I made out of salt dough. The garlic naan was not made of salt dough.

Hanging the first ornament. And yes, she insisted on wearing Halloween jammies for the event.

And this was just cute.