Happy birthday, Fred Pete!

My wee C-cups don't do the dress justice, I need, er, double Ds to properly fill out the bust on the dress. Oh well.

Sorry it's not great for you but this bodes well for me. I just got a message from them saying that the red dress I ordered was out of stock until mid-september and did I want to exchange for black or wait (or cancel order). I chose exchange for black because I'm just not that patient and am already having to wait for the green one I have on order. Here's hoping it really will fit!

But, as a way to blow off some steam, see good friends, make new friends, see crazy rock shows, watch roller girls, and stay out way too late? It's brilliant.

Seriously!!! It helps if you have an appreciation for the cheesy and the over-the-top and the run down. The amount of time we stayed is about my limit...although I could have done with another day in the Golden Nugget pool.

I'm not sure what people at Wrigley Field were supposed to do when the tornado sirens went off....

Cubs lose to Astros in lightning-shortened game

By 8 p.m., the Cubs were on the stadium loudspeakers, advising fans to seek shelter in the concourses or under the grandstands. Six minutes later those ominous tornado sirens sounded, and the deluge followed.

Oh.

How do you guys do your hot chocolate? Swiss Miss or other mixes? Ever since I actually found where they shelved the Droste, hot chocolate is dutched cocoa whisked in a small pot with hot milk and sweetened to taste (which would be none). It's the recipe on their box...

Not a big hot chocolate person, but I think it's one of those things that's so easy, I don't get why you would bother with packaged stuff. And that was well before I gave up processed foods for Lent.

Shir, the best thing about that sort of storm is that it is over quickly - now it's who knows where northeast of us and we're okay.

It was moving 58 mph when it was west of me and after it went through my town - 63 mph. Fast moving storm and that was just the storm - not any tornado that may have formed. I've heard conflicting things: one that no tornado actually touched down and another that a tornado touched down in Elmhurst.

Not a big hot chocolate person, but I think it's one of those things that's so easy, I don't get why you would bother with packaged stuff.

Yeah, I mostly like it for hot cocktails. The mixes are waaaayyyyy too sweet for me.

I wonder if the front is the one that's supposed to bring thunderstorms our way today.

Oh, and that saturday morning storm that woke me up? Burned down a church around the corner from work. It was a doozy.

Happy Birthday Fred Pete!

I didn't know you COULD make hot chocolate with anything other than swiss miss etc until I was an adult. But I don't really drink it anyway.

Oh, and that saturday morning storm that woke me up? Burned down a church around the corner from work. It was a doozy.

It woke up everybody in town! I'm a little sorry I missed it.

hot chocolate

I warm up milk, then pour it over a piece of bittersweet chocolate. That's it. Best thing ever. Or are we talking about something completely different that I misunderstood?

Oh, sometimes I add vanilla sugar (I have no idea what is its name in English - this is the word-for-word translation from Hebrew. I add it pretty much to anything that has anything to do with being sweet, because I like its flavor). But I don't want this to be sweet, I want this to be chocolate-y, which is not contradictory, but also not the same.

Also, you guys have a much more interesting weather than we do. Then again, I'm glad to read y'all are OK.

Oh, sometimes I add vanilla sugar (I have no idea what is its name in English - this is the word-for-word translation from Hebrew.

It's called vanilla sugar in English, but it's pretty difficult to find in supermarkets here, and a lot of people here haven't heard of it. Usually when I buy it, it's from either a European or an Israeli company. My German grandmother used it in all her recipes, so I have to find it when I make things from her cookbook. She actually made her vanilla sugar herself, because she usually couldn't find it in stores, but I can't plan ahead that well.