Waffles

Recently I purchase Vegan with a Vengeance. It has some yummy waffle recipes. I decided I needed to make those waffles.. I bought a $15 waffle iron. It was a piece of CRAP. More to follow with this weeks article!

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The Battle of Wills

I am having a 'Battle of Wills' with my internet service provider. Since I started using them I have had issues. They are one of the big two so you would think they would know what they are doing... but they don't. Here are some of the standard problems...

I am a mac girl.
They don't have any mac experts so cannot support those of us using macs.

I am back and forth on whether or not to switch to the competitor but all my other mac girlfriends say they aren't any better.

Today I had yet another run in with them.

As I do every morning I check my email before anything else... yes I am an email whore. This morning there wasn't any email in my inbox, nada, nothing, zilch, zip, ZERO. Which is odd, I always have at least spam.

So I did some tests, I could send, not receive and email was showing up in my gmail (which then downloads to my laptop). So I called them. Here was the conversation:

Idiots "Good Morning, Losers are Us technical help, how can I help you this morning?"
Me "Morning, by chance are the incoming mail servers down?"
Idiots "Not this morning, no, everything is fine. Is there a problem?"
Me "Ya, I can send and not recieve.
Idiots "How do you know this?"
Me Pause... biting tongue, "I tested it."
Idiots "Ok, can I have your user information.. blah blah blah"
Idiots "Ok, well, I have checked and everything looks ok, are you sure your Outlook Express Settings are ok?"
Me "Pause, deep breath... I'm on a Mac and use MacMail."
Idiots "Oh. Um, hold on."

Put on hold.

Idiots "Sorry for making you wait. Ok, have pulled up my virtual mac."
Me "Do you have version X up and Mac Mail 2.1?"
Idiots "No, we don't have that MacMail version so I will have to wing it."
Me Long Pause, deep breath.

We go through the settings, all is correct... Of course it is.. I do know what the fuck I am doing...

Conversation continues...

Idiots "Well, I can't see what the problem is, and we don't really support mac's. What I can suggest is we delete your profile on your computer and start from scratch"
Me DeJa Fucking Vu! "My profile, uh, won't that delete everything?"

Idiots "Yes, but unfortunately that is the only way we can fix it."
Me "No, it's not. I've been through this with you guys dozens of times. The last time you did this on my old computer you screwed it up."

Idiots "Excuse me."
Me "Yes, exactly what I said."

Idiots "Well, madame, we don't really support mac's and this is an apple problem."
Me "No it's not, it's a Losers are Us problem. It has been the last 5 times I have called. You need to learn how to support mac's"

Click... yes, i hung up on him.

It took me another 30 minutes but after going through THEIR settings one by one I found the problem, changed the settings and now I get email again. IDIOTS!

Let's change it up...

I've been a vegetarian for over 10 years and recently changed to Vegan. There are many reason why I changed but I won't bore you with those details, rather let me share some of the really neat things I am finding.

I have been on a information quest since I switched up. I am a research junkie so this is beyond fun for me. One of my concerns with switching is I LOVE to bake and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to make my yummy treats. So in my quest to find animal free recipes I came across a couple amazing sites.

The Post Punk Kitchen - This is not only a Vegan cooking show, but one of the coolest websites I have found in ages! These girls rock. The site is full of recipes and helpful hints, videos, merchandise (I want a tee) and is just plain fun!

I want this woman to start making my lunches... I'm serious. This kid not only has the coolest lunch box, but the worlds best lunches. I bet his class mates gather around each lunch to see what is inside the blue box!

So yesterday. (Sunday).. I wasn't inspired to write, instead spent a good chunk of time searching vegan stuff... and cooking...

and

now that i am making all my food from scratch...

made a soup in my slow cooker

baked...

~vegan banana bread
~vegan chocolate nut muffins

Everything was yummy.. what is that old saying, if it tastes good, it can't be good for you... that's a load of crap!

Today at lunch am going to see if I can get my hands on Vegan with a Vengence as well as a couple other Vegan cookbooks!!! Am also on the look out for the cookbook by Toronto's own Wanda's Pie In the Sky...

Revelations

Sometimes I need a swift kick in the ass. This week I got a few... here is a bit of a list, a more detailed one will be in an upcoming issue of Shebytches.com.

~Clarity has been given to me about someone's reactions towards me. Thank you V for clearing that up
~A palm reader gave me the kick in the ass I needed. It's funny how strangers do that for me.
~I am no longer hiding who I am to those I work with. I am a writer and I run an amazing website, who cares if they know. What the hell was my problem all this time! I have no problems telling strangers.. so why not a bunch of accountants...
~I finally met Liana K and she is as cool as I thought she would be and Sean Ward is much taller than I remember and yes he DOES rock the Casba!. Fyi he will be the next interview for our podcast!
~Shaun Downey is quite possibly the one of this cities most talented painters!
~I own an uber cool phone but the MP3 function is useless to me unless I buy a card for it. Ok, I can download songs from the web but have to pay for them. I want to download the stuff on my Mac
~Beware of girls with monkeys!!! October, you know who you are!
~Being a vegetarian or a vegan does not make you a freak, it just means I am going to live longer than your neurotic carnivores!
~I'm no longer invisible.... it was fun while it lasted.
~I am a Dark Knight and I belong to a Secret Society. How cool am I???

bleech and stuff...

Well, that was by far the WORST long weekend ever.. the weather was beyond disgusting!!! I like gloomy, but only if there is a thunderstorm attached to it... all this weather do was make me even more depressed!

At least I was able to get the new issue up in record time... it's up and sara l. beck is our guest bytch! yes you need to check it out!!!

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the pink baby was laid to rest

I had to cave an buy a new phone today... my other.. is toast.. well the battery is... I have to charge it daily and if I talk longer than 20 minutes, the battery is finito... so... I had to go to my service provider and pick out a new one. I decided it was also time to stop buying little girl phones, so no more pink ones... This one is sleek, black and silver and has all the bells and whistles... camera, video and MP3 player. Of course the bastards get you every chance they can and I can't use the MP3 player unless I buy a special card... which I am not going to do.. what's the point.. one day, I will some day own an iPod... I will, really, it's not just in my dreams... ok back to reality. Check out this sexy mama. Of course in light of the fact that I have a cool new phone I decided to change my voicemail and make it less boring and serious...

After going to get to the phone, I confirmed I still hate the mall... thank the gods I didn't go on a Saturday!!!!!