I don't understand

why a substance called "cream of tartar" is in powder form. I had to buy some yesterday to make my snickerdoodles (which I subsequently burned this afternoon), and I looked all over the baking aisle and I couldn't find them. My dad happened to be working so I asked him, and he took me to the spice section, where it was pretty easy to find. I never would have guessed it was a spice of sorts. I mean.. it's called CREAM of tartar.. Hello!!! It should NOT be in powder form.

I got to leave work early on Thursday due to the snow storm that blanketed the region with our first really substantial snowfall. I'd say we had at least six inches. I was pretty terrified of driving home because I have to deal with the Columbiaville Hill, which can be mighty treacherous in snow and ice. Somehow I made it all the way home without even sliding once, which was great! I had figured I'd spend the rest of the day at home, but my friend Amy called and decided she wanted to go to lunch. Hell, she has a Nissan Pathfinder and apparently no fear of driving in said conditions, so I said "why not?" Amy, Fish, Tre and I all headed down to the Wunderbar for burgers and beers, and boy was it a great burger! I spent the rest of the day/night at home, watching TV and just buying time until I could go to bed. I was pretty damn bored, what with all that unexpected free time!

Mom, Tre and I went to Woodbury Commons on Friday. I believe we got all the Christmas shopping done that we needed, and I even managed to coerce my mom into buying me a couple more things to stick under the tree. Not so bad! I was pretty beat but had to go to bowling that night, where (as per usual lately) i bowled tremendously bad, but we won the first half of the league which means a little more money in my pocket at season's end than usual. After that, I met J at the Rennselaer Elks Lodge, where he was playing darts and drinking with some buddies. This was my payback for him picking me up from Winter Walk. What I don't understand (and need to work on) is that when he picks me up, I'm ready to go. When I pick him up, I'm still out for four hours after that! Anyway, i had a couple beers and played some darts, then we went back to his friends' house as there was a challenge going down on Madden Football. It was around this time I started to fall asleep and was consistently awakened as I wasn't paying enough attention to the video game. J had said we'd leave by 12 - 12:30 but we didn't get to go until around 1:00. I didn't really care, but at that point I was just beat to shit. It'd been a long day.

Saturday morning J took me out to breakfast and I asked him if we were exchanging Christmas presents. I didn't care either way, but I didn't want him to get me something and have me be empty handed. He said "I told you I was getting you a Peyton Manning jersey like.. six months ago!" So I guess now I have to figure something out... 9 days before Christmas. If anyone has an idea, I'll take it! Anyway, after that I went to the store where said "cream of tartar" incident occurred and it was packed! I guess everyone was petrified about not being able to get out of their houses today so everyone and their mother was at Shoprite. As per usual, I got behind the slowest person in the world, who then proceeded to drop an entire gallon of water on the floor, soaking it and everyone around. Yep.. good times. Tre and I then went to a friend's house for a party, and we had a blast! There was great food, lots of beer and some people we hadn't seen in quite a while. We would have stayed longer but with the impending weather forecast, mom and dad picked us up around 10:30. To be honest, we didn't need to be there much longer. We both had the load on something fierce. Tre spent the night hiding beer cans around our host's house and I spent the night housing some chicken wing dip. My cousin needs to give me the recipe cause it was really great and seemed easy to make. Notice I said SEEMED.

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. it's been such a weird weather day. It was snowing early, then I woke up around 3:00 to the sound of freezing rain on the roof. Late that morning it started to snow again, then POURED freezing rain. Now it looks like it's not doing much, but I hear the wind is going to be prety insane. I really hope we don't lose power. I just don't have the time or the patience for it.

I caught up on some of the things that were taking up space on my DVR this week so here goes a quick recap:

Saleisha won America's Next Top Model. Once they booted Jenah early in the episode, it was kind of a no-brainer. When the Cover Girl commercial was shown, it ended with Saleisha's face. That, and Chantal shit the bed during the final runway challenge. She reacted when she made one of the guys on stilts fall. Big mistake.. Big.. HUGE! So, your winner is Saleisha. I still don't get it, but that's why I'm not a model scout, I guess.

Project Runway was a bit of a tear jerker this week. Everyone was relling from the exit of Chris, when Jack decided he had to leave the show himself. It appears he had a staph infection on his face that just continued to get worse and it would have been detrimental to his health (and maybe the health of others) to stay. Everyone was upset, and then Tim showed up to save the day, inviting Chris back to compete. He got a late start so he was able to stay up all night to finish his job. The assignment was to create an outfit for a woman who had recently lost a lot of weight, but to use the clothes she was wearing to create the new outfit. All but one woman had normal clothes on, but another had a wedding dress and youcould tell everyone was praying they wouldn't get her. Steven was the unlucky one, and he got booted because of it. I'm so going to miss him, even if it's for nothing more than saying "sweet merciful crap" when he realized he had the wedding dress girl. He and Elisa were in the bottom two this week and I think if Steven had used more of the wedding dress fabric in his creation (he made a black dress and only used the wedding dress as collar and cuffs), the judges might have saved him for another week.

That's about all I can handle for today. I've got movies to watch and laundry to do! Drive safe and hope you enjoyed your weekend and got all your Christmas shopping done!