It's been fixed!!

After I wrote the post- Guess what we made- someone wrote a comment that our button, that I'd presented with such pride, wasn't actually working!  So the fiddling began, and continued, and endured, and yet, no progress was made.  I used website after website, code after code, and no button would come into being at my hand.  Finally, after a section of my head, had gone completely bald from the excessive anxiety hair pulling I engaged in, I called in help; my cousin.  HTML is NOT my thing.  It is, however, his thing.  And I'm sure, he was able to create it entirely without any hair pulling, in my world- a miracle in itself.  So once again, I present to you OUR BUTTON!  Hopefully, this button works.  Please let me know if it doesn't.

<a href="http://vanessayrogers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af273/KyRo327/blogbutton2-2-1.jpg?t=1313814036" target="_blank" /></a>

Guess what we made!!

We made a button.  All by ourselves.  Well, not completely by ourselves.  We used the internet to figure out how to do it.  This blog helped a lot.  But the really difficult part was designing the button.  When we purchased Kyle's computer, we were really excited because it had photoshop.  But I'm photoshop illiterate, and I'm not good at teaching myself stuff.  I mean, I can, but it takes so long, and requires so much practice, and lets face it, I'm impatient. But, one evening, after watching The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was a pretty great film, mostly out of boredom, we decided to try. Well, Kyle, wasn't as excited as I was, but he was more than willing to indulge me. So we thought of an idea.  I found a picture, and he found the yellow brick road image.  And then, an hour and some change later, we figured out how to merge the two into an image, well, Kyle did.  It was a very exciting moment for the two of us.  And then, we had to learn how to do the HTML code, which is very very specific, and if you mess even a tiny piece of it up, it can screw up the entire image.  This took a while as well because we did mess up pieces of the code.  But close to three hours later, we had our button.

What is a button?  It's basically a fancy link. It's a way to brand your blog.  If another blogger follows my blog for example, they can take the button, and put it on the side of their blog, as a quick, and colorful way of advertising the blogs that they read.  I have a few on the side of my blog, you might have noticed.

And since we worked so hard on this button, we'd LOVE (with a capitol L) if you'd display our button on your sidebar!!!

(The button code has been fixed since the last time- try it out and let me know)




<a href="http://vanessayrogers.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af273/KyRo327/blogbutton2-2-1.jpg?t=1313814036" target="_blank" /></a>
How to grab the button?
 copy  the HTML on the side under the heading "Grab a button". Make a text widget on your sidebar, and paste it in.  The end.

I've joined

I've joined a new blog.  This blog is a photo blog called Soaring through the World in Pictures.  So hopefully it wont take up too much of my time. And, if your interested in photography at all, there are still some spots open.   Its a brilliant idea.  Basically, its a collection of folks around the world sharing photography from their end of the world.  Each week there is a new theme, and whomever has something to contribute, contributes.  Clever hey? Take a peek.  Come and visit!

Lemon Cream Sauce Pasta

A few months past, I got invited to be a writer on a blog forum.  I have no idea how they found me or what the criteria is for being invited as a writer, and to be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sure one could invite themselves, but nevertheless, I felt honored.  It's about the little things in life.  However, with everything going on in my life at the time, I didn't really have time to contribute to a second blog especially considering how I had allowed my blog to plummet into the land of dearth, the land of blog posts desperately wanting to be written, and never coming to pass.  It was a sad time for the blog. She felt abandoned, unloved, unappreciated and I couldn't just add insult to injury by contributing on another blog while leaving her smelling of desertion.  She sulked in the corner, always watching from the corner of her eye, waiting for me once again to notice and revive her to life by performing necromancy (a word I learned my dorky video gaming husband- a word that I'll have you know was not on the GRE).  I was sent several emails about starting in the world of blogcritics. These emails urged it's neophytes to begin writing emails quickly, within 24 hours if possible.  I heeded their advice (as well as my mom thinks I obey her advice) by posting mine about three months later.  Better late than never right- as my family always says on their 6 month late birthday cards.  Promptness does not run in the family.

Here is a link to the post up on blogcritics, but I have to warn you, the post was not so incredible.  On a spectrum with the lowest being poopy, the middle being palatable, and the best being absurdly marvelous, it's closer to palatable, just like the not so great white wine I have to flavor with a bit of orange juice- but is cheap so I continue to buy it.  I didn't give it a lot of thought- mostly because I could never find the time, or never made the time.  But the recipe is worth trying. 


Recently, we've discovered a fantastic and simple recipe that is incredibly versatile and amazingly delicious .

The genesis of this recipe came about because of the asparagus screaming to be eaten in our fridge. Recently, Kyle, my husband found asparagus at Costco. Because we live in South Korea, we tend to get overly excited over the simple things- like asparagus and pears.
Korea's variety of vegetables are limited, and what they do have are so expensive I feel like I have to submit my entire paycheck just to eat nutritiously. I am astounded daily, when instead of my pre-school students being told to finish their vegetables, like I was, they are told to eat all of their rice. Some rice is very nutritious, but plain white Korean rice is nothing but filler. They're equally astounded when I don't touch my rice, and worry about my lack of rice intake.
However, lets get back to the asparagus. Because meat is also very expensive, we don't eat it often, and at home (Texas), we had almost always cooked asparagus as a side dish, mostly to something meat-related. But we couldn't figure out what would be the main dish with our asparagus, until I found this recipe at myrecipe.com . It claimed to be a quick, tangy, and a delightful recipe, and it wasn't lying. We made a few changes as normal, but because this recipe is so versatile, you can change it up to suite your tastes.
YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 1/2 cups)
COURSE: Main Dishes
Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked long fusilli (twisted spaghetti)
1 3/4 cups (1 1/2-inch) slices asparagus (about 1/2 pound).
a splash of white wine
1 cup mushrooms.
1 medium onion
1/4 cup imitation crab (or real crab)
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic clove, minced
1 cup organic vegetable broth
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/3 Sour Cream.
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Dash of ground red pepper
Coarsely ground black pepper (optional)
Lemon slices (optional)
We added Sauted sliced onions with a splash of white wine.
Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Add asparagus during last minute of cooking time. Drain pasta mixture.
Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and splash of white wine. Cook 3 minutes. Add garlic to pan; sauté 1 minute. Add mushroom and crab, cooking 2 more minutes. Combine broth and cornstarch in a small bowl; stir until well blended. Add broth mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream, juice, salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and red pepper. Add pasta mixture to broth mixture; toss gently to coat. Garnish with coarsely ground black pepper and lemon slices, if desired. Serve immediately.
Note: If long fusilli is not available in your market, linguine works just as well. Garnish with chopped parsley or chives, if desired and ENJOY!

A song named for the blog

It's true. I am such a popular blogger that Elton John choose to name a song after my blog, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road". He wrote me personally to ask my input for the song. Pay no attention to those skeptics who claim the song was written ten years before my birth and decades before the invention of the internet. Skeptics can't be trusted.

Elton didn't really take my advise on any of the lyrics however, in fact, I don't really understand what his lyrics mean at all. But I am sure they are nothing but a compliment to this blog and its amazing readers :)
So not only did he ignore my lyrical input, he also didn't head my strong plea not to wear such hideous glasses for his guest appearance on the Muppet show. I think he kind of looks like a muppet in this segment. Maybe it was a purposeful choice. But Elton will be Elton, and who will tell a Knight of the musical round table "No!" So without further adeu, this blog's song:




Lyrics:

When are you gonna come down
When are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man

You know you can't hold me forever
I didn't sign up with you
I'm not a present for your friends to open
This boy's too young to be singing the blues

chorus

So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough

Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I've finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road

What do you think you'll do then
I bet that'll shoot down your plane
It'll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again

Maybe you'll get a replacement
There's plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain't got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground

[repeat chorus]

p.s. I have updated pictures on the blog on the right hand side under all of the quotes of the progression of Kyle and me from the time we started dating to 2008 . I am wondering if anyone noticed or if they are too far down to be noticed by anyone who isn't looking for them. I would really like to hear input about this. Did you notice them before I mentioned them?