khristopher.com

I love pastries. I think it’s the French in me. I got my Kraft “What’s Cooking” magazine in the mail the other day, and I knew when I saw the recipe for these, I just had to make them.

The recipe is really simple, and the result is amazing. These taste unbelievable! The crispy pastry, the creamy filling, the drizzled chocolate. Yummy! Not only that but they take less than an hour to make, including preparation and refrigerating time. They are kind of messy to eat though. When you’re eating them, the filling kind of falls out if there is too much inside.

Here’s the recipe.

Well a few weeks ago my dad started falling a lot. He has really bad arthritis in his legs, and it seemed that it was finally getting to a really bad point that he couldn’t hold himself up. Of course if he’d stop eating so much as he has been told time and time again by doctors and family, he’d not have to hold so much weight up. He’s extremely stubborn so he’s never listened or followed instructions given to him after he’s had heart attacks. It’s stressful on family, in particular those who live with him.

Anyway, one night he fell in the middle of the night, and I was still awake. So I got up to see what happened, because I wasn’t sure if that is what happened. Sure enough, he was on the floor near the kitchen trying to get up. I yelled out to my mom that he fell and went back in my room. She asked me to help him up, but I refused. I will not be a nurse for my parents. I can’t do it. It just hurts too much to sit and watch this happen, but then to have to help when it’s happening. This probably makes me sound selfish, but I just can’t handle it for some reason. I don’t have what it takes to deal with watching people in pain and helping them. I don’t know if it’s just family or what. My dad and I have never been close however. I’ve never really felt that he’s cared about me. He’s called me many names in my life. Like the time he called me an asshole when I was only a kid. I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. I can still remember where it happened, and what was happening at the time. Anyway, my mom got him up after a bit, and I think it was the following day, he went into the hospital. I’ve had no one to talk to about this really. Only a couple people, and that was over the phone or online through Live Messenger. I have been dealing with my own health issues and I’m trying to turn those things around. I absolutely hate going in hospitals out of fear of catching some nasty virus. I didn’t even visit my dad in the hospital while he was there. Mind you he wasn’t even in there a week, but still, it’s pretty horrible of me I guess.

But this is what’s really horrible… My sister called and started bitching at me because I didn’t help my dad up when he fell. She has no idea what’s going on here at home, she lives on the other side of the country and has only been here to visit twice I believe. A couple times she was here in the area and didn’t even bother to visit, but that’s another story. So she starts raising her voice at me and making me feel like shit. I told her I can barely leave the house without having panic attacks, let alone deal with our sick father. I know it’s shitty, but what can I do? I am going through my own hell right now, and I can’t deal with other people’s problems. I have enough of my own. So I told her to fuck off and hung up on her. So I went from not talking to one sister, to now not talking to the other one. I just don’t get off how she has the right to get mad at me, when she has absolutely no clue what goes on in this house. She has no right to judge at all until she knows. She might think she knows, but she has no fucking idea.

So my dad is home now, and things are much better. Turns out it wasn’t arthritis that was causing him to fall. It was the lack of oxygen getting to his brain, which would make him get dizzy and then fall when he’d get up.

Well it’s come down to the point that I’ve gotten into fights with my mom, my sister, and my father because of all this stress over the past few weeks. I just can’t take it anymore. I’ve even thought of going into a homeless shelter, because I don’t really have any place to go. I just don’t know how much more I can take of the stress in this house. I think a lot of my anxiety issues comes from my parents. Especially my mother. She nags and stresses me out to the point that I can feel my anxiety just getting worse and worse. She doesn’t know when to let up. I called her a fucking bitch last weekend, and I feel absolutely horrible about it. I love my mom so much. It kills me that it came down to me saying that to her. That she made me that angry! I need to apologize to her for it, but she needs to seriously realize the way she’s being. I know she’s under a lot of stress too, but yelling at each other, and calling each other names is really not going to help matters.

Either way, I know I need to get the fuck out of this house. I just don’t know how or when that’s going to happen. When is something going to go right in my life? Fuck. At least most people have friends and others they can lean on for support. I have my fucking computer.

Yes, I’ve been doing more shopping. This time it’s a new Microsoft keyboard. I accidentally knocked over some cranberry juice on my old keyboard and on my new computer chair, and the keys started to fail one by one on the keyboard. I needed a new one anyway, as some of the keys on the old one were starting to get hard to press. Plus the keys were loud. The new one is so quiet, and the buttons are so nice and soft on the fingers. I love it! I seem to be typing faster with the new one too, and more accurately.

I got the Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000. It has three buttons at the top to quickly access your browser, search, and mail. Also has back and forward buttons, which I’ll probably never use, as I use my mouse for that. It also has a mute button and play/pause for media player. And buttons for adjusting volume level, which is great. No more visiting the volume control in Windows XP to adjust the master volume! It’s also spill resistant, which is kind of ironic due to the reason I had to get the new keyboard in the first place. I also love the way my hands just fall on the keys. It really is “comfortable” like the name suggests. I must say a very good purchase. And only $24.00 at Office Depot which is nice and affordable.

Shopping online is perfect for Winter. You can shop right from your computer, in the comfort of your warm home without dealing with the weather outside. Also with the Canadian dollar on part with the U.S. dollar, it’s even better. All of a sudden things are so much more affordable.

I recently bought Season 4, 5, and 6 of Will & Grace from Amazon. I also got a few cd’s that I’ve had on my Amazon Wish List. I got Nine Inch Nails - Every Day Is Exactly The Same, which is an EP. Also got Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism, which is the single for the same song. I got Radiohead - In Rainbows on CD, even though I got the digital download, I still prefer to have a physical copy. How 90’s of me.

Tonight I ordered a used book from AbesBooks. First time I’ve used their site. Someone on IRC recommended them to me, and I got a really good deal there on the Stephen King book, The Dead Zone. I’m trying to collect all of the Stephen King books in hardcover, first edition versions. I usually check multiple sites before I purchase. I really should check to see if I can find any used book stores in my area. But with the convenience of online shopping, I tend to just search online because it’s faster to find what you’re looking for. The only crappy part about online shopping is the shipping. And of course the customs if it’s coming from the U.S. Sometimes when I win auctions on Ebay, they mark it as a gift which avoids the charges of Customs, which is nice!

I always hear of horror stories of shopping online, and people having just generally unpleasant experiences. This has never happened to me yet. I think you just have to be really wise about what you choose to buy online. I won’t buy clothes generally, as it’s too difficult to say for sure if it’s going to fit without trying it on in a store first. Although, if I do have a bad experience, you know for sure you’ll read about it here! Hopefully that won’t have to happen though.

Well after my last computer chair was falling apart, I decided to get a new one. It was overdue. My last one was from Ikea, and it was a nice chair, and comfortable. But the leather started ripping and falling apart. Very poor quality, and I’ll never buy another computer chair from Ikea again. Leather isn’t supposed to just fall apart and rip like that. I think it was really cheap leather or something. It did seem rather thin.

So anyway, with my money I got for Khristmas, I decided to get a new chair. This time from Office Depot. They had a sale on a couple of different models. I was going to opt for the cheaper of the two, but I figured I should get the more expensive one due to it having a higher back with a head support. I’m very glad I went for that one, as it feels so nice to have the head support. It really helps with my posture, I’m much more aware of when I am not sitting in a correct posture now. Also the more expensive chair had more features, it allows more settings than the cheaper one.

The chair was regularly $200, but I got it for $150. They didn’t have it in black, only grey. A little disappointing, but not a big deal. Although the grey looks more like a green to me, but then again, I am colour blind…

Overall, I’m impressed. It was a good purchase, and my back thanks me. The only thing I don’t like is the arm rests. They are not very sturdy, they are kind of loose and move a bit. I would prefer if they were more stiff and had no movement to them. Unfortunately there is no way to fix it, but it’s really not that big of a deal.

Snoopy just loves the camera as you can see! I think he was in mid yawn or something in this shot. So funny.