Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Pay it Forward, Blogger-Style

I've seen this on a lot of blogs lately and LOVE the idea, here’s how it works: the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, some homemade goodies from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you’re going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your goodies! Please submit in an e-mail or on the comment, your address, if I don’t have it already. Remember that only the first 3 comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick! Have fun!

O.k., so that's what I copied from the blog I got this from. In reality, I love the idea of getting something from someone else, not so much the idea that I have to make something for someone else. Why? Because, to channel Lloyd Dobler, I don't want to scrapbook anything, paint anything or make anything cutesy. I don't want to scrapbook anything involving paint or cutesy-ness; or paint anything that ends up in a scrapbook or cutesy; or make something cutesy involving scrapbooks and paint; or secretly purchase and pass off as my own, anything scrapbooked, painted or cutesy. So . . . if, after learning about my complete lack of excitement/motivation/capability to do anything involving any of the above, you still would like to comment and get something homemade from me, feel free to do so. You will probably get a plate of cookies. (I do make delicious cookies, though!)

Monday, February 23, 2009

The Zefron

I have avoided watching any of the High School Musicals because well, let's be honest, they looked fairly stupid and lame. And I LOVE both high school movies and musicals, so it takes a lot for me to say that. After much whining, though, Lorri finally convinced me to watch them. O.k., actually if we're being honest here, all she did was suggest we have a HSM night and watch all three. I didn't need much convincing because hello . . . Zac Efron! So here are my thoughts about the phenomenon that is the High School Musical trilogy.
  • They definitely get better as you go along. The first one was o.k., the third one was (depending on your definition) a masterpiece.
  • I don't like Vanessa Hudgens. She irritates me and I can't figure out what kind of voodoo magic she has performed to get Zac Efron to go out with her for the past couple years. He should probably end that.
  • Besides the Zefron, my favorite character was Ryan. I would watch the movies just for the looks on his face. The looks were especially entertaining in the second movie during the Hawaiian-themed number he and Sharpay did. (BTW, Sharpay? Really? Way to name your kid after a dog, 'cause that won't get her made fun of or anything.)
  • There was waaaay too much bronzer going on. I'm not going to point any fingers (Zefron), but seriously.
  • Rumor is they're planning on a fourth one, but with a different cast. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Zac IS High School Musical. Anyone else would just be Adrian Zmed compared to John Travolta. (Grease and Grease 2-don't you know your trivia!)
M'kay, so that's it. I take back (almost) every bad thing I said about the movies. I would definitely recommend them as long as you're going to watch all three.

gross

Every year or two I decide to actually bathe the dogs. It's usually a big, painful production which is why it rarely happens. Recently, however, the dogs have been nasty stinky. The kind of stinky that rubs off on your hands when you pet them. Sick. Anyway, here are some pictures (because I know you care!). Make sure you notice the demonic eyes on the dogs. I tried to fix it, but the program I'm using just isn't powerful enough to erase the evilness.

Darcy was not thrilled and tried desperately to escape the bathroom.


We finally got him in the shower. As you can see, he still looks happy. This is because he didn't fully understand what was coming.

Oh, the injustice. Not only is he being subjected to a thorough cleaning and delousing, but pictures are being taken of his humiliation. Please note that the shower floor is that color because of the dirt, not because the shower is gross.


For some reason the fur on Darcy's butt grows at twice the rate of the rest of his lovely locks, so every once in a while we have to trim his butt hair. Today was the lucky day! He was not excited and kept sitting down. Here's Lizzie trying to help with the trim.


Here's what we removed from both his buttocks and the shower drain.


And here is the finished product.


About 20 minutes after this picture they went outside and got all muddy. Rotten little dogs! I'm pretty sure they did it just to piss me off.

New NKOTB!

Click here to watch the new video for "2 in the Morning." I love that this song has a Grey's Anatomy reference. That just makes me happy.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Penguins

Over Christmas (I know, I'm a little behind here!) I made these little penguins for the nieces. They're made of olives, cream cheese and carrots. I got the idea from Once Upon a Plate, which is a great food blog that you should check out if you haven't done so already.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Also coming soon . . .

How I succumbed to the Zefron.


Travel plans.


And some delicious Cafe Rio recipes.

Coming soon . . .

Tales of hair
and devil eyes.
Look into my eyes . . .

You are getting very sleepy! You want to give me lots of treats and bones!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mmmmmmmm

Last night for a little FHE treat, Lorri and I made Glazed Carmelized Roasted Banana Bread Drop Doughnuts. Or, as I like to call them, little banana fritter things. They were delicious. Here's a link to some pictures. (Not my pictures though, as I don't really see the point in taking my own pictures when I can just link to someone else's.) As you know, I have issues with following directions; I view recipes as a jumping off point for experimentation. Here's what we did differently than the actual recipe:
  • We didn't use cinnamon chips. This was mainly just because I couldn't find any at the store. Next time if I don't use the chips, I think I'll dust the finished doughnuts with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar.
  • Lorri was in charge of roasting the bananas and she used probably three times as much butter and brown sugar. Lorri would not be Lorri without massive amounts of butter and sugar. This made the batter more moist (and flavorful) than it would have been otherwise, which made the doughnuts more fritter shaped than doughnut hole shaped.
  • Instead of milk in the glaze, we used heavy cream that was left over from the batter part.
  • We also ended up needing about one and a half times the amount of glaze the recipe called for. I think if you just make sure the doughnuts are cooled off when you dip them, they won't soak up as much glaze and you'll be fine with a single recipe's worth, though.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Here's the other one . . .

Rules:
1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song title as the answer to the question, no matter how silly it sounds! Most of the time they seem to work though, strangely enough.
4. Ok, go!
5. When you're done, tag 20 people in this note, and make sure to tag the person who sent you this.

Here are my answers:

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK?" YOU SAY?
Once and For All (Newsies)

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Soul (Matchbox Twenty)

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Fear and Love (Morcheeba)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Ask the Mountains (Enya)

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Drink With Me (Les Mis) . . . interesting answer!

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Are You Kidding Me (Anouk)

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
Hallelujah (Paramore)

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Mercy (Duffy)

9) WHAT IS 2+2?
Catch my Disease (Ben Lee)

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
We're Young and Beautiful (Carrie Underwood)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Ocean of Joy (Buddha Cafe)

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
More Than This (Peter Gabriel)

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
I Don't Care (Fall Out Boy)

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Defying Gravity (Wicked)

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
What Hurts The Most (Rascal Flatts)

16) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) (Abba) Hahahahahaha!

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Lonely No More (Rob Thomas)

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Stupid Boy (Keith Urban)

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Damaged (Plumb)

stupid Facebook things

Since I haven't had much to write about lately, here are two stupid Facebook things I filled out. They're not really stupid, they just took more effort than I wanted to put forth.

25 Random Things About me

1. I don’t believe in talking on the phone. If something can’t be said by text or email, then it probably doesn’t need to be said at all.

2. I’m obsessive compulsive about having fresh breath. Gum is a necessity for me.

3. I love it when DVDs have audio commentaries. I always watch/listen to them.

4. My fingers are always moving. Ever since I took typing in high school I have typed along with everything that people say. I’m better at not moving my fingers as much now; it used to be really obvious.

5. I have ginormous feet. Shoe shopping tends to make me a little bitter.

6. I’m really bad at keeping in touch with people. Because of this I firmly believe that everyone should have a blog. That way I know what’s going on with you, you know what’s going on with me and we never have to actually communicate.

7. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

8. I like to make lists. I usually start by listing several things I’ve already done so that I can go ahead and cross them off.

9. I am incapable of not having a book in progress. The second I finish reading a book, I have to find another one to replace it.

10. I have to have music going all the time. I can’t concentrate without background music. If I’m in the car, before I even put it in drive, I have to find a good song.

11. One of my biggest fears is my parents getting old and becoming incapacitated in some way.

12. I love teeny bopper movies. If Hillary Duff is in it, I will make time to watch it.

13. John Hughes and the Brat Pack ruined my high school years. Or at least my perception of how those years were supposed to go. I’m still waiting for Jake Ryan.

14. Any time someone is smoking in a movie I always have to watch to see if they’re a real smoker or not. It bugs me when someone does a really crappy job of pretending to smoke. Do they not care about their craft at all???

15. I love to cook. I still toy with the idea of going to a culinary institute.

16. If you come over to my house I will attempt to force you to watch either Gossip Girl or Arrested Development with me. It’s for your own good.

17. I like to make up my own descriptive words. Ex: scandalicious, trendalicious. Basically anything with –icious on the end.

18. I have a very sensitive nose. I don’t do well with yucky smells. I have been known to drive down the street, gagging, with my head hanging out the window, all because I caught a whiff of dog poopies or nasty garbage smell. I’ve learned to just keep the windows up now.

19. I love almond and coconut flavoring, but I don’t like actual almonds or coconut in my food.

20. I require a very large purse. I like to have lots of stuff available . . . you never know when you might need something!

21. Very few things in life make me happier than walking into Sephora.

22. I have the best nieces in the whole world. I’m scared to have my own kids because I’m not sure they could measure up to my girls.

23. I love road trips. At least a couple of times per week I get the urge to just keep on driving instead of going home.

24. I would rather have something salty than something sweet.

25. I don’t believe in making beds. I’m just going to get back into it (probably at least a couple times during the day) so why bother making it?

Ryan Started the Fire

Muahahahaha!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Ch-check it out!

I got a haircut over the weekend and for the first time since about 1991, I have bangs! O.k., admittedly they're longer, swoopy bangs that may not fully count as bangs, but still. This is the most bangs I have had in the last 18ish years, so they must count for something.

And I'm sorry I cut the top of my head off so you can't get the full effect. It was the best I could do. And hey, look at that! There's my super cute, new purse sitting on the table behind me.