Pals

"Here. Meet my pals."

"Yes, Bo?"

"This one's my favorite."

"Bo, she's making me pose again. Tell her to stop. And, I need more treats."

"These little guys are tickly."

"But I'll do anything as long as you gimmme some pets and treats."

"Sigh. It's bedtime. Time to stop with this photo nonsense."

"I've got such sad eyes."

"Sad, sad eyes."

DJ Hero

I'm so not one for video games. Sitting? I'm supposed to sit there in front of the tv for how long? Egads, I'm so not interested. Plus all the shooting and the weird "missions." Again, not interested. I got all hyped up about Flower a long while back, but then never did try to find it or even get beyond the youtube clip of it.

But. DJ Hero! I mean, c'mon! I already did kinda love Rock Band a lot, but now, it's techno music in a game?! Now I get the chance to mix up Electronica the way I've always wanted!! Hurrah for a game for meeeeeee!! Sign me up now, please!

Daft Punk gets sole credit for catching my attention in this commercial. I wouldn't have watched it otherwise. (Speaking of, Daft super needs to crank out a new album. It's been 2 years since their remixed album came out. We need some freshies, Daft Punk, please!!)

According to Wikipedia: "Daft Punk provided eleven new mixes featuring their music for the video game DJ Hero. They will also appear in the game as playable characters, along with their own venue."

Robot Rock awesomeness!





** If the videos didn't embed, go click over to my real blog for them: skeddy.blogspot.com.

Pink Frosting Unicorns

Today's text message from Sidenote:

"Pink, frosting, sparkles, lace, high heels, rainbows, unicorns, slips, eye kohl, curls, dresses, perfume, shopping, chick flicks, champagne, giggles, puppies.."

I had just sent her a venting message about how I'm constantly surrounded by men all day long. And men talking about football, no less. I work with men, live with a man, and there isn't much left in there for feeling feminine. It's a battle I constantly fight - to feel feminine when I live in a world with an overabundance of testosterone and a shortage of pink and frilly.

I do my best - I wear lots of perfumey things and makeup and fabulous shoes and flowers in my hair. But somedays, I just can't escape the man-ness of my world. I told Bo that it'd be very much like his working with all women all day and then coming home to the Lifetime channel blaring on the tv 24-7. You should have seen his face, priceless.

So, today, I was tired and not feeling like being my own Don Quixote. (Plus my trusty steed, Rocinante, was at home, snoozing on her dog bed.) And, then Sidenote sent me that text with all things girlie and pretty. Ahhh, saved for another day.

A List, and an Award

Rules

1. You Can Only Use One Word
2. Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers
3. Alert them that you have given them this award
4. Have Fun!


** Stop the press. I was going to be a good sport and follow the rules until I hit #7. My answer is "Diet Pepsi." Not its 1-worded, sugar-laden counterpart. Because I can't possibly answer that without breaking the rules, I decided to just break all of them. I'm obviously such a huge giant rebel. **


The Fun Part

1. Where is your cell phone? Always within reach. Except when I run or shower.
2. Your hair? Curly and mousy (the color's getting changed next month, hurrah!)
3. Your mother? The best.
4. Your father? The best.
5. Your favorite food? Anything with sugar.
6. Your dream last night? Weird, and vivid.
7. Your favorite drink? Diet pepsi
8. Your dream/goal? Oh, I have lots. Sarandipity is currently at the top tho.
9. What room are you in? A cubicle.
10. Your hobby? These days, sleeping!
11. Your fear? Not being able to squeeze in all the things I want to do in this life.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere but here :)
13. Where were you last night? In the kitchen, always in the kitchen.
14. Something that you aren’t? Tall.
15. Muffins? Meh. (<---- one word answer, hurrah!)
16. Wish list item? A super fancy camera.
17. Where did you grow up? Oregon.
18. Last thing you did? Worked.
19. What are you wearing? Cardigan over a tank with some jeans and matching flats.
20. Your TV? Espn. Also, I don't watch much tv. See #13.
21. Your pets? Rory aka Ror-kins aka Smelly aka Stinks aka Hetch Hetchy aka Smellers aka ...
22. Friends? Thank goodness.
23. Your life? Busy.
24. Your mood? Tired.
25. Missing someone? Family.
26. Vehicle? Dog hair-laden xTerra.
27. Something you’re not wearing? Earrings in my left ear. A bug bite there made them feel all pinchy.
28. Your favorite store? Anthropologie.
29. Your favorite color? Green.
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday.
31. Last time you cried? I laugh-cried in a state of delirium a few weeks ago, does that count?
32. Your best friend? Bo-tacular.
33. One place that I go to over and over? The Post Office. Don't even get me started :P
34. One person who emails me regularly? Caley. (Usually with links to clothes I absolutely must buy, or at least drool over.)
35. Favorite place to eat? At home. When I have the energy to cook, it makes me happy.



Ok, awesomeness blogs:

Kristen at A Passion 4 Eating. I love love checking out her recipes and photos. And her recipes don't have 82 ingredients in each one. Gotta love that delicious simplicity.

Caley Cal at Sidenote:. It all started with elephant knees. They're here and here. And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Alecia at Hoobing Family Adventures. She and her husband have lived all over the world, run super long distances, and now have a cute lil teeny baby. I love that she posts lots of photos for when I'm too lazy to read :)

John at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes. He and my other friend named Alycia moved to North Dakota recently, and his blog is how I keep up with their transition. Plus, his writing is just so entertaining.

Allie at Incidents and Accidents. She's getting her book published next year! I feel like I'm this-close to a real live awesome soon-to-be famous person! :)

And my most favorite blog of all time. I even bought a shirt and the book. Super duper fan girl am I. Cake Wrecks.


** Yes, that's only 6, and yes I can count. But 6 blogs is enough to keep you busy what with the clicking and the reading and the bookmarking and all.

Let's Put That in Ink

Sooo, consider me your super lucky blog friend. Yessirree, Lucky. You may as well go tell all your unlucky friends that they're getting friend-dumped for me, yes me.

Remember that fortune I got a couple of months back that predicted I'd have good things happen in November? Well! I picked up dinner again from that same Pei Wei (same exact item too, actually), and got the exact same fortune. Now, folks, I haven't been there in between those two fortunes. The Fortune Gods gave me back to back fortunes that were identical. And oh so intriguing and promising.

November 27, people. You better believe it.

Oh. Sweet. Mercy.

I'm speechless. All I can do is smile. And I've been smiling so long already that my cheeks hurt. And my eyes are even a lil teary from how happy my heart feels.

See, it literally warms my heart to hear that people love what I make. It's been years and years that I've been working at my real job and never hearing about being good at what I do or even possessing some kind of talent or skill. So, to hear those words (complete with exclamation points and smileys) for my Sarandipity items is just so, so wonderful beyond words.

Because Mellisa was so beyond sweet to post photos and video clips of her family with the Pops, I just had to share with you. So, I hope my sweet little story brings a some sunshine to your day!

The boys decided to have a camouflage, army-guy themed party. And Mom wanted Cupcake Pops. What to do? Make the Cupcake Pops in dingy, grimy boy colors, of course! :) I claim that the black sprinkles look like gun powder. Not that I'd know what gun powder looks like. Not that I helped my dad reload ammo as a kid. No, huh uh ;)

Meet my adopt-a-family in Oklahoma. (We'll forgive that the dad is the wrong kind of orange and black OSU fan ;) )

The Birthday Boys!
I couldn't figure out how to embed her video clips, so definitely definitely go over to her post and watch them. Just too darn cute and warm-fuzzy for words!!! I've already watched each of them like 18 times already :) Link for her post here!

Blessings

I've long been dying to hang a wall decal somewhere around our place, and we finally got one hung this weekend. This wall is right as you walk into our front door (and over Rory's bed). Bo's mom is Irish, so I thought it was fitting that we hang an Irish blessing by our front door.

For those who've never hung a wall decal, my quick review is: YAY!!! They're easy, totally customizable, and completely change the look of a wall in no time flat. I ordered mine from a site that lets you do custom quotes and fonts, with a ton of colors to choose from.

Now, I'm off to go find a bunch more walls that are dying for some text :)

Reunited

See those two girls there? That's me and my best friend from 2nd grade, JK. That was my birthday party that year. It was a slumber party, complete with 13 screaming girls, lots of Cabbage Patch and My Little Pony, and gymnastics competitions in the living room.

The sad thing is that because my family moved a lot, JK and I lost touch after we moved that summer.

But! What's randomly cool is that although she ended up moving away too, of all places, it was to my cousin's school. I spotted JK's picture in my cousin's yearbook (while we were looking for cute boys) and convinced my cousin to ask for her address. From that point on, we became pen pals. We mailed each other photos and long hand-written stories of our lives.

But once we hit college, we lost touch with each other again. Until now. She found me on Facebook yesterday, and we've reconnected again. Again! I'm ridiculously excited to reconnecting with her and catching up.

Here's to long lost friends, carrying on the pen pal tradition, albeit in a new medium ♥

Cooking with Sara: Brownies with Caramel Sauce

(Welllll, you're not getting the usual slew of detailed photos or paragraph upon paragraph of instructions, but I'm ridiculously tired, so things are pared down and terribly sparse. Please bear with me.)

I was totally inspired earlier this evening by a woman who asked my advice for a bundt cake glaze. I thought, hey, my caramel sauce would beat the pants off a traditional glaze, so I sent her my recipe. And then after obsessing about the sauce for a whole 3 seconds, I decided right then and there that I absolutely HAD to make something to pour it over. We don't have any ice cream in the house (and I gobbled up all the non-dairy kind weeks ago), so I whipped up a batch of brownies.

See, I don't believe that brownies should ever be made from a mix. Making them from scratch doesn't take much longer, and they taste sooo much better. Trust me on this. I wouldn't lie, especially about baked goods. I think God would strike me down from heaven for committing such a sin.

So anyway, I thought I'd share the recipes with you. They're perfection for chilly autumn nights. Yummmm......

Bombshell Brownies
1 c. butter, unsalted, melted
3 c. white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. unsweetened cocoa (I prefer Hershey's brand for these)
1 tsp. salt
1 c. chocolate chips (semisweet or milk chocolate)
1 c. toasted nuts, optional

Preveat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

Combine melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, mixing until thoroughly combined. Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and gradually stir into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and optional nuts. Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted is almost clean, 35 to 40 minutes.

Caramel Sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. unsalted butter

In a small pan, combine the sugars, butter, and whipping cream. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftover sauce in an airtight container.

PO Woes

Everytime I ship something at the Post Office, they look at my flat-rate Priority box and ask me if I want to ship Express instead. Every single time. So much so that I complain at home about it because it always feels like they're trying to hussle me into buying things. "More stamps? Express mail this instead? Delivery Confirmation? Insurance? Passport application?" They ask me those questions every single time I go in. Every. Single. Time. So, I thought, hey, I'll mail this gift package Express after all, so it'll get there on Thursday for sure, before the recipient leaves for vacation. Great plan, sara! Except. When I went in this morning, the woman told me that she can't just add Express to my package. I'd have to open it up and completely repackage it in an Express box (which isn't the same size as my box which is lined in styrofoam and packed with bubble wrap so that things don't shift in transit). Um. Are you freaking kidding me?! So. I tried really hard to be sweet and calm with her, because really, it's not her fault. She did try to tell me that it'd get there in 2 days with Priority, and I had to hold myself back from laying into her about how it is rarely 2 days, mostly 3 or 4 days, and sometimes 8 days. Yeah.

Oh, and as I walked into the Post Office, I was barely balancing 5 boxes with my chin and the crook of my elbow and a couple of fingers grasping for dear life. The manager woman stops me in the entry area to ask if they're prepaid. I tried to smile and not move my chin as I said no and started to walk toward the counters. She stops me again to try and convince me to use the kiosk for them. Now, I'm usually a huge fan of kiosks, but I didn't feel like punching the screen for 5 separate boxes. Plus! There's no counter there! And I had 5 boxes I was barely keeping from crashing all over the floor. She stopped me 3 times to try and get me to use the kiosk instead of the counters. Seriously?

I keep trying to let the Post Office change my attitude and perception of them. But they keep proving me right.


Above photo via Google Images.

Hetch Hetchy

So, by now, you're well aware of my stuck-word illness. Seriously, it's worse than water torture or that episode of Lost where Sayid pushed shoots of bamboo under Sawyer's fingernails. It makes me want to throw things and punch people, it's so awful.

Anyway, onward down the path of happy topics. I'm proud to announce that I've got fantastic words stuck in my head now!! I never thought it possible, but now I totally do. It's all thanks to Ken Burns and his latest PBS specials on National State Parks. I've mostly been listening to them, because I've been slaving in the kitchen while they're on. But they totally grabbed my attention when they hit on the topic of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Seriously. Say it. "Hetch Hetchy." Is that not the most fun thing ever?! Hetch Hetchy. Hetch. Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy. HetchHetchyHetchHetchyHetchHetchy. I'm so naming something after it. I have to. That would give me the excuse to say it every single day. I'm thinking it'd be a great dog name, right?

Hetch Hetchy.


Hetch.
Hetchy.


One more time! Hetch Hetchy!

42

42 days until I hop on a plane to go visit Sidenote in Minnesota!! I'm so excited to go see her!!! I don't doubt that I'll return with all kinds of text and photo blog fodder that I'll definitely share with you. Hurrah!!