Wednesday Thoughts

Dang, I haven't really been blogging much lately, huh? I don't know why, exactly. I've just been busy, I guess. Catching chipmunks, making hula hoops, playing with doggies and kids, looking up gifs of Jessie Spano losing it in the "I'm so excited" episode of Saved by the Bell, and so on and so forth. Normal adult stuff.

One of my biggest accomplishments in the past week has been to make maple bacon cupcakes. Yama mama they were good!! I will share the recipe here, if you guys are interested. The cake recipe I used was sort of "meh." But the frosting.... oh my gosh you guys the frosting...... It was SO GOOD! Check this out:

Don't you just want to lick that bowl clean? Well you can't, cause I already did. That is not my own Kitchenaid mixer, by the way. I wish it was. One of my top life goals is to own a Kitchenaid mixer. The life goal list goes something like this:

1. Trick someone into marrying me
2. Have kids
3. Get a Kitchenaid mixer
4. Save the planet
5. Get a dog

But not necessarily in that order. And if I can even just get 4/5 of those, I'll be happy. I won't say which four.

But I digress. Here is a picture of the finished cupcakes:

In other Wednesday Thoughts, I heard that song, "I had the time of my life," from Dirty Dancing, on the radio this morning. Just thinking about that movie made me feel so summer-y! I just love summer movies. I'm actually not a huge fan of Dirty Dancing (what was she - like 17? And he was like 35? That ain't right) but the music was really good. Some of my favorite summer movies are as follows:

The Sandlot! (duh!)
The Great Outdoors (a classic - cracks me up every time!)
What About Bob (a family favorite)
Weekend at Bernies (I'm kidding!!! Calm down!)
The Parent Trap (old and new - I love both so much.)
Summer Magic (one of my most favorite Disney movies ever.)

What are some of your favorite summer movies?

Happy Wednesday!

Something New

Last night I was laying in bed reading a book that was written about 60 years ago. In this section of the book, the main characters were in Arizona, and were talking about having guacamole with their dinner. One of the characters asked what that was, and another said, "Oh you know - it's mashed alligator pears, onions, spices, and tomatoes."

I lay there wondering what I have been eating and calling guacamole this whole time since I most certainly have never eaten anything called an alligator pear. So I looked it up and found out it's an alternative name for avocados. WHO KNEW!? Not me. Not even this guy:

I guess it makes sense - I mean, avocado skin is pretty scaly, and it's shaped somewhat like a pear. Have any of you ever heard that expression?

Next time you're out to dinner with your friends, ask the server if you can have alligator pears on your sandwich. When everyone looks at you with baffled expressions, look at them very condescendingly and say, "Or as some people call them, 'avocados.'" But say it like you were using the more correct term and it's exhausting having to dumb down your vocabulary. Then report back to me.

Wednesday Thoughts

First things first, my candy cane pen is missing. I've had it since Christmas 2011 and if I can't find it, heads are going to roll*. It's my "happy pen" that I use at work whenever I'm in need of cheering up (aka I use it all the time).

I've searched my whole desk, and the floor around my desk, but to no avail. This is what it looks like:

source

If you see it anywhere, please contact me. In the meantime, I'll be making a list of suspects. And maybe a montage video of my pen and me, working together. Oh, why didn't I take more pictures!?

In other thoughts, it's already Wednesday. Four day work weeks are the best. Here are some random thoughts for today:

* I've been reading a lot lately - what is one of the best books you've read in the past few years? What's your favorite "summer read"? I'll be back with my own recommendations soon.

* Amanda Bynes. That girl needs to get it together. She has lost it.

* I watched the first episode of the new season of Arrested Development last night and loved it. George Michael is awesome. I won't say anything else in case you haven't seen it! I was originally planning on devouring the whole new season in one sitting, but now I'm thinking about stretching it out. What about you? All at once or stretched out?

* No but seriously, where's my pen!?

Happy Wednesday!

* I mean, not really of course. Jeez.

Memorial Day Weekend

Some of you may have already seen these pictures if you're friends with me on the various social networking sites (myspace, friendster, aol, etc). But I couldn't resist posting them on my blog as well because it was such a fun weekend.

The weekend started with a stop at the Alma Scottish Festival - a yearly tradition for my family. There, I purchased the COOLEST wig/hat combo ever:

I look horrible in it. I mean, really bad. And I love it. It's amazing (as long as I don't catch my reflection). I just love the looks on other peoples faces when they see me in it. It's like they just smelled a fart. Best $7 I ever spent.

My dad bought a bag of these. I tried one, and I think I am now set for life. I definitely don't need to eat any more.

We also saw many many bagpipers and drummers, who formed a huge massed band. A smaller group is seen playing here:

From what I understand, the traditional way to wear a kilt is with a backwards cap.

The rest of the weekend was spent in Ludington with family. We took a boat ride to some sand dunes, hiked the beautiful trails of the state park, ate at the best ice cream place ever (House of Flavors), we had a ladder ball tournement, walked out to the lighthouse and so on and so forth. It was super fun.

 

 

And this is what the stop and go traffic looked like on the way home. Looks like we weren't the only ones having a great time "up north!"

What did you do this weekend?

Who Wore It Better?

After seeing the story about Amanda Bynes in the news this afternoon, I was first struck by her wig. It almost stole the show:

But then I noticed something else - her pants. And I was reminded of a picture I saw earlier this week of someone who shares Amanda's fashion sense in regard to this one article of clothing (and I'm assuming ONLY this item). So here's my question for you:

Who wore it better?

Leave your answer in the comments or on the poll on the side! It's a really tough call, I know, so give it some time.

Wednesday Thoughts

Whew! Getting Wednesday Thoughts in in the nick of time! I've been pretty busy lately - doing all fun things. I mean, except the old 9-5 of course. But in my non-work hours, I've been really busy.

Over the weekend I rode in the Cycle into Spring - a 20 mile bike ride through Detroit. It was a lot of fun. The only downside was the route, which was really boring. In the Tour de Troit, which I rode in in the fall, we rode through all the beautiful and interesting parts of Detroit. This one took us through sections of Detroit I have no interest in re-visiting. We did have a nice half-way stop though:

I saw some really interesting bike items that day - like this seat, called the manta seat:

We also saw something called the Eliptigo, which I want really bad. (Link)

Over the weekend, I also had an aunt date with one of my nieces. We had a sleepover, and it was her first ever sleepover. We had a blast. We planted flowers, rode our bikes to get ice cream, watched The Parent Trap, and a lot more. It was very fun.

Since then, the only notable thing that happened was that I made a dinosaur cake for my cousin's birthday. She's an archaeologist  and she doesn't really dig for dinosaurs  but since it's not Halloween-time, I couldn't find any skeletons. So, dinosaurs are close enough. Here are a couple pictures. I put some (cleaned) plastic dinosaurs in the layers - the kids loved them!

Anyway, I think we're up to speed now! How have you been?

Happy Wednesday!

Because it's that time of year

... and because I'm an old maid... this is how I feel about all the love in the air right now.

But really, I'm happy you guys found love. Good for you! YAY! I'll be over here with the grumpy cat, eating cake instead of dancing the chicken dance. That's cool, right?

 Oh and that gift with no gift tag on it? That one's from me.