I'm back! (Part I)

Yep, that's right.

After writing half the things I wanted to say, though, I realized that this post is going to be wayyy longer than anyone would want to read, so I'm going to break it up. Here's part 1 for you all.  :)

So I'm back from an unintentional many-month long hiatus, and I'm back for a bit with some new projects and news. First of all, though, I want to catch up on some long-delayed and promised things:

1. Birthday presents for the boyfriend. I mentioned allllll the way back in August the birthday wonderfuls I was making but couldn't tell you about a) because I hadn't gifted them yet and b) because there's always a chance the boyfriend reads this blog.... maybe. Well, now not only have I given them to him (and he has been using them daily), I have the time to post the pictures!

 I made him a hat and scarf set from a wonderful Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair in Mesa (yay, alliteration!). The hat is the long, ear-covering version of the boyfriend hat from Stephanie Likes to Knit-- I chose this pattern not only because it's a hat designed specifically with a boyfriend in mind, but because I thought the decreases at the top were beautiful. It was super quick and easy to knit, and the boyfriend LOVES it!

I didn't use a full skein of the yarn with the hat, so I started a simple garter-stitch scarf to go with it. I ended up getting another skein to finish off the scarf, but it was well worth it: both it and the hat are super comfy and warm (I just HAD to try them!).

2. Well, this is a continuation of birthday presents, but it's another project so I'm giving it its own spot on the list. Or him, I should say, not It. Because this most certainly IS a him. Meet the bear the boyfriend has named "Mr Cuddlewuddles":

Isn't he adorable? The pattern (for Henri the Bear) is by Yarnigans, but the original site where I found the pattern has been shut down. I'm super upset about that, actually, because she had some wonderful patterns up, but oh, well. Mr Cuddlewuddles is knit up with Vanna's Choice in Fisherman and stands about six inches tall-- just the perfect size to travel with, so he was great for the boyfriend! He's super soft and snuggly and was wonderful to work on. He was a quick knit, too-- I finished him in only a couple of days. Man, stuffed animals are the best!

Which will lead me to my next post, involving more stuffed things... stay tuned.  :)

Christmas

Okay, so I know it's been a while, and I have another catch-up post in the works, but I wanted to post about this before it was no longer timely. Among lots of other wonderful, wonderful gifts, I got a smartphone for christmas. One with an android operating system, actually, and I'm writing this post from it right now. Anyway, what I wanted to say was that I've been using it for two days now (almost) and I can't get over how freakin' cool it is. You know how every birthday people ask you if you feel any different? Well, it's the day after christmas and I really do, for the first time in a long time, feel different. I'm having a really hard time getting used to the fact that wherever I am, I'm connected to the entire world. I literally have a connection to all the information I could ever want in my pocket, or purse, or right in my hand. HOW FREAKING CRAZY IS THAT? I mean yeah, I'm sitting on my living room floor right now writing this, something I can do with my laptop, but I could .be posting this from a playground or an open field or even the tropical rainforest or the polar ice caps. Well. Maybe not actually. But anywhere there's cell phone service, I have a direct link to almost anything in the world. Wow.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas! Catch-up post with some xmas goodies will be coming up soon. :)

Things I Miss at School

I love being at school. I love seeing people all the time and having a lot of freedom and interacting with intellectuals. But it makes me miss a lot of things about life and breaks and summer.

These are some things I miss:

• me time
• waking up for meteor showers or sun rises without worrying about being tired for class
• the boyfriend
• not being stressed
• baking elaborate goodies
• baking at all
• knitting
• the boyfriend
• swimming
• laying in the sun with a book
• exploring
• pondering the universe

So, I'm a Lazy Bum

I haven't taken photos of my beret or handwarmers, I haven't updated anything about being back at school, and I haven't even unpacked yet. I know. I'll get around to it.

Today's post is about a feeling. You know that feeling when you're surrounded by people but you feel lonely anyway?

That's my feeling of the day.

Projects Projects Projects!!! Part I

So after a brief (month-long) hiatus I am back! With lots and lots of things to share!!

Since the last time I've posted I have successfully completed:

1. A delicious experimental pie (for which I finally have the pictures)
2. A cuddly bear
3. My February Beret
4. Birthday wonderfuls

And am working on a pair of hand warmers to match my beret that will be done soon. Exciting, huh? And now you all know that even though I may not be writing I am certainly keeping busy.


First, the pie.

I found a spectacularly delicious-looking plum pie recipe over at Savour Fare quite a long time ago but I was afraid to start it because I'd never made a pie crust before, and all I've ever heard about them is that they're more finnicky than delicate machinery. The boyfriend, who is apparently the king of pie crusts, talks all the time about how he'll sit there and cut the butter into perfectly-shaped squares so it'll melt perfectly because otherwise the dough will be lumpy and your pie will be ruined oh noooooooo!!!!

But really, this recipe was super easy. Basically you just throw some ingredients in a mixer, whip it up, and chill it overnight. Then tada! After a bit of shaping you've got yourself a pie crust! A beautiful, tasty, and deliciously flaky pie crust.

I'm glad I finally worked up the courage to tackle this. I visited the boyfriend and a bunch of other friends at school a few weeks ago and finally had the guinea pigs necessary to try something new, so I figured, why not? Thanks to all my guinea pigs... and look how wonderfully it turned out!

Okay, so... secretly the only picture I have of the pie is the one above. I was rushing out the door and didn't snap pictures when it got out of the oven. D'oh. Instead I will give you a picture of the hardest part of the whole pie: the plums.

You know how with pitted fruit it's generally pretty easy to cut it in half and remove the pit? Well, yeah. I was working with mutant plums.

See how those pits are only sort of existent??? It added so much time to the cutting process!! There wasn't a full pit to pull out, and I was stuck with all this nasty hard stuff that I had to cut out with my paring knife. Gross.

All in all, though, this was a wonderful experience. The crust is like the crostata (tart) dough in that if it's out of the fridge or too long the butter in it will start to melt, so I'd recommend keeping the lattice dough in the fridge while shaping the base. It's also missing sugar (and we definitely noticed its absence), so I'd add some next time. It's a super versatile recipe, though-- I also made a scrumptious blueberry pie that I kind of made up the recipe to but that I didn't take any pictures of (shame)-- and is something I would love love love to do again!


Next time: Part 2, and maybe parts 3 and 4, depending on how loquacious I'm feeling. Stay tuned!

Many Things, or Cranberry Madness

Okay, first of all I'd like to thank everyone who voted on my Threadless design! It finished scoring early early this morning and came out with a final score of 2.46 out of 5 total. I hope that's good enough to be printed, and I'll definitely keep you all posted as to what the next stage is!

Also, BLAAARRGGHALISJFLUGAOISHDHGA;LJSJROAIUHGD I LEFT MY CAMERA AT MY BOYFRIEND'S WHEN I WENT TO VISIT THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!!! And he's not coming to visit me until August 3 and there's NO way I'm having him put a Nikon DSLR in the mail, so until he comes to see me I'm camera-less. Meaning I am nice-camera-less and will, for the time being, be using my dad's little Canon point-and-shoot. I have some pictures of a new yarn I bought that I have to download, but not having my camera means that the few pictures I got to shoot of my pies (which were pretty delicious, by the way) won't be up until early August. Which sucks.

And now, to come to the second part of this entry's title. Yes, Cranberry Madness. The lovely yarn that I just bought, mentioned in the paragraph above, is actually really nice. It's Green Mountain Spinnery mohair yarn died in this wonderful deep red color, and the more I work with it the softer it gets. The problem is that the combination of it and the pattern for which I'm using it is driving me absolutely nutso.

I can guess what some of you are thinking. You're not even done with your beret yet; what are you doing taking on other projects??

Well, for your information, I'm done with three point five inches of the lacework on my beret, and I think that it's good to take a bit of a break every once in a while. Don't you? I expect this side project to be a quick knit, and then I can go back to my beret all contented-like.

Well, I expected it to be quick. Since I first cast on yesterday afternoon I have restarted this beast at least fifteen times. Either the stitches are too loose, or the spaces in between them are horridly uneven, or it's just a disgusting excuse for a first row and it's easier to sack it than try to fix it. Uurgh. As a result, I have huge cramps in my left pinky and I'm going a bit cross-eyed. I will complete this project, though. Just you wait and see.

VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!

Hey everyone, my design is up for a vote on Threadless! Which means YOU SHOULD ALL GO VOTE FOR IT!!!

You can find it, vote for it, and see a bigger image here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/284069/Self_Expression

Threadless is an online store for shirts and hoodies that has a really extensive, involved community. They hold an ongoing contest to find new t-shirt designs to print, and each design is up for only 7 days. The designs with the most votes and positive comments can then be selected to print!

Please, please go vote for my design. It's up until July 15 and I need all the help I can get! It takes five seconds to make an account if you haven't already, and then you're home free! (plus, Threadless is an awesome community to be a part of anyway-- just wait until they have another $10 sale and then you'll thank me!)  :)

Thanks to everyone who has already voted and those who will vote before next Thursday. I love you all!




(Up next-- plum and blueberry pies. Stay tuned!)

Barbecue Sauce

Cooking in my family is sometimes hard. My dad abhors tamarind, while my mom likes almost nothing containing coriander or molasses. Any recipe I come across is instantly doctored to suit my family's tastes. And in this case, it worked out for the better-- I made this barbecue sauce recipe that I found on Annie's Eats (she does have wonderful recipes), and the only thing I can say is mmmmm!

Let me back track a bit, and start by saying that my family only eats homemade barbecue sauce. Seriously. The homemade stuff packs a spice-filled tang with which the sickly sweet store-bought stuff can't compete. The only problem is that we cheat a little, as I think do most people whose bbq sauce is "homemade"-- my mom usually uses a ketchup base. So when I found this recipe that makes the sauce from scratch, I pounced.

That being said, I've changed the recipe a bit, and have ended up with a much different result that Annie's. We both halved the recipe, but while she ended up with 2.5 Mason jars of it, I ended up with a little less than 3 cups, or enough to fill a Mason jar, coat 3 racks of ribs, and have a little bit extra. 

I still think it's missing a bit of something-- next time I would add cayenne pepper as well as more cumin, chili powder, and a bit more molasses. Rather than using store-bought chili powder which packs a lot of extra salt, we make our own. If you're interested, its recipe is below. Annie has the bbq sauce recipe she used posted at her website (the link is above), but because I've doctored it, here is my changed recipe* as well!

*you should all note that because I've doctored the halved recipe, that's the one I'll be posting. "Scant" means "not quite," and for the spice measurements feel free to add a bit more than what's called for.

Chili Powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

2 teaspoons garlic powder

Combine ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container. 

Barbecue Sauce

Scant 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp unsulfured molasses

Scant 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 can crushed tomatoes

3/8 cup cider vinegar (or halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Black pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat with the onions and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent and tender. Mix in kosher salt, chili powder, and cumin, then add the dark brown sugar and molasses. Mix well and boil for about a minute and a half, then stir in the tomatoes and cider vinegar. 

Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer for about an hour and a half, or until the sauce becomes thick and has darkened.

Above, the sauce before thickening. Below, after simmering for 1.5 hours.

Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and ground black pepper. Add the mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth (here, Annie adds water to ease the blending process and achieve a less viscous consistency, but I liked the consistency of the sauce without the extra water and had no trouble blending it. Feel free to add water, 1/4 cup at a time, if you are having trouble blending or if the sauce is too thick for your  tastes). 

Happy barbecuing, everyone!

BOOM CRACKLE FIZZZZZZ

Happy 4th, everybody! I hope you're all having a wonderful day outside with your friends and families and lighting crazy things on fire.

In honor of Independence Day I'm trying the barbecue sauce recipe I found on Annie's Eats, though not actually today because my aunt and uncle are coming over with their munchkins, and I don't want to serve anything when we don't know what it tastes like. We do have a rack of ribs in the fridge, though, that has this barbecue sauce's name on it, so I'll keep you all posted as to how it turns out!

In other news, I've restarted my beret again. Third time's the charm, eh?

..Also, a New Look!

Yeah, that's right. The blog has a new look in honor of summer! Enjoy, dear readers.  :)

A New Love

Yeah, that's right. I've found a new love. Not that the boyfriend wasn't enough, but this is the kind of love that comes in robin's-egg-blue bags and keeps you happy for hours and days and months and years.

No, it's not Tiffany's, silly! It's Pins and Needles, my new favorite store (that I happened to just wander into for the first time this afternoon)!

Long story short, I have wanted to knit SockPixie's February beret (which can be found here) for a looong but didn't have the time during the school year to pore over the pattern, and didn't own the correct size needles OR have the necessary yarn lying around. So after realizing that I've been home for 6 weeks already and have accomplished absolutely NOTHING, I've decided to knit it, whee!

Of course, there was still the problem of not having any of the necessary supplies. I was about to order some good-looking stuff online when my mom reminded me of this cute little shop in town that specializes in knitting and needlepoint supplies, so I dropped in this afternoon. It was such a pleasant experience! The woman in the shop was incredibly helpful, especially for a baby knitter like me, and helped me pick the right yarn for the gauge called for in the pattern.

Isn't it delicious? 

I settled on a Dream in Color yarn in a turquoise-ish color called Superwash. It's hand painted so it has this nice, subtle shading to it, and it's super soft!

The woman in the store then taught me how to wind the yarn into its own little self-contained spool, and even let me open a pack of needles to test my gauge! It was actually awesome she did that because I needed to go a needle size down from the one called for in the pattern. AND she said they are always available to help if I get stuck, which will definitely come in handy as I am tackling an I Cord and grafting live stitches (eek!) for the first time. Needless (needles?) to say, I am very happy with this new find.

Look! My own tamed yarn-ball!

Also I lied a bit, I guess. My friend has lent me three seasons of 30Rock, and after a brief watching hiatus I am back at it in full force. In the past two days I've watched two-thirds of the third season and finished a scarf I've been working on. Now, I know what you might be thinking. Berets? Scarves? Aren't these winter clothing items?

Well actually yeah, I guess they are, technically. But to be fair the scarf is lace, so it would be perfect for cooler days like today! Where it is only in the low 70s! I'm actually wearing a light scarf right now. Anyway, check it out:

The pattern is from knitzofrenic-- I found it and decided I had to knit it, even though I didn't have a recipient in mind, but after a couple of weeks of my mom walking past and cooing every time she sees it I am sure it will have a happy home while I'm at school.

This scarf is super easy to knit. Seriously. This was only my second lacework project but it's essentially four rows repeated over and over and was painless to memorize. I didn't look at the pattern past the first five or so minutes I started working on it-- it's that simple! There's no gauge either (because it's a scarf), so I was able to use some of the random yarn I have lying around the house/have inherited from my great-grandmother. The scarf is still super curly in the picture because I still have to block it, but it's going to turn out beautifully. 

Confession I

Okay, I have a secret that I need to tell.

I know I've billed myself as a knitter, and I am, really! I love to knit. I find it relaxing, and I'm constantly learning how to do more things.

Secretly, however, very secretly, I HATE to purl. Purling is like the ugly duckling of the knitting community. Actually, it's more like the evil twin. Knit stitches are easy, nice, and tidy, but purling is unruly and many kinds of difficult. Not only does it take much longer for me to purl than knit, I never remember between projects which way to wrap the yarn so that the stitches aren't a pain to work with on the knit side.

Actually, I guess I have two confessions to make. Also secretly, I've never actually learned how to properly hold knitting needles. I'm sure that knitting and purling both become much quicker and easier enterprises once the fingers, needles, and yarn are fully in place and ready for action. I, on the other hand, am a mostly self-taught knitter. I learned when I was in middle school and didn't yet have the smarts to look on the internet-- I learned by watching my friend Louise and just copied her motions without paying attention to the technique.

Looking back on it, that was a dumb move. Not that I ever knit with other people, but I'm afraid that if I did I would be judged right out of the room. Their thoughts would go something like this: "Oh! What a silly girl! Her fingers kind of look like spiders. Fat, ugly spiders. Are they getting caught in the yarn? Wait, spiders don't get caught in their yarn. Spiders weave things, not tie knots. That seems awfully silly. I wonder who taught her that awful technique??"

And I would be all embarrassed, and my fingers would probably freeze up like they do when I'm nervous, and it would be a complete mess.

Okay maybe I've exaggerated my predicament a bit, but still. Learning knitting technique is on my list of things to do. Eventually. Right behind the illustrious activity of learning to purl.

There is almost nothing as good as a cold glass of milk.

Seriously. A glass of milk so cold that as you pour it the outside of the glass starts to sweat, and you want nothing more than something sweet to go with it. And really, that sweet thing is what knocks your glass of milk totally out of the water. Think about it-- imagine eating a piece of tart, or a heavy-duty brownie, or a red velvet cupcake with your tall, delicious, creamy glass of milk.

Which brings me to an announcement-- I'm baking this summer! Here's the sample plate I brought in to a local market:

Don't they just look scrumptious? This plate has sour cream cupcakes, chocolate sour cream cupcakes, heavy-duty brownies both with and without nuts, and a tart with black cherry jam, and they're only some of the many goods I bake. I don't ship orders (yet), but if you're in the tri-state area feel free to contact me for orders and we'll work something out.

And now.... back to the kitchen!

You know it's finals time when...

... you wish you had to go to the bathroom so you could take a break and stretch your legs, while at the same time you wish you never had to eat or sleep or pee again just so you could plow through your work and be done with it.

I know, I shouldn't be updating das blog with two exams and a Spanish paper still looming over my head, no matter how long it's been since I last posted, but I'm resting for a few minutes between essays. Give me a break.

I think this work is making me go a bit crazy.

This finals period we have two weeks to do our self-scheduled exams rather than one, like in the fall semester, and it's definitely killed my productivity streak. Last finals week I was so productive-- yeah, okay, I didn't finish until essentially the minute everything was due, but I still worked all the time and got about eight more hours of sleep a night than I anticipated coming into college. Seriously! Winter finals week was the longest stretch of me consistently getting enough sleep all last semester.

This semester, not so much. The beginning of finals period had me unstressed and feelin' good-- surely I could do in two weeks what I did in one last semester. Granted, I had a significantly higher amount of work, but not enough to fill up a full two-week's worth.

Wrong! Working all last week didn't pay off because I still took the time to watch a movie almost every night. And go to a birthday party. And lay awake at night because I thought the creepers from the horror movies we'd been watching were out to get me. But irrelevant. I'm still not going to be finished anywhere near early, and it will be a Christmas miracle in May if I finish everything fully, thoroughly, and perfectly by Friday at noon when everything is due.

Wish me luck, dear readers! See you on the other side of this week.

I Wish I Were a Chef.

It's partly why I am living in an apartment next year-- I want to be off the meal plan so a) I can cook all the time and b) I don't feel guilty about cooking all the time because I don't have to be on the meal plan.
My school offers ExCo, or experimental college, courses, and I'm taking a cooking class with my boyfriend that's being offered. The class is geared towards people who have never cooked before in their lives (which we didn't know when we signed up for it) and I don't agree with many of the things the instructor has told us-- fresh vegetables, for example, are definitely NOT the same as frozen vegetables in texture or taste, as she's claimed-- but this coming Monday is our last class and we get to pair up and cook part of a meal for the rest of the class.

The boy and I decided we'd do an appetizer so all three pairs aren't cooking entrees and just had the bright idea to do stuffed mushrooms. As a result, I've been browsing my favorite food blogs for the past hour-point-five and want nothing more than to have my own kitchen again.

Looking at food blogs is on my top 10 lists of favorite past-times, though every time I look at them I get the crazy urge to cook something immediately. This wouldn't be a bad thing if I started browsing before dinner or lived somewhere with a kitchen. And since neither of those apply to me, especially at the moment, I'm left with my desire to cook overriding the lethargy caused by my icky cold.

Maybe if I continue to blank out on what my major should be I'll end next year by declaring a major in the study of food blogs. Staring and drooling and cooking for the rest of my life wouldn't be so bad, right?

Catch Up (Continuation).

And now for the second part of my ranting catch up post from the other day!

2. My School's Unqualified Health Center Staff.

I've had a really bad cold for the past week, so I went in to the Health Center to get myself checked out. The nurse happened to be in, so I saw her instead of the nurse practitioner, and she told me that because I didn't have a fever or any signs of strep there was nothing she could do for me. Which is fair. The next day, I went in for a developing case of pink eye.

I've had a lot of experience with pink eye-- I used to get it all the time as a kid and even still get it every once in a while. I know the signs so well that I can tell before it starts getting gooey that I have it and am going to need antibiotics, and every doctor that I've been to about it has reconfirmed my ability to recognize the signs, has given me antibiotic eye drops, and sent me home with a warning that I'd be contagious for 24 hours after starting the drops. So when I went to the Health Center I didn't expect them to know me and my weird ability to spot pink eye, but I expected them to be knowledgeable and be able to help me. Which is why I was so disappointed when the nurse practitioner obviously had no idea what she was talking about.

She started our session by having me describe my symptoms to her-- my eye was bright red, it was a bit sore near the eyelashes, and was oozing yellow goop that had glued my eye shut while I slept. Normal for pink eye, right? Apparently not for this nurse practitioner-- she kept insisting that people tend to get these symptoms either before or after colds, which meant that my cold had just relocated itself to my eye. And then, even though pink eye is highly contagious, she told me to go to classes.

First of all, excuse me? My chest cold decided to take up residence in my eye and show pink-eye-like symptoms? And secondly, I'm contagious!! Don't unleash me on the unsuspecting student body!! When I had the flu they told me to not go out of my room if I didn't had to, but I'm pretty sure pink eye is even more contagious than the flu and they're telling me to go to classes?

It kind of pissed me off but I ignored it because she gave me the antibiotic drops I needed. And though I wouldn't have thought it possible, but my opinion of her actually continued to degrade when I went in the next day for a follow-up appointment. My eye's condition had improved dramatically, so I wasn't expecting anything but inane chatter. I made the mistake of asking if I was still contagious-- again, every doctor has told me that after 24 hours on the drops it's not contagious at all-- and got a speech about how I was no longer contagious to myself because of the antibiotics I was taking, but because it was a viral infection due to my relocated cold I could be contagious to other people for up to two weeks.

Seriously? Stop with this relocated cold business. What I have is very obviously pink eye, and is improving with antibiotics, which treat bacterial infections and NOT viral infections. 

Don't these people have to go through SOME kind of training before being released on the population as a someone apparently knowledgeable in the medical sciences??? Don't middle schoolers know the difference between bacteria and viruses, and that antibiotics treat the former and NOT the latter???

Suffice to say, I'm overjoyed that my mom's family is full of doctors, and if worse comes to worst I know I can always get the care I need. You'd think, though, that the school would be able to hire people who know what they're talking about without spending more money than they already are.

Right now, I'm just upset that there's no way to comment on my experiences at the Health Center to let the school know directly how I feel about the services they're offering.

Catch Up.

Okay, first of all, I'm not going to burden you all with excuses for why I haven't been posting. Let's just leave it at "I've been really busy!" and say that I'm back. Sound good?

I just tried posting these next couple of things as one post, but it was overwhelming even to me so I'm going to split it up over a couple of days. This first one will be my mini-rant on Blogger's new templates, and up in the next couple of days will be my maxi-rant on my school's unqualified health center staff.... enjoy! & it's good to finally be back.

1. Blogger's New Templates.
Thank you, Blogger. Thank you for finally saying that you are doing something about your outdated template something while not actually doing a whole lot to fix it. Congratulations to your advertising team-- I was certainly enticed to check out your new and improved template designer. But did you notice that my blog template is the same as it always has been? Yes? Well, Blogger, it's because I'm disappointed with your new system.

When you promised that you had updated, I expected something at least as versatile as Twitter's system-- while everyone uses the same layout with Twitter, I was able to use one of my own photographs for my page's background and play extensively with the color palette. Yes, Blogger. While you are slightly above Twitter on the "letting inane people speak their minds" continuum, their design interface beats yours. And that sucks.

I'm an artist, Blogger! I would like to use my own creations over someone else's uninspired stock photography! I understand that this whole production is in draft form but it's apparently good enough to be released to the public-- shouldn't you have made sure that the background pictures lined up correctly before releasing? The top of the picture automatically lines up with the top of the blog, and how much of the picture background is visible depends on how big the viewer's internet window is-- my laptop screen dwarfs most other laptop screens and I STILL can't see the most interesting parts of most of the images available. What's up with that??

At the end of the day, Blogger, I do appreciate that you're making strides to improve our experience in this bottomless pit called the internet. I really and truly do. I just wish that your "new and improved" options lived up to their potential.

Extreme Disappointment Radiates: A Rant.

At my school we have something called Plenary, which is essentially the entire student body's foray into direct democracy-- students can propose resolutions that have to do with any aspect of life at the school, and the student body gets together one night a semester to vote on these resolutions and either reject them, amend them, or pass them into school law. The only catch is that a certain percentage of the student body-- called quorum-- has to be present to keep Plenary running.

This was only my second Plenary, but even I could tell that things were going wrong. We lost quorum about every ten or fifteen minutes and ended up having to stop Plenary altogether because we were majorly below quorum with little hope of reaching it again.

The biggest reason I came to this school was its community; among other things, I loved that students not only held themselves accountable for their actions, but got to set the standards against which they held themselves accountable. There was no administration imposing rules on the student body because the student body determined their own rules-- a long time ago someone wrote an Honor Code that we as a population have pledged to keep alive and uphold.

This process failed last night. The same people who pledged to take an active role in their own government did not show up for Plenary to discuss the resolutions that could possibly govern them. They didn't care enough to bring some work and a pillow and just be present for five hours. It's not even that they had to take an active part-- yes, we need a certain number of votes to pass anything, but really the most important thing is maintaining quorum. As long as you're in the building you can play frisbee, do homework, sleep, or whatever the hell you want. You just need to be there.

A bunch of people have been complaining because they had a lot of work and couldn't go, or they had sports and were tired, or any number of ridiculous reasons, but in any case it's unacceptable. Plenary is important enough that you should either have your most important work out of the way or be prepared to do it afterwards, and if you're tired, bring a pillow and a blanket and catch some Zs in a quiet corner. It's not that hard.

I've also heard a lot of harsh words being thrown about the freshmen class ruining Plenary for everyone else. However, I know that many more of my freshmen friends were there than my upperclassmen friends. A few of my upperclassmen friends were too apathetic to walk up campus from their apartment, but a bunch of my fencing friends and I had been up since 5.45 yesterday morning, fenced for eight hours, and still were there for as long as we could be. Because I care about my school and our ability to self-govern. But apparently the majority of our student body didn't care enough to be there.

Dear Blog-Following World,

IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE READING THIS?





Not that it really matters in the long run. This is a test for me to improve my writing and consistency, and I'll keep writing whether or not people are actually reading it...


(But it would still be nice to know.)


Love,
Chicca

Sauna Sauna Sauna Sauna Sauna

For the past three or so weeks my school has been right in the middle of a series of small blizzards. Cumulatively we've probably gotten about four feet of snow in about that much time, and it's been kind of windy so the snow is whipping around in the air and blowing into people's faces and making people generally cold to the bone. So you'd expect nothing more from me than a recount of how I've spent these past few weeks curled up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate, being warm and cozy in my duvet and watching the snow fall outside my window?

Well, you would be wrong. Because while I have been watching the snow fall outside my window, instead of curling up cozy under my duvet I have been opening my window and hoping that some of the disgustingly hot air trapped in my room will go away. I mean, yes. That's terrible for the environment and as someone who cares greatly about saving the environment I am terribly ashamed of myself and my actions, but actually there is no other way for me to survive. When I lay down to take a nap yesterday the air coming out of the heater was so hot that the tree outside looked like it was rippling-- I was seeing those crazy air ripples that you find in the summertime when you look at the pavement. Seriously? It's the middle of a snowy winter in the mid-Atlantic. This should not be happening! It's winter, for chrissake! I want to be able to cuddle up under my comforter! But instead I sleep basically naked under a sheet and still wake up sweaty and disgusting-- what's up with that??

On another note, the tree outside my window also has had something crazy stuck to one of its branches for about two weeks now. It looks kind of like a gigantic black squirrel attached itself to a branch and died, except there's no body and instead is just a lot of long black fur waving in the wind. It's pretty creepy and terribly mysterious and makes me feel a bit like Edgar Allen Poe.

Don't be fooled by molasses, guys.

My parents sent me the most delicious cookie sampler for my birthday from Dancing Deer Baking Co., and as I sit here eating a molasses-clove cookie I am realizing I shouldn't have chickened out on molasses cake over winter break. I found this recipe for dark molasses gingerbread cake and immediately wanted to make it-- I mean, look at it! It just looks so gooey and rich and inviting that my taste buds simply quivered and ordered me to start baking. However, because I found it pretty late at night I figured it wouldn't be such a good idea, so instead I went to bed with my midnight snackies unsatisfied and put the cake on the back burner (ha).

My plan was to make it the next day, but as I was gathering ingredients I'd realized that I had no idea what a molasses cake tasted like. Both my dad, who was my sous chef for the day, and my mom, who was taking a break from playing with me in the kitchen, warned me that molasses was certainly not for everyone-- I already knew that my mom wasn't going to eat this cake (she really doesn't care for molasses), and so to see if I would like it my dad had me lick some off a spoon. Sounds like a good idea, right? To give me an idea of what the cake might taste like?

WRONG. MOLASSES BAKED GOODS TASTE NOTHING LIKE STRAIGHT MOLASSES FROM A SPOON. DON'T BE FOOLED, GUYS.

The molasses-from-a-spoon experience unfortunately pushed me away from baking that delicious-looking cake and I opted for a chocolate gingerbread instead. Chocolate gingerbread is a masterpiece in its own right and is actually one of my all-time favorites, but I now realize the error of my baking ways. Because when I bit into this Dancing Deer molasses-clove cookie it was moist and reminded me faintly of gingerbread, but tasted nothing like the gross, viscous, dark substance I ate from a spoon.

The moral of the story is, don't be fooled by its sticky texture, weird color, and strong smell. Molasses cookies are spectacular. So when I find ingredients and a willing oven, guess what my next project's going to be?

An (incoherent?) update

Fencing season is officially making me go mildly insane!

This weekend was supposed to be a double-weekend meet, with one at Brandeis (in Boston) and the other in New Jersey at Rutgers, but the one at Rutgers today was cancelled so we came back to school instead. We got in at 2.00 this morning, which isn't terribly late for a college student on a Saturday night, but we were all exhausted from fencing and being on the bus for 6+ hours. As a result I'm a bit incoherent, but I'm way overdue for a blog post. Sorry to anyone actually reading this...  =/

Anyway. My birthday was last week so my parents and Madman came to take me out for dinner, which was pretty awesome, and my mom baked my favorite birthday cake--chocolate-less chocolate cake with berries and homemade whipped cream-- which was even more awesome. And they gave me an iTouch, so now I can listen to music wherever and browse the wireless internets and it's so beautiful and shiny and stuff. I would almost say its deliciousness nears that of the birthday cake! It shows pictures really well, surprisingly enough, and so now if people ask to see my artwork for some reason I'll always have some on hand. Now, to get a case...

I owe you all a real update, promise. I will, however, wait until I've gotten more sleep.

An observation

School toilet paper sucks. If you're a tp snob like I am (Charmin 2-ply for the win), bring your own.

Yes, well.

It's been a little bit since I last wrote. I know, I know, what's up with irregular posting? But you have to trust me when I say it's been a crazy couple of weeks. After my last post I tried my hardest to enjoy my remaining time at home. I finished the beret I was working on, though I'm not positive it is actually serviceable as a hat. I also went skating on a real pond for the first time in my entire life!! Which was a spectacular experience I would recommend to everyone!!! It was infinitely better than skating on a rink-- yes, the ice is a little bit rougher, but it's hardly noticeable after the first push off, and being outside while skating is spectacular. The only thing I had trouble with were the sticks falling from a tree hanging over the ice, which my skates somehow found no matter how hard I tried to steer clear of them...

On the 11th I journeyed back to school for a fencing winter training camp, where we fenced for six hours a day. It wasn't as grueling as it sounds, really. Okay, so some of us wanted to die for a day or so, but now when I look at my (mostly not sore) muscles I really feel that I've accomplished something. Today we have no classes because of MLK Day, so I'm just fencing and relaxing and being a normal lazy college student, I guess, to save up energy for the next two months' fencing meet saga. And counting down the days till my birthday (9!).

01022010

Happy New Year, everyone!

A cause for much excitement, besides the whole new decade thing: today's a palindrome!

According to a chain going around on facebook (reliable source, i know), "there will be 12 MM/DD/YYYY palindromes in the 21st century, 12 more in the 22nd and 12 more in the 23rd. But after that, the next such palindrome period won't happen for 711 years and a day like today won't return for millenia." Fun fact, eh? Though really the date depends on how you write the date-- today's just a normal day in Europe, where instead the date is 02012010, which is still pretty cool but not as cool. Sorry, guys. You'll just have to wait 'till   01 February.



In other news, I just found Coco Perez's 17 December entry about condom fashion-- apparently in order to raise awareness about the spread of HIV/AIDS, some company in China organized a fashion show where the clothing was made entirely of condoms. Weird, huh?


Some of the dresses were surprisingly fashionable if you ignore what they're made of, like this one below.

There were some style issues, though; can you say unnecessary close-up of unfurled, ribbed coloreds? And really, the gigantic condom lollipop was a bit much. Thankfully, no pearl necklaces were, to my knowledge, worn on the runway.


[image courtesy of Coco Perez]