My dearest friend,

Everyone needs to see, nay experience the HBO miniseries, John Adams based on the book by David McCullough which is in turn, based on the volumes of correspondence and personal writings of John and Abigail Adams. The attention to detail is stunning, the authenticity breathtaking, the story far more compelling than other (romanticized) tellings of American history.


WATCH IT! WATCH IT NOW!

Tall and tan, young and lovely...

It's a nice warm evening. The windows are open and it sounds like this in our apartment:



I just love the way everyone looks in this little clip! Even the lady randomly wearing just a leotard to a jazz performance... her hair is great! But no one is a cute as Astrud herself. That bow is just darling!

Happy Earth Day!

In honor of today's holiday, I've decided to sing the praises of a most wonderful substance which is incredibly useful AND is safe for the Earth: Baking Soda!

Not only is it an excellent leavening agent in baking, but it is great for scouring sinks and bathrooms, it's a fabric softener, an all purpose cleaner when mixed with vinegar and water, a deodorizer when sprinkled on the carpet before vacuuming, a deodorizer in its box in the freezer/refrigerator, a grease fire extinguisher, and has been rumored to be effective in soothing skin irritations like sunburns and bee stings, as a paste.

All of this while being safe for the environment? LOVES IT!

I visited with one of my college roommates today, Brittany. We are to fabulous for our own good when we get together. She lives 5 minutes outside the nearest big city...I live an hour away. But I was in town interviewing at a local hospital so I called her up and I'm SO glad I did. Today just proved how lucky I am to have someone from my past be close to me in a place so far from home.

Anyway, we met at a train museum which is located in a tunnel that connects the center of downtown to a beautiful old hotel. As far as I know, this hotel has not been on Great Hotels, but it seriously needs to be. We then walked about a bit and settled into a local cafe for a pot of Russian black tea to catch up. She's the only person I know with a similar thought/conversation pattern to my own. We constantly interrupt for fabulous and tragic passerby, and return to topics from three interruptions ago. We then drove around in the surrounding neighborhoods and looked at mansions which are known to host glamorous benefit balls. We ended up at a Cheeburger, Cheeburger. I ate a (larger than) quarter pound burger with lettuce, tomato, coleslaw and ketchup; an embarrassing quantity of french fries; aaaaaannnnnndddd a size "half" coconut cream pie flavored milkshake (Which was 12 oz...who drinks a 24 oz MILKSHAKE???) It was my first meal of the day...so I was starving. Now I'm in pain. Like "my stomach is so full it's pressing on my kidneys and giving me back pain", pain.

Dinner conversation included: Gushing over Paris, Je T'Aime, not being from here, the embarrassment of being set up with an engaged pastor, why it is necessary for best friends to have completely different taste in potential mates, the hypocrisy of telling a friend she would look like Fergie in a bathing suite modeled after the Giraffe print Dooneys while carrying a zebra print tote that could approx. 30 lbs of schtuff, and hard core hiking. Like I said, too fabulous for our own good.

It was fun, and I love her. I can't wait for her to come out to my podunk town so we can shake (Ugh...shakes.) things up a bit here. I have already purchased an adorable top for the occasion.

And now, please enjoy this photo of us in our dorm. Good times.

Eff A, Bee Oh, Elle Oh, You Ess!

What I wouldn't give to see a man in a beautifully tailored suit cruise down the street on a vintage Dutch bike.

It was finally sunny today, and I spent a good bit of it sitting in a camping chair on the balcony. I love my new home. I love the flowers, the mountains, the small town vibe, the low humidity, the fact that it's not stiflingly hot. Just enjoying the sun was something I would do back home...except it would be in one of those zero gravity chairs between the pool and the palm trees. *sighs* Today was so nice, but the minute the sun went down my daydreams were over.

I guess this is what they call being homesick? It's mid-April but we aren't firing up the blender, the grill, and the Bob Marley albums on the patio. What gives? Tonight, I feel every inch of the 1,000 miles I am from home.

For the record...I had a fabulous day, and I'm about to take tea on the balcony with my lover. Just had to end this on a positive note. :o)

GPOYW

This photo features one of my whole-grain carrot cupcakes with coconut-pecan-cream-cheese icing and militant robot cupcake liners. My lover and I have each devoured enjoyed three of them today. True story.

Rain + Sunshine = Rainbows

The rain here is so depressing. Back home it's quick and forceful, sometimes exhilarating. Here it just lingers, and sputters. It's not even worth using an umbrella over yet it stays for two or three days at a time so it's enough to get everything just wet enough to be miserable. Add that to the fact that it's 20-30 degrees colder here than it is back home, and I would guess that stepping outside would feel like what I imagine how walking through a ghost would feel.
Although our apartment is cozy, and full of love, some aspects are a little less than sunny lately. My lover has so much work to do, he's working on his third all nighter in a row and I am not feeling very well. I woke up this morning to find I had slept yet another night alone in bed, and he had spent it in our office. The weather sucked, and I had not done last night's dishes...blah. I had fully intended on going to the bathroom and going straight back to bed. But my lover had other plans...
He was grinning ear to ear to see me awake, which immediately made me forget about my previous complaints. He could have stopped there, but he didn't. He pulled out a copy of Radiohead's Rainbows, which he had acquired during a study break last night! THEN he made our breakfast while we listened to it!! I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I know I have a lot to do to return his beautiful favors!

Fantastic Weekend!

I really had a good, balanced weekend that took care of my needs. Mind, body,and soul. I participated in several religious activities, made significant progress on my job search, went on a short hike with new friends, and had GREAT times with GREAT friends!

**Interruption: As I'm writing this, my best friend from back home just called. SHE'S COMING UP TO VISIT NEXT MONTH!!! YAY!!!!

Thursday, after watching Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist we made a last minute decision to head down to our favorite watering hole to meet up with some friends just 30 minutes before last call and an hour before closing. Such fun heralded the opening of a great weekend!

Friday I went to the first religious activity of the weekend, which was very fulfilling.

Saturday morning was the second religious activity of the weekend, where I took tea with some of the ladies there. One of the ladies had just returned from a trip to Malaysia. She brought beautiful lavender tea and sweets. We heard all her stories about her lovely trip! Later that day I went on a short hike with the TOEFL students at the local university. So many beautiful people from beautiful cultures! My life is truly enriched by coming into contact with their lives. I had never heard any Arabic languages until then. It was so beautiful!

After the hike, we took tea at one of the professors' home, in her garden!

Saturday night we watched another David Lynch film, Mulholland Dr. It definitely pushed boundaries for me, but luckily it was in a very comfortable environment, so it turned out to be a positive experience. After the movie we stayed at our friend's house until 8:30 a.m. on Easter Sunday!! For a long time a lot of my friends, even my parents, have said "Nissa! If you like *insert band name here* you will love Radiohead!" Well, I had listened to them and sort of been like "eh." For some reason, last night I was ready. I had an education. It was so great! We listened to them for hours, and their music was just so great! Thom Yorke just goes there! His spirit is so fused with what he's singing, I couldn't help but feel connected too.

I slept most of today, but I woke up in time to enjoy a couple of hours of today's beautiful weather! Just a superb weekend!

I heart Where's Fluffy!

Holy crap, another movie post! Sorry...it's what I do these days! Anyway-

We just rented Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was pretty cute. Some parts were kind of...well lame. Typical teen romantic comedy stuff. But some of it was really great. I laughed so hard at some of the parts that really reminded me of being in high school. I was totally a Norah. I openly loved rules (I'm not even kidding.) but I hung out with all the kids who were anti-establishment and whatnot. I even have a best friend who is a lot like Caroline. I was straight edge but would later deny it because that would be allowing myself to be labeled and as I used to say "labels are for cans of tuna!" My "Nick" (same guy I'm still with!) was in a ska band at the time and we were always going to these local "underground"/"scene" shows and stuff. Oh the fun we had! I would have died if we had a local band like Where's Fluffy to hunt down.

A birthday cake for Christina and Matt

My lovely cousin sent me this comment:

"You should give me a cake recipe. Matt and I are celebrating our birthdays in two weeks since we missed out on the actual events this year. We want to bake a cake together! I thought, of all people, you would have some expert advice!"


So here it is:

I am posting a receipt based on a mix because it's easier and JUST as delicious as a cake from scratch. :0) I made this cake as a cupcake with a coconut butter cream for my boyfriend's birthday last year, as well as a layer cake with coconut butter cream and lemon curd filling for mother's day.

Lemon Cake with Strawberry Cream Filling

For the cake, you will need:

1-18.5oz box of classic white cake mix

1- 3.8oz box of Lemon pudding mix

3 eggs

1 and 1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease two 8 inch cake pans. yada yada...

Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, mix on low for 1 minute and on high for 2 more minutes. Divide the batter among the two pans and put them in the oven for 30 minutes. When they are done, let the layers cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, lick the beaters...you know you want to! Wash them, and your bowl and prepare the filling and icing.

For the filling and icing, you will need:

1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and sliced

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

In a separate small bowl, coat the strawberries with the granulated sugar and let them set in the fridge, or on the counter top...it doesn't really matter. But make sure it's covered and all that. We want to maintain sanitary conditions. :o) For the best results, I would even do this before starting the cake portion, because we want lots of luscious strawberry juice for our filling. Okay, on to the cream. Take your cream from the fridge at the very last second, cold cream whips up with more volume than room temp cream. If you have the time and foresight, I would even put the bowl and the beaters in the refrigerator for a few minutes too. Okay, so using your electric mixer, beat the hell out of your cream until it is thick. This should take about a minute and a half. Add your sugar and continue to whip for 1 or 2 minutes longer. You do want it fairly stiff since it is going to have to hold the layers together.

Take half of the cream and put it into a different bowl. Fold in the strawberries and their juice.

This is your filling. Use the rest of the cream to frost the outside of the cake.

Place 16 candles on top of cake, sit across from each other on either side of the cake with legs crossed on the table, kiss over cake and fade to black.

GPOYW

This week's photo features my lover's glasses. Alas, I have good vision and do not require a pair of my very own.

**Please ignore the very messy hair, I have put on my pjs and all that and thus took my hair down from this style. Which, by the way I highly recommend. It's so easy and it's a nice step up from the I'm-too-lazy-to-even-pull-this-half-assed-ponytail-all-the-way-through-the-elastic look I am usually sporting.

I am the best grocery shopper in the world!

I average about $20 off my grocery bill every week, and my record is $30 worth of FREE GROCERIES using my loyalty card and coupons! Today's savings? $29. 30 off of a bill that was originally $95.40 ( I feel a bit tacky putting how much I spend on groceries up on the Internet for the world to see, but it's only so people aren't like, "Yeah, she saved $ 30 off of a bill that was $500, big whoop".)..ROBBING THEM BLIND!!!! BA HAHAHAHAHA!!!

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Okay, seriously I need to find a more interesting hobby. :0/

Thanks to hollywoodyesterday.com for the photo. :)

I'm only sleeping...

Ugh. Lately I've been sleeping for 9 hours every night, and it still takes me a bit to wake up. Weird, right? Luckily I found this little article! I will be implementing it immediately! I think my main deficiencies are in water and sunshine. Two things that were VERY easy to come by in my old home, which are in relatively short supply in my new home. Not that we don't have water...it's just not 80% humidity on a regular basis here. In my old home it was perfectly reasonable to think one could hydrate via osmosis. Here the air is thin and dry. I'm not complaining though...my hair looks fabulous!

She captivates me.

Every time I see her around town, 3 thoughts enter my head simultaneously:

1. I LOVE HER OUTFIT

2. What is she doing in this podunk town??

3. I'm so glad she's in this podunk town.

International Street Festival!

Lots of cool stuff, but here are a couple of my favorite photos of the day:

That old guy was a hoot!

That little girl in the back ground is so cute!!

Little kids are the best!

Also, are balloons the new abandoned farms? You know? Like, five years ago every album cover/artistic photograph was of some abandoned farm full of rusty equipment? Yeah. Just noticing a lot of balloons lately.

More Cherry Blossoms in the Spring

I took some cherry blossom pictures on Saturday. I'm so glad I got to take some photos because the petals started falling off the next day. The weather was beautiful all weekend! I even got to wear a sun dress on Sunday! Alas, it's cold/cloudy/rainy today and it will probably snow tomorrow. I just can't believe this weather!!

My soul looks like this:

** skip the parts about the significant other choking. I love my boyfriend. He is perfection.

Having a bad day?

Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe

Not anymore. :D

The Jo-Ann's project

I never got around to going to Jo-Ann's Fabrics, but I did have some scraps laying around from another project. (Actually, the scraps came from the piece pictured on my banner.) Anyway, I wrapped some empty/damaged album covers with the fabric and used them to showcase some photos I took of...tree stumps. Yeah I know I'm weird, but they turned out really neat! Now the wall above the couch is nice and balanced. The best part is, I decorated for free and reduced waste! So here is how it turned out:

My lover says, "Green + Recession Proof = chicka, chicka yeah!" (a la McLovin)

GPOYW

I have just learned of this "Gratuitous Picture Of Yourself Wednesday". I know this one isn't of my face, but this is the best hair day I've EVER had. (Haha! I just noticed our tv is in the back ground... ab fab.)

My three favorite things? Love, love, and love.

I've been checking out DVDs from the library a lot lately. We only have 2-4 channels on TV (depending on the weather) and it's free entertainment. I have just watched Frederico Fellini's La Dolce Vita. I would say eye candy, but that implies a lack of substance. This movie is more... eye strawberries and champagne.