hello, lovely

Congrats to Melanie & Jon on their new baby girl!

*hugs*

Joe went out on Friday to get some super cheap DVDs, and while he was there, he picked up Guitar Hero World Tour for half price (score!). I was playing, and I got a perfect score on “What I’ve Done” by Linkin Park. My sister would be so proud.

Well, I sort of accidentally skipped last month’s challenge of Pizzas. Things were busy, and then we traveled, and then the month was over. But! When I saw we were switching to sweet stuff after a couple months of savory challenges, I was very excited. I was even more excited when I found out we were baking a CAKE! There was also the optional challenge of making these vanilla bean caramels, but eh. I didn’t feel like it, especially after the harrowing experiences I had trying just to MAKE this cake! lol

Team Unraveled (my 3-day walking team) decided to have a get together other than our regular Thursday night knit night and get together to watch Pride & Prejudice (the GOOD version. The Colin Firth version), because some of us had seen it, and some of us hadn’t seen or, or seen it the whole way through. When I found out the challenge, I figured the watching party would be a GREAT place to try it out!

I ran into some challenges along the way. My oven is crazy and very unpredictable, and it burned the cake within 10 minutes of being in the oven. (I HATE my oven, but I have no idea what I can do about it, living in an apartment.) Well, burned the edges and very darkly browned the top, but the center was raw. I turned the oven off and let it sit there, hoping to cook the center. That experiment seemed to work, but when I took the cake out of the oven, it still looked like it was going to be inedible.

I cut the cake in half and found that aside from the outside edges, it was edible, and actually very delicious. Unforunately, I’d already massacred it, so I ran out to get more ingredients, because I ran out of some stuff with the previous batch. I remade the batter, but some of the things didn’t get to room temp despite my attempting to hurry things along (eggs in a hot water bath, microwaving the milk for a few seconds, etc), and the batter looked like it was curdled after I finished it the 2nd time. I, fed up with the whole mess, dumped it and cleaned up the kitchen.

I ended up taking one of the halves of the cake to the party anyway, sans frosting, and it was a very delicious hit! Very moist and very tasty. I decided I wanted to try it again to take to my future in-laws for Thanksgiving, and the whole thing was a big mess. I made the syrup the day before, hoping to at least alleviate some of that headache, so it would be room temp by the time I needed it, but it ended up crystallizing in the jar I put it in. I don’t think I let it cook long enough. I warmed it up, hoping to be able to use it, but it wasn’t as dark and clear as the batch of syrup I’d made with the last cake.

My oven, again, burned the cake, but after learning from last time that it would still be good, I followed the same steps. This time, I cut off the edges and frosted it anyway. I wasn’t going through all that work for nothing again. LOL

I took it to Thanksgiving, and it seemed to be a big hit. I got a lot of compliments on it, but when I tasted a piece, it seemed to be very dry…not at all as moist as it was the last time, but it was still good. The frosting gave the dry cake a nice balance, and while it’s still very sweet, the sweetness seemed to be evened out by the cake.

I really liked it, and I will try this recipe again, if for no other reason than to get it RIGHT for once, but I will have to be VERY motivated to do it with all the prep work (ie: making the syrup) involved. I think I’d also maybe like to try it by substituting maple syrup or chocolate syrup or some other pre-made syrup. The recipe is behind the cut.

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Also, a bit silly.
Btw, I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

(If you’re not a fan of I Can Has Cheezburger?, you might not get it, but seriously? This is hilarious. Vows were found here.)

O hai. We here before all dese ppl and Ceiling Cat sos cat 1 and cat 2 can has marriage.

cat 1 and cat 2, marriage iz commitment and all about luv, so if u marry wifout thinkin hard about it, ur doin it wrong.

Anyone has visible reason they shud no marry? No? Gud.

cat 1 and cat 2, LOLCat Bible sez, “Luv is pashient an kind and stuff, luv no has jelusy and no shows off. It not rude, it not say UR DOIN IT WRONG. It no aligned wif basement cat but only ceiling cat. Luv protectz, trusts in all teh stuff, hopes in all teh stuff, sticks wif u in all teh stuff. FAIL? Not luv.” Dis what luv shud be for u.

cat 1, what u here for? (cat 2’s paw for marryin)

What u promis for cat 2? (I can has u, cat 2, for bein all wedded an stuff. I can has, I can hold. We can has riches, we can has no riches, we can has helf, we can has no helf, I still all luv u until ded.)

cat 2, what u here for? (cat 1’s paw for marryin)

What u promis for cat 1? (I can has u, cat 1, for bein all wedded an stuff. I can has, I can hold. We can has riches, we can has no riches, we can has helf, we can has no helf, I still all luv u until ded.)

Marriage no jus two cats, it needz other cats for supports and luv. Srsly, all u be there for them? (Yes.)

I can has bukkit wif rings?

Rings are all round, they has no end jus like your luv. cat 1, place ring on cat 2’s paw and say: I maed u a ring and I no pawn it. Wif this ring, I are wedding u. cat 2, u do same and say: I maed u a ring and I no pawn it. Wif this ring, I are wedding u.

U both now all married. Ceiling cat will now watch u kiss.

Here is cat 1 and cat 2 all married. Kthxbai.

Thanksgiving is in like, a DAY. Would it KILL YOU to wait a whole day or two (or month, since you KNOW you started this in October) to start with the freaking CHRISTMAS MUSIC? I can’t STAND Christmas music now because I know I’m going to have to listen to it for a whole month until Christmas actually gets here, and that pisses me off more than it puts me in the Christmas Spirit.

So, on behalf of…well, everyone: NO CHRISTMAS UNTIL AFTER THANKSGIVING. Christmas is BANNED until the day after Thanksgiving.

You know, like it used to be.

Love,
Manda

I was out shopping today, using up the last of the Lane Bryant gift card I got last year for my birthday, and trying to find something like these to use when we’re watching tv in the bedroom so I can knit without killing my back, lol, or lying down and falling asleep!

At Lane Bryant, they’d already started playing the stupid Christmas music. Bah Humbug, considering it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. Well, I got up to the cashier, and two of the employees were joking around. The lady helping me was putting my stuff by the de-sensor machine, and one of the other ladies had her stuff close to the same spot, and she was all like “Are you in my space???” and it just went on from there. It was pretty funny, but the register next to me opened up, and this other lady went up there. The cashier asked how the lady was doing, and if that was all, and the lady was like, “I’d buy more if you turned this damn Christmas music off. I can’t stand it, so all I can stand here long enough to get is this necklace!” lol. The joking cashiers ended up telling the manager who was a couple registers down (and a GUY! That’s the 2nd guy I’ve known to work in a LB… I think TC used to work with a guy, too! haha) that if he turned off the music, this lady would buy more stuff. He ended up going in the back and turning it off. ahah And she ended up buying some more stuff. It looked like she had a pile going. It was hilarious.

I ended up getting a couple of bras (the whole reason I went there), 2-3 shirts, and my favorite, the 5 for $25 panties. Way over spending my gift card, but I had one of the gift cheques, so my $150 purchase actually ended up only costing me about half of that once everything was taken off. I even scored some Real Women dollars!

I suck at blogging. Seriously. I wish I could get away with blogging at work… that seems to be the only time I think of blogging anything REMOTELY interesting. So, here’s a random assortment of things….

Things have been fairly boring around here. Joe’s been working like crazy, making up for all the times he got to leave work early, and I’ve just been… well, surviving, I guess. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, work-wise. Then again, I’m pretty sure I’m the least paid person in the office, so I’m probably a deal. lol.

After our visit to Dallas, I started using a new shampoo: Garnier Fructis. I almost always hate the shampoos they give at hotels. My hair never feels right when I use them, and I don’t want to deal with taking out the “Plastic Baggy of Items that Used to Maybe Be Used to Blow Up A Plane But Aren’t Anymore Provided You Only Have 2-3 oz. of Them” at security, so I just go to a Walmart or a drugstore when we get where we’re going and get my own. Normally, my old stand buy is Pantene, but I’ve been unhappy with them for a while (it turns out the shampoos at the hotel we were at were actually Pantene, so it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if I would’ve used them). I was going to get Dove, because it’s okay, but they didn’t have any. All they had was the Garnier Fructis, so I decided to try it. My hair was AWESOME! When we got home, I went and bought full-sized versions, and I LOVE it! My hair is shiny again,and it’s not dandruffy like when I use Pantene (maybe it’s the wax flaking off or something). It has some body to it, even after it’s been in a pony tail all day! I LOVE this stuff! I’m still having other hair issues, but if I go back to taking vitamins, that should help.

I officially started Christmas Shopping last week. Some of the places nearby were having decent deals on some DVDs, so we bought some for our own library, and I went shopping for family members. We’re big on the DVDs, so it’s easy to buy (most of the time), and it’s not too awful to ship things back home. So far I have something for my mom and my stepdad. I still need to figure out what I’m doing for my sister and Joe. I’m doing a bit of knitting, too, but nothing too crazy. Mom, Charles, and Megan are going to get knitted gifts, provided I finish them in time, and I think I’m going to knit for Joe’s parents & sister, and maybe for a couple of other people. Provided I finish everything in time. No knitting related stress this holiday season. We’re off Thursday, obviously, and Friday/Sat/Sun, so I’m hoping that I’ll get lots of knitting done next weekend… maybe even finish, or get very close to finishing the major gifts.

I saw Twilight last night, but I’m still kind of… meh… about it. It was okay, but I didn’t like it nearly as much as I was hoping I would. That’s all I really want to say, because I don’t want to spoil it for everyone. I think I need to see it again after it’s been out a little while so I can hopefully see it without the entire theater screaming and squealing when it starts or whenever Edward comes on screen. There was a group of teeny boppers in front of us who kept giggling anytime an important line was said, but we were sitting next to a dad and his two sons (figure that one out), so thankfully, I wasn’t sitting NEXT to a crazy teenager in LURVE. OH, and I WILL say this… for the parts that were cast with BLONDE HAIRED PEOPLE - it would have been MUCH BETTER if they cast .. oh, I don’t know, NATURALLY BLONDE-HAIRED PEOPLE. The chick who plays Rosalie is STUNNING…. in her natural BROWN hair… not so much as a blonde. Or at least making their hair much more convincing. It was like, spray-paint blonde hair.. cuz you could almost TELL that their real color was trying to come through. I did like it though. I think I’d have enjoyed it much more if I’d gone by myself, or with someone who actually had read the books and was excited about it, too. Joe went with me, but I still don’t really know why, because he would have rather been ANYWHERE but in that theater. lol All that said, I can’t wait until the next one. lol.

Do you think I could get away with wearing my pjs to work? I really don’t feel like getting dressed today.