can't stop!

Dear Retail Gods,

In order for me to stop buying stuff, you need to stop putting ridiculously cute stuff on sale. Come on, cupcake notecards? Are you kidding?

Thanks,
Erica


*found on shelterrific, good times had there.

weekend update

Oh, I have a lot of stuff to say. Oh, why do I always start sentences with "oh"? I have no idea.

1) On my neighborhood.
Last Saturday I had a lovely afternoon that included walking to the downtown library. I obviously love libraries, but this one takes the cake...just look at it! It's not like all the smallish community libraries that I've been to....which are fine and get the job done, but pale in comparison to this. This one is old and classic, and has marble staircases. And it's within walking distance. Hooray! So, I got a bunch of travel books and trudged back up the hill (which has this view) and settled down in my neighborhood coffee shop. When I left, I very absent-mindedly left my favorite scarf on my chair as I tried to find to perfect song to walk home to. A very nice woman ran after me across the street (while I was oblivious) to return my scarf. It made my day.

2) On Spring not actually being here.
So after my nice weekend, thinking spring was on the way, it snows nearly a foot on Monday. [pictures] My district of course had the foresight to neither cancel school nor delay it, and I showed up to work to discover our building had no power. It was a long day. But it was pretty when I got home. Now of course the snow looks brown and disgusting.

3) On media
I'm taking a nod from Mike to tell you about my media consumption as of late. Besides a bunch of travel books, I also got Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer from the library. I like it so far, especially how it's written in the voice of a 10 year old in a way that's not realistic but also very believable and honest.

And, I've been going through season one of Arrested Development thanks to my new dvd player. There is not much to say except that it is hilarious. And that's why you never teach lessons.

on television

1. Project Runway
I cannot wait for the finale. I am so excited for it I am having dreams about it. No, seriously! In one dream my sister and I had lunch with Heidi Klum. We asked her all about the show...fun times. In another dream, I was flirting with all the Project Runway men, which is odd, since they're gay. I'm rooting for Daniel or Chloe. My money is on Daniel.

Fans should really read this interview with Tim Gunn. [Part 1 and 2] I still love him, but I didn't expect him to be talking shit about the contestants! And who hordes muslin? It's MUSLIN. Chiffon, that makes some sense. Muslin does not.

2. New Scandinavian Cooking
This is one of the shows I sometimes watch during my Saturday morning cooking show marathon on Public Television. It fascinates me to no end because this really cute Norweigan guy goes to a middle of a fjord or something, sets up a kitchen (who cares how? It's Norway! It's magical!), cooks a nice meal, and then invites some of his very attractive Norweigan friends to come eat with him. It's the best looking cooking show there is. Anyway, on the show I just watched, he puts on his scuba gear, dives into the sea, and catches a king crab with his bare hands. (Okay, fine, he had gloves.) I don't even like seafood but it was strangely hot...until he smashed the poor thing on the side of the boat and ripped all its legs off. Yeck.

silicone! it's not just for fake breasts!

So, when I was moving into my apartment and scrambling to get everything I would ever need in my kitchen (which was pretty much everything, since all I had was a bread knife), my mom offered to give me a few things she didn't need from a silicone bakeware set she got. It was probably something like this. And even though I'm not into fancy pants baking technology, I wasn't about to say no to a loaf pan when I had none to call my own.

I finally broke in the sucker tonight. If you don't know, it's this kind of plasticy material that will not melt (!), and you can squish it all about. [Me trying to describe it to my sister when I couldn't remember it was silicone: "Uhhh, it's this stuff you can bake things in, and it's like, you know, floppy?" Her: "Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about."] I filled it in with banana bread dough, and look at what happened to it!

The amazing pan couldn't take the weight of my awesome banana bread. Lumpy bread, sheesh. But when I took it out of the floppy pan, it did come out beautifully (although still lumpy) with little effort on my part.

[Yes, tinfoil can be a cooling rack. Another thing I haven't gotten yet.]

For those of you keeping score at home:
-1 for lumpy loaf
+1 for ease of removal
+ a gazillion because my banana bread is awesome even if it looks like a football
+1 for chocolate chips
+ 1 for walnuts
____________
total = a gazillion plus 2. Not bad!

Now some hot steamy action* for you:

*Man, I'm going to get the best search referrals from this post. Fake breasts and hot steamy action, ohhh yeah.
p.s. anonymous comments are back, baby!