wholesome friday nights

There has been this awful bug that has been going around our school and Mallory, David, and Sadhana have all gotten it. It seems that my body has been unconsciously preparing itself an awesome defense by giving me intense cravings for soup these past couple of days. Alas, my immune system ultimately failed me and I woke up with the sniffles this morning. So much for the soup. 

Anyways, on Friday with Mallory, David, and Sadhana out of commission, I spent the evening with our good friend Jon.

 

Jon and my brother had a Nerf gun fight. The testosterone in that room was palpable. Then we solved a jigsaw puzzle. It looked like this:

It's a satellite image of...Sweden, I think? I love the Swedes. Then we ate tortillas and watched What Happens In Vegas. Afterward we decided to be good patriotic Americans and watch the presidential debates. However, our boredom soon got the better of us and we switched over to America's Funniest Videos.

Hey, we're being good Americans! America needs humor in these dark times!

time for reforms in the educational system

Situation: Me studying my forensics notes outside on a warm day in autumn.

Alex: You know why it's hot out, even though it's autumn?

Me: No, why?

Alex: It's so cold it's hot.

[pause]

Me: I don't think that's right.

Alex: My teacher said so.

Beyond Bars

On my mountain climbing trip, I had to eat some things that just frankly shouldn't be eaten, because SCIENTIFICALLY they were required to keep my poor beaten body going. 

One day for lunch all I had to eat was a huge stick of pepperoni, a hunk of American cheese, and some stale crackers, and you had to eat every bit of it or you would simply not wake up in the morning. I'm used to creating elaborate lunches for myself, so this wasn't going to work out well. For instance, today I made linguini with fresh tomatoes and basil from my garden, fresh mozzarella, shrimp, extra-virgin olive oil (not the slutty kind) and Parmesan cheese. 

Yum.

One snack, however, was absolutely delicious and nutritious, and it wasn't just because I had woken up at 6 AM and plowed through snow and rock for a good five hours. They were called Beyond Bars, and I just made a batch last night. They're surprisingly easy to make, and they got me down a whole mountain, so here's the recipe for the culinary-inclined:

*3/4 c. peanut butter

*1/2 c. brown sugar

*1/2 c. white sugar

*1/2 c. oil or shortening

*1 egg

[combine ingredients]

*1/4  c. milk

*1/2 t. salt

*1/2 t. soda

*1 1/2 c. white flour

*1 1/2 c. oats

[at this point you can add whatever you want. The recipe calls for 1/2 c. shelled sunflower seeds, 3/4 c. raisins, and 3/4 c. chocolate chips. I leave out the raisins because they repulse me a little bit. Combine all the rest of the ingredients at the end.]

Spread 1-1.5" think in a greased pan, and cook at 275 f. for 35-40 minutes. Makes 9 bars. Now go climb a mountain. You can do it.

my toothbrush never lets me down

SO I still want to have Kevin Barnes' babies, although unfortunately (for me) he already has one cute-as-a-button daughter. Kevin Barnes is the frontman of one of my all-time favorite bands, Of Montreal. They just released this song for Nick Jr., I think. In any case, it's a free song to anyone who needs reminding to brush their pearly whites. It's catchy and adorable.

Brush Brush Brush

PS- please ignore the sexual advertisements; if it were up to me I'd be advertising something pleasant like a healthy smile.

sunday afternoon

Today Mallory, my mother, and I drove to the Princeton Battlefield with our pups to let them run free free free. Peter is in the hormonal teenager stage and all he really wants is some ass. And to be loved. He's not that smart but he's deadly cute. DEADLY.

(I know that this photo is not that cute but do not blame the photographer; that dog would not stay still for a moment. That leaf really needed a severe telling off anyways.)

Lily is in her spayed pissed-off feminist stage who secretly wants some ass. I mean look at this:

 

She is the one doing the chasing here! So we coulda used a blanket, but the grass was ok and the sun was nice and it wasn't too hot. I used to go to the Battlefield all the time when I was a wee tot, so it was nice to be back. Check out Mallory posing:

Afterwards we went to Pizza Star and got some cannoli's and pizza. It was nice. 

Poodlejamz

I can't believe Mallory nor I have ever mentioned this!

Well, when I got my Mac, I found out it came with a nifty little widget: GARAGEBAND! You can basically create TastyCake for your ears with this. One day we were messing around with it, and POODLEJAMZ was born. This was way back in I don't know last June? We made one song, Alvaroodle Pelaezz (available for free download if you click the link, hah I'm shamelessly selling myself, although technically its not selling!), for our album "Car Commercials," made plans for the heaps of money we would get, and promptly forgot about it.

That's cool, though; I still play it sometimes and we can impress the hell out of people if we don't mention the fact that we didn't ACTUALLY play the instruments in this song, we just ARRANGED them so they sounded like the second coming of the lord. In the middle of the school week. I'm proper proud of it though, even if it was a one-shot thing. At least I know I can fall back on something in college if my thousands of dollars are wasted learning!

Clearly not a magnetic attraction...

Today the Martha Stuart in me busted out and held me pinned to the ground until I created this. It's a cheesy, simple, and cheap project I had always thought beneath me for those exact reasons. But there was no denying my "womanly intuition," as Mallory and I lovingly dub it, and I held M. Stewarts beastly, unbeatably CRAFTY hand and charged forward...

Into frustration!

Everything went wrong; the glass gems weren't large enough, the glass gems weren't transparent enough, the scissors went missing, the magnets were non-existent (read: I had to fork over 2 bucks to get more), the glue gun was out of glue and leaked, the magnets that I bought were too weak, and my fingers burned. 

End result? A measly, translucent glass gem with a part of a map messily glued to the back, barely strong enough to keep itself up on the fridge, not to mention keeping a piece of paper up there. I could see the M. Stewart beast rolling its eyes and retreating in disgust. I suppose I'll photograph it sometime and post it up here, not much out of pride but as a warning to myself. The craft itself was childishly simple, but it chastised me and brought me off my high horse a little. Just a nudge.