Who needs this Friday?

I was just reading this article on msnbc about how Samoa is going to skip tomorrow. That's right, they are just going to skip it. When the people there go to sleep tonight, they are going to wake up the 'next' day and it's going to be Saturday. Mind boggling.

If they can skip Friday, can we just start skipping all Mondays? K thanks.

Note to self:

Don't go to the mall in the week before Christmas. It's a zoo.

I felt like this woman...I couldn't find my car either when I was leaving the mall. 

Next time, I'll leave some flares out by my car to give me a hint. 

My one crafty thing of the year

Since there are about 2.5 weeks left of 2011, I figured I would try to do something crafty since I have done nothing of the sort this year (other than a project for a social studies class where I pretended to be a Native American and made baskets out of newspaper...perhaps I will share about that later. It was actually really cool. and nerdy.)

I have a bad habit of printing recipes off of the internet and then just putting them in a big stack on the counter. Not so pretty and not so neat, either. When I make one of the recipes, if I like it I will put it back in the stack. If I don't like it, it goes in the trash. Easy enough. Well, I have quite the collection of "keeper" recipes I've printed off, along with pages torn out of magazines and newspapers, etc. I decided with my new-found free time since classes ended, I would do something about this.

I downloaded a 4x6 index card template for Word and have started putting all of my recipes in the computer on these index cards. I bought a photo album to put the cards in after I print them. This has not only helped clear up some counter space, but it also has helped me organize my recipes...I now have visions of different albums by food category. Maybe next year.

1 point for creativity in 2011. I'll aim for 2 points next year.

Best of 2011

One of my favorite things about the year coming to an end (other than Christmas) are all of the celebrity "Best of" lists. Best couple, best babies, best weddings, etc. Well, this year Us Magazine has topped itself. "Best Plastic Surgeries of 2011." Let me tell you--I had been waiting 11 and a half months to see who was going to win this category.

My personal favorite? Ali Lohan. She is still denying she had any plastic surgery (girl please, we aren't blind) because she said her mom would never allow her to do that. Yea, because Dina Lohan obviously raises such well-rounded, self-respecting daughters...LiLo.

Hope you enjoy the Best Of lists as much as I did!

It's Not Me, I Swear

My oven and I have quite a love/hate relationship. More like I hate it when I'm trying to make things I love. I suppose that's one of the downfalls of living in an apartment complex--gotta take what they give you, which in my case is an oven that burns things along the lines of Sherman's march through the South. At first, I thought it was a sign my cooking/baking skills were dismal, but recently I have come to the conclusion that it's the oven, not me.

Today I have my proof.

This morning, I wanted to make some cookies to take to my class of students because today is my last day.  Now when I say I was going to bake cookies before work, I mean I got the bag out of the fridge and put the pre-made dough on the cookie sheet. (homemade doesn't happen in the morning before work in my neck of the woods). Well, I preheated the house of flames to 350 and once it was ready, I put the cookies in and set the timer for 9 minutes, which is the low end of the recommended baking time. After nine minutes, what did I have? Rock solid, blackened cookie paper weights.

I'm pretty sure Pillsbury has perfected the cookie recipe, so it can't be their fault. And all I did was put them on my (new, I might add) cookie sheet, which is pretty hard to mess up. So that leaves my oven as the sole culprit...and the love/hate relationship continues...