But Not the Hippopotamus

I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm a little bit tired of Star Wars.  My five year old seems to live and breathe the force these days.  My heart still thrills to the music of some scenes.  I couldn't help but smile this morning as I ironed to the first few notes of my favorite scene and musical bit of Return of the Jedi.  Still, dropping what I'm doing ten times in five minutes to rush to Daddy's computer and see some amazing thing on a clone wars episode?  No thank you.  Yet I feel like my little guy is Buttercup.  He's asking if I love him.  As you wish, son. As you wish.


I almost hit a dog yesterday.  Luckily I was paying attention and stopped the car.  I had to honk twice to get the neighbor's idiot little yorkie to get out the road.  There wasn't a soul about watching for the creature.   This dog is street pizza waiting to happen and I really don't want be the one carrying doggy guilt for the rest of my life because the neighbors are careless pet owners!


Michael Jackson's death spawned a lot of terrible jokes.  I feel guilty for laughing at some of them.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise though.  My favorite jokes as a kid were the "what do you call a dog with no legs" variety.  (You don't cause he wouldn't come anyway.)  My uncle had a million of them and I lived for his visits, saving the best ones I'd heard like treasures to disperse upon his arrival. 


I'm trying to institute a policy of much less TV in our house.  After baby came it was just so easy to let my son watch something while I took care of her.  We went from a NO TV family to one that had it on at every meal time.  I hate that.  I'm not a big fan of television and yet it was taking over everything.  My son didn't want to do anything else.  Art time held no appeal.  Going outside to play or ride bikes paled in comparison to the lure of games and shows.  We succesfully made it through both dinner last night and breakfast this morning without anything on and only a few complaints from little people.  I gave the boy an hour to either watch something or play a game (he's playing Lego Star Wars) while I showered and that time is almost up.  I have to go pull the plug.  Wish me luck...

My floss moved.  My pre-threaded ready to use flossing tool magically relocated from it's perch on high in the shower where it sat in on the ledge created by the top tiles to the bathroom counter.  Now, when you find your floss some place it should not be and ask yourself how or why this happened?  Well,  you find yourself getting some new floss to use....

I admit it.  I loved My Little Pony when I was a kid.   (The toys, not the animated stuff.) They hit the scene the summer between my 4th and 5th grade and I was smitten.  I was already horse mad and those cute little ponies were the bomb.  I might have been a little old for them...or if I wasn't then then I definately was by seventh grade when the She-Ra toys hit the scene.  I learned to not expect my friends to share my interests, but kept playing with my toys by myself.

Before I had kids I also went through a phase of customizing action figures, something I enjoyed a lot but have been unable to continue.  It's an impossible hobby to pursue in a house with kids, cats and a dog and no dedicated work space that can be cordoned off from all of the above.  All of that to say that when I stumbled across THIS on my Tweeter feed my inner child perked it's little head up.  By the time I got to it's friends I was admiring pictures with the glee a geeky ten year old girl!

Wonder Woman My Little Pony

He Man and Orco My Little Pony

She-Ra Pony

My Little Spock

Oh, you get the idea.  There are PAGES of them (be sure to check out older posts for more goodies!)  Star Wars, Anime, Comic book, Star Trek, Popular culture...Elvis is awesome! You name it and it looks like there's a custom pony out there for you. 

It's sort of silly, but these little works of art brought a bit of happy into my morning.

I've been quiet this week, I know.  I'm still out here, though.  My trip to KY with my choir and then family visiting and driving back with my mom and more visiting wore me out.  I've spent the week trying to get back in gear and it just hasn't happened yet.  Sometimes it's just harder than others, not in a bad way, just in a "there's less time for idle thoughts, much less posting them online" sort of way.

Happy Friday and if I don't see you tomorrow Happy Fourth of July.  We have a great country and are lucky to get to live here.  No matter how dire things seem with jobs, finances, gas prices, politics, and what not I belive it is important to remember that. 

So, many of you will have noticed I have a thing going for cupcakes, right?  And I've documented my love of Gymboree clothes for my kids and how much fun shopping there is (especially when I wasn't happy with shopping for me.)   Anyhow, the new Two for Tea line slays me.  I think I'm looking at Aerin's fall wardrobe...

My mom came and went this weekend with no stress.  We had a great time and since I was out of town leading up to it I didn't freak out about my house being clean.  It was nice.  I did plan poorly in that I'd offered to make a cake for my neighbor's birthday party a few weeks ago without realizing that I was going to have to do that the day I got back from my road trip.  Ulp.  Still, all turned out very well indeed and I was inspired to create something entirely new that I did not have a recipe for.  This is unusual.  To celebrate I made it the very first food post on my new site!

The wordpress site hubby is building for me is not anywhere near done yet.  It's just basic wordpress design right now, and I'm still getting to know all of the features.  Still, I'm so thrilled that I created this cake all by myself that I'm going to jump the gun a little bit and give you all a sneak peek:  Banana Pudding Cake

I'm home from four days away from my family.  I think they missed me.  Hubby had flowers waiting for me: mums and pretty yellow and white flowers on the kitchen table and roses in the bedroom.  Candles too.  We were smooching while our daughter splashed in the bathtub.  Unfortunatly it was one of those almost perfect moments where the almost is the emphasis.  After a few moments of sweet kisses I found myself saying "This would probably be more romantic if we got rid of the poopy diaper..."  Hubby had been holding it behind his back.

I can now blog about the ordeal we had Thursday and Friday getting pictures made for the Daddy and Granddaddies in our family.  But ya know what?  I don't want to.  The pictures turned out great and I'd rather dwell on the positive part than the negative bits.  Hubby's had a good weekend I think.  Although he did have to mow yesterday he's also gotten his favorite cookies, a fabulous dinner out at TwentySix, another meal out (Grandpa's choice) at Up the Creek, hot breakfast and presents day of and a super long nap and lazy afternoon today.  I'll probably give him one last present tonight after the kids are in bed, too.  In short we've done our best to spoil him and I hope he's enjoyed it.

I'm on Twitter now.  It was a calculated move on my part for the new blog.  I'm still not sure that I think my life is interseting enough to tweet about, but the blog IS about books and cooking and I'm usually doing one or the other, so that's fodder for at least a few tweets a day.  I am Amusebooks there, if anyone is interested.  I've barely gotten to explore, but will be doing my best.  It's hard to give all of this stuff the sort of attention that I would like while still maintaining the house and caring for my little people.  Those things have to come first.

I found myself at the end of my mommy rope at only ten o-clock this morning, with the rest of the day still to go AND a birthday party to attend instead of nap time.  We rushed out the door to try and do a fun thing for Father's Day this morning but baby was having none of it and was in turns clingy, crying and defiant.  My son was punchy-silly and maybe trying to be helpful but instead just made our outing even more stressful for me.  It. Was. Not. Fun.

Maybe the Krispy Kreme's were a bad idea to start things off with? 

Anyhoo, we're going to try again tomorrow only AFTER the morning nap instead of before.  I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't have a nightstand.  The only thing on my side of the bed right now is our daughter's pack n play.  Eventually she will figure out how to climb out and it will no longer be a useful place for stashing her when we need her confined.  At that point I will be able to have a nightstand again.  In fact, when we retire the pack n play our whole bedroom will get a makeover I'm looking forward to it.  Until then, well, I use my hubby's nightstand.

Okay.  I'll be completely honest here.  I don't actually put things on my hubby's nightstand.  I'm guilty of extreme laziness and have a tendancy to read until I'm sleepy, shut the book and shove it over onto his side of the bed under the assumption that HE will then place it on his nightstand before he goes to bed himself.  He's a pretty good sport about it, but gets a little fed up on occaision.  Last night he came by the bed as I was almost asleep and arranged his pillows and stuff.  He gathered my books (I'd finished one earlier in the evening and brought up two from downstairs because I wasn't sure which I wanted to start.) and moved them to my desk.  He looked at me with love, amusement and a tiny touch of exasperation.

"Three books?  Now that's just excessive."

I feel as if summer has only just begun.  My mother, a teacher, JUST just out of school.  However the retailers already have their eyes on back to school merchandise and are clearly ready to move their summer stuff right out the door.  It seems like almost evey company I've ever ordered from online is announcing a sale today.  Gymboree, Disney Store, Ann Taylor Loft, Coldwater Creek, The Company Store, Land of Nod, Pottery Barn and Hallmark all had messages in my inbox this morning touting their fabulous summer sales.  Well, I exaggerate a little: Hallmark wasn't having a sale.  They just wanted to show me their limited edition Keepskae Christmas ornaments that will be out on Ornament premier weekend in three weeks...

My plants and yard need the rain, true, but I had PLANS for this morning.  Not only was hubby going to mow our slightly shaggy yard, but I've done some baking the past two days and was looking forward to setting up (possibly outside) for a photo shoot of the goodies during the baby's nap this morning.  I'll still take pictures, I suppose, but they'll have to be indoors and with a flash. 


Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I've had the wordpress site and domain since late Wednesday.  That's barely 48 hours.  I've made one post as a test while I get to know the new layout and features..and I've already gotten a spammy comment!   In other news I remember actually eating Spam when I was a kid.  My mom liked to fry it up with eggs for breakfast.

Success Story #1:  We bought my domain name last night before I went to choir, and when I came home my sweet husband already had a basic wordpress site up and running for me.  There's nothing custom about it yet, but we've taken the first step and I'm excited.

Success Story #2: I just made a batch of fluffy frosting for some rainbow cupcakes Will and I made Tuesday.  I'd popped the cakes in the freezer and thawed them this morning so they are fresh for his playdate at the pool.  The 7-Minute or Fluffy Marshmallow Icing (it has many names) really is a breeze...once you get the measurements right!  No Marshmallow fluff this time, just light perfect frosting for cupcakes.

I appreciate everyone's feedback, suggestions and encouragement.

After flirting with Savor  the Day last night (which is taken on the com, org and net level by various self help types)  I think I've landed on a a concept I like.  I could still use help, though, if anyone wants to try to wrap their brain around this again.  Mine's getting tired.

After coming up with reams of book words and cooking words and descriptive words I stopped and asked myself WHY I want to do this.  Why blog?  What's my goal?  The answer was to inspire people to read.  That's my passion.  I love to read, I love to share books and help find books to fit people.  In my mind there is no such thing as someone who isn't a book person, just people who haven't found the right book.  I love to cook -especially baking - and am always surprised when people are amazed by what seem to me to be simple things.  I definately want to make that a big part of the new site, to share secrets and recipes that are for anyone and demystify the cooking process, but books are my real passion and that's where the primary emphasis will be.

As I was trying to think of inspiration and joked to myself that I needed a muse...  Which made me wonder who the greek muse of books or reading was.  There are several, but it's Calliope who's name I like the most.  In playing with my initials I started fiddling with Amuse, too, which made me think of an amuse bouche (amusebooks?)

Anyhow, that's where I'm headed.  Callipecooks, bookmusings, amusebooks are all possibilities.  I'm worried I'm missing something especially cute or clever, though, and  am still open to suggestions.  Forget open, I'm begging for them!

My initials are MAB if you can think of any good words that have those in the middle, or even words that end with one set and start with the other.  Clio is the muse of history, Thalia comedy, Erato lyric poetry and Polyhymnia Choral Poetry.  Emma or M. A. is what I always thought I'd use if I ever publish (which maybe I'll get to do in the life of this blog.)  Is there a patron saint of books?  That was a possibility I noted down before bed, too.

I need your help!

I spent over two hours last night brainstorming to come up with a name for a new blog.  Hubby has discovered Wordpress and is eager to move me onto a wordpress site.  This would NOT replace LJ, but would instead be a new home for the book reviews I do on blogger as well as a place for me to post all of my recipes and photos.  We thought of doing TWO different ones, a wordpress site for each subject, but it seems better to just have one to maintain.

The thing is?  Naming a specific blog is much easier than a broader focused blog.  I want something that says books, but also can allude to baking or cooking but that ALSO is clever and cute and can be my handle.  I'm not (quite) itching to be the next Pioneer Woman or Bakerella, but I do love what I do and want a better forum for my book reviews and goodies.  The old blogger site was originally named to be more personally focused than it is, and I'm not attatched to that name at all.

I am excited about having a unique, professionally designed website of my very own.  Or I was till I got stumped in the naming arena.  I'm open to suggestions, in fact the best one thus far came from MamaDrama: Confessions and Confections.  I ran with book, novel, page, reader and various terms like sweet, treat and icing last night.  I tried quotes from favorite books about food, or even random phrases from Disney movies (whatsitsgalore? taken.) Sadly, like a recent PVP comic, many of them sounded naughty read aloud (Cherry on Top?  Um, no.)

I'm open to suggestion here.  I'm more than a little bummed about not being clever in this arena when I pride myself on being creative. Sigh.

For a starter I will definately be doing lots of book reviews, not all but many will be young adult literature because that is a field I adore.  I also bake, as regular readers know by now.  There may be some adventures with photography as my big project for the year is compiling my grandmother's recipes, taking pictures and assembling a cookbook.  I imagine what will get a lot of play time, and plan on sharing those recipes as I cook them in addition to my baking experiments.

Who needs a skyscraper sized Stay Puff Marshmallow Man when you've got a toddler? 

Our sweet, darling little girl has at least two nicknames that her daddy calls her on a regular basis: "sunshine" and "the destroyer."  The latter frequently gets the whole quote from Ghostbusters, what with us being a geeky household and all.  Both names are apt.  Aerin is a cheerful little girl, especially first thing in the morning.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that she's the only one in the house who wakes up perky and happy.

Sadly, the other name is also very true.  Our gal can get into stuff faster than any little kid I've ever seen.  We thought it was bad back when Will was a little mite and we had to put interior deadbolts on the exterior doors to make sure he didn't get out.  Aerin makes that seem tame.  She also wants to help.  Almost since she figured out how to walk she's been grabbing the balled up diapers to toddle off and put into our diaper pail after she gets a change.  Thursday night I couldn't find the scoop to clean the cat box, ony to have hubby discover it when he got the diapies.  It too was in the pail.  In the past three days I've fished out of the kitchen garbage can: a sippy cup, a Pooh DVD in it's case from the library  and bag of frozen vegetables she nabbed from the freezer while I was getting something.  The garbage can is now on top of my kitchen counter.  I suppose it's time to spring for a metal one with a lid, or to move the thing into the pantry for awhile.

Speaking of the pantry...if we leave it open she scavanges food, or even markers from my son's art caddy.  The new Crayola washable markers really are: they came right out of the carpet.  A rustling noise in the kitchen was the only clue I had to check on my thief yesterday whereupon I discovered she'd made off with a bunch of grapes still on the stem (choking hazard!.)  She has also been found clutching a bag of Oreos and doling out cookies to her brother recently.  I really thought we were baby proofed, but clearly different kids need different levels of proofing.  Our destroyer is going to cause a major shift in the way we live downstairs.  It will be interesting to see who wins...

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber

This was a title an online reading group I participate in.  I *might* have picked it up on my own, but I would have put it down in the first chapter or two on my own.  I suppose I'm glad I finished it.  There were very interesting parts and horrible ones.  A quest type thriller in the vein of the Da Vinci Code, Gruber's novel alternates chapters between an unreliable (and unlikeable) first person narrator and a slightly more interesting but still bland third person tale.  The two characters eventually collide in search of a whole, signed and previously undiscovered Shakespeare manuscript.  The best parts are probably the series of antique letters interspersed between the chapters.


The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

This is a lovely YA debut novel.  I enjoyed it so much that it became an entry on that other blog I'm trying to do a better job of maintaining.


Being Nikki by Meg Cabot

Being Nikki is the sequel to last year's Airhead.  It, too, made the cut for a full fledged review.  I am trying to make sure that there is a new review up every Monday, and possible on Thursdays as well.


Forever Princess by Meg Cabot

The last entry in the Princess Diaries series, this book was published at the same time as Ransom My Heart, a romance novel ostensible written by Princess Mia and featured in Forever Princess as her senior project.  In the final entry Mia turns 18, goes to prom and graduates from high school all without any major mishaps or scandal.  A nice ending to a sometimes annoying series.  Mia did a lot of growing up a long the way, a sort of Harry Potter journey for the modern princess set. 


Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Adriana Trigiani was inspired to write this story based upon her own family history with shoe makers.  A picture of the author's granfather in his shoe shop is on the dedication page.  If the machines had been on the opposite side it could very well have been a picture of my own grandfather's workshop!  I would have enjoyed the novel without that intimate resonance, but the connection made it even better.  Trigiani writes great books, if not this one try some of her other titles.  You can't go wrong.


Little Bitty Lies by Mary Kay Andrews

I'm a sucker for novels set in my neck of the woods.  Andrews lives in and writes about Georgia.  This particular book is set in a somewhat hoity toity part of Atlanta:  In my head the main character of this became a neighbor of my father and his family. 


Luscious Lemon Desserts

The perfect blend of artsy photography, functional recipes, and pleasant anecdotes about lemons and the food that can be made with them.  As cookbooks go this one is a keeper; I've put it on my Amazon wishlist.


Cupcakes by Pamela Clark

I've spent three weeks ogling the photography in this book.  The pictures are simply fabulous.  My husband and I discuss how they got such and such effect.  The recipes?  There's not one cupcake in here I would particularly want to eat or recreate as is.  The recipes who's names intrigued were not in reality a taste I would enjoy: too many of the cakes in this book rely on almond meal.  The author clearly enjoys fruit cake, too, as there are at least three if not more cupcakes in there made with variations on fruit cake.  While there might be a couple of cake recipes I could adapt with different icings or toppings, this is a library book and I won't be keeping it long enough to try since I already have plenty of recipes in the queue to experiment with.  Aside from the photos, the one part of the book that really is fabulous is the tips and kitchen hints in the back that contain tutorials on making toffee, creating flowers out of sliced and dried fruit and other such tricks.  The sugar covered raspberries on the lemon cupcakes I made Sunday night came from the tutorial here.


Cupcakes: From the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

A book sadly lacking in pictures.  Anne Byrn's Cake Mix Doctor series are great to have around the house.  One probably doesn't need all three, but any one of them has plenty ideas to help you quickly spice up a boxed cake mix into something special.  The standout recipe from this book is one that is supposedly in the Chocolate version as well: a white cake mix heavily doctored with sour cream and other things and finished off with crushed Oreos mixed in.  Definately a keeper, and so easy to make.  Since I already have the original Cake Mix Doctor book I won't be adding this one to my collection (have barely scratched the surface on the first one) but I did enjoy reading through it from the library.  Lots of tips are offered on gauging how many cupcakes a mix will make, adapting recipes from cake to cupcake and so on.


Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

The buzz on this book has been phenomenal and come from an unlikely cross-section of authors whose blogs and live journals I frequent.  I finished it Monday (but started it in May, so it goes here.)  I haven't quite formulated my thoughts on the novel, and will probably do a longer review later.  The bottom line is that I was a little disappointed considering all I'd heard about it, but might have liked it better without expectations.  YA Fantasy

I guess the diet's going better than I realized.  I put on my swimsuit today for the first time since February and it fits differently.  It's such a drastic change that it almost felt too big up top, a VERY unusual situation for me.  I halfway wondered if I needed a new one, but hubby assures me that it still looks okay.  Or even better than okay, but he's my husband and he's SUPPOSED to like how I look in swimsuit...

My little man turned into a guppie over the winter.  Last August when he had his first swim lessons he screamed through several of them.  He spent several months assuring me that he was NOT going to turn five because I'd casually mentioned that he'd have more swim lessons at that time.  We went to the pool this week for the first time since in a while (we went swimming all of twice over the winter, I always meant to take him more, but it's hard to think of swimming as an activity when it's c-c-cold out.)  Will jumped right in and climbed out and jumped in again all on his own.  We had a great time, and he's clearly about to take off water wise.  The baby's as fearless at the pool as she is everywhere else.  I'd set her on the edge of the pool and she'd slide right back in, laughing.  It took no time to teach her to stand and jump in on the count of three while holding my hands.  Catching her as she came into the water was the high point of my weekend.

I'm also making more cupcakes this weekend.  I loved the strawberry oreo combination from April, they were scrumptious, but when I tried the same trick with mint and regular oreos and chocolate cake the result was decidely ho-hum.  Then I discovered a white sour cream cake recipe with crushed oreos in it.  That one was a huge hit.  Tonight I've made a new chocolate cake recipe from scratch.  (I'm having a hard time finding a chocolate cake recipe we like.)  Half of the new chocolate cupcakes were left alone, and half got chopped Andes Mint candies.  Both the chocolate ones and the white cake oreos cupcakes are getting a layer of ganache on top before they are iced.  I have enjoyed playing with ganache lately and it makes for a lovely, smooth looking cupcake without dealing with fondant and has the added benefit of being yummy.  The Andes ones get that fabulous Mint Swiss Buttercream icing, the plain chocolate ones will get the Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing and the oreos ones will get a Marshmallow Cream cheese topping.  All of these, plus some lemon cake with lemon and raspberry filling that I will make tomorrow, will be picked up by my mother-in-law to go to her church for their VBS early Monday morning.

Pictures from last weekends cupcake bake-athon are up on Facebook HERE.  The second photo is my favorite; I love how the cupcakes reflect on the glass.  It looks like a real bakery shelf or something!  I bought some poster board today to experiment with seemless background, they only had neon and pastel colors, no white.  We may try and stop by a drug store or something tomorrow to get some white since hubby needs a good background for a project he's doing for his dad, too.  I appreciate the photos in cookbooks more and more with each attempt at photographing my creations.  It's not as easy as it seems like it should be.