New Hobby?

Yep, Williams-Sonoma had half-price beer-brewing kits! Stay tuned...

Fancy a Mullet, Anyone?

The Mullet Cometh! (I'm entering my tri-monthly period of feeling apologetic everytime I go out in public. As in, "I'm sorry you have to see this haircut." It all ends when I run screaming into a salon.)

Why I love Saturdays: Dessert for breakfast! In this case, peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. I used this recipe from the Pioneer Woman blog: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/peach_crisp_wit/, only omitted the maple cream sauce, substituted a mixture of honey/agave nectar for the maple syrup, and added a couple splashes of brandy. SO delicious!

Daniel and I visited what may be the liquor store with the largest wine selection in Wichita. After spending way too long feeling overwhelmed, searching blindly for a wine with that perfect combination of cheapness+ an interesting label, I finally wandered into the beer aisle and found this. You can't resist the Killer Penguin! (Hope it tastes great, too!)

 

 

 

So, thanks to this blog post (not THIS one, but this one: http://theerstwhilephilistine.com/2012/09/05/why-you-should-be-watching-rev/), I have come up with a series to fill my Bunheads void. If you, too (and who doesn't?), need to watch move TV (yes, that was sarcasm), then read this post and see if it doesn't convince you to pop on over to hulu and watch Rev. ohwhydoievenstart?!

By the bye, if you return to picture #2, lying to the left of my delicious breakfast is a letter from my brother, straight from boot camp! Whoo!

Thanks to the cool front and a new display of chai, apple cider, and skeleton aprons at Food for Thought, I'm feeling in the mood for Fall. And Halloween! (Which we will be spending in PORTLAND!)  So here is a poem:

Fashionista Fancypants spoke scathingly to Sue:
"You can't wear mullets, pinks with reds, or polkadots and plaid.
It hurts my head, it makes me mad!
What frightful things to do!
But you are clad in ALL of these-AND boots in garish green!
Oh, please put on this overcoat-
It's simple, black, and oh-so-haute..."
Said Sue, "It's Halloween." 

I Get a Kick Outta Words!

Jenny, here's your picture! I took some creative liberties with your sentence, I'm afraid :)

Is it fall yet? I keep thinking about hot chocolate...longingly, followed by a shudder and a search for ice water. That above picture is me after a run-walk yesterday evening. Looks fun, but I was ill-prepared (hydration-wise) for that li'l bit of exercise, and now I'm working on a 24-hour headache. Took the afternoon off, and took a nap.

Don't worry, this blog is not going to keep giving you fourth-grade flashbacks, forcing you to face one vocabulary list after another...but just one more, please?! These are such fun words! Thanks again to Kaplan Vocabulary Cards, with some help from the American Heritage College dic-tion-ar-y.

1. Malediction
2. Nabob
3. Galumph
4. Lugubrious
5. Faineant (imagine an accent over the "e")
6. Limpid
7. Legerdemain
8. Malinger

1. Malediction-"a curse; a wish of evil upon another" (also, anathema; imprecation)
2. Nabob-"a person of wealth and prominence" (American Heritage)
3. Galumph-"to move or run clumsily or heavily" (American Heritage)
4. Lugubrious-"sorrowful; mournful; dismal" (make sure you say lu-GOOOOO-brious. Makes
    a sad word glad!)    
5.  Faineant-"given to doing nothing; idle" (American Heritage, pronounced fay-nay-on)
6. Limpid-"clear, transparent"
7. Legerdemain-"trickery"
8. Malinger-"to evade responsibility by pretending to be ill" (Ferris Bueller, anyone?)

Here is a link Christi sent, to the cutest cookie sandwiches! Looks like a fun blog, too, but I haven't gotten beyond the PB&J sugar cookies yet.
http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/08/peanut-butter-and-jelly-cookie.html

Another up-and-at-'em poem:

Sever simply-holding-ons
Be calm oh clingy heart
The past is meant for memory
The present, a new start.

Banish brainless future-fears
Potential, premature
Risk accident (fall far fall flat),
'Love living' is the cure.

Fun with Words!

Brought to you by Kaplan's GRE Vocabulary Flashcards!
You can quiz yourself: I'll list ten words, and put the answers at the bottom. Oh, and I am in the "I" section.

1. Incarnadine
2. Inchoate
3. Inculcate
4. Ingenuous
5. Inexorable
6. Ingratiate
7. Inimical
8. Innocuous
9. Inquest
10. Insipid

How do you think you did? Here are the definitions:

1. Incarnadine-"blood-red in color"
2. Inchoate- "not fully formed; disorganized"
3. Inculcate- "to teach; to impress the mind"
4. Ingenuous- "showing innocence or childlike simplicity"
5. Inexorable- "inflexible; unyielding"
6. Ingratiate- "to gain favor with another by deliberate effort; to seek to please somebody so as to
      gain an adantage"
7. Inimical- "hostile; unfriendly"
8. Innocuous- "harmless"
9. Inquest- "an investigation; an inquiry"
10. Insipid- "lacking interest or flavor" (ew!!!)

If anyone comments on this post using one or more of these words in an interesting sentence, I will draw a picture to illustrate said sentence and send it to you! What could be better?!

Happy Labor Day!

Not for the Mature of Heart (revised)

Lesson learned, still learning,
Leaning back from glaring fact,
Turn safe-ward, sprint like mad,
Dig holes, dig caves, dig through the earth
Till core presents a problem you can solve:
It's death or do-over, a second chance
To be absolved, to breathe, to last.

Kisses and Cookie Butter

 View from the balcony at Montelle Winery near St. Louis.

 They offer free wine tasting before dinner...

 ...which included this creamy Caesar salad. And a creme brulee cheesecake served with orange-flavored whipped cream. (With some scrumptious entrees in between!)

This is my new addiction, peering out from behind a curtain. Don't think I don't know exactly where you are at all times, Mr. Cookie Butter.

My plan for the next several months is to start studying for the GRE. It will be nice to have a goal other than, "someday work someplace doing something I love vagueness vagueness hmmmm coffee roastery." Vocab flashcards are in the mail, thank-you Amazon! 

A poem:

A kiss controls exactly--what?

The future or despair? 

A helpless self-deceiving clone

Of pain it would repair.

Still we imagine lips composed

Of lavendar and peace,

Of chamomile, softest sunbeams,

Childhood, release.

But kiss a single tear away,

Another's buried deep--

Awaiting tossing lonely nights

When love is lost to sleep. 

Pursuing (Para)normal

 I FOUND ALIENS!!! Picture-perfect PROOF! They look zing-y and friendly, no?

 Multi-colored eggs from beautiful, happy chickens! Everyone should be or know someone who owns chickens.

 Backyard-chicken chicken eggs taste better, too! As Daniel put it, "This reminds me of the good ol' days when you really had to WHACK! an egg to crack it. Nowadays, they practically crack themselves...WEAK!" (Well, he put it more or less that way...)

And they're cuter, too! Whoops, just kidding-these are some adorable sunny-side ups that Christi knit for me! They are teensy-weensy and fit in the palm of your hand! One of her friends is an incredible knitter and is working on her...third or fourth?...book of adorable knitted creations. Here's a link to her blog: 

http://mochimochiland.com/blog/

I just signed up for a (free) GRE test prep workshop. WSU has a masters in communication program and, having done some simple maths to figure out tuition, it seemed nearly affordable! Especially if you get a teacher's [space]ship (I can't spell assistance-ship so there ya go), in which case it is free! Hmmmmm.....That's what came of my long morning of silent I'M-WASTING-MY-LIFE freaking out. 

Time to slow down:

Silence-scented autumn afternoons

I'm wishful-thinking libraries on old estates--

One high-backed leather chair, one looking glass,

The scowling portrait of a lord surpassed,

A cat named Lady Gray, a young girl's ghost,

Cold tea forgotten on a silver tray...

But as you gaze, rich volumes fade away

To dust, expected drudgery, disdain--

I wish it soothed, to reason or explain

Why, modern, we make war with yesterday.

Now copper kettles preen but never sing

And each house has a thousand faceless twins

Here would I  rest, but there's no lingering

When every story ends as it begins.