It's almost May, right?

Today, I was biking home from school. I was kinda cold, so I thought to myself "It was rather silly to just wear close-toed shoes, a sweatshirt, insulated gloves, and a hat, wasn't it? I mean, it's only almost May." Later, I was at tennis (where it was colder and I was wearing less clothing, haha). We were picking up balls and I said "Hey, Morales, if you bend my finger backwards fast enough, I think it'll snap off." She goes "What?" and then she figured it out, pretty funny. Earlier, we were playing reaction volleys and I laid my finger on her neck and she jumped about a foot. "Are you awake yet?" "Definitely."

To Do Someday List

Just like what it sounds. Things I'd like to do someday, not necessarily in order. They're not ordered by importance either.

1. Play bagpipes
2. Go to France
3. Go to Dragon*Con
4. Meet Tamora Pierce
5. Go to Great Britain
6. Live out East, at least for a little while
7. Pass my driver's test
8. Write a novel
9. Make a quilt
10. Finish my Sabriel cross-stitch

Oh Hey Kristina: BEDA 22

 So I was reading Oh Hey Kristina, and this is what she was writing about. I'm thinking I might temporarily move to Washington. Honestly, why do we have to take Longcat's health class when we could be taking a class about Miyazaki. Spirited Away. I love that movie. But that's not what we watched in health; we watched people argue, among other things. Anyways, check Kristina's school out:

"I've received two emails that have made me want to re-enroll in college. Check out these focus groups they're offering Summer quarter this year:

[CHID496A] Pokémon 101
The focus group will be watching Pokémon episodes, doing readings on Pokémon, learning about Japanese popular culture, and encountering questions about animal representation and rights.

[CHID 495] Animation: Miyazaki and the Vitality of Media
M and W are film screenings of Hayao Miyazaki's films and other important anime. Tuesdays and Thursdays we talk about the films in relationship to readings we've finished. Some of the films we will watch: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away.


DUDE. Why didn't I get to take these classes? It's like they created these classes FOR ME and I won't even be there to enjoy them!!!!

Moral of today's blog post = life is unfair. Also, stay in school."

Trailers:







I like all three of these. Spirited Away is a good adventure story, long but good. Princess Mononoke is more of an environmental film, and the part about the (I think it's called the) Nightwalker is a little confusing. Howl's Moving Castle is set Victorian era and I really liked it, especially the end. There's a novel called HMC, too, by Dianna Wynn Jones.

I'm shocked, slightly.

I think I'm getting over Battlestar Galactica. I guess part of it's because it's now Spring Break and I'm trying to wildly finish a whole load of school stuff, (And because I've gone through all 35 pages of links to Laura Roslin fanfics...) but I'm turning back to the Circle Universe stuff, as per usual. I'd talk more but I've got to finish at least a couple more chapters in my fanfics tonight. Check it out at Clari Hawkins.

Anagrams.

They're pretty fun. Try this one.
Here's some stuff I got for my name.

• A Ultramarine Elk Grill
• A Margarine Tulle Krill
• A Triangular Miller Elk
• A Intramural Leek Grill

I also got things involving lemurs, algae, mint, lurking, earmarks, and tigers.

Potatoe Salad

What You’ll Need: Serves 4

*1 pound (6-7) medium-size white or red-skinned potatoes

*1/3 cup coarsely grated carrot

*2 green onions

*2 tablespoons fresh, chopped dill or parsley

Dressing:

*1/4 cup each: plain yogurt, low-fat mayonnaise

*1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, such as “Grey Poupon”

*2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish

*Freshly ground pepper

*Salt to taste

What You’ll Do:

1. Chop the potatoes into quarters, then cut the quarters into (about) one-inch pieces. Put them into a large saucepan with just enough water to cover the potatoes. Cover and turn the heat on high for a minute, then lower the heat to simmer.

2. Cook for about 20 minutes just until the potatoes are tender when you insert a fork. If you overcook the potatoes, they’ll fall apart, making mashed potato salad. Put a colander in the sink and carefully pour the potatoes into the colander to drain. Stick the colander into the refrigerator to cool down the potatoes.

3. Grate the carrot and chop the green onions into thin circles. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dressing ingredients. Add the carrot and green onion.

4. When the potatoes are no longer warm, add them to the salad. Stir carefully with a wooden spoon until the dressing is mixed in. Chop the dill or parsley and sprinkle over the salad. Serve; or cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until mealtime.

Other Ideas: If you don’t care for carrots, chop a stalk of celery instead. If fresh dill or parsley are unavailable, sprinkle the top of the salad with paprika for color.

Banana Muffins

What You'll Need: Makes 12 Muffins

1 cup mashed banana, about 2 ripe bananas

1 large egg

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

2/3 cup reduced fat buttermilk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup rolled oats (thick “old-fashioned” oats)

1 1/2 cup sifted whole wheat pastry flour* or unbleached white flour

What You'll Do:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Place the paper liners into the muffin pan. Try not to use non-stick muffin pans; they cause the muffins to get too brown. If that’s all that you have, it’s OK, the paper liners will help insulate the sides and bottom from burning.

2. In a glass measuring cup, mash the bananas with a fork. In a large mixing bowl, add the egg, oil, sugar, and molasses. Mix well, using a mixer. Mix in the banana and buttermilk.

3. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. (cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, oats, flour) Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture and mix slowly just until blended. Pour into the muffin pan, filling each muffin liner almost to the top.
Tip: If you want to fill the holes easily, without globs of batter everywhere, use a glass measuring cup with a pour spout or use a small soup ladle.

4. Bake 20 minutes until they're lightly browned. Pull out the oven shelf and stick a toothpick into the center of a muffin to see if it comes out clean or without wet dough. Muffins get tough if they’re over cooked, so watch carefully. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack or on top of the stove. Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Other Ideas: Add 1/4 cup currents, raisins, or golden raisins.

Chococake

What You’ll Need:

1 1/2 cups sifted unbleached white flour or whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup cold water

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

What You’ll Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Oil the bottom of an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan (or a 9-inch round cake pan) with a small piece of paper toweling and a few drops of canola oil. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Pour in the oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed just until the batter is blended. You may have to scrape down the batter on the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and mix again. 

3. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes just until an inserted toothpick into the center of the cake comes out clean. (A 9-inch pan will take about 30 minutes.) Remove from the oven immediately and cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.

*Hey, I love to add in chocolate chips. They're really good if you add just a few, like 1/4 cup. Or try white chocolate or butterscotch. Nom.*

Eggplant! Yay!

I've found some recipes I like, so I'm posting them. I'm not putting them as one post, because this way I can tag them differently. :D

What You’ll Need:
4 tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Eggplant
2 cups Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tomatoes
20 Black Olives
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning

What You’ll Do:

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Get a large baking sheet, cover with foil, and spread olive oil to cover the foil.

Cut round slices of eggplant as thin as possible and lay on top of the foil. Don't let the edges touch. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of cheese over each slice of eggplant.

Dice up all of the olives and spread 1 tbsp of olives on top of each eggplant. Cut the tomatoes into round slices and lay 1 slice on top of each eggplant. Sprinkle garlic powder and Italian Seasoning on top of each eggplant slice

Put in oven for 30 minutes. When ready let cool for 5 minutes and enjoy!

More eggplant-y goodness!

Wizard Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• Box of white cake mix and the called-for ingredients (A mix that uses egg whites and oil instead of butter will make your colors look brighter)
• Assorted pack of food dye
• Icing (Make your own or use canned)

Directions:

1. Mix up the cake mix per the directions on the box.

2. Divide the batter into bowls. Use one bowl for each color (think red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet).

3. Add your food coloring until you get the desired colors.

4. Line a muffin pan with cupcake wrappers. I like using silver or white wrappers.

5. Use a fork or spoon to drizzle each color of batter on top of the next. Start with purple, then blue, then green, then yellow, then orange, then red. Be careful not to mix the colors.

6. Bake the cupcakes as directed on the cake mix box.

7. Cool and frost as you like. I prefer a white, whipped-cream icing, but anything will work.

For step-by-step, drool-worthy photos, check out the recipe on spearmintbaby.com.

We agree that we dislike hoses, long cords, ad many things electrical

Today began early.

5:30 AM- Carter picked me up, we drove to school, caught the bus and drove out past Heart Mountain. Then we hiked to a lek and watched sage grouse do their mating dance. It was pretty cool.

Ashley was kinda tired and she tried to say that if she was a female grouse, she would have still been in bed, not watching males dance. But all she got out was "If I was a female..."

7:30-3:30- I had bio, where we read Jurassic Park; Trig, with a test; health, which was insane, as per usual; and history. I nearly fell asleep again. I think my record for falling asleep reading my history book is twice within an hour. Speaking of health, I'm pretty sure my teacher has something against this kid in my class. Let's call the teacher Longcat and the student OMGWTFBBQ!. No just kidding. No, actually I've changed my mind. So Longcat says "This is totally random. I just picked a random number and now you're going to number yourselves off. It's totally random." So we number off, and Longcat's number turns out to be Omgwtfbbq, no big surprise. We had played this little game where we essentially ended up with 5 different people's names on a sticky note. So Longcat says "Pretend Omgwtfbbq had an infectious disease." We had just finished our "sex-ed" unit, so duh, everyone thought "std." And then Longcat said "But it could be anything! STDs; H1N1, that flu that went around last year; a cold! Anything!" Yeah, sure. So everyone who had Omgwtfbbq's name on their note got the "infectious disease" from him, and everyone with those people's names got it from them, ect. And Longcat still expects us to believe that s/he doesn't have anything against Omgwtfbbq.

After school I went to work. It was fine, except the pressure hose wasn't working...until just before I was done scrubbing the kennels with a brush and regular hose. I don't think I need a bath tonight. I got quite clean. I got to give a shot to a diabetic dog, which was pretty cool.

When I got home, we had mushroom-barley soup (way yummier than it sounds) and then the local dog trainer/federal test administrator came over and I took a test about drugs and stuff, like the one we do in school. It was pretty fun talking to her (I knew her) and I got paid for taking the test, so win-win!

I don't hate the wizard quite as much now.

So the Wizard of Oz is finally over. I think I'm glad. It was one of those fun-but-time-consuming things. Now I just have work, school, and tennis, which is nice(r). I'll show some photos later, but I'm not really feeling to into it right now.
I'm starting a new idea on my other blog; publishing little vignette things. I'll give them all labels by genre, so when NaNo comes around again I can look up ideas.

Ooh, one other thing. Is it just me or do Sigourney Weaver and Mary McDonnell look very similar?

Mary McDonnell

Sigourney Weaver

Hmm.

This kinda sounds good. Chocolate and Pumpkin pancakes.
My new tennis racquet came today. It is amazing. I haven't actually played yet, but the newness... It's soo smooth and shiny. It's bright orange and has this deep wet glow. It's nice and springy, and it makes a different noise than my old Ipex, but it's cool. I think I'm going to name it Morticia, like from the Addams Family.
I also wanted to know if you think I should start another blog for book reviews. Yeah?

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