Butter Cutter!?!?!?!

I'm a big fan of butter, but even I have my limits. Found this "One Click Butter Cutter" via Treehugger. Yikes.

Venti Vidi Vici

Its been a while.

Yesterday I hung out with my friend Andy and we saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Definitely worth seeing. Even if the heartwarming story leaves you cold, the makeup and special effects in watching Brad Pitt go from an old man to a baby and Cate Blanchett from a young girl to an old woman are worthwhile.

We also went to Starbucks where I discovered that I was still able to order a "short" drink, even though they haven't been listed on the menu for years. You know, because "tall" is the new "small." We were also talking about "venti" and wondering what it really means. According to an online tranlsation site I found, in Italian it means "twenty" which probably refers to the size of the cup which holds twenty fluid ounces. Does anyone actually need twenty ounces of a Starbucks coffee beverage? I'm sure that, at the very least, sixteen of those ounces are steamed milk. But really, I'm a hypocrite. Starbucks pisses me off, and yet I still patronize them from time to time.

I'd hoped that something positive might happen after Howard Schultz's internal memo criticizing the company's massive expansion was leaked. (Daniel Gross wrote a really great article discussing the issue for the LA Times in 2007.) However, no such luck. The move to stop selling breakfast sandwiches was cancelled and now there is also oatmeal and piadinis to be had in addition to the other breakfast sandwiches. I don't know what the hell a "piadini" is, but I'm guessing it is some sort of Americanized pseudo-Italian made-up word. I could be wrong, but I'm too depressed by the fact that they are selling them to bother looking it up.

Snack Update: Belltown

Went out earlier tonight for a few drinks with a fellow interior design student (Jasmine). Even though we probably should have been studying for our History of Interior Design final tomorrow or frantically working on our final project presentations for our studio class on Wednesday, we were technically doing homework since our studio teacher had mentioned we should check out a couple of places in Belltown for our projects we are working on. Since it was the most snack-related thing I've done in a while, I figured I would report as follows:

1) Viceroy is gone. In its place is Rob Roy, which is exactly the same aside from the name. We stopped here first because Jasmine had never been and I hadn't been in years. I do adore that place. Where else can you find a padded black leather wall, velvet painting of a topless woman, and a lamp made out of some animal's hoof all in one bar? And you know what? Somehow it works. (Linda Derschang knows what she's doing.) We had a quick happy hour drink and avoided the goldfish crackers that were sitting on the coffee table nearby.

2) I really need to go back to Spur Gastropub. I had a "Gentleman's Lemonade" (Gentleman's Jack, lemons, honey) and Jasmine had a draft beer. We split the pork belly sliders. They were AMAZING. There is a really cool thing on the wall with a giant black and white picture that keeps changing images. It was upscale and casual at the same time. It was also not cheap, but they do have a promising happy hour Sunday-Thursday from 5-7 that I will have to investigate further.

3) Now I can cross Black Bottle off of the list of places I need to go. I guess it is a "gastro-tavern" which sounds awkward. Whatever. I'd noticed this place a few years ago when I lived a few blocks away and never made it in. Then I forgot about it. Tonight we finished our evening with some sort of raspberry champagne cocktails and split the most amazing lemon dessert. It was a soft and fluffy cheesecakey type of affair covered with lemon curd and sitting atop a lavender crust. Perfection!

Unsnobby Coffee?

So I got home and had to run to the library across the street to do some stuff online really quick. Hence, another post!

On the way home I noticed a billboard for McCafe stating: "Large is the new grande." I was unaware that this billboard was actually part of the McDonald's/Starbucks coffee wars that apparently took place this past spring until I went online to look for an image of it. This search led me to many things, among them the McDonald's site for Unsnobby Coffee that, although amusing, is highly unlikely to convert diehard Starbucks fans. Among its features is a MadLibs-style letter that you can send to friends (see picture above) to help convince them to kick their snooty coffee addictions in favor of a less-expensive coffee addiction.

Whether or not the billboard I saw was a new attack or a remnant, I thought it seemed timely considering the current economic climate. For instance, right before I came to the library, Bryn asked me if I would go pick him up a coffee (quad-vanilla-latte). I declined, citing the state of both of our bank accounts and the availability of decent coffee beans and a french press in our kitchen. If we're on a tighter budget this December, spending almost five bucks--after tax and tip--for a latte doesn't seem like the best idea. And this applies to Vivace (our personal favorite where espresso is a hand-crafted culinary art) as well as Starbucks (consistent but mediocre espresso made by automated machines).

I don't know that I'll ever find myself seeking out a McDonald's for an espresso fix, but I must admit that in my few experiences their regular coffee is inexpensive and of decent quality. (And it came out on top in Consumer Reports taste tests.) If there was a convenient McDonald's and I was a daily latte junkie, I would probably consider switching.

Gourmet Thanksgiving Dinner

I just finished packing the trunk of our car to the brim with leftovers and kitchen supplies. Since Bryn never does anything by half-measures, he had brought almost the contents of our entire kitchen with us to Yakima on Wednesday. After our early morning multi-hour drive out here, he baked bread and brined the turkeys and did other things while I spent the day working on a school paper. Then, yesterday he and I spent the entire day in the kitchen (with assistants at various times for prepwork and cleaning) and finally got dinner served at 7pm. I got to play sous chef all afternoon/evening. I'm not even going to try and list the menu except to say that Bryn planned it all out based on flavors, everything was made from scratch, and there was a TON of food. And since most of the people we were serving had gone off of weight-loss plans for the holiday, they didn't want all of the leftovers sitting around. So I think I'm going to be eating leftovers for a week unless we can convince some friends to come over and help us!

This morning, I woke up already exhausted from the day before. Now that the car is mostly packed, all we have to do is gather our last things and drive home and unload the car and reorganize our kitchen. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get called in to work this weekend, but having said that, I know it will be inevitable.

Still, it was a nice holiday spent with family and friends. Next year though, I am all for having Thanksgiving dinner made from prepackaged ingredients (stovetop stuffing, canned pumpkin, etc)!

Forty-Hate Hours of Homework

It has been a WEEKEND! Spent all day Thursday finishing my Environmental Design project/presentation and did that on Friday. I was totally wiped out afterwards, but wait, there was more! We got out of class at 4pm and then I had to quickly come up with a 5-8 minute presentation about Georgia O'Keeffe (luckily, I had already gathered some research materials a few days ago) and get to the Seattle Art Museum by 5pm where our class gave individual presentations about specific works that were hanging there. That lasted until 8 and then I came home and crashed.

Saturday I started working on my Interior Studio project/presentation and ended up missing out on a bday party I'd planned on going to (heartfelt apologies to the Esquire and Snotty) and was up working until 6am. Slept for five hours and then was at it again today all day. Finally got my presentation ready and then spent a couple hours building a model and I'm done before midnight!

Now I just need to find time to write my research paper, put together a presentation on my research subject, and study for the essay test that are all due on Tuesday afternoon in my History of Interior Design class. And did I mention that I have classes all day tomorrow from 9am until 8:20pm? I'm sensing another all-nighter coming up. Feels like this should be finals... Oh well.

I posted some of the stuff I was working on today. Not sure how I feel about the interior renderings, I may have gone a little overboard with the Gaussian Blur in Photoshop! I was trying for a less stiff approach than my usual digital work. You wouldn't necessarily think so, but I did ALL of that stuff on the computer, the renderings, stair drawing, and floorplan diagrams.

Even though I'm exhausted and still have a ton of work to do, I feel really good for having gotten so much done. And it didn't hurt that Bryn was cooking up a test turkey with dressing tonight in anticipation for Thanksgiving next week (he's cooking). I'd never had a brine-soaked turkey before and it was seriously, hands-down the best turkey I've ever tasted. He also baked his own bread for the dressing/stuffing. Snacktacular!

Snugglydog: A Tribute

I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF UGLYDOLLS' UGLYDOG! In fact, I've taken to calling him Snugglydog. I got the 2nd largest one in the photo for Bryn since he really liked Uglydolls, but then I took him over. And since then, Bryn has gotten me the other three pictured. The largest one just joined the collection last night, and I didn't even realize I had four of them until Bryn was dragging them all over to me while I was at my desk this afternoon. I've got an Uglydog Ranch?!?!?!?!

Anyhow. Here's what the official word on Uglydog is from the makers of Uglydolls:

Uglydog likes to help. He helps Jeero operate the rope tow and helps OX help
himself to different types of snack foods. He thinks you could use some help.
Isn't that sweet? Bowow? Uglydog is the ultimate pet too. He won't fetch the
paper for you, but he'll make your day feel like a front-page story! Uglydog
doesn't really like to sit or fetch or roll over and all that stuff. Beg? No
thanks. What he really likes to do is stand on his tail and live out his big
dream to be just like you!!! Except for the waking up early part.

(Notice that he helps OX with snack foods. And I don't have to clean up any poop or tell him to stop barking. This is definitely my type of dog.)

Cerebral Cereal

A Snotty blog recently included the word "cerebral" (among many, many others) and it struck me as I read it how similar the spelling is between cerebral and cereal. I left her a blog comment but it was still bouncing around in my head until it suddenly hit me that there ARE cerebral cereals!!! Like Post Alpha-bits!!!

Now I'm struggling with the question of whether frosted Alpha-Bits are more or less cerebral than regular Alpha-Bits. Sugar = Smart or Stupid?

Ameradox

I created a new word last night in the chip aisle at the grocery store downstairs: Ameradox. There we were (Bryn and I), surrounded by a veritable plethora of snacks. A wall of salty pretzels, chips, and puffs before us with our backs to another wall filled with sugary cookies. Unsurprisingly, Bryn didn't know what he wanted. When faced with an abundance of snacking choices, it suddenly became difficult to find one that was appealing enough. Fritos are too salty, and Cheetos are either too crunchy or too puffy. Regular Lay's potato chips are too boring, but Tim's Cascade Jalapeno Potato Chips are too spicy.

Do you think our ancestors really ever had to deal with this problem? You know, our hunter-gathering forefathers? I can't imagine them saying, "Gosh I don't think I want any wildebeest. Too tough and stringy. Do we have any frozen White Castles instead?" And so we are left with the American Paradox (or Ameradox) of wanting as many choices as possible while finding none of them to be satisfactory. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we are a bunch of self-indulgent spoiled brats! We want it ALL! NOW! GIMME! MIIIIIINE!!!!

Snotty wrote a blog yesterday about becoming desensitized to violence in the media. I think all of this is somehow tied together. Our news options are also so full that they are running out of compelling stories anymore. It's all been exploited so much that nothing is actually new anymore.

When life gives you lemons...

...make gourmet lemonade!

In the past week I've discovered two really, REALLY good lemonade products that almost make me hope that summer sticks it out this year into October. (Yes, I'm that person. The one who is pissed off that it is the middle of September and still sunny and 70 out. Where is the grey, rainy weather that I love/hate?)

The first one is Adina brand "Le'mon Amour," which combines lemons and lavender. It is described by the company as being: "Reminiscent of a summer afternoon in Provence..." I don't know that I would go that far, but I like it a lot. Probably because of my continuing love affair with lavender as a flavor (in ice cream, chocolate bars, stuffing, hot cocoa).

The other one is the Limonata del Rosmarino at Tutta Bella. This is a "hand crafted concoction" of lemonade, fresh rosemary, and soda. And it tastes AMAZING! (On the sweeter side, but that's never been an issue for me.) I love rosemary in breads and now I've found another great place to put it. Plus, it is refreshing to see another restaurant lemonade option besides the ubiquitous strawberry/raspberry lemonades that's so readily available. Strawberry lemonade is so early 90s.

Smugopedia

THIS SITE ROCKS!



Smugopedia - "Pretend you know better."



"Smugopedia is a collection of slightly controversial opinions about a variety of subjects. We offer you the chance to buy a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction at the small cost of alienating your friends and loved ones."


Also, Bryn (who told me about Smugopedia) suggested that I try out this bike for exercising since it would provide more motivation. As soon as I have a spare $2069, I will certainly buy one so that I can wheel around town while eating ice cream. Then I wouldn't have to do any searching for snacks!

Heads up Seven up

You know how you can smell or taste something and be transported in your head to another place or time? I don't know why, but I had a 7up tonight and the flavor of it triggered some sort of childhood memories. Nothing definite. But a wash of emotion (good? bad? not sure?) came over me. It may be a soda, but it has a gazillion empty calories so I'm counting it as a snack.

It was kind of nice after a long day of doin' nailz.

The Candy of the Meat World

I completely forgot to mention this before, but when we were at Whole Foods, Bryn bought a bunch of little teeny tiny Vosges chocolate bars for us to sample and one of them was "Mo's Bacon Bar" featuring chocolate and applewood smoked bacon. Neither he or Kate would try it so I gobbled it down. It tasted like... bacon. Like a chocolate bar with bacon bits in it. It wasn't terrible, in fact it was kind of tasty. But not tasty enough that I would pay $8 for a full-size bar on a regular basis.

In looking for an image for this post I also ran across a lot of talk about a recipe for bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze. They sounded and looked so very intriguing that I had to throw a pic up of those too.

And lastly, there was also an article I found about Pig Candy, which sounds creepy and disturbing by name, but quite possibly would be really delicious.

There, I've been remiss in blogging about snacks lately. I think this makes up for it.

Pilchuck Madness #11

The t-shirts showed up! You can see me with Jane up there, showing them off. They turned out really well and I kept seeing more and more people running around campus today wearing them.

Also found out today that the people who fund the scholarship I received will be on campus Wednesday evening and wanted to meet me. Not sure if I should be nervous or not, but at least I'll get to thank them in person.

Tonight one of the TA's for a class, New York artist Erica Rosenfeld, gave a demonstration where she was cooking with hot glass. She was also wearing cherry earrings, a red apron, and pink cat-eye glasses, but I think that happens to be part of her glass-blowing persona. We watched her and a team of people blow a big bowl and then place it on some fresh molten glass from the kiln. Then they poured water in the bowl, added a colander with greens, and slapped a lid on it until the bowl eventually broke. She tossed them with sauce in a different bowl and promptly served them. Fun to watch, and possibly to eat (I didn't partake).

Ketchup Head

Today is going fine, but for some reason I feel kind of like pouring ketchup on my head. Credit for the lovely image goes to the Illustrator Denise VanLeuwen (sp!?) from the Netherlands. Nothing awful is going on, it just seems appropriate. And a hot dog sounds tasty too, with ketchup and relish!

Back to Kent...

I keep thinking about things to write about here that I end up spacing out on. Or being too tired to write when I sit in front of the computer.

On the snack front, Bryn followed up his cherries jubilee evening with pumpkin pancakes the next morning. I think I'll keep him. He also introduced me to the joys of Chambord over vanilla ice cream. Tasty!

I had driven to Kent yesterday to visit with a family member and was struck by the change of scenery between being in the city versus being out there. It's only about 20-30 minutes away but definitely feels different. And I will admit, I did used to live there too! I don't know if I would ever choose to live in the suburbs again. I know I could do it. But still.

Traffic was pretty bad too. Spent a big portion of the trip thinking back on the past self who used to live out there and used to have such different priorities. I remember being 21 and really self-identifying so strongly with the type of car I drove. I was obsessed with it. And obsessed with everyone else's cars too. Thank God I got over that phase of my life. I still really like things, but I don't let them run my life (mostly). I'd rather put my energy towards relationships with people or experiences than focus on gathering a bunch of stuff, no matter how nice the stuff may be.

Snacks Aflame!

(Note to self: Don't forget that you have an awesome boyfriend.)

No, he didn't buy me a My Little Pony. But he did make cherries jubilee for us tonight for dessert randomly! You know. . . cherries jubilee. . . which is, coincidentally, the name of the pony shown above. Basically if you make me a dessert that you can light on fire, you had me at the word dessert. The fire is just bonus.

I see the light!

Almost there. Survived two final project presentations today. Still need to study for two big tests tomorrow, come up with stuff for a sophomore review presentation on Wednesday, and then one last test on Thursday. And then I will be SO ready to not think about school for at least a month!

I definitely need the break. I'm having trouble keeping up on my celebrity gossip. And snacks.

NO SICKNESS! BAD!

God, I hope I'm not getting sick. I was a little sneezy earlier today and I'm feeling sort of spacey/tired. I went to QFC and stocked up on Odwalla and other juices to help hydrate and load up on any vitamins they may contain. Sadly, the beverages I really wanted to get (Coke, fruit punch, etc) were all full of high-fructose corn syrup. Wanting liquids over actual snacks is never a good sign for me. Hopefully a good night's rest will do the trick!

Drafting my cares away...

Well. Long day today, but productive. Had class all morning where we worked on hand-drafting out our floorplans with a mini side-lesson on elevations. Spent the rest of the afternoon at school finishing up my plans since I have two floors to worry about and I really needed to have all my dimensions finalized. I did take a break to go to my doctor appointment with my psychologist which was also VERY productive. Not the easiest day overall, but feeling good about having gotten so much done that I needed to work on. There is the possibility of a bbq tonight which sounds great, and even if it doesn't happen I actually feel more upbeat today than I have in a few days. Got some really good feedback on my cover letter for a museum internship I'm applying for from my professor, I never know what to say in cover letters or how long they should be. Luckily, she's got a PhD in art history and is not only writing me a reference letter, but had input about my cover letter too. No amazing snacks yet today, unless I count the Dagoba "latte" chocolate bar that Mia bought and split with me and Jasmine in class. Actually, it was pretty amazing and may have changed my life. But only temporarily.

Now I'm home, hungry, and gonna find something to eat!