MY DANCE RECITAL VIDEO!

I’ve been taking an Irish dancing class every Monday since late January. We just had a recital tonight. I’m insanely proud even though the entire dance was only four and a half minutes long and I was only in maybe half-ish of it. But that’s OK. One of the girls in the video has been dancing for 13 years. I’m willing to forgive myself for not being up to her level. The music starts in at like 12 seconds. I’m the shorter one in the pink shirt and also my hair isn’t red. I only wore the soft shoes, but I fully intend on learning the hard shoes this summer. I can’t wait until I can leap around and kick my legs up really high like the other girls!

Without further ado, I give you: MY RECITAL!

<3s, Lindsay

P.S. Hope you enjoyed it!

Cake in a Cup Recipe!

So yeah, I called it. 1 hour left to go on Day 2 and here I am. Again.

That’s what happens when you: get up late, have dance practice, costume shopping with dance mates, a sunny day, Jasper Fforde to read, and Final Four games going on. Also I’m just lazy and I procrastinate a lot.

So here is a nice little cake recipe that you can make super quick! It seemed like the right time to do this post since I’m intending to post in less than 5 minutes. My mom gave this recipe to me, although I am fairly sure she said she got it out of the local newspaper, so maybe Amber has this recipe too! Oh! And this is the first time I’ve ever seen a recipe for cake in a mug that didn’t involve an egg! YES! Because using an egg? That’s a little too close to baking for my lazy hiney.

Take 1 box of angel food cake mix. It MUST be angel food. Take another box of cake mix. This one cane be ANY kind of cake mix you want – yellow, chocolate, funfetti. I chose devil’s food cake just because I was indecisive and thought it was funny.

Pour your cake mixes into one big ziploc gallon bag. Close the bag and then shake shake shake! Shake up your cake mixes until it is so well mixed that you can’t even tell that there are two mixes in there. It should look like one mix.

Now take 1/3 cup of your cake mixture and put it in a microwave safe mug. Add 3 tablespoons of water. Mix it up so that it’s all smooth and there are no clumps. Microwave for 1 minute. And that’s it!

Now enjoy your hopefully yummy cake! And also, you have a ton of cake mix left over so you can make multiple cakes! I took my bag of cake mix to work and have been eating cake EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past week. I’m not even halfway done with the bag. Which is kind of sad because I realized that I’m not the biggest fan of devil’s food cake. But I like it enough so that I can’t justify getting rid of any leftover mix. Actually, I do really enjoy the cake when I have milk with it. Yuuuuuuummmmmm, it is DELICIOUS with a nice carton of milk from the hospital cafeteria! When I finally do finish my bag of mix, I’m going to use a fudge chocolate cake mix I think. Or maybe funfetti – OMG I looooooooove funfetti cake!  But I think for a daily cake fix, chocolate fudge is THE way to go.

<3s! Cake Lindsay

P.S. Dear nerdgirls, what is your favorite kind of cake? And when I say nerdgirls, I mean: Amber, Jen, Jill, and anyone else who reads this blog (aka Diana and possibly Sheila?)  🙂

Crap, I totally forgot about BEDA

So here I was thinking about BEDA not 2 days ago and BOOM. It’s April 1st and I’m like….what’s going on?

So now it’s 10:30 and I’m in bed and breaking my computer rule and scrambling.

That’s OK though. I have a feeling I’m going to have a lot of nights like this one during this month.

A short post then! I know that I’m the only one of us that actually watches Doctor Who, but OMG I  AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEW SEASON TO START! Like so excited that every time I see something Doctor Who related I get so excited I am almost puke. That’s how I know I’m REALLY excited.

Here’s the series 6 trailer!

Also, look at these two pictures:

Don’t they look alike?? Or is that just me? Top is Matt Smith aka Eleven aka the current Doctor. Bottom is of course, the one, the only, Alex Carpenter aka The Remus Lupins!

OK, so they don’t REALLY look alike, but the shadows and the placement of Matt’s hair in the photo make it look like they could possibly be brothers! Shhhhh, let me have this.

OK folks, no puking out of excitement for now! Keep it bottled for April 23rd!

<3s, Lindsay

P.S. I’m so excited we all completed BEDA day 1!

P.P.S. I have no idea why there’s so much space underneath Alex’s photo. WordPress insists that the blank space is needed or some reason if only that reason is just to drive me a wee bit insane.

Welcome to BEDA

Happy April Fool’s Day!  I happen to not particularly enjoy this holiday – is it truly a holiday? – because I tend to be pretty gullible.  Exhibit A.  Totally fell for that one 3 years ago.  Side note:  I have known the Nerdgirls for 3 whole years!!  Wow!

But anyway, happy first day of BEDA!  Here’s what you have to look forward to from my posts:

– Book reviews (including one on The Last Little Blue Envelope, which I *just* finished!)

– Which fictional characters the NerdGirls are

– Cool traditions my family has

– and a special post Jen especially will like (at least that’s the goal)

And if anyone has further suggestions, please share!  I’m still thinking of more ideas.  April is a long month.

– Jill

Something That Might Make Me Throw My Shoe At You

When I get very angry I have a saying…….it goes, “I’m so mad I want to take off my shoe and throw it!”  I have never actually thrown my shoe at anyone (or anything) but sometimes after a long day, I’ve come close.  Most of the incidents that push me over the edge happen while I’m at work, dealing with the general public.

I work in a small town, and I genuinely love most of my patrons.  I know them by name (and I have a lot of their card numbers memorized) and I know what books they like to read.  I am really fortunate to be in a situation like that.

But………there is one thing that patrons do that makes me so upset, the shoes could start flying…

The thing that really grates my cheese more than anything else is when people put things on the shelf backwards!!!!!  When I say backwards, I mean with the spine facing towards the shelf.  I wish that people wouldn’t put things back in general, but that is never going to stop (I break out in a cold sweat every time I hear a parent say, “honey, put that back where you found it”).

Right way

But please, everyone in the world knows how to put a book on a shelf properly!  You would never know it from walking around a library.  The worst is when a little kid does it in full view of a parent and the parent does absolutely nothing.  Parents, you need to take some responsibility for you child’s actions every once in a while.  It does not take a colossal effort to turn that little DVD back around so it faces the right direction.

WRONG WAY!

I was helping a sixth grader find books the other day and she did it RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!  I think you could probably see smoke coming out of my ears.  But since I am a non-confrontational person, I just waited until she had her back turned and fixed the book.  Yes, I will admit that even though it makes me furious, I am too much of a chicken to actually correct people about it.  Go figure.

So, the next time you are in a library, if you attempt to shelve something yourself (but please don’t even attempt to shelve it yourself…leave it up to us highly trained librarians…or unpaid volunteers :)), please be courteous enough to at least have the spine facing in the right direction.

Jen

P.S.  Woohooo!!!!  I made it through BEDA!!!  Don’t expect another post from me for a little while…..I am taking a much needed break.

7 Things That Make Me Smile

So, this week has not been all that great so far.  Nothing truly horrible has happened, but just enough to make me say “Blerg!” or “Nerds!” a la Liz Lemon.

I am also getting really lazy with BEDA.  I am literally dragging my feet to the end here.

So, yet again, instead of a real post……here are some things that will help cheer me up today.

Thinking about these cupcakes

This picture by Tanja Askani which is in the book "A Friend Like You"

Purple Pansies

Remembering when THIS happened

My cats

And of course, my fellow nerdgirls (and Meg Cabot!!!)

Aaaaaahhhh, now I feel much better!

Jen

April’s Pink Nightie

This is a short post because I am super tired–just got done with book club (I use the term book club loosely because one member read the book, another read half of the book, I only read 6 pages, and I forgot to tell the other member what book we were reading…) and watching Glee with said book club + cousins and then running to McDonalds with Steve for coffee and sprite 🙂 so here is my post:

1. Glee was kinda icky tonight. I cried MULTIPLE times which was not necessary AND they only had Kristin Chenoweth sing ballads…um if you are going to the trouble to get KRISTIN CHENOWETH on Glee, then I WANT TO HEAR HER SING SOMETHING RIDICULOUSLY HOT, not some long, sad song that I don’t know and that doesn’t involve a dance sequence.

2. The pink nightie that April/Kristin is wearing at Will’s apartment? I had been eyeing it at Von Maur FOREVER (it is Betsey Johnson which I cannot ever ever get enough of) but when I tried it on finally it was just kinda “nuuuhhhhhhh” so I bought a softer pink, more romantic one instead (and it can totally go in the washing machine, how cool is that?!). Still, I’m v. excited on the inside that Kristin Chenoweth and I now share that bond. Also, I really need more cute nightgowns now that it is springtime…

amber

Long Car Trips = I Get to Listen to Audiobooks

I spent most of last weekend driving to and from Minneapolis.  I had fun during the in between parts, but the trip itself was really long.  There is only one thing to make a long car trip better……audiobooks!

I checked out about five of them, but only listened to two (I like to have some choices).  Here are mini-reviews of the two I listened to.

Chess pieces....mysterious, eh?

Agatha Chrisitie’s The Big Four read by Hugh Fraser–I have been on a big Agatha Christie kick ever since last year’s 48 Hour Book Challenge.  This was the second Christie audiobook I have listened to, and it did not disappoint.

The story is one involving her famous detective Hercule Poirot, but the format is different than his other novels.  The Big Four reads like a collection of short stories because it is lots of little mysteries that lead up to a big finale.  The Big Four describes the most powerful group of criminals the world has ever known.  They control crime across the globe and the only person who can stop them is Monsieur Poirot.  *cue dramatic music*

I liked the book a lot, but mainly because Hugh Fraser did a very good job of reading it.  He had to cover a lot of different accents and he performed them admirably.  He did an especially good job with Poirot himself.  He slipped effortlessly from his British narrator to the Belgian’s voice effortlessly.

The audiobook clocked in at just over 5 hours, which is about my limit, so it was great for my long car trip.  It is a good mystery (I should say lots of good mysteries) that is improved by a great narrator.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland read by Jim Dale–I had very high hopes for this audiobook.  I have never read the original Alice book, so I thought this would be a neat way to experience it.  Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it all that much.  Since everybody probably knows the story, I will just give my reasons for not liking it.

First of all, it was not a great book for me to read for the first time as an audiobook.  Many times when I am listening to books (especially while driving) my mind tends to wander for a few seconds (or sometimes minutes).  With most books this isn’t really a problem, but with a book like Alice it is a HUGE deal.  Since the story is so full of nonsense, I had no idea what was going on most of the time.  I would take a few moments to consider my exit off the interstate and Alice would be in a completely new place talking to a different creature and I would be totally lost in terms of the story.

Also, I found some of Jim Dale’s voice choices to be really grating on my ears.  I enjoyed his Harry Potter audiobooks a lot, but I couldn’t handle listening to The Duchess, The Queen of Hearts, or the Griffin.  EEEks!  Everytime they said anything I was like, “Ack!  Turn it down, turn it down!”

I also found myself wishing that I was watching “Pushing Daisies” the whole time I was listening to the book.

So, I personally have nothing against Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or Jim Dale, I just don’t think I like them together.  Most people would probably feel differently though.

I will be doing a lot of traveling in the next few months, so hopefully more audiobook reviews will be forthcoming!  (Unless, of course, I accidently get caught in a never ending cycle of listening to the “Glee” soundtrack).

Jen

Because I Am Too Tired….Here is ‘Feed the Kitty’

I am still exhausted from my trip to Minneapolis last weekend, so I thought I would share my favorite Looney Tunes cartoon with you.

My favorite bits:

*I love that Marc Anthony’s owner always calls him by his full name

*I love that she vacuums in a dress, hose, and heels

*I LOVE the kitty!!!!!

*I love it when he puts the cookie on his back

*I love it when the kitty kneads his back because my cats totally do that to my tummy all the time

Obviously the brilliant minds who made Monster’s Inc. really liked this short too, because they admitted that the following scene with Boo and Sully is an homage to “Feed the Kitty,” with Sully recreating Marc Anthony’s exact facial expressions.

Have a good night!  Hopefully be back with a real post tomorrow.

Jen

My Top Ten Young Adult Novels

I am fully aware that the following list will horrify most librarians.  There isn’t a real award winner in sight and every book has come out in the last five years (I didn’t actually check, but I am assuming that is true).  Also, they are really popular titles.

This is the list that I submitted to Persnickety Snark.  The post describing the poll does specifically say “favorite” books, which I took literally.  I completely understand that these are not the ten BEST YA books ever, but they are certainly my favorite.

Now, there is an absence of classics (no Judy Blume or anything like that) because I just didn’t read YA until I went to grad school!!  Also, the what most people consider to be the “best” YA book ever is one of the books that I loathe the most (stupid Holden Caulfield….I would totally punch him in the face if I met him on the street…..big whiner baby).

So without further ado, here are my favorite young adult novels…….you’ve been warned.

10.  Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock–I love this book even more now that I have read all three.  It feels like such a realistic story to me (even the this-could-never-happen final football game).  And I love that fact that it is set on a dairy farm.  I pretend now that all of the milk I drink comes from Schwenk Farm.

9.  Chalice by Robin McKinley–I think I am including this on the list because I felt so accomplished after I finished it.  It was tough going at the beginning, but by the end I was ripping through it to see what happened.  And the Master is totally one of my favorite guy characters ever.  He is smokin’!  (Okay, that is a really lame joke that nobody would get unless they read the book.)

8.  Unwind by Neal Shusterman–I love this book because it has a mind-blowing concept.  Not only that, but Mr. Shusterman knows what to do with it and doesn’t let the book lose steam at all.  Great plot, great characters.  Also, now that I’ve read this book, I look at certain kids and say, “Man, they would have totally been unwound…”  Yeah, I’m cruel like that.

7.  Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle–You might have noticed that most of these books (probably all of them) are ones I have mentioned on this blog before.  There are very few books I get more pleasure out of reading than this one.  I don’t think I need to justify it more than that.  JUBILEE!!!

6.  Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer–I literally kept thinking about this book for several weeks after I finished it.  It was so haunting and perfect.  Now that it’s already out, I am disappointed that there was a sequel about Miranda.  I really loved the vagueness of the first book’s ending (something I usually hate).  This book also caused me to eat lettuce for a month, even though I hate lettuce.

5.  If I Stay by Gayle Forman–I loved this book so much.  This is another one that made me really think.  I cared about the characters so much and cried though the last half of the book.  Oh, man this was fantastic!  Am super pissed that there is going to be a book two……really?  Sometimes people need to look authors in the face and say, “Hell to the No!”

4.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins–I totally had a conversation with this book while I was reading it.  Throughout the course of the novel I continually said things like, “WHAT!!!  OH NO!!!  DON”T DO THAT KATNISS!!!  Awwww, Peeta!  WHAT!!!”  I even did a little bit of talking the second time through as well.

3.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling–I like the sixth book better than the seventh book, but I think that the final one needs to be recognized on this list.  The HP books were such huge events in my life, and there was nothing better than getting on the phone with my sister and my dad after finishing this one.  Other books since the HPs have offered similar bonding opportunities, but none of them as strong as this one.

2.  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer–I will admit it, I love Twilight.  I adore the books.  I literally have to hold myself back from reading them every other week.  I can’t explain why I adore them, especially since I have so many problems with them (creepy stalker Edward, whiny Bella, etc.), but they will always have a special place in my heart.  (Moment of honesty here: I totally wanted to put Breaking Dawn on here in place of Twilight, but I was too embarrassed.)

1.  Forever Princess by Meg Cabot–This is my favorite young adult book because it is literally the perfect end to a wonderful series.  Meg Cabot knew exactly what her fans wanted and she gave it to them.  (Authors take note: we like this!!!!!)  I think I have read this book 4 (maybe 5?) times.  It’s my favorite because it is everything I want a YA novel to be: happy, frothy, funny, romantic, and with a happy ending.  I don’t usually go in for angst, drugs, dead people, or too much relationship drama (but sometimes I make exceptions: see above).

So there you go, that’s my list.  Just writing this made me want to run to my shelves and reread all of these books.  Then I realized that I only own six of them!  Eeeep!  To the bookstore!

Jen

P.S.  You may think from looking at this list that I place HP below Twilight and The Princess Diaries.  This is not true.  When taking the series as a whole, Harry Potter is always first for me, followed by Twilight and TPD tied for second.