good and not-so-good

Not-so-good: I'm almost out of food and don't have time or money for grocery shopping until Friday. I'm down to one can of green beans, a quarter bag of Goldfish, and one can of Diet Pepsi. I'm also completely out of apples. Seeing as these are my staples, this is bad. I'm looking forward to this weekend, when I will have time and resources with which I can make a huge meal and eat until I'm full and completely satisfied.

Good: I work at a place where there is food enough for me to scrounge together lunches (and semi-dinners) this week, since the lunch-preparing supplies at my apartment are limited.

Not-so-good: I left the apartment today to a sink full of dirty dishes and a messy living room, expecting to return to the same sight.

Good: I came home tonight to a beautifully cleaned and organized apartment! Our storage closet in the back hasn't been this tidy ever. I wanted to cry when I saw the sparkling sink, empty dishwasher, and tidy living room. I'm tired and have a lot to fit into the next three days, but everything is okay because my roommates cleaned the apartment.

*What are you goods and not-so-goods for today?

thursday's warrior

I engaged in several battles today.

:: Walking to and from campus, I battled with many treacherous sidewalks. Navigating these patches of watery, icy cement requires creative prancing to keep my pants and shoes dry. I am happy to report that my feel remained completely dry.

:: At work, I battled my hunger-induced urge to eat the cupcakes sitting in the office. We made them for an event going on tonight, and I wasn't allowed to eat any. Though the cake came from a box and the frosting from a can, they smelled delicious. Plus, I was starving. And these had sprinkles. I made it to the end of the day without caving, then snagged one on my way out. It was delicious.

:: My battle with the Red Box machine outside the 7-11 was not quite as successful as my other skirmishes. I have been trying to return "Julie and Julia" since Tuesday, but every time I try, the machine tells me that it is full and cannot take my DVD. Meanwhile, I am being charged $1.00 plus tax every night at 9 p.m., and my lack of car keeps from locating another, vacant Red Box. What the heck? I checked out my DVD from this machine. Shouldn't I be able to give it back?

Regardless of my RedBox frustrations, my day ended fantastically with a package overflowing with skin care and a box of Swedish Fish. Mom also sent the fantastic hand cream that our skin care company makes, giving me a weapon against skin-drying campus hand soap. It was great to get this from home today. Thanks, Mom! I will think of you whenever I wash my face or moisturize my hands.

*What battles did you wage today?
*Have you ever encountered an overpopulated Red Box?

monday miscellany

This post has been on my mind all day, and only now did I realize that today is not Monday, making the title incorrect. Reluctant to discard a perfectly good alliteration, I am keeping the title, and will include miscellany from both Monday and Tuesday.

And now for the bits:

:: (Miranda, I'm using your double colon bullet.) Charlotte and I spent all afternoon yesterday at Michelle's, and it was wonderful. I love being with Michelle, & Co. because their home feels so much like my own. We played fun games, visited, and exchanged knitting updates. Max shared his macaroons with us, which were so delicious. He also showed us the cookbooks that he received for Christmas. I love looking at pictures of food and learning about new recipes, so it was great to have Max read to us about macaroon making procedures and the like. (I cannot wait for the day when I have enough space in my kitchen to keep a variety of supplies and ingredients on hand so that I can actually make the recipes I read about.) Michelle even sent me home with a sandwich bag of Tylenol because she informed us that taking straight Advil in large quantities can cause stomach ulcers. This was bad news to my "all Advil" self, but now I'm taken care of, because taking two Advil and two Tylenol instead of four Advil lowers the risk of damage. I'm set!

:: I got into work this afternoon to find to my relief that the new Valentine's decorations arrived. I was beginning to worry that the plush monkeys would never come! Phew.



:: Though the outside temperature is still rather chilly, I wore a dress today. I've been limited to jeans and sneakers for far too long, and I was not about to let the weather dominate my style needs any longer. I did wear tights (teal ones, to be exact) and I enjoyed my Smurf legs, liberated from sometimes-tiresome jeans.

:: After a year and half in the Physics Department, I finally made it around to taking the van-driving certification class. An official Training Certification Card now sits behind my license, confirming that I am apprised of BYU seat belt policy and the precautions I must take when driving a large van.



Happy Monday-ish Tuesday all!

*Does bending your style to conform to the elements frustrate you too?
*Did you forget that today is Tuesday?
*What are your bits of miscellany?

bright side

The cakes survived the night, and I achieved excellent texture and color for the frosting.

Though I have not lived up to my mother's cake-frosting prowess, I feel pretty awesome about how these turned out.

Sadly, when Emily bakes in Provo, nothing goes perfectly. The tragedy of this project came when I tried to carry the biggest, chocolate cake down the stairs from my third story apartment while wearing heels. (I was on my way to church, though hindsight tells me that I should have substituted my pumps for flats for the walk up to campus.) After clearing just one flight of stairs, I lost my balance, caught myself on the handrail, and tipped the cake plate just enough to destabilize the top-heavy cake and send it tumbling down.

I wasn't about to let that much butter and eggs worth of cake go to waste, so I picked up the top, which held together decently, stuck it back on top of the base, and returned it and the smaller cake to my kitchen table. The best part about it all was that instead of feeling devastated, I laughed. I had just talked to Grandma about looking on the bright side, and this was an excellent test of my optimism. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to learn lessons like this with overall insignificant things like smashed cakes so that when greater disappointments come up, I'll have had some practice.

I sill classify the cakes as a success because my roommates and I--and anyone else who stopped by today--benefited from the two large cakes we had sitting on our kitchen table all day. I loved sharing my creations. I loved laughing over smashed cake.

day of domesticity

I love long weekends because the extra day off from classes mean that I can put off homework and spend almost an entire Saturday doing the household tasks that keep me sane. Today, I did a little bit of accounting homework, but soon abandoned academic pursuits for Big Gulps and a Red Box rental of "Julie and Julia" with Charlotte. The movie was great and made me look forward to the day when I will have a kitchen that's all mine and can read cookbooks and try new recipes. I really loved something that Julia Child says in the movie about not apologizing or making excuses for what you make. Whenever I take baked goods somewhere, I always find myself apologizing for some aspect of the item, but Julia changed my ways today. No more apologizing for me. When I share my food with people, I will take it and be happy with how it is.

My unapologetic culinary ways will begin tomorrow when I take two giant cupcakes to Relief Society. If I do say so myself, however, there isn't much that calls for apology with these cakes. Unlike my last attempt at giant cupcakes, neither of these exploded nor came out of the pan in multiple pieces. Hooray! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well when I frost the cakes tomorrow morning.

In between the sister movie/knitting time and cake baking, I did three loads of laundry, including towels and sheets, meaning that I get to hop into a clean, freshly made bed in about half and hour. In fact, the anticipation of putting on pajamas and hopping into bed amid Tide-fresh cotton is strong enough to keep me waiting for my pictures to load. My apologies for the lack of visuals. Oooh! One just popped up! I'll be sure to post photos of the completed cakes, sans apologies.

May your sheets feel as wonderful as mine tonight!

take the long way home

I love my walk home from campus. At the end of the day, I leave campus knowing more than I did at the beginning, and the feeling of having filled my mind with information about accounting, the New Testament, and African Bushmen is thoroughly satisfying. I love distancing myself from the library, Tanner Building, and Eyring Science Center as I head toward the edge of campus. The ten or so minutes it takes me to walk back to my apartment serve as moments of solitude, when I am left with my iPod and whatever else is going through my mind. On my way home today, I decided to snap some pictures to capture my route.

Please note the friendly reminder written in creepy handwriting posted at the start of the path.

I also enjoy leaving campus because it means that I get to walk down the stairs instead of up.
Happy Friday!

*How do you get home at the end of the day?

essence of a thursday

Preliminary side story: Putting up decorations that go against all of my principles of style is a regular aspect of my job. The inner conflict this creates within my psyche is a tricky one to balance. For example, while shopping online for new decor on Tuesday, my boss requested my opinion regarding the "tumbling leprechauns" and "plush monkeys" she was considering for purchase from the Oriental Trading Company catalog. Regarding physics decor, my opinion doesn't count, so I end up agreeing upon the purchase of frightening decor far more often than I feel comfortable doing so. Tuesday, I decided that I could no longer endorse such investments, so I coined the "well, they go with our other decorations" line in response to my boss's inquiries. This is a completely true statement and keeps me from contributing to the putting of stuffed pink primates in our display cases. Unfortunately for our display cases, we will soon be receiving supplements to our Valentine's and President's day decor, and I will feel minimal guilt for contributing to their presence.

And now to my originally intended post:

Being one who thoroughly enjoys domesticity, being able to help make 18 apples pies at work yesterday was a pleasure. Contrary to physics department protocol, we made homemade crusts! I was in heaven. However, after mixing up light, flaky, completely unprocessed pie crusts, I was dismayed to find the filling for our pies sitting in the corner of the kitchen in a tub. A big, plastic, three gallon tub. Out of morbid curiosity, my co-workers and I read off the ingredients. The top two on the list were preservative-ridden apples and high-fructose corn syrup. Throughout the baking stages, my co-worker Lesley and I noticed that when high fructose corn syrup boils out of its pie shell and becomes exposed to direct oven heat, the composition changes interestingly. We found that the cooked syrup could be peeled from the sides of the pan, similarly to how one would peel off rubber cement or silly putty. In response to our concerns that the filling may not be edible, boss Shelena swore up and down that syrupy filling baked safely inside the pie shells retained its proper composure. I'm a trusting person, so today Lesley and I mustered up our courage and each tried a slice of the pie. I'm normally opposed to eating desserts that require courage to taste, but I was hungry and feeling daring.

The verdict: I'm trying to forget about what I ate and move past this poor choice.

On a happier note, I bought my very first baking ingredients canisters! Now I can make fructose-free baked goods with fresh, easily accessible flour. No more scooping out of messy bags for me! The canisters came in a four-pack from Walmart; flour, sugar, and dehydrated refried beans claim three, and I'm keeping the fourth open for when a need arises. I really really love them. I made a batch of biscuits tonight to celebrate.

And to top off my day, Mom and I caught each other on the phone after a tiring round of phone tag. We enjoyed a full conversation and it was wonderful. Love you, Mom!

*What was the flavor of your Thursday?

sighting

This was what I found under my kitchen table tonight. I have no words. Only laughter.