Happy Star Wars Day 2012!!

May the Fourth be with you!

Source: us.starwars.lego.com via Sue on Pinterest

Source: bit.ly via Mary on Pinterest

Source: geeks.thedailywh.at via Rob on Pinterest

Source: craftster.org via C on Pinterest

Source: goo.gl via Gisela on Pinterest

Source: toppics.justfreight.org via Jodoin on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Brittany on Pinterest

Pi Day Cupcakes!

HAPPY PI DAY!

In honor of pi day (celebrating 3/14), I made cupcakes that look like little pies!

If you go here you can learn a little more about pi. The Mr. helped quite a bit, too, since we ended up making FOUR DOZEN!!

I basically just tried to mimic this and this and think we ended up doing a pretty good job, after the learning curve!  My biggest tip: Cut off the rounded muffin top so that the 'pie' parts can lay flat- that way the M&Ms won't fall off.  We decided that red = apple pie, orange = pumpkin pie, yellow = lemon meringue, green = key lime pie, blue = blueberry, and brown = French silk pie. Boy- they were tasty!!!

Hope everyone's doing well - take care!

Library, Christmas survey, and catching up

Recently, I've been under the weather a bit so it seems like everything is taking a little longer. The Mr. and I recently sold a car and we'll hopefully be bringing a new one this weekend.

I also had a pretty big exam this morning so I've been at the library quite a bit, and the Mr. went on a work trip this week and was gone from Sunday till Tuesday.  I swear we haven't had a normal, non-busy week in a long time.  I REALLY am looking forward to a Thanksgiving break next week.

Unrelated to either of those, I stepped on a piece of glass yesterday in the kitchen. It was very unexpected. It bled a surprising amount, but my foot is just fine. Lesson learned: sweep the kitchen a little better!

ALSO! I'm doing a Christmas Survey! I copied it Em at Then Along Came the Boy. You should check her blog out!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Hot chocolate, with marshmallows!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  Colored lights are the way to go. White lights are only for ceilings!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Any time after Thanksgiving is acceptable.

colorful books at the library!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Homemade fudge! Also those molassess cookies and the crinkle cookies. I’d have to agree with em here: Mom makes them all the best! I also like roasted yams with marshmallows. Yum.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Getting a real puppy, after two years of “stuffed animal” puppies! (It was difficult to convince me that a stuffed animal “counted” as a “real dog”. )

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What are you trying to say???

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Right now I only have a handful of ornaments, but I’d prefer to have lights, garland, beads, and anything pretty.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it on the weekends, hate it when I have to travel somewhere far in a blizzard.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep; it’s been awhile though!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  Oh gosh- Well, it’s pretty hard to have a better present than a puppy!

my second edit on those BRIGHT books. :)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Relaxing with family/friends, taking a break from the usual daily “hustle and bustle”

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  See the answer to #6.

16. What is your favorite Holiday tradition? Eating the answers to #6. :)

17. What tops your tree? I have nothing for the top of the tree, right now. A star is usually nice, though.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. This year I seem to be behind in that realm!

19. Candy Canes: Yum or Yuck? Yum!

20. Favorite Christmas show? A Christmas Story

21. Saddest Christmas Song?  No time for sad Christmas songs!

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?  Carol of the Bells, on the piano

Happy (post) Halloween!

Because we've been busy, we lacked the foresight to buy a pumpkin prior to Halloween day. Last night, we went to the grocery store to pick one up and shouldn't have been surprised when we didn't find any pumpkins. So, we hopped in the car and went to a place which didn't have any pumpkins left either, but then someone at the store told us a place just a few minutes down the road where we could find one. Ah HA! We bought a large pumpkin, and two smaller ones.

I roasted the pumpkin seeds and the Mr. designed and cut out the face. He did quite a fancy job. :)

We decided it needed bushy eyebrows. 

Ta daaaaaaa!

In face-hair news, it is the start of "No Shave November". So, I think the Mr. doesn't have any plans of shaving his face for the next few weeks.  Has anyone else heard of "no shave November"?

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween last night, and is having a great start to November.

Studying, That's about it!

I am studying, studying, studying! We had a nice 4th of July and are back to the routine, today. I totally meant to take some of my free time, edit some photos, and write a nice blog post over the four day weekend (Fri-Mon), but that didn't happen since I was either studying or outside.  It's been time well spent, and I've got a third exam this Thursday.

On the random chance that anyone has any useful tips about learning chemical reactions, I'd be more than happy to hear them. :) This evening, I'll be hunkered down with my notecards learning the 70+ reactions and mechanisms we've heard in class the past few days.

Keep cool, everyone!

Edit Me - Week 7

{The picture for this week's 'Edit Me' challenge is from Branson at My Reflection of Something.}

Original

Edited

After I got done and uploaded it, I realized that it looks grainy because I somehow worked with the lower resolution version of the picture :( Not really sure why I didn't notice sooner, but oh well.


I rotated the picture, so the flag would have its field of stars in the upper left corner.  I brightened it and softened the sky, and brought out some different blue colors.  I wanted to keep it simple, and clean.  I added a star focus to the flag, and 'Stars and Stripes Forever'; simple, straightforward, and meaningful.  That's my FAVORITE 4th of July song (although I'm not sure how many other songs are in the running), so I'm attaching it as a YouTube video, too. =)  

'Stars and Stripes Forever' by John Philip Sousa as played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Leonard Bernstein, and recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London (1976)

Enjoy the cellos, cymbals, trombones, baritones, and piccolo. Well, enjoy whatever you want in the song, but those are my favorites. :)

Our Cinco de Mayo Feast!

I had the smaller pan (left), the Mr. had the larger pan (right). We basically just piled lots of chips, salsa, beans, and cheese together and stuck it in the oven.

The Mr. put the #5 in honor of CINCO DE MAYO!!!

Sticking the first one in the oven...

...and the second one.

Salsa with guacamole on the left, guacamole on the right. Tasty additions!

COWBOY STYLE! See? He has a cowboy hat and everything!  Disregard the very 'cowboy' bananas in the corner.

COWGIRL STYLE!  I have a hat, too!

His finished product. 

Party time!

We ate our food and it was delicious.  We'll have to eat these nachos more often.  Hope everyone had a great Cinco de Mayo!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

This has nothing to do with mayonnaise. However, you CAN celebrate today since it is the 5th of May!

I think I should surprise the Mr. by finding a mariachi and having them play music when he gets home. That would be cool, right? Or, I could skip spending the money and try to learn a song on the guitar. Hrm- not sure how that would pan out. Perhaps we will have to dine on burritos, nachos, and margaritas this evening for supper!  Also, I do not have a sombrero or a serape, but we have a cowboy hat and regular blankets. I suppose we'll just have to make do. We don't even have a spare piñata on hand!!! (I did find a Darth Vader piñata here, which oddly enough, can mix the May 4 and May 5 festivities.  weird, huh?) :-P

Here is some mariachi music to help start your festivities...

{In case the video doesn't load, you can watch it here, too.}

I tried finding the clip from Arrested Development where Buster brought the mariachi over to Marta's house, but I couldn't find it. sad.  And, in case you really need help learning how to celebrate, of course the internet can help you out with that here.  Sending out invitations is their first step, but if you're like me, you probably just realized that today is, in fact, the 5th of May.  I think opting for some 'Cinco de Mayo' music and food would be fine enough, instead. :-)

Happy Star Wars Day!

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!

(get it, right? . . .  May the 4th be with you . . . Today is May 4th!)

I couldn't find a *decent* video of anyone saying "may the force be with you", so this Lego Star Wars video is what you can watch instead.

The Star Wars Wookieepedia even has a page dedicated to May 4 here.    Happy Star Wars watching. :]

Easter

To: Everyone

"Happy Easter weekend!"

From: me and the mister 

:]

Happy VEISHEA!

I wasn't in town to celebrate VEISHEA, obviously.  BUT, the mister and I did take some pictures around campus before we left town.  We're both hoping everyone stayed safe this past week and weekend.  I haven't heard of any riots this year, so that's a good thing!  This was VEISHEA weekend, and so to help celebrate it, I made a festive picture that the mister and I took of my hand squashing the campanile. 

picture taken March 16

There are more pictures from this series, but I may or may not post them later.  It took a few decent tries to get my hand aligned with the campanile.  I heard that the weather this weekend wasn't so nice for VEISHEA, but at least it was a nicer day when we went to take pictures!!