RIP: Black Gap Skinny Jeans

My fist pair of skinny jeans were a pair of black ones from the Gap. I had just interviewed for an SM position at my current job and I was fairly confident that I would get it. So, to celebrate, and prepare, I went shopping.

I found a pair black skinny jeans, on clearance for $6.95! Back then, I did not wear skinny jeans so I was very hesitant. I thought, Oh, there's no way I can walk around in jeans this tight! Not just that but they're black and I was with Daria, and she's heard my anti black jeans tirade many times. I can't be a hypocrite in front of her! As I struggled, mightily struggled, with this decision, Daria just grabbed them out of my hands and said, "Oh my goodness, they are seven dollars, just get them! You know what, I'll just get them for you."

"Oh, you don't have to do that..."

"No, no it's my gift to you. Besides, now I can make fun of you for wearing black jeans."

It seems that the clothes I'm most hesitant to purchase end up becoming my favorite. I wore them a lot, at first because they were my skinniest pair of jeans and later because they were one of my loosest pair of jeans.

Eventually, the it started to show some wear:


I'm not a fan of the whole distressed look but I still liked this pair. The wear and tear were natural, it's a testament to what this jean and I have been through (which, admittedly, is not a whole lot). I know guys who very rarely wash their jeans because, to them, it's like this mystical sponge that soaks in and records all their life. It's kind of like the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants minus the sisterhood and the pants sharing. Personally, I find that kind of gross. I prefer to keep the night off of my pants. Still, I can understand their attachment to gross jeans because, despite my disdain for shredded pants, I'm having a hard time letting this one go. I don't know, there's a certain attachment. It's my favorite pair.

I might not have a choice. Recently, I discovered this:


It's developing wear right on the butt! I guess it's time to say goodbye.

I can patch it up so that the wear doesn't get any bigger and my underwear doesn't show through but it's still going to have that worn spot. Do I really want to walk around with a white spot on my butt? No, not really.

Goodbye! I'll miss you!

Reston Big Bowl

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Big Bowl a pretty good restaurant? I remember liking that place. Recently, we went to the one in Reston and, I don't know... kind of disappointing.

Michael had the chicken Pad Thai.


It was just very fish and chicken-y tasting. And yes, I know it was a chicken Pad Thai and Pad Thai is made with fish sauce but it was just kind of unpleasant.

I had the Kung Pao chicken with flat noodles.


It's the closest thing they have to drunken noodles and this used to be my go-to dish at Big Bowls but this time around, it was just... meh. Maybe I've been spoiled by all the awesome drunken noodles I've had this year? The spinach was the best part of the whole dish.

I hope we just went on an off night. I've liked that place ever since my sister took me on my birthday a few years back. I mean, I know it's a glorified Pei Wei but it's a good place to when you want to go out but you're not really in the mood for anything specific, you know?

Yeah, I'm Pretty Talented

Check out my DIY necklace!


Okay, so clipping a clip on bow onto an already existing necklace isn't exactly crafty, but it is to me. The whole day I was like, "Oh this? I made it myself."

Good Golly, Those Suckers are Disgusting!

Don't get me wrong. Overall, I am very satisfied with my body and, for the most part, I don't give too much thought about how I'm shaped. However, every once in awhile, I'll notice a body part that I find very unattractive. It's never something common or obvious. I don't care about my thighs or slightly poochy stomach. I'm fine with the size of my boobs and I've made peace with my butt. It's always something people find odd. For example, I don't like my knees. I think they're funny looking. I'm also not a fan of my ankles; they are far too skinny. I'm glad I don't have cankles but it just looks comical. This is why I wear pants 99% of the time. If I had to look at them often, I think I would develop some body dysmorphic disorder.

My latest find? My tragus. I have some jacked up looking tragus! How did I live this long without realizing how ugly my tragus are?

What is a tragus? I'll spare you the Google image search (not pretty).


It's the pierced part.

Dear world, I am so sorry for walking around, my hair up, exposing my mutant like tragus. I'm sorry you had to see that. I'll try to wear my hair down more often.

Ignorance and Indecision

Click to enlarge if you want to read the stickers.

This car was parked outside the Reston Barnes and Nobel/Starbucks. The WHOLE car is covered in pro-left bumper stickers. I wonder if it's some one's actual car or "art". It's a pretty nice car to use as art. If I wanted to get all expressive with myself, I would've bought a cheap ass beater, you know?

Gubernatorial elections are coming up in November. I haven't decided if I'll be voting, let alone who. Michael, who has always claimed strong interest in politics, could not care less about this election. Bush is out of the office, Obama is president, Virginia was officially deemed a "Blue" state- The threat is over. He can now channel whatever political "passion" he had towards hating Glen Beck and those who still sport McCain/Palin stickers on their cars.

I have to say, I really dislike Glen Beck. Him and the Birthers and the Tea Partiers and Sarah Palin- they annoy me with their nonsense and thinly veiled racism and intolerance. I want to vote Democrat just because I hate them so much. But, I know that's wrong. It's ignorant and hypocritical. Hating the GOP because of Glen Beck is the same as loving the Democrats because of John Stewart.


Well, no. It's completely different. Someone this smart, funny, and cute would not steer the nation wrong.

Black Parade

How many accidents do you see in an average year?

How many have I seen in a week? FIVE!!!

I am convinced that some kind of strange moojoo voodoo is going on. This past week, every working day, there's been some kind of mortality reminder on my commute.

Last Monday- A lady dies on my plane on my way home from CA
Last Tuesday- Off
Last Wed- a traffic accident on Rt. 7
Last Thurs- Off
Last Friday- A tractor trailer accident right in front of me
Last Saturday- A funeral procession on my way to work. At night, in the parking garage, when I was walking to my car, a car made a sharp turn around the corner and spun around a few yards not far from me.
Sunday- I saw a wreck on my way to; and from; work
Today- There was another accident on my way to work, a pretty bad one at that. The spookier part- I left home about 15 min. late. I happened to see the ambulance drive by in response while I was waiting for a light to change. Judging by backed up traffic it would've taken the EMT about 15 minutes to get from the hospital to the light where I saw them. That means the accident happened 15 minutes before. Want to know where the accident was? Yup, about 15 minutes away from my house. Had I left on time, that could've been me!!!

So I was pretty anxious to see if I would come across another accident/death reminder tomorrow. Not likely, right? I don't think I'm really cursed, what are the chances that death and dismemberment will come up every freaking day that I work? Slim, right?

Today I was informed that I'm expected to show up for a family function tomorrow. What is this family function you ask? A memorial service honoring the death of my grandfather.

And the streak continues...

When In Rome

In Northern Virginia, the bag of choice for most privileged teens are from:


Ever since the outlet opened, a few years ago, it seems like every female over the age of 10 has one. Surprisingly, in MD (the part that borders DC, anyway) the bag of choice for teen and young women seem to be...


Seriously, I know! I was surprised. I always thought Longchamp was kind of like St. Johns, not really known or appreciated by anyone other then older "ladies who lunch". Who knew it was cool with the girls in Hollister hoodies and Ugg boots (and their older sisters, moms, aunts, and grandmothers)?

To be more specific, it is Le Pliage bags that seem to be so popular.


I've seen so many of these bags, I thought about getting one myself... Until I saw that they were like $125. That much money for a fold up-able, nylon bag? No thank you. Besides, I already have a Longchamp bag. It's all leather and it only cost me like $6 at the Salvation Army (in mint condition!). I thought about using it as my work bag, you know, to fit in with the natives, but I think it might be too small to carry everything that I need for work.

Longchamp has some nice bags. I would LOVE to have this one, but at $600, it's out of my price range. Even if I had the desire to save up for one, I just don't think I could justify paying more than $300 for a bag. Maybe one day... You know, when I marry the crazy Virgin guy. You know me, I'm a sucker for a dude with a British accent.

Just did a blog search on Le Pliage and it looks like they are very popular in DC. That makes sense, Rockville/Bethesda is right on the border.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

You know, I thought the whole point of paying more for quality was to ensure a product that last longer than the cheaper version. One would expect a $20-ish shirt from American Eagle to last longer than a $10 shirt from Old Navy, right?

Now, being the cheapskate that I am, normally I would not pay over $20 for a shirt but I saw this one:


and it spoke to me.

A classic, boat neck shirt, how nautical! How French! It's soft, light weight, and can me layered with a multitude of things. I wore it a lot and it quickly started to show wear.


One small hole? No big deal, it's hardly noticeable.


Two small holes? It's not that noticeable. I'll just throw a cardigan over it.


A third hole? This one is huge (I can stick my thumb through it) and in a location that cannot be covered up with a cardigan. Time to go.

Now, I definitely got my money's worth, but I'm still kind of pissed. That was like my go to striped shirt! Heart ache, I tell ya, heart ache.

Final Destination 2

Death took a shot and...

MISS!!!

It's probably not a good idea to taunt death.

Am I marked for death or something? First there was the airplane incident which, granted can't be considered a close call... but, what if that old lady didn't die of natural causes? What if that old lady was in the bathroom, there was turbulence, and CONK!!! That could have been ME!!!

So, first there was the airplane incident and yesterday... I almost died, again!

I'm very bad at describing car accidents without the use of visual aids so I won't go into details. But, basically, I was driving to work on a major high way when a tractor trailer, you know, one of these guys:


hit a sedan that was trying to merge into it's lane.

The tractor trailer was about two three cars ahead of me, two lanes over. I didn't hear the impact because I had the music on pretty loud, but I did see the tractor trailer swerve a bit and then I saw the car that it hit. A piece of the bumper actually flew up and hit my windshield!!!

!!!

OMG!!!

It's like those car chase scenes in movies when you're just driving and BAM!!! Some chunk of debris comes flying at you and you're like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! Except in real life it was a tiny bit of plastic but still! The feeling is the same.

What if?!?!?!

What if I was directly behind the truck? I would've slammed on my breaks and even then I would end up hitting either the truck or the car that it just hit.

What if I was driving beside the truck? When it swerved it would've knocked me into the next lane to get hit by more cars!

What if a bigger chunk of the bumper hit my car? I probably would've freaked and slammed on the breaks, causing another accident!

But, I'm safe and my car is okay.

Torrid

Now that I work in Maryland, one thing is apparent- Maryland women are better put together than the suburban, stroller mom's that I'm used to at my old mall. Even the teens are better dressed. The MD ladies love their big costume jewelry and so do I!

Torrid has a really awesome selection of costume jewelry and they're buy one half off. Since I now work at a mall with a Torrid, I scored these two pieces.

This one's my favorite. The jeweled flower part sits off to the center and it is so cute!


I'm not a fan of long necklaces since they hit me in the upper abdomen every time I move- thud-thud-thud. It's annoying and irritating but it looks good.


It's a vicious cycle. I buy a long necklace, wear it, find it extremely annoying, and never wear it again. Months go by, I forget that I hate long necklaces, see a cute piece, buy it... and repeat.


Maybe I can find a way to discreetly pin it to my shirt so that it won't move.

Oh, and the ladies at Torrid are like the nicest people I've ever met.

Manager's Meeting 09

Wow, this was my fourth Manager's Meeting! I can't believe I've been with the company for three and a half years! Wow.

The first day was pretty boring and uneventful. I found the general meeting interesting but no one outside the company would care so we'll skip to the second day when we went to HQ to learn of all the newness that would surely melt our faces in Q4.

In order to get to HQ we have to drive past Inglewood and Compton. Being a NWA fan, I thought that was pretty cool.

Lunch was the West Coast classic:


The double burger from In-N-Out. Sadly, it did not live up to the hype. It was a little better than McDonald's but not by much. Five Guys is much better.

Our lunch time entertainment was The Black Dahlia Murder.


Not really my kind of music, I'm not too into the BRUTAL metal. I'm also not too into bands that call the crowd "mother fuckers" and I could never understand why crowds cheer when the singer insults them.

After visiting HQ we had our regional dinner/award presentation and then we were all mysteriously herded out to the main tent outside. Oooh... what could it be?!?!?! Rumors were flying all over the place, the most prominent being that it's a super secret advanced screening of New Moon.

It was something better!


WEEZER!!!

OMG! WEEZER!!!

We got there early and I was near the center, slightly off to the left, third person deep and, best part, no tall people in front of me. Their show was amazing!

Next morning, after breakfast, we had training classes. Everyone breaks off and goes to the classes they signed up a month ago. The classes I chose made sense back when I was at Dulles. Had I known for sure that I was transferring I think I would've chosen some different ones that would have been more relevant to my new situation. Again, some good information were passed but nothing anyone outside the company would find interesting. My last class was up in the top floor and the view was pretty good.


If you click to enlarge you can check out the LA skyline in the background.

They really rushed our last class (we had three) and surprised us with a champagne toast at the end. Now, I haven't drank in a loooooooong time, mostly because alcohol wrecks havoc on my system. I turn tomato red and it doesn't take much to make me feel nauseous. It's cool, I'm not a big fan of how most alcoholic beverage tastes anyway. I was just going to toast and have a few sips of the champagne but I ended up drinking the entire glass because it was really good.

BAD IDEA!

Augh, I was not a happy camper for the next hour or so.

Once I started to feel better, I had dinner, drank tons of coffee to stay awake (alcohol makes me sleepy), got dressed for the party, and headed down.

The corporate award ceremony is held inside a huge tent outside our hotel. After the ceremony we have a secret band perform, then another dance party.


My Chemical Romance stopped by to say hey.


And who was the surprise band?!?!

Well, I knew it wasn't AFI (since they were in PA that day) so I didn't really care. Rumors always circulate from day one and the most popular ones this year were:

NIN (I wish!)
Slipknot
Cure (I wish!)
Depeche Mode (I wish!)
Korn
Metallica
Motley Crue
Devo

The most popular rumor was that it was going to be Blink 182 since they were in town but not performing that night. Blink would have been awesome but it was:


Korn.

Well... It wasn't my first pick but it could have been worse, I suppose. I used to like Korn when I was young but outgrew them. The show was good, I guess, but the bass was SUPER loud and I could barely hear Jonathan Davis sing. He also didn't say much to the crowd other then a "Thank you!" at the end. I like it when bands interacts with the crowd (as long as they're not calling me a mother fucker). Weezer did a lot of talking and song improvs which made it fun.

So yeah, that was our manager's meeting in a nutshell. I stuck around at the post party long enough to see some managers bust a move on the dance floor but ducked out early to bed since we had an early flight.

On our way back we... well, you know what happened.

Final Destination

I'm back!

Man, I am pooped! I don't know if I'm just tired or suffering from vertigo or what but I just feel... like I should be sitting or lying down at all times. I kind of feel like I'm going to float away. I'm sure I'll feel better after I get a good night sleep in my own bed (though, the hotel bed was like heaven!) but I had to share this with everyone I know...

Dude, someone fucking died on my flight!

On our way back to Virginia we had to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri due to a medical emergency. Even though they removed the person in a wheel chair with an oxygen mask strapped to her face, from what I saw and heard it was pretty obvious that she was not alive when she exited the plane. The plane had a lot of very young passengers. Had it been full of grown ups, I wonder if the EMT and flight crew would have bothered with the charade.

I'm fine, I'm not traumatized. Come to think of it, even though all the grown ups on the plane knew that someone had died, no one seemed disturbed or bothered- except for the flight crew. Maybe that says something about the state of our society. I mean someone died, for crying out loud! Someone died, mid flight, and the no one seemed to care. Instead we continued to read our magazine and books, called and texted, complained about hunger, stared aimlessly out the window, talked and laughed with our friends, business as usual. Or, maybe that's how it should be. After all, her death, while tragic, was personal. Cause of death was health related, it wasn't anything that we needed to worry about. Her death was quiet, she didn't cause a scene. We didn't know her. Other then causing a delay she didn't effect us.

At first, it might seem like a great story to tell, "Dude, someone fucking died on my flight!" But, once I go into the details, it's really not that interesting. What happened? She died... quietly... of natural causes... in the very back of plane- either in the bathroom or in the flight crew area... no one saw much really... we just sat there for an hour before taking off again... nothing changed except for the ETA.

Wow. As if a death the family wasn't stressful enough, having someone die hundreds of miles from home... That's rough.

So, maybe we were a plane full of the self centered, insensitive, jaded people. Or, maybe death isn't as sensational as our knee jerk reaction tells us it is. I'm too tired and woozy to figure it out.

BRB

I'm leaving on a jet plane,
don't know when I'll be back again.

Well, it's more like a Boeing and I'll be back on Monday.

Whoooooo California!

Vegetable Turkey Lasagna

Ricotta is the devil's cheese. How's it even cheese?! It's all soft and goopy and gross- and dry. How can something be goopy and dry? I don't know, but somehow ricotta cheese manages to be both. School cafeteria manicottis ruined that "cheese" for me. I used to squoosh and scrape out all the ricotta and just eat the shells.

Speaking of ricotta and manicottis, I made my first lasagna sometime in middle school. For reasons I still don't know, we had a box of manicotti shells in the house. One day I got this great idea to cook them, split them down the side, flatten them, and use them to build a lasagna. My first lasagna were layers of split manicotti shells, bolognese sauce, and mozzarella cheese baked in a loaf pan. Ricotta cheese? Never! Not in my lasagna! It was pretty good!

I've moved unto to using real lasagna pastas in bigger pans with more ingredients, but still ricotta free. It's always tasted good but it always lacked a certain structural integrity. Since the recent All You magazine (yay!!!) had a lasagna recipe inside, I decided to give it a try. Maybe it's time that I actually learned to make a proper one instead of just winging it. Maybe it's time I made peace with ricotta...

The result:


Sure it looks good in the pan, it always looks good in the pan. What if I slice it?


It stays up!!!

It is the best lasagna I've ever made and, I'm just going to toot my own horn and say it, the best lasagna I've ever tasted.

Lasagna isn't cheap to make (you're looking at around $20-$30 worth of ingredients, depending on how fancy you want to get) but it does yield a lot of servings. Oh Garfield, if you were mine, I would bake you lasagna every day!

Vegetable Lasagna

Serves 10

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, shredded (I forgot to buy carrots so I just added another onion)
8oz white mushrooms, sliced
1 zucchini, shredded (about 1 cup)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
1 10-oz package frozen spinch
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
2 eggs, beaten
1 15-oz container ricotta
1/2 cup Parmesan, shredded
1 lb mozzarella, shredded
2 24-oz jars spaghetti sauce
12 sheets uncooked, no-boil lasagna (I just bought the regular kind and boiled them since they were much cheaper than the no-boil ones)

I also included a lb of ground turkey in my lasagna.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mist a 9-13 inch casserole with vegetable spray.

Warm oil in a large covered skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots. Cook for 5 to 6 minuets, stirring often, until onion is translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Stir in zucchini, garlic, Italian seasoning, 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Add frozen spinach. Cover and cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Remove cover from skillet, increase heat to high and simmer until liquid has evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in bail and season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

In a medium bowl, mix eggs with ricotta, Parmesan and half of mozzarella.

Spread 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce over bottom of casserole. Place 4 sheets lasagna on top. Spread 1/2 ricotta mixture, 1/2 vegetable mixture and 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce on top. Add 4 more lasagna sheets, spreading remaining ricotta mixture and vegetables on top, then top with 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce. Add remaining 4 lasagna sheets and sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.

Liberally coat 1 side of a piece of foil with vegetable stray and cover casserole. Bake until bubbling, about 60 minutes. Uncover and bake until cheese is browned, about 10 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.

I would advice you place the casserole onto a bigger baking pan to prevent the sauce (and maybe cheese) from lading on your oven floor when it starts to bubble.

Should It Stay or Should It Go? Pt. 2

This Friday I will be flying down to LA for our annual Store Manager Meeting. Yay! This year's theme is 1989. I already have my costume ready for that so I'm good to go for the big party. However, I also have a regional dinner to attend. Once again, it is themed (augh) and, once again, it is Black Tie.

Now, I have nothing against themes but it's just one more thing to buy and... I don't know. I'm working on a budget here and I resent having to spend money on something that I wouldn't normally buy. Of course, there's nothing that prevents me from wearing the same dress that I wore last year so I suppose I have nothing to whine about.

Anyway, I bought a dress. It looks almost exactly like this dress:


Don't worry, my dress is much longer (or I am much shorter than the model).

It's cute, and I got it for a good price (around $30 I believe) but I'm torn. On one hand, I know I'll never wear it again so I should just return it and wear the same dress I wore last year. That would be the sensible thing to do. On the other hand, the dress is pretty darn cute. The bodice part is a skoosh too big for me and I can't quite fill out the cup. However, I think I can jerry rig it to stay up. It doesn't look too big, I'm just worry about having to constantly pull it up (it's strapless). Do I really want to keep an ill fitting dress that I won't wear again? Should I return it? I should, right? But it's cute!

We sell these bad ass feather and lace... oh crap, what's it called... you know, those things that actresses used to wear in film-noir movies.


Yes, one of those, only not quite so dramatic. Wouldn't it look cute with the dress?

Returning the dress and repeating last year's would be the sensible thing to do, especially since the dress is a bit too big. I don't know... Well, I have until Thursday night to decide.

Marco! Polo!

Due to my new commute, now, when I close, I come home around 11pm. Sure, it's only a 30 difference from before, but it makes a difference. The last thing I want to do prepare a meal so often times, I just grab a big midnight snack of bread and cheese.

More specifically, this bread!


It's Marco Polo bread from Wegmans and it is amazing! To smell it is to love it. It has this incredible yeasty, crusty bread smell. Sometimes I go into this carb frenzy and I've been known to eat half this bread in one sitting.

I wonder why they call it a Marco Polo bread.

Grow Up

This is a prank call that I got, at work, after close, yesterday night.

Thank you calling (place of employment) at (name of the mall)! This is (my name) speaking, how can I help you?

...Um... Yeah... Hi.... My name is Adam and... uh... I have a question...

Sure, what can I help you with?

...Um... Okay... So... I bought this pair of skinny jeans, it's purple. And, um... Yeah, they're a pair of skinny jeans and I uh... Can't get them off and I... uh... Don't know what to do...

So you can't get your pants off but you didn't have any problems putting them on?

... Oh, well... um... See... I, uh... Wore them and went to an indoor pool and got them wet. And, yeah... They shrunk, and I can't get them off now.

Oh, well, that's a shame. Unfortunately, I think you're just going to have to grab a pair of scissors and cut them off.

Oh.
I can hear the disappoint in his voice. Prank callers hate it when they don't get a reaction from you. I've always found it best to just stay calm and say rational, grown up things.
...Well... Can I return it after once I get it off?

No.

Oh. Okay, then, I have another question.

Sure, what can I help you with?

Okay, well, I bought this shirt and... um... I guess it's, um... really bad 'cause I wore it to school and they... uh... They... um... They kicked me out.

They kicked you out of school over a t-shirt?

Yeah, so... um... Now I don't know what to do. What do you think... Can I return them?

No.

Oh. But I can't wear it 'cause they kicked me out. They said I can't wear it.

You can still wear it on the weekend.

Oh. (Again, disappointment) Yeah, I guess I can... Okay, I have another question. And, this is the truth, I swear to God, it is. So, um... Please don't laugh or hang up on me 'cause it really happened and it's really embarrassing and I don't know who else to ask.

Okay.

Okay, well... Um... you know those pants? The one they shrank? Well, I was wearing them and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom and (said something that I didn't really understand). And yeah, I know! No, it really happened and um... It's embarrassing and... Yeah, don't hang up, and um... Yeah, and so now I don't know...

Well... If your pants are so tight that it's prohibiting body functions-

Yeah, it totally is!

... Then I suggest you go to the hospital and talk to a doctor.

Oh. That's your suggestion (sounds so disappointed)?

Yeah, I would see a doctor.

Oh. Well... suckmydick.

And he hung up.

Kids are so dumb.

Bow Clip

This bow is my favorite accessory right now. It has a simple clip on the back so I can wear it on my hair, as a brooch, or as a bow tie! I can also clip it onto a necklace! Some days, I just want some sparkle and this makes it easy.

I'm so glad bows are becoming trendy, they're everywhere and super easy to find in most places now. If you ask me, this world needs more bows, sparkle, polka dots, and leopard prints.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

Trader Joe's stopped selling King Arthur Flour. It was one of the few national brands they sold but they chucked it in favor of their own store brand. I'm not too sure what's so special about King Arthur but once, I was at Trader Joe's, and this lady was reaching for a bag of King Arthur, right? Well, this other lady, a total stranger, goes, "Oh, King Arthur! It is an excellent flour, the best I've ever used! I bake all the time and I won't use anything else! I come here because it's so much cheaper!" If it makes one stranger profess their love to another stranger, it must be pretty good, right?

Well, now Trader Joe's carries their own flour.


I wanted white, AP flour but bought whole wheat by accident- the "100% White" threw me off. I'm not a big fan of wheat flour but I didn't want to waste so I've been using it for awhile. The taste is pretty mild and it makes everything tastes... healthier. The whole wheat madeliens turned out a bit grainier than I would have preferred, and I couldn't taste the lemon, but it was good! I swear it tasted a bit like a mocha roll cake but that could have been my imagination.

The way I see it, the whole wheat turns dessert into health food!

Recently, I used it to make some chocolate cake. I've never made a layer cake before but, once I discovered that I own two cake pans, I decided to give it a try.

Why I have two cake pans, I don't know... I guess I bought one having forgotten that I already owned one.

I didn't bother buttering and flouring the pan since they're non stick. Well, they are suppose to be non-stick but the cake was firmly stuck. What to do!


I just sliced it, pie like, and made kind of a chocolate cake sandwich.


That's a thick, thick layer of homemade whipped cream. The whole thing tasted like a cakey Oreo cookie!

I kind of like the whole wheat flour. It lends a mellowed out taste to sugary desserts which I prefer since I'm not a fan of overly sweet desserts.

Should They Stay or Should They Go?

Next week I have to go to LA for the Manager's Meeting. Every year, the meeting ends with a HUGE themed party. Since my company is celebrating it's 20th anniversary, this year we're asked to come as we were back in 1989.

What did I wear in 1989? I don't recall. It doesn't matter, as long as I dress like a late 80's elementary student, I should be good. So, I found a shirt, I got some white tights (I definitely recall wearing a lot of tights), and now for the footwear!

I figured this would be the perfect excuse to rock some bright pink Hello Kitty foot gear, right?! Sadly, Target did not have any that fit my need. I found a cute, sparkly, pink, ballet flats... but not in my size. They were all either too big or too small (I'm cursed!). As for their selection of Hello Kitty sneakers... They weren't Hello Kitty enough for me to wear them ironically outside of a costume and I wasn't about to waste $20 on shoes that I would only wear for like 3 to 4 hours.

Darn.

Desperation will lead you to make some poor choices... like going inside Walmart.

I give Walmart a chance every year, thinking maybe things have changed. It never changes.

I did, however, find the perfect shoes!


Shiny, hot pink, fake Doc's!

I've never owned a pair of Dr. Martens but who cares, these shoes were pretty awesome. They're a size to big but that's why God invented thick (cat) socks, right? At $10, how could I pass them up? I took them home, tried it on with my costume, and it looked so cute!

Then, I started to think... Would I ever wear these ever again? At first, I thought would, but then I wasn't so sure. Besides, I already own a pair of hot pink kid's shoes, I certainly don't need another one, right? But, you know, I bought those wallabies thinking I would never wear them but I wear them all the time. Who knows, maybe these shiny, hot pink, fake Doc's will become my go to shoes? Even if I only wear them once, who cares? They're $10! The whole point of a costume is to be a bit out there, right?

I'm thinking about returning them. Realistically, I probably won't wear them after the party. I'm down with the color but the shoes are so cheap I can tell they won't be very comfortable. Still, after years of being forced to wear boring shoes (since cute shoes do not come in my size) it would be nice to wear something bold.

Hmmm...