American citizens…you are on the clock
Today is the day! Make sure you get out there and exercise your right to vote and make a difference in the country. Whether Republican, Democratic, Independent or Green and everything in between [I suddenly feel very Seussical right now] – make your voice heard and push that button. Or punch out the chad. Or whatever you do in the booths.
I’ve never been to a voting booth so I have no clue. I’ve voted absentee from the moment I turned 18 since I was away at school during most elections and that’s continued to this day. Maybe one day I’ll void my permanent absentee voting privileges so I can make at least one trip to the polling place. Maybe.
Or maybe they can place “I Voted” stickers in with the ballots. Because that’s all I really want: the sticker. When else will you see sane grown adults walking around with stickers on their person? It’s rare I tell you. Rare!
Anywho, I’m really looking forward to the weekend. I’m making my very first attempt at cheesecake pops so I’m starting to accumulate all my ingredients leading up to Friday’s bake off. And I’m anticipating documenting the process as best as I can so I can do a write up on it later. I finally decided on the recipe I’ll be using [which was a Herculean effort in and of itself with quite the novice that is easily swayed by reviews and with the volume of sources available online] so now all that’s left is the best execution. Things work better if the cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature and I don’t want to sit around all night waiting for them to thaw out so I’m thinking about asking my mom to leave the items out on the counter when she leaves for work on Friday.
I’ve got a lot of projects working up on my sleeve as of late. Eileen wants to put together a baking day get together which has morphed into a football watching party/baking party [basically so the boys would have something to do while the girls bake. How 1950s] so we’re trying to settle on a date plus I have my Christmas presents I’m working on and I’ll eventually have to finalize my gift baskets and get working on those. Some day. Of course I have my midterm to deal with but the bf is supposed to be helping me study with that tonight [he wants me to give him a mini-lecture on the topics…how I’m going to explain the things like the confidence interval [x bar + - 1.96 times square root of p times 1 – p divided by n – did you get that?], I have no idea!] during our web chat so that’ll at least help me figure out where everything is in the book and notes!
Okay, I’m getting distracted by things and I suddenly want Red Vines. That was so random. Oh and get out there and get your free foodstuffs on this election day: Starbucks is offering a free tall drip coffee, Krispy Kreme will be handing out star shaped doughnuts and Ben and Jerry’s will be handing out ice cream at its shops from 5 pm – 8 pm. You don’t have to show proof of voting [because that’s against the rules] you just have to mention the promotion. So go and mention it!
Read MoreI’m the MacGyver of felt. Okay, so I lied…
So the main thing that’s been on my mind the past couple of days, besides how much I hate distributed probabilities, are, of course, my upcoming projects! Yes, there is something else besides the note cards, which I will be getting into, because I know y’all care a lot, but I plan on making my first attempt at cheesecake pops in a couple of weeks. I’ve got a Spanish Club get together coming up and I thought I’d break out those puppies then. I have no idea how they will turn out [I hope fabulously!] but I’m really excited.
I plan on making [my first ever!] a pumpkin cheesecake and dipping the little pops in white chocolate and top them with a bit of crumbled ginger snaps to simulate a crust and maybe cinnamon sugar. Though sometimes I waver and wonder if I should just go with a plain cheesecake and dip it in chocolate and sprinkle with stuff. But we’re doing a Thanksgiving themed get together so maybe the pumpkin cheesecake is the better bet. Honestly, I always wanted to make a pumpkin cheesecake so why not? My thoughts exactly!
If only I could take credit for such a wonderful idea, alas I cannot and will admit that I saw this online and thought I.MUST.MAKE.THESE!.NOW! And I’m so glad that I’m finally going to be able to do so. Oh, and thanks to Cindy, I also finalized my Christmas gifts for this year: cookies. Kind of duh but I’m going to spiff them up a bit. I won’t say how just yet but they will be quite spiffy.
Then there are the note cards, of course. I’ve been plotting my plan of attack in procuring my materials, doing my best to figure out the best place to purchase them and stocking up the coupons because I want to avoid paying full price whenever possible and at this rate, even if they make me take multiple trips to use coupons instead of letting me make separate transactions during the same trip, it’ll be worth it since both stores [Joann and Michael’s] are on my way home so it’s not like it’ll be an extra trip! I do have several stops to go but I’m picking and choosing on what I pick up first though right now, with my eagerness to get started, it looks like I’ll be doing the majority of my shopping in one weekend.
And because I’m so amazingly geeky, I even made a list of everything I need to buy and the store that’s best to buy them from. This way I maximize my time and energy. Don’t really want to be trudging back and forth to the store to pick up something else I forgot. Oh how I wish I could start this project now but that is just not in the business at this moment. Don’t know why I can’t wait just one week and some days for the paycheck to come through. Sheesh. You’d think my life depended on making these cards!
For all this fuss I’m making they better turn out perfect!
Read MoreUnagi is not a method of self-defense…
It’s finally Friday. What a freakin’ relief. Though I wish I could have just taken today off…the office is gasping for breath at the moment. Well, the department next to me is here and buzzing away but they’re always like this. They’re pretty much busy all year around. Anywho, this morning as I was walking to the BART station, I realized that after today, the next time I come to the BART in the morning will be when I’m flying out to Michigan! Tell me that isn’t exciting. It was more than enough to put a few extra hops to my steps.
I had a blast last night though. After work I met up with Eileen for dinner downtown. Robe and Alan were going to join us too but Robe wasn’t feeling well and Al was still deep at work when I left the office. So after some deliberation, Eye and I headed up the street to Sushi Boat.
This was the first time I’ve ever been there. It’s this cute little sushi restaurant downtown that’s on the corner of Mason and Geary. After some minor confusion in seating, we were and Eye added some sushi with that. I don’t remember what it was called but it had eel and avocado and actually tasted pretty good. It was a great time out with classic conversations. Good times Eye, good times.
Afterwards, we met Alan outside for a drive-by gift exchange and chatted for a brief second since he turned down our offer to grab dessert. I finally got my birthday/Hawaii gift from her…this super cute rash guard to wear when I’m surfing. And Eye gave me these really cute knee socks. I should have taken a picture of them when I tried them on. I like them. I’ve got to make a reason to put them on. Maybe I’ll bring them when I go to Michigan. We all know I’ll need all the extra help staying warm that I can get!
I’m sure the bf will love them. Look at my sexy knee socks…like those stripes on the foot and the flowers on the leg? Aren’t they HOT? I know he’ll just shake his head and go about his business. Best believe I’m wearing them to bed, son!
We’ll definitely have to get together more often though. I hadn’t seen Robe and Alan since Jacki’s wedding back in July and I hadn’t seen Eye since my birthday in August. And it’s December! Too long folks, too long. We are looking forward to hitting up Tahoe next month hopefully though for some snowboarding. I can’t wait. I hope Cin can get the cabin for the weekend. Those trips are the best.
Okay, since I am delivering two more bags today and finishing up this weekend, I can finally reveal what it was I’ve been working on the past week. In an awesome follow up to last year’s baskets of fudge and gingerbread men, this year’s gifts consisted of 4 flavors of chocolate dipped pretzels [oh yes I did!] and two flavors of whoopie pies.
The whoopie pies were surprisingly easy to make and deeelicious. Okay, the gingerbread one was okay but the original chocolate one was to die for. I’d definitely make that one again and again and again. I used a different recipe for the filling than the one listed with the chocolate whoopie pie recipe that I used and I quite enjoyed it. I doubled the batch according to my own calculation but I think it’d be better as single batches because I thought it tasted a little doughy…well, until I figure out how to probably multiply measurements. Because sometimes, you just can’t double a recipe. Anywho, onto pictures!
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