Smoooooooooothie

So I haven't blogged in about a million years. Sheesh. My life has been completely taken over by schoolwork. I haven't gone home to see my family in over a month, and haven't even seen much of my Cape friends since the start of summer! This is GARBAGE! And unfortunately, it's not fixin' to change any time soon. So for this post, I will do a few things.

FIRST:

I nearly peed my pants when I saw this today.... and then I cried because I am just that excited. Go ahead and laugh... that just proves how lame you are for not loving HP like I do. 

HARRY POTTER 7.5

WATCH IT NOW

SECOND:

 My dove hatched!! Mind you, this happened about a week or more ago, so he's not this tiny any more.

proud mama : )

THIRD:

I am obsessed with smoothies. It's getting a little bit ridiculous. I somewhat recently invested in a single serving size blender thinking "What the hell, I may make a smoothie some day". As it turns out, I would be making a smoothie or two every single day after that. I started out buying a couple of those Smoothie Creations things from Yoplait in the frozen section - but those are two fifty a piece and only make 2 smoothies... that really isn't all that much better than buying one from Panera. So I went to my new favorite place - Aldi's. I'm not sure if I've gone into detail about my discovery of this magical land of cheap food, but I'm sure I'll rant about it sooner or later. At any rate, they stock frozen, in season fruit there, and I decided that, hey, I'll make my own darn smoothie creations! So I got a bag of each kind ($2.50ish each - and I've already made about a dozen smoothies with those) and a big container of plain yogurt. I also went to Schnuck's and picked up a few more kinds of fruit a few days later. Just one of these fabulous smoothies can make a meal of itself, and my blender makes the perfect size just for me! 

THEN... a great realization occurred while talking to Gramma B (to let her know that my bird hatched). I filled her in on my smoothie binge and she asked if I was making banana shakes.

       This is something no one else in the world can understand..... and that is sadder than a perfect angelfood cake that fell out of the pan. And we all know how incredibly sad that is.

Gramma Buettner's banana shakes are legendary in the book of my life. Whenever I got sick growing up, or whenever I was sleeping over at Gramma and Grampa's house, Gram would make me a banana shake. It's absolutely brilliant and is made with frozen bananas. That's as far as I'll go with this, because it's too miraculous to share in public. If you'd like to experience this magical banana concoction, let me know. I'll hook you up. 

I went to Aldi's, picked up some bananas, and had to wait for a few days of absolute torture for my bananas to be ripe enough to freeze. Tonight was the night. I made myself a beautiful banana shake, and I am happier than a tornado in a trailer park. Yes, it may sound as though I'm being melodramatic... but like I said, no one else in this world can understand the glory of a Gramma Buettner Banana Shake... and for that, I am sorry.

Love to the readers : )

I stand corrected

I got an email from my Papa Bear a few minutes ago. Here's exactly what it said:

If there is ever a wildlife question, check with dear old dad before telling the world about the dove you have nesting outside your window.

pop

ps          love the blog

I laughed for about five straight minutes.

SO... I do NOT have a pigeon friend on my windowsill, but a dove. Which is probably way cooler anyway.

Also, today is National Donut Day. So go ahead, indulge. I know I probably will. : )

Quickie Updates

So I don't have a whole lot of time to post a whole bunch of stuff, but I figured that some updates were in order:

First of all, that angel food cake I talked about a few posts back - well, it finally got made after a rendezvous with more than two dozen eggs and a crying yelling fit. So here's the story:

One Saturday about a ten days ago, I decided it was time to go ahead and knock that sucker out. I'd been looking forward to making that glorious from-scratch Chocolate Angel Food Cake for WEEKS... as you well know. So I went through the tedious dry-ingredient-sifting, egg-separating process that goes along with making the perfect AFC, made  my meringue, folded and sifted some more, and finally got that beautifully prepared batter in the oven. I had my oven pre-heated to 350 degrees and I baked that cake for 40 minutes as called for on Gramma B's recipe. When the timer went off, I took it out and hung it upside-down on a bottle for an hour and a half - you have to hang it upside-down so it stays airy and fluffy, don't worry, I'm not nuts. Anyway, after the hour and a half cooling time, I went back into my kitchen after watching a movie to pass the time only to discover that my cake was NOT done cooking as it should have been and proceeded to fall out of the pan in chunks all over my kitchen counters. I screamed with rage, and then I cried. Seriously... something so perfect and beautiful should never have something so tragic happen to it.

So the next day, I woke up bright and early to head to Schnuck's for another eighteen eggs to try again. I would NOT be foiled in my attempts to bake my favorite cake. No Way Hosay. Well I sifted, I separated, I meringued, I sifted and folded. This time, figuring out that the difference was the electric oven (I'm used to using gas), I cranked up the temp to 360 and left that baby in there for an extra five minutes - not daring to even so much as open the oven door to check on it. Needless to say, it was perfect the second time around. Ask the many people who have been over to sample it. I made my wonderful chocolate whipped cream frosting, topped that beautiful cake, and shared it with my friends and myself. If ever you're in need of a birthday cake, just ask... I'll make you one.  : )

My ghost, Pauladine, still lives with me... nothing new there. I did find out that she resides in my utility closet and probably haunts my air conditioner. She's gotten louder lately and I figure it has something to do with the warm weather.

the beginnings of the nest

Pigeon and her Man

In new news (haha new news), I have a cute little  pigeon nested on my windowsill next to my kitchen table. I watched her and her man build the nest last week, and she's been sitting there ever since. For those of you in Cape, they built this nest on the day of that really brutal storm, it survived and so did they... it was crazy. I called my Gram to tell her about this, because I knew that she was the only one who could be appropriately excited for me... I was ecstatic! I can't wait for the ugly blue babies!!

More new news: I am now the proud owner of a smart phone! An LG Vortex... it's crazy. It's going to take me forever to figure it out. Oh yeah, and I told the guy helping me that I blog... and he said he'd have to check it out. He's probably going to be all, "Wow... this is incredibly lame... pigeons and angel food cake". Oh well. I swear I'm not actually lame.

Also, I got a job today!! YAY EMILY!!! I am now an extremely part time worker at Gymboree! For those of you who are unfamiliar, Gymboree is a children's clothing store. Doesn't that sound perfect?! Kids and clothes - my two favorite things!

Oh yeah, and Geometry is keeping me unbelievably busy. Sixteen weeks worth of material is NOT meant to be smashed into a three and a half week pre-session course. And I'm good at geometry... I can't imagine what this is doing to people who hate the subject!!

... well this got a lot longer than I intended. Oh well.

Much love to the readers!