quiet and carrot cake

I've had such a quiet and domestic time of it.

I laundered nearly all my clothes (certainly every last pair underwear and all my gym clothes).

I made Deb's amazing carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting (it's amazing so I then spent 2 days foisting it on neighbors so I won't actually eat it). The only modifications I made were to reduce the amount of sugar in the cake by half a cup, to swap nutmeg for cloves (out of nutmeg and didn't feel like going back out) and to make less frosting than the recipe yields (having made it last year and being left with a ton of delicious frosting was a challenge I chose not to revisit on myself - damn that frosting is delicious!) 

Then, since I had about two cups of grated carrots left I made tuna pasta salad to bring to work for the next few days (but no carrot cake because my co-workers; especially the narky one, don't deserve such goodness). I also mixed some carrots into mac & cheese because I find that to be tasty and the colors match up well. Oh, your foods aren't usually color compatible? I don't know how you live. 

I watched One Day, not a good movie at all (and I  knew this, for I'd been warned) yet a fairly good book, go figure. I also watched Our Idiot Brother which was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. The saddest part of the weekend was surely when I realized I was totally caught up with Shameless and now I have to wait and watch it as it airs. Like... like... a commoner. I also finished reading a book I didn't care for at all. Everything We Ever Wanted by YA phenom Sara Shepard. This blurb could not have missed the mark more;  

This riveting, provocative and well-crafted family drama surprised and delivered at every turn. I could not put it down.” (Sarah Mlynowski, author...)

I was so able to put it down I left it at work over a weekend, started reading another book forgetting I had this going and then speed/scan read to finish it already. I was not-riveted, reading this tiny little book quickly became kind of a chore to finish, specifically because it was neither provocative, well-crafted or surprising. The surprises in the book? How small the story seemed, how one note the characters were. The big twist/big reveal is so small and unremarkable I kept going back to see if I'd missed something bigger. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this book was mainly published on the strength of her young adult writing/books. There was genuinely no story here, though I could feel that way because I'm coming off of reading a rich and intricate book. 

And now for pure hypocrisy; I think I watched the entire season of Kourtney and Kim Take NY. I'm not proud per se, just accomplished. 

shamelessly obsessed

I'd seen so many billboards, bus ads and commercials that I recently started catching up on last season's episodes of Shameless. Turns out I'm really digging it. It's got William H Macy and Joan Cusack (love them!), the super annoying son from War of the Worlds plays Emmy Rossum's boyfriend, and I like him here, a lot. The rest of the kids, the neighbor couple, I find all of the characters interesting and funny in their own ways and really, after watching nearly all of season one my only question is why does Emmy Rossum look hollow-eyed and jaundiced in every episode? I get that the Gallagher's are poor but she gets dressed up fairly often and hell, they have a washer and dryer, surely she's got a smidgen of concealer hiding around somewhere. If, like me, you find your tv watching suffering a slight dip with the absence of Dexter and Homeland (Homeland: too good for words) I highly recommend catching up on Shameless. 

A few blocks away from my apartment is one of those still rather elusive NYC 7/11's. I constantly forget it's there but the other day I was headed home from ... I don't remember... and I noticed 7/11. Thinking coffee would be nice (and necessary because that's what addiction means) I stopped in and found these!

Sweet Potato Popchips? Yes please! I love regular popchips and I like sweet potatoes, how can this go wrong? It could not go wrong is the answer. They were freaking delicious. The only down side to them was that I'd only bought one bag and it was 12 degrees out. I did what any self respecting adult would do. I took to twitter to whine about my poor purchasing judgement (one bag? just one? did I think the Kremlin would not allow 2 bags?!) and the fact that it was simply too cold to correct my poor purchasing judgement. Well about an hour later Hilary tweets to me that she's got a popchips contest going on her blog and she suggests I enter (it's a very complex system whereby I must leave a comment. I handle the confusion deftly if I do say so myself). So deftly actually that a day or so later I discover... I won! Popchips sent me a carton of their (baked, never fried) deliciousness. Sweet potato, chili lime, bbq, sour cream & onion, regular... all of them! This is naturally incredibly exciting as in all the years I've been alive I've won a box MAC cosmetics, a who-caught-the-biggest-fish contest and now these (not a lot of winning for as many years as I've been alive): 

 

(a carton in a variety of flavors, score!)

taken from here 

Also on my list of obsessions; Sophie Hannah books. Dark, twisty British mysteries are pretty high on my 'favorite kinds of books to read' list. My obsession with Sophie Hannah books has gotten so bad that I've taken to using my Hanukkah amazon.com gift certificate to order her books from their UK site. I just received the most recent books of her two days ago and it took a ridiculous amount of wherewithal to go to work instead of cracking the book open and lying around eating popchips and reading all day (I'm only this stoic because tomorrow is Friday). I'm a big guesser of outcomes, I'm the one you hate seeing movies with because of my compulsive need to deduce what comes next. An impossible thing to do when it comes to Sophie Hannah books, she's thoroughly engaging and completely baffling at the same time. And, to some degree, her characters are often unlikable, it's strange when the author prevents you from empathizing with the protagonist by keeping them at a distance, it's a device that I've found throws me off in a terrific way. It forces me to stop trying to guess the outcome and to just enjoy the story. I don't do that enough. If you like dark & twisty but aren't much of a Britlit fan I'd recommend you check out either of Gillian Flynn's creepily captivating books. You're welcome in advance. 

frosty, liquefied, pedophile. mmm.

my brother ordered dinner from a burger place the other night. He ordered a black & white milkshake to go with it. The receipt that he posted on his facebook page: 

pajama Sunday

how do other people get dressed and do things? It's chilly outside, there's an occasional breeze lifting my blinds. This is my favorite Sunday thing. Bed. Coffee. Book.

Heather O'Rourke would be cool with it

Happy 2012 folks (who are still left checking in despite my laze).

2011 was good only in that I barely hurt myself (no real falls and only one broken toe!) and found beneficial (if not financially gainful) employment. It was also the year I had the luxury of turning down a job offer and telling them exactly why. Circus peanuts is a phrase, it's not an actual salary offer, 'miright?
So I welcome 2012 and I welcome myself back to my blog and I promise that you'll see more of me here.