Stop wallowing in laziness, you bum

I've been a little moody and dissatisfied lately, and I haven't really been able to put my finger on what it is. I'm pretty sure I'm happy with my life, and I don't think it's my relationship, though my job leaves something to be desired. After a little bit of thought, I determined that I might need to set myself some goals. I think part of my problem is that I don't feel like I'm doing much of anything worthwhile, and I don't have much of anything to look forward to. Now, if I had say, and interesting trip to plan and anticipate, that might help. Though, dope that I am, I only just now remembered ALA. It's not an exciting voyage to a foreign country, but at least it's something.

Anyway. Goals. I think I need some goals, and I think I need to make sure I actually try to complete them. So, once I set them, I will try to figure out how to put them in a sidebar on here or something, so they can show up and I can mark them off once I've completed them. I like lists, and I like marking things off lists.

So, I think I need these types of goals:

• Exercise goal - related to running and/or biking. Maybe a distance or speed I want to be able to accomplish? I do poorly with "I will run X number of days" type of goals.
• Baking goal - I am clearly obsessed with baking, so this makes sense. I just need the actual...goal.
• Academic goal - normally this would be a grade, but honestly, I'm good at grades. What I have not been good at lately is actually caring about the work beyond what it takes to get the grade. I want to be more invested in my academic work.
• Job goal - Ditto on the job - I just haven't cared much lately, and I need something to motivate me.
• Reading goal - this isn't really difficult, because I love to read, but I think I could benefit from a goal that gets me to read more nonfiction.
• Fun goal - something that I would like to do, or something new that I would like to try, that I might not otherwise.

So, does anyone have any suggestions? Clearly, I need actual goals and deadlines.

Taste of Syracuse

I'm sitting in my office right now, listening to people talk about Taste of Syracuse, so I thought I'd share my thoughts. The bf and I went on Saturday, because I asked very nicely if we could - I'm a foodie and he's an anti-foodie.

It all seems like a very good idea - lots of booths from local restaurants selling food; each of them required to sell one $1 sample item. I was definitely looking forward to trying samples from several restaurants I hadn't had the chance to visit yet.

Clinton Square was, unfortunately, packed to the gills, and the bf and I have occasionally different approaches to navigating among sardine-packed festival goers. The event planners definitely need to do a better job next year when it comes to the space, because I think a lot of people would have spent more and stayed longer if they had been able to, you know, move around and get to things.

I wish the restaurants had all approached the sample requirement as an opportunity to get people excited about their food. I had one sample that made me not want to ever go to that restuarant, and got out of line at a Greek place when I realized that the sample they were giving out was miniscule and not worth a dollar. Other places I tried the sample and wanted more of the food - which really, should be the point.

I had a sample of chicken wings at a place I can't remember - pretty tasty, with honey garlic sauce. Then I grabbed some chips and guacamole from Papa Gallo, which was NOT tasty - a guacamole disappointment. Then I bought two fried doughs and stopped at another booth that was selling chicken cooked in some special seasoning (I think the seasoning was what was for sale, not restaurant food), which was pretty tasty. After that I grabbed a sample meatball sandwich - tasty meatball - and then beelined as well as I could to the gelato stand, where I got three sample scoops. The gelato was by far the best deal, since gelato is normally expensive anyway, and this stuff was pretty good. I love lemon gelato! (And anything with chocolate, especially chocolate hazelnut!)

Then the bf and I escaped - I could still have tried more things, but I think we had lost our patience with the crowd. Overall, good idea, poor implementation.

CUPCAKES!!

I have recently become obsessed with cupcakes. I know I'm behind the trend here, but I hadn't realized the potential of cupcakes until now - there is just so much you can do with them! Interesting flavor combinations, cute decorations, fillings, mini cupcakes...excitement without end! Anyway, I'm getting into cupcakes and enjoying it a lot. Last night my boyfriend had a LAN party (see previous post) and I decided I would practice making cupcakes by making some for the party.

I've seen video game and computer game themed cupcakes before, but I wasn't sure how to make StarCraft-themed cupcakes for this party. None of the units or graphics or anything translated well into something I could decorate on a cupcake, or on any cake for that matter (though I did find an Ultralisk cake online). Then the BF suggested I use the icons from the game - the ones used to control units and do things at structures. And it worked! I also made some cupcakes with mint frosting for the fun of it, though I was disappointed with the mint frosting - it tasted like mint chewing gum. Here are some pictures:




















I'm not a huge fan of fondant, so I made the decorations out of moldable white chocolate, colored yellow (melted chocolate with light corn syrup).

LAN Party

Last night I participated in my first ever LAN party with the BF and his brother and their friends. Some observations:

1. 5 hours is WAY TOO LONG to play StarCraft unless you're really, really bored .
2. There are some people out there who are way too into their video games.
3. Computer game themed cupcakes are always a hit with nerd boys.
4. Nerd boys still make messes with cupcakes, themed or not.
5. I am a complete and total noob for not knowing what a "Lurker" is. Except that now I know, after demanding an explanation.
6. My cat loves people, gamers or not.
7. If I am going to have a party, I want talking and social interaction - other than re-hashing strategies from previous games.
8. It's nice dating a techie, because I would be clueless about anything network-related otherwise.
9. I really hate having people watch over my shoulder while I play (and lose) games.
10. Next time we do this, I will provide refreshments and a crummy ally for maybe 3 or 4 games, and then I will retreat to a good book so the boys can talk about hit points and tactical strategies.

Life Lessons

Today, I have two life lessons to share with everyone:
1. Avoid gossip
2. Don't date nutjobs

Both are kind of hard to live by.
Backstory: last summer, I briefly dated a guy I met on okcupid.com - judge if you like, but I have dabbled in online dating. He seemed like a real winner, so I was a little disappointed when he dumped me, though I suspected it was because I wouldn't put out - making him less of a winner. We decided to "stay friends" which failed when he wouldn't stop flirting with me in a pretty obvious way. That and I had made the wise decision to not be friends with people I dated.

Fast forward to now, with no communication besides a few chats in between (in varying degrees of snarkiness and smugness on my part over my excellent boyfriend). He recently IMed me to let me know he had had a risque conversation on okcupid with a friend of mine from the program. Not my style of chat, but whatever. It was an unexpected connection between people I know.

Then today, I ran into said friend, to hear that this guy told her I was crazy and thought he was stalking me! Now crazy, sometimes that's legit, even the awesome BF would admit that. But really? I didn't think he was stalking me - just that he was inappropriate! Very odd.

I have spent the last two days telling the BF how glad I am that I'm with him and not some nutjob. I also guess that I'm not living by my first life lesson here, but I thought it was an interesting story worth sharing.

I am becoming so obsessed with cakes and baked things

I've been obsessively reading cake blogs lately, especially bakerella and cakespy. This fun thing is blatantly stolen off of cakespy:

Recently, a website called Very Good Taste started something of an internet fire with a list called "The Omnivore's Hundred", which listed 100 foods which "every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life." We liked the idea, and inspired by the vegan variation on Hannah Kaminsky's site, we thought--why not make our own Sweet 100!? Like the original, our list includes "fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food"--but in our universe, it's all sweet! (In case any of them are foreign to you, links to pictures and recipes are included; also, for any vegans, feel free to go through the list assuming it's a vegan counterpart). How many have you tried? If you'd like, feel free to follow the same guidelines:

1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten--or make them a different type color.
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat. (Mine are in italics, but really, I will try a BITE of most things).
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.
5) Optional: Post a comment here linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. Baklava
7. Black and white cookie
8. Seven Layer Bar (also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
9. Fried Fruit pie (sometimes called hand pies)
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotted cream
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macarons
16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls")
18. Dixie Cup
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavlova
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon / mille-fueille
40. Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac biscuits I think...
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. Crème brûlée
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe Uh, I thought this was a store. Does that make me a bad baker and a teeny-bopper?
62. An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie)
67. Kulfi
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstashen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. S'mores
94. Figgy Pudding Well, maybe. To say I have.
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98. Millionaire's Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

Overall, I think it looks like I have a sweet tooth - and it's true! The cakespy has links to descriptions of all of these. Maybe I'll bake some of them this summer!

Car!! Aka, I'm torn about my noble intentions

I recently decided that I had to buy a car. I couldn't do it any longer without one. Now, I really love the idea of going car-less. If I lived somewhere where it was possible, I would walk or bike or take public transportation everywhere. I've been trying this in Syracuse for about a year now, and let me tell you something. It doesn't work. Or, maybe it would, but my options would be really limited. Also, my poor boyfriend has been driving me everywhere, so it's not like I'm that much more environmentally friendly - someone is still using gas to transport me, even if I'm not the driver.

I told my parents this, and, miracle of miracles, they told me they had been planning on giving me my grandmother's old car. I am now the owner of a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, who is now named Harriet Jones. She's a grand old car, except that the right speaker crackles and pops like a bowel of radioactive Rice Krispies and my grandfather, for some reason, cut the wires to the cigarette lighter, making it a heck of a lot harder to charge the GPS.

Either way, I suddenly feel gloriously independent. I can go to the nice grocery store without help. I can drive to my boyfriend's house when I want to, so my schedule no longer revolves around him. I can drive to visit friends who live further away. Life is great. Part of me mourns for the environment and wishes I weren't adding another car's worth of pollution, but most of me is just relieved to have one less thing in my life to worry about and plan around. Viva Harriet!