]]>July is national ice cream month! What's your favorite flavor?
Submitted by LittleWiseOne.
I didn't know this.. national ice cream month, what a wonderful, wonderful thing...
anyway.
Coffee ice cream (preferably of the haagen dazs or starbucks variety) is my favorite.
Rocky Road is a very.close.second (also prefer to go with Haagen Dazs here).
Last but not least: Haagen Dazs Bailey's Irish Cream ice cream = HEAVEN.
I'm also a sucker for any and all things Ben and Jerry's.
Okay, this one isn't really a spelling/grammar/etc thing, but it's still the result of not proofreading:
On [technology is good]:
"Vista: Not Going Anywhere
At least not until 2010. Read what D has to say about Vista misconceptions and what's in store for Windows7."
From what I understand... there's supposed to be a link in there somewhere. But, as they haven't A: changed or B: fixed the error on the News & Politics change since that first post with a list of [_____ is good] errors, I have a feeling that the rest of Vox will never know what D has to say about Vista misconceptions & Windows7. Unless, of course, we realize that we don't have to rely on the tech is good page to spoonfeed us, and we actually do a little work to find said post.
In other news, yesterday was definitely the best Fourth of July to date. Last year, I was on a plane to Italy, so I spent my Independence Day 2007 on a very.long.flight. in an aisle row next to a man who needed to get up every ten minutes to use the restroom and behind a man who felt the need to lean his seat back as far as humanly possible in an apparent attempt to crush my kneecaps into a billion pieces/just ignore the fact that I had kneecaps to begin with. The year before, I somehow ended up at a very lame, lame party thrown by someone my parents knew, away from all of my friends, with pretty much no one to talk to, bored out of my skull. So this year didn't have a lot to live up to in comparison with the past two years.... but I do remember, before 2006, having a nice 4th of July every once in a while. SO - The point is that this one definitely topped all of those pre-2006 4th celebrations.
The boy and I left kind of early in the morning to get fireworks and then headed to where our friends were getting ready to go boating. We met them there and went swimming/ate while waiting for the people with the boat to get there, and then went we all went tubing for a while... I have 28 new bruises from tubing alone, but it was ridiculously fun .... and some people went wakeboarding and kneeboarding - I didn't, and there were a few others who just watched as well, but even watching everyone else was a lot of fun :) p
After that we went to his parents' house, ate dinner and set off some fireworks there, and then met up with three friends who had also been with us boating earlier to watch fireworks in the same general area where we were earlier in the day tubing and everything. We couldn't find them at first but eventually did, and we all sat on one of the docks watching the fireworks, which were actually really impressive.
The whole day was so much fun :)
Hope everyone else had a great 4th too!
"Recipe | Mom's Mandarin Orange Cake
Mah shows you how to make her mother's famous mandarin orange cake, also know as "the best cake for summer."
aaaaaaaaaaaagh.
"...also know as..."
I believe that was supposed to be "...also known as..."
aaaaaagh.
* side note: Mandarin Orange Cake sounds so.yummy.
Okay, so my title is not *quite* as catchy as "be kind rewind"...but it gets the point across.
Moving on...
I love reading the "______ is good" pages on Vox. The posts that are spotlighted are really the best and most interesting posts on Vox, and it's great to see what everyone's talking about. However, I was a little disappointed today for the following reasons:
On "[culture is good]" :
"Remembering George Carlin
In memory of George Carin, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 71..."
"In memory of George Carin...." The confusing part is the fact that .000001 seconds ago, the subject was George Carlin and now we've moved on ....to someone with an eerily similar (but not quite identical) name?
A quick once/twice/thrice-over to check for mistakes like this wouldn't hurt.
On "[music is good]":
"On the Right Track
Whenever Erwinizm starts to feel down, he turns to these songs for a little pick-me-up. If you're looking for a some musical inspiration you've come to the right spot!"
On "news & politics":
"The Way the World Sees America
JudgeBob
says that liberals say the world "hates America for its imperialism and
consumption of resources," but argues that this is not, in fact, the
truth. Learn why the thinks the international community love what American represents."
"Learn why the thinks..." No no no. Again, proofreading makes all the difference, Vox.
On "[technology is good]":
Review | Netflix Home Video Box
"Oregonkc bought and set up the Netflix home video box. Find out what he think about the price, content, quality and setup..."
"Find out what he think..." Also a "no no no" situation. We fixed the "the" issue (it's actually a "he" now, thank you for getting it right that time), but that "s" missing from the end of "think" is actually necessary, believe it or not. If you could put the "s" in the above example ("learn why the thinks"), you can put it here too.
This kind of thing happens to everyone. We forget to look over what we've written and send it to "print" or "save" under the impression that it's "done". And that's okay sometimes. If you're writing a Post-it to yourself, feel free to completely ignore all rules of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I'm not going to complain about something like that. However, this is a bit too similar to a few months ago, when I walked into a JCPenney dressing room and saw an ad for the JCPenney Salon:
<<The close-up: "Mean's you'll get a look...". No, JCPenney! Just no! That stray apostrophe in "mean's" isn't supposed to be there. It's just taking up space.
]]>How have you changed in the past year?
Submitted by littleduckling.
i was going to write a lot here, but i realized that there is a short, simple way to sum it up, and as i'm exhausted, i'll do that:
today, i am 200% more myself and 200% happier than i was a year ago.
and that fact is wonderful :)
Taylor Swift - "I'm Only Me When I'm With You" (one of the many songs on repeat in my head these days **)
Friday night beneath the stars,
in a field behind your yard,
you and I are paintin' pictures in the sky.
And sometimes we don't say a thing;
just listen to the crickets sing.
Everything I need is right here by my side.
And I know everything about you
I don't wanna live without you.
I'm only up when you're not down.
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground.
It's like no matter what I do...
Well you drive me crazy half the time;
the other half I'm only trying to let you know that what I feel is true.
And I'm only me when I'm with you.
Just a small town boy and girl
livin' in a crazy world.
Tryin' to figure out what is and isn't true.
And I don't try to hide my tears.
The secrets are my deepest fears.
Through it all nobody gets me like you do.
And you know everything about me.
You say you can't live without me.
I'm only up when you're not down.
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground.
It's like no matter what I do...
Well you drive me crazy half the time;
the other half I'm only trying to let you know that what I feel is true.
And I'm only me when I'm with you.
When I'm with anybody else it's so hard to be myself.
Only you can tell.
That I'm only up when you're not down.
Don't wanna fly if you're still on the ground.
It's like no matter what I do.
Well you drive me crazy half the time;
the other half I'm only trying to let you know that what I feel is true.
And I'm only me
Who I wanna be
Well, I'm only me when I'm with you
**Country songs that I'm stuck on right now:
-- ^^ That one
-- "Our Song", also by Taylor Swift
-- "Johnny and June" by Heidi Newfield
-- "Want To" by Sugarland
-- "All I Want To Do" also by Sugarland, but they don't have the song on iTunes yet - only the music video - and it's making me crazy.
-- "Learning How to Bend" by Gary Allen
So - like I said a bit ago, I've been working for the local Obama for America office. Phonebanking, knocking on doors, etc. My mom has been helping out too, and it's been fun. Well, the Montana primary is today (I just got back from voting, actually), and so Sunday night, the guy who has been kind of in charge of it all around here called to let me know that Monday (yesterday), Michelle Obama would be speaking at an event just for volunteers like us in Kalispell and then afterward we would all be continuing on with calling and knocking on doors.
My mom and I got there a little late, so she was already speaking when we arrived. We quietly snuck into the back, however, and caught a good portion of her speech. Afterward, they gave us lists and we started calling voters (everyone I called was wonderfully upbeat and surprisingly, I only called 2 people who weren't voting for Obama - one was for Hillary, and the other was undecided and not sure if he'd be voting at all), and she started making the rounds meeting volunteers, getting pictures, signing things... We were on the side of the room exactly opposite from where she started, and so we ended up being the last people she met (after us, her security people told her that she had to leave). We shook hands, said a few words (my mom made sure to thank her for all the time she spends away from her family to meet and speak to supporters - it must be exhausting and difficult at times) and then she saw the camera my mom was holding, asked if we'd like a picture (um, yes please) and threw her arms around me for a wonderful picture together:
In other news:
--I'm still knitting my cap-sleeved sparkly green bamboo top thing, but I've also returned to those gloves (when I accidentally made two gloves that only fit one hand), making the two left handed gloves to match the two right handed gloves.
--The vegetarian thing is going quite well - I ate some shrimp last week but minimal and only because I was feeling really horrid and weak.
--I might be going to Canada to be in a rugby tournament thing with some friends (?!) More details when I have more details.
--I got my hair cut (see picture above, and to the right). It doesn't look like much but she actually took off about five inches and gave it amazing shape that it didn't have before
What was your biggest cooking disaster?
ahaha... in 7th grade, when I had just met my best friend Jamie, we did one of two things when we were together: we shopped (yes, we were those annoying little 13 year olds buying cheap jewelry in Claire's on a weekly basis) or we baked. One day, we were over at her house and decided to make mint brownies - the recipe sounded mouthwatering, and we quickly got to work.
Somehow... a little over 7 years later I'm still trying to understand how this happened... one of us misread the cookbook and decided that when we were making the mint frosting, cream of tartar was a necessary ingredient.
Needless to say, the frosting was horrible, and we still laugh about it to this day.
In November I was out doing some of my holiday shopping with a friend, and we were in Williams-Sonoma when I saw this:
Had I not A: already found my present for Jamie and B: spent far too much money that day already, I would have bought it for her :)
There was that disaster, and then a few years ago, everyone else in my family was elsewhere for the evening and a friend of mine was coming over so we could have a girl's night - pig out, watch movies, talk, etc. I decided to make tortilla chips for us while I was waiting for her to get there. I turned the heat on the burner up to medium and then the phone rang. In answering the phone, I forgot that the pan was getting very very hot, and when I hung up the phone I started to pour canola oil in.... and it burst into flame.
I didn't burn down the house or anything - it was a small enough fire that putting a lid over it killed it - but the light and fan above the stove were nicely blackened and so when my friend got to my house she and spent some time scrubbing away soot. The light and fan still work but the vents are black to this day. So now, when I'm cooking and have to answer the phone or there's another distraction, I turn the heat down and multitask (thank god for speakerphone).
How many houses have you lived in? How is where you live now different from where you grew up?
My parents say that we lived in two houses when we lived in Southern California, but I only really remember the second one.
So - SoCal 1, and SoCal 2. Tally = 2
Then we moved to Montana, and we've only lived in one house here. Tally = 3
I don't know if dorm rooms count, but I've spent more time living in dorm rooms these past couple years than an actual house, so Tally = 4, and 5, if we count both freshman and sophomore year.
And last summer I lived in an apartment in Florence - Tally = 6
Six. And for the time being I'm back in the house I grew up in, so it's not any different.
Share your favorite duet.