Spent part of today catching up on New Girl. Seriously, that show makes me giggle. Me and a million Americans, I know. But still.

Short one tonight, just keeping up with my resolution. I have completed 2, 980 words. The goal by Sunday is 6,667 words. So I will hopefully be checking in tomorrow with that number, or above! Wish me luck :)

Mwah,


Moi.

So I have discovered the best tea in the world. It is Bengal Spice by Celestial Seasonings, and it is even better than Starbucks chai tea lattes. YES, I went there. And the best part? It tastes sweet and perfect without adding any sugar. I don't know, it's bizarre, and probably magical. You should try it.

Starbucks sent me an email today letting me know that the red cups were back. It was one of the bi-weekly emails I've been getting since they made the rude announcement that gold card holders -- who, through the purchase and chugging of 30 freaking drinks in less than a year, had believed they had attained free soy and syrup for at least the rest of the year--would no longer get these benefits. 

This was a terrible idea, because 1.) Consumers don't like having their free stuff taken away from them, duh and 2) You are dealing with people who would drink mass amounts of coffee to get a small discount on drinks that, to keep, they must keep purchasing. They are not rational and they are obsessed.

I, of course, fall into this category. I was so ticked off, I wrote a comment, along with 986354896 other pissed off latte-chuggers. The general tone was strongly worded disappointment. Polite, but scathing. 

"New and improved just means that you are giving us less" observed one disenchanted customer.

"It's ridiculous to have a rewards card and then take rewards away," wrote another. "Buh bye Starbucks."

Some resorted to threats. 

"I've just done 'the math"' on the change," wrote Sbuxxxx. "Even with earning free drinks faster, the charge for soy means that over the course of 6 months I would be paying over $100 MORE with the new program. 

 Looks like I'll be making my own coffee more..."

Others tried to bargain. 

"I am very disappointed in the decision to eliminate free soy. I agree with those who have suggested staying at 15 as the limit for a free drink as opposed to 12 if it means the elimination of free soy."

But, alas, it was all for naught. Starbucks stonily refused to give us what we want. They burned up that lactose intolerant bridge, boy did they.

But now, I am getting the equivalent of "come back, baby" emails. 

"We gave you free drink!!!!"

"We have yummy pumpkin things you love!!"

"We HAVE RED CUPS! You know how DELICIOUS red cup drinks are! They are CHRISTMAS! Peppermint Mocha! Gingerbread! Eggnog! Santa!"

But you know what, Starbucks? Taylor Swift said it best, I think.

LOLZ yeah right I'm totally going there this weekend for some pepperminty deliciousness. Plus, I need 13 more drinks to stay a gold card member! Time's a wastin!

So I said I would check in daily with my Na No Wri Mo total, and so, here it is.....drumroll please....: 1,298.

YAY! Couldn't make it to 1,300. Idk. Tomorrow though, for sure.

MWAH,

Moi.

So we had a total of two trick or treaters. Which means lots of leftover candies. What a shame.

Halloween is over, friends, which apparently means now that we all storm head-first into Christmas. Good lord. It's already happening. I walked into Target (SHOCKER) and there was a massive, green and red and purple and gold GLITTERY sign that proclaimed, "All is merry and bright!!!".


Now don't get me wrong. I am all about some Christmas, tidings of great joy, family, food, presents, snow, rocking out to Mannheim Steamroller. Sign me up. But let's give it a week or two, right?

There was also a massive display of Christmas candy. Eyeing this tempting collection, I booked it for the household cleaning aisle, safe and far from chocolate urges. I just ate 747436 pounds of Halloween candy in the spirit of "What the heck, it's just for Halloween". This is greedy, folks. Greedy.

To detox, I concocted a delicious zucchini, tomato and canned chicken entree.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Canned chicken? Isn't that nasty? Doesn't it have the texture and appearance of albacore tuna? And yes, all three of those things are true.

But we have hurricane food left over, and waste not, want not, I always say. That chicken will be going bad soon (expiration date 2099) and also I forgot to defrost actual fresh chicken.  THE POINT IS that I improvised ratatouille and it was very easy and fresh tasting. Cooked it up with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and gave it to K, who ate it despite the canned chicken, something I love him for.

It's like Julia Child up in here, I tell ya.


In other news, I've decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a novel in a month. 50,000 words. It's, obviously, a rough draft at the end, but the brilliance is that it gets you to actually write the book. Which, despite the fact that every published author I've ever met/read has insisted is the best/only way to ever get published, I have yet to do. So here it is. In writing. I am embarking on this journey of 50,000 words, and will see it to the end. DONE.


They say to make yourself accountable, and so I am going to make myself accountable here. Every day, I will write an entry here, and update my word count and status. I also promise that it will take up no more than a few sentences, because really, unless/until it's published, who cares?



That was easy!


I leave you with the video that has dominated my evening.







Mwah,





Moi.

Boo

Happy Halloween! It's officially Halloween as I type this, and we are out of the candy that we purchased on Thursday as part of our storm preparation.

Two things happened: the storm( thankfully!) gave us only driving, cold, wet rain but no power outages or flooding, and we ate up all our emergency rations.

 And by emergency rations, I mean Reese's. Leave me alone, I KNOW.

And, this is the sad part: I hid half of it under the bed. And that was no deterrent, especially with the lack of anything to do, really, but eat candy. And watch the West Wing. What happened to politics, really?

Anyway, I guess the poor trick or treaters will be getting craisins, the supplies we didn't eat.

FALSE. We are so getting some more candy tomorrow. I love Halloween.

SO I decorated! As we speak, our redneck jack o'lantern, which I brought in from the inclement weather, is glowing on our counter. We carved him last weekend, and I am so delighted. Just look. He's so cute.

For my centerpieces on a budget, I went with a thrift store basket ($2.55) and filled it with baby pumpkins, gourds, and apples (about .69 cents each) and added a candle on either side. I want to eventually spruce it up with sparkly leaves or sticks, but I am desperately lacking a Michael's up here and Joanne's makes me feel lazy for not making my own clothes.

And how freaking cute is Spooky?

K found her a few days after, and was like, ??? But I mean, what's to explain, really?

And of course flowers and the beloved pumpkin candle! It's 44 degrees up here, btw, so you can bet that baby has been burning away.

Oh and I had to spend $12 dollars for my costume, which is a witch hat. And a black dress I  have. I will be  wearing it all day tomorrow, because I love Halloween.


In other news, I need to finalize decorating our bathroom, which right now is done in the style of Mess. We keep everything mostly pretty tidy, I think, but somehow the bathroom is always a disaster. It doesn't help that our counter is approximately 2 inches on either side, and I cram every beauty item I own on it. So washing your hands is kind of a booby-trapped adventure.

But I need to get my act together here pretty soon and buy some matching towels, because K's family is coming to visit for Thanksgiving! Which I honestly cannot WAIT for, because it will involve decorating and planning a menu and baking and cooking and wine and great conversation and hello, have you met me. But I do need to freshen the towel situation to something from this century.


Anyway, I leave you with a glowing pumpkin and wishes for a sugar-filled day.


MWAH,

Moi.

Fall

It's been a while, friends, because I have been full of business.
1.) We found a table.
2.) I have been spending a lot of time trying to concoct an idea for a Halloween costume for free.
3.) I went to Atlantic City and DC as a part of my freelancing gig, and played black jack like a PRO. (The slots, however, are SO stupid.)
4.) I have been basking in the glory of Virginia fall.


Lately, flocks of Canadian geese have been camping out in the park outside my window, which I love. I know they are cranky and evil, but I think they are majestic. From a distance.

Fall is officially here, and the windows have been open non-stop all week. It's been a glorious 63 in the afternoons and a chilly 50 in the evenings, which is delightful to fall asleep too. K and I are plotting our first attempt at making a fire in our little brick fireplace, and I cannot WAIT.

I am actually about to run out and get some fall flowers and a gourd family to throw together in a way I'm not entirely sure about yet. My approach to decorating is this strange combination of pottery barn and things I can find in the dollar store, which, as you can imagine, can be pretty hit or miss. I'll upload pics as soon as I get it together to let you judge for yourself :).

If I'm truly honest with myself, the part I am really looking forward to is the bit when we fill a gigantic bowl with candy and eat it all in the name of being festive. The issue with this is, of course, we have a candy problem. Moderation does not exist for us. Candy in the house gets eaten. The first day of October, I filled our awkward pumpkin with candy corn in celebration. It was gone in a week. So new approach to this will be to temper the candy supply and hide the rest. Out of sight, out of mind. I will also let you know how this goes.

One thing I want to try for sure this year is popcorn balls. When I was a small girl, I went trick or treating with one of my friends, and we stopped by her grandmother's house, where I tasted the best and only popcorn ball of my life. I am determined to recreate them at some point this year. I found a variety of recipes, and they all involve massive amounts of condensed milk, sugar, and butter. Which kind of sounds like I can't lose. Which I like when baking.


I'm out the door in search of fall, since this part of the year is too fabulous not to discuss.



MWAH,




Moi.

Bread

Today, I made bread.

I understand that on the grand scale of important things people do, bread is down there with like, drinking water.


Although bread has recently enjoyed a comeback in the popular mind due to Peeta, AKA THE BOY WITH THE BREAD, for the most part, it is a No. 1 on the scale of awesome things to bake. With my Reese's cake being at like, a No. 7. So 10 is the best. Okay you've got it.
So, despite the fact that bread is not that big a deal, this was a huge success for me, especially since my father makes an amazing french baguette and sour dough, so I had the expectations of the family on my shoulders as well.
But I'll be honest here, there were several times when I didn't think it was going to work out. Give me a batter, some chocolate chips and some butter and we are good to go. But dough? Yeast? Foreign tools my friends.

The going, at times, was rough.

When I didn't have a dough attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, for example. Or a Kitchen Aid mixer, for that matter.

I had to do it pioneer style with a wooden spoon (which I got a set of five for for a DOLLA at Doller Tree. Yah. Still reeling from that bargin).

Which let me just take a second to vent about the lady in this video, who says, "Attach the dough-metal thingy to your Kitchen Aid mixer and turn on" like everyone has one just waiting on the counter.

FIRST of all, the KA standing mixer is coveted by every baker, ever. And actually a lot of other people who don't bake. They just want to be able to put it on their counter to gesture to, nonchalantly, when company is over and say, oh, that ole thing? And maybe throw some dough in there for a demonstration.

ALSO, they are FREAKING expensive. Close to $400. For a mixer. So, sorry Allrecipes, where I am for FREE recipes, I don't just have state-of-the-art mixing technology at my fingertips.

So I had to Laura Ingalls the first two steps, upper-body strength style, and imitate what I hoped was what a dough-extension would do.

Which, as you can imagine, left lumps and something to be desired.

The second complication arose when my first ball of dough (making bread has more phases than the moon, each with its own rigorous rising schedule) looked like a brain. I re-watched the video. No brain.  But that is okay, because whatever, I thought. I am throwing it in the oven, brain-resemblance or otherwise. Thankfully, the brains disappeared after BREAD PHASE 3.0 and only slightly resembled it when I began to roll out the second ball of dough (BREAD PHASE 5.0), but was squashed by my rolling pin, AKA a bottle of red wine. Yes, I know, but you use what you have, right?

ANYWAY, the result was crusty and delicious (although a slight sprinkle of salt was needed) and K and I devoured it. K probably because I was literally baking bread for 3 hours, and it was 9 O'clock.

Bread, GLORIOUS bread. Okay, I'm done now. Here is the recipe if you are so inclined to try it yourself : )




MWAH,






Moi

Just DEVOURED "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness. Brilliant. Loved it. Go read it. I'm not linking to amazon, I'm not that kind of person, but seriously. It's SOO good.






I got my library card, in case you didn't know. Which you probably don't because, really, who cares? WELL my friends, it just so happens that my new library has a online order button that is fast as lightening. And got this girl the latest in the RR Martin obsession two days after I requested it. TWO days. In Tampa, it took about 8 months to get a in-demand book. I'm livin' it up, here in the historical capitol of the state.

But I do wish that they would not brand both of the books with a little pink "fantasy" sticker.  I mean, come on. It's got a freaking unicorn on it, for heaven's sake.

There wasn't a unicorn in "A Discovery", okay? And witchfire is not something to laugh at.

In other news, I found this on Pinterest, and it summed up exactly what happens to me every time I go to Target. Which has been pretty frequent.

As in daily.

I keep wondering if anyone ever looks through the security tapes and is like, HER? AGAIN? GOOD GOD!














































You can imagine, I am sure, what K thinks, with the pink fantasy stickers and my daily trips to Target. But we do have nice curtains.




MWAH,






Moi.