Baking Day!

Every year at Christmas-time, my mamacita spends a whole day baking. It's tradition. My sisters and I have grown up looking forward to the goodies that result from such a day: brownies made from scratch (with home-made frosting on top), almond rocha, chocolate chip bread, sugar cookie cut-outs in Christmas shapes, banana bread, and much more. YUM!!

Well, this year I had the opportunity to actually join her for Baking Day! Myself and my sister, Liz. We spent hours poring over the recipies, whipping up the batter, frosting cookies, and I think I can safely say my mom's Cuisinart and I are now BFF's.

Pounds of sugar, flour, butter, and chocolate later...SUCCESS! Christmas treats galore! At one point during the baking process, I started thinking (probably a little too deep for baking time, but oh well): it felt like my mom was passing down all her secret holiday recipies down to the next generation. And now my sisters and I will be able to make these same treats every Christmas time for our loved ones. And the tradition will continue.

First knitting, now this. When did I get so domesticated? =)

knitting

Last night I learned how to knit! I'm so stoked. I learned how to crochet back in college but I've always wanted to learn knitting. I am working on a scarf right now. I will post a picture when it's all done.

What a great winter hobby.

flag football

Every year, the high school and college groups at our church play a flag football game, affectionately called the "Turkey Bowl". It was a beautiful day! The sun was out, the grass was green and dry, and the air was nice and brisk.



Final score:

High School - 21

College - 35

Turkey Day

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

holiday movies

Here are some holiday movies I will see:



Here is a holiday movie I will NOT see:

This particular gem (Alien vs. Predator 2) comes out on Christmas Day. Are you freaking kidding me.

daylight savings

Is anyone else finding it difficult to adapt to the time change? I feel like I go through this every fall. By the time I leave work, it is already pitch black outside. And then the evenings feel sooooo long. It will feel like 10 pm, but really it's only 6:30!! Ack! Weird weird. I guess it just takes some getting used to. I definitely miss the long days of summer.

best new fall show

I am a LOST fanatic. It is my fav. show on TV. However, it does not come back on until February of '08. Grey's Anatomy has become painful to watch and even The Office is not as funny as last season. But fear not! There is a new show this fall that we should all be watching if we're not already: Pushing Daisies.
What are you doing Wednesdays at 8 pm? Nothing? Perfect. Check it out. (I feel like I should be working for ABC or something). Here's the story: the main character Ned has an amazing gift. He can bring the dead back to life...but only for a minute. He discovered this gift when he 9. His mom died while she was baking a pie (heart attack I think). He went over and touched her body. She immediately came back to life! But here's the catch...the magic has one flaw. If you bring someone back to life, they can only stay alive for one minute. If they stay alive after that, someone else nearby will die (to take their place).

Who died in Ned's mom's place? His next door neighbor. Little Ned had a crush on 9 year old Charlotte ("Chuck") next door. Her dad was out watering the lawn when Ned's mom came back to life. Because Ned didn't know about the "catch" to his magical touch, Chuck's dad died after a minute. Ned was horrified when he realized what happened. And then to make matters worse, that night when his mom kissed him goodnight, she died again. This time...permanently. Once Ned chose to keep something alive, he could never touch them again or they would go back to being dead forever. If you watch this 3 minute video, it can explain things a little better:

Two reasons I love this new show: 1) the Narrator is Jim Dale. Jim Dale is British and does all the voices in the Harry Potter books-on-CD. My roomates and I got into listening to them in our cars to and from work. Jim Dale can do over 200 voices of all the characters in the HP books! He is amazing. Just listening to his voice sounds like you are entering a fairy tale. 2) Kristin Chenoweth. I fell in love with her four years ago when I fell in love with the musical "Wicked". She played Glinda, the good witch on Broadway (and on the soundtrack). On Pushing Daisies, she plays Olive, a waitress in the pie shop with a crush on Ned.

The show is fun, colorful, entertaining, quirky, magical, and very sweet. Let me know what you guys think after you check it out.

I have T.F.

Lately I have been noticing that my right index finger has been sore. It hurts a bit whenever it touches something. What the heck is it from? I was going through all scenarios in my head and it wasn't until this morning I finally realized what it is.

I have "Text Finger". Or as I will refer to it from now on...T.F.

Some people may have T-squared or T.T. which is "Text Thumbs". Where they punch on their phone or Blackberry using their thumbs. I don't know why but I've always texted by holding my phone in my left hand and punching the numbers with my right index finger.

The point is people, I love texting. I do. At first, I was not into it at all. My students would text me all the time. "Hey! I'm in class! Just wanted to say hi!" or "What's going on at college group tonight?" Or my personal fav is when they would text me and I could barely understand what they were saying: "im at the mll. do u wnt me 2 pck u up smthng frm SB?" (SB=Starbucks) But slowly as time went on, I began to explore this new world of communication. And I got hooked.

lol.
g2g.
ttyl.
brb.
idk.
omg.
2moro.

These abbreviations are part of texting lingo. Not necessarily ones I use, but ones I see a lot.

WHO AM I!? Am I 12? Seriously, isn't texting for jr. high and high schoolers? Why do I love it so much? Will my T.F. ever go away?

Night game!

Last night, we had a college "Night Game" at church. It was rad. We turned off tons of lights inside and out. Students came wearing dark clothing, camouflage, and face paint. We had the whole church to ourselves. *mwahahaha!!*

We played Kick The Can and then Capture The Flag, using glow sticks as the "flags". About halfway through the night, I sprained my ankle. I was running from this one guy and I went off a curb and twisted it. It didn't start hurting till I went to bed. So I've been gimping around all day.

But back to the night game. We played for about two hours. Then everyone was hungry so we went to this 24-hour Denny's type place and got food. It was so great because we were all still dressed in our nighttime get-up and face paint (some guys even had ski masks on), so we got tons of "looks".

My highlight was when I went to the restroom. I was passing a table with two high school boys, texting on their phones. They happened to look up just as I walked by and both got all wide-eyed! One of 'em said, "Whoa!" (My face was completely covered in black face paint) So I smiled and thought, "Yeah that's right. I'm soooooo cool," but then I promptly tripped on the carpet. Classy.

The Golden Compass

I feel a rant coming on.

The Golden Compass. A new movie coming out December 7th from New Line Cinema. I think I saw the first trailer in May or June. It looked like a great movie - along the likes of LOTR or Narnia. And it has Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and Eva Green (love her from the Bond movie!) starring in it.

Then in August I was in Target and saw the book on sale, so I bought it to read before the movie came out. I actually didn't start reading it till last month. I have just been reading a bit each night before bed. And I was really into it. I thought Philip Pullman (the author) was a gifted writer and it was entertaining.

But then.

I started receiving emails. And bulletins on My Space. "Philip Pullman is an atheist! He hates the Church. He wrote those novels (The Golden Compass is the first of the trilogy) to turn people away from Christianity." I was shocked. Huh?! I didn't get that AT ALL from reading the book. I just thought it was a fun read. What's the big fuss?

And then I was reading Entertainment Weekly magazine and came across an article about this. (Click here to read the article.) Apparently, it has escalated into a huge deal. The Catholic Church is calling for a boycott on the movie. What the heck? Didn't they do that last year for The Da Vinci Code and it still made a load o' cash?

And now we are being warned NOT to take kids to see this movie because what if *gasp* they LIKE the movie?? They might want to go out and read the BOOK!! Oh no!! Kids reading!!! The same thing happened a million years ago with the Harry Potter books. "Don't let your kids read them! They're full of witchcraft and sorcery!" And those same books ended up getting kids away from their computers, TV's, and video games to READ. Their imaginations were expanded. A love of reading began.

I guess I just have no patience for boycotts like these. I doubt kids will walk away from the movie (or the book) and immediately turn away from Christianity and become atheists. Instead of spending all this time trying to keep kids from watching the movie or reading the books, how about parents spend TIME with their kids. Read it WITH them. See the movie WITH them. TALK about these things.

And no, I don't believe that by going to see The Golden Compass on December 7th (which I am planning on) I am "supporting atheism". I will be going to watch a movie for entertainment purposes. That's all.

Golf Tourney

Yesterday I helped at a golf fundraiser. I learned some very important things: what a "mulligan" is, how to determine someone's "handicap", and proper etiquette for golf cart joy-riding. I feel so much wiser now.