pants.

Does anyone watch American Idol? It's that one show that I don't admit I watch, well that and one that I won't tell, I have to maintain a scrap of dignity. Anyway, If you saw last week's Atlanta audition you saw this shenanigan:

Normally, these things are just silly, people's pleas for attention, and I didn't really think anything of it,

let the cute little man have his fun. But apparently he was part of the civil rights movement and a student

of Dr. King. Huh. And now he's all over the internet of course, singing about pants. But what I like are

that people are actually covering his song, including this guy, a former contestant on the show:

Not too bad.

What a strange, strange world. I think I'll stick to reading, TV is messing with my mind.

making this blog useful

I think that my blog should be useful, you should come away with new knowledge, things you may not think to ask. I don't want to just waste cyberspace, no! So in the spirit of my new conviction, here you go:

reading, writing, arithmetic, too much homework...

So I am back in school, which means full-time classes and full-time working. Oh, and full-time homework.

My brain is mushy and I'm trying to practice good time management by staying on top of assignments. But

this video shows what it's really like.

What I like to do with my time off.

Do you like my new apron? It was a Christmas gift. It makes me feel so fancy, even though all I'm doing is making dinner.

I love cooking. I loving picking out recipes, shopping for ingredients, and with me, the high risk of everything turning out horribly disastrous. I grew up on frozen dinners and mac and cheese, so being able to make really awesome food is quite startling and innovative to me. Slowly, I've gained confidence (and kitchen gizmos) and cooking relaxes and focuses me, and since I don't have a family I have to cook for, it's a fun pastime for me. Tonight's goal was to find something I could cook in this:

It's my new bean pot, also a Christmas gift. It's droll. I think it needs a name, but I haven't thought of one yet. Alas, the recipe I chose was a wee bit too big to fit in my new friend, but don't fret, I have this beauty:

I got it at Home Goods, it's Le Creuset and I got a sweet sweet deal. I found it while Christmas shopping. Don't you hate that? The best deals are at Christmas, but you can't buy things for yourself. Well, this was a deal I couldn't pass up, so I didn't. And you should go out and get yourself one because they're just so pretty. I digress. Can you guess what I decided to make? I started like this:

Then, brought out this for later:

No guesses? How about now:

I needed goggles for this. I decided to make french onion soup. It's cold and windy, and soup is just the right thing to do. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman, I just used vegetable broth instead of beef and chicken. I don't cook with meat at home. I'm not vegetarian, but my roommate is, and I can't eat all this food I like to make by myself. Besides, the animals thank me, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything, there's a ton of creative alternatives for recipes. I've fooled a few people. "Mwahaha, gotcha, you thought that was meat, oh no my friend, you were fooled!" Then I twirl my mustache. Okay, that may not really happen. Back to soup!

Can you smell the onions as they reduce to a yummy, sweet mixture of buttery goodness?

Add some broth, garlic, worcestershire (the vegetarian version if you love in my house) and simmer until you can't stand waiting any longer.

Slave over a hot oven, baking crusty french bread. Or buy it at the grocery store. Whatever. Then butter and toast the heck out of it. Why wouldn't you?

Then throw the bread on top of your soup, slather everything with cheese like you were brought up with some sense, melt it and enjoy. If you have cute stoneware bowls from the state fair that you like to make little pot pies in, even better! For the complete, sensical recipe, go here.

Now, the recipe didn't explicitly say to do this, but I thought these were the perfect compliment to all my hard (ish) work.

This recipe is here.

Merry Christmas?

Last week I find this in my mailbox, it's not addressed or in an envelope. What do you do? I put it on the shelf with the rest of the Christmas cards.

Happy New Year!

For my New Years' celebration, we dressed in clothes that make us happy,

Then, we eat yummy mexican food until ready to burst. Then we scour various Target stores for brownie mix and fun games. This is what we chose:

For an hour, I was Queen Spatula. I had to say izzle after everything I said. I had to see how many things I could stuff down my shirt and in my pockets in thirty seconds. As for what else this game entails. I'd tell you, but it's better if I show ya.

Next, we played Pictureka. Find stinky things, flies, fire, and see of you can find 32 teeth.

She kicked our butts. I don't want to play that anymore. Okay, maybe a rematch. Best out of 5.

Then we had to take a little break to toast the New Year. Woot.

Hmmm, what else is there left to do?

How about Wii tennis?

After all that excitement, we decided to loll around eating brownies and watch this:

Yep. Who needs hoopla and debauchery when you have board games and crazy friends? Happy New Year, however you decided to ring it in.