Merry Christmas!

In which I divulge the extent of my nerdy-ness...be very afraid.

In honor of my impending school-mandated quarantine, where-in I am restricted to the study of all things educational and no fun, unless you count sleep as fun. (And I do.) I thought I would share a glimpse of how nerdtastic I really can be. You've had your suspicions, but I don't think you realize how ridiculous I can be. Here goes:

Does anyone watch the TV show Glee? High school hijinks, set to showtunes and pop music, what's not to love? Recently, a new character has thickened the plot of Glee. For those of you who do watch, it's Blaine, Kurt's new crush, who sings with the Warblers. (side note: love their "Baby it's Cold Outside"!) Oh, I haven't even scratched the surface of my pocket-protecting society. Do you ever have that feeling that you've seen such-and-such actor somewhere before and it's killing you, because you can't remember where? That's the feeling I had with Blaine, or Darren Criss (the actor).

I figured out how I knew him. I think you should respect that I am willing to shatter my cool kid rep to share this with you.

When he was in college, he and some friends wrote and produced a musical that became a YouTube phenomenon. Meaning that they had millions of viewers. So maybe most of these viewers were teenage girls. And me.

That's him. Harry Potter. The musical version. Still want to admit you know me?

There's a sequel. Yep. I know. I should get outside, breathe some fresh air more often. It's not even that I've merely seen them. I'm not the only person entertained by the randomness of YouTube. But I actually think they're kind of funny. Not accurate, sometimes over the top, but you can tell they're fans of the books, and gosh darnit, I like it. I definitely wasn't that talented in college. Or now.

I can say I remember Darren Criss when he was covering Disney songs in his dorm room.

Some people find the super rad new music. I find musicals based on children's books. Hm. I won't drop out of school to become a talent agent. But I do feel better admitting my inner geek shines brightly. I will now go buy some skinny jeans, get an asymmetrical haircut and read Nietzsche outside an indy bookstore to prove that I am cooler than you. And I will never admit to any knowledge of this post.

Oh Jimmy and Justin, how I love thee

These guys. I think they would be fun to go have a beer with.

Bwahahaha.

Deliciously, absurdly, weirdly, awesome.

Who doesn't love a good ukulele orchestra?

A little cautionary tale for your Tuesday evening.

This is what I've been working on for about a month now. School is really cutting in to my blogging/moneymaking/traveling/dreaming time. But what is one more year? I shall endure. Chin up. Then on to more reality.

Visit her at tessagratton.com!

Sensity Does The Milkshake Dance from cory cavin on Vimeo.

SO I have nothing new to report on lately. I do, just having problems with time management, you understand. Instead I will distract you with this video that a guy I went to college with made. Check him out here, he's hilarious. Sensity is the name his niece gave her doll.

I would like to marry a bookstore.

Not just any bookstore. Okay, I'd fool around with any bookstore, I'm not going to lie. But I love love love used bookstores. There's three in the town I live in. And one that's about 3 minutes away. It's where I go to get my fix of shopping when I'm on a tight budget. I still get the experience of a Barnes and Noble, but I can get 7-8 books for about $25, the cost of a new hardback. Now all my little bookstore needs is coffee and comfy chairs. Then I might live there. Everyone needs a little happy place to escape to, mine are bookstores.

Here's my haul today:

Not too bad. I like that all of them have women on the cover except one.

It looks like I choose books by their cover. I totally do. But the girl themed books were not the ones I chose by the cover, it was this awesomeness:

Tee hee. It's called The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. AND it's by the awesome weirdo himself, Tim Burton. I don't even know what it's about. But I know I'm going to like it, I have a feeling.

Now I have to put my loot away and get back to the harsh reality of homework. Poo. Okay, it's not so harsh, but I'm just sad my procrastinating is done.

Oh! One more thing, one more thing. (Prolonging the inevitable.) Here's a closer picture of my cute new edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Apparently I had TIm burton on the brain, considering his version of this film is coming out soon.

Happy Tuesday!

Shameless Promotion

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie's blog.


I want to win. I talked about Shiver here. Awesome. So any which way I can get my grubby paws on the next book, I'm willing to try. And I don't think I've said anything about The Forest of Hands and Teeth on here, but it's a zombie book, and Carrie Ryan's a local author, so what's not to love? The Dead-Tossed Waves is her next novel. I want. In a little-girl-stomping-her-feet kind of way. So maybe you don't want to win these things, okay, but you should try to win anyway and then I will accept them as a gift, or barter them for eternal friendship and conditional devotion. Just think about it. Oh, and even if you don't want to win me fabulous prizes beyond my wildest dreams, Maggie's blog is fun to read, so it's worth a look. Check out her sharpie guitar. AND if you want to read Shiver or The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I'll loan them to you, because it's the right thing to do.

FYI

Chihuahuas do NOT like the snow.

Even when all her favorite people are outside frolicking, this little princess will have none of it.

I keep trying to tell her that a snow day every once in a while is good for the soul.

Ladies who Lunch

I am shamelessly using this blog as a platform for Kelly and Sara to view/grab pictures of their pretty little babies. If anyone else reads this, you are welcome to enjoy their squishy little faces, too. But be careful, you will want to pinch them, and I just can't allow that. Unless you already know them. Or my friends let you, then it's their problem and I think they're crazy for letting strangers pinch their little girls.

So here you go, a peek at lunch with my girls and their little girls.

There you go! Those of you weren't there can just imagine a good story, those of you that were there, the rest of the pictures are on my Flickr.

This one's for all the ladies...

So tonight I'm pondering skin care, more specifically skin care for your face. As I ponder this, I'm wearing a mask that I kind of want to eat, it smells like dessert. Is this really good for my face if I want to eat it? The glop on my face is pictured to the left and can be found here.

Now, on a daily basis I'm pretty lazy about any kind of skin care regimen. I want something easy and fast, I don't want to spend 20 minutes washing my face. But on the other hand, I'm a girl, and I want to feel preeeeeetty. (I'm twirling my hair and batting my eyelashes, just so you know.) So in the decades since I've been aware of skin care and, um, boys, I've scoured the globe for the perfect formula, or regimen if you will, ahem, for my face. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. You troll the aisles at the drugstore or Sephora or Ulta if you're fancy, (or department stores if you're super fancy), searching for the product that promises the answers to all your skin care woes. Blemishes, wrinkles, dark circles, fine lines, floppy eyelids, say goodbye! Hello brighter, radiant, young glowing skin! Okay, the floppy eyelids thing I made up, but you get the picture, I'm sure.

I have pretty normal skin, but into adulthood, meaning since I have lapped puberty, I have developed some breakouts. Charming I know. And I'm a sucker for eye creams. So I have tried e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I'm not exaggerating. From Neutrogena and Clean and Clear to Pro-Activ, MAC, Origins, Aveda, Benefit, Kiehls, Philosophy, Dermologica, and Kiss my Face. I've tried fancy-spa-in-Vegas wonderstuff, and organic-dirt-for-your-face just like the ancestors. What I've found, much to the detriment of my wallet, is that just because it costs a ton doesn't mean it's good. The expensive stuff is sometimes too harsh and smelly for my poor little face, and I'm basically paying through the nose for the brand name and fancy packaging. I've also found that different things work for different people, which is so not helpful. Also, those super helpful salesgirls are exactly that, sales-girls. They know their stuff and know how to get vulnerable, clueless me to buy it. Don't get me wrong, they're not out to get you, and are very helpful if you have questions and need suggestions, but they don't tell you that their products could all be wrong for you. However, they will give you samples of pretty much anything to try out if they can which is awesome! So if you're nervous about trying a new face cream, you don't have to commit to a whole bottle, just ask for a little sample, try it out for a few days before you shell out the big money.

I do have a point to this lengthy monologue. In all my years of trying the new and trendy and fabulous, the one face wash I've found that works the best for me is this one:

Cetaphil. Under $10, found at the local drugstore, everyone has heard of it. It took me this long to actually try it! I didn't think it would be any good, but it's gentle and doesn't dry out my skin. I can spend all my extra money on fancy dessert masks or bubble baths. I'm sure you all already knew this, but I'm a little slow getting on the train. And I like to waste money frivolously.

So now, I'm on a quest for the perfect moisturizer, not too greasy, not too drying. Girls out there, if you know of one holla at me! Yeah, I just said that. It was out of desperation. I don't want to spend another decade throwing money away on $99 miracle creams that last one week and leave me feeling like a french...you know. Help! My face is begging you!

Just in case you were wondering, the yummy mask made my face feel soft and oh so pretty.

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.