Baking, Snow, DWTS

Today was my wasted day. I'm not sure how much I like the idea of spending days without being productive. I kept making lists of all that I need to do! So, what did I do? I started Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick and continued reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. I found some new blogs that I'm excited to start reading and I introduced my dad to Bones. We watched the first two episodes and he said he'd keep watching the show with me! My dad isn't big on TV and movies but it's always fun to watch something with him. (Except for Year One. That was a bad choice and a really traumatic experience!) The last time my dad and I watched a TV show together was a long, long time ago! It was all the way back when Early Edition was still on TV.

Anyway, moving on. I also did some baking. I volunteered to make the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving tomorrow and I also made a few loaves of Apple Walnut Bread to take to my sister's as well. My parents and I tried both (I made two pies) and they were pretty good! Here are some making-of pictures:



We also got some snow today. The second picture was my attempt to take pictures of the snowflakes but they were teeny tiny!



So, last night the DWTS results came in and Jennifer and Derek won. I think this is the first season that my favorite couple actually took home the mirror ball trophy so I was excited! Although, if Kyle and Lacey or Bristol and Mark had won I would have been happy too. Kyle was so much fun to watch all season long because he really brought personality to the dances and Bristol is what the show is all about. Anyway, after watching all three couples on Good Morning America and The View I had to go back and find my favorite dance of the season, which was Jennifer and Derek's instant dance.



I'm sure I'll be online tomorrow! My family has pretty laid back holiday's, which is nice because I actually get a lot of homework done on that day. But if I'm not, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wasting a Day

My mom suggested that I try wasting a day, because it's not something I can easily allow myself to do. I need to be productive. I guess it's some of the workaholic tendencies my dad passed down to me.

So, here I am, trying to waste a day.

We'll see how this goes.

Dancing with the Stars

I totally predicted the final three. Yes, even Bristol Palin. I thought she'd make it to the finals, but not because of a tea party/republican conspiracy. As I'm watching the final performance episode, I thought I'd lay out my thoughts as to why.

Jennifer/Derek. First off, if every girl out there is like me, they want to see Derek all the way till the end. But there's also Jennifer, who's gorgeous and perfect in her dancing when she does it well, and recently, she has been.

Kyle/Lacey. I love Kyle and I love seeing how he's improved throughout the season. His dancing has really become fantastic. Not only that, but I love the character he brings to the dance. He's a joy to watch!

Bristol/Mark. Bristol is what this show is about. She came in with no dance training--no performance training, even--and while she's not the best dancer on the show, she has really improved. A lot. She's doing so well for having danced only... what is it, nine weeks or something? She's doing really well! After last week's dances, I was excited to see her in the finals, because she did very well. Beyond her improvement, Mark keeps saying it, people can relate to her. She's the most "real" of the competitors and that's what makes people vote for her, I think.

I wasn't surprised when Brandy and Maks were voted off. I think the audience is tired of Maks's drama. He may be nice to look at but his looks don't make up for his mouth. I also think Brandy wanted to win too much. She was so focused on winning to make a statement on who she is and to rejuvenate her career. I think that was tiring for people too.

So, here we are with the final three. I have no guesses on who will take home the mirror ball trophy. May the person with the most votes win!

Electricity, How I Love Thee...

Winter has hit the Midwest! It arrived fast, with a huge snowstorm on Friday. The snow was waterlogged and heavy. On Saturday, it took out power for many people in the Cities, including me. I didn't get it back until Monday.



This was my first view of the snow outside when I walked upstairs Saturday morning.



I thought it would be fun to write with by candlelight with a glass of wine. It got old after a poem and a half.



By Monday we were tired of living without electricity. We were one of three houses on the block that didn't have electricity so our neighbors connected power cords and brought them to our house so that we could live like cavemen. We were able to set up a crock pot and a coffee pot to heat water so that we could make tea.



Our hibiscus survived the cold!

By the time I got home from swimming on Monday, the electricity was back on! I wondered why it was so much harder to live without electricity here than it was whenever the power went out in Senegal. I came to a few conclusions. 1) In Senegal, appliances (like the stove) use gas so you can still cook. 2) Power outages take place frequently so some places have generators. 3) It's not freezing cold. (Of course, it's really hot and without electricity you can't use a fan for relief.)

This experience has reminded me of how thankful I am for electricity!


It's been awhile since I've blogged but that was done on purpose, I just never explained it here. I decided to take a little hiatus from the blogging world so that I could focus attention on my own personal writing. I had to write a 20 page book of poetry for my senior seminar (my draft was critiqued last night and it went well!), I wrote a book in October and I'm participating in NaNoWriMo right now.

But next week I have off of work and school so you can expect to see me around at that time. I have a few things I'd like to share about books, movies, a talk that I attended by Nicole Krauss (author of The History of Love) and why I predicted the top three couples on Dancing With the Stars.