omg I hate ipad

Mostly I love google and it doesn't seem that compatible with my iPad. I just tried to insert a picture in a blog post and it refused. Perhaps I'm missing something it's quite possible.

Sigh.

This is my post for the day. . .

Sarah

Hair of the Dog

My boy showed me the following picture of a dog awhile ago and I LOVED it. I'm not sure why exactly, it's not as if I'm over the top in love with making animals look human nor with comb-overs, but there's something just awesome about this picture:

Sorry, I don't know the source, I copied it from my husband's face book and couldn't follow the link, I'm happy to put the source on there if someon comments with it.

Also, I mentioned that I'm on pinterest now and my dad commented on how he didn't know the point of pinterest but he saw some pictures of cute animals. Maybe that's the point.

According to a Japanes study I've clearly not read looking at cute animals can actually improve work productivity. This could prove very helpful at this point since I've worked overtime every day this week and I'm still not caught up. . . .

Anyway, I'm testing the blogger ap on my ipad, if it works well, I plan on telling you about my new obsession!

I'm so Behind!

Um, I just wrote a post and everything but the title disappeared! I'm not saying it was great, but still I put in the effort!

Anyway, I was talking about how I'd missed  Candy Corn Oreo-Gate I just put gate on the end to make you go look ;).

I also missed a book written by a blogger I read. I just saw it in Hudson News at the airport and it's in paperback form and has "New York Times Best-Seller" plastered across the front, so when I say I missed that she wrote a book, I REALLY missed it. Also, you're going to click that link and be all, "um, how stupid is she?! There's a picture of the book in the sidebar!?!?" But I read it in google reader and It doesn't show that. I honestly missed whatever post mentioned the book.

I'm sure there's other things I'm missing, I just discovered the bloggess this summer and can't imagine how I lived without her before.

Anything else going on I should know about? And by anything else, you know I mean any other total frivolity?!

whew, done with day 5 of this blogging thing. We'll see how I do this weekend. I'm off to AZ for fall break with some college friends.

I made a cute itinerary and everything, I should have pdfed it so I could just post it here tomorrow :).

A Day Late and a Finger Short!

The Kitchn posted an article recently entitled: "How to Keep all your Fingers Intact During Root Vegetable Season." Sadly, it was too late for me. I sliced my thumb cutting an acorn squash on Sunday. It wasn't a bad slice (as in I didn't need stiches) but it did bleed through my first band aid. 

My boy, former boyscout that he is, pulled out the gauze and first aid tape. He started to bandage my thumb but he wasn't making it tight enough. 

Submissive, lovely woman that I am I started complaining: "It's not tight enough!! It's going to fall off!" My boy continued to work on the bandage (by which I mean my thumb was no longer in it and he was still trying to tape the bandage). I became more shrill, "Didn't you get a badge in first aid?!?! I think your badge should be REVOKED!!"

My boy calmly tried again as I still insisted it was not tight enough. "I don't understand how you got the badge! What did you practice on a dummy?!?!"

My boy calmle responded: "I am right now."

No, Really, Who finds this helpful?!?!?

Yes, I'm counting this as my third day of posting in a row even if it's really only several hours after my last post (it's 12:30 where I am, even if the blog post lies).

Whenever I would have trouble falling asleep my dad would say that I should just relax, that looking at the clock and worrying about how late it was getting wasn't helping anything. Usually I'm pretty good about the relaxing thing (especially since Murder She Wrote is on netflix watch instantly now -- can we take a moment for another aside here so I can say how much I LOVE Murder She Wrote?!?!? My boy insists that is not a compliment that it takes me on average three times to get through one episode because it puts me to sleep so quickly, but clearly he's wrong!).

Anywho, recently I discovered this website: http://sleeptiming.com/ and while it purports to help you get refreshing sleep (and I'm sure it does for someone who uses it properly) it just makes me stress even more about how I'm not asleep and how I'm not going to ever get to sleep and most dishearteningly I AM NOT GOING TO GET REFRESHING SLEEP BECAUSE I"M NOT GETTING UP AT ANY OF THE RIGHT TIMES!!!!

Hope this post finds you refreshed in the morning, I'll be stumbling through making some coffee!

All's Fair in Love and Popcorn

Source

Last weekend we went to the Big E. If you've been around this blog for any length of time you know how much we love the state fair here!

It felt a little crowded this year (apparently the peril of going on the middle weekend instead of the last weekend). While there were some disappointments and some scares (we did lose one of our party for awhile, luckily it was someone in their 30s and not one of the toddlers in our crew) overall it was another good year at the fair.

My favorite fair food is deep fried cheese curds. I walk the length of the fairgrounds as many times as I possibly can to get them --it's healthier for me that there's only one stand which sells them! I was lucky this year and got to score some cotton candy off the four year old we went with. That left only kettle corn on the list of must have fair foods. Every year our friend C buys the largest bags of kettle corn at one of the state houses. It's warm and lovely and no one can resist its charms (ok, my boy can, but he's really weird!!).

While nothing can beat the warm out of an actual kettle kettle corn at the fair. Joy the Baker has taught me how easy it is to make your own kettle corn. I'm sad because it looks like her original link is gone, but I think the one above should provide you with the recipe. It's a cheap treat (contrary to what you might think based on the prices at carnivals etc). So, if you're looking for a snack sure to impress, I recommend you make Joy the Baker's kettle corn! I sometimes like to add a little cayenne so there's a kick at the end!

31 Days

A number of the bloggers I read are committing to writing every day in October on a specific topic. There are a lot of people joining this pledge. Most of the ones I read are writing on some aspect of home design but some of the bloggers (who aren't on my google feed) are writing about activities to do with children, books, excuses to get out of cleaning, jokes and more.

Since I've clearly been a terrible blogger lately (frankly, I don't know if any of you actually even read me anymore), I decided I'd just try to write for 31 days. Anything. Perhaps just one line. Just write.

As you may or may not know, this year has been a struggle for me, mostly the last three months, but overall, not a great year. Still, the year has managed to fly by. I can't believe it's October already!

My boy and I made the decision in January to talk about our life plans in December. As in are we staying here where we are, are we moving across the country to start some crazy new life, are we meeting somewhere in the middle between those two plans? So with that date fast approaching I'm getting nervous/excited. Perhaps I'll write more about that this month.

Or, perhaps I'll write more on elements of design. We bought a new rug for our bedroom, I'm angling for some new shelving and I've just joined pinterest. Not to mention, I've been obsessed with chesterfield sofas lately (not in the bedroom).

I'm also semi-obsessed with Cornwall ever since watching Doc Martin (who used to have a chesterfield sofa himself until the most recent season). My boy and I are tentatively planning a trip there in the spring to coincide with his 40th  birthday (CAN YOU BELIEVE I'M MARRIED TO A 40 YEAR OLD?!?!??!). Since he and my sister are a decade apart we might switch the destination to one she enjoys as well, we'll see.

Speaking of British obsessions, have you watched the new British show Sherlock?! So good. Also, all six episodes are currently on netflix watch it now. To continue my British/design stream of consciousness  you can go here to look at apartment therapy's take on the style of Sherlock: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/get-this-look-bbcs-sherlock-177619

Okay, I think that's a good intro to the quality (or lack thereof) of posts you can expect from me for the next 30 or so days. Now don't you wish I'd taken my friend's suggestion and just started journaling at 750 words?

Talk to you tomorrow!

Strawberries

Someone commented to me recently that all I ever posted about on my blog was how I have to clean my house. I assumed she was probably right since I feel like that's what's constantly on the schedule for the weekends despite the fact that our house never seems clean. Ever. I've had other friends comment on my constant need to clean the house. The comment made me feel slightly guilty, because as much as I struggle to keep our house tidy, I don't want people to think that it's my highest priority -- I mean, clearly if it were, it wouldn't always be left to do, right?

I went through an Erma Bombeck phase when I was a young adult (after high school, in college? I can't remember). I vaguely remember that she talked about how cleaning shouldn't be more important than people. I thought it might have been in her If I Had My Life to Live Over, but I don't think it was. Regardless, I've tried to always make people a priority regardless of the status of my house. If that's not clear on this blog, then clearly I'm doing something wrong.

When I skimmed  the last few posts (which I realize span almost a year), I didn't see a mention of cleaning, mostly just lists of food, so I thought I'd add to that list and tell you some other things I'm currently enjoying.

Picture taken from Yummy-Books East of Eden Strawberry Lattice Pie Post -- if you like food and literature, you need to be reading her blog, NOW!

We went to Allendale Farms this weekend and got two very expensive (and very worth it) quarts of Quebec strawberries. I discovered maplebrook farm's ricotta cheese this summer and I am currently savoring (as in my fingers are dyed red) dipping these gorgeous strawberries into a generous scoop of ricotta cheese drizzled with local honey! If you have access to some good non-commercial strawberries, I HIGHLY recommend finding a nice whole fat ricotta and some good honey STAT!

Eating these yummy strawberries remind me of the small batch jam I made earlier this summer. It was a strawberry jam made with honey and highlighted by thyme. I loved it and think maybe I should make it again and have my boy can it. My Aunt-in-law makes strawberry jam each Christmas eve for all the women in the family. I'm convinced this is why my boy got married since I've yet to get a chance to eat any of the jam I've been gifted, it's always gone before I know it's even open. We're going to be in Alaska this year for the holidays, perhaps I can carry on her tradition there (you know if I can pause at all in my current consumption of the strawberries).

I'm scared of canning, but my boy and I did some tag team canning last week with the jalapenos we got in our CSA. We tried this recipe and while we haven't opened a jar yet, the leftover sauce was quite lovely sweet and spicy in the best possible way (and, having just tried a ghost pepper chocolate ice cream that burned terribly, I can tell you there is a worst possible way to combine sweet and spicy!).

This weekend was also the tomato festival at Allendale Farms. We skipped the festivities but managed to score four pints of cherry tomatoes and some truly lovely full sized tomatoes in various hues, including some "peach tomatoes" that could easily be mistaken for the fuzzy fruit! When we got home from our trip to the farm, hanging on our door knob was a bag of tomatoes apparently gifted to us from one of our neighbors -- trouble is there's no note, so we don't know who we should be thanking. . . .

My boy and I usually consume cherry tomatoes in a balsamic salad (we add mozzarella  and herbs if we have it, but more often than not it's just the tomatoes with salt, pepper balsamic and oil). I'm afraid that with the haul we brought home yesterday and the additional tomatoes that were waiting for us (and even more when we get home tonight, I'm sure --our csa arrives on Mondays) that we might need some more recipes! I don't like cooked tomatoes though, so what would you suggest?

Sigh

Clearly I've felt completely uninspired to post. There is a lot of turmoil at work, one of the soup kitchen's my boy and I were very involved in has decided to close their doors for good as of June 30 and it feels like every project my boy and I attempt to tackle ends worse than it started. We went to help my in-laws with some work at their house last week. I feel like the following story really explains how EVERYTHING we touched worked out: My boy was taping a mirror that had been moved out of the room we were working on. His father had attempted to use glass cutters to cut it up small enough to fit into a garbage bag but had given up. Thus, my boy was taping the shards still attached to the frame so they didn't cause any harm. In the process he leaned it against a fence his parent's have. It is a split rail fence (I think) where the horizontal slats balance on little notches in the vertical slats. While he was leaning the mirror up against the fence and moving it for the taping process, the top horizontal slat fell of the ledge on which it was balanced. He grabbed for the slat and in the process the second slat fell and the mirror was in the process of falling glass forward onto the stone path. I started screaming about the mirror I could picture shattering into a million pieces on the stone path as I rushed forward to catch it. My boy, meanwhile, was trying to grab a slat rolling onto the country highway (so not a lot of cars, but cars that move fast if/when they do come)and realizing that the reason all of this was happening was because the second vertical slat had rotted out and toppled from the movement of the mirror activity (meaning now no horizontal slats could balance for that half of the fence). My boy's father was standing on the porch shouting the whole time, watch the "rain gauge!! Not the rain gauge!!" To which my mother-in-law was shouting at him "GET A GRIP!!" The rain gauge did indeed come off the fence, it's plastic, it was attached via a paint stirrer to the fence and it is NOT a family heirloom. . . That rain gauge though, still hangs over our head, not only did the mirror not end up getting picked up by the trash guy the next day and the fence remains in a pile of pieces, but the rain gauge was cracked in the process of working on something else on the house and now, I believe, my boy might be out of the will. It's ok though, a few more visits like our last one and the house won't be worth much. . . .

Tonight's Specials

My boy and I are very grateful for the wonderful friends and family we've been blessed with. Some people post frequently in November sharing the list of things for which they're grateful. Clearly I am not that type of person :).

My boy and I do like to play host though, so we thought we'd invite all of our local friends to stop by our house on Saturday between 2:00pm and 8:00pm so we could feed them and fellowship for a little while. I mentioned in my last post that I'm really behind the 8 ball for a party, well this is it!

I thought I'd post the tentative menu for this party that's been neglected so long. Items in red we've completely given up on, Items in green have been made, Items in yellowish orange have been started, items in black haven't been touched at all (are you as worried as I am?!):

Bread basket (roasted garlic, baguette, challah)/possibly parmesan cookies

plain butter, blackberry lemon butter

eggplant walnut dip: http://www.chow.com/recipes/13433-roasted-eggplant-and-walnut-dip

Maple Onion Jam http://www.countryhome.com/images/PDFs/Maple-OnionJam.pdf

blue cheese pate

blackberries (possibly other fruit if creme anglaise is made)

Crudite & dip -- someone took this out of my hands!

Gruyere honey mustard puffs

possibly cheddar olives: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/hors-doeuvres/recipe-cheddar-olives-047009

some kind of flavored popcorn -- thank you little lad

Roasted Fall Vegetable Pizza: http://www.marthastewart.com/313662/roasted-fall-vegetable-and-ricotta-pizza

Dinner:

Some kind of meat (suckling pig?, chicken from chinatown? pot roast? brisket?)

roasted potato stacks http://gourmandrecipes.com/roasted-potato-recipe/

Balsamic mushrooms (and/or brussel sprouts)

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/quick-recipe-pumpkin-ricotta-pasta-casserole-130962 ricotta pumpkin casserole

Dessert:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-chewy-molasses-cookies-with-crunchy-lemon-glaze-130827 lemon glazed soft ginger cookies

pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting

vanilla ice cream

maple ginger ice cream

possibly madelines

possibly peanut butter smash cookies

possibly creme anglaise

possibly meringue

Drinks:

Chilled Cranberry ginger punch (with sparkling water if desired)http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/hot-cranberry-ginger-punch-10000000633522/ hot apple cider, sparkling wine, red wine, root beer

Clearly we have a ways to go. . . I'll let you know how it all turns out!

A Million Points of Interest, Not a Single Blog Post

It's been brought to my attention that some of you are no longer enamored with the ball pit, and you'd like a new post to go up. I hadn't realized this because, as of yet, no one has invited me over to take a dip in their ball pit and I assumed that it was my duty to keep that post at the top so you wouldn't miss any important instructions! I mean, I really, really want to visit a ball pit people.

Here are various things that are not terribly interesting, nor in any particular order, but are things I've thought about in the Month Plus since I've been MIA.

• The bus stop I wait at every morning is right next to the largest independently owned pharmacy in New England. There are several women who work there that stand outside smoking and gossiping before work (a do as I say not as I do sort of thing, I think). The other day, or week, or possibly month at this point, I heard one of the ladies exclaiming, "Oh, I know! Everyone is sick right now!" Let's review, THEY WORK AT A PHARMACY!!! Of course everyone they see is sick! It made me smile. . .
• My boy and I are planning a laid back quiet open house type party on Saturday. We've been planning it for almost three weeks. I have a schedule of when items should be done to ensure maximum relaxing planning and execution. We've accomplished about 1/10th of what needs to happen by Saturday. I am usually not home on Wednesday or Thursday nights. I am getting scared.
  
• I am currently making maple onion jam. I don't know whether I'll like it or not, but we had onions, we had maple and it seemed like an appropriate fall themed item to make. I can tell you it has thyme in it. I'm not a fan of thyme. . .
• My laptop died. Perhaps that's not entirely accurate, there's an incredibly sad wheezing noise it makes if you to try and start it up, but it won't ever actually get to a start up screen, it just sort of breaths labored breaths that make you want to tell it as much as you love it, it's okay, if it has to leave you behind. That's not an excuse for why I've stopped blogging. I'm just telling you it isn't helping with the blogging.
  
• After much angst and wavering I think I might (notice any wavering?!) get an iPad. It was this keyboard that swayed me. Though my boy points out that it may not be the answer to my dreams I think it is.
• I just got back from a girl's weekend in NOLA. Though one of the ladies and I said at the same time "I'd rather live in Vegas than here," I did enjoy my visit and wished we had had more time to eat!
  
• We went in honor of the date I've been waiting for most of my life, 11-11-11. The numbers still make me sigh in satisfaction. They're as comforting and lovely as hearing a dishwasher running at night. I hadn't realized the dates visual similarity to corduroy, but luckily, this other obsessed person was able to point it out!
  
• Here's a tip, if you're going to Herbsaint, listen to the waitress, get their house made spaghetti with guanciale and fried poached egg small plate!! I heard a guy at another table say to his waiter as he got up to go to the bathroom "Do NOT under any circumstances deliver my spaghetti while I am gone! If you deliver it and I am not here, there won't be any left when I get back!" I thought he was exaggerating. Let's just say it was not the dish I ordered and I am still thinking about the bite I had.
• Air boats are now on my list of approved water craft (it's a short list, canoes, and kayaks have not made that list).
• I got to go up to the 33rd floor of a building on State Street today. the view was amazing! I could see the chain of Boston harbor islands!
• I saw some clay gift tags and I've decided I'd like to make some for Christmas gifts this year. Clearly I have none of the tools and our craft area is sort of leaking all over the house so this is JUST what I need to do!
• I still have a tub of clear glycerin hanging around from when I tried to make these super cute soaps for a wedding favor (I was overruled). I've told my boy I want to try and make soap for Christmas too.
• It's unlikely I'll do either of these things, I mean look back up to the bullet point about the fast approaching Thanksgiving Party. . .
• We're responsible for getting a turkey to my boy's family's house for Thanksgiving this year. Several years ago we were responsible for cheese and olives. We brought an overwhelming supply of both. I was informed that they only liked sharp cheddar. . . Last year we were in charge of stuffing. I got nervous I was using too much liquid while making the stuffing and used a suggestion to cook the stuffing in muffin tins for individual servings, it turned out dry and awful (though it was much closer seasoning-wise to the stove top stuffing I prefer). So this year we're bringing the turkey. We'll see how that goes.
  
• The good news is that the onion jam appears to taste like the yummy Sardignia pizza from Sophia's Grotto. The bad news is that it also looks black. Think people will eat black onion jam?
• It doesn't really matter. I finally have one thing checked off my list. I'm going to bed!
  

More Bouncing Fun

Remember that adult sized jumping ball I told you about? Here's another adult sized idea for kid type fun: http://kevinjameshunt.com/ball-pit-balcony/how-to-build-a-ball-pit-on-your-balcony/ This guy built a giant ball pit (complete with inflatable shark)for his balcony.

Source

How cool is that?! Don't even lie, you're secretly jealous. Kevin James Hunt is clearly a GENIUS!I'm totally filing this away in the "design ideas for when I get a house pile."

"Tap His Smiling Toes"

I have a pair of shoes I'm pretty sure I've owned longer than I've known my husband. I suppose this isn't terribly unique, there are a lot of items I brought into our marriage that have preceded him significantly. These shoes have made it through massive Good Will cullings. It's possible that I've even moved to two different apartments with these shoes.

What's strange about the length of time I've hung onto them is that these shoes have always been so uncomfortable that I've never been able to wear them outside of the house (and usually only make it a few hobbling steps in the house before I take them off). They're not particularly flashy shoes, and I'm sure my sister wouldn't approve of them (it's actually possible she would, but that would make them the first pair of shoes I've bought that she'd approve of). They're just plain black loafers with a little bit of a heel.

The problem is I've always thought if I could simply stretch them out where they pinch over the wide part of my foot, I'd get a lot of use out of them. They'd work with the basic black pants I wear to work, they'd mildly dress up a pair of jeans. They'd probably even look okay with a black skirt. They'd be the "little black dress" of my shoe collection if only I could wear them more than two steps.

I put a shoe stretching thingy on my amazon wishlist ages ago, but no one has ever bought it for me. Probably for the same reason I've never bought it for me. It isn't a terribly sexy gift and if I have a little extra to spend on myself I'd much rather get a fun book or a cute house-ware.

Recently I was reading one of the 14 design blogs I mentioned yesterday and the blogger took a break from her design ideas to ask for advice about comfortable shoes one could wear when doing home design projects. She got a slew of advice. The next time she blogged on the topic she mentioned that the shoes she'd purchased were a little too tight and to make them easier to wear she used a frozen bags of water to stretch the shoes (warning that's a link to a video).

I tried it with my shoes and while it wasn't a complete success, I did manage to wear them around the house for about 20 minutes before deciding they were too uncomfortable to leave on. They were really comfortable everywhere except where I have bunions (yes, disgusting I know). I'm thinking I might try the ice technique again, or possibly splurge on the shoe stretcher spray now that I can at least walk around in them a little. Think this is just false hope, or might it work? Any other suggestions?

One of these things just doesn't belong

I read a LOT of blogs. Currently I'm subscribed to 14 design blogs. I don't really do a lot of interior design in our own house since we rent and usually my idea of "design" is to strategically throw my clothes all over the floor. . . So mostly my reading of design blogs is like window shopping.

I've seen things I hate, things that just aren't my style, and things that while I might love them, there's no way I'd be brave enough or savvy enough to try them. Massive use of patterns falls into the latter category. I'm not sure I'd love it if I were actually living in it, but I totally love it in pictures.

I fell in love with Jason Oliver Nixon's Apartment last year when I saw the pictures featured in New York magazine this spring. I was reminded of that apartment because Apartment therapy has been doing a feature on collections and recently they listed patterns as one of the collections (though I was unimpressed with most of the examples they posted). When searching for the room I remembered being so striking I mistakenly attributed it to Jonathan Adler.

While I LOVE so many of Jonathan Adler's pieces, his home is nowhere near as patterned as Mr. Nixon's. There's no reason why it couldn't be, he certainly has a number of very loud (and I mean that in the most flattering way) wallpapers. Jonathan Adler's blog mentioned a room designed by Diana Vreeland that also fits the bill as far as patterns. She said she wanted her living room to look like a "garden in hell." How can you not be fascinated by a description like that?

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You may not agree with my love of overwhelming amounts of patterns, and my examples may not be great, but I think it takes a great amount of skill to create rooms with multiple patterns without them all clashing and screaming out against each other. I would never be able to manage it. So, in the meantime, I just look at rooms other brave souls have designed.

What questionable interior design ideas are you mildly obsessed with?

"A Swinging, Latin Sort of Snack"

I LOVE Doritos! I know it's not an incredibly classy food to admit a passion for, but there you have it. We can't keep any in the house because I would eat the entire bag over the course of a day or so (I have self-control issues).

That's why I wanted to be sure and let you know the sad news that the creator of Doritos passed away recently. That, and also, he's being buried with Doritos. . . I'm not sure I'm that committed to the product, but his family is convinced he was. You can read the whole article here.

Turns out he committed his whole life to snacks, he started out as a cheese salesman and then was an ad-man for jello. Also, he hated the late night cheeseburger flavor (me too!!). I wish I could have met the guy!

The Good Old Days

You may (or may not) know that my dad is a letter carrier, as you can imagine the September 30th deadline that paper after paper is reporting about makes me nervous (last time I talked to my dad he seemed pretty chill about it).

Anyway, in light of that I thought I'd post a link to this Slate article: http://www.slate.com/id/2304468/?from=rss

Also, have you sent your fun mail yet? I haven't, I ended up hand delivering mine. I also wrote 16 thank you notes this weekend and managed to mail 5 of them this am. I think that leaves us with only 2 more to do completely and 11 left to address and stamp.

How long does it take you to write thank you notes? It apparently takes me on average 11 minutes and fifteen seconds per note, is that really long? Is that why I hate writing thank you notes so much?!

UPDATE: 3 More Mailed as of Noon! Now just waiting for addresses on 8 (if you're keeping score that means I'm half way done!!).

We Interrupt the Regularly Scheduled Programming

My mother once said to someone, "Sarah really likes commercials." I have no recollection of the context in which this was said, and I think it's sort of a weird comment, but I really do like commercials. I like that commercial breaks let you have a chance to run to the bathroom or let you stop and do something else briefly. I like that they're a finite time, so I can run go do something and know that I'm done with that task by the time the commercial is over (hello laundry switch overs). I also just enjoy watching some commercials. Some of them are so well done it's like you've got bonus "shorts" in between your actual show. Below are some ads that I'm currently enjoying.

When I saw this ad, I immediately thought of my friend Meg:

Not only would she totally train a bird and a dog to do that (if she weren't afraid of birds and allergic to dogs) but she re-enacted the music video for ah-ha's Take on Me with our friend Chris at her 30th birthday. The best part of that was when they finished their reenactment and she said to me, "My dad's gonna come over here and ask me if I'm drunk!" Sure enough her father came over and said, "Meg, are you okay?!" Her response, "Yeah, we were reenacting the music video for Take on Me" she then walked away leaving her father standing there with a stupefied expression on his face.

This ad is pure brilliance:

This ad makes me smile EVERY time it comes on:

I love the brilliance of whoever came up with all the random things going down the street, but also the recurring "I could have had a falcon," makes me laugh!

Insurance ads usually suck me in. I like the Mayhem ad campaign, I love Flo and a number of the Geico ads. Here's one of the ones I think is great:

Subaru has had a few ads lately that I have found terribly cute. This one with the little girl sucks me in every time:

I love when she puts the seat belt on her knees and says "Daddy, Ok" In the comments on YouTube, it says that both of the girls in the ad are actually the guys daughters. I hope that's true, it makes the commercial that much better!!

I also like a new ad where a girl who has moved across the country worries about her parents. I can't find the ad right now (I was pretty sure it was a Subaru ad too) but the best line in the whole thing is when she's talking about how broken up they must be because "I'm their only child. . . .except for my sister." It totally sounds like something I might say :).

What ads are you currently enjoying?

Oh Modern Family, You are a Tease!

So did ya watch the hour special for Modern Family Last night?! I did. Were you disappointed that though they advertised an hour special, it was just two separate episodes? I was. I mean come on, they built up that dude ranch episode and then it was only half an hour?! Also, the "I will only be checking somewhat satisfied on my comment card." was far funnier out of context.

On the other hand, I had crazy flash backs in the scene where Claire is correcting Lily about how old she is since I spent a good portion of Tuesday night doing the same with one of my friend's kids :).

Yeah, this is one of the lamer of my blog posts, I'm sick, you're lucky you got anything ;).

Things I'm Currently Digging

We went to the fair on Saturday. It merits it's own post (I LOVE the Fair!!!) At the fair we saw judging for Belted Galloways. I don't think I'd ever seen one before. They were sooo cute and cuddly I think they might have usurped the place in my heart Jerseys once inhabited (sorry mom). I was sad because it didn't look like you could pet any of them and their fur looked soo soft! They even have fuzzy ears.

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I'm also pleased that Modern Family won 5 Emmys since it's one of the few current television shows I watch (though I occasionally catch Big Bang Theory and I do love that show too. . .). I'm even more pleased that day after tomorrow there's an hour Modern Family Special to kick off the new season!! "I will only be checking somewhat satisfied on my comment card." Brilliant!!

On a completely unrelated note, I'm currently obsessed with pickled peperoncini, I don't know why but when I came home for dinner last night we stopped at the grocery store and I bought a jar. I had eaten three before dinner was even in the oven. . .

What are you digging currently?

Imagine a Menagerie

I want a LOT of pets. I am quite content to be able to leave the room without fearing a little critter will come up and sample my meal while I'm gone. I'm happy I don't have to use a lint brush constantly to rid myself of pet hair. Yet, I still have a burning desire for A LOT of different pets. Below are some of my top choices.

I am pretty serious about my current desire for a King Charles Cavalier (I don't want my husband to mistake that animal's presence on a mostly pipe dream list to indicate that I have stopped believing he will get me a non-bug-eyed specimen for Christmas -- though I am mildly worried that it might be lonely while we're at work).

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I would also like a pygmy hedgehog (how can you not be totally charmed by their cuteness?!?). It would be especially good if we could get a circus cage for him! I found out this weekend my husband's second cousin once removed (or something like that) has a pygmy hedgehog, she wasn't really interested in talking to me about it though. At the time, she was busy begging her mother to keep the big toad they'd found.

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Next on the list would be a Neapolitan Mastiff. It's been on my list since my friends and I went on spring break to Seattle and saw one in a boutique on Whitby Island. Despite it's immense size it was very graceful (not breaking anything in the shop) and so gentle and sweet tempered. I think it might be the same breed they used in the Harry Potter movies to portray Fang.

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As my mother always said, Jerseys are the prettiest cows. Maybe it's the dairy farmer in my blood, but every time we go to the fair there's a yearning for a Jersey of my own (they're pretty brown eyes rimmed with long lashes, who can resist?). While a full sized cow is definitely not practical for the city, I totally think we should get a Miniature Jersey Cow! Of course they produce 6 gallons of milk a day and have to be milked twice a day, but that just means we'd have to be sure to keep our house fully stocked on cookies so my husband could keep up :).

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I've been watching a lot of the Golden Girls lately (sadly it's moved to midnight so it's harder to watch -- COME TO NETFLIX ON DEMAND GOLDEN GIRLS!!) and Dreyfuss from Empty Nest sometimes guest stars on the show. Wikipedia said he was a mutt, but when we were apple picking the other day we saw a dog that looked an awful lot like him. So Leonberger has now been added to the list of must have pets.

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So those are my top five, what is on your list (I might have added a rat with a racing stripe down it's back but in searching there were terrifying images of snakes everywhere!!)?