Smoothie of the Day (plus shopping) - September 6, 2010

Almost-ice-cream smoothie

Another Monday, another smoothie. It's a "there's no preschool and we're going on an adventure" smoothie. Look how thick it is:

The straw stands up!

Cow milk, chia seeds, fresh strawberries, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, frozen blueberries, squirt of agave. Oops, I forgot the spinach. I shared this one with my daughter - she thought it was funny that she had to work so hard with the straw to get a sip.

Mules & Clogs by Dansko

I earned another $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks today - since I started, I've earned over $300 in Amazon cards and cash from that site. Easy peasy. I'm saving the credit I earn from there and from MyPoints (where I have enough for a $25 Amazon gift card, but they're temporarily sold out) to buy a new pair of Dansko clogs. They may not be the most gorgeous shoes in the universe, but I wear them every single day and go through about one pair per year (sometimes two). They're pricey, but they last longer than ten pairs of cheaper shoes ever did, so I find the investment totally worth it. But applying earned Amazon credit to my purchase makes it a lot easier to handle!

The weekend is winding down nicely. Saturday, the mailman brought me my $5-for-$10 Trader Joe's gift card courtesy of Plum District. (Last week they had a deal of a $5-for-$10 gift card to Chik-fil-A! Love it!) Yesterday we went out to lunch at local restaurant El Tesoro (my daughter loves the black beans there - I need to write a Freakmenu post about it) and then headed back to the Decatur Book Festival to check out the vendors. I tried a second flavor from the King of Pops - white peach and raspberry - and found it simply divine. KoP is going to be at my local CD shop next weekend, so I'll get to try yet another flavor (or two?). Exciting.

Today I'm not sure what we're up to. I have some ExtraBucks expiring at CVS, so I'm going to grab a free razor and possibly some free gum. Beyond that? An adventure, like I said above!

Dragon*Con and Decatur Book Festival - I love living here

Stormtroopers!

We got a late start and so got to the Dragon*Con parade late this year. It's a fun spectacle that I like to try to get to each year, even if I can't actually go to Dragon*Con itself (see: I have a time-consuming child). We had to crane our necks to see over the giant crowd, but we got to see some faeries, some Star Trek characters, and a whole lot of Star Wars folk.

Chewbacca!

The folks in the crowd were almost as entertaining (if not more) than the folks in the parade. It's hard to see in the next picture, but this guy's kid was dressed as the character from the Katamari video games.

Giant-headed Katamari character baby!

On our way home, we saw the biggest bug I've seen in a while.

BUUUUGGGGGG! Actual size: HUGE

Then we wandered through the Decatur Book Festival for a bit, running into friends along the way. I finally got to try a popsicle from the King of Pops - Mexican Chocolate - and it did not disappoint. Creamy, chocolatey, and spicy in a wonderful way. My husband got raspberry lime (think raspberry lime rickey!) and my friend got Georgia peach. All so good - full of chunks of fresh fruit. I may be addicted.

Mexican chocolate popsicle from King of Pops

On my way home from the festival (my husband took the kid ahead so I could linger), I hit the library booksale but found it woefully picked over. Still, I bought a summer cocktail book (from Chronicle - one of my favorite publishers for their consistently gorgeous designs and photography in their cookbooks) and J.otto Seibold's Quincy, the Hobby Photographer, a guide to dog photography. (No, I do not have a dog, but I do love J.otto's art and humor.) I spent $2. Not bad. Probably best for my overcrowded bookshelves that I didn't find more books to buy.

I got to go back through the festival one more time with a friend. I grabbed a short decaf Pumpkin Spice latte (but got charged for a tall, I think - confusing, but it was too crowded to ask questions) and we wandered. I learned about lil' ol' me, which raises funds to help kids with autism (check out their unique discount card deal). And we tried to go to a discussion/signing, but it was crazy crowded, so we left. I booked a massage with a Scoutmob 50% discount deal, and then we meandered home.

The weather has been spectacular here - sunny, warm-not-hot, blue skies. I hope it lasts.

The Friday Five - September 3, 2010

Courtesy of Friday5.org. [I love the Friday Five concept and am going to try to do this weekly, even if I don't always get the questions from the same place.]

1. What are the coolest and ugliest tattoos you’ve ever seen?

I hesitate to discuss ugly tattoos - there are blogs and communities all over the place that cover those. Coolest? In general, I love tattoos that are rich in color and detail. I love tattoos that have stories behind them. I love tattoos that make a statement - and I love finding out that someone I know has a hidden tattoo. (I have no tattoos - yet?)

2. Have you ever had a meal in which squid ink was an ingredient? How was it?

I'm a vegetarian, so I wouldn't eat such a thing now. I have had squid ink pasta in the long ago non-vegetarian past, and I don't remember it having a particularly special flavor.

3. Are you one of those people who has a favorite pen, or one of those people who just uses whatever’s at hand? What’re your favorite pens like?

I don't have a special favorite pen. I have found as the years go by that my handwriting has degenerated more and more as my typing has picked up speed. (I type over 90 wpm.) That said, I prefer pens that write smoothly, I prefer black pens to blue pens, and I don't like cheap pens, although I have tons of them around the house from various CVS deals.

4. There’s a box of colored markers on the table, and someone tells everyone assembled to grab one. If you have first pick, what do you take?

I'd probably grab a green one and start drawing trees and grass.

5. Have you ever written on a wall in a public place?

Yes, but only when it was sanctioned or acceptable to do so. I also have written on the walls of various cabins at summer camp, but I'm not sure if that counts as public.

Tea of the Day (and is fall in the air?) - September 3, 2010

Peach tea from Teavana with locally sourced honey

My daughter has the sniffles and I feel that telltale sensation in the back of my throat that says that a cold may be stalking me as well. So no smoothie today (maybe later - I could use the vitamins, I know), just a nice cup of tea. It's Teavana Rooibos Peach Bloom with my friend's bees' honey. I'm using a metal strainer in this picture - I also own a fancy tea mug with a ceramic strainer from Rishi, but the holes are just too big for rooibos and I don't like chewing my tea.

I have a lot of Teavana's teas in my pantry - I got sucked in one day when I just was going to look around and perhaps buy a few ounces of one kind. Instead I had a fast-talking salesgirl (who was also very convincing) and I walked out with a large assortment of tea in a lot of (pricey) tins. At least it's delicious - the teas really are worth what they cost, and the tins really did keep my teas fresh. I found out today that two of my favorite blends - the Thai Tea and the Tahitian Limeade - are being discontinued, so I think I may need to go back and fill my tins one last time.

It's still in the 80s and 90s here in Georgia, but I honestly feel a touch of fall in the air. I'm burning an autumnal Yankee Candle tart (cinnamon apple or something) (another weakness of mine - smelly candles/tarts), drinking tea, and thinking of crisper days, pumpkins, and mittens. Today's been a bit rough emotionally this morning, so I'm trying to start over.

Smoothie of the Day (plus BPAL and AGT) - September 2, 2010

Super extra-creamy smoothie

I'm loving frozen pineapple in my smoothies. It adds a nice sweetness and texture to them and I think it's going to be a staple in my freezer from now on. Today I was low on both almond and cow milk, so I used a combination of both, which made today's smoothie extra creamy. Then I threw in fresh and frozen strawberries, flax seeds, frozen pineapple, frozen spinach, and a squirt of agave. Delicious, and hopefully it will keep me going through the morning.

I'm a fan of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils (perhaps I'll make a "Let me tell you about" post about it in the future). There are thousands of different oil blends, and each one smells different on an individual's skin, and I may or may not have quite a large collection of sample-sized vials (known as imps' ears) that I poke at from time to time. Today they released info about the Trick or Treat inquisition; on occasion the company will offer T shirts and oils that have a theme (usually Halloween and the winter holidays) and then require you to send in a fun request for what you want - naughty or nice? trick or treat? - with no guarantees of what combination of oil and shirt and other goodies you'll actually receive. It's a lot of fun and very creative, and this year I like both T shirt designs (I haven't always in the past). I had a chance to smell some of the inquisition oils at a BPAL event a week ago (I liked Marshmallow Pumpkin), but in the end this is probably too pricey for me at this time. But it may be something in which you'd be interested; go look!

Edited to add: Oops, a friend of mine pointed out to me that I misread the site - there are no shirts this year, the art is for the labels of the products. I'm so disappointed, I love the art this time around!

My guesses were pretty off regarding the America's Got Talent results last night. I was surprised that the judges picked the dance crew over the singer, but I also am tired of singers winning the competition. The top ten is a really great mix of variety acts and I'm looking forward to the finals (although I also am getting tired of how they're stretching this out forever and ever - I think there are two more weeks of finals to go...). My top three are Prince Poppycock, Anna and Patryk, and Michael Grasso. I think. No, wait! Fighting Gravity has to be in there too! Realistically, the young opera singer (I know her name, I just am not reaching for Google hits for her...) will probably place in the top three, if not win, but again, I'm tired of singers winning so I hope it's something more interesting in the end.

Frozen Nutella Hot Chocolate? Yes, please!

You know you want some...

I used to trek out to Paris Creperie in Brookline, MA, just to get a Nutella frozen hot chocolate in the summer. It was rich and creamy and Nutella-y and just a phenomenal treat. Then I moved away, and even when I visit Massachusetts, there's never enough time to get over to Brookline. Sigh. But now that I have a Vitamix, I figured I could try to recreate it.

I followed a modified version of the recipe I found on ChowHound's message board that's supposedly the real thing. I used Kroger-brand lite vanilla ice cream instead of frozen yogurt, I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk (which kept the calorie count down), and I used far less Nutella than the recipe called for. It came out wonderfully (and the almond milk worked just fine). I WILL be making this again - and often. I also am considering trying another recipe I found that doesn't have any ice cream/froyo and that still sounds yummy.

Looking forward to tonight's America's Got Talent results show!

Smoothie of the Day (...to go! plus bento of the day and America's Got Talent babble) - September 1, 2010

Smoothie to go!

It's a smoothie to go today, because I had a chiropractor appointment I had to run off to. This one came out really yummy - almond milk, fresh and frozen strawberries, frozen grapes, frozen spinach, and frozen pineapple, plus some flax seeds and a squirt of agave nectar. I drank it as I walked and enjoyed the slightly cooler weather we've been having (only in the 80s!).

Bento for the kid - more of the same, but at least she eats it.

I haven't posted a bento in a while because they're largely the same most days. Here's today's - strawberries and a whole banana, organic string cheese and broken up whole wheat crackers, and pasta with sauce and veggie burger crumbles in a new lunch jar. The lunch jar is plastic, which I don't love, but it seems to be easier for both my daughter and her aides at school to handle, and I think it may even keep food warmer than the other jar (which I'll still use for her and for me on occasion).

I'm watching America's Got Talent from last night as I type this. This is probably my favorite line up of all the shows this season. My favorite singer, Debra Romer, probably won't get through, but I loved how she basically said she now gets paid to sing and she's already won. This show is all about the exposure, whether you win or not. Fabulous. Predictions: Jackie Evancho, Michael Grasso (so glad they brought him back), Fighting Gravity, Michael & Ashleigh (ditto - the judges made great choices for wild cards), Nathaniel Kenyon (I think there's a contingent that will vote him through). I'm still rooting for Haspop, but I don't think he'll make it. I could see the kid that plays piano sneaking in there somewhere instead too.

And look, Pomplamoose collaborated with Ben Folds:



Rabbit Rabbit. It's almost autumn.