U!S!A!

Guess who is ready for this weekend's America themed float trip?

Not pictured: my cut off shorts, camo beer coozie, and tiny tee I found on ebay that has an eagle holding a flag --- wait for it -- all bedazzled.
I love summer.

The time I went to Hogwarts

Like most people who have ever been within two feet of a Harry Potter book, I am a total nerd about it.  There was the time when Alisa and I tried (failed) to knit Hogwarts scarves for the 6th movie premier in November (yeah, we can’t knit at all).  By God we still had a party.  Or that when one of the books come out I read all 800-1200 pages in 19 hours? I can’t describe it exactly.  It’s not hero worship (I don’t think he’s dreamy), it’s not because the clothes and lifestyles are so enviable (although no one was too crazy about SATC movies so maybe that’s a terrible standard), there is no love story for all the ages… and yet, you fall in love with the zillion aspects of their charming world.

Enter my Florida work trip which conveniently gave me a spare day to traipse around Orlando. 

I have to say, for someone whose parents didn’t love her enough for a Disney/Universal vacation as a child, I was pretty impressed. 

Just kidding Mom and Dad! Considering I forked over $90 for a single ticket all I have no idea how families afford to go. That stuff is ludicrous.

But awesome.  Let the tour continue!

There were two parts of the HP part of the theme park, Hogsmeade, where all of the shops (Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley) and restaurants were.



Holy crowds.  I forgot how rarely I am surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people and screaming kids.  I thought it might be weird to be there alone (hello, creepy adult alert). Except I don’t know how you could do it with a group, there are just so many people.  At the very least it got me to the front of rides quickly. Sweet!

   

The Butterbeer was out of this world.  It tasted like butterscotch root beer (I don’t even like root beer!) with some sort of butterscotch cream foam on top.  Pure carbonated sugary delicousness.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up Orlando.  It was 100 degrees and it was pretty sweet so I didn’t end up finishing it.  I admit, this would have been nice to split with somebody.

  

I hope I don't get the mucus flavor

Honeydukes was the candy shop and my oh my was it yummy.  Look! Every flavor beans!
Cauldron Cakes!



Treacle Fudge!

Do you think it's white chocolate? What IS a treacle?

However more than Hogsmeade, my favorite part was Hogwarts itself.



You could get your photo taken with some of the Tri-Wizard tournament schools, like this excited person.

he can't wait to post this on facebook

You could watch the Beauxbaton Academy’s girls (Fleur? is that you? yes I had to look up the name of the school) and their Will Ferrell esque ribbon dancing routine.  Or you could stick around and see the Durmstrang academy guys do some sort of stomp routine meets military rifle moving sequence (with their walking stick things).  Also they did back flips.  Those guys were always kind of cute.  (does that make me a creep? How old do we think they are here?)

This guy is next to normal

  
Finally there were the rides.  Now there were three rides here and I hadn’t necessarily intended to go on any of them but the shops were too crowded and otherwise that’s the whole HP part of the park, so in I went.  Two of the three rides are pretty standard theme park fare.  One is slower and fully themed hippogriff style and has tons of Hagrid’s house/hallmarks around it.  The other was the Tri-Wizard Challenge that was a buckle in flip upside down go sixty miles an hour ride.  Good ride, not so much to do with Harry.  Mostly I was just utterly charmed by the last ride, the Forbidden Journey which happened once you entered Hogwarts.  It was part regular rollercoaster and part virtual ride.  It seriously knocked my socks off.  One minute you were being spun around to close enough to touch a giant snake skeleton in the chamber of secrets and  another you were face to face with a dragon head that spewed red hot air in your face, the next you were surrounded on all sides by a screen that had you following Harry through the Hogwarts towers via broom.  I felt completely and totally immersed in the ride.  I’m sure I had my mouth gaping open in wonderment the entire time.  Hands down the best part of the whole park.  Tip of the hat to you Universal.

seal of approval

  
So I spent three solid hours there and felt I got to see a little bit of everything.  I am not necessarily one for souvenirs (hello studio apartment), so I resisted getting a wand, or commemorative do-dads.  Also because the candy (yay) would have melted en route out of the park (boo). 
Speaking of leaving the park, on my way out I meandered through the comic section and couldn’t help but take a photo of this appetizing picture.

Money shot

Bret and I used to always jokes about the Cathy cartoons all the time.  This killed me.

Keep Calm Carry On..

If you have a Royal Wedding party six days before the actual ceremony, remember to wave on the red carpet (vinyl table cover) as if it was from your chariot/Pope-mobile/carriage/Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade float. 

Remember also to thank your lovely Aunt Anne for hooking everyone up with such delicious treats.  Even if someone took a bite out of a shortbread jelly cookie and put it back (ahem sister). 

Remember also to tell Aunt Anne that she can seriously rock a Tiara. 

Remember to get your sister a cooler, and perhaps a snow suit, considering she ordered the Royal ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins only to discover the people there didn’t know what the heck she was talking about.  Perhaps they missed the memo from corporate? Instead they made her a cake that said: Will 4 Kate 4 Ever.  She picked that baby up and drove the three hours home with zip lock bags of ice on top of it and the air conditioning blowing full force despite the fact it was barely 50 degrees out.  A for effort Sister, A indeed.
Remember that its the thought that counts, not just the presentation.
 
Remember to wear your crown jewel replicas. (remember when I got that beauty?)

Remember to provide your guests with plenty of party flair.

   
Remember to NOT grab Prince Phillip’s face mask, since no one knows who he is anyway (the queen had a husband? Where have I been?)

Remember that if you’re going to a Royal party, it is appropriate to wear the Queen’s favorite jogging suit, especially if you have photo evidence of her wearing it (not at all photo-shopped).
 
Remember that if you are going to a party and stop by GoodWill just hours before, you can have the best outfit of all time.  Well played Theresa, well played. 

Remember that if you bring evidence of your lineage tracing back to the queen (there are a lot of cousins to keep track of), and Kevin Bacon, you are entitled to the most melty will & kate ice cream cake.  Fact.

Remember to tell your mom how rocking she looks with two boobs.  Also just in general :)
 

Remember to have pretty low expectations for the lifetime movie you watch at the party about Will & Kate, but secretly like it anyway.
    
Mostly I hope to remember these things for round two with Emily at 4AM on Friday.  See you there!

Mullet City

Hands down, the highlight of my week was when this beauty popped up on my car after running home for lunch one day.

I mean can you believe it? He used to text me all the time during the campaign (you know, telling me where to register, volunteer, reminding me when Joey B was coming into town for a rally, etc.), he's even still in my phone as 'Barack'...... *sigh* it was lovely. In totally unrelated news, after discovering this note I spied Emily's car 10 feet away from mine in the parking Garage. Hmmmmmm.....

It was a pretty political week for the parking garage, what with O'Reilly, Bob Dole, Ann Coulter and even Bill Clinton stopping by (dear emily, you're the hottest thing since my wife in a pantsuit) to leave sweet nothings on Emily and I's cars.

(dramatization below)

Much further down on the excitement-o-meter for the week was food I'd assembled. I was particularly impressed with this combo... Even if i did steal it from graduate meghann.

WW toast with ricotta on top and grilled eggplant and yellow squash (marinated in balsamic) YUM.

And this salad was pretty so I took a picture.

You know what else was pretty? the shoes I was wearing while I ate. Hello lovelies!

John and I also went to a free Blues Traveler concert a few blocks away. Too bad word was out. It was the MOST packed I have ever seen that place.

This was us unhappy we could not move.

It's okay, we burned out a bit early and I came home and BAKED! Since I was going to be living on the interstate all weekend, I decided to make my friend Kelly cupcakes in honor of her Bday I would miss. I WANTED to make a super healthy kind... but I realized a) it's her birthday give the lady what she wants and b) there was a pretty good chance they might not turn out anyway, so let's opt for the best tasting kind possible.

The result? Barefoot Contessa to the rescue! Pounds of sugar and butter later (the cupcakes were made with sour cream and the frosting with cream cheese!) ................................ I over baked the cakes. Mo**er F*****************!! I was WATCHING them the whole time and they were just in the oven a minute too long. They weren't burnt exactly, but they weren't close to being moist and delicious. AW SNAP.

It's okay, Kelly said she liked them anyway (i told her just to eat the tops like they were muffins)

After work Friday Emily and I VAMOOSED to get to the center of the state (world) to the STATE FAIR! We had some sweet concert tickets.

Let me zoom in for you:

Come on now... everybody sing, "HOW DO I GET YOU ALONE....... ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!" you can bet your bottom dollar (the state fair always brings out the 'folksy' language a la Palin, no?) we were belting that out at the top of our lungs when it came on.... thank goodness for EVERYONE we were sitting near a loud speaker to drown ourselves out)

Emily and I went with John's sister, her fiance and his fam. We all had a little cowboy flair.

Including my SWEET Frye cowboy boots that I thrifted in San Francisco this Spring! (hello my lovelies)

We also saw my sister, made a visit to the beer garden, ran into college peeps (only at the fair, I tell you) and saw some pretty sweet tats and mullets.

Then it was once again time to hit the road!

We were en route to the STL to visit our friend Jessica for HER birthday celebration. Jessica, the lone adult-acting friend I have, had a baby in March and was SO ready for a rowdy night out (we were happy to oblige).

The road trip fun-level took a nose dive when we had to pull over (twice!) because there was a MONSOON on the interstate. BOO.In my still-in-PJs glory, sad face.

We got to the STL just in time to decorate the hotel room. Beauteous no?

We were staying in the Casino hotel, so OBVIOUSLY yummy restaurants, cheesy bars and losing money until the wee hours of the night were in order. How LUCKY were we when we found a funk band playing in one of the bars.... I'm not kidding you, not a single person there wasn't moving/grooving/being friendly and/or hilarious.

Look closely, you can see my third-favorite mullet from the weekend across the bar. My friend Amy got WAY better pictures once we were inside the casino itself (we're talking Kentucky waterfalls, folks)..... until she almost got kicked out for taking pictures there. What is this, Russia? Who knew you couldn't do that. Totally worth it though.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE being with my friends. Shenanigans ensued.

Five seconds before this picture, this guy was crouched on the floor sticking his head up this girl's skirt like he was going to put her on his shoulders (it's okay, they were together.... er.... we think) He did it like three times in a row. It was a sight to behold. We did a lot of clapping.

Then we got back to the hotel room and we learned that when you have a friend with a baby, they carry around Breathalyzers when they breastfeed. ......... = hilarious = a confusing phone call with John where he was NOT amused to be thinking I'd been arrested. Simmer donna.

Once the weekend came to a close (tear!) I decided to use my once again available weeknights (no grad school remember, how great is that?) to use a cookbook that had been neglecting. I made this recipe:

From this cookbook (Eating Well In Season w/ Kaiser Permanente) :

It was called Caramelized Onion Bean Dip Flat bread Pizza. (or something to that effect). Which was basically all of those ingredients. I got to use my rolling pin from outer space (Thanks Anne!!!!!)

Unfortunately the water I used for my dough was apparently WAY too hot and killed the yeast, which means the bread didn't rise. F*****. However mom said I could use it as a flat bread or something instead (BINGO!) which was actually what I WAS going to use it for. Whew, nice recovery.

Instead of sauce, there was a hummus-like paste (that I added WAY too much Oregano to, I might add) that was originally supposed to be brown but I think the red onions turned it a dirt-esque brown.... making it slightly less photogenic.

Jerry's thoughts (things I learned this week):

• The first time you bake your pizza dough (prior to baking with toppings), check the middle of the crust to make sure it's not too doughy..... so it won't be total mush when it comes out the second time ready to eat.


• Dough hot water isn't supposed to be hot, it's supposed to be sort of luke warm. Note to self.


• Under cook cakes/cupcakes. Everybody likes that dough anyway, who are we fooling.


• I'm not going to be able to wait until I get married in the year 2333 to get a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I'm going to put myself on a payment plan to get it long before then. And maybe a Juicer too, and an emulsion blender...... yeah, that too.


• The state fair has more ankle tattoos than the wal-mart by where I work. .... and that's saying something.


• If you 'love' push the person next to you at a bar in a casino (for making faces at her... yes Amy), and you don't know your own strength and push them out of the booth. Both by that act and the laughing about it *might* get you kicked out.... good thing we're such smooth talkers.

Anything I'm leaving out?...... All in all a productive week, I'd say. Happy Hump day friends :)