This Week: the Highlights

1. the Cake Fail

I tried to make Baker Royale's Banana Split Surprise Cake.

Emphasis on tried.

after 4 hours of prep/baking/cake cooling time,

including making 2 different batters,

and a meringue frosting,

the cheesecake didn't bake all the way through (it helps, in a recipe involving cheesecake, if you put the directions on how to actually bake a cheesecake) and disintegrated as soon as I put it on the bottom layer of cake. Whoops...

despair.

They can't all be winners.

So, instead of an awesome banana split surprise cake, we had banana cake with banana cream frosting. Not nearly as exciting.

2. the Week of Thunder Storms

Summer came in with a roar this week, as we had a thunderstorm almost every day. 

 3. the Polaroid App I Downloaded and Quickly Started Abusing

add this to things I can't afford and don't need by want nonetheless

4. the Awesome Homemade Mac n Cheese

Mary made this using the Pioneer Woman's recipe, except I convinced her to add two more pounds of cheese, because this is AMERICA.

good lord, it's good.

5. the Batch of Short Bread Tea Cookies

 

To make up for Cake Fail, I made short bread cookies with the animal cookie cutters I got from Ikea

I put ground up Constant Comment tea leaves in with the flour, and it gave the cookies an orange spice taste that rocks

short bread dough is really sticky, and as such, some of the animals came out disfigured

Happi Aminal Fambly

these polaroid pics are so hipster douche, but I love them.

6. the First Time Bleaching a Dry Clean Only Comforter and Not Ruining it

For a while now I've been on a never ending quest to find a white, waffle weave comforter or comforter cover, like this one:

puppy included

But so far, my searching has proved fruitless. But, on Tuesday, I found a beige one online that looked close enough to what I wanted. 

But when it came in, it wasn't beige. It was sage green. [*sad trumpet] My mom says I shouldn't have been surprised.

Mom: The color is celadon. Like celery. Celery is green.

Me: No, I'm thinking celadon, like dinosaur, like fossil, like beige.

Mom: What? No, it's green. Google it.

So I did:

Ohh... *sad trumpet

So I was going to send it back, thinking, there's no way I can successfully bleach and dye a full sized comforter without a commercial grade washing machine.

However.

Last night, loopy on muscle relaxers, I decided, "what the hell." and threw the blanket in the washer with a butt ton of bleach. And to my amazement, it bleached really well! Most of it is now a solid beige color, and there are just a few green patches I have to work on. I think I'm going to just dunk it in the bathtub and pour bleach all over it in order to make it white, and then I'll have the blanket I've been imaging and lusting over for the past few years. I'm excited. 

 

7. the Saturday of Muscle Relaxers 

On Friday, I was out running errands with my mom and Mary when out of nowhere, I launched into a puking fit. And for the rest of the day, different areas of my body were taking turns to see who could make my life more miserable: my head in a vise grip, my stomach in perpetual puke knots, and my back, which felt like bricks were being ground into it.

It was the weirdest sick spell I've ever had. When I woke up on Saturday, I was so sore and achey, I could barely walk. So before they left for the lake house, my parents threw a bunch of pain killers and muscle relaxers at me.

And thus, I spent the rest of the day in a loopy, euphoric haze, napping with the dogs, reading, and watching Star Wars.

the nest

Sweet VHS copy, 1995!

It was the best I've felt all week, even if I did wake up feeling like shit, again. :/

8. the Benadryl Babies

It's hard to be a basset with seasonal allergies.

9.  the Shattered Screen

I have dropped my phone 8,967 times in the 10 months that I've owned it. I've dropped it from varying heights and onto varying hard surfaces, with nary a scratch to the screen.

However, the 8,968th time I dropped it, onto carpet, the screen obliterated. Thankfully my mom convinced me to get Droid-surance, because all I had to do was take it to Best Buy and they replaced the screen for free. Yay!

Needless to say, I let the Best Buy guy talk me into buying one of those Zzag screen protectors. They were originally designed to protect helicopter blades, so hopefully now my phone will be able to withstand the grace and care that comes with Hurricane Audrey.

10. the $10 Dress

I love random finds at Target. This dress isn't on clearance yet, and brand new it's $40.00. But, I found it on the clearance rack for $10, because someone bought it online and returned it in the store. whee, work clothes!

And with that, I'm off to squander my last 2 days of freedom. And by that, I mean, go soak my sore back in the pool.