Of raindrops and pigs

 Since I presume no one is reading my blog (and this is thus an exercise in futility?), no one would really know this.

But I am mildly obsessed with Olivia.  This is Olivia:

She's a children's (picture) book character.  I think I have two of the books?  Anyway, they now have all this *merchandise* associated with.  And since I am in fact, and consumerist whore, I want to own them all. (I may have a bit of the 'collector' bug.  And this is totally unrelated to the archaeology, I swear.)  Since I don't, this is only a mild obsession.  You just wait until I have kids, though.

Anyway, for Xmas, or my birthday, or something, my sister got me this really cute teacup:

See the little plastic handle poking out?  That's a tea strainer.  And the lid to keep the steam in!  *swoon*

Anyway, I wanted to microwave, so I searched to see if I could find any info on the mug.  And I discovered they have whole *line* of related ... things.  Not to mention that much of it is food related?  And largely functional?  This is so whimsical that I can ignore the creepy patriarchal undertones of the classic tale that we now know (though I daren't linger on the fact that the wolf is actually *holding* the umbrella for our little hoodling).  In this cute context, clearly we've gotten past that (perhaps one could even argue that this is a representation of the feminist ideal future, where little girl and wolf can live in harmony?).  In any case, the realization of a much larger line of adorableness is again tugging on my materialistic tendencies.  (Yes, I suppose that is a long winded way of saying, to quote a friend:  WANT)

Belated update

Since school started, we've been really bad about eating fresh food.  I don't even want to talk about it.  But I did go shopping at the local grocery store.  Not everything they carry is local, but I know that the owner makes a point to try and buy local when he can.  I was good at restraining myself.  I got some spring onions, broccoli (which I know the husband will eat), and a portabella for the stroganoff tonight.  whoo leftovers.

I haven't updated in a while in part because, well, school, but also because my power cord decided it would be fun to stop working.  Luckily, I've got a new one.  So updates shall continue.

In other news, I had a birthday party.  whoo!  I made cake.

 

It turned out okay.  I was worried about rising (which was apparently not an issue), so I split the cake between two pans.  This was a mistake, as I ended up overcooking it and was pretty dry.  I put some milk on it to moisten it, so it wasn't too bad.  People still liked it.  It was good enough that I would make it again without splitting it, so I can see if I need to tweak it in any other way.

The icing was white chocolate ganache, which turned out okay.  It didn't really want to set, so I whipped it into more of an icing.  I pretty much had the cake coated in white chocolate truffle--that bit was awesome.  Overall there was around a pound of white chocolate in/on the cake.

The ice cream mix failed.  I let it defrost, and am going to try again, though I really doubt that it will be successful.  Otherwise, I'll just put in strawberries, or something.  So much for healthifying.  

The candles are from my sister.  Because she's the coolest little sister ever.

Consistency

I'm failing what with the making dinner and exercizing.  Boring!

I had a birthday party, though.  Will post pictures when my computer stops being broken.  More on that later.