Tiny Giraffe!

I love the commercial with of that guy who is super rich and has a mini giraffe walking on a treadmill in the background, you know the commercial, right?

If you weren't sure by my vague description it is this one:



But more importantly, there is an amazing new website that lets you watch a petite giraffe hang out. During the day I have only gotten a glimpse of him wandering past the door, I assume there video gets more interesting at night when he comes in for bed. But who knows, I don't have this site bookmarked at home.

Now I am really torn, do I go for the mini pig or a petite giraffe??? Decisions, decisions....

Can't disagree

Randomly came across the website Hangover Sucks which sells some sort of lozenge for hangovers. The product comes in Ginger, Lime, and Raspberry. Ginger does help soothe a upset stomach - think Gingerale - but I don't know if the bite of the other two flavors would be particularly welcoming for the slightly queasy.

I have never tried hangover cures. Part of this is simply because my hangovers tend to consist of a headache, which is cured by a series of painkillers. But who knows, maybe this stuff actually works. If I were to try something like this, I feel that Nurse Noni has won me over, simply with the name of the product...

Who doesn't love a good pig picture?

This is the Photo of the Day at National Geographic. Love it.

It pays off to think ahead

Halloween is months away, but I have already begun thinking about my next costume. Well, I should say other people have begun giving me suggestions. The more complicated the costume, the more time it takes to pull together without breaking the bank. At this point in time, I have been given two suggestions.

1. Poison Ivy from Batman & Robin

Who cares that this movie came out in 1997. I have wanted to do this for Halloween for years, but end up forgetting about it until it is too late to pull something together.

The downside of the outfit would be that I would have to be pantsless, but hey, I did that last year with Lady Gaga.

2. Stefon from SNL

Cross dressing for a Halloween costume can be difficult - especially with my long hair - but it can be worth it. My friends pointed out that I move like Stefon when I talk which would mean embodying the character would take no effort. It really is about finding the right t-shirt, and human suitcase.

Britney Spears with a side of Bacon

A few weeks ago I bought a new alarm clock that allows for me to wake up to my iPod. My previous alarm clock had a cd option that broke about 2 years ago and the radio didn't work, so I have be subject to BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. Not my favorite way to wake up.

At this time, I have a 75 song pop song list (thanks iTunes Genius) that plays every morning, picking up where ever it left off the previous day. Thus, I have anyone from Britney to Ke$ha to Justin to Lady Gaga saying good morning.

Well like all technology, I have already found a superior alarm clock that I must get - the Wake 'n Bacon. The construction of this clock reminds me of something I would have made in wood shop back in middle school, but sometimes simple is best. After all, the iPod is a very simple looking device and we all fawn over it. So here I have a big wooden box with ears and a pig nose, just seems like a large novelty clock until you realize it wakes you up by cooking bacon!

All you have to do is put in a piece of frozen bacon when you are getting ready for bed and the timer is set to start cooking 10 minutes before you want to wake up. You are then gentley woken up with the smell and sizzle of bacon. Yum. Now I would still need some sort of noise, because I don't know if the smell of bacon alone could wake me up every day. But I would definitely pop out of bed faster if I had Beyonce AND Bacon.

Where Am I?

I am slightly behind the times. This past weekend my traveling companions and I joined foursquare for the first time. The unnecessary competition is just too much fun to pass up. No matter how may times I read about Foursquare or heard about it, I just couldn't understand why you would want people to know where you were. But now, I get it.

First off, you don't have to share every time you check in. But if you do share 10 times in one day you earn a badge - and who doesn't want badges??? I was never a Girl Scout (which is fine, I didn't want to be one) so I never had the chance to earn pieces of felt to signify random craft and nature projects. Now I can happily receive a circle for visiting places I already go.

Besides the badges, you can get discount and free cookies by checking in! This girl loves a deal, and I cannot wait to find discounts and free stuff while I wander around town.

Please join and friend me, right now I only have 3 friends so the meaningless competition of scoring the most points is fairly limited. I would prefer a bigger fight!

My Booooooooof

This weekend I went to NYC with a few friends. As we are huge fans of Cornwall's here in Boston, we decided to find a bar that offered patrons the possibility of playing board games. Through the powers that be, aka Yelp!, we found ourselves at the 675 Bar between 13th ad 14th street in the Meatpacking District.

The bar is underground and used to be home to a sex club. As soon as you descend into the venue, it becomes obvious that there were many dirty secrets kept down there. The walls are rough stone, and there are small rooms that branch off the entry way. Currently, these spaces have small tables for private game playing. Sadly, we did not arrive early enough to score a private room. Our patience won out and eventually were able to score a portion of a couch, a chair, a stool, the end of a coffee table, and most importantly - Jenga.


If you have never played Jenga in the dark - in a club - while drinking, well then, you have not yet played Jenga. Our games were intense and to the point where the structure was just one block on top another over and over again.

We continued to play on as the bar got more and more crowded, and eventually gave into the pop music and got our dance on. This place was just so much fun, and even though there are more bars that I can think of out there, I want to return to this one the next time I am there!

Owls are so in

I visited Brooklyn Flea this weekend with my friends. During the winter, the flea market held indoors. The space is an old bank, which become apparent as soon as you begin your walk.


All four of us came away with a few treasures. I personally purchased a graffiti painting that featured Audrey Hepburn and an owl necklace. Owls are my favorite right now and I have been on the hunt for a piece that features them. This flea market provided me ample opportunity to fulfill my need on the cheap. After wandering through the first floor, I found my owl!


He moves around and came with a nice long chain. While normally I keep my distance from gold colored jewelry, this guy spoke to me. I opted to wear him immediately, and am currently sporting him at work.

Bacon Risotto

If we are friends in real life, or were at some point and are still friends on facebook, you may recall that I recently posted the picture above. I decided I wanted to go beyond my comfort zone and cook things that real people would want to eat. (I have learned that eating a can of baked beans for dinner is a bit odd)

Bacon Risotto sounded like a good place to start. I already knew how to make risotto the lazy way (with Uncle Ben's Rice instead of Arborio), but never added anything extras - just simple risotto. So I went online and realized that most people just throw in the extras at the end, well I can do that too, gosh darn it! Out of fear that the bacon flavor wouldn't be strong enough, I opted to incorporate the grease. Additionally, to make veggie health people happy I added in some fresh tomatoes too!

I wanted to share the recipe with the world, I don't really know if the measurements are absolutely correct, since I don't measure much (accept the rice) so, I would suggest you use this as guidelines. When it comes to the wine, feel free to have fun with it - I honestly probably use at least 1/3 of a cup if not more.

Bacon Riscotto

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound bacon, diced (totally used breakfast bacon chopped up)
• 5 cups of chicken stock (you may use more or less - just be mindful)
• 3/4 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
• 4 tablespoons butter (may use more like 6)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
• White wine - preerably Riesling
• S&P
• 2 mid-sized tomatoes (fresh)

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a large skillet (skillet should have high sides) over medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Drain the bacon and reserve some grease (yum)
2. Bring chicken stock to boil in a saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to low to keep the stock hot
3. Heat 2-4 tablespoons of butter in the same bacon pan over medium -high heat. I recommend leaving some grease in the pan for flavor.
4. Add onion and garlic; cook and stirl until the onion begins to turn clear, about 2 minutes
5. Pour in the rice and stir until the rice is coated in butter and the rice starts to toast
6. Bring on the wine! Splash some into the pan, listen for the sizzle. Make sure to cover the rice thoroughly. Once the wine reduces, reduce the heat.
7. Start stirring in the chicken stock (I ladle it in to help keep the mess under control) - I would advise putting in 1/4 - 1/3 of the broth in at a time. As the broth gets absorbed, add more until tender, yet slightly firm. Roughly 15-20 minutes.
8. Remove the risotto from the heat and add the remaining butter, Parmesan cheese, and the bacon.
9. Chop up tomatoes (best to squeeze out the seeds first) and throw them into the mix too.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Dig in!
    

Leisure Reading C/O the Library

Finding time for leisure reading is not particularly easy. Between school, work, and life, I just don't have an hour the day that I am willing to give up to chill with a novel. When I wind down, I would prefer some trashy vampire filled teen dramas than a bunch of words on paper that create a plot that requires concentration to follow.

When winter break came around, I decided to start using the library to procure new reading materials for free. After all, why would I want to read the books that I paid for months/years ago that sit on my shelf, ripe for the picking?? I figure now is as good as a time as any to provide you with simple reviews.

One Day took me all of one day to read. The story follows a couple through their lives together and apart, but all events occur on the same date, July 15th. I found their relationship intricate and was constantly wondering how things would turn out. After about the first 50 pages, I did the unthinkable.

I read the last page of the book! I never do this. I was also forever convinced the ending was going to be terrible as I did not know the context of those sentences and concluded the worst. Don't worry, I will not comment one way or the other how this wonderful love story ends, but like any book/movie that I deem amazing, I was left breathless. (and a bit damp with tears)




Room was my next pick. I read numerous reviews praising the story and style. Sadly, about half way through, I realized this book was not for me, but I wanted to see it to the end. There is nothing I hate more than not knowing the ending. On my book shelves there are books that took multiple attempts before I got to the end, but I have always found that I was just not in the right place for that particular story. (My eye is on you, Life of Pi)

This story is told from the voice of the five year old boy in the story. I enjoyed seeing life through a child's eyes. Every object had a name, even if the name was generic, the lamp was named Lamp. The child and his mother are kept in a room, she was kidnapped and we subsequently find out he was born in this very space. The room is all the boy knows and understands. I think the main reason this book did not sit well for me is that I was simply not in a space that could handle a book that revolves around kidnapped people. Honestly, there will probably never be a point where this kind of story would go over well for me, right now, I couldn't even praise the writing style without feeling guilty and morally corrupt.



If you are a science nerd, and love of the cuff personal observations and comments (see, this blog), then this book is for you! I took the book out during a very stressful point of the current semester. Renewed the book twice, and then decided to keep it and accrue fines until I finished, which I did last night. The Minuteman Library system is currently ready and awaiting my 60 cents in fines.

This book was worth those six dimes. It covers all aspects of the space experience including the physics of moving in space, the use of chimps in NASA's early days, space food, and even space sex. Mary Roach has a way with words, and footnotes. I would be interested in reading her other novels, I have a feeling she could make any topic enjoyable.

Excited for a White Summer

I am not the most graceful or delicate woman out there. Every summer I day dream of owning a white summer dress and wearing it out in public without immediately tripping/falling into dirt or eating/dropping food in my lap. While I am not the most klutzy person in the world, I do tend to have problems with white.

Well, H&M is coming out with the Conscious Collection which, as luck would have it, features white spring/summer fashion. Basically this is awesome because I can now get a white dress for cheap but still look hip and happening.

Normally I am not one for full sleeves, winter or summer, but this dress is calling my name. In fact it is yelling it from across town. Dare I say, it is a little on the short side, but I feel those lacy sleeves balance the garment out nicely. I could envision myself wearing this dress, but I can't quite figure out where I am going. At the moment, I just see myself walking down the street. (but not in those shoes, I am really over that style in a major way)

The other dress that caught my eye is this one. I find that volume around my stick-frame usually ends up looking pretty great. I am a bit worried that the flow begins right at the boob line, as without any assistance with defining that curve, my bust goes buh-bye. Additionally, an A-line that starts that high has high odds that the shape of the dress will make my legs look like that they start up at the armpits. This dress is definitely the runner up, and again, not loving the shoes...

The Oscar --- Dresses

The Oscars themselves were boring/bad, poor Anne and James. They were set for failure from the get go. But who really cares about the show anyway, what really matters is the fashion!

Sadly, the Red Carpet wasn't much better. Most celebrities were dressed well, but there weren't many show stoppers out there. In fact, I could barely remember any of the dresses this morning, well any of the ones I actually liked. But after reliving it online through pictures and articles, I was able to come up with a few worth mentioning.

Florence wore this Valentine Couture dress on the carpet, and then changed into an orange number for her stage performance. I get that many people didn't care for this dress. Some even refer to it as a doily gone wrong. Yeah it covers up her body from neck to wrist to foot, but I think she totally rocks this. If someone like Kate Hudson wore this, I would say it was uuuuugly. But on Florence it looks like rocker in it.

This dress doesn't really do it for me. I have been informed by the Fashion Police that the gown was amazing in person and just didn't photograph well. The real reason why she is on the list right now is because I loved the attitude she gave to Seacrest on the Red Carpet. Girl has sass.

Reese has been criticized for this dress. I, for one, find her bubbly, adorable, and gorgeous in this simple dress. Really what it comes down to is her hair-do. It reminds me of Elle Woods and the June Carter all at once

Being pregnant isn't easy, or so I have been told, and I think she was able to pull of a wonderful Oscar dress without her whole look screaming out "I would have looked way better if it weren't for the bump". It was also really impressive that Rodarte was able to supply her with a dress at the last minute given she isn't her usual tiny self. (Love love love the color on her)

I don't know who this woman is, but I didn't like this dress when Taylor Swift wore it and I don't like it now. I was highly disappointed that the Fashion Police didn't play "Bitch Stole My Look" with this, so I felt the need to blog about the copying. What made her wear this dress just about a year after a girl who is easy more than half her age? Bad idea.

Damn she looks good. I aspire to look as good as Helen Mirren as I age. The dress is a little tight, but it is so on trend and she looks divine. The puffy shoulders look amazing, most other older women would look like they were trying to hard. She instead looks like she was the inspiration for the garment.

And let's end with some crazy. HBC is one of my favorite actresses out there. I am pretty sure she said this dress was made by a costume designer, and that just makes me smile. What better way to celebrate film than to let the costumers dress you for the big event? Personally, I want that fan purse, bad. Helena, where'd you get it??