Monday, June 29, 2009

A great weekend


Well, I really have been MIA on the blogosphere lately huh? It's been a pretty crazy several weeks. After I wrapped up spring classes, I thought I'd have a bit more time, unfortunately that wasn't the case. Life happens. My summer class was VERY involved, my mom had a health scare, and life just seemed chaotic... I am glad to say I came through the other side unscathed (AND my Mom did too!!!!)




So, while I've had tons of ideas for blogging topics, I just haven't been able to manage to park myself down and start writing. Hopefully, I've turned the tide on that... I'm slowly trying to work my way back into the blogosphere...




My first blog back... is about my fabulous weekend trip to the 'Nati (Cincinnati) to see NKOTB (New Kids On the Block).




So, a few months ago, my best friend, being the great and wonderful person that he is, suprised me with an early birthday present of tickets to NKOTB... I cannot tell you how thrilled I was! I was a HUGE fan of NKOTB as a tween... you have know idea... I mean, my mom was pregant during this phase, and when I found it was supposed to be a boy, I begged my mom to name him Jordan Nathaniel Marcel (Jordan Knight's full name). I didn't manage to get the whole name to stick, but mom liked Nathaniel...


So, the concert was this past weekend. We decided to drive up a little early and stop and grab dinner first, at La Rosa's, yummy!!! Of course the fun part was getting from La Rosa's to the concert... See we had GPS'd ourselves to the restaurant. The plan was to then GPS from the restaurant to the concert. HA! When we got back into the car, even though the GPS had just sent us to this place, it now couldn't locate us. We thought maybe if we drove a little further back up our route, away from the trees, we'd have better luck... we were wrong... It was almost comical, we drove around Newport, and crossed over into Ohio before GPS found us. Luckily, we had managed to figure out on our own the direction to head, and we were headed the right way. Which is really a good thing, because GPS lost our signal again along the way.


We finally made it to Riverbend and parked. Then we completed what seemed like a 2 mile trek to get to the actual gates. Once we got inside the gates, we decided to go ahead and check out the concert merchandise and get something to drink before we headed to the seats. It was still rather humid out and pretty sunny... so in standing in line for both, the sun was beating down... and everyone standing around, including ourselves were sweating horribly.


The concert itself was great. The Jabbawokeez were the first opening act, they were suprisingly entertaining. Jesse McCartney was the second act. Then my boys were on. It was a great show, with alot of their old stuff mixed in with some new stuff. I got some great pics and had a blast. Of course by the time we drove home, I was more than ready to hop in a shower and get rid of the funk!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Crazy 8's

Natalie over at A Little of This, A Little of That tagged me for this meme.

THE RULES: Mention who tagged you. (check!)

Complete the list of 8’s.

Tag 8 other people.

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO:
(1) Public Speaking Class being over
(2) Vegas in October
(3) NKOTB concert in a few weeks
(4) Did I mention Public Speaking Class being over soon?
(5) Transferring to NKU in the Spring
(6) Kevin getting home to assist in monster watch
(7) Retirement (I've still got awhile)
(8) Oh yeah, Public Speaking Class ending... (lol)

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:
(1) Bought a very expensive pair of black pants
(2) Bought a very awesome pair of black pants
(3) Contemplated whether the awesomeness outweighed the price of the black pants
(4) Took a bath while the monster spied on me
(5) Went to my FAVORITE class
(6) Gave a speech in my FAVORITE class
(7) Decided to grab dinner from a restaurant, because it was late and I was tired
(8) Ended the day with a good book and a hot bath

8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:
(1) Not go back to work until I finish school
(2) Find a job that paid me to stay home and go to school
(3) Retire at 31
(4) Figure out how to trap the house elves here to keep my place clean
(5) Catch up on sleep
(6) Remember to take my vitamins
(7) Eat Spaghetti
(8) Invent something that would make me millions of dollars

8 SHOWS I WATCH: ( I am going with what's on right now, everything it seems is in reruns)
(1) RW/RR Challenges (guilty pleasure)
(2) I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here (Junkfood for the brain)
(3) The Goode Family
(4) Little House on the Prairie (yes, I've seen them before, I still watch 'em... I actually RECORD them to watch!)
(5) Jon & Kate, plus 8 (yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah... those little kidlets are cute... leave me alone!)
(6) Rachael Ray Show
(7) Raising the Bar
(8) In Plain Sight

8 FAVORITE FOODS:
(1) Pizza
(2) Peanut Butter
(3) Ice Cream
(4) Croutons
(5) Turkey
(6) Chicken Fingers (though I've never seen one on a chicken)
(7) Bread
(8) French Fries

8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:
(1) NYC at Christmas
(2) England
(3) Tuscany
(4) Lithuania
(5) Alaska (via a cruise)
(6) Australia
(7) Ireland
(8) France

8 PEOPLE I’VE TAGGED:
Ok, so several people I would have tagged have already been tagged, so I'm only tagging a couple, however anyone who wants to... feel free to join in!

Mary at Owlhaven
My favorite Newlywed

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Secret to great cupcakes & cakes

Good Morning folks! It's Tuesday... and one heck of a Tuesday it's been already! You know it's going to be a great day when you have an icepack on your arm before 9 am!

However, I'm pushing through. I've been absent from the blogworld, because lots of school stuff going on in a small amount of time (that's what happens when you cram a semester class into a 6 week summer session)

It's time for Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy's Recipes. I thought of this tip last week when I was baking up some Vanilla Zucchini cupcakes. It's a tip that I use most every time I bake any kind of cupcake or cake. I discovered it by accident. Once, while baking a set of cupcakes, I didn't have enough batter to fill all of the wells. I poured some water into the empty ones to prevent the pan from warping. I noticed that when I was finished baking, those cupcakes seemed moister. So I experimented... now when baking any cakes, I put another pan on the rack below, partially filled with water. The water in the pan creates some steam & moisture which helps offset the drying effect of the oven. Every time I use this method, I get a much moister cupcake, that stays fresh much longer!
Hope you find this helpful, and don't forget to head over to Tammy's site to check out more tips!