Whole lotta chocolate!

My friend had a birthday on Saturday and I thought I'd use that opportunity to try to decorate a cake. I got myself some Wilton tips and a bag. I was going to do the very popular rose cake but opted for petal instead. My frosting ended up not being thick enough but I kept on piping and chilling and piping. It's not the best but I'm proud of it.

See those droopy petals? Very soft petals! You don't want to see the back. Haha

I love this banner. But look at that sad look "rose". Soft frosting sucketh.

Dark chocolatey goodness. The five of us demolished this cake.

I love being read to

Earlier this year, a friend gave me an audiobook that he enjoyed and thought I'd like to listen to it. It was Vince Flynn's American Assassin. I loved American Assassin but you know what I loved even more? Being read to! I now completely understand why children ask for another story at bedtime. There is simply nothing better. I can listen to the audiobooks on my long walks and not feel like I was wasting time reading a novel when I should be busy working. It was simply perfection. Listening to these audiobooks reminded me that I used to have Superman LPs when I was a little girl. I loved setting up the record player with Superman and listening to it over and over.

Since that first novel, I think I have listened to over 10 novels so far. Most of them were Vince Flynn novels and I loved all of them. There were three James Pattersons thrown in but two of those were a disappointment. I may need to write an official review of one of those books. It was definitely one of the worst books I've read/listened to in a while.

I still love curling up with a book (still no e-reader yet) but I think I will always keep an audiobook on hand. I walk a lot (sometimes up to 8 miles) so it's great to have something to distract me from walking. There's no extra gadget needed since I save the books to my phone's SD card. I just need some good earbuds and then I'm good to go.

Do you listen to audiobooks? Do you love them too?

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What I'm Watching: Bunheads

A few months ago when I was catching up on Secret Life of the American Teenager (don't judge; I judge myself), I saw an ad for a new show called Bunheads. The first thing that struck me was that the series was created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Sherman-Palladino created one of my most favourite series - Gilmore Girls - so I was understandably excited. As the promo continued, I noticed that the Bunheads star looked uncannily like Lauren Graham. (Let me just say, I am VERY bad with faces. I could see someone right now and five minutes later be unable to recognise him. It's even worse with actors and actresses. I use context clues to help me recognise people so if you're out of the context, I'm clueless.)

Source: ABC Family

Could it be Lauren Graham? I love her. I loved her as Lorelai in Gilmore Girls but I also love her in her current show - Parenthood. If she was in Bunheads, it meant she wouldn't be in Parenthood. I had mixed feelings about this. Lauren Graham in another Sherman-Palladino creation would be great but Lauren's character is a central one in Parenthood. But then I saw a new angle of the promo. No, that wasn't Lauren Graham. She was just someone who looked like her. I swear I had that debate every time the promo came on and it came on every time there was a break in the Secret Life episodes I was watching.

Two weeks ago, my friend, who loved Gilmore Girls as much as I did, mentioned Bunheads to me and I decided to watch. Oh my confusion. There were just too many Gilmore Girls similarities. The central character (whose name I suddenly can't remember) still looked like Lauren Graham at some angles but she sounded nothing like her. For the first episode, it just felt like I was watching someone try to be a Gilmore Girl. The witty dialogue that I loved in Gilmore Girls was here too but just not delivered as effortlessly.

Source: ABC Family

By episode 2, there was too much GG deja vu.
Small town just like GG? Check.
Quirky small town characters? Check
Kelly Bishop from GG? Check.
Rose Abdoo from GG? Check
Sean Gunn from GG? Check

I am having a difficult time liking Bunheads because I keep wanting to compare it to Gilmore Girls. I just can't help it. Everywhere I turn, there's a Gilmore Girls reminder. Unfortunately, the delivery is just not as good as Gilmore Girls so it's failing in my eyes.  I'm still watching, hoping that I will eventually start judging it on its own merits. And also hoping that it will improve and become an ABC Family powerhouse.

Back to Basics

I drafted this at the beginning of August. since then I fell off the wagon once more. I blame it on the Olympics. Once Track & Field started on August 3, I spent all my time watching the Olympics and never once exercised. Maybe that will change today. 

July was not the month for exercise. Every day something happened (most days laziness) and I wouldn't exercise. I decided last week to get myself back in the habit and was greeted by knee pain. I am way too young for knee pain. I had a long talk with myself (what? you don't talk to yourself?) and decided Insanity was just not for me. I wasn't achieving my goals and I felt that I had lost some of the muscle that I had gained during the time I did P90X. The knee pain was the last straw.

I am not completely cutting out Insanity and so have started a P90X and Insanity hybrid. It's 4 days of P90X and 2 days of Insanity. I may try P90X's Plyometrics one of those Insanity days since I have never done it before. If my knees don't like it then I will do the less intense P90X Cardio until my knees feel better. It's funny that one of those days of P90X is the dreaded yoga and I am actually looking forward to it. I miss that flexibility. So that's 3 days of strength training, 2 days of cardio and 1 of yoga.

BRING IT!

Caramelized Onion & Thyme Sourdough Kringel

Just a quick pic of a bread I made in the wee hours this morning instead of working on a report.