Crossword Puzzles: Day 12

People are always saying that the crossword puzzles become more difficult as the week progresses. I've usually dismissed this, but now I reluctantly agree. I'm still dutifully attempting the crossword puzzle everyday. Last week, I did them with my family in Oceanside, but I was back to doing them solo on Saturday. On Sunday, I knew the answers to only 3 clues. Then on Monday, I nearly completed the entire puzzle, leaving only about 5 clues blank. On Tuesday, I was back to completing about a third of the puzzle. Today, I've filled in only 2 clues so far.

It is clear that I don't know my geography. Of course, I don't need a crossword puzzle to tell me this. (I only recently learned that Sierra Leone is a country in Africa, and not an Indonesian island) In yesterday's crossword puzzle, I didn't know the Persian Gulf capital. I'm sure that it's something really easy and obvious, but I don't know what it is. In today's puzzle, I don't know an island east of Java or a Hawaii county seat.

I can't believe it's already day 12! Time sure flies when you're creating a new habit!

blue cheese mac & cheese

I have a confession to make: I like to eat macaroni and cheese from the box. Not Kraft, and not the stuff from Trader Joe's (not cheesy enough), but this organic macaroni and cheese that comes in white cheddar and cheddar. I forget the name of the brand. Anyway, I like to make mac and cheese from the box when I feel lazy and don't want to cook. I have it all down to a science now. I can't eat the whole box, and the leftovers are gross, so I toss out about 3-4 large handfuls of the noodles prior to cooking. This ensures a super cheesy cheese to noodle ratio, and its a pretty perfect serving size.

Upon hearing of my weakness for boxed mac and cheese, one of my friends was appalled and told me that I really need to quit the boxed crap and make the real thing. (I'd like to point out that this is a vegan friend) I knew it was time to kick my mac and cheese habit, especially when it's a vegan telling me to ditch the powdered "cheese" and replace it with the real thing.

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I got this recipe for Blue Cheese Macaroni and Cheese posted by one of my old college friends. I made this last night, with a few adjustments. I cut the recipe in half for starters. Because I wanted to cut down on calories, I used half and half instead of the whipping cream and 2% milk instead of the whole milk. I added 3 cloves of crushed garlic to the sauce. Then I added almost an entire bag of frozen broccoli. This made a lot of cheesy sauce, and I had enough to go around even with the veggie addition. The blue cheese wasn't overwhelming and it provided a nice kick. The mac and cheese was nice and creamy, and I bet it would taste really good with some crumbled bacon.

This mac and cheese recipe is pretty quick and easy, though you do have to be patient while it cooks in the oven. Even though I do find its powdered "cheese" slightly disturbing, I probably won't kick my boxed mac and cheese habit. But, it's nice to have a good recipe for the real thing when I'm feeling ambitious.

happy holidays

I spent Christmas with the Oceanside family, and I just got back on Saturday afternoon. Here are the holiday highlights:

I finally got around to Christmas shopping early last week. I went to Fashion Island last Sunday, in search of wine charms. Instead, I got distracted by the bakeware at Macy's, cookbooks at Barnes and Noble, and the sale at Bath and Body Works. Clearly, I cannot be trusted to shop for other people. I left Fashion Island without the wine charms and with two scented candles...for myself. So anyway, I was browsing the holiday cards at Barnes and Noble (I'm not sure why since I don't actually send any) and this woman starts to make smalltalk about the lack of card selection and how she forgot to send a card to her insurance man. I thought to myself, what the hell is an insurance man and why does he get a card?

The next day, I picked up my bridesmaid dress at David's Bridal, and then I went to the Irvine Spectrum to complete all of my Christmas shopping. This time, I stuck to my shopping list. Nothing too interesting happened here, except for a funny experience at the Cheesecake Factory. I went in to get a slice of cheesecake to go. When the guy behind the cheesecake counter handed me my cheesecake, he called me "young lady." I hate it when people call me this, but what made this funny was that the guy and I were probably the same age.

Moving on to Oceanside now. I continued my crossword puzzle mission; this time I did the ones in the San Diego newspaper and not the LA Times like I'm used to. The crossword puzzles were more of a group effort in Oceanside, and I learned that completing them in pencil is practically a law in the M household. On the first day, I used a pen to do the crossword puzzle, and everyone looked at me like I was on crack.

Whenever I go to Oceanside for Christmas, we have these recurring conversations about the weather. They go something like this: Someone will complain that it is "cold and freezing." Then I look at that person, roll my eyes, and tell him or her to stop whining. This happened multiple times in the course of 4 days. I told the O-side family that my grandma C had to reschedule Christmas because of the cold weather and snowstorms. They scoffed and said that they would never reschedule Christmas. When it started to rain, they jokingly wondered if we should cancel Christmas. More eye rolling.

There are always lots of laughs whenever I go to Oceanside. The family ikes to make fun of my alleged tendencies to hit on family friends when I've been drinking. We all make fun of each other a lot, particularly my mom's cousin Mike and I. Eileen said that he and I share the Ryan family sense of humor and a witty sarcasm.

So now I'm back in Irvine, stocking up on my sleep and taking advantage of the after Christmas sales. I bought a new cookbook, and I stocked up on bubble baths, body creams, and lotions from Bath and Body Works.

Crossword Puzzles: Day 4

An earlier comment noted that when attempting crossword puzzles, it helps to be of the Baby Boomer generation. I'm 4 days into my crossword puzzle mission, and I can see that crossword puzzle authors do not have my generation in mind. (this explains why my dad was so easily able to finish crossword puzzles that I had started) Some of the clues are impossible for me to solve. Here are some examples from today's crossword:

29 across: Frequent Roy Rogers sidekick
62 across: Roy Rogers rival
5 down: Title hotel employee in a 1960 Jerry Lewis film, with "The"

So, crossword puzzles are a bit of a struggle. However, I am able to get started when I come across clues that utilize my elementary knowledge of Spanish and Italian. Today, I knew that "amore" was the answer to 52 across: Love, Italian-style and "adios" was the answer to 11 down: Acapulco farewell. And, having taken the GRE helps too. Today, I knew that "tamp" was the answer to 8 down: Pack (down). So far, I am able to answer about 1/3 of the clues before giving up.

I'm sending my parents a Christmas package today, and yes, I am also sending yesterday's unfinished crossword puzzle to my dad.

Crossword Puzzles: Day 1

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. If you want to improve yourself, there is no time like the present, that's what I say. Anyway, yesterday I read an article in my Glamour magazine called "Change Your Life in 31 Days." It said that people have these failed attempts at self improvement, and the key to making or breaking a new habit is to commit to a small adjustment for 30 days. Then the article briefly chronicles about a dozen women, the habits they created, and the benefits reaped in 30 days. One women commits to getting in shape by doing push ups every day, another gave up her Starbucks addiction, another stopped reading celebrity gossips sites, etc.

So, I started to think about what habit I would like to make or break. I already read a lot, I read the newspaper, I'm not a TV junkie, and I work out fairly regularly. I considered abstaining from alcohol, but with the holidays and a wedding in the next month, I quickly vetoed that. I settled on crossword puzzles. I used to do crossword puzzles off and on, and it is a habit that I wish I was able to maintain. I am aware of all the benefits of activities that challenge the mind (as if grad school isn't enough, right?), and many studies extol the virtues of crossword puzzles. They help ward off the effects of aging and dementia, and they sharpen the mind.

I began my crossword puzzle quest today. I had forgotten how difficult these can be. I scanned all the clues, and I didn't know the answer to any of them. I considered giving up, but then I remembered that nothing is easy the first time and you can't reap any benefits without challenging yourself. After 15 minutes, I gave up. I knew the answers to only 8 of the clues, and I'm not even sure if some of them were correct.

So, stay tuned. I'm not going to give you a daily play by play, but I'll let you know how the crossword puzzle mission is going. And maybe I'll abstain from alcohol next month.

chaturangas and sugar cookies

Before I proceed with all the holiday baking stuff, I'm going to take a brief yoga divergence. Last night in my yoga class, I was able to do chaturangas the proper way. Not on my knees, not by cheating by sliding on my stomach, but by using my arm muscles to balance and support myself all the way from plank to updog. A couple months ago, one of the yoga instructors demonstrated the proper way to do chaturangas, and I doubted that I would ever have the upper body strength to properly complete the pose. So, I'm pretty excited that I'm able to do chaturangas now.

Okay, now on to the baking. I will be the first to admit that the holiday baking got a little out of hand this year. I blame it on all the grading. So grading is my least favorite thing to do, and I need to take a lot of breaks to get through it. I have a method to my madness: I sort all of my exams into 3 piles according to discussion section, and then I divide each pile into thirds so that I don't grade more than 8 or 9 exams at a time. (This is a trick that I learned from TS, who recommends dividing exams into groups of 10.) After I grade a pile of exams, I allow myself to take a break and do something fun. Usually, something fun is reading a magazine, eating a snack, reading a blog, or checking my Facebook account. Apparently, this time around, the fun activity was baking.

First up: Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies from the Martha Stewart Cookie Book. Now, Martha Stewart is a little high maintenance, but these blondies were so easy to make. They are absolutely fantastic! When they were cool enough to cut into, I did a taste test and I could not stop eating these (this is pretty uncharacteristic of me).
Next up: This is a recipe from my Grandma C. I don't remember her making these and I don't remember eating them, but my grandma assured me that I have eaten them and that I do like them. I'm not sure what these are called (Jelly Cookies?), but these are a butter cookie rolled in walnuts with apricot preserves in the center. They are really simple, and they taste really good. Grandma, as usual, was right: I really like these cookies.

Finally: it would not be Christmas without sugar cookies. These are a family recipe, but I don't know where it came from. Maybe from one of my aunts. Anyway, this is probably the only time in which I use frosting from a can. This is how we did it when I was growing up, so why mess with tradition? This time, I kept things simple, and I didn't get out the food coloring to make multicolored frosting.
I also made more peanut butter blossoms, and I made peanut clusters. I got some neat-o treat bags so that I could share these with my friends, professors, and others in the department. I was not, however, able to part with the candy cane cookies.

random thoughts; the theme: women

Here are my random thoughts for the day. The theme is women: each of my thoughts has something to do with patriarchal traditions and/or the objectification of women.

You know the generation of men who thinks it's perfectly acceptable to address women as sweetie, babe, honey, etc? You know, the ones who also think it's okay to "affectionately" touch a woman by patting her on the back or brushing their hand against her leg? Yeah, I won't be disappointed when they die off. (I'm not referring to the men who are part of this generation but do not display such behaviors)

Even though I come from the hockey capital of the United States, it was not until last night that I attended my first professional hockey game: the Ducks vs. the Rangers. It was pretty fun, and watching a bunch of guys skating around and chasing a puck makes for pretty good entertainment. So here's the deal: when the puck is not in play, these beautiful size zero women skate out to clear the ice around the goals. They wear tight pants and midriff-bearing tops. One of my friends (from the East Coast) commented that the people who perform this same task at Rangers games are men. And, I talked to my dad today, and he confirmed that it is indeed men who clear the ice at the Minnesota Wild games. Apparently, in Orange County, the only way to include women in sports is by objectifying them. Case in point: at the Angels games, the people who do promotional giveaways and PR stuff are, you guessed it, beautiful size zero women in short shorts and baseball jerseys. (Note: I saw nothing of the sort at Twins games and a Cubs game last spring)

I have been making my way through my holiday movie list. I watched 'Love Actually' last week. This is a movie that has like 10 different storylines concerning the love lives of 10 couples. While I commend the movie for featuring interracial relationships, it falls short in its portrayal of women. Colin Firth's character falls in love with his young, Polish cleaning lady; Hugh Grant's character (as the Prime Minister) falls in love with this young girl who does nothing more than serve him tea and cookies (or biscuits, as the Brits call them, I suppose); Alan Rickman's character (who is married to a successful working woman roughly his age) has this sketchy relationship (bordering a quasi-affair) with his young secretary. Do you see a pattern here? I watch this movie every year, and every year, I get annoyed with myself for watching it.

I was on the Knot today, this all-things-wedding website. (My cousin is getting married, and I was checking to see if he had a wedding webpage) I came across this, a Bride Name Change Kit. Holy fuck! Seriously? Seriously. Uh, women have been easily coerced into embracing this patriarchal tradition, and I don't think they need software to make it easier. Sure, some women think that changing their name when they get married isn't a big deal and that they aren't any less feminist for doing so. Uh, right. I also like how women claim that their husbands did not care if they changed their name. How thoughtful. Your husband gave you permission to keep your own name. Boys get to grow up believing that their identities won't change and assuming that their future wife will take their name. Until it's common for men to change their name when they marry and until it's not assumed that women will just take their husbands identity, changing my name isn't an option. I do realize, however, that this is extremely unlikely to occur in my lifetime.

On Election Day, I was waiting in line to vote. There were 2 women behind me. One asked the other a question about voter registration. She had recently married and changed her name, and she was concerned that she might not be able to vote since the name on the registration rolls and her ID were not the same. I really wanted to turn to her and tell her that if she doesn't have the backbone to keep her own name, then maybe she shouldn't be allowed to cast a vote either. (harsh, I know) Then I heard her say something I seem to hear a lot of women say: "I didn't want to change my name, but..." Seems like it's usually the women who lose the name change battle. (It seems as though they are under the impression that the sky will fall if members of a family have different last names.) And, to make themselves feel better, women have coped by either hyphenating or moving their given last name to their middle name. I don't know which option is more pathetic. With respect to hyphenating, women are still the ones signalling a change in marital status, while men are off the hook. With respect to moving the "maiden" name to the middle name, who actually uses their middle name? Nobody actually knows each other's middle names, so what's the point? I mean, my middle name could be dumbass, for all you know. (by the way, it's Kathryn)

Damn, what's gotten into me today? I'm a little feisty, it seems. All right, the next post will be simply jolly: you'll get some pictures and a chronicle of my baking feats. I like how I just spent this entire post railing against patriarchy and the objectification of women, and then I promise to talk about baking (a traditionally feminine task) in the next post.

candy cane cookies!

It took me all of two minutes to realize that my grandma has more patience than me. This, however, is not difficult. Anyway, I successfully made candy cane cookies last night. They were a little time consuming to assemble, but well worth it. Here they are:

The key to success? Mixing the dough by hand and forgoing the hand mixer. These cookies are so, so good. They are a light butter cookie, sort of like a shortbread. They bake up very nicely, in 9 minutes, exactly as my grandma instructed.

Operation Chocolate Chip Cookie: Trial 15

It is quite possible that the best chocolate cookies could be vegan. And contain oatmeal. And pumpkin. And cinnamon. This is another chocolate chip cookie trial that is purely accidental. I had some leftover pumpkin, and I decided to use it in this new cookie recipe. Tonight, I made vegan pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (you can find the recipe here, from the Post Punk Kitchen website, this vegan blog). Here is the picture:

These cookies had great texture: chewy, not too soft, not too flat, not crispy, and definitely not fluffy and cake-like. The edges are a bit crunchy, but nice and chewy once you bite into the cookies. I can taste a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg, and the pumpkin is not overpowering. The oats also add some nice texture. These cookies almost glisten- I think the combination of pumpkin and molasses creates this almost candied like texture. There are a lot of flavors going on in these cookies: pumpkin, oatmeal, molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg, and of course, chocolate. Yet, each component nicely complements one another and produces this rich flavor. The chocolate is the main attraction, and the pumpkin, spices, molasses, and oatmeal are the accessories.

candy cane cookies

Today, I called my Grandma C to verify the candy cookie recipe. Never have I discussed a recipe so in depth before. We went through the ingredients list, one by one. She made sure that I knew that I was supposed to use powdered sugar and not granulated sugar. Then she told me exactly how she makes the cookies. I'm going to try the recipe out this weekend, and if the cookies are inedible, I am going to make my grandma fly out to California and bake me cookies.

The temperature is dropping in Minnesota, but when I asked my grandpa about the weather, he said it's "not too bad." I checked the temperature for Minneapolis online. Apparently, "not too bad" is around 20 degrees.

We just wrapped up finals week today. I have about 70 exams to grade and one more paper due on Monday. I turned in my social movements paper yesterday, one that I've been working on pretty much all quarter. Whenever I turn in a paper, I get anxious and worry that my professor will read it and think "what is this crap?" and wonder what the hell I've been doing all quarter. I have got to figure out a way to get over this anxiety.

Operation Chocolate Chip Cookie: Trial 14

After a 2-1/2 month hiatus from the chocolate chip cookie project, today's trial is purely by accident. I've been doing some holiday baking lately, and I was looking through the Martha Stewart Cookie Book for some new recipes. I came across the Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie, and I knew that I had to make these. The cookies are a gingerbread base with chocolate chips. Take a look:
These cookies are a twist to the traditional chocolate chip cookie, which is why I decided to include this recipe among the trials. They are a little flatter than I would have liked, but I love the gingerbread and chocolate combination. The cookies were a tiny bit crunchy around the perimeter, but nice and chewy once I bit into them. This is a dense cookie, not at all light and fluffy. There is freshly grated ginger in these cookies, giving them this rich, deep gingerbread flavor. Also, I rolled these in granulated sugar prior to baking, and the sugar really makes the cookies glisten. These cookies get bonus points for creativity and for being accidentally vegan.

The holiday baking continues with my mom's Peanut Butter Blossoms recipe. These are soft and fluffy peanut butter cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the middle. The peanut butter flavor is not heavy or overpowering; it's more of a subtle flavor.

write or die

Here is my new favorite tool: Write or Die. That is all.

absence makes the heart grow fonder...for candy cane cookies

Before I talk about cupcakes and cookies, I would like to say a few words about purple potatoes. Purple potatoes intrigued me. They looked kind of strange, and I was a bit apprehensive about cooking with them. Well, now I'm a fan. They are fun, they taste just like all the other potatoes, and they add some neat-o color to your food. I used a combination of purple, red, and gold potatoes to make a chickpea potato curry the other day.

So, it's the holiday season. (This is what the calendar tells me; the weather tells me that it's September or October.) I really enjoy baking any time of the year, but I like it even more during the holidays. I have fond memories of baking cookies and making candy with my family. Each year, I always make sugar cookies and peanut clusters because these were holiday traditions in my home. I haven't held on to every tradition- I don't make peanut brittle or almond bark dipped pretzels. But, I have added a couple of my own. Recently, I have started to make gingerbread each year. This year, I made gingerbread cupcakes.

And, as I've mentioned earlier, I am obsessed with all things pumpkin. So, it would not be the holiday season without it. Below are vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with a cinnamon glaze.

Finally, the Oceanside crew has introduced me to these Italian Cookies. They are light, fluffy, and sort of resemble a sugar cookie.

It is embarrassing to admit that most of my baking failures occur when I am following a family recipe. My mom's fudge? While hers is this soft, gooey, fudgy perfection, I couldn't even cut through my version. My Grandma R's cinnamon rolls? My version was crunchy and barely edible. My Grandma C's candy cane cookies? Hers are these delicate, crisp, peppermint-y cookies. Mine are simply a disaster.

I never realized how much I loved my Grandma's candy cane cookies until I moved to California and didn't eat them every year. My Grandma bakes a lot, and you can always count on her for cookies. She bakes batches of cookies and bars and then she freezes them so that there is always something sweet on hand for her and my grandpa, or for unexpected guests. I guess that this habit runs in the family: I tend to do the same. After all, you never know when you're going to get hit by a cookie craving.

I'm calling my grandma this weekend to talk about candy cane cookies. I'm going to verify that I have the correct recipe, and I'm going to ask my grandma to share any helpful hints. While there are some family recipes that I could do without (anything with jello), candy cane cookies are one holiday tradition that I would like to continue.

we were the minnesota mafia

In 2001, I applied to work at Whispering Hills Girl Scout Camp for the summer. It was probably one of the best spur-of-the-moment decisions that I have ever made. I had been a Girl Scout all of my life, I had gone to Girl Scout Camp, and I had volunteered at camp as a counselor-in-training. So when I decided that I needed a change of scenery after a break up, it made sense to spend a summer sans men. Working at Girl Scout Camp was simultaneously the best job I've ever had and the most stressful. As counselors, we did everything together: work, live, laugh, play, and cry. I always credit working at camp as shaping who I have become. Looking back, I had a strong sense of my values and who I was, and I think I became the person that I wanted to be during my camp experience.

In 2001, I met Sardean and Hawkeye. Though we were friends during my first summer, we became even closer in 2002. At Girl Scout Camp, all of the counselors and staff members have camp names. Mine is flounder (I don't know why I don't capitalize the f; I just think my name looks better lowercase). To this day, we still address each other by our camp names. When Hawkeye took a job with the Girl Scout Council in South Carolina, Sardean and I followed her and worked at the Girl Scout Camp over the summer. Sardean was there from 2003 to 2005, and I was there in 2003 and 2005. It was in South Carolina that we were dubbed the Minnesota Mafia.

(Here we are at Sardean's wedding in the summer of 2007. From left to right, Hawkeye, Sardean, flounder.)

I remember the first time that I met Sardean. We were about 12 or so, and we were at this winter Girl Scout camping event. We shared a sled while sledding down this hill at Whispering Hills, and we hit a tree. From then on, we were tree buddies. Fast forward nearly 10 years, and we met again in 2001. I always refer to the sledding incident as the first time that we met, but Sardean tells a different story. During pre-camp training, Sardean and I were assigned to the same cabin. On that first night, we were getting ready for bed and talking. The floor of the cabin was a cold and dirty concrete, so as we were talking, I stood up on my bed and changed my clothes. While I did this discretely, Sardean always refers to this as a strip show. She says that at that moment, she knew we would always be friends.

After the summer of 2001, Hawkeye and I lived about 10 minutes from each other but we never visited. I was living in New York City, and she was just a short train ride away in New Jersey. It is ironic that that was the closest in proximity that we have ever lived, yet we never saw each other. After that year, we have always been separated by thousands of miles. I became Hawkeye's unofficial assistant camp director in 2002. My official title was the business manager, and I was in charge of the trading post, which is like the camp store. At the beginning of the summer, I held a contest among staff members to rename the trading post. We called it 'flounder's Bait Shop and Knick Knack Shack.' I had these hanging animals in the trading post that made animal noises when you depressed their stomachs. Hawkeye used to come in and press all the buttons to produce this cacophony of animal noises. She also used to steal the hanging animals too. I think that I might have banned her from the trading post. Hawkeye and I used to make these late night trips to LaCrosse for camp supplies. We were always tired, and we talked a lot to stay awake. One time, we thought we saw this gigantic tree morph and come to life; we called it the tree monster. In 2002, we also tried to solve this little camp mystery. It involved taking down a door, piecing together a letter, and a near dumpster diving excursion. And, good detectives that we were, I think we solved the case.

We did lots of silly and fun things at Girl Scout Camp. Some of the stories may be inappropriate for this blog. We played a lot on our time off: movies, eating out, shopping, etc. Halfway through the summer of 2002, we took a staff trip to this tattoo parlor for daisy tattoos. (There is this camp song about having a daisy tattoo on the second toe of your left foot. ) So, four of us got daisy tattoos, Sardean and I being two of the four. In 2001, we took a staff canoe trip down the Root River and met these middle aged men partying on a sand bar with a keg. Lots of things happened that day: a thunderstorm, a capsized canoe, and I sort of hit a guy on the head with my canoe paddle.

In 2003, Sardean and I went to South Carolina, the land of confederate flags, super hot and humid weather, and no Asian people. It was a bit of a cultural shock, but it was a good summer. I became obsessed with the Waffle House, and sometimes we would go there to eat breakfast in our pajamas. At the end of the summer, Hawkeye, Sardean, and I took a trip to Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Below is a photo of us taken in one of those Old Time Photo shops.

Sardean went back to South Carolina in 2004, and we both returned in 2005. This is when I grew tired of hearing all the Southern accents, I decided that I never wanted to live below the Mason-Dixon line, and I couldn't wait to go back to Minnesota. In a month, I will be back in Columbia for Hawkeye's wedding. And, I'm kind of looking forward to visiting South Carolina again. The three of us are excited to be reunited again. I'm not sure if we have any ongoing traditions, but one of them might be tie-dying. We tie-dyed underwear, t-shirts, and pillowcases pretty much every year at Girl Scout Camp, and we tie-dyed underwear the night before Sardean's wedding. I think the tradition is going to continue. I talked to Sardean the other day, and she said that tie-dying underwear is something we should do when we each get married.

When I worked at Girl Scout Camp in 2001, I never thought that I would make such good friends. I had no idea that Hawkeye, Sardean and I would still be friends so many years later, be in each others' weddings, and be aunties to each others' children. Yet, here were are, eight years later: these friends have become the family that I have chosen.

best return address labels ever

So, in an earlier post, I complained about how organizations use return address labels to solicit donations. I complained that it was ridiculous that these organizations think that a whole bunch of address labels would motivate me to donate money. I complained that I don't even really need that many address labels. Well, that was before today. I just got home, I got the mail, and I got something from the University of Minnesota. What was it, you ask? University of Minnesota address labels! The alumnae association, in an attempt to solicit money, has sent me 48 address labels! I'm so excited! It's Goldy Gopher, casually standing next to the Block M. Considering that I use address labels only for when I send mail to my grandparents, I feel like writing them a whole bunch of letters now. Like 48.