...I went to Dunkin' Donuts and created one: It's pumpkin cake with peanut butter icing and pink and orange sprinkles. Oh yeah.
Actually they are having a contest. If you are the winner, you'll get a tidy sum of money ($12,000 to be exact) and the honor of having your donut creation produced. If you are one of the finalists you get a year's worth of free donuts and $1,200. I think the $1,200 is to help defray the cost of the cholesterol medicine you'll be needing.
You can make your own donut (and enter the contest) here.
My good blog pal Processing Counselor gave me a Fabulous Blogger award. Thanks PC!
Here are the rules associated with this award:
You must pass it on to 5 other Fabulous Bloggers in a post. You must include the person who gave you the award, and link back to them. You must list 5 of your Fabulous Addictions in the post. You must copy and paste these rules in the post. Right click the award icon and save it to your computer, then post with your own awards.
Alrighty, here (in no particular order) are 5 of my "fabulous addictions". Although wouldn't the word "hobby" suffice? That sounds healthier than 'addiction'. But I digress.
1. Like Processing Counselor, I'm going to have to say BOOKS -- both regular 'paper' books and electronic books on my Kindle.
2. My bike -- it's my main form of exercise.
3. Tall skinny vanilla lattes. They are yummy, what can I say?!
4. 30 Rock. Great writing; quirky humor! What's not to like?
5. Photoshopping Presbyterian Gal's head on whatever strikes me as potentially amusing. (OK, so maybe this one is more addiction that hobby!!)
Yesterday we went to The Happiest Place on Earth (aka The Walkingest Place on Earth). Above is a picture of Offsprings #1&2 with Garbage Puff (who managed to work his way into lots of pictures. He is getting a little obnoxious about it actually.)
Tonight we are heading into LA to see the play Frost Nixon (on which the film was based). Then tomorrow it's Disneyland, Part II and back home to cooler temps and rain.
Yes, it's true! Garbage Puff and I finally got to meet the witty, talented, and all around cool Presbyterian Gal.
Hubby, Offsprings #1&2 and I are in California for spring break, and we met Presby Gal and Wonderboy (who is delightful!) for dinner tonight. What a great way to kick off our trip!
Tomorrow we'll do the Disney thing...
(I'm borrowing a laptop, so I'm keeping this short and sweet!)
Songbird writes: In the late, late winter, as the snow begins to recede here in Maine, we begin to look almost desperately for signs of spring, signs of hope that the weather has turned and a new day is on the horizon. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, Easter and Spring twine inextricably, the crocuses and daffodils peeking through the Earth as we await the risen Christ.
Share with us five signs of hope that you can see today or have experienced in the past.
1. More daylight! I'm no longer going to work and coming back home in the dark. Soon I will resume my 'every other day bike commute'.
2. Green lawn! Oh wait, this is the Pacific NW. Our lawn is green year round. Never mind. Move on to #3.
3. More birds! Yep--I'm seeing more birds on our back fence when I'm eating breakfast in the morning.
4. Marble (who is getting old and having some kidney problems) is no longer freaked out by his new water fountain and is drinking lots of water. Yay!
5. Garbage Puff was seen packing this morning. The spring break trip to California (heads up, Presbyterian Gal!) is verrrrry close now...
Taking to heart Thumper's wise words to Bambi (If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all), Bush avoided insulting Obama in his first post-White House speech given to a paying audience in Calgary.
According to CBS News, Bush stated: "I'm not going to spend my time criticizing him. ... He deserves my silence."
(I would have posted a picture of Dubya, but I think you'll have to agree Thumper is way cuter.)
I ran across this cool, time-wasting website called The Hero Factory. You pick from a number of body parts, costume choices, accessories, colors, and weapons. The 'super hero you' (or whomever you've created) then gets displayed on the cover of a comic book.
I don't really get excited about weapons, so I chose to hold a stick -- which I thought could be used either for hiking or poking people for fun. (And there's the whole roasting marshmallow angle too.) Apparently because of this choice, I became Baroness Von Splintery Splinter. I guess that works!
According to the Associated Press, a collector of photography from New York claims to have identified a rare photo of President Lincoln standing in front of the White House (what was then known as the Executive Mansion) in 1865. (Short article here.) The figure in the photo is tall and bearded, and the curator of the National Portrait Gallery's photographs department says he is "very satisfied that it's Lincoln":
Interestingly, if you zoom into one the windows another face appears.
After careful inspection, I'm "very satisfied that it's Presbyterian Gal". Or of course much more likely, an ancestor of PG.
I wasn't going to do another post about Rufus (because I've been told the pictures were faintly disturbing)... but Offspring #2 sent a new picture today (again taken out of his kitchen window) and I just couldn't resist.
Offspring #2 reports they had some snowfall overnight, and a deer came to visit Rufus:
If you reaaaallllllly want to see Rufus -- who looks like a bit of a penguin now -- you can click on the picture to enlarge it. He appears to the left.
On Friday (when we were visiting Offsprings #1&2), we noticed a robin outside the kitchen window of Offspring #2's apartment:
The robin (named Rufus by Offspring #2) stayed in this very position... for the entire day. I'll zoom in a bit, but the picture was taken through a window so it isn't super clear:
I don't mean to be macabre (or maybe I do), but Rufus was "a goner" as my grandmother used to say. It was, in a word, weird. I have never seen a dead robin just perched like that in a tree.
However, Offspring #2 presented an alternate theory which is a bit more upbeat: Perhaps the woods in the back of his apartment are enchanted. After all, that is where he saw Hedwig's cousin--pictured below. (I posted about the owl some months ago.) If that's the case, hopefully the spell on Rufus will be broken soon.
UPDATE by Offspring #2: Rufus on Day 3 Rufus has folded his little wings and bowed his little head as if in prayer. Make of that what you will...
--------------------------- top picture by offspring #1 bottom pictures by offspring #2
Songbird writes: Our regular poster, Sally, having been oppressed by Blogger today, I bring you a hasty Friday Five on the subject of pudding. If you are not a fan of pudding, then you will feel solidarity with Sally, except that you will be oppressed by pudding instead. ;-)
1) First of all, thumbs up? or thumbs down? Do you like pudding? Thumbs up, especially for tapioca.
2) Instant or cooked? (Does anyone make pudding from scratch?)However it gets to my table.
3) If you had to choose, would you prefer corn pudding or figgy pudding? Corn. Although I would rather sing about figgy pudding.
4) Have you ever finger painted with pudding? Hasn't everyone?!
5) Finally, what is the matter with Mary Jane? She had waaaaaay too much of her retirement in stocks.
The RevGalBlogPals "Big Event 2.0" is coming up next month (April 16-19) in Arizona. Sunny skies, nice retreat -- it should be great. However, I'm not able to go.
So, I think I'm going to put on my own "Little Event 1.0" -- probably rainy skies, movie and pizza at the Kelso Theater Pub on Friday, April 17th. (I'm not sure what movie will be playing, but who cares?!)
Who's with me? (Even if you don't live in the area, I'm sure it would be totally worth it to fly in.)
As we all know, during the recent diplomatic trip to East Asia with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Garbage Puff dropped the ball. He was more interested in hitting the tourist spots than taking care of business. Thankfully he appears to be more on task on this latest trip. Here Clinton and Puff are meeting with Egyptian Prime Minster Ahmed Nazif and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit before a conference on rebuilding the Gaza Strip. I like the way Hillary and Garbage Puff both have on their 'game faces'.
I love my subscription to USA Today because I often run across things I otherwise would have missed. An example is the article I read about a patriotic song and video, Born Again American. (Maybe you caught it around the time of the inauguration and this is "so six weeks ago" for you.)
Anywhooo, it starts out with a guy in a cowboy hat sitting on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial singin' 'bout the hard times and you can't help but think, "Yeah, I know where this is going." But if you hang in there, it gets interesting. As the scenes shift, there's the inclusion of an Asian-American woman playing a cello by the Golden Gate Bridge, an African-American gospel choir on a ferry by the NYC skyline, a man in a Muslim robe from the Islamic Center and a woman cantor from Temple Ahavat Shalom singing together at the base of Mount Rushmore, etc. WooHoo! Diversity!
If you haven't seen the video and have 6 minutes, take a look:
The story behind the video is that Norman Lear (TV producer of hits such as All in the Family and liberal activist) asked Keith Carradine to write a song for him called Born Again American to "reflect a revitalization of the faith of all Americans in their country". (As an aside, I've liked Keith Carradine since the movie Nashville back in the day.)
I'm not totally comfortable with the term "born again American" because "born again" has so much baggage. I'm also not sure if I'm comfy with linking the Bible and the Bill of Rights (even though I understand the history) if this is to emphasize an interfaith vision. But I do like the idea that not just one party or group has a corner on patriotism -- liberal, progressive people are patriotic too! And rather than focusing on what divides us we need to focus on things that unite us including our shared history and belief in the founding documents, etc. It's a good thing to send the message that we're all in this together, and we'll need to work together to solve our current problems.
