Frog Blog

have been on a continuous loop on my ipod since last night. i finally bought an itunes card and downloaded 11 songs. joy! i have a handful of songs that i love but don’t feel like buying the whole album (daft punk and guster, although i’m sure guster would be a pleasant investment); songs that are guilty pleasures (“fantasty” by mariah carey, shut up); one-hit wonders from the 80s (soft cell and tom tom club); songs that i’ve had on record or tape in the past and am familiar with (simon & garfunkel’s “so long frank lloyd wright” and “for kathy…”). rounding out the list is “hot in herre” by nelly, which i adore as it’s always played at blazers games. i’m not embarrassed by any of these choices. i’m over it. people like what they like and i’m open to anything.

i’ve yet to try the malt-o-meal; perhaps tomorrow for breakfast (thanks for the tip, lani)— but i did successfully make my grandma’s brownies! they look delish. it was a bitch trying to melt the chocolate chunks in the microwave without it seizing up, and the finished batter was a lot thicker than i thought it would be. it was my first time baking anything from scratch, save the cookies from the past few weeks and random batches of chocolate chip cookies throughout the years. they need to cool before i can cut into them— i can hardly wait!

one of my medications for my scalp (i pretty much have psoriasis, ps) is this oil slick i put on my scalp at night. i then have to wrap up my head in a shower cap to keep everything all moist on my scalp. i have to “sleep” in the shower cap— that sucked— it’s so loud! i woke myself up about a dozen times with all the crinkling sounds. i read on a psoriasis website that produce bags aren’t as loud. nuts, eh? sleeping with a lettuce bag over my head. it’s like a saran wrap tiara. my hair hasn’t stopped coming out, and it probably won’t for a while until these medicines start working. it’s funny— i have thin hair in general but, lucky for me, i have a lot of it and it has lots of body. so it has always looked thick. i can’t tell you how many times i’ve cursed my frizzed out mane in the mirror and wished it was thinner, smoother, more manageable. and now … thinner for sure, and in a constant pony tail and disappearing. on the bright side, maybe i’ll get more use out of that pink pageboy wig i bought last year for halloween.

this morning i made the malt-o-meal:

here’s all that remains:

it was ok. the flavor was great; i added some butter and brown sugar. but the texture was all wrong. it was simultaneously watery and granular. i think i’m sticking to oats— irish oats— and all their lumpy heartiness. i finished off breakfast with a nice cup of mariage freres french breakfast tea.

check out my brownies!

they are delicious, truly. nice and dense and very chocolately.

i think my family will be pleased at dinner tonight. we all harbor a sweet tooth. there can never be too much dessert.

my comments are frequently out of control, so i do apologize if i’ve deleted yours by mistake. i need to keep up with cleaning out my junk comments (where most of your legitimate comments end up, for some reason) more often. sorry and sorry and sorry!!

on a positive note, my hair has all but stopped falling out! i still have a few more weeks to go with treatment, but my scalp is looking and feeling so much better. it’s lifting my spirits, that for sure!

v-day is tomorrow. B and i have a standing order to get each other a box of see’s chocolates every year on v-day. whoo hoo! i prefer “dark assorted,” he likes “dark nuts & chews.” i promise to post photos.

lookee what we have here! ta da!

how about a close up of the dark bordeaux, my favorite buttercream? it’s the one with sprinkles:

so far so good. so very good, actually! i’m exercising restraint, though, honest. i went a little overboard at work yesterday with all the v-day goodies. gulp.

we’re off to seattle this weekend for a 3-day holiday of good food, shopping and seeing friends and family. i’m slowly figuring out my little spritely camera and all its bells and whistles. it’s so quick, so small, so … complicated sometimes. but pops gave me an impromptu lesson on ISO and f-stops. wish me luck! one of my goals is to master taking shots of neon at dusk. i might need a tripod or a steady something on which to place the camera. it’s a canon powershot SD750 digital elph, ps.

easily the best donut i’ve had in years: