Blogger Award

I am feeling very honored to have received a blogger award for the first time. For the uninitiated, these are given to bloggers usually by other bloggers in recognition of your writing. Some are just pretty, others have some requirements to go with them. Such is the case with this award I received from Susan at A Slice of Life.

The stipulations are to 1) Thank the person who gave you the award and link to their blog, 2) Present this award to others whose blogs you find brilliant in design or content, and 3) Share ten honest things about yourself.

So first, thanks bunches Susan! I'm glad I make you laugh once in a while. Susan has recently started blogging again, as have I, so we're supporting each other on our NaBloPoMo journey. Check her out for both funny and great observational posts.

Okay, next one not so easy. A lot of the blogs I read are also read by a ton of other people and I'm thinking they are too high-falutin' to be responding to little ol' me and my measly little blog...dude, why am I talking like I'm in a spaghetti western all of a sudden? Anyway, feel free to check out my very favorite blogs by The Pioneer Woman, Dooce and I Am Bossy. But don't expect me to ask them to play along with my blog award. They're busy writing books and posting stuff that's actually interesting. So instead, I will pass this award on to a few real life people like me who just happen to blog.

Nicole from two pie r is someone I ran across while hitting the "Next Blog" button. I just stumbled upon her writing and really enjoyed her topics and insights. And her recipes make me hungry.

Carrie at Just Call Me SuperMom is someone I know in real life who has some really great and funny stories about parenting. She's gotten away from blogging lately, so I'm hoping this award might encourage her to post again.

Pam at Sidewalk Shoes has phenomenal recipes and pictures. If you also like cats and reading, check her out. She'll be right up your alley.

Lastly, Tea at Tea and Cookies. Not only does she write about great food, I find some of her posts very touching and poignant. I often tear up when I read her stuff.

You notice I read a lot of blogs that feature food. Big, big surprise.


Finally, ten honest things about me. Um...this is kind of hard because I feel the need to tell you ten things I haven't already written about. I'm pretty honest most of the time. Which often gets me in trouble since I am also very LOUD in my opinions. Anyway, I'll give it a shot.

1.  I love avocados. Ripe ones, of course. Like LOVE love. (Is that a sentence?) I think they should be declared our National Fruit. And we can eat them as we sing the Star-Spangled Banner. Not joking.

2.  I have reverse anorexia nervosa. I look in the mirror and think, "Damn, I look good!" For some reason, this does not work with photographs, which always make me say AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! And are the reason I am now back to my healthy eating plan.

3.  I often get migraines, especially when I've not been very healthy. Which is why I have one right now.  I had to take six Excedrin Migraine to make it hurt less. Even though you're not supposed to take more than two in 24 hours. Which is why I am kind of loopy right now. More than usual, I mean. And is probably why I'm writing in sentence fragments.

4.  I truly believe the world would be a better place if I were in charge. Not that I want to be, because there are too many mean people in the world. I'm just saying things would be better if y'all would just do what I say. Like be kinder. And give your money to people who need it more than you. And bow down before me every time I walk in the room. Stuff like that.

5.  I think exclamation points bring more excitement to my writing!!!! I use exclamation points so much, that I actually made up a song about them!!!!! I recorded it on my computer, but I can't figure out how to upload it for you. I'll let you know if I figure it out!!!!! I did mention I'm a music teacher, right?!?!?!?!!!!

6.  I have very few true friends. I have many acquaintances. But the people I welcome into my heart are there forever and I would do anything for them. Which is why I'm really choosy about who I call friend.

7.  I am the world's biggest procrastinator. No contest. I actually managed to put off the hosting of my own birthday party one year. My guests ended up decorating for me and I spent the entire time cooking the food I could have done ahead instead of enjoying the party. Why do I do this? Because I hate the idea of work. Not the actual work itself, I just have an intense reluctance to begin it. So. Lame.

8.  I really like the colors red and pink. (Running out of ideas now.)

9.  If I won the lottery I have an entire financial plan written out of how I would share my winnings with my family and friends, what I would invest in and what I would buy. Yes. It's actually in writing. But I never actually buy lottery tickets. Just like to dream, I guess.

10. If I ever lost my sense of taste, I would lose my will to live. I. Love. Food. I also really like writing one word sentences so you get the emphasis of how I'm saying it in my head. Just. Like. This. hee hee!


Whew! That is one long post. Way to go if you made it this far. Which I guess you did if you're still reading. If you're not still reading this, why am I still typing? If a tree fell in the forest and it hit Glenn Beck on the head, would anyone care? Oh, sorry. Just the Excedrin talking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I. Love. Exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. A big shout out to my newest follower, eidolon_nexus. I have 5 real live followers now! (At least, I assume they're all alive.) I am so happy!!!!!!!!! Exclamation point!!!!!

And on the 21st day...

Well, I made it almost 3 weeks of NaBloMoPo without whining. But we are finally here. I have nothing today. Nada. Zip. I'm just posting so I don't miss a day. I'll be glad when it's done and I can just post when I want to. Although I'm glad I've gotten back in to blogging. It's nice to feel connected somewhere in the world. :-)

Whoo-hoo! and Queen Mary

I did it! I completed NaBloPoMo and posted for 30 days straight! Now admittedly, not all of my posts were noteworthy. I occasionally put up videos or pictures of puppies to disguise the fact that I had nothing of any value to say. I'm really glad I did this so early in my blogging experience so I could get it out of my system. Now I feel like I'm in the habit of writing consistently, but I won't feel pressured to post if don't have any thing I really want to share.

Now on to food! My favorite topic!

On Friday, most of the girls/women in my family went to tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle. My mom didn't come because she was recuperating from putting on Thanksgiving ALL BY HERSELF. See what you get when you don't let me help? Anyway, after getting a late start, being stuck behind the First Avenue Bridge when it went up, and taking many wrong turns, we finally arrived. The shop is small and cozy, but a little over decorated for my taste. You could tell they've been in one location for a while. You know how when you live somewhere for a long time you just keep accumulating Stuff and you don't always have a place for all the Stuff? That's what it reminded me of. But in a cute, Victorian way. I'm not a big fan of knick knacks, so maybe it's just me.

The very first thing I saw when we sat down was this:

You probably can't tell, but this bowl was HUGE! I knew I was in good hands. There is no way, even with my raging sugar addiction, that we could possibly use all that sugar in one sitting. Yay! I thought the red and green sugar was a super cute idea as well.

After we got our menus, they brought by some little tea sample cups. They have their own tea line, so they gave out some of their seasonal flavors for us to try.

They were good, but neither really spoke to me (seeing as I only drink Vanilla) but I think everyone else liked them. The flavors were like Holiday Spice or Gingerbread or something like that? Hey Monica, if you remember could you post the flavors in comments? I don't remember their real names.

The table was very cute. Each person had their own cup, each one in a different style. My favorite was my sister-in-law, Angela's. I think she thought it was too plain, but I liked the simplicity of it.

We all ordered Afternoon Tea, and the kids got the Children's Tea. We each got our own pot of tea. Again, these pots were HUGE. Most places I've been give you a 2-3 cup pot. The advantage is that you can usually try lots of different flavors with each pot. The disadvantage is that you have to wait for someone to refill it when you run out.

With this big thing, I could have served the whole table. They included an infuser (which is why the top is caddy-whompus) and if you can see in the reflection, there was a little tea holder to put the infuser on when your tea was ready. Since I am the Vanilla queen, this was great for me. I don't usually switch flavors, and I didn't have to wait for refills. This was the first time ever that I had tea left in the pot when I was done eating.

My nieces each got a little 2 cup pot of tea, which was just right for them as they only drink about half a pot anyway. I LOVED this pot. I actually looked for it at the tea shop afterwards but couldn't find it. Something about the flowers and the colors really called my name. Not that I need another tea pot, but I still want it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for realistic looking flowers.

We started with a sorbet trio and a fabulous shortbread cookie. Sorry no pic, I was hungry! I think the sorbet flavors were pear, mango and passionfruit. The pear was my favorite. It was a nice touch, but it was odd for me to start out with something so cold. I would have liked it more in-between courses. Again, probably just me being picky. As long as I'm being critical, can I also mention that the Queen Mary does not offer half and half with their tea? They had milk which they said was Whole Milk (we weren't buying it) and offered up whipping cream when we asked about the half and half. I thought that was a little odd. When I'm out to spoil myself with tea, I want me some fat! Okay, done complaining.

Next they brought everyone a plate. I thought this pattern was just gorgeous.

Since the plate I got wasn't in this pattern, I stole my sister's plate when she went to the bathroom. :-) No, I'm not kidding!

Out came our three-tiered service. Since there were four of us getting tea, they put two servings on the plates. The sandwiches were okay. There was a chicken salad that was too heavy on the mustard for my taste. The turkey with cranberry was good. My very favorite was the pear and blue cheese with walnut. The blue cheese was mixed with  cream cheese (I think) and the pear was super ripe and sliced very thinly. The walnuts were few and far between so they didn't overpower the flavor. I could have eaten a whole plate of them!

The top tier combined all three courses together (I would have preferred my desserts be separated...ew, my sausage roll is touching my cookie!) but I'm sure that once again this is me being picky. Wow, how obsessive-compulsive am I? I had no idea until I started writing this. Hey! Stop rolling your eyes, Monica! Anyway, the savories were a yummy sausage roll in puff pastry and a smoked salmon quiche...both very tasty. The breads were a currant scone and a crumpet. The desserts on top were a snickerdoodle and a thumbprint raspberry cookie.

The middle tier held the fruit and desserts. The fruit was very fresh and had lots of variety. They even included pomegranate seeds. The fruit bread was delicious. Monica let me have her piece, too. (I traded her for my cheesecake, which was peppermint flavored.) And the last thing was a cute little gingerbread bite with whipped cream. It was a very nice selection and mostly made my taste buds happy.

The children's tea gave them a choice of PB & J or toasted cheese. They also got the sorbet with us, and then fruit and desserts on top. I love the big crown cookie with the tea room's initials on it. I believe their desserts were some the same, and some different than ours to fit a kids palate. The girls seemed very happy with it.

Overall we had a really good time. The Queen Mary is a little on the pricy side, but I'm sure that's partially location, as I usually get my tea farther south. I would definitely go back. But next time I'm bringing my own half and half!

*picture of tea room from www.queenmarytea.com

Shoes

So it was payday today (YAY!) Most teachers get paid once a month on the last working day of the month. Because of how Thanksgiving fell, we got our checks today. Hooray! So I decided to hit the mall, since starting on Friday it will be a nightmare. It gets SO crazy before Christmas. I've been having shoe issues, so I went to Payless for BOGO. (Buy One Get One half price.)

I needed some flats that were casual, but still dressy enough for work. Here are the black ones I chose.

I actually wore them around the mall because my other shoes were killing me. I like the sole because it's sturdy and comfy. Recognize the socks from an earlier post?

Here are the brown ones.

I'll be wearing these for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Okay, I am officially hitting the bottom of the barrel on posting. I CANNOT WAIT until NaBloPoMo is over. I thought it would be fun to post everyday, but sometimes I just have nothing worthwhile to share. Not that it matters, I guess, since this whole blog is about me sharing stuff no one else cares about. But shouldn't I at least care? Four more days...

NaBloPoMo

So I found this on someone else's blog and decided to check it out. It's a challenge to post something on your blog once each day for the whole month. Since I'm pretty much doing that anyway, I thought I'd sign up. Cool, huh?

Anyway, this isn't my official post for the day. I just wanted to let everyone know about "NaBloPoMo," or National Blog Posting Month.

Have a great Sunday!