A glorious, cloudy (even slightly rainy) day!

1- Random remembrance: my only memory of ever watching Ms. Universe (kind of an odd title considering only Earth participates in it) is the end of one ceremony years ago where the three remaining contestants have to answer a random question. Misses America, Venezuela (I think), and some other country were left, and their question was something along the lines of, “If you had a day where you could do anything- absolutely anything- what would you do and why?” The answers absolutely astounded me, and that’s why I wanted to share them. ;) Miss Venezuela was first, and through her translator (poor old chap) she talked about how she would fly to different countries and spend time with children and go to hospitals and bring cheer and happiness to those who were suffering and that, since it would be a magic day, she would be able to go to all the countries and do this. Next was Miss…we’ll say Brazil, though I really can’t remember which country she represented. She also had a translator (poor chap), and responded to the question by saying that she would declare that all people go naked on this day, because we are all beautiful and shouldn’t be ashamed of our bodies. Yeah…Well, finally, Miss America had a go at it. She thought about it for a second before replying, “I would eat. I would just eat, and eat, and eat.”

Cut to commercial break, during which the poor judges had to decide which poor woman “deserved” the title of Miss Universe- would it be the somewhat delusional one? The one who wanted us all to get naked? Or the starved one? (see #5 for the answer!)

2- Eleanor is having some cronies over for hors d’oeuvres (stupid French word) and discussion of some book. They’re really cute, and you can always tell when she’s having friends over because they all drive white or beige cars (Eleanor included) :)

3- Walking is a community-building activity! I’ve had several short conversations with people in the neighborhood that begin with them saying, “I see you walking all the time!”

4- I don’t really want to do this, but maybe it’s a good idea. What I mean is, encouraging you folks to buy gifts for the holidays from artists on etsy (or just to buy hand-made in general). there are lots of very reasonably priced items for sale there, and besides, wouldn’t you rather support a human being and a community rather than a giant corporation (which, besides, is probably located in a foreign country)?
This brings me to another important issue: What does “reasonable” mean, in terms of pricing? It’s true that you can buy an “artsy” blank book from target for $15, while a seemingly similar item on etsy, one of my journals, for example, is around $30. Well, allow me to let you in on a little secret- the target journal is crap. If you want to give crap for Christmas, fine, then give quantity rather than quality. I, for one, will be doing my shopping on etsy, as much as I can!
Speaking of target, which I really do like, I have to say that it and other trendy places like it are similar in many ways to whole foods. Just as “industrial organic” is a contradiction in terms to many people who value the organic foods movement, so is “industrial indie/artsy” a glaring oxymoron to most artists (artists who aren’t punks, basically). Anything claiming to be unique and original can’t be mass-produced or mass-marketed.
I am going to end this tirade by repeating, buy from etsy! Thanks :)

5- and now let’s return to item 1: who do you think the winner of the Miss Universe pageant was? I am going to tell you now: it was Miss America…hooray?

6- next week’s cupamacake flavor may have been decided by a discussion last night in which we conversed on the flavor “yellow” and compared other flavors that are also colors. Yellow cake came up, of course, and it was agreed that yellow, though generally associated with lemon, was its own distinct flavor when it comes to cake and corn pops. So what about orange, then? Does it qualify as a color that is a flavor because it is the name of a fruit, or is it disqualified because it is the name of a fruit, and is therefore inseparable from that fruit’s flavor? Someone mentioned orange cake- how would you make it orangey tasting? Would it even taste good? Mmmm- maybe, I thought, with dark chocolate icing! Could be a fun challenge- use orange juice concentrate and orange peel, some spices to make it more like a spice/tea cake, crank out some chocolaty frosting to top them off…could be ok ;)

7- figgy cupamacakes: a success…I think. The cake is very muffiny- spongy and chewy. It’s good, but not super figgy. I made the honeyed cream cheese frosting, but it’s not suuuper honey-y. I guess that’s alright. I got some walnuts to put on top of the frosting, but I haven’t tried the whole ensemble yet because I need to add some figgy filling to the ‘cakes. Which means I need to go simmer/reduce some fig goo…sigh- so much work! ;)

8- this just in: yum. I made figgy filling, which maybe isn’t quite as figgy as I was hoping (but I don’t really know what I was going for), cut little holes in the cupcakes, filled with figgoo, iced, topped with walnuts :D see photos.

9- buy from etsy and have a good weekend!