Someone in my hometown got married recently and had a really stellar groom's cake.
That is an Auburn University Tiger. From this we can conclude that the groom is a smart man, as Auburn is a good school, but not a genius, as he made the decision to have a cake that looks like it's touching itself.
I really, really enjoy the 4th of July holiday. It is a holiday that is largely without any pressure whatsoever. With New Year's Eve, there's the expectation that you must party hard and have the most memorable evening, which rarely happens. Valentine's Day does nothing for me. Thanksgiving usually brings family drama of some sort, plus it makes you fat. Christmas is pretty nice, but you have to spend money on gifts, and you want to get people wonderful gifts because you love them, which gets expensive and stressful. But with the 4th of July, pretty much all you have to do is sit around and do nothing all day, and then make a half hearted attempt to see some pyrotechnics. If you miss them, no big deal - they'll be doing the same thing next year. I had a lovely 4th this year - I hung out at home with my husband, ate some hot dogs at a cookout, and then watched the District's fireworks display from a friend's rooftop. The 4th of July is the best!
In honor of perhaps my favorite holiday, here is a video of a dog saying 'America' and an excellent compilation of failed attempts to set off fireworks. Enjoy!
I just signed up for Mint.com, a personal finance tool recommended to me by my trusty partner in crime Syd. It puts together all your accounts - checking, saving, credit cards, etc - and helps you budget for all your expenses. It's really quite fascinating if, like me, you are not in the habit of keeping close track of exactly what you are spending on what things. It was at once enlightening, depressing and horrifying. What it all boils down to is exactly what I knew before - I don't make very much money, and I have a lot of expenses. While there are a lot of things I could cut out (new clothes, movies, expensive dinners), there are also things that won't go away, like rent, student loans, and credit card debt. The solutions for this problem are so incredibly overwhelming - get a higher paying job, find a cheaper apartment, stop going out to dinner so much (that one will never happen; in fact I am going out to dinner tonight!) - that I'm just going to watch this video of baby pandas going down a slide instead.
And now I feel better. Phew! That dinner out tonight will be delicious.
Summer has hit the District in full force at last, and I am loving it! As someone who grew up in the Mississippi Delta, where it's said that temperature-wise "there ain't nothin' but a screen door between you and hell," I love a nice hot day. I've been wearing sundresses and flip flops, sipping Arnold Palmers, and hitting up the pool... but one thing is sorely missing from my summer, and that is snow cones. I don't know of anywhere in DC that has snow cones, and I can't figure out why! In my hometown we had a snow cone truck AND multiple snow cone stands - and this is a town of 15,000 folks that doesn't even have a movie theater, not the capital of America. And no, an Italian ice or a Slurpee or a slushie is not the same thing and will not suffice.
Do you know where I can find one? I need to look like this guy:
And please, don't call it a snow ball. That ain't the same either.
