Maybe being a thirteen-year-old girl isn't so bad

I got an exercise ball yesterday. I have wanted one upon which to sit for quite a while. Now I am sad that I put it off for so long. It is so fun. Maybe if I ever get a job I can be like Dwight:



This is an edited clip, but the only one that would embed. I am fancy blogging now, y'all (I used to feel like a poser when I said y'all, but now I live in the middle of nowhere, so I feel completely justified in using the word).

Also, I did not realize that the trailer for the next Harry Potter movie was out. OMGWTFBBQ! The sixth book is my favorite one in the series. I just really love the relationship between Harry and Dumbledore. Here is the link to the Warner Brothers site, and below is a different one.



So I have been watching these and bouncing like crazy for the past twenty minutes. Squeeee. Scott and I have been talking about having a Harry Potter party at the drive-in. I think Harry Potter has really helped me to embrace my inner squealing teenage girl. I never went through that phase--not even close, so I guess I am making up for it now. I will also admit here that I like the Twilight books and movie. Not in the sense that I think they are excellent pieces of literature, but in the sense that I enjoyed reading them. I love Michelle, and especially loved how after she saw Twilight she told me, "Apparently I am a thirteen-year-old girl, because I loved it." Here's to having fun middle school style.

The best apple muffins I've ever made

I was going to take a picture of these bad boys, but I am not quite that dedicated to blogging yet. There were several apple muffin recipes that looked good, so I took my favorite parts from each and smooshed them together.

Apple Muffins

muffin part:
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup yogurt
1 Tablespoon oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash allspice
1-2 dashes nutmeg (I really like nutmeg)
1 & 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry)
1 apple, chopped into tiny bits (I used a Granny Smith)

delicious topping part:
1 Tablespoon butter (straight from the refrigerator)
1 Tablespoon flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

I never mix the dry ingredients together first because I hate dirtying another bowl. So this is how I assembled them:

Heat the oven to around 400 degrees F (maybe a little less) , and grease a muffin tin.

Beat the egg in a large bowl, then stir in the applesauce, yogurt, and oil. Next, stir in the brown sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Once this looks all even, add the flour and stir until everything looks nice. Then dump the apples into the bowl and give it a couple of victory stirs. Batter is done.

Now take a smaller bowl, and mash all the topping ingredients with a fork until it kind of looks like a strudel topping. I stole the topping from this site.

Scoop some batter into the greased muffin cups (this made 11 muffins for me). Then sprinkle the topping over each muffin and pop them in the oven. Bake between 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven (mine is old and has a mind of its own sometimes, so I don't feel like I can predict what other ovens will do). Poke them with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

Let them sit in the pan until they cool a little bit, or until you have decided that burning your hands and mouth is totally worth having a muffin. After they have cooled enough to not fall into pieces, run a knife around the edges and pop them out of the tin. After they cool completely on the counter, you can put them in your favorite storage container.

Mmmm...muffins.

Second Post

I've decided that I want to pick this blog up again. For the record, this is a bit out of character for me, since I tend to start things over if they don't begin as I'd hoped. I expected myself to want to start a new blog to avoid more than a year's gap in postings. But here I am. Awesome.

I honestly didn't expect to post very much last year, since I was in school. The only thing I wanted to talk about during school was that it was lame--which it totally was most of the time. I am super glad that I have a degree, and am truly indebted to my family, who helped me finish. But, physics was this kind of weird no-man's land for me. On the one hand, I was capable of doing the work, so I felt like changing my course of study was giving up and taking the easy way out. On the other hand, I wasn't quite smart enough to really enjoy it as much as I could have. I spent so much time and energy slogging through things just to keep up that I rarely had enough left to appreciate the elegance of what I was doing, to enjoy the reward. No regrets, though. It's pretty easy to be happy when the work is done.

So, now. I am in the middle of interviews. I have the second interview for my "first choice" job next week, and if that goes well then I will have a sweet job come March. The schedule is not ideal (Saturdays), but other than that I think it will be a great fit for now, as well as a good way to open doors for later. I couldn't really ask for more, especially taking this crazy economy into account.

A quick look at the calendar will tell you that there is quite a bit of time until March. So even if things go according to plan, I will have some free time before a job begins. Here is my confession for the day, internet: for the past several years I have been really bad at enjoying free time. I just spent it worrying compulsively about the next class, assignment, or semester. I tried to relax and have fun, but just couldn't do it (seriously, it was really pathetic). This new non-school free time is super-rad, and for the first time in my adult life, I am looking froward to the upcoming break. Sure, I am excited to start a career, but I am even more excited to practice all the fun things I will be doing outside that career.

This was a bit of a catching-up post. I plan to make these a little more fun in the future. So watch out, because I have plans.