Classes start tomorrow. My classes are at 9am MTWF. Also football season is about to start so we’re finally getting busy again at work. This all means back to me having a busy schedule and being productive. While I’m excited to have so much to do and keep me distracted I know I’ll be begging for a holiday soon enough. Here’s to getting that much closer to finishing school and working to pay bills & save up money.
yay adult life.
Fall classes start next week which is exciting because it means back to keeping busy and that much closer to trying to finish college. I’ve been spending time with boyfriend and the pup which is nice. I’ve also been watching Warehouse 13 finally started reading Neverwhere! When I ordered Neverwhere on Amazon I decided to order Emergency Googly Eyes because? WHY NOT! I brought them to work with me and my coworkers got into the Vandaleyes spirit!
The lighting at work isn’t too great so pardon my picture quality.
A Coworker said this one might scare away customers. Depending on the customer… I’m OK with that.
How can you NOT want a Hopsecutioner after seeing this?
Spare some change anyone?
I recently discovered while I enjoying getting free time to get caught up with things and relax, too much free time makes me dog a little loopy. Summer classes ended the last week of July and work has been pretty slow(I only work weekend shift anyway) So I don’t know what to do with myself. I try to stay in to avoid spending any money. While I do always have new shows to watch and books to read I usually do those things at night since I stay up late anyway and don’t go out. During the day I try to find productive things to do but this no classes/ minimal work shifts thing is also making em pretty damn lazy. I would be horrible as a house wife. Husband at work and kids at school all day.. what the hell would I do. Clearly I will always need to work. No offense to other house wives. I just enjoy working. I got my first job at 15 and I would always get frustrated when I was in between jobs. Mostly because you can’t pay expenses without money. I’m really just looking forward to finishing college so I can get a better paying full time job.
Well I have been doing a lot of show watching. I recently finished Eureka and I just got in to season 2 of Warehouse 13. I enjoyed Eureka (Felicia Day &Wil Wheaton, How could I not like the show!) and so far Warehouse is pretty interesting. I need to keep my mind occupied while I wait for my other shows to start up again.
I’ve also been trying to get some more reading in. Sadly books are expensive so I try to take my time reading each book. I also juggle back and fourth between getting hard copy books and books for my Kindle Fire. While I do enjoy holding, smelling a real book and adding it to my bookshelf. Kindle books are much cheaper so sometimes it’s the best way to go so I can save a couple bucks. I occasionally have luck with Goodwill but last time I went they only had books I had already read or ones that did no interest me at all.
Recent books I read:
The Book Thief by Mark Zusak
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (longest title ever!) by Catherynne M. Valenete
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Definitely enjoyed all 3 of them for their own reason. They were all very different. The next book I’m about to start is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while now so i’m excited. My to-read list is just so ridiculous picking my next book is always a huge battle but so far I have not been disappointed!
Now I’m off to take advantage of the sunny weather outside and go to the pool.
One of the things I was looking forward to at Sueprcon was checking out Artist Alley. There were so many interesting artist which made it very hard to leave with only 4 pieces all 4 were between $10-$5. I didn’t buy any original sketches but might consider it next year.
I don’t own a camera *gasp* (I know who doesn’t own a camera these days pshh) so I took these with my phone. Hopefully once I find frames I like for them I’ll be able to take better pictures.
I LOVE these little guys. These are by Michael Banks his website is Sugar Fueled There you’ll find links to his shops, and other social media pages. It was really hard to pick just 2 prints from him they all were amazing. My crappy cell phone doesn’t do them justice though. These were about $5 each and the original sketched were $20 and he had some bigger pieces too but I want to start a series of these little art cards. I’m thinking about putting these two next to each other in a floating frame.
Nest artist is Michael Duron. LocoDuck Studios I was debating between a beetle juice print and a Nightamre Before Christmas print but then I saw this one and jumped up and down! Still not sure how I want this one framed but I can’t wait to put them up.
For the life of me I CAN NOT remember the name of the artist. Which is sad because my boyfriend and I even had a conversation with him. He signed the print with black ink on the black border so I can’t make out his name 😦 He had some great pieces too.
My boyfriend bought 2 pieces from comic book artist Vinnie Tartamella but I wasn’t able to get pictures of them because we have them rolled up in a poster tube until we can put them somewhere safe or get them framed. I also bought a Deathly Hollows decal and a Doctor Who license plate frame. Luckily I stopped myself from spending anymore money!
This Saturday my boyfriend and I attended Supercon here in Miami. It was the first Con & definitely won’t be the last. We both had an amazing time and will be attending annually. We got a later start on the day than we had hoped and didn’t get there until around 1 pm but stayed until almost 3am! I know, madness! Parking and traffic was a disaster so we had to park a bit far which wouldn’t have been too bad if we had worn proper shoes. For some reason I was determined to wear my new gray converse instead of my running shoes. I yelled at myself for that the next morning.
After walking 10 minutes in the hot/humid Miami weather and finally making it into the convention center we stepped into HUGE crowds. This was slightly expected since we chose Saturday but it kind of felt too packed. My anxiety got to me a bit. The center was extremely hot due to all the people crammed into one space. The whole time you were plastered against someone trying to get around. Being that I’m only 5’0 ft my face was almost plastered against someone’s sweaty back countless time. We had met up with 3 of our friends who were dragging us around to look for the rest of the group but luckily my boyfriend noticed I was getting a bit overwhelmed and annoyed with having to push and shove through hot sticky crowds so we both escaped upstairs to artist alley which luckily was MUCH less crowded. Artist alley was one of the main things I was looking forward to. Eventually the crowds started making their way upstairs too and the first floor became easier to maneuver.
We didn’t attend any signings or big pannels. We mostly just walked around checking out all the booths, costumes etc. At one point when our feet were screaming we decided to duck into a room where they were showing episodes from different British TV shows and we ended up watching parts of the first 2 episodes of Red Dwarf circa. 1988. They were also showing Torch Wood and other stuff but we didn’t want to spend the day sitting in a room watching shows. We didn’t go in with a plan of what exactly we wanted to see and do so we did miss some pretty cool things. Overall for it being our first Con adventure and not properly planning we still had an amazing time. Next year we’ll be going in with a plan and hopefully I’ll be cosplaying. I was bummed that I barely saw any Steampunk Cosplay. I saw one awesome Steampunk Bane but that was pretty much it. There was a good amount of Doctor Who cosplay and stuff to buy though. It definitely was more anime/manga influenced. I also didn’t charge my phone before we went so I didn’t get any pictures.
Right so future pointers for attending a CON:
1. Comfy shoes/clothes. Breathable clothes that you wont feel like you’re suffocating in. Possibly a light sweater because some of the smaller rooms might get a bit chilly. I never found these rooms while I was there but it’s a possibility.
2. A good messenger/canvas bag to carry things you buy or even possibel freebies.
3. Get there early to avoid parking disasters, long lines, and big crowds
4. Snacks and water bottles.(Luckily out friends had a cooler with Gatorade/soda in his car along with some snacks. We ended up all walking to his car to refuel on. It Definitely helped) Also food there is very overpriced so eat a good meal before and have a enough snacks to hold you off until you leave.
5. Park close. That way you can run to the car to drop off things you’re tired of carrying or to re stock on snacks.
6. Fully charged phone. To take lots of pictures and call/text the people you’re with if you get separated.
7. Carry travel size deodorant and/or body spray. You will sweat. Don’t punish everyone around you with your body odor. Hygiene is key.
8. If you get sick easily take something like Airborne before you go. Hand sanitizer is your friend too! Again, germs, small areas, rubbing up against random humans.
9. Make a plan before you go. Decide on what things you don’t want to miss and make note on the times they start so you’re not running all over the place trying to make it. Some events get packed QUICK so if you know it’s popular get there ahead of time.
This post feels too long so pictures of the art will be in a separate post.
I attended my first Con this weekend!! I didn’t get many pictures but I want to talk about it. I forgot the names of 2 of the artist I got artwork from so as soon as I find out their names I will be posting about my Supercon experience!
I have a to-read list on my Goodreads account and the list is currently at 115! This makes the decision of choosing which book to read next VERY difficult. I might just use one of those random number generators. Then I’ll argue with myself about whether I should get a hard copy of the book or get it on my Kindle. Kindle books are much cheaper which is what I need right now but my book collection isn’t as big as it was when I was a kid (moving so much over the years I’ve lost many books) so I kind of want to build my collection. My other option is go to a thrift store/ Goodwill and see if they have any of the books on list available. Aha! Clever me.
I have work tonight at 6pm for the Heat game so It’ll be a long night then tomorrow I’ll be spending the day studying for my written Art History midterm. I love the class but a 14 week course crammed into 6 weeks means A LOT of material to learn. Hopefully I’ll do something productive on my day off this Saturday. Last Saturday we just spend the whole day laying around and watching TV and then I actually went out at night (shocking) but I’d rather go out during the daytime and watch movies all night this Saturday so let’s see how that goes.
Well THAT was a rather long absence. 2013 has turned out be an extremely stressful bad year. It’s only 5 months in and so much has already happened and I’m already exhausted. Most of my internet time is usually spent reading other blogs, articles, playing games, reading fandom things or tweeting nonsense. My brain is too stressed out to write anything. I have a journal at home I write bits and pieces in but it’s mostly sporadic rambling because that is all my brain can do. I should be doing something productive now but I started reading something The Bloggess just posted and I fell into a rabbit hole of distractions and eventually decided ‘HEY! why not write in that blog you have and never use to talk to yourself.’
Summer has definitely arrived here in Miami it’s in the 90s everyday and the humidity has amplified. Monday night we had really bad thunderstorms until early Tuesday morning then by 2pm it was suddenly extremely hot and blindingly sunny. Welcome to typical Florida weather a.k.a inconsistent weather. That and trillions of mosquitoes and other evil bugs. The good thing about summer though is everything is flowering, Orchids, Gardenias, Plumeria and so on. 7 out of our 12 orchids are blooming right now in my yard and I’m going to attempt to plant Plumeria from a cut my friend is giving me. I say attempt because I’ve never done it before but it might be fun to try.
I have work tonight at 6pm and there’s a Miami heat game on so it’s definitely going to be a long night. Hopefully I won’t be too exhausted because I have an 8am 3 hour lecture class tomorrow morning. Now i’m going to go find something else to distract me productive to do. I leave this post with pictures of things currently blooming in my back yard. The Gardenias that were blooming got ruined Monday night due to the thunderstorm.
Plumeria. This is one from around the neighborhood. We will be either planting this or the candy stripe version in front of our house.
One of my favorites.
I seriously need to find a way to be less tired. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve dozed off while sitting in bed, laptop on my lap and all! Boyfriend is on a gluten free diet to see if it’ll help his stomach, which has been giving him problems for a while now. It’s been a challenge since he is a bit of a picky eater. Also we’re both big beer lovers so limited selection of beer is torture for him ha!
This past Thursday was his birthday and as usual tradition I baked him his favorite cake: Tres Leche (Three Milks) but this time I made it with gluten free flour which I have never used before but luckily it came out delicious! I used this recipe from Pioneer Woman. All I did was substitute the regular flour for gluten free flour & Xantha gum. My digital camera broke a while back and I haven’t been able to replace it so all these pictures are taken with my cell phone. I am also not a fancy cooking blog so the pictures are meh in quality but Hey, gotta work with what you have!
Again I am no master chef or photographer if you’re expecting a full out step by step fancy recipe guide click on the original recipe link. This is just me having a bit of fun with a new recipe I tried. Random blog remember?
I found this Gluten-free baking flour at Whole Foods. Bob’s Red Mill makes all types of baking aids, cereals, etc. many which are gluten free. They had a huge section of this brand at Whole foods.
Xanthan Gum which you will need to add to your flour mixture. The bag has recommended measurements based on what you’ll be baking.
Picture is a bit blurry but this little mixer is 30 years old! My parents received it as a wedding gift years ago and my mom left it for me when she moved away a couple of years ago. Yes it still works.. kind of. Sometimes you have to hold the cord that comes out of it in place or else it stops but other than that it still performs great even after all the use and abuse it’s been through. I’m keeping this guy with me till he finally croaks.. or someone just happens to give me a new one, whichever comes first.
I am only posting this picture because I successfully separated 5 eggs without it turning into a complete disaster! Yay me!
Observe awful cellphone picture. The cake came out more cooked than I wanted it. I only left it in for 35 minutes but it might have been because my oveh was left pre-heating for so long. The cake tasted fine either way but if it wasn’t for the tres leche soak I think it would have been a pretty dry cake. So lesson learned: don’t leave over on preheating for a freakishly long time.
The delicious staple to this recipe! The 3 milk mixture is made up of condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream. Yes I know it sound so unhealthy but it’s sooo delicious. My people love things super sweet and unhealthy!
Fun fact: My mom & I didn’t become huge vegetable freaks until my step dad came into the picture. My Cuban family rarely ate veggies unless they were slathered in some sauce or mixed into some heavy dish. We both LOVE all veggies now though!!
The icing. Made up of sugar and heavy whipping cream (I throw in a small dash of vanilla extract) Again not at all healthy and although it isn’t as delicious as the milk mixture it is still important.
Many people top their Tres Leche cakes with maraschino cherries but Boyfriend isn’t too fond of them and he loves strawberries so I layered the whole cake with fresh cut one. this is a picture of when i was trying to get all creative with the presentation. I ended up giving up and just doing rows of them all over the cake and then cleaning up the edges of the pan. Not exactly top chef presentation status but hey as long as it’s yummy Boyfriend doesn’t mind.
I always throw the extra milk mixture into a Tupperware to keep in the fridge just in case anyone wants to saturate their slice a bit more in that sweet sweet goodness.
Oh for Birthday dinner Boyfriend’s father took us to this little hole in the wall restaurant called Sushi Chef which was AMAZING!! Hopefully we’ll be going there again for my birthday in April. I’m seriously in love. I tried this canned Oolong Tea which was pretty good.
So THAT was my attempt at a recipe post. Not as fancy as most food blogs but hey I tried and also points for me for actually blogging!! I have been writing daily in an actual journal next to my bed so that’s a plus. Now I’m off to watch my new obsession: Merlin.
Between work, classes,reading, the boyfriend & pup, I have been very busy and always tired. Also When I’m not doing any of the mentioned above I’m glued to Twitter being a fangirl and discovering new people and interesting blogs/articles/stories. Seriously I spend way to much time on Twitter.
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