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STUFF I LOVE #1

Audiobooks

I recently decided that I LOVE AUDIOBOOKS! I read listened to an entire book in two days, WHILE WORKING. How’s that for multi-tasking.

I’m sure I could have curled up in bed and read the whole book in two days too, but who has time for that!? Now I can earn money and “read” at the same time. I feel like I’ve opened up a huge new chunk of day for me to take advantage of. Plus it was also kind of… comforting… like the old days when dad used to read to me at night time. A nice feeling.

I was listening to Terry Fallis’ The Best Laid Plans which he podcasted one chapter at a time a while ago when he was having trouble getting it published. You can get it for free off iTunes. Then it won the CBC Canada Reads 2011 contest and I’m sure he’s doing a lot better now. It’s a good story, check it out!

I suppose some books are better for listening to than others. The Best Laid Plans worked well, but we also downloaded audio files of Jasper Fforde’s books and now I am thinking that they might not be as good since he does a lot of clever things with different fonts or intentional ‘myspelings’, which would be lost.

I’ve also listened to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything which was also quite interesting, but that was a serious time commitment since it really is not short at all. Now I need some kind of audiobook library (does that exist? probably) to pick what next! Any suggestions?

The question is, does listening to a book have the same educational benefit as reading a book? It certainly is a lot more passive. But I think I personally absorb more from listening than reading.

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I had a major cooking disaster yesterday.

I was making smore squares. First you bake a graham cracker sugar cookie crust, then you melt milk chocolate over it, then top it with marshmallows and broil it a bit.

Everything was going well. I put it in to broil, went to get a drink of water, came back to take a peek…. HUGE FLAMES IN THE OVEN!! EVERYTHING ON FIRE!!

I ran around in a circle yelling ‘IT’S ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!’ then I came to my senses and turned off the oven and opened the doors and windows and Scott took the flaming pan out of the oven.

It’s funny (?) that our smoke alarm will go off at 4:00 AM sometimes, or when I am cooking perogies, yet didn’t go off when there was AN ACTUAL FIRE.

Unfortunately I did not get a picture while there were still flames. But I did get that “after” shot. Sorry it’s blurry, I was rushing. Scott said it looked like the surface of another planet or something.

Anyway I scraped off the entire burnt top in one piece, and then tried again, this time broiling with the oven door open and me staring at it. It took about 8 seconds. Success! I reckon the extra little burnt bits just make it more authentic.

They are REALLY tasty.

Smore Squares

  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I got them in the bulk bins at our supermarket)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda (I accidentally used baking powder. I don’t think it matters)
  • about 1 cup milk chocolate chips
  • about 2 cups small marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Combine butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Then flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt and baking soda. Mix!

2. Spread in bottom of large baking dish. I used an 8″x8″ pan but that was a bit too small. Something a touch bigger than that would be perfect. No need to grease the pan. Bake for ~20-30 minutes, until cooked. Mine took forever because it was so thick.

3. Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Let it stand for a few minutes, then spread the melty chocolate around.

4. Set oven to broil. Sprinkle marshmallows over top of chocolate, and broil for about 8 seconds. WATCH CAREFULLY!!! They brown FAST. OK maybe they take longer than 8 seconds, but not much more. Allow to cool a bit, and enjoy!

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What intense week of uni news. I did my first BCIT interview, scheduled my Michener interview and booked flights to Toronto, then found out I also got an interview at NAIT!

The BCIT interview went well. It was an hour long and I felt confident about my answers. Maybe I shouldn’t have said we want to stay in BC though – I thought that would be a plus for them, but then she said there aren’t that many jobs so you have to be open to moving anywhere in Canada.

For the last part of the interview she brought me down to the lab and showed me how to (fake) take blood. Then we switched spots and I had to do it to her. I was confident and did it without shaky hands, but then later on I realized I forgot to get her to squeeze her hand. Ugh. Hopefully it was more about being comfortable than getting it exactly right. Hopefully.

I booked my Michener interview for the last Friday in April and booked the flights so that I would have a quick T.O. weekend hopefully squeezing in a visit with Janine, and my cousins. The day after I booked I got another email saying I had been selected for an interview for MRI at NAIT on the Monday after Toronto! Very luckily though my flight back from T.O. stops in Edmonton!

Now this was probably a bit dumb but I called up Air Miles and changed my flight to the next day so I would have more time in Toronto, but now my flight leaves at 7:00 AM which is really annoying. I should have just left everything as it was because that change was not worth $84+waking up extremely early. I am seriously kicking myself. WHY DID I DO THAT? Anyway now I still have to buy one more one way ticket from Edmonton to Vancouver but all-in-all it comes out to under $500 to go to two different interviews, which is really not THAT bad I guess. THANK YOU DAFOE’S!!!!

I really wasn’t expecting to get that NAIT interview. They give priority to Albertans, and I hadn’t heard from them AT ALL since I applied. But now that I got short-listed I have started to get really excited. It’s the only school in Canada that lets you go straight in to MRI and it’s only a two year program. MRI is my end-goal, so it would be super amazing to just do it right away. I think NAIT is my top choice, even before BCIT. I think Scott is a bit bummed out about that, but he is still being supportive. Anyway the NAIT interview will be my last one so hopefully with all the experience from doing 4 interviews before then I will be able to totally rock it.

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The most informal save-the-date possible:

If you didn’t know already, our wedding-ish party will be on Sunday June 26th, in Ottawa. Invitations and more detailed plans to come later. We hope you can make it!!

In other news:

I’m just finishing up week 2 of the Couch to 5K running program and will start week 3. I bought running shoes. My face gets so so so red and I definitely struggle with the program, but I’m proud of myself for actually doing real exercise multiple times a week. I go right after work. Scott has been using his work gym too.

Are you also having an eggplant shortage where you are?? We haven’t been able to get eggplant in a couple weeks now and that is really sad. I love that stuff!!! Rosemarie came over on Friday and we were planning on making Sichuan Spicy Eggplant with pork but I couldn’t find any eggplant anywhere!! :( We made pirogie pizza instead.

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Last weekend I went over to an internet friends’ house for a ‘Space Shirt Crafternoon’. It was fun and I got to meet a bunch of new people who were all nice so that was really good. It’s funny, my shirt wasn’t working properly while we were making them… it didn’t bleach or absorb dye very well and it was making me quietly angry, but actually when it was all done, I ended up pretty pleased. It’s more subtle and I don’t mind that! Here is a picture I stole from Tanie, I hope she doesn’t mind.

I got another Groupon last week- for a restaurant that makes grilled cheese hamburgers! Haha.

And I’m keeping an eye out for a 10-pass yoga one so I can start that. They come out pretty frequently so hopefully I don’t have to wait too much longer.

I have not been sleeping well all week. It takes me SO long to fall asleep and I’ve been waking up at 3 am and 5 am almost every night. It’s weird because I think I’ve been doing everything right…. eating well with smaller portions, and actually exercising (I’ve started running(!!!)). Too much stress in my life, I think.

JUST TELL ME WHERE WE’RE GOING TO BE LIVING NEXT YEAR. LET ME INTO SCHOOL!!!!