Apple 1: Cameo

It's Day 1 of Operation Eve, and a mid-sized cameo apple is on the chopping block!

Taste: The cameo seems to be mild in flavor, hitting just the right mix between sweet and tart (but if I had to lean one way, I'd lean to sweet). Although at first it seemed too bland, it's growing on me as I consume. 

Texture: Smooth Sally. Not sure how much of this has to do with freshness or temperature, but the apple was cold from the fridge and fresh off the boat...tree. 

Price: $1.48/lb.

Attractiveness: Along the same lines as Owen Wilson. Bumpy features, and otherwise not really bringing a lot to the table look-wise, especially when it's sitting right next to a more attractive version of itself...until that brother gets fat and stoops to doing worthless AT&T commercials. Right - so apples...

Rating: Based on competitive pricing and general flavability, I'm going to give the cameo 6 seeds out of 10. Meaning, if it showed up in my lunchbox, I wouldn't be pissed off.

Also, thanks to Jackie for a handy apple guide! In order to remain unbiased, I'm going to let my own buds do the talking before I check it out. 

discerning taste

On Saturday at SXSW, my favorite third grade teacher scammed me a free Bud Light as she was leaving a party to meet me. Not at all uncommon for SXSW of course, and because it was free, I didn't think twice about it being Bud and not Miller (my preferred beverage). At the next venue, someone handed me a Miller Lite as requested, and I took a sip and...drumroll...made the bitter beer face. 

I have been a long-time follower of the ML (with a lime!) since I gave up Natty Light post college. I've also been a long-time snubber of Bud Light, Coors Light, etc. So you can see why the bitter beer face really challenged my deep-seated beliefs about all things Miller...

The important thing that came out of this accidental compare/contrast situation is that I realized I need to re-evaluate where I stand on light beer. Everyone seems to feel pretty strongly about one beer in particular, and yet somehow I find myself on the edge of a major tastebud calamity. A taste test is clearly in order, no? Since I gave up drinking alone at homr for Lent*, I'll have to either rope someone else into my test or wait until April 5th to give it a go. 

In the meantime, I've decided I also need to do a taste test on apples. I don't know if you've ever really looked at the apple section of the grocery store, but holy toledo there are too many to choose from! I've been making myself eat a couple a week, and I've become an apple racist. To me it's not about what's inside...it's just about the color of the skin. It seems like Jonagolds are the superior apple race, but do they really taste better? Without anything to compare it to, I really don't know how much I ever like what I'm digging into. 

This week I've selected 3 kinds to try:

Cameo

Jonagold

Braeburn

I'm going to have each kind as a complete snack but save a few chunks so I can try them all together for the grand finale. I know you're thinking: How could her life be this exciting? Has anyone ever done anything like this before? Should we contact the Food Network? 

Stay tuned as the test unfolds!

*A word on the "no drinking alone" pact: I've found people either totally get this or think I'm a crazy alcoholic. Which leads me to believe that the world can be divided into AWWD (After Work Wine Drinkers) and....duds. Just kidding! But having a glass of wine at night with dinner, post-workout, post-bad day, can be a really glorious thing. And also really habitual. It's been a great Lent sacrifice for me because I honestly think about it every night, which means that every day I get to remember why I'm super hydrated instead :)

julie + julia = wishing I could cook

I'm a little behind the times, as per usual, but I finally watched my latest Netflix send—Julie & Julia—which has been lurking on my kitchen counter for a good week or two now. I have a 10-day limit on Lurking Netflixes, figuring that if I haven't watched them after that long, it's just not going to happen. Sidenote: I've abided by this rule and have only ever sent 1 back (Star Wars...hey, it says something that I even put it on there). 

OKAY back to the story: so today after work, I treated myself to some much-needed couch lolling and popped in the almost-overdue-in-my-head Julie & Julia. And...drumroll....I loved the movie. Loved loved loved it! Usually I can anticipate what movies I will love (brooding? depressing? sign me up!) but I didn't see this one coming at all. I even gave it 5 stars. That's right. All 5, all for Julie & Julia. 

I don't know where to start and honestly, and you probably don't care why I loved (loved loved) it, but in short, it was delightful—and yes that is the first time I've ever seriously used that word. I walked away wishing Meryl Streep was my best friend, yearning to live with my supportive playful fiancé in our no-doubt-tiny future apartment, wanting to be better at blogging (hey-o!), and wishing I could cook. No wait that's not true...I'm sure I could be a good cook if I chose to. Rather, I wish I had the gumption to commit the time, patience, and energy to learning all the tricks and trades of the kitchen...which if you recall, sees more action from my Netflix than a spatula. 

So even though I now officially hate the me that pared frozen green beans with frozen pot stickers for dinner after eating a sodium bomb pre-packaged soup bowl for lunch, I'd still highly recommend this movie if you 1) like to blog, 2) enjoy cooking, or 3) have a heartbeat. 

countdown to the end...

...not the end, just the end of a little thing we'd like to call 2.5+ years of long distance! (Well, with some no-distance sprinkled in.) Anyway, today I'm off to Chicago for our last LDR visit ever ever, which is too exciting to put into words...but here we go. 

This weekend is going to rock: straight up, down low, no doubt. Brian and I are going to see Alice in Wonderland at the IMAX, finish out our registry at REI, and shop for his wedding band. Oh and sleep late (key). I'll finally get to see the play he's doing now, and then Saturday is an all-day St. Patrick's Day try-not-to-die-day party with his friends! Day drinking is one of life's finer gifts, if you ask me, and when you combine that with ridiculous attire, I couldn't be happier.

I've been looking forward to this weekend for so long specifically because it would be our last "visit" (not sure why that's in quotes...), but I almost forgot about the fact that the actual end to the LDR is just around the corner! Because our life is confusing, here's the plan for the next few months:

• Mar 31st - Brian moves his stuff out of his apartment and treks to Texas!
  
• April - Brian bartends, helps with wedding stuff. I try not to kill my group members in the capstone class. We have our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties, I quit work, and we have a garage sale and make thousands of dollars for the honeymoon. We put the house on the market and see what happens.
  
• May 8th - I graduate. Boo-yah.
  
• May 22nd - We wed. Boo-yah.
  
• June - We pack up, put everything in storage, sell/rent out house. Depart for honeymoon. 
  
• June/July - Traveling and adventure ensues. I take too much video footage, we develop a ridiculous amount of car games. I read books again. Brian thinks of new plays. It is amazing. 
  
• August - We pick up crapola from Texas (including Powder, although she's not crapola) and drive to Chicago. Move into cute apartment. Find jobs. We are married. Boo-yah.
  

my wing king

I think you'll agree with me when I say there's no better way to ring in being 30 than by eating a shit-ton of chicken wings.

Right?

Brian's friends have done two Wing Challenges at a nearby bar that does 25 cent wings on Tuesdays (to the chagrin of the bar owners, I'm sure), so with his birthday falling on a Tuesday, it seemed all-too-natural to celebrate with some meat sweats. I won't be there until tomorrow and was so sad to be missing the big 3-0, so I started thinking of things I could send in my place. Bouquet of flowers...singing telegram...etc, but I kept coming back to a chicken wing cake. Because I'm weird like that.

I did a little late-night-interneting and found a crafty Chicago company called Tipsy Cake and was astounded at her cakes! I mean, talk about cake as art...this woman knows what she's doing. (For extra amusement, go ahead and click on the X-rated Flickr set...I believe that's the bachelor/bachelorette corner). Even though I knew she'd be way out of my price range, I e-mailed her anyway to find out just how much chicken wing cakes go for these days...

As it turns out, Naomi is a saint. She got so excited about the idea that by the time she found out what I was working with (8 emails later), she agreed to do it just due to the creativity factor. Thus, I had found the perfect vendor, i.e. one who doesn't mind getting short-changed! No but seriously, she was so enthusiastic that I felt very comfortable turning over the creative license to her, and look what came out:

No those aren't real chicken wings, and yes you can eat the side of ranch (fondant)!

How cute is he.

If you were able to look past the gnarly snot rag that Brian calls a chef coat, then I hope you're as impressed by the cake as I was! They brought it out post wing challenge, which naturally Brian won (30 wings, what what), so I'm surprised anyone had room for it but it's all gone! And apparently the key-lime-pie layer inside the cake was pretty good (in combination with vanilla cake), so there's another win.

So to recap:

Brian = 30 

Naomi at Tipsy Cake = Saint

Chef coat napkin = getting thrown out on May 22nd

Happy birthday, B! 

offensive eggs

Well, it's almost springtime, and that means hibernation is over for the crazies on the Mueller blog! Every morning I wake up to a "daily digest" containing snippets of recent posts, and I have to say, it has completely eliminated the need for me to snooze....as soon as that first alarm ring goes off, I'm up and reading the blog.

It has only taken 4 days for the community to completely de-rail following the post: "I noticed that MNA granted money to the Easter Egg Hunt. Are there details available yet?"

If by details you mean is everyone about to lose their shit, then yes, there are plenty of details available!

The event leader followed with a post explaining the date, time, where to hide eggs, and information about the Easter bunny making a surprise appearance. I mean, don't they know that the Easter bunny might as well be a walking crucified Jesus??? It's all fun and games until someone starts trying to bring in the furries. 

jlincove: On behalf of my family and other families that are not Christian, I would ask that you rethink this event. It sends a strange message to our kids if the neighborhood is sponsoring Easter. Can you please change the name so that all our children can participate? 

inowaku: I agree the poster that the use of the term "Easter" is offensive to my family. We would be much more comfortable participating in a Spring egg gathering celebration, granted you can ensure that these eggs came from free range chickens.

bullcreek: The modern English term Easter is speculated to have developed from Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre or Eoaster, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar attested by Bede as named after the goddess Ēostre of Anglo-Saxon paganism. (etc....)

roberts_bj: Really, can someone request funds for an activity that is derived from some other religion than Christianity already? Please?! I will sign my family up as the first participants. 

And of course, my good ole friend C Frimire, who previously hid in his garage waiting for bicycle thiefs: 

On the morning of April 4th, I will personally be hiding Bibles, Korans, Torahs, Books of Mormon, I Chings, Vedas, Tipitakas, and a handful of treatises on why god doesn't exist and why people continue to fight over talking snakes and such.

Imagine it, a bright, sunny, spring morning...
But lo! 
...Out there in the streets and yards of our quiet Mueller neighborhood, your children may accidentally discover an contrary point of view and start to ask questions. 
God or nothing forbid! 
Heavens or nothing to Betsy! 
It will be chaos!

inowaku: I signed my child (I don't use non-inclusive terms such as "son" or "daughter") up for the Fancy Lads. This group is a safe environment for children free of religious zealotry. Activities include fabulous shopping trips, acapella choir, and protesting discriminatory Easter egg hunts. While the Fancy Lads are inclusive to all lifestyle choices, we don't allow Christians to participate.

Wilbur Befuddlenick: I have recently moved here and I think with the high density living arrangements that events like this should not be supported. Please think of the noise pollution that an event like this is going to have.  

So how does this great debate end?

McCloskeys: We hope that everyone will join us on Saturday, April 3rd at 3:30 pm for the Mueller Egg Scramble. 

ups is my new best friend

Because my neighborhood operates on an alley system, sometimes I'll go days without stepping foot on my front porch. But yesterday, oh glorious day, I turned into the 'hood behind a UPS truck and thought maybe just maybe he was going to my house, so I followed him down my street past the front of my house with high hopes. He picked up on my stalker vibes and he stopped!

Mr. UPS Love the Shorts Man left me a box from REI, so first I thought maybe it was a belated birthday present (?) but then I remembered, oh yeah, we're getting married! And we have a registry at REI! I knew logically there was no need to open the box until Brian and I were together and could open all of our presents at the same time. But as soon as I sliced through the packaging tape, needs and wants got all mixed up in my head and I decided it was prooooobably sufficient for me to just call him so he could hear me open the box. And 10 seconds, no answer, and 7 pieces of tissue paper later, that turned into me sending him a picture of our very first wedding gift(s) - YAY!  

Like this, sans pine cones, plus awesome gifts. 

Shout out to Jason & Jessica for leading the way on the gift-front...sorry that I couldn't wait to open them (Emily Post is rolling over in her grave right now). It's funny because honestly neither Brian nor I have thought about the fact that people would send us presents...it's seems so unwarranted and unexpected. And I say that even after we registered - but that part just felt like making a fake Christmas list. Key word being fake. Getting married has never been about the gifts, so I completely had not thought of how awesome it would be if/when they materialized. Also, I think this is the first indicator that holy crap our wedding is getting close! Let the tissue paper unfurl!!!!