I don't care, whatever you guys are in the mood for

I love hanging out with friends, but I dread mealtimes when we're out. Not that I don't love sharing a meal with friends, but it inevitably turns into:

"Where do you want to go?"

- "Oh, anywhere is fine."

"Yeah, I could go for anything really."

- "So, where should we go?"

"I don't know, what are you in the mood for?"

- "Well, I'm pretty easy to please, I like everything."

"Great! Me too! So, where should we go?"

Round and round it goes, and it always ends in this stalemate of hungry people who can't make up their collective minds on where to dine for under $10. It's almost enough to make you want to stab yourself in the eyes with a plastic spork*.

Thankfully, I have come across this handy little flow chart that with undoubtedly take the awkwardness out of meal selection whilst in a group. Have a look:

*One should always use great caution when dealing with sporks. It's said that spooning leads to sporking. And sporking leads to sippy cups.

We don't need no education

I know it's not on my Honey-Do list, but it's my blog, and I'm going to write about what I want to write about, dammit.

I was reading CNN this evening and stumbled across this article.

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Angry students staged a sit-in Thursday in an attempt to block university officials from leaving the UCLA campus after the California Board of Regents voted to raise undergraduate tuition 32 percent over the next two years.

Oh. My. God. A 32% increase! That is ludicrous. No wonder they were protesting.

The cost of higher education in this country is absolutely astounding. The average tuition for a private four year college in the US in 2009 is over $26,000. This is not including books, fees, room or board. This is solely the class tuition. The average room and board will run you around $8500, give or take. Just to live on campus, and attend class full time, you're looking at almost $35,000 per year to receive a bachelors degree. (Then I suppose you'll need books. And frivolous things like clothing and shampoo.) If you attend for four years, this makes the total cost almost $140,000. You could buy a house for that. In some places, you could buy two*.

The Hubbin' and I both graduated with student loans to pay for our education. Our combined total at the time of consolidation was a little over 30k. Not too shabby, considering he went to an engineering college, and I was a professional student. But we both had family help, and I had a trust fund, so that significantly offset the cost for us. Still, our payments to the loan company, at a 4% locked rate, are still just shy of $300 per month. I can not even fathom how high they'd be if we had 140k financed. How do you live? How do you afford the basics - food, shelter, transportation to get to the job that you financed your life away to get? I went to school for writing, and teaching, by proxy. The average yearly salary for a new teacher is significantly less than the average cost of college for one year. How does that make sense?

Teachers are taking paycuts, supplies and materials are lacking, but at the same time, enrollment is up, the money from the hefty tuition is coming in. If it's not going to the teachers, and it's not going to the students via supplies and materials, where is all this money going?

If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

*If you find those places, let me know, okay?

Cooking with Saki

Hi everybody!

I have been on a long and buttery quest for the perfect sugar cookie. I want something crisp, yet tender. And tasty. I have tried countless recipes over the years, with poor results. Some have turned out like little cakes, puffy, not very flavorful, and definitely not suited for cut out cookies. Other have come out of the oven perfect, only to morph into sugar cookie briquettes as they cool. I was left with no choice but to use them to mortar in holes in my chimney.

But early this week, I discovered that my wonderful friend Lindsay had been holding out on me! She had the perfect recipe all along! Naturally, I'm going to share it with you, because all the world should have sugar cookies this delicious.

Go raid the kitchen, because you will need:

1 cup of butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Cream together butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add egg yolk and extracts. Scrape the bowl, and then slowly add the flour until the mixture comes together in a smooth dough. Lay out a sheet of waxed paper, and lightly flour it. Work the dough into a ball with your (well floured) hands and put it on the waxed paper. Dust again with flour, and place another sheet of waxed paper on top. Roll to 1/4" thickness. Transfer the whole thing, paper and all, to a cookie sheet and stick it in your fridge for an hour. Now go away. Don't mess with it. Resist the urges to poke it, or sneak cookie dough samples from it. After at least an hour, take it out of the fridge, and cut into whatever shapes you want. Put them on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. Ours took all 12 minutes, but keep an eye on them. They will look under done when you take them out, but I promise you, they're not. Be sure to rescue them from the inferno before the edges brown. Let them cool for a good 5 minutes, or you'll burn your tongue eating the entire batch of cookies yourself.

The Honey-Do List

Somehow, today got away from me.

I started out really on the ball, but sometime after 5pm the rest of my day just disappeared. And now it's 11:07pm, and I'm in bed, hastily pecking out this blog post for that farking BloMo. Just as well, as I'm running out of blog fodder anyway. But, as a teaser to you, and a reminder to me, look forward to the days to come, because we'll be talking about:

Christmahannukwaanzikah

Consumerism / Retail Therapy

Thanksgiving

Sex

The best sugar cookies EVAR

and of course,

Craft time with Martha Saki

Visions of Sugar Plums

Santa is the man of the hour here at the Costa Casa. A quick reminder that "Santa is watching" is usually enough to snap the kids out of a tantrum. It's a beautiful thing.

Cecilia is getting very excited that Santa brings presents to everyone. She diligently circles toys for her and Lucas on the Toy Menus, and the other day, she circled a coffeepot in the Bed, Bath and Beyond menu for me.

High atop her wish list is some new (and improved!) version of Candyland called Candyland Sweet Celebrations Game. She is bursting at the seams with excitement over sitting on Santa's lap so she can tell him about this wonderful new game.

Today, she informed me what Santa will be bringing other members of our family. They all must be on the nice list this year, because according to Cecilia, Santa will be bringing them:

Fuddy: A big pogo stick

Yaya: Fake eyelashes

Mima: New curtains

Daddy: A hat

Mommy: A hat like Daddy's

Lucas: A "magnet doodle"

Aunt Lauren: Tea

Rizzo: Cookies

At least she didn't say coal :)

Don't quote me on this..

And if you ever confront me about it, I will adamantly deny it.

I'm starting to like living in Virginia. And I'm starting to really like our little house. A friend of mine used to have the motto "Bloom where you're planted." And i always liked it in a bloom-where-you're-planted-unless-you're-planted-in-northern-virginia kind of way. But lately, I find myself coming around to the point of liking it here.

- The climate here is fantastic. If I ever move, I'm putting the climate in a box and taking it with me. The summers are hot and muggy, great for gardening and dips in the pool. The fall, which is short, unfortunately, has warm days and crisp nights. Winter is also short, it doesn't get "cold" here for very long - long enough for a good snow or two, and then it warms back up to a reasonable temperature. Spring comes early, allowing me to get all of my planting and gardening done by the first week of April. It's wonderful.

- There's a lot to do here. DC is just a metro ride away, and pretty much everything in DC is free. There is something going on in this area every single weekend, and lots of little events scattered throughout the week.

- There are tons of employment options. If my husband ever decides to be a corporate sellout and wants to make twice his salary (*cough* *cough* *nudge*) he'll have no problem finding local work with lots of room for growth.

- This area is eclectic. I used to really hate this part. Very few people are actually "from" this area. They are mostly transplants from all over the country, all around the world, really. I used to think it detracted from the hometown feel that I craved, but I think I was detracting from the hometown feel. I've come to realize that it's pretty awesome. I can walk down the road and go to an Afghani restaurant, or I can walk in the other direction and get authentic Portuguese food.

- The shopping is outrageous. We have every single store I can think of within a few miles. The local mall opens at midnight on Black Friday, so you can shop off your turkey hangover at 300 of your favorite stores. I love bargains.

- Statistically, where I live is safer than the small town I grew up in. I have that inherent fear of the unknown, which makes me overly cautious, and at times downright paranoid, but bottom line is this is a safe place for children to grow up.

- I have made wonderful friends here. It's hard to make friends when you're an adult - you're just not in a friend making environment the way you are in college or high school. But the friends I've made here are exceptional people, and I love them dearly. They've been there for me when I needed them the most, and have been unbelievably supportive of everything in my life. I really don't think I could have survived the last 4 years without them.

- My house is cozy. It's mine. I can do whatever I want to it. I can paint all my ceilings hot pink if i wanted to, and no crappy HOA or Condo Association or Landlord will tell me no. Not that I would ever do that, but I like to keep my options open. All of the sweat and money we've poured into our house just makes it more our home. It's familiar now. I know the sounds it makes, it finally smells like us, and not the crappy Gittens (although on really, really, really hot days, you can still smell them if you stand outside under the soffit. EW.), my kitchen is lovely, and my bathroom is soon-to-be-lovely. I enjoy my flowers and gardens. We are comfortable here.

- And finally, absence makes the heart grow fonder. All of our family is in NJ. It's tough, especially with the kids being so small, and there's always a tug-o-war over who gets us on the holidays, but I'm really starting to cherish the distance. When we see each other, it's special, it's something to look forward to, and it's an enjoyable time. We're far enough apart that everyone can spread their respective wings, but close enough to each other than we can be together within a few hours if need be.

And so, almost five years after we were planted here, we're finally starting to ground our roots.

Really, it's not that bad. I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely...

Be Yourself

Today you are you

That is truer than true.

There is no one alive

Who is Youer

Than You.