Twilight

Twilight is probably the most popular awful book ever. It should be a fast read, but I'm going slowly because I seriously have to take brain-vomit breaks from it. I can't believe how popular this tripe has become.

And I love gothy teen romance, so it's just that this book is truly trite and cheesy. And Edward is mean.

If they break into dance in the movie (like they look ready to do in this pic), I'll be a little more excited though.

Dancing vampires, oooohhhhh!!!

Magnolia Bakery

We made another trip to New York this weekend, and since I’m a cupcake monster, we tried another NY cupcake bakery, Magnolia Bakery! Famous for their numerous appearances on Sex and the City, this bakery usually has quite a line of eager customers for their incredible confections.

I, however, am pretty impatient, and was not at all prepared to wait in line for 45 minutes for a cupcake, but we happened in on a non-busy time on Sunday, where we got three varieties of cupcakes: white with vanilla buttercream, yellow with chocolate buttercream, and lemon with lemon buttercream. Magnolia has a neat little “serve yourself” system where they direct customers to the cupcakes placed in the front window with baker’s boxes, then to the counter to pay for the treats.

And let me say, believe the hype. We bit into these babies on the way home, and were overwhelmed with the perfection! Perfect, light texture to the cake, and wonderful, sweet buttercream icing with amazing flavor. By far, these were some of the best cupcakes that I’ve tasted, and so simple and pretty!

Note the customer easily grabbing the exact cupcake that she wants!

I'm in the Sun!

Check it, my jewelry made the Baltimore Sun! Mine are the Audrey Hepburn rose earrings on the far right.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/crafts/

Phelps breaks the record!

Being from Baltimore, swimming was of particular interest to me this Olympics. On Saturday night, he won his 8th (and record-breaking) gold! I'm so happy that he won! But I'm even more pleased about this picture (hubba hubba).

We were in a Times Square bar watching the broadcast as he won. The entire bar cheered and clapped! Congratulations Michael!

Sherrybaby

So admidst the cafuffle of the big thesis defense, festivities, and such, I managed to watch a movie this weekend. All at once, not broken into three or more parts. (I love Netflix Instant Watch!)

Being a fan of most of Maggie Gyllenhaal's work, I really wanted to watch Sherrybaby. Oh my. What an incredible delivery.

The basic story is the struggles faced by someone with too many things going against them. Fresh out of prison for theft and illegal drug use, Sherry wants desperately to get her life on track and to forge a true relationship with her young daughter. However, it seems that trouble follows her, and her life begins to spiral into its former cave of drugs and men.

The acting was incredible in this film, but the content answers my question of why this film did not receive more attention. The scenes are a little too raunchy and real at times. However, I think that the story was very well told. Highly recommended.

I really need to update this thing more often…

I’ve been spending a great deal of my time working and dealing with car stuff. I am still fighting with the insurance company, but purchased a new (to me) Toyota Matrix, which I love as much as I could love a car.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies on YouTube that I never really liked, but love the actors who star in them. The other night, I watched American Psycho, and last night, I watched the Adrian Lyne version of Lolita, mainly to hear the narration performed by Jeremy Irons (yes, I know that he performed the audiobook).

What a sleazy movie. Even with the presence of Mr. Irons, the yuck factor transcends. I kept wanting to turn it off, but I was somewhat mesmerized, unable to look away from the train wreck of the great-novel-turned-tornado.

groan and double groan

I think that I killed my car. It wanted to meet a tree.No, I was not drunk. Just a lousy driver.

Le sigh.