It takes me back to when I was in school and didn’t do homework or projects. Or practice music, or try at all at gymnastics. The only thing I’ve ever done that made me feel proud and brave was running the 100m sprint in grade 7, I came in first place. That is the first and last time I can remember feeling confident.

I promise, none of this is intentional, I hate it more than anyone who I’ve pissed off, I assure you. I just really, really, don’t want people looking at me, judging me, thinking about me. Maybe that makes no sense, especially with writing a blog that’s named after me, but there it is.

You should buy the magic zigzag pillows, all of them, they are seriously fucking amazing.

Of course, I’m super reluctant to ship anything, so pick up is best. Plus then I’d hug you, win win.

Anyway, I did lots of stuff, I will post pictures of that another time. This entry is for the awesome things I bought while there!

Seriously, yes, I did bring home toilet paper, haha. Call me crazy, but you can not buy this here in Canada. How sad! As you can see, one pack is floral and somewhat old lady-ish and the other has silver stars and makes me feel like partying. I don’t know when I will get around to opening and using these, maybe never. I also always bring home GB Smarties-they are highly superior-and Polo Mints. And there were 2 Flakies but one seems to have disappeared. Other candy, not pictured, that I brought back were marshmallow shrimps and pig snouts and gummy pig tails.


I also brought a pile of gifts for Ari that included pajamas, magazines and crystals that grow in vinegar.

My uncle, who is 84 this year and is still working on a farm, gave me this rock which is a bit of a mystery to all of us. He says that when plowing fields (in southern Kent) he occasionally comes across a round rock and will put it in his pocket. His collection was small, maybe about 40 all together, and were varying sizes and colours. A couple were broken in half and appeared to have a thin outer layer covering a white stone (maybe chalk?) and hollow right in the middle. The one he gave me, pictured here, is dark green but it was the only one like that, most were sort of brown. Kent is covered in flint, but they are not that. If anyone has any insight, like maybe they are fossilized poo? Feel free to tell me.

From this day forward, they will be known as Oatmeal, Coconut, White Chocolate Chip Cookies. We went with white chips because Shannon doesn’t care for normal chocolate and, really, what the heck, it’s all good. And coconut because the original batch, made with pretzels, no one noticed the pretzels, which is sort of strange because to me they were very obvious, sticking out all over the map. Like, try not to poke an eye out mid cookie.

Again, I lost the original source of these and searching foodgawker, my normal haunt, has turned up nothing familiar but there are lots of similar things, maybe same things. Maybe called Cowboy Cookies but mine are better. F’realz.

Oatmeal, Coconut, White Chocolate Chip Cookies.

1 C butter, softened
1 C dark brown sugar

Cream these guys together in a big bowl. Then beat in

1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

In a separate bowl, toss together

1 1/2 C AP flour
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
3 C oats
1 C white chocolate chips
1 C shredded coconut.

Mix the dry pile into the wet pile. Like most cookie recipes, it’s a thick batter and hard to stir. I used my hands to form balls, about ping pong size, then put them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. I pressed mine down. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, mine were perfect in 11.

Makes about 40, give or take.

That is pretty much all of them. I know it looks like a lot, but when you break it down, it’s pretty obvious that I’d better stop at Shopper’s on my way out tonight just to check to see if there is anything new or on sale. Or both.

All my colours laid out:

Pretty, huh? All those blues and I don’t even like blue on my nails. Here are all the glitters, base and top coats, black, grey and white:

I put the zombie finger puppets on my most used base and top coats. If you ever need top coat, get Seche Vite, it is the best. Smells awful but holy man is it shiny. Also, if you notice I have two bottles of Essie, Shine of the Times. It is the very best glitter in the universe, I use it more than any other polish I own and I dread the day when they stop making it.

Help?

Yes, yes. First world problem, I know.

It’s still good! It’s still good!

A lot of blood.

Avert your eyes if this kind of thing makes you queasy.

This picture shows what I lost, including nail.

Kind of puts a damper on my all quilting weekend. I will resort to plan B, lots of Portal 2. Things could be worse.

These posters are in every other ad box at Yonge/Bloor station. And on lots of billboards all over North America.

Oh boy.

Not that I have any interest in spending any time in the production area at that store, but it’s stuff like this that makes me wonder who is doing the pricing there. Is it someone who’s incredibly lazy and didn’t notice? Someone who is really funny? Seriously, I stared at this for a minute and considered spending the money just for the stupid pin.

OH! And while I’m probably the last person in the world to figure it out, but Bike Pirates on Bloor, near Lansdowne, is the COOLEST place to fix your bike ever, like, EVAR. I went yesterday thinking I’d happily pay someone with greasy hands to put new inter tubes in my bike wheels but they were like NO! We will show you how and walk you through it but you have to do it all yourself! And I DID! And I learned about how much air to put in my tires and why that matters! AND on Sunday it’s women and trans people only and that was nice too.

Man. Nothing cooler than learning new stuff, amirite?