Life in Denim and Flip Flops

Wow. It's hard to believe that it's the end of BEDA already. I've had a lot of fun this month. It seemed so much easier this year. I think that has a lot to do with knowing more people were reading it and having themes. Another part of it was having blogged 3 days a week since Jan. 1. I really think getting into that habit really helped get me in the mindset. I wrote on the themes sometimes but more often than not I ended up writing something based on what had happened during the day or something I'd been thinking about. I didn't do such a great job keeping up on reading other people's blogs. I didn't get around to RSS-ing all of them so I had to click through to see when someone had posted. My goal for May is to actually RSS them and go back and read what I've missed. This month has been a bit insane so I feel like actually getting through the month having blogged 27 times (I missed the weekend the girls were here) in April was quite the accomplishment,...

Black bean hummus- Ok so it's not officially hummus, (no tahini) but it is fabulous. This newest batch isn't quite as good as when I had Katie here to taste test and adjust. Somehow she got the seasoning just right. A yummy lunch for me either way. cute outfits- I've been rocking some pretty darn adorable outfits this week. The one set out for tomorrow is too cute. My new black dress, red 3/4 sleeve cardigan and my black and white polka dotted canvas flats with red trim and bow. :) Not sure how long I can keep this up. any shopping that requires me to visit Hobby Lobby, Borders, and Michael's all in the same day- I'd explain more, but some of the people who will be recipients of the shopping read this. So I won't. But I will later when the gifts have been delivered. An Abundance of Katherines- I love this book. I especially love it on audio. And I really love our Curriculum Librarian for buying it on audio just because I said I loved it. That's why it's ...

I didn't know what I was going to write about today until I decided to put my pair in pigtails. Now if you remember, last week I cut and colored my hair again. It's almost too short to put in pigtails, but not quite. :) So I put in playful pigtails. And when I looked in the mirror, I saw it. They were so Veronica Mars-esque. It made me think about how when watching that show, I just wanted to be Veronica. She's so hard hitting and witty and funny. And intelligent. Every once in a while I catch myself making one of her faces. I think if I could be any tv character for a day, it would totally be her. Now if I got to steal one character's wardrobe? That would definitely be Lorelei Gilmore. That woman has more amazing dresses and boots than anyone! One of the seasons has an extra dedicated to the evolution of her and Rory's clothes. She's got hip work clothes, but knows the value of a cute t-shirt and jeans. Also, her jewelry rocks! If I'm stealing mode of tran...

I love reading those top film lists. In college I watched a lot of movies. I did decently well in grad school too, but I've fallen off since then. It's my goal this summer to work my way through the college library's fabulous film collection. We've got an interesting collection of classics, current, foreign, and indie films. Part of the impetus for this happened in the last 2 days. I somehow let slip to one of my co-workers that I'd never seen Schindler's List. This from one history/politics buff to another was shocking. Now I have my reasons, but finally with a little goading (and a side deal) I'll be watching it soon. The other was reading Kyle's blog post . Boy did I suck at that one. Ten movie quotes and I know one. Wow. This led me to looking at AFI Top 100 and their 10 Top 10 . I do rather horribly in both. I have seen all 10 animated films. :) However, I haven't seen any in the mystery top 10! Even for the Yahoo 100 Modern Classics , I can on...

I'm going backwards and picking up this theme since I missed it before. As you can probably imagine from my current self, I was a bit of a book nerd when I was younger. I'd read just about anything I could get my hands on. Stuff too young for me, books traditionally aimed at boys, pretty crappy formulaic series, aliens, sci-fi, historical, mystery, joke books, random fact books. Like I said, just about anything. As I thought about how I would talk about all these books, I realized I could just talk about one of my favorite genres: adventure/survivalist fiction. Now I am by no means an outdoorsy person. I love being outside and totally did as a kid. I spent hours and hours outside in the playhouse and swingset and on bikes and playing basketball. I was not a camper. I get sick sleeping in tents. I'm not a hiker or a fisherwoman. But for some reason I loved adventure books. We're talking "My Side of the Mountain," "Island of Blue Dolphins," "The C...

It's been a crazy week but I had so much fun. Books- I finally finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson! It was so worth savoring. It's all the best of David Levithan and John Green combined. You get the complex flawed characters who work together to figure out life, or at least the next few days. I'll want to re-read it soon, but I left it with Manda so she could read it once she's done with class work. I also started The Mental Floss History of the World this week. The subtitle is "An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits." I'm not too far into yet, but so far, that is a pretty accurate description. :) Movies- Manda and I took Gretchen's suggestion and went and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" Saturday night. It was so freaking cute. Goofy and a bit snarky, but a nice storyline too. If you haven't seen it, you should. However, I think it's pretty hilarious that all the vikings have Scottish accents except some of the kids. L...

Quick post before I hand the only internet-capable computer in Manda's apartment over to her so she can do her homework before 11pm. We went out and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" this evening. It was so cute. We also went shopping and found me 2 new dresses. One looks exactly like one my library director owns. Yup, she's got good taste. The other is a dressy one for a facutly function I have to go to. :) Ok, time for homework for Manda and Will Grayson for me!!