Competing for the title of Minnesota's American Teen Princess sure was exciting, but I never could have won without my St. Paul Pork Products.
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I've always figured that I would be a good cook. I mean, when I lived at home, I always loved it when I was allowed to just "get my own dinner" and make whatever I wanted. I always did fine, and I never went hungry. Until recently, however, I wasn't aware that I wasn't really cooking. I was opening cans or pre-prepared meals and heating them. I really don't have any skills in the kitchen.
Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe perfectly fine. If I am given a good recipe, I can keep from messing it up. What I lack is the intuition to just mix something up without a recipe (also the intuition to know when I need to do things the recipe forgot to include).
Also, I have a hard time cooking meat. I like to blame it on colorblindness since I really can't for the life of me tell whether the meat is still pink or not, but I'm sure I could work around that if I tried.
I can't keep eating ramen and fast food forever though, and I can't make Elston always do the cooking, so I need to get some practice. For this reason, I am using my next paycheck to buy The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition so I can practice cooking from recipes that have been tried and tested for 75 years.
I found this book in Borders on a special display a few weeks ago and I've been fantasizing about it since. I don't know why I want it so bad. I think I like the fact that it basically looks like a dictionary. There is nothing fancy about the book; it is just recipes. No flashy descriptions of why I'll love the recipes, no fancy photos to entice me, just recipes. No cutesy font or Food Networky cover, just plain old recipes. I'm excited.
Before the concert, we ate with Dave, Ginger, and Dennis at Cafe Trio. Our food was incredibly good. Everyone got something that everyone else liked. I had a hard time deciding whose food was the best.
When we arrived at the venue, the line had already gone around the corner and was quite far down the block. We got in line as soon as possible and found ourselves behind a group of 20-something girls and a possibly 40-something mom looking lady who looked like an older Kristin Chenoweth. One of the girls in front of us had really nice looking hair, but upon further inspection, her weave was showing. Which led us to take the only good photo we took that evening. If you look closely, you can see the weave sewn onto her hair. Not pretty.
The hardest part of concerts for Elston is the waiting. There is a lot of waiting. You wait in line to get in the building. Once in the building you wait for the opening act. After the opening act you wait for the headliner. It's a very tedious process, and one which Elston doesn't tolerate well. I find it easy to distract myself by people watching and daydreaming about what I would do if I had superpowers, but Elston can't be satisfied by that. It especially didn't help that the opening act, Matthew Perryman Jones was not exactly a big crowd pleaser. Austin and I agreed that we would like to listen to his songs sometimes, but not for an extended period of time while standing in a crowd sweating profusely from forehead, armpits, and crotch. All of this prompted several angry facebook status updates from Elston and a concerned look on my face as I wondered about Elston's emotional well-being.
Once the show started though, all boredom vanished. Ingrid is most definitely a crowd pleaser. She knows how to keep the crowd engaged and involved. She flattered us by saying we were the best crowd she'd ever had and she was impressed that we could sing along, etc. She encouraged us to clap in certain parts, sing in certain parts, shout in certain parts, and do spirit fingers in certain parts. She told cute little stories to make the songs relatable. While I loved both concerts I've been to previously (Lily Allen and Regina Spektor) I think Ingrid put on the most entertaining one.
I found a video on YouTube that someone took of one of her encore songs at the concert. I tried taking pictures and the lighting was bad, so I didn't even try to take video, so this will have to do:
And here are a few of my favorite Ingrid songs, purely for your enjoyment:
Having previously escaped death, Sir Leicester Pennyapple Williams finally returned to his maker on the evening of October the 19th. Burial services are currently being arranged, and the mourning process has begun. To read the obituary from the previous false assumption of his death, go here. Leicester will be missed by all who knew him, especially those who cared for him in his later years. Goodbye, Sir Leicester. Wherever you are now, please try to venture out of the cage once in a while.
Life has been going a mile a minute ever since I won Ailinglaplap Kibwe Lap's Next Top Model. I've been touring the fashion capitals of the world, stunning with them with my gorgeous looks and signature walk. The best part of being a top model though is getting photoshopped to look even more beautiful (if that's even possible for me). I was lucky enough to have my photoshopping done by one Dave Hansen. Please be in awe of his skills.
I've had the Graffiti application on facebook for a while, but I never really understood what it was for until recently. I also found out that my friend Austin creates absolute masterpieces using this dinky little facebook app. Watch the replays of a couple of his creations below:
After seeing the wonders you can create, I decided to try my had at it. I soon found out that the color palette is not labeled, and my colorblind eyes couldn't tell which colors I was choosing. This masterpiece resulted:
A recent trend I have been noticing, perhaps since the advent of America's Next Top Model, is people trying to model who ought not model. In honor of this trend I have decided to dedicate the first cycle of Ailinglaplap Kibwe Lap's Next Top Model, the official modeling competition of this incredibly fashion-forward blog.
The contestants (from my facebook friends list):
Devin Yakiwchuk Devin is in school for Premed, pretty driven. Hard working, he likes v neck shirts or t shirts, plaid shorts or cargos, basketball shorts, light shirts or shorts, jeans or pants. He likes a sporty look, sometimes a nice clean look, or summer look Preppy. He is very chill and easy going. He can follow direction very well, and do what needs to be done.
Javin Weaver Did someone call for a chaiwalla? Javin is seen here modeling for the Sears Technical Support company newsletter. Need a model but don't want to pay full price? Outsource it to Javin Weaver.
Sean "Coral" Edwards Perhaps you would prefer a model based on consistency and endurance. Coral has literally over 2,000 photos on facebook and only 3 different poses in all of them.
John Valdez Finally, we have John Valdez. If you would like a model whose expressions tell stories, John Valdez is your man. His multi-talented face has told such stories as, "I just farted. Would you come join me?" and "Did I leave the stove on?"
And the winner of Ailinglaplap Kibwe Lap's Next Top Model is ME! Thanks to all who competed, but I've come to find that I like winning things more than giving things to others. Whether it be a free t-shirt or a contract with Ford Models and a cover story on Seventeen Magazine, I won't be satisfied until it's mine. I'd like to thank our sponsors, eGRACE International and St. Paul Pork Products, because I never could have won Ailinglaplap Kibwe Lap's Next Top Model without them.
So it turns out we were wrong about which hamster died... We should have opened the cage and watched his reaction before we declared Leicester's death. It was Marvin McMaster that passed, not Sir Leicester Pennyapple Williams. So in hopes of making amends for his botched obituary, here's a second try.
Back in July 2008, Elston and I purchased two hamsters, Leicester and Marvin. They were indistinguishable by their physical features, but we could always tell them apart simply by opening the cage. Marvin would always venture out of the cage when the door was open. Leicester would stay inside. Marvin was always quite active. He loved the outside world, and he loved his hamster ball. He was an expert at running the wheel, and he was always the most friendly to humanity. Yesterday we found him lying under the wheel not moving. He must have died sometime during the night.
We quickly gave him a proper burial on the banks of the Provo River with funeral services furnished by eGRACE International. Rest in peace, Marvin McMaster. You will be missed.
* Included photo is not of Marvin, but it looks like him, so that will do.
Back in July 2008, Elston and I purchased two hamsters, Leicester and Marvin. They were indistinguishable by their physical features, but we could always tell them apart simply by opening the cage. Marvin would always venture out of the cage when the door was open. Leicester would stay inside. He was always a homebody. He loved staying in the cage and exploring the many extensions Elston bought. He was content in there and didn't need the outside world. Today we found him lying under the wheel not moving. He must have died sometime during the night.
We quickly gave him a proper burial on the banks of the Provo River with funeral services furnished by eGRACE International. Rest in peace, Sir Leicester Pennyapple Williams. You will be missed.
* Included photo is not of Sir Leicester, but it looks like him, so that will do.
A few months ago I was reading Vanity Fair and I came across a Burberry ad with a model who looked very familiar. It took a few seconds to figure out who it could be, then I recognized her: Emma Watson, cinema's Hermione Granger. She looks so good in the ads I hardly recognized her. Not that she doesn't look good normally, but you know, Hermione is supposed to look a little rough around the edges. I've never been an Emma Watson fanatic, but I was really impressed with her for booking a Burberry ad campaign. I read somewhere that the people at Burberry considered her a risky choice, but I think it paid off well. She looks like a professional model, not an actress.
Then today I read about how she upstaged Victoria Beckham at the Burberry fashion show that completed Fashion Week in London. I really like the idea of Emma Watson becoming a new fashion icon. She's young, she's fresh, she doesn't do drugs and go out in limos without wearing panties (at least not so far as I know). She's just plain classy, intelligent, and she looks good in a dress. Which is basically all it takes to succeed in this world, I mean, it worked for Rudy Giuliani.
