Happy Birthday, Harry Potter (also, J.K. Rowling)!

Today is Harry Potter and JK Rowling's birthday! Many happy wishes to the both of them.

Also, a happy belated birthday to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was released on July 22, 2007 - five years ago! Can you believe it? I still remember lining up (one of the first ones, too!) outside of the SoHo Scholastic store right after I got off of work (fortunately, I was working at an office just a few blocks away at the time) and celebrating the evening with friends and festivities and a real Whomping Willow!

What a great day!

Starry Night, Swirly Cake

I want this cake. A) I love Van Gogh B) It's so pretty!! (love his wheat fields) C) Honestly, it looks pretty tasty. Clearly, there's plenty of icing! Plus, it's good icing and not fondant - that's the way you use icing to make baked goods pretty!

The only downside would be that eating it would destroy it... Unless by eating it I ingested its artistic abilities and then became a great painter myself!

[via Neatorama]

The Mountain

Ah, the perfect, relaxing end to a really fantastic week:

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Isn't April lovely?

["The Mountain" by filmmaker Terje Sorgierd, via Neatorama]

Happy Birthday, Steve Martin!

Born Standing Up is my favorite memoir (out of the grand total of about 2 that I have read), and The Jerk has got to be one of my favorite movies of all time. I so love Steve Martin that I named my Muppet after him. I'm just saying.

This article about him from Neotorama sums my fangirl adoration up pretty well. Enjoy!

PS. Oh, right, and Happy Birthday to my brother, as well!

Birthday Post!

(Ok, so I know it's not my birthday, but this is what I wanted to post yesterday before I got caught up in the TOTALLY AWESOMELY WONDERFUL birthday I had!)



While watching this, I did feel very small and insignificant. I felt that we must protect our world and that my problems and successes are only a minuscule portion of this much larger planet of ours.

Then I remembered, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! And I had a lot of fun.

Music Brightens My Day

And it can brighten yours, too! Just listen to this amazing hang drum (who knew what that was anyway? Not me!) duo kick musical ass and help me go to sleep after a long day.



I hope this helps you all have sweet dreams tonight, readers! Or at least get in a good nap at work tomorrow.

PS. It's my birthday tomorrow! It's never too early (or too late) to start wishing me a happy 23rd!

Singing Bananas!

I want a singing bananagram (read: man in a giant banana suit) to show up to my office bday party!

And yes, this happened at my office today. This is one of the many reasons I'm very much enjoying my internship.

Stew of the Week: Special Battle Edition Winner

And the winner is...

Bev's!!!!

It was really no contest.

No, really, it was no contest because when I asked everyone which they wanted to make first, everyone chose Bev's and no one wanted to make the other kind. So Bev's wins on recipe alone (the rolled oats really put them over the edge). A truly complete victory.

However, let us not disregard the other cookies. We did use egg whites instead of eggs, less salt, whole rolled oats instead of chopped, and I believe possibly even less sugar, so huzzah!

The cookies this time were even better than when I made them at home. Fluffier, crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, absolutely delightful.

And the vegan chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes were scrumptious, as always. And a good helping of WALL-E added just the adorably romantic note to end the night. A happy birthday had by all!

It Just Was My Birthday!

Ok, so I was too excited about it being my birthday to post on my birthday. So this is my "It just was my birthday and it was awesome!" post.

Huzzah!

I'm Almost My Birthday!

The obligatory pre-birthday, "Yay my birthday is tomorrow!!" post.

To be followed shortly by the, "Yay it IS my birthday!!" post.

Exciting!