Tuesday, August 26, 2008

hosh's and my last hoorah...

*almost forgot to post pics from our last trip to VA Beach before i left to come back to college. double wammie, if you will. :)*
*these are my legs...ha*


*hosh found a crabbie...*

thanks, hosh for the great trip! i love you! <3

welcome to penndel

hey guys! just thought i'd post a few pictures of my new digs. hope you like them. my things are a little messy, but they are the neatest of all the 5 roommates :)

*my closet*
*nay-nay on my bed. i love her.*
*my dex. notice the family blog on the computer screen :)*
*my part of the book shelves. the top shelf (obviously) and the shelf beneath are mine. there are shelves to the right of these that go all the way to the ceiling.*
*my cabinets in the kitchen. also, mom notice the new black box... electric skillet for $9.99 at ALDI's.*

there will be more/better/new pictures soon. after everyone cleans up their crap.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

American Folk Festival 2008

The American Folk Festival is held each year in Bangor, Maine. I think it was going on the week after I moved to Maine initially, so I missed out on the 2007 festivities. However, I think I made up for that in a big way tonight.



Here are some pictures:

This first shot is of Beth sporting the latest in free headware. The semi behind her is slowly bringing the steel drum band down the street as the one and only bit of the evening parade.

Sometimes Mainers just enjoy pulled pork. Sometimes they have sassy sayings too...

Do I need to explain this one? This is Beth again, and, no, she didn't taste the mustard, but I certainly did. I tried some sort of Honey Wine Mustard, and it was fantastic. Mike is standing there behind Beth and he too enjoyed the mustards.

Ummm...duh, it's a giant L.L.Bean backpack. Ayuh.

And my favorite picture of the festival. These two lovelies are the anchors of the local Bangor news. You can check out their bios here. Anyway, I watch these kids give the news every day, so I was beyond thrilled to see them enjoying the previously mentioned steel drum band. As soon as they danced by me, I knew I had to make my move. I briefed Beth on her duties (aim camera, press button) and made a beeline for the pair. Turns out Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio are really nice and they were super willing to take the awkward photo with me. I'm sure they weren't as excited as I was...but I can understand that. :) I mean...they're Bangor royalty.

As you can see, the folk festival was a lot of fun. We listened to quite a few bands, ate a good deal of fried food, and enjoyed many a craft booth.

Since this was the most fun I've had in Bangor in a good while, I'm going back tomorrow by myself. Looking forward to more of the same!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

i <3 cupcakes

well...with the semester fast approaching, i've realized that my enjoyment of cupcakes has reached an all new level. it has turned into full on O. C. Baking. at least that is what i'm calling it.


i made cupcakes on saturday (sorry, no pictures, but those cupcakes were yellow and red velvet marbles). i made cupcakes on tuesday for class, and i just finished a batch for class tonight. the first ones i'll show you were made last week. i know...it's a problem.


i iced these with cream cheese icing and then used 'easy writers' food coloring markers to write and draw on the cupcakes. i wrote things that applied to our class readings. like a dork, i know, but it made everyone laugh.
i drew a blueberry on the top of each of these cupcakes because i sunk blueberries into the bottom of each cupcake. very maine.
this a process shot from my tuesday cupcake experiment. i really wanted to achieve a tie-dyed look. how do you think i did?
now on to the cupcakes i made today. these are pink lemonade cupcakes in the oven.

my camera battery died right after this picture, so i don't have any final pictures, but these cupcakes are super cute. both the cake and the icing are pink lemonade flavored, so they are a little tart. i iced these cupcakes pretty liberally and then cut plastic straws down and stuck one in each cupcake.

also...this is so far the smoothest, creamiest icing i've ever made from scratch. i'm quite pleased.

so...those are my cupcakes. at least the recent ones. i'm sure there will be more soon. :)

Friday, August 15, 2008

some more of maine.


stephen king's gate... i don't know if you can see it, but there's a gargoyle-y type thing with 3 heads on there20 minutes into my maine adventure :) a canon by the harbor

cafe nouveau

hands of hope, first of MANY thrift store trips in maine.


i taught mambi a new skill...

while we made yummy dinner :)
mmm fritatta. one of three that week.
mandi burned her oven mitt. oops.
bar harbor
mambi at bar harbor.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

today we had fun...

standing in the sunflowers on roger's farm...

harvesting lettuce from the labyrinth...

leaning on a cannon on the umaine campus...

looking pensive on the river...

and scaling the umaine sign.

it's okay to be jealous. and no, you cannot have our number.

Friday, August 8, 2008

maine-ly amazing.

* me and mambi with the UofM Black Bear. Yes, we had to climb to get to him.*
*We'd seen commercials for 'Nice Twice' and wanted to visit. I kinda got us on a thrift store kick for the past couple of days.*
*We stopped for a quilting show, but we left when we were told it was $3 each for entry. However, we did get to see some 'art bras'... quite interesting. You'll have to ask Mambi about this one.*
*Me and Mambi at Bar Harbor. I had just gotten done telling Manda my plan of attack if someone offered to take our picture and then ran off with our camera. The guy taking our picture was joking about taking Manda's camera and I was NOT amused. I wanted to punch him in the face.*


*eek.... if you can't tell... that's a lobster meat in the exact shape of the claw. Manda and I were shocked that it came right out of the shell in that shape.
Lobster Caesar Salad: $19.99
Bar Harbor T-shirt: $13.99
Low-Fat Cappuccino Ice Cream: $5.00
A Day in Baa-Haa-Ba with Mandi: Priceless

Wednesday, August 6, 2008