decem-BURRRR

December has made its mark and i think all of California is frozen over.



it is so COLD everywhere and it seems like there is no way of getting warm here; especially here.


I don't think that a single home here was build with insulation because everyone seems to be experiencing the same problem...a FREEZING HOUSE. An easy solution would be to turn on the heater, but now that i have gas and electricity bills of my own, I understand why mad dad would never want us turning on the heater back home.



when the thermostat gets below 55, the roomies and I make an exception to turn it on till it reaches 60. then it get turned off again.

our thermostat at 1pm

its dead week here, the week before finals...bleh. it consists of late night studying, lots of coffee, and yes...finals. its weird but true. there are a good about of classes that turn in final papers and presentations the week before finals.i notice that the professors who give their finals the week before they are supposed to, are just as eager to finish the semester as we are. but it has its pro's and cons.



one of the funniest things happened yesterday:

to help warm up (and get clean) i took a hot shower. the hot water felt so good and gave me a chance to defrost. for about 15 minutes, i was actually warm. it was bittersweet though because right when i turned off that hot water i was freezing again. 


not only that, but my hair was wet for the next half hour in which time mike stopped by to join the study party. while i was moaning and complaining about my wet hair that was the root of my discomfort and making me colder, mike offered to blow dry my hair to warm me up. HA! it was so great. we even got it photographed. hah

i thought it was pretty hilarious

sugar coma

i am officially going into a sugar coma, caused by a sugar overload.

all 3 of us roomies are.

you might ask how did the sugar overload came to be...

i have 2 words for you:

CARMEL CORN

{Bianca} made the most delicious, creamy, outstanding carmel corn i have ever tasted. 

all the time i have been spending walking to school has been in vain after a night of eating this deliciousness. 

that just means i'll be walking more!

thrift stores

i've come to the conclusion that thrift stores are amazing.

actually, i already knew that.

 but i was recently reminded of their awesomeness when i went to one and hit the jackpot. i got a few goofy christmas presents for certain people so i cant list everything i bought, but there was one item in particular that i am so EXCITED about:

...a bacon press...

i think this is the coolest thing ever! not only that but i know someone who was just gifted a brand new one. She knows i LOVE bacon so she showed me hers and i thought it was so funny. so i was stoked when i found one.

i love it!

some other good finds:

1. Lederhosen. Seriously, if you have ever been to a good Oktoberfest party you'll know that a pair of these suckers will elect you as best dressed for sure. And really, i think i was morally obligated to get them since they are real and they were only $14. yea, i know...pretty awesome....

below: dad and Tirz at the annual Oktoberfest party

2. Lamp. i love lamp. My mom and i were in a thrift store once and found an AWESOME 70's lamp. it looks a little bit like a yellow bowling ball with a lampshade. it is BRIGHT YELLOW and was only $3.50. i think it might be my favorite part of my bedroom(either that or my huge chair that i got for FREE on craigslist). 

3. A great vintage shirt. I didn't put up a picture because it didn't do it justice. but just know, its amazing. 

sweet cream

ATTEMPT #1
three nights ago was our first attempt to make chocolate chip cookies.
but we had no chocolate chips. 
so the cookies had to wait. 


ATTEMPT #2
our 2nd attempt was successful.
last night we made the cookies.


it was an interesting cooking backing sesh if i do say so myself. for starters we had no measuring spoons. hah. yea, that makes baking cookies a problem when you need to add minor ingredients like salt, baking soda, and vanilla. 
but no worries, we improvised by guesstimating with a regular spoon. (:

When i was hovering over the baker snapping pictures of this i was asked not to write about this embarrassing episode of having no measuring spoons; it might make the baker look bad. 

he later reconsidered.

another fun fact about our cookies was that we tried sweet cream butter instead of regular butter. I learned last night that sweet cream butter messes with the salt measurement-i thought that was interesting.

The reason why we used the sweet cream butter instead of regular unsalted butter was because that was all i had. 

it was all i had because when i was in Trader Joe's on sunday i need to buy butter and as i looked at all the varieties and brands of butter i had an urge to get sweet cream butter. i have always wanted to try it and it sounds so delicious. just say it... sweet cream. it just sounds good (it sounds even better if you say it with an English accent). 

ALL that to say, the sweet cream butter is overrated...and not the best to use when making cookies. I could definitely taste it when i was eating all the cookie dough when we were finished. 

the cookies ended up great! sweet cream butter and all!

at least i think so...i tend to be the only one eating them around these parts.