Happy Birthday, Harry!

I'd now like to interrupt your daily activities/my regularly scheduled studying to remind you that... It's Harry Potter's birthday today!! He would be 33. :) It's also J.K. Rowling's birthday. (She's 48.)

Also, for your reading pleasure, "33Things We Love About Harry Potter:" 

http://popwatch.ew.com/2013/07/31/harry-potter-birthday/

And now back to your regularly scheduled activities. :)

There's Always a Bright Side (Right??)

How I've felt this week. (via)

This week. Oy, this week.... has been the MOTHER of all weeks. (No, seriously... And just when I thought that nothing else could possibly go wrong, I just got a speeding ticket... My first ticket since my teens! And yes, I cried... but only as the officer left.) The purpose of this post is mostly for me to remember that there always IS a bright side. (Even during THE. worst. week. of all of graduate school. EVER. I wish that were hyperbolic...) So, yes... Here are some good things that happened this week along with all the other crap:

I got to sit on a lot of babies (which = $$), including this little cutie (and her twin brother!) who let me braid her hair!

Clearly, I'm new to this braiding thing. But isn't she still adorable??

I got to play with this sweet dog. His name is Jack.

I found out James Franco is going to be in Season 2 of The Mindy Project! This show just keeps getting better and better!

Photo from here (But I first saw this one on Mindy's instagram.)

Kate and Wills had their baby!!!

In case you've been living under a rock, this is Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. :) (This photo and many other good ones from Buzzfeed.)

Also, these look-alikes are HILARIOUS!

And this was my favorite meme:

Google Maps now has a BIKE FEATURE!!

This is the address to the old Georgetown J.Crew (which is thankfully just up the road from the new one),
where I resisted temptation and didn't spend a dime! How's that for a triumph??

The weather this week was PERFECT, and the world continued to be beautiful, despite the dreariness in my soul...

Canal Road and I have a love/hate relationship. But this beauty at least made the hassle a little more bearable.

Riding my bike across the bridge in Woodley Park.

I'm going to a National Symphony Orchestra concert tomorrow night at Wolf Trap. 

My scripture study this week has been very powerful, meaningful, and personal. (Nothing like trials to bring us closer to our God, eh?)

And my conversations today with April and Caitlin meant the world to me. (Love you both so much!)

See? It hasn't ALL been bad. YZ over and out...

Turning the Ordinary to Extraordinary

I had two Visitors' Center Directors while I was on my mission: Elder Pedersen (for most of my mission) and Elder Smith (for the last three months). Elder Pedersen is a successful businessman (check out his mega-successful company Del Sol! I have their color-changing nail polish -- it's amaaazing! -- and my Del Sol bear has a permanent spot in the middle of my mass of bed pillows), and he enjoyed spicing up our weekly Visitors' Center trainings with his sage business wisdom and general peppy good spirits.

On one occasion, he gifted all of us sisters with our very own Zipit purses. The lesson that day was about turning the ORDINARY into the EXTRAORDINARY. Like how the ordinary zipper was turned into something extraoridnary (ie- a purse!). I can't remember the exact application of the lesson to us as VC sisters (possibly about making each tour extra special, because while for us, it may have been the 10,000th tour of the day, for our guests, it was a special experience?), but I think of that lesson often in my life.

And last night, I took something I needed to do, something ordinary (ie- STUDYING) and took it up several notches and turned it into the EXTRAORDINARY (by studying at the Lincoln Memorial!). I just figured if I needed to read/write, why not do it somewhere beautiful? And it was SUCH a gorgeous night, too! I got there around midnight, and there were still quite a few tourists there. BUT! Tourists generally stick around the front of the memorial, while I... went around to the BACK! There was a couple makin' out back there (apparently, they had the same brilliant idea I did about going to the back), and yep, I totally killed their mood. 

On a semi-related note, I think it would be a *brilliant* date idea to come here with a movie and a laptop! (amiright??) Blanket and cuddling not optional. :)

I will NEVER get tired of taking monument photos!

President Lincoln makes a good stud buddy.

Ahhh! I love this view and want to have it for always!

what I looked like after two hours of reading...

I emailed this one to my missionary brother and his comment was, "Wow, nice hair." Umm, thanks? Ha.

Lesson reaffirmed: when you're stuck in a rut or faced with something "ordinary," go to the Lincoln Memorial! get creative and find a way to turn it into something "extraordinary!" (Bonus points if you get homework done, while you're at it. Which I did, btw!) Thanks, Elder Pedersen! :)

Goodbye, Clarissa

Na na na na naaaa! Na na na na na NA! (are you singing it in your head, too?) (via)

I've decided to give up any and all Hulu/Amazon Prime/etc.-type "TV" watching from now until I finish my Master's degree. It's become way too easy being home all day to just sneak in "one" episode of something here and there, and all of a sudden, my brain is rotting and my work is undone. 

I haven't watched TV consistently for over a decade, and for some reason over the past year, I've felt the "need" to keep up with certain popular shows. (All the cool kids are doing it.) It's summer, and there ARE no new shows (trust me, this would be much harder if "The Mindy Project" was on right now), but there's the tasty allure of OLD shows (or of doing anything besides what you really NEED to do?). Like... did you know that "Clarissa Explains It All" is available FOR FREE on Amazon Prime?? I know. I'm ridiculous. I squealed out loud when I saw that one. And for when you finish that, all seven seasons of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" are also on there. (And yes, I'm aware of how ridiculous this all makes me sound. But honestly, the peak of Melissa Joan Hart's career was probably the last time I was a big TV watcher, so I guess I'm just picking up where I left off, question mark?) Oh, and lest you think I'm a 12-year old girl stuck in the '90's, I DID recently finish the first three seasons of "Arrested Development." (I don't have Netflix -- or time -- so Season 4 will have to wait.)

Between my general procrastination and the sickness of this week, I've partaken of waaayyy too much TV-ing this week, and with so much to do to wrap up four classes in a very, very limited number of weeks, I've gotta get rid of unnecessary junk. So even though I JUST discovered Clarissa last night (tear), it'll be autumn at least before I get to relive my Nickelodeon chidlhood. Peace out, Hulu. See ya later, Amazon Prime. And hello, work!

Wheat Bran White Bread

It's been an off week 'round these parts (mostly because I've slept through about half of it?). I caught some sort of stomach bug (or possibly food poisoning) over the weekend, so I spent the first few days of the week throwing up (no more "vomit-free since 2003." I suppose that supports Stephanie's typecasting of me as Ted Mosby. Ha.) and sleeeeeeeeping. So since there's not much to update on this week, here's a tasty little recipe I whipped up recently.

so good!

I had a hankering for some PBJ recently, but sadly had no bread to make it with. I decided to bake a loaf while I did homework. Now usually, I prefer to eat whole wheat bread. But since I don't currently have any wheat flour (and since I have a Costco-sized 25-lb. bag of  all-purpose flour...), I used white flour instead. I still wanted to be at least a little bit on the healthy side, so I looked up several bread recipes (including two I've used before), made some adjustments, and came up with this. And actually, that's my favorite part about this recipe; I put it together! This is a BIG deal for a non-baker like me!! (*pats self on back*)

The result was a beautiful loaf of soft, delicious homemade bread! (I'm still in shock.)

Wheat Bran White Bread
recipe by ME!

INGREDIENTS

2 t yeast
1 ¼ c. warm milk
¼ c honey/agave
¼ c olive oil
2 ¼ c flour
½ c wheat bran
1 t sea salt/kosher salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add honey and oil. Let rest 5-10 minutes (or until foamy).
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, wheat bran, and salt. 
3. Add the flour mixture to the yeast mixture and mix until everything is combined and your dough forms. Mix well (use your hands) and knead for 5-10 minutes.
4. Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
5. Punch down the dough and knead for another 5-10 minutes. Form into a loaf and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes! The bread should be a light golden brown. Feel free to adjust the time, per the quirks of your oven. (The recipes I looked at said to leave the bread in for 30 minutes, but our oven is overeager and the bread was ready after 21 minutes or so.)
7. *IMPORTANT* Carefully remove the loaf from the pan (so the outside of the bread won't continue to cook. Also, don't burn yo'self!) and let the loaf COOL completely (so the inside of the bread DOES continue to cook; that's the important part!) before slicing.
8. Enjoy! :)

Tastes even better with Amish apple butter!