Currently Listening There It Go: The Whistle Song see related

Get Married, Happy People!

Currently Listening Songs About Jane [Bonus Tracks] By Maroon 5 see related

I made some amazing biscotti yesterday! Here's the recipe, dedicated to all my favorite coffee connoisseurs. Maybe you got in the summer-baking mood I've been in and will want to try it out.

Jessica's Mom's Biscotti

(jessica is my piano student at Janell Whitby School of Music. she just memorized a 5th grade version of the Entertainer yesterday.)

1 cup whole almonds. 1 stick butter. 3/4 cup sugar. 2 eggs. 1 teaspoon vanilla. 2 cups flour. 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder. 1/4 teaspoon salt. 1 cup Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Semi-Sweet Chips. (the best part)

put the almonds on a baking sheet in a cold oven. turn the oven to 350 degrees and remove the almonds after 12-15 minutes. Cool the nuts and chop coarsely.

Pam-spray a cookie sheet. Blend the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a mixing bowl until all creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and whip until very fluffy. Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture. Mix in the almonds and chocolate until well-mixed and stiff. Separate the dough into two equal parts.

flatten each part on the cookie sheet to 1-inch thick, 4-5 inches wide and 12 inches long. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for exactly 10 minutes. Using a serrated knive, cut each log into diagonal slices 1-inch thick Turn slices on their sides. Return sheet to oven and bake for 6 minutes. Flip slices carefully and bake on the second side for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool - store in an airtight container.

Relish and enjoy!

Currently Listening Bette Midler - Greatest Hits-Experience the Divine By Bette Midler You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings see related

hello, world! i guess a month has gone by since i last bared my soul to xanga. wink! really, i just wait until people beg me to please update...i like to be begged. that's the whole reason i blog. would you rather do something out of the goodness of your heart or be begged and sweet-talked and cajoled and emplored to do it? i'd rather be begged.

unless its cleaning. i Hate to clean. everyone who knows me knows i hate to clean. when you clean things, they start getting dirty again as you're cleaning them. cleaning has to be the Most Depressing way to spend one's time. but if i Must clean, then i make sure i do it before anyone asks me to do it. then they're surprised and they appreciate it. 'oh my goodness! you cleaned the bathroom! that was so sweet of you! whatever made you do that? thank you so much!' this is much better than, 'would you just Clean the Bathroom?!? you'd better stay home and get that cleaning done. i can't believe you haven't done it yet. i don't see how you can live in such a mess.' see, this kind of begging is not my style.

speaking of cleaning, yes, i was cleaning this morning. i even dusted. the 4-letter 'd' word. nathan called me 'cinderella'! that makes cleaning a little bit better, being cinderella. but the cinderella part of the story everyone loves and talks about isn't the cleaning part. cinderella had a ball to go to, and a fairy godmother and a beautiful dress with alluring glass slippers. and a prince to dance with until midnight. i have a dinner, not a ball to go to. and its not the kind where you wear alluring dresses and slippers. and its 180 miles further south from my prince...who is already 400 miles away from dancing with me until midnight. see how depressing cleaning is? maybe i just won't clean again until i plan a ball and a dress and slippers and my prince is near enough to dance until midnight.

Currently Playing The Phantom of the Opera (Original 1986 London Cast) By Andrew Lloyd Webber, Michael Reed, David Firth, John Savident, Michael Crawford, Rosemary Ashe, Sarah Brightman, Steve Barton Point of No Return see related

i'm awake...surprisingly! got three hours of sleep last night after lacey's birthday party. that's why i have POTO running through my head...we started the movie at ten and danced to shania twain until two after shopping at the mall and eating dessert before dinner at fuddruckers. what a total girls' night out! never had quite so much fun in my life. (with girlfriends, that is.) we even ignored boys who called us all evening, we were having so much fun. except i answered nathan's calls. the girls didn't mind. anyone other than nathan, though, and they got sent to voicemail with, 'we're having too much fun to talk to boys. its our girls night out!" or else our pet phrase,

"boys are stupid. throw rocks at them."

we have a running debate, lacey and i. in the movie, is the Phantom hot? and the big question up for debate, is Raoul hot?? i say the Phantom is much hotter, definitely cute, and infinitely more interesting than Raoul. lacey says Raoul is all the things i said about the Phantom. i agreed that in one scene -- when Raoul is sword-fighting in the graveyard -- that Raoul actually is attractive. otherwise i say he is just incredibly nice and sweet and a very beautiful, pretty person. not hot.

ok, that is entirely too much time and thought put into the virtues of Raoul and the Phantom's looks.