it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life

ok beloved blog readers, i am back! (don't believe a word i say) no, really, i am. i am totally going to write this blog again. i swear. really.

so yesterday in honor of everyone's favorite vampire werewolf love-triangle, i threw a New Moon party at the library. let me tell you, throwing these parties is hard work. and sadly, a lot of the work needs to be done on my own time. like baking these "vampire bites" sugar cookies. get it, it's like they were bitten by a vampire? so clever.

so two nights this week instead of finishing the first draft of my novel (so close!), i spent preparing for this party. which leads me to believe that if i didn't have a full time job, i would totally have enough free time to do what i need to do to get my job done. huh? dizzies the mind, doesn't it?

the first night of non-writing i spent baking. however, i was very efficient and i spent the baking downtime listing items to sell on amazon. i am trying to rid myself of unnecessary items and live a more monkish lifestyle. except with lots of drinking and fab outfit changes.

then the second night i spent making iron-ons so that i could create twilight themed t-shirts as prizes for the kids. these actually turned out really cool. but time consuming.

the day of the party was total chaos. the devoted teen helpers we have here at happy shiny new library were all at meetings or otherwise engaged, so it was just me and my fab co-librarian in crime. we had a bella scavenger hunt, in which the kids were released into the library to solve clues all based on books that bella reads in the series (bella is a reader, i'll have you know.) do you know what i learned from this dear blog readers? the children have idea where we keep the books. and even when i was following them around giving them extra hints they were pretty abismal at finding stuff. even when it was right in front of them and i was screaming, "hot! hot! you're right there! look right in front of you!"

we had several other games, like a bella bandage wrap up relay and an unwrap bella's birthday present "hot potato" game. and lastly we also played Twilight Scene It?

now, you are probably asking your self "self, how did miss dewey decimal possibly afford to buy Twilight Scene It? on her measely budget?" well, the answer astute blog reader is that i didn't. i bought it with my OWN MONEY. but here is the clever clever part. since it has only been played one time and it is oh so perfectly still in tact, i am going to try to "flip it" on eBay! maybe you would like to purchase it? it was been touched by your beloved miss dewey d! if you buy it, maybe i'll make you a special crafty card or something to show my appreciation.

untitled

i entitled this picture "cock and cupcakes," but i'm not sure if that would be a proper name for this post. we'll see.
ms. b cakes had listed a recipe for pumpkin caramel cupcakes on her website. if your follow the recipe they will be "guilt free:" low calories, low fat, low ww points blah blah blah. but i decided to replace all the healthy stuff with the fattening stuff. i think it was the right move.
tonight i sat in my apartment, eating leftovers from the meal i cooked friday, watching the last of the 90210 episodes, and baking cupcakes. i am just a regular suzie homemaker. and i waited for a phone call that seems like it will never come. i tell myself that eventually this will work out for me (i mean it has to right?), but honestly i just see no evidence of that. none at all. and for the longest time i blamed others, but now i can only blame myself. as cliche as it is ... it is me. it's not you ... its me. i can't pinpoint exactly what it is about me, but it's me.

master baker

so these are the fabulous cupcakes i made for my friend merica. please note that the bottom pan of cupcakes are decorated with the led zeppelin zoso symbols. it isn't easy trying to represent led zeppelin in icing, but i think i did a damned good job. nothing says rock n' roll like multi-colored cupcakes.

p.s. the secret ingredient is buttermilk. and cocoa.

honest like a mirror

so it turns out i did not magically fight off my sore throat. it has been slowly beating me into submission. i took off of work two days last week and rested, then it got better. then saturday i ventured outside. then it got worse again. then sunday i spent the day on the couch reading, and it got better again. then i went to work the past two days, and now it is bad again. why? why, i ask you? i won't even tell you about the "mucus incident" this morning. you don't want to know.

hold on a sec ... gotta go check on my cookies. i'm baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies instead of writing my novel (which, might i add everyone in my class LOVES. the novel, not the cookies. although i may bring cookies tomorrow)

ah! still not done!

anyway, not much is going on ... writing, getting sick, hanging out with the kiddies ... same old stuff. but yesterday we did something very interesting. i don't know how it came about, but somehow my assistant and i were talking with the kids and they mentioned that they wanted to have "debates." so we said, "ok, let's have debates." so yesterday we did something that we named "great debates." pretty much, i looked up middle school debate club topics on the internets and came up with some issues that the kids could debate about. stuff like "should junk food be banned in schools" and "should field trips be educational" and "should violent video games be banned" etc etc. anyway, the kids got pretty into it. they debated really well, and after the all had one-on-one debates they asked if they could make "debate teams." so then we broke the kids up into teams of four and had them compete in teams for one final topic.

(cookies are done. man they're good. i'm so domestical)

anyway, the kids did a really good job. we have these two kids from africa that have been coming in. they just moved here and they're really smart thoughtful kids. the only problem is that the boy has a serious stuttering problem. i'm not sure about the etiquette with stuttering, but i've heard that you're supposed to just let the person keep going and not interrupt them. so i let this kid stutter through what he's going to say and he usually has something ver profound to say. but his stutter is REALLY bad so i wind up translating for the other kids. anyway, we had a little problem with some kids laughing while this kid was trying to debate. but i called them out and i think it was ok.

then my favorite kid had a little trouble understanding the idea behind debating. he kind of wanted to argue both the pros and cons of each topic. which, in real life, is good. we SHOULD look at both sides of each issue closely. but you do have to choose one side when debating. he didn't care for that too much.

that, dear blog readers, is what i have been up to as of late. and i will leave you with a poem that my stuttering child wrote during one of our poetry month program. i think it's pretty deep:

roses are red
violets are blue
i am honest
like a mirror