A cookie (in a cup) for my hubby

Today is hubby's birthday, and he loves chocolate chip cookies, so tonight I tried this recipe to make him a special dessert: a chocolate chip cookie in a cup. Surprise, it turned out! (Yay me!)

This was far better than making a whole batch of cookies, which takes up too much time for a weeknight and involves me eating way too much dough. Since you mix the dough in the cup you "bake" it in (in the microwave), there's not much clean-up, either.

I think I'll be hanging on to this recipe. Definitely a good one for when you just HAVE to have a cookie, but don't want to make a whole batch.

no. 2 pencil: Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Cup

Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code [Recently Watched]

I watched this over my lunch break today. I think Mitch Resnick says a lot of important things in here. People do seem to have the impression (and I fall into it now and then myself) that you only need to learn to code if you're going to be a programmer or a web developer or something along those lines. But Resnick points out that learning to code helps kids (and adults) learn other skills through coding.

Great video. Take the time to watch it.

 

Watch "Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code" on YouTube

Recently Read: 92 days til’ 13 [plus a declaration about the rest of my year]

So weird. Why does 92 days sound so short but 12 weeks sounds do-able?

A bit from "92 days til’ 13" at Jon Acuff's Blog, which I read today:

"We've got 92 days til’ 13.
Get your finish list back out.
Cut the whole list down to one thing....
Pick a day and time you’ll work on that goal at least once a week for the next 12 weeks.
That’s it."

My goal for these 92 days is to finish my book. Obviously, I'll be working on it more than once a week. Ideally, I'll work on it every day. Realistically, I have to work on it more days than I don't.

I'm not allowed to scrap the entire book halfway through and start on something else, which is my biggest hang-up. I am not allowed "Oh, it just wasn't working" excuses. This may not end up being a publishable book, but it does have to end up being a finished book. I must remind myself that perfectionism is not the point at this point. It will be ready to be read and critiqued. Then I'll go from there.

I will not take on any other big projects before January 1. This ONE project is my priority.

You can all bug me about it if you want. You have my permission.

[Taking a big breath as I post this]

There was life before Google??

Google has a cute animated doodle for their 14th birthday today.

On one hand, it's hard to believe Google's only been around 14 years. What did we do before we could just look up anything anytime anywhere? I shudder to think.

At the same time, I often forget that Google is older than my daughter. For her, Google has always been there, like light switches or doorknobs. A few weeks ago we were discussing her Spanish class and I mentioned a time in college when a friend and I sat around trying to figure out what a certain silly English phrase would be in Spanish, and how we only ever got about half way through the phrase. She looked at me with an eyebrow up and said "Why didn't you just Google it?"

"Google didn't exist yet."

Her eyes grew big. "What? I thought it had just always been there."

A minute later she grinned. "I guess I thought when cavemen wanted to find something out they just went over to the cave where the caveman called Google lived and asked him."

She has a sense of humor, that one.

Recently read: "With trying, comes mistakes"

A couple highlighted passages on trying new things (and those who don't try), from a post I read over the weekend:

"They could join in, but then they might fail, and they wouldn’t be able to sit at home [and] bitch."

"...with trying, comes mistakes...but that’s the nature of trying new things, failing."

via Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » The Amanda Palmer Kerfuffle via Neil Gaiman - I Interned for Amanda Palmer

Happy Hobbit Day!

Warner Bros via Hero Complex

Happy Birthday to Bilbo & Frodo! It's TolkienWeek, so there are no shortage of pics & clips from the upcoming movie across the internet. I found one with some nice portraits of the cast.

Click through for some great images, a trailer & a clip from The Hobbit: ‘Hobbit’ trailer: Radagast, wargs, a lighter look at Middle-earth.

And check out my friend *lizzie starr's blog for a great video of Leonard Nimoy singing "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins."

Ooooh, a pen "just for her!" [Sarcasm...funny, funny sarcasm]

Perhaps BIC should have done a leetle bit more market research...or are there long-suffering women out there wishing, hoping for something to write with other than all those "manly" pens?

As the product description at Amazon says, "BIC Cristal For Her has an elegant design - just for Her! It features a thin barrel designed to fit a women's hand. It has a diamond engraved barrel for an elegant and unique feminine style." (On top of it all, they have no one to proofread their product descriptions - or maybe the proofreader was just so overwhelmed by the idiocy of the description that "a women's hand" flew right by her)

I don't think I've ever used a pen and thought, "Gee, I wish this was designed for a woman." Judging from the reviews, not many other women have, either, but those reviews sure brought a smile to my face. :)

Here's just a sampling:

"Someone has answered my gentle prayers and FINALLY designed a pen that I can use all month long! I use it when I'm swimming, riding a horse, walking on the beach and doing yoga. It's comfortable, leak-proof, non-slip and it makes me feel so feminine and pretty! Since I've begun using these pens, men have found me more attractive and approchable. It has given me soft skin and manageable hair and it has really given me the self-esteem I needed to start a book club and flirt with the bag-boy at my local market."

"The women in my life love these pens. If you manage to use all of the ink before you lose it, it magically turns into a tampon."

"The 'for her' label is not just a gimmick exploiting archaic gender constructs, it's a WARNING. ...I don't know why they didn't put a clearer warning on the label, they really should have because if you are a boy and use this pen you put yourself at great risk. My little brother turned into a unicorn after I lent him one, and my friend told me that a boy in her class grew fairy wings in the middle of a test."

"Ermagerd. Pernz with glitterz!" (Had to throw that one in just for being written in Gersberms)

The guys are getting in on it, too:

"As if men hadn't been stripped of everything good already, BIC steps in and piles on by encouraging women to learn to write, just like their male counterparts. "

"PROS: I started using them in the privacy of my home and saw a real improvement in my skin tone: rough-n-swarthy to fragrantly delicate in five shopping lists or less. Side benefits included the irresistible urge to stock my fridge with yogurt, and a genuine desire to be a better listener. Perhaps we can chalk this up to Bic's proprietary oxytocin-kitten ink technology?"

For more (and to buy if you've really been waiting for this pen all your life): Amazon.com: BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen, 1.0mm, Black, 16ct (MSLP16-Blk): Office Products:

via PR Daily