I am a nerd, and I don't care.

On July 14th, I attended Pink Prom IV: May the Fourth Be With You.  This is the 4th annual party thrown by my friends to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and WomenCARE.

As I have the past 3 years, I had a wonderful time and danced the night away. There were amazing Star Wars themed decorations, souvenir pint glasses, and puns everywhere – my favourite: Admiral Snackbar!  Plus, there a photo booth that would be placing us among the stars.

If you didn't think it could get nerdier than a Star Wars themed event, you're wrong.  When I saw this photo of me and Boyfriend, I couldn't help myself... I had to make one small adjustment.

The Twelfth Doctor and his companion, Meggie Stardust!

Photo by Jon Sawyer Photography 
edit by me :)

Awesome August : Day 8

For the past few years, I've tried to do something crazy and fun for my birthday.  Two years ago, we had Laser Prom – this involved dressing up in formal wear and playing laser tag.  Last year, it was a Golftail Party – mini-golf in cocktail party clothes.  This year, I wanted to have a karaoke party where everyone had to come dressed as a rock star or a musical character (or embodies a musical lifestyle, as you will see).  This year was Meg's Rock'N'Roll Birthday Bash!

I have this weird obsession with making my friends dress up for my parties.  And I have a special name for people who don't dress up for my themed parties: A Flounder.  This, of course, is taken from Animal House: Flounder is the only one who shows up to the Delta Tau Chi not in a toga!  Luckily for me, none of my friends were Flounders and everyone looked awesome.

I just got these pictures of the night from Boyfriend and I'll let them speak for themselves.  Enjoy and be jealous!

The night started with everyone arriving and lots of oohing and awing over costumes and getting geared up with Flip Cup and Spoons!

Then the Karaoke began.  The rule was you had to sing a song related to your character.
Cher did "If I Could Turn Back Time"
Sandy did "You're the One that I Want"
Wayne & Garth did "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Cassandra did "Ballroom Blitz"
Robin Sparkles did "Let's go to the Mall!"
And there were tons of other awesome songs plus an amazing rendition of "Come Sail Away" complete with interpretive dance.

Everyone seemed to be having a blast...

And then these these guys showed up and broke up the party! Thanks a lot, Yoko.

Awesome August : Day 3

For Lent this year, I gave up shopping.  I actually managed to go 40 days without shopping for myself, with the exception of a pair of shoes I bought for my cousin's wedding.  However, I feel like I totally missed out on this very cute yellow spring trend that seemed to only be a trend during the 40 days I was not shopping.  Go figure.

Since then I've had a yellow cardigan and a pair of yellow shoes on my wish list.  Every time I would come across a yellow sweater it wasn't the right yellow – I wanted baby duck yellow, not greenish-yellow or orangish-yellow.  And every time I saw pair of yellow shoes, the price just wasn't right or they weren't in my size... in terms of shoe size I'm totally average – somewhere between a 7.5 to a 9 depending on brand – so by the time I get to a pair of shoes I like, my size is usually gone.

Then the other day when I was at Target, this pair of dark yellow wedges that I had been eying were suddenly on sale – $12 and in my size! 

It's funny, but I used to have this weird irrational hate for wedges.  I'm not sure why because I'm a nightmare in heels unless they have a ankle strap of some sort... Then I got a pair of TOMS wedges and I was converted.  These ones aren't great for running, jumping, or climbing trees or anything, but damn do I look good walking from my desk to the water cooler.

Shop: Similar pair from Target

Awesome August : Day 2

Giraffes are one of my most favourite animals ever.  If you ever are in a situation where your life or thousands of dollars depends on knowing how I feel about giraffes, for the record I find them majestic.  And have you ever seen them fight? Damn!

I think my love of giraffes comes from these wooden giraffe statues my mom has and this painted giraffe art I've had in my room since I was a baby... But I had no idea so many people were on board with this giraffe love.  For example, I recently acquired a Kate Spade iPhone case that has giraffes on it!

Boyfriend once got me a book called "Giraffes? Giraffes!" by Dr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey, which documents the history of Giraffes.  This is the best book of all time and you should read it right now.

So, including the iPhone case that I carry with me all the time, I had 3 giraffe things in my outfit today.

The earrings were another birthday gift from Bear.  They are made of wood ad so light I can't even tell that I'm wearing earrings.

This amazing giraffe shirt was passed on to me by my dear friend Indiana, who I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with last week.  Indiana and I went to college together, but hadn't seen each other in 3 years!  We walked around our old stomping ground catching up, talking about The Lord of the Rings, and marveling over the fact that she has a baby now!  And then in our typical way, I left and drove an hour and a half home with her wallet in my purse, which she needed for her 5:00am flight the next morning.  But in between all that craziness, she gave me this much admired shirt.  It's adorable and probably would be even if it wasn't covered with giraffes!

So, I know Indiana loves animal clothes and accessories, and as you can see, I'm a sucker for giraffes (and I still have a new giraffe scarf to rock soon).  Do you like animal print or animal inspired designs? What animal do you love enough to base an entire outfit on?

PS.  Please excuse the amazingly grainy photo booth pictures...

Awesome August : Day 1

Every year, the week leading up to my birthday, I celebrate the WOM – the Week of Meg.  This basically gives me an excuse to be sorta selfish and demanding, but also do a bunch of fun things before my actual birthday.  Usually this includes going to my favourite restaurants, seeing my favourite people, and getting pedicures.

Anyway, I'm usually in such a good mood during that whole week that I figured, why not try to keep it going.  So, I'm going to try Awesome August : 31 days of awesome things.

As we know, my love of Harry Potter is no secret.  But what might not have been well known is my love for the Malfoy family.  I happen to think that Draco, Lucius, and especially Narcissa are some of the most interesting characters in the story.  So, when my sister, Bear, went to get me a Harry Potter related birthday gift, Draco came to mind...

This is part of the first sentence of Chapter 10 Halloween from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and it's actually cut from the book itself.  The first word is Malfoy and the M can also double for Meg... So nerdy and narcissistic – just like me!

What book would you wear an except from around your neck?  I know Bear's holding out for The Lord of the Rings...

I [heart] Harry Potter OR How writing about a trip took on a life of it's own

Note: I started the post intending to just write about my trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Somehow, it turned into an epic about my love of HP.  Sorry if I bore you – you can skip to the review at the bottom.

If you've ever met me (which, let's face it, everyone who is reading this has), then you know how big of a Harry Potter fan I am.  I'm so vocal about my love that it's sometimes strange to those around me.  Case in point: the time I bought this Hold Steady shirt and commented to the Merch guy that it was like a mashup of my two favorite things: The Hold Steady and Harry Potter.  The Merch guy wasted no time in telling me it was meant to be an Elvis reference.  Whatever, dude.

I was a little late for the Harry Potter game, inasmuch as I hadn't read any of the books when the first film came out in 2001.  This isn't really surprising because I had just graduated from high school and, at the time, HP was mostly marketed towards younger kids in the States (one of my sisters, who is 6 years younger than me, was reading them at the time, so I didn't think much of investigating them and I had been busy doing the angry-high-school-punk-rock-thing for those 4 years between the first book and the first movie).  But my Dad had this conference at a Century Theater nearby and he invited me and Bear to go with him, as there was going to be private screening of Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone afterwards.  I went along for the company (my Dad is amazing) and because there was breakfast, but I wasn't that interested in the film.  In the end I was blown away. 

Two things happened that day after the movies.  First, I bought my '99 Honda Civic (that I would eventually christened Narcissa after the HP character), and secondly, I took that first drive in my new car down the Barnes & Noble and bought the first 4 HP books – everything that had been released at the time.  I was hooked.  I think my sisters and I saw Sorcerer's Stone like 5 times in theaters (a record only topped by our seeing Fellowship of the Ring at least 7 times in theaters – and yes, I do realize that is 21+ hours of my life, thankyouverymuch.  It was worth it). 

So, anyway, I'm a huge fan and have been for 10 years now and I've spent countless hours discussing theories and characters and listening to the audio books...*  So, imagine my excitement when I heard that they were going to be adding a section called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Universal Studios, FL.  And then imagine my disappointment when I watched all of my other friends who are Potter fans go experience the magic without me.  When I found that I was going to be on the East Coast for my Cousin's wedding, I figured, why not just pop down to Orlando?  So I did.  And Boyfriend flew out to meet me for 2 amazing days in...

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! 

So, was it everything I hoped and dreamed it would be?  I don't know...

The most impressive part of the whole thing is the area itself.  It really feels like walking into Hogsmeade, walking into a different country all together, with all the storefront windows.  There are all these little details everywhere.  Every time I walked by a shop, I noticed something new.  Though, it was strange to see this town in perpetual winter being swarmed by people in shorts and tee-shirts!  Walking into a real-life version of Honeydukes (where I bought Ton Tongue Toffee, Fizzing Whizzbees, Chocolate Frogs, and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans), Zonko's (where they sell You-No-Poo), and Ollivander's was like a dream.  And it is worth the wait to see Ollivander help someone pick out their first wand – or rather, have someone's first wand pick them? And, of course, we tried the Butterbeer.**

Boyfriend and I also had early admission so we high-tailed it straight for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey because we heard that the line could take hours.  But, because it was so early, we  pretty much walked on. Usually this wouldn't be something to complain about, but, seeing as half of the appeal of this ride is that the line is a walk through Hogwarts, it would have been nice to see everything more slowly.  And here's some slightly embarrassing honesty – I found this ride horrifying. Seriously.  I had to cover my eyes for a good portion of it (spiders, you know).  I can't imagine what the average kid that would think, as it's basically all the scary parts of the books rolled into one disorienting ride.

On the other hand, I LOVED the Dragon Challenge ride (which Boyfriend and I were calling Dueling Dragons, and unbeknown to us, that was it's pre-Wizarding World name). Not only was it just a fun ride, but seeing the other "dragon" fly under and around you is pretty awesome.  Also, if anyone asks, Chinese Fireball > Hungarian Horntail.  

One thing I found a little strange is that there almost no reference to anything past Goblet of Fire... And, as Boyfriend pointed out, there are no mascots like at Disneyland, though they did have a Hogwarts Choir and a Tri-Wizard rally, but damn, how awesome would it be to see Hagrid walking around?!  The section is also pretty small with just 3 rides, the shops, and the Three Broomsticks/Hog's Head.  We didn't need two full days to do everything, but we majorly lucked out and, according to employees there, both days we were there were very quiet – I guess on busy days they limit who can enter that section.

 We also had a lot of fun at the rest of the park – Islands of Adventure is more ride oriented than regular Universal Studios, apparently.  The Hulk and Spiderman rides in the Marvel section were awesome.  Boyfriend finally got to go on the Jurassic Park ride, which I had been on like 13 years ago and had remembered it much scarier than it actually is (I also realized that I had never seen the film Jurassic Park because, as I explained to Boyfriend, I was a 10-year-old girl when it came out and thus did not care).  The Lost Continent section featuring Poseidon's Fury was a big hit with me, and Boyfriend successfully kept the teasing to a minimum through Seuss Landing, which kinda scares the crap out of me (his artwork makes me very uncomfortable, but that's a different story).  We mainly just had fun being on vacation.

So here is my final verdict: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is an awesome, but small section of a park and I am glad that I went.  It really is worth seeing if you're anything of a fan, but you probably don't need to base an entire trip around going.  In the future, I'd probably plan a trip to Magic Kingdom and save one day to head back to Wizarding World...  All and all, I did have a blast, but I'm also anxious to see if/how they continue to develop this section of the park.

*Fun fact: all of my devices (laptop, iphone, ipod, etc.) are all named after HP characters, and mostly from the Most Noble & Most Ancient House of Black. Also, my new car is called Kingsley.

**I didn't like Butterbeer that much, but I got the cold one, not the frozen one as was recommended. Personally, liked the one that my Cousin Kate and I made with Butterschnapps better... 

[all photos by endlessmeg or boyfriend] 

Once upon a time in Ireland

Today I was looking for a sponge in the kitchen area in my office, and instead I found a cupboard full of Coronas.  Surprising, tho not unexpected, I suppose.

This reminded me a story.

Once upon a time in Ireland, it was like Christmas Eve or New Years Eve, I think, and I was out at this nicer bar with my then-Boyfriend and his friends celebrating.  There was some sort of promotion going on, and I'm pretty sure I was stupid-drunk on whatever the specialty drink of the night was (probably something girlie and sweet).  Anyway, because it was Christmas Eve or New Years Eve or whatever, and because I was 8 hours ahead of all my California friends (in terms of drinking and time zone) I was getting kind of emotional.*

So anyway, I'm in this bar and I suddenly decide that I require a Corona.  Like, it's an absolute moral imperative that I get one and get one now.  This is strange because I never, never drink Corona (the exception was this one time my mom inexplicably bought Coronitas on St. Paddy's Day).  And everyone at the table looks at me like I am insane.  Why would I want a Corona when there is a plethora of really, really good beer?  Good question, gentlemen, but I won't be swayed in my mission, thank you.

And then I marched right up to the bar and demanded a Corona. 

The bartender looked at me for like 5 whole seconds before he realized I was serious.  I looked right back at him.  He then informed me that he had to find some.

A few minutes later, a bottle of Corona appeared in front of me.  I stared at it.  Then I stared at the bartender.  Then I stared at the Corona again.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Um? Yes. Obviously."

"Oh?"

"Weren't you going to give me a lime or something?"

I would like to point out that, as I said before, I was stupid-drunk here.  I don't think I come off this annoyingly American in most cases – in fact, I was usually mistaken for a local by tourists asking for directions.  But hey, we all have our low points.

In the end, I had my Corona.  It was ok.  But it made me happy.

*Note: this is not the year, you all may remember, that I called everyone in my phone book ranting and raving about bands and getting married and such.  This was a different Christmas or New Years or whatever when I was stupid-drunk. Go me!

EndlessRecipes : White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

I'm famous in some places for my CookieMuffins. And by famous I mean, I once had lunch with an ex-coworker and he said, "You know what I miss most about you? Your CookieMuffins." I even have a note on my computer at work requesting more after I brought a batch in during my first week of the new job (and that's the secret to my success!).


But this isn't about my CookieMuffins except to say that they are a bit predictable at this point. People expect me to make CookieMuffins for all occasions now, so in an attempt to change things up a bit, I decided to make Cupcakes for Valentine's Day. Once I had decided on cupcakes, then came the week of trying to figure out what kind of cupcakes to make...

At first I had decided on baking hearts into the cupcakes as seen over here at Bake It in a Cake! I still want to try this, but I only had Sunday afternoon to bake and I felt that this might have a high failure rate (on my part, that is). I wanted something a little safer to bring to work the next day. I ended up back at the cliche idea of Red Velvet cupcakes – they are easy and everyone loves them...

But as I was getting ready to go buy what I needed a thought occurred to me: PINK VELVET! So, I went to the internets and found some recipes for Pink Velvet. Most seemed to replace the cocoa powder with white chocolate to give the cupcake a chocolaty taste, but to keep the batter pink. And then another twist presented itself to me in the baking aisle when I discovered a premium White Chocolate Vanilla Raspberry bar...

Thus the creation of my newest sweet hit: The White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting! (Recipe adapted from here)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups bakers sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup whole milk
• about 10 oz white chocolate raspberry bar, melted (I ended up using 2 1/2 4oz bars)
• food colouring, gel is recomended

Pre-heat the oven to 350˚and line normal sized cupcake tins with liners (I like pretty coloured ones).

In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the butter at low speed until creamy.
Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 mins.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

Mix in the vanilla.

With the mixer on low, beat in half of the dry ingredients, then half of the milk. Repeat.

While all that is going on, melt your white chocolate selection. I used a makeshift double-boiler (heat safe bowl over a pot of boiling water), over low heat, string until it was melted to prevent burning.

Add the melted chocolate and beat until incorporated. Try not to over-beat the batter. It should be thick. At this point, you could also add the pink food colouring (about 1/4 teaspoon), but I liked the little pinkish flecks in the batter that came from the raspberries. Note: the flecks ended up cooking out, so next time I might use colouring in the batter, too.

Scoop batter into the lined muffin tins, filling them 2/3 full. I like to use an ice cream scooper – it's the perfect size and it has that little lever thing that gets all of the batter into the cup for you.

These baked about 25 mins in my weird messed up oven. Use the toothpick trick to be safe. Cool on a wire rack when they are done. They should be fluffy, with a slightly harder top. I was told the consistency reminded people of madeleines.

I do have a confession: I feel like I can't make good frosting and so I don't really try that often. Instead, I used Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting (because it was 2 for 1) and dyed it to be a raspberry colour using a combination of red, purple, and pink gels – I had accidentally put in purple when I meant to use pink, but the colour turned out great anyway.

Valentines Day: Mixes and Cupcakes

If you know me, then you know that two of my favourite things are baking and music. And for Valentines day, I went all out with both. Aaaaand you'll know that doing a Valentine's post over a week later is about par for the course for me...

Anyway, for Boyfriend, I decided to make him a themed mix. Well, actually, it started with a vague Oldie's love song theme, but as I started to build it, 3 themes emerged. "Three themes?!" I thought to myself, "I'll have to make a Venn Diagram for something like that!" And I did!

1. The Beach Boys – Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. The Zombies – This Will Be Our Year
3. The Commitments – Try a Little Tenderness
4. The Rascals – Try a Little Tenderness
5. The Turtles – Good Lovin'
6. The Doors – Hello, I Love You
7. The Rolling Stones – Let's Spend the Night Together
8. The Kinks – All Day and All of the Night
9. The Commitments – Treat Her Right
10. The Crystals – And Then He Kissed Me
11. The Beatles – In My Life
12. The Beach Boys – God Only Know

I realize that The Commitments were formed in the 1990s for the amazing movie (check it out if you haven't – it's about Dublin Soul), but they were singing songs from the 1960s, so I figured it counted. Also, feel free to use this mix yourself. It's groovy boss wow.

Polar Bear paws and Bordeaux from See's and crazy unique roses from Boyfriend.

In return, Boyfriend bought me chocolates and flowers and took me to our favourite Sushi restaurant. He wasn't sure what to get me at first and for some reason he's was worried about it...

Me: Don't get me chocolates, I'll get fat.

Boyfriend: OK–

Me: Actually, no. I need you to go to See's and get me Polar Bear Paws. I need Polar Bear Paws.

So, while he was doing that, I made White Chocolate Raspberry cupcakes for work. Here's a preview, and I'll do a recipe post about them later...