The Illusion of Productivity

Blogger Macaron Class

2011-11-16T21:35:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of teaching a few Utah bloggers the in's and out's of macaron making. Our group included Shelly of House of Smiths, Jen of Tater Tots and Jello, Amy of The Idea Room, Lara of Less Cake More Frosting, Elizabeth of Dear Lizzy and Emily of Ruffling Feathers/ Bijou Market. Colin Kartchner made this adorable little video to capture evening in the kitchen.

Mercedes White Macarons- Blogger night from Collin Kartchner on Vimeo.

Using my pre-made mixes we learned how to whip a proper meringue, the art of maraconage, and how to prevent pesky hollow shells. If you are interested in trying your hand at baking your own french macarons--one of my mixes is the way to go. I've streamlined the process and simplified a lot of the steps. We will be selling them at Bijou Market this weekend in Provo and are also available through my online store.

image via the lovely shelly of house of smiths

Charmed

2011-11-03T13:25:00.005-04:00

just because i am never going to be this kind of mother doesn't mean i don't appreciate them.

watch and swoon!

(though if you are having one of those days when your uterus is swinging from the chandeliers- so to speak- maybe wait on watching it because it will make you want a little wolf REAAAAL bad).

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?from Lilly McDowell on Vimeo.

The Growing Problem of Greek Debt

2011-10-28T22:17:00.001-04:00


as per Chancellor Angela Merkel via Marginal Revolution

Fall Picnic

2011-10-27T22:12:00.001-04:00

a few weeks ago i woke up to snow.

i was horrified, not so much because of the pesky white stuff (i am canadian afterall), but rather the fact that up to that point i hadn't done one single "fall" thing. no pumpkin. no soup. no leaf collecting. no cozy nights with cocoa and masterpiece theatre. no apple picking. no corn mazes. nothing.

i jumped out of bed determined not to let some doggone snow come between me and fall. that day i crammed in a lot. i made vegetable soup. i went for a walk and ate a pumpkin tart at the windy ridge bakery. i got home busted out my hot water bottle and hit bbc. hard. (and just in case you are wondering don't watch mill on the floss or the woodlanders unless you've taken your prozac that day).

lucky for me the snow didn't stick so i've had a few extra weeks to slurp up the last of this remarkable season. last week when ann suggested we go for a picnic up mill creek canyon, i was all over it. it was one of those meals i won't soon forget. big plans were hatched and we all left perfectly content.

so the moral of the story is:

kindred spirits+foliage+hearty food+making plans=the perfect fall day.

don't ask why it looks like i have black sideburns. ok.

for more photos and beautiful reviews of our afternoon check out marie and ann's blogs.

Manic Monday

2011-10-24T18:45:00.000-04:00

i gotta alotta do.

a morning list and Greek yogurt and granola are a good way to start.

as sisters in zion

2011-10-19T20:32:00.003-04:00

we'll all hike together.

our early morning mountain adventure was a highlight of my week.

the night i almost killed us

2011-10-10T15:12:00.005-04:00

i woke up sunday morning at 5 am, odd since i never get up before 10 if i can help it.

i had this weird cough. it wasn't like a cold cough. no. it was like something had crawled down my throat and taken up residence in my larynx. trying to dislodge it (gross word i know) i coughed and hacked but nothing worked. i decided to guzzle the flat half empty can of diet doctor pepper on my bedside table.

bad idea.

what is it about the combination of hacking up a lung and flat pop that mades you feel like you are going to upchuck (to quote ramona quimby age 8)? so i went into the bathroom and laid down on the cold hard floor and stayed there for a couple of hours until the alarm went off and mike got up to get ready for church.

while he was in the shower i stood in the kitchen trying to decide which would do less harm: a glass of water or making myself puke.

and then i saw it.

the stove was on. it had been on all night--cooking the pan i'd used to warm up our gross low carb tortillas the night before. thank goodness the only damage was to our lungs. we estimate i took about 50 minutes off our lives since breathing in a smoking pot all night is the equivalent of about 5 years of chain smoking.

my throat is fine today. my pride? not so much.

body brushing

2011-09-29T00:14:00.005-04:00

so in the comments on one of my other skin care posts, my sister made some wise crack about making sure to take out time to buff puff my butt. when she said it, i don't think she knew i am an avid butt buffer. have been for years. and now you get to hear all about it. (except since this is a family blog, and butt buff puff sounds kind of unladylike, let's call it "body brushing" from now on ok?)

i first read about body brushing in a weight loss book by marilu henner. at the time i had a canadian tire or two to lose, but was more interested in reading about losing weight than actually losing weight. more to the point, i wanted to find ways to look thinner without giving up my 8 twizzleators and family size onion rings a day habit.

anyway marilu (and i didn't even know who she was or why she was famous) takes a whole chapter of the book to blab about how dry body brushing has all these benefits including minimizing cellulite and reducing bloating. i read that and i was on body brushing like white on rice.

its pretty simple. start with dry skin (ie pre bath/shower). take a brush start at your feet and brush up towards your heart. i use this brush i picked up at riteaid or ulta or something. after i finish brushing, i like to slather myself in argan oil or coconut oil. i can't promise that it will get rid of your cellulite but it will make you feel fantastic. fant-ASS-tic. sorry mom. i couldn't help myself.

vitamin c isn't just for colds

2011-09-28T21:47:00.002-04:00

you can put it on your face too. and with great results, especially if you happen to be among those cursed with the lines and zits (and i am). some girls have all the luck. i won't bore you with the details on vitamin c, like how it is an anti-oxidant and breaks up free radicals because that is what wikipedia is for and besides i don't really know what those things mean anyway.

instead, how about i share a few brands that make great vitamin c serums; one for the cheapskates, one for people who like "organic" stuff, and one for the product junkies.

cheapskates: most of the time this is me. except recently i've started splurging on skincare to make myself feel better about the fact that i am 30 and i look like i am 30. when i am poor i use avalon organics vitamin c vitality facial serum with great results. it isn't sticky and absorbs into the skin quickly.

"organic" stuff: kiehls powerful line reducing concentrate (10% vitamin c) isn't actually organic....but the company really tries hard not to use parabans (wikipedia it) or fragrances, which i love. this is what i am currently using. i like it. a lot. it kind of warms up when you put it on your face and has a really nice essential oily kinda smell. my skin is clear (!) and smooth (!) and looks pretty radiant (!). kiehls is amazing about letting people try stuff...so next time you are in nordies/holts ask them for a sample.

product junkies: ever since my friend told me the other day about obagi i've been obsessed with trying their 20% vitamin c serum. only problem it is in the neighbourhood of 120 bones. currently my paranoia about my pocketbook supersedes my paranoia about aging (although the gap is rapidly closing to don't be surprised if in a week or two i'm raving about this.)

anything i missed?

burfday

2011-09-27T17:05:00.006-04:00

scrabble+j.crew shopping trip+pictures+discussion about intelligence+dinner+documentary+peanut butter+ this guy
=
a good day (even if i did turn 30)

skin care don'ts from courtney love

2011-09-25T21:17:00.004-04:00

I've been a big fan of the band hole ever since rax and i took a trip to utah circa 2000 and listened to celebrity skin for 16 hours straight (well that and teenage dirtbag). if you aren't familiar with the song take a listen:

my favorite line of the song is in the chorus when she sings, "when i wake up, in my makeup its too early for that dress." man can i relate. i wake up with raccoon eyes on a regular basis because if i stay up late (and i often do) i'm terrible about washing my face (ie it doesn't happen).

i read in people magazine (while at the hair salon the other day) that kim k keeps makeup wipes by her bed so that she can lay in her bed and still take her makeup off. hmmm if kim k is doing ot maybe it is something to try?

but now i'm not so sure.

if i put a stack of wipes beside my bed i'd end up with black wipes all over the bedroom floor (gross) because if i am too lazy to to wash my face i am i am definitely too lazy to get up to throw the wipe out.

plus i worry about residue from those things.

has anyone tried makeup wipes? how do they work for you? what are your favs?

the skin whisperer of calgary

2011-09-24T20:39:00.004-04:00

dr. remington is famous in calgary. he is the genius behind many a well preserved housewife and gay man. you have skin problems? he's THE guy you go see. he's the kind of doctor you trust right away too. it might have something to do with the fact that his face is about as smooth as a baby's bottom, not to mention that in the 20 or so years i have known him, he hasn't aged a day. 5/6 white family members agree: doctor remington is a facesaver. and the 6th doesn't know anything since he's never had skin problems. lucky so and so.

you want lasers, peels, nips, injections? dr remington is a whiz. but one thing i like about him is that he doesn't just push the expensive cosmetic stuff, he is an advocate of good old fashioned things like washing your face and putting on sunscreen.

one of the things that doctor remington teaches his patients to do is wash their faces with buff puffs. he told me (and my mom) that most people don't exfoliate their skin enough and washing with a buff puff is one way to ensure that the dead dull skin on your face gets sloughed off. i started doing it again after noticing i was a dullster from all the summer sun i got.

using a buff puff makes a HUGE difference and is simple and affordable (daddy like). just wet your face, apply your favorite cleaner (dr r. says use cetephil), wet your buff pad and scrub scrub scrub. i use my buff puff for a week or two before switching it out for a new one. you can buy puffs at most drugstores. i'm currently using the riteaid brand.

seriously friends try this. it is one of the cheapest good things you can do for you skin. and you will notice the difference right away. (oy i sound like a cover girl commercial).

Dirty Thirties

2011-09-23T20:04:00.007-04:00

whew. things were getting very grade 12 social studies there for a while. thank your lucky stars i haven't put up my posts on abortion, gay rights and euthanasia.

for the last few weeks i've been freaking out about the fact that i'm staring 30 down the barrel. i'm not sure what set me off. could be the three long hairs that appeared on my neck the other day. or maybe it was that i've been informed by medical professionals that i need to wear support hose every day if i don't my legs to turn into a rope vein mess (and i'm not even with child). or maybe it was my mom describing my grandma's saggy skin (from the sound of it genetics aren't on our side).

in any event i'm all in a huff about anti-aging. my mother's advice: start saving for boxtox. probably wise. so i will. but i have also been looking into taking better care of my skin (ie maybe washing my face every once in a while) in an effort to turn back time. over the next few days i am going to share what i've learned and how it worked or me. if you have anything that really works for you--tell me! i love hearing about people's skin care rituals.

also it doesn't really matter how cray-cray it is because i'm not above trying anything. once i read online that if you bathe in coffee it will help you feel less bloated. i filed that little piece of info away until one day, when i was feeling especially water logged, and decided to try it. i went to the store bought instant coffee granules, drew a nice hot bath and dumped the jar of coffee in. it was pretty lovely (nice smelling too). i'd call it a successful home remedy except as i watched my two hour bath water drain (admittedly kinda gross) i realized i'd dyed the bath tub brown. dentists aren't kidding around when they talk about coffee stains. the good news: it only took about 4 liters of bleach to remove.

some asians enjoying a coffee bath. they have to coolest skin care remedies like coffee baths and gold fish that eat dead skin off your body.

Why you shouldn't vote for Rick Perry: Part Three

2011-09-21T23:30:00.005-04:00

he doesn't have a conscience.

i've been thinking a lot about the death penalty ever since the CNN debate where rick perry said that he doesn't lose sleep over the possibility that some of the 234 execution orders he signed as governor of texas could have been for innocent people. the audience cheered. perry went off on some junk about how he had faith in the justice system.

justice experts say that while perry has been governor at least one innocent person, cameron todd willingham, was executed. in that case perry actively interfered with state investigations and rejected the scientific evidence presented by over 20 scientists saying that the fire which killed willingham's children was not man-made. in other cases he has denied inmates rights guaranteed by the vienna convention and ignored the rights of foreign nationals in criminal proceedings.

the whole death penalty issue makes me sick. in fact it is one of the things that makes me want to move back to canada. (please mike? but then i might have to live without target--which would also be a colossal tragedy so the jury is still out on where we'll end up) (and yes i realize like what a jerk i look like for making that comment).

it isn't that i don't have faith in the justice system--but mistakes do happen--and it just seems like the risk of the harm caused by executing an innocent person isn't worth it. take for instance the execution of troy davis which occurred today. he was convicted primarily on the basis of eye witness accounts. 7 of the 9 eye witnesses have since recanted, saying they were coached by detectives working on the case. there is no physical (DNA) evidence linking davis to the crime. while he may still have committed the crime--the doubt--the possibility that he didn't seems to be to be reason enough to at a minimum stay the execution. but that is a moral argument and i can understand how not everyone is going to agree with me.

so how about we get really pragmatic? with the economic downturn, most states are facing budgetary deficits. It costs a state $2.2 million to execute someone. Most of these costs are legal fees. On the other hand it costs $400,000 to keep an inmate in prison for life. When states are faced with hard choices about where to cut spending--why not just commute the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison?

in texas rick perry could have saved his state $20 million dollars. money that perhaps could be spent on education, health care, hell even using the money to pay for HPV vaccines would be better than this crap.

ok i promise not to post anything more about rick perry. unless he does something really stupid, in which case i won't be able to help myself.

a long post about islam

2011-09-08T00:41:00.006-04:00

yesterday i went with my brother to his class on islam and mormonism at the byu. at the beginning of the class they took a quiz on the assigned reading. the questions were pretty basic but one caught my eye:

the "oppression" of women in muslim majority countries is primarily the result of:
a) religion
b) culture
c) some dumb throw away answer that i can't even remember

the "right" answer to the question (as far as any introductory class on islam is concerned) is culture. all the intro text books say that islam is gender inclusive and mohammad was basically feminist since he stopped female infanticide. they say that it is the misogynistic arab culture which is to blame for keeping the muslim women down. and this is basically the explanation my brother's prof (who was wearing tom and jerry tie which should have tipped me off to the fact that he probably wasn't going to be the kind of guy to give a mind blowing explanation of anything) gave the students when they went over the quiz.

a kid in the class immediately shot up his hand (he seemed like the delightfully nerdy type) and asked the teacher if that wasn't kind of a cop out explanation. the prof got a bit flustered and basically just repeated his earlier explanation topping it off with the patronizing "it will all make sense as we go through the course."

man i wish i was teaching that class because nerdy boy's question is really interesting and worth exploring (for the entire semester as far as i am concerned).

the explanation is kind of a cop out. muslim feminists can say that the opression of women in their religion is because of the sexist culture islam emerged from until the cows come home...and they might right except for one little problem.

a cornerstone of the religion is that the qur'an is the literal word of god which means the things in it can't just be interpreted (or contextualized) away. at the end of the day muslims have to account for the fact that in their holy religious text is says beat your women if they disoby (among other nasty things). if your religious text says something, doesn't that make a pretty strong case for the notion that the religion at least has some impact on the oppression of member women?

but i actually think the question is problematic because it assumes that we can clearly deliniate "religion" from "culture." can we? i'm not sure i can draw those lines in my own faith tradition.
though i probably don't like to admit this--i think i have a tendency to just call anything within the tradition i don't like "culture," whereas things i like are "religion." the reality is that the line between those two things seems really fuzzy when we actually try to define terms. culture is religion and religion is culture. focusing on one at the expense of the other will lead to incomplete explanations for the cause of the oppression of women, not to mention any other question a person could think of.

thinking about the reasons women in islam seem to have fewer rights than women in the west is a really interesting question however. it becomes particularly curious question when we examine the position of women in the golden age of islam who unlike their european counterparts could: own land, were entitled family inheritances, and could divorce a spouse who did not keep their marriage contract.

several explanations are worth considering.

being able to travel via boat to the far east instead of overland meant that fewer people traveled through the middle east. this meant that the people living in middle east were cut off from their source of news, and ideas. isolated from developments in the rest of the world they simply did no have the information they needed to keep up. crusades to the holy land also probably caused muslims to become protective and isolationist--which didn't improve their access to information problem.

another way of explaining the situation is that the cultures where muslims live are traditional and conservative in the sense that they resist change. the reforms that muslim women enjoyed during the golden age where things mohammad had advocated for and at the time they were radical. but overtime radical becomes the status quo becomes conservative. however because many religions are resistant to change, now the position of women in islam seems completely unacceptable.

do you have any ideas? how do you define religion and culture? why do you think women are oppressed in religious communities? how do you define oppression?

whoa. this is getting really far off where i intended to start from which was basically to say i think my brother's prof is a goof.

Why You Shouldn't Vote for Rick Perry: Part Two

2011-09-02T16:41:00.006-04:00

He doesn't have a clue about how to create jobs.

perry holds up the fact that texas has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country as evidence of his skill at managing the affairs of a state and why americans should choose him to be their president in 2012. since creating jobs and renewing the stalled economy are at the top of so many people's priority list, perry's record is worth considering. if he kept the economy in texas afloat, could he do the same for the rest of the country?

the short answer is, probably not.

perry's success as governor has more to do with the fact that his tenure coincided with skyrocketing oil prices than any job creating prowess on his part. because oil accounts for over 25 % of the texas economy, growing profits and tax revenues in this sector have helped offset losses in other industries.

and the losses in other areas of the economy haven't been as bad as they have in other areas of the country either. that is because the benefits of a strong oil and gas industry trickle down. in texas, just like in alberta, high oil prices mean that the lawyers and accountants and home builders and restaurants are also have work. the price of oil drives those economies and unfortunately for rick perry, the price of oil is something he can't take credit for.

so don't count on a perry government to create jobs, unless that is, he finds a way to make oil out of thin air.

Why You Shouldn't Vote for Rick Perry: Part One

2011-09-02T16:00:00.006-04:00

He is a Creep.

conventional wisdom says if you want to make a buck, don't go into politics. so it is curious how rick perry, republican candidate for president, went from being a farmer who made $45,000 a year to a governor worth 7 digits.

he didn't inherit any money. the salary of the governor of texas is set at $150,000 a year and it seems unlikely that he saved every penny he made during the last ten years. in fact the source of perry's new found wealth has been the subject of several journalistic inquiries. perry made most of his money buying and selling land, however, according to several journalists, the details of those transactions seem suspicious on closer inspection.

here is how a typical perry real estate transaction went down. a lobbyist in state house would buy a piece of land he/she knew someone else had commercial interests in. they would then sell that land to perry at cost. perry would then reap the benefits of the sale of the "in demand" land.

maybe perry didn't know what the lobbysist knew about the land....but the fact that it happened several times has to kind of make you wonder. add this to perry's record of giving sweetheart deals* to people who made large financial contributions to his political action committees and it seems to me we have on our hands a guy who stinks of corruption.

and i for one am of the opinion that the last thing we need is some croney capitalist in charge.

*reportedly perry issued an executive order mandating that all girls in the state of texas receive the hpv vaccine**. at the time the only vaccine available was made by merek drug company which coincidentally had donated generously to the perry election campaigns.

**just for the record, i don't have a problem with the vaccine.

another summer salad

2011-08-19T00:46:00.000-04:00

a dinner made of little gems we picked up at the farmers market.

Haricots Verts Salad
(adapted from NYT)

baby potatoes
cubed and boiled
green beans
parboiled
shallot & garlic
sauteed
goat cheese
crumbled
prosciutto
julienned
almonds
slivered

serve with a balsamic vinaigrette (brianna's is my favorite)
or make your own.

sissy starts a blog

2011-08-17T16:41:00.005-04:00

her name is rachel, but we call her:

rax, finn razel, razzle dazzle, rache, oh sister

and she started a blog.
and she is pretty funny
(and quite the ham as you can see in the picture).
so the blog will be a hoot.

read it.

camera shy

2011-08-15T17:35:00.007-04:00

we aren't really a picture family. i can count on one hand the number of times we've had family portraits done. i don't ever recall taking pictures on family outings or holidays.

we don't do it often, because when we do, all hell breaks loose.

we fight. we make fun of each other. we get all j.lo and demand retake after retake because someone looks fat. we grumble about what we are supposed to wear. and then, in a move to cut the tension my mom might make us sing something like "families can be together forever" which is the type of move that usually makes things worse....

but the other night, at cousin caitlin's* wedding--the stars aligned for a few minutes--and the white fam** took themselves some pictures. catch'em while their hot friends because this probably won't happen for another twenty years.

(bob, bonnie, kristen, nathan, caitlin, mercedes, joshua, rachel)

(mercedes, nathan, joshua, rachel)
(don't you love me and rax rocking the kimmy kardashian pose?)
(the photographer told us it would make us look thinner and we are suckers for that kind of thing.)
(does it?)

* caitlin (the bride) is our cousin on my dad's side. she cleans up pretty good eh?
** the girl between nathan and my mom is kristin, nathan's fiance. she cleans up pretty good too eh?

golden heart gets married

2011-08-14T21:51:00.006-04:00

i realized had a kindred spirit in liz quist when she (looking at some books on my shelf) asked what i thought about allan bloom's critique of education in america. my heart probably skipped a beat. not only did this girl know who allan bloom was, she'd read enough of him to have a conversation about his ideas.

oh my world.

after a string of bad relationships* where our most interesting conversations were about where to eat dinner, i forgot that there were people out there who liked to get down to it. people who liked to talk books and religion and politics.

we spent the four months yakking our faces off. it was glorious. and even though she moved and then i moved and we haven't been able to see each other as much as we'd like, it is one of those friendships where you just pick up where you left off.

so on saturday--at her wedding--i yakked liz's head off and she was gracious enough to not tell me to shut up because it was her wedding day and she had a lot of people to talk to. dear liz i love you and am so happy for you (and dan).

trip to dc forthcoming.

pencil in an 8 hour double dinner date. we're gonna need it.

* with men

the gaff that wasn't

2011-08-13T01:16:00.003-04:00

the anti-corporate rule crowd may be making fun of mitt romney for telling an iowa fair audience that "corporations are people" but am starting to think what is really funny is how totally off base their jokes are. while i'm not sure if i am for romney, in this instance i agree with his assertion.

in his blog post on the comment, ilya shapiro argues that corporations don't have rights, however, they are made up of people who do. the fact that a group of people form an association (corporate or otherwise) does not strip them of their rights as individuals. furthermore, "corporate money always comes from, flows through, and ends up in human hands." corporations may not actually be people, but the fact that they represent a group of people should not disqualify them from political expression in the form of media comment or campaign donations.

to suggest, as person in the iowa crowd did, that corporations pay additional taxes is basically to say that the people who work for or have interests in those corporations should pay more (as this is what corporate tax amounts to). maybe they should pay more--i don't know--but can we really expect them to pay more and also then try to revoke their right to express their political preferences?

the real life equivalent is you and me going for lunch every day. only you always pay and i always pick the place. what if everyday i want to go for sushi because i like it and it is delicious, but you are a vegetarian. shouldn't you at least be able to say, "mercedes i don't eat meat or fish"? of course you should. similarly corporations as the representatives of groups of people should be able to express theirs.

i'm starting to think i might like this mittens guy (even though i disagree with him on stuff like marriage). or maybe i'm just freaked out about the economy and he kinda seems like a knight on a white horse and i've always been a sucker for a fairytale.

we'll see.

perfectly balanced

2011-07-20T15:20:00.004-04:00

ever since i read the man who ate everything, i've been convinced that vegetables make me sick.

i know.
i know.

they are "good" for you. so what is the problem?

the vegetables are delicious going down, but well, let's just say that during digestion they make my stomach feel very unladylike. (anyone else with that problem?)

nevertheless vegetables are all i feel like eating these days. below is a recipe for my new favorite salad combination, adapted from a recipe by skye gyngell, an english chef and the author of the book my favorite ingredients. it is worth the indigestion.

for some reason i've always been under the impression that the british are out of their depth in the kitchen. i'm not sure where that idea comes from, but the fact that sheep's stomach and mushy peas are considered fine dinning might have something to do with it.

in any event. i was wrong. at least one english chef is nailing it in the kitchen. and her book is probably one of the most charming cookbooks i've seen in a while.

so here is our salad (skye's and mine). you should probably try it. tonight if you know what is good for you.

red grapefruit

(sectioned)
pistachios
(coarsely chopped)
avocado
(cubed)
aged romano
(sliced paper thin)
mixed greens

toss and serve with a simple french vinaigrette for a scrumptious summer lunch.
skye includes prosciutto in her recipe. i didn't because i take great pleasure in trying to force my meat loving husband to eat vegetarian food. nice wife eh?

Open for Business

2011-07-02T18:01:00.012-04:00

I am pleased to announce the grand opening of:

Mercedes White French Macarons*

Friends I started a business! This summer I will be selling my confectioneries at the Park City Market on Sundays** from 10-5. For special orders, please contact me at mercedeswhite@gmail.com.

here is my little spot at the market. please ignore the wrinkled tablecloth (trashy!!).

If you haven't tried a French Macaron yet, here is a little taster of what to expect:

grapefruit--caramel au fleur de sel--blackberry white chocolate***

Two almond meringue cookies are sandwiched between a filling. When you bite in a slightly crisp shell gives way to a soft chewy center.

For the diet conscious french macarons are relatively good choice if you are craving something sweet but don't want go overboard. Macaron stats:

made from almond flour and so are naturally gluten free.
low in fat because of their egg white (as opposed to butter) base.
low in calories--just 70 calories per macaron.

So if you are going to have a cookie....come to Park City and have a macaron!

*I'm working on a website. As soon as it is ready, I will share it.

**The fact that the market is on sunday is kind of a bummer. There is a chance that I will be able to wiggle my way into the Salt Lake City market, which is on Saturdays. I will keep you all posted.

***Those are actually MY macarons! The photos were taken by my dear friend Ann. The photo styling was done by the lovely and talented Marte. They both blog. You should check 'em out.

good news/bad news

2011-06-07T15:01:00.004-04:00

the good news is we are moving to the east

the bad news is we are only going 31 miles.

we'll be staying in utah for another year--
only this time around we are trading sandy-towne* for downtown park city.

upgrade?

i can't decide.
on the positive:
the restaurants are fabulous
there is a trail right behind our new apartment
we're a block a way from a great yoga studio
and only 10 minutes to the outlets

but less positively:
it is june and there is still snow up there
they don't have a target (one of the only reasons i continue to live in america)
people who are obsessed with skiing kinda annoy me

so if you know anything great or bad about living in park city let me know about it.

and if what you know about which celebrities go to pc and when....don't be embarrassed to tell me because, well, i read perez hilton every.dingle.day (much to michael's disgust) and i haven't had myself a celebrity citing since i lived in nyc. so i'd say i'm due.

*i used "towne" just to try to get michael's goat. he hates it when people spell town with an e.

before bed thoughts

2011-06-04T00:47:00.008-04:00

dust bunnies are taking over my house. i bought paper plates so we don't have to fuss around with the dishes. i'm pretty sure i saw an ant colony behind the sofa yesterday night.

usually i'm on top of (fanatical about) housekeeping, but lately, i'm less than impressive in the domestic department.

further proof: these days i dine on butter, cake, and hummus.
oh and i fall asleep while eating.
with my elbows on the table!!!!

see, i've been studying for this exam. every day for the last few months. and wouldn't you know it--it has kind of taken over my life.

the situation has got me to thinking about how in the H-E-L-L i am going to make things work when i have more "pressing obligations." you can ignore dust bunnies, but ignore your kid (for too long) and you'll have yourself a date with child protective services.

i look around me and see women my age who are DONE having families. i wonder how on earth two people who like their "me" time and are passionate about their work are going to survive sleepless nights, laundry explosions, and a lot of poop. what will balance between work and family look like for us? is it possible to make both a priority? is it possible not to sacrifice one for the other?

i guess we could outsource every domestic task we are not interested in doing ourselves (so basically everything) but, i am one of those feminists who feels guilty about employing other women to do work that i don't want to do. i hate the idea that my self actualization is contingent on some other woman cleaning up after me, doing my laundry, and making my dinners. you pick up what i'm putting down?

but so far as i can see right now....employing someone at some point is only way we can make things work (when we have kids). and i wish i had better solutions for all this. so if you can think of any....do me a solid and shoot them my way. ok? thanks. also if you think i am being dumb, i totally agree with you.

the kids are alright

2011-05-13T01:24:00.000-04:00

let me tell you what my little bros were like when i left home for university.

josh: (8)

secretly watched pokemon in the basement (highly inappropriate for an eight year old if you asked his siblings)
faked whiplash to get out of grade two (and our mother believed him!!!)
wore a speedo whenever possible.

nathan: (11)

was in his harry potter glasses phase
had an italian girlfriend named little linda (we're pretty sure her family were mafia)
liked to quiz (embarrass) american missionaries on their (spotty) knowledge of US history.

they didn't:

do chores.
do dishes.
put their fruit snacks wrappers in the garbage.
put their sports equipment, including jockstraps, away after use.
listen to me when i told them to clean up after themselves (possibly most annoying of all).

and all these things (combined with an overdose of freshman feminist studies) lead me to the conclusion that my bros (while interesting and smart) were pigs who think that women should clean up after them.

but it turns out ten years changes a lot and the truth is mom your boys are alright and not just because:

josh does the dishes (without being asked or bribed).
nathan cooks dinner for the entire family (his fish tacos with kiwi mango salsa were a revelation).
they put their stuff away (more than they did)
they do what they are told (most important quality in a future spouse)

i don't know what happened in the years i've been away--but whatever it was-- you done good ma!

(whitefam--az 2011--josh's 20th birthday)

junk i buy that i don't need

2011-05-05T08:15:00.004-04:00

i've been doing a little bit of organizing (and when i say a little, i mean 20 minutes worth yesterday afternoon). here is a sampling of what i've collected in the past year and a half:

12* pairs of jeans
11 white t-shirts
10 empty notebooks, presumably for when i become harriet the spy.
9 bottles of sunscreen
8* candles
7 kinds of shampoo for people with "red" hair
6 bottles of body firming lotion
5 black skirts
4 colours of foundation
3 yoga mats
2 boxes of ribbon
and a partridge in a pear tree (no seriously)

i'm kind of horrified. i don't need all this stuff. i certainly don't use much of it.

from here we could probably launch into a discussion about what a nitwit i am and how this post should really be called "junk she buys to distract herself from her lame little existence." ya we could go their, and there would be a lot to say, but i'm feeling charitable with myself this morning, so instead i'm giving myself a little challenge.

mercedes r. white is it possible for you to go one week without buying a darn thing? you can't spend one red cent. not even on gas.....

CAN i do it? the safe money is probably on no. in fact, judging from the success of my little no pants no problem experiment, i'll probably make it to day 4 and then give in and buy new shoes. on the other hand in abstaining, i may find meaning, world peace, and my tweezers....

or maybe i'll just save some dough (which would be an equally huge shock to my system).

so any tips for junk buying addiction recovery? any tips for living the good life without paying for it?

*numbers maybe slightly exaggerated.

Stuff I'd Like to Say but Don't:

2011-04-17T12:06:00.005-04:00

i used to never (ever) think about if what i had to say was offensive. the time i asked a spinster church teacher why, if motherhood was so important, she wasn't out there multiplying and replenishing the earth looms especially large. the result of my uninhibited expression?

for 25 years everyone thought i was a major jerk. (i was)

somewhere along the way i decided that i wanted people to like me. so pulled my head out of my heine and learned a few social skills, in particular that one should make an effort to consider the experiences, values, and opinions of others before opening one's big fat self righteous mouth.

so the upside of this is that i've learned how to not loose friends and alienate people. on the other hand, i've become paranoid about being offensive. now trust me, having everyone think you are a jerk is no picnic, but constantly worrying about offending people is downright exhausting. and if you'll permit me to get really melodramatic here, not ever saying anything because you are worried about causing offense is downright soul crushing.

i guess this is a long way of saying that i've got some stuff i need to get off my chest. so in no particular order:

1. i'm sending my kid to daycare. i don't want to hear a bunch of BS about how kid is going to turn into a sociopath and always have colds. trust me, it is better than the alternative.

2. i think it ridiculous that the "largest womens organization in the world" has to get permission from a bunch of men before they do anything. let's stop trying to pretend we are something that we are not.

3. tacquitos aren't diet food and when you tell me you want to loose weight and then snarf a costco sized bag, don't expect me to pat you on the back and say, "good choice."

4. i want to have a puppy more than i want to have a baby. it definitely has something to do with the fact that daycare for babies costs $2,500/month while daycare for puppies is a relative steal at just $515/month.

5. if i am really going to be honest with myself--SL,UT isn't so bad after all. in fact, i sort of like it here. i might buy a house here. i might stay here a while. i've probably just lost all credibility with some of my friends for saying this.

6. if he doesn't ask you out, it isn't that he is intimidated by you.
the fact is: HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU. move along.

so that's all. actually it isn't, but that is all i am brave enough to post on my blob. so there. judge me. anything you want to get off your chest? stuff you'd like to say but don't?

return to me

2011-03-29T15:11:00.007-04:00

-lancome tweezers that i have had since i was like 19.
ten years is a long time. i'm attached. michael don't judge me for acting like my dog ran away ok.

-running shoes.
michael you hid them didn't you. this is payback for years of shamelessly hiding your stupid shoe horn isn't it.

-nice nude coloured bra.
who looses their bra?

-ability to conduct an automobile without scumming to fits of rage wherein i curse out and cut off every other driver on the road.
in my defense utah drivers made me this way.....they are the kind of drivers who have a peace signs on their license plates and then give you the finger while trying to run you out of your lane. at least i don't have a peace sign on my car.

what are you missing?

dreamworks state of mind

2011-03-25T02:05:00.006-04:00

i can't sleep. i've lost my appetite. i feel nauseous. i can't concentrate. i'm full of nervous energy.

so what, you may ask, is my problem?

no one has died. no one lost their job. and i'm not pregnant. we aren't moving yet.

oh no.

the truth is that i have fallen into the vortex that is called "trying to decide which netflix instant viewing film to watch" and i can't get out.

i'll decide i want to watch a movie and literally like TWO hours later i am still trying to narrow down my picks. i think instant viewing is the worst nightmare of people like me. people who have a hard time making decisions. drama? documentary? you've got mail for the 150th time? the endless possibilities are killing me!

this situation shouldn't come as a shock to those who know me. after all, i'm the person who holds up the line at tim horton's for ten minutes trying to decide what kind of TIMBITS to get.

deciding where to go for dinner warrants a TWO hour exploratory appointment with google.

i think it is totally normal to ask EVERY.SINGLE.PERSON in my life if i should....buy that shirt....or this pair of pants.

i'm not exactly sure what my problem is. maybe i suffer from the paralyzing fear of death--which means that i think every time i do something i'm convinced it's the last time i'll do it (because then i will die) and i want to make sure whatever i pick it isn't a dud.

(who wants to be the dud that goes out on a dud?)

maybe its the curse of the libra (libra's according to my maternal grandfather are terrible decision makers).

one way avoiding the netflix vortex of indecision is to go in with a plan for what i am going to watch. i'm running out of movies people have recommended though and i'm going to fall back in that black hole unless you all help me out. how about i'll share some of my favorites with you all and then you hit me with your best shots ok?

here it goes:

the cove (a documentary about dolphins. made we want to join PETA and i'm not even an animal lover type)
damages (tv series starring glenn close. intense thrilling legal drama)
girl with the dragon tattoo (don't bother watching the hornets nest and the playing with fire one....they suck....tattoo is very good though).
restrepo (documentary about military unit based in afghanistan)
the stoning of soraya m (film about honour killing in iran)
the north and the south (pride and prejudice meets economic theory)
last station (for tolstoy lovers)

ok friends. i am counting on you. help me. you are my only hope. tell me what i need to watch this weekend.

on zumba

2011-02-23T14:50:00.008-05:00

we joined a gym. there are lots of nice machines, rooms for group classes, racquetball courts, two pools, a climbing wall and some basketball courts. there is a lot i could do there, but, for the most part all i've wanted to do is hang out in the steam room.

my rationale: steam rooms, like working out, involve lots of sweating. but then someone reminded me that they don't require much in the way of personal effort.....

but zumba does. so this week i tried it.

now i'm just going to go ahead and say it: i judge a book based on its cover. had i seen a zumba class before actually attending a zumba class there is no way in H. E. double hockey sticks i would have gone.

why?

because at our gym zumba class consists of a bunch of former cheerleader cougar types shaking their bon-bons for an hour. i don't so much have a problem with old timers shaking it like a polaroid picture. what freaks me out is when the class is full of ladies who have 20 year old bodies and a 75 year old faces (presumably from spending too much time in the toaster tanning oven). but then again....that is sandy, utah for you.

so i am standing there waiting for the class to start and kind of feeling like an idiot because:
1. i have a 12 year old face and a 80 year old body.
2. i do not have a tan.

but then the music came on, lady gaga's poker face, and before i knew it i was bouncing around with the best of them. the high point came when we did a bollywood inspired dance.

i liked that one so much that i came home and downloaded the song so i can PRACTICE at home.....because i think i have found my new passion in life: being a zumba bollywood dancer. forget law school. i'm going to make it in bombay!

oh ya. and i am really sore. the kind of sore where you can't lay on your back at night because the pressure from the weight of your body on your backside really hurts.

no pants. no problem: day 4

2011-02-18T12:36:00.005-05:00

thoughts:

1. it is cold out and i am not in the mood for a dress* right now.
2. we are still having picture problems.....
3. what makeup colours do well for red heads? i think i'm looking a little washed out.

skirt: gap, sweater: tory burch for bergdof goodman, tights: gap, shoes....oh you can't see 'em.
the gap has been a goldmine lately....seriously diggin' it.
*oh and when i say dress....i usually mean skirt

no pants. no problem: day 3

2011-02-18T12:17:00.003-05:00

friends: getting michael to take a picture of me where i don't look pregnant or high is turning out to be tricky. in this picture i look like a gnome. the thing is that beyond point and shoot, when it comes to cameras neither of neither of us have the first clue what we are doing. can anyone give us some hints?!?!

skirt: gap, turtleneck: gap, boots: i dunno, i think macy's, bedding: dwell studio for target.

no pants. no problem: day 2

2011-02-16T18:33:00.004-05:00

well. well . well. here we are again.

here i am in a dress. again. looking every inch a lady.

sweater: jcrew, shirt: gap, skirt: anthropologie, boots: frye, necklace: jcrew

no pants no problem

2011-02-16T03:36:00.000-05:00

did you know there is a whole genre of blogs wherein people post pictures of what they wear?

there is.

these hipsters (and sometimes not so much) put pictures of their outfits on the interwebs every.single.day for blogger stalkers like you and me to look at.

i know. shocking.

and even though i must admit, i think it's a bit vainglorious to take a picture of your outfit and put it on your blog every.single.day....my opinion of these types probably trends more glorious than vain.

if i posted what i wear every.single.day more often than not you'd be looking at me in my pajamas, or if i was feeling ambitious, sweaty workout clothes. (whatever. sweat is hot.)

this is a problem.

it's a problem because when flannel and baggy are your criteria for choosing what to wear, 9/10 you are going to end up feeling like a fat frump which we all know is bad for mental health etc.

i've been feeling like a fat frump so much lately that i decided to set a new years resolution. my goal isn't to loose weight, or get toned up. oh no. my goal is much less ambitious. it is:

GET DRESSED (more often).

i'm just getting around to it. inspired by my new favorite genre of blog, i figured i'd get the ball rolling on this goal by posting pictures of myself every.single.day dressed in non-sleepwear . but then i got to thinking, why stop at just getting dressed when i can get dressed up. so this week i will also be wearing a dress/skirt every.single.day.

we'll see if i feel less fat, less frump and more like a lady, more grown up.

here i am today:

shirt: jcrew, skirt: anthropologie, belt: jcrew, boots: frye, tights: target

ways to combat S.A.D.

2011-02-15T13:53:00.007-05:00

1. make netflix your new best friend.

2. buy a large tub of red vines at costco. hoard them.

3. dye your hair* ** ***.

* don't worry mom it is a temp--i'll be back to blond in no time. it was either this or cut it all off.
** since red fades from washing, i plan on not stepping foot in a shower for about 5 weeks.
*** yes, i agree. i look like a russian mail order bride.

(i love it)

Notes from the Chocolate Society

2011-02-06T01:13:00.005-05:00

people at the chocolate society take chocolate seriously.

only eat dark chocolate serious.
would rather their kids eat dirt than the likes of lindt, godiva or bernard callebaut serious.
smell their chocolate before they eat it serious.
suck on it and spit it out serious.

it sounds annoying, but it is actually pretty charming to be around people who are so passionate--and i've learned a lot from them.

and

i feel like a bit of a poser because guess who has several bars of hershey chocolate in her pantry.....

and

for anyone interested, amedei tuscano black 70% extra dark chocolate will change your life.

logical reasoning

2011-02-06T00:42:00.008-05:00

if you join the chocolate society of salt lake city, then your chocolate consumption will go through the roof. if your chocolate consumption goes through the roof, then you will gain weight. if you gain weight, then you will not fit into your clothes. if you do not fit into your clothes, then you will have a mental breakdown every single morning when you get dressed.

so

if you join the chocolate society, then you will have a mental breakdown every morning when you get dressed.

i joined the chocolate society of salt lake city....

take a stab at how my mornings have been lately.

back to the blob*

2011-02-01T16:04:00.006-05:00

a couple of weeks ago i was in a meeting with some people. during a lull in the conversation, one of the attendee's turned to me and said:

"i read your blog. you are kind of off the wall."

the way it was said, i couldn't tell if being "off the wall" was intended as a compliment. i wasn't really getting the vibe that is was.....inside i cringed. i was embarrassed. i felt like a bloomin' idiot. so on the drive home i was thinking about all the ways to avoid feeling these kinds of things....

the truth is the person who said i was "off the wall" has NO IDEA how nutty i really am. my blog is a pretty pithy representation of what i think and feel. i've got oodles of unpublished posts. posts i decided not to put up because i thought they might make me look stupid or crazy or hurt people's feelings. i haven't been brave enough to open myself up that much and i haven't wanted to be judged based on something i wrote on my blog. the truth is judgment is unavoidable. and in my case,in trying to protect myself from judgment, i've lost my voice. straight up lame.

for me, the solution isn't going private. only expressing things in safe space won't help me learn to better articulate my ideas. it won't help me find the courage i need to say hard things when they need to be said. it won't help me learn to be a more diplomatic writer.

so this year....my blog is going to be me. real mercedes. all of me...most of me...more of me than you have seen in the past (this being open stuff is kind of scary--and the oprah expose on blog security doesn't exactly help) so if you read something and you think...."man that mercedes is kinda nuts"...yes i kinda am.

*on one of the blogs i read the author calls her blog her BLOB. i just love that and imitation is flattery and all that stuff.

me and my best friend joni

2010-12-16T00:35:00.002-05:00

old joni mitchell and i have a lot in common. check it out:

both blonds
both alberta girls
both moved to america
both don't know what we got til it's gone (sorry about that grammar situation mom).

so basically we are kindred spirits or something. anyway ever since i got home from edmonton my mind has been playing joni's big yellow taxi on repeat.

here is why:

i hated garlic city for the 4+ years i lived there. now in most cases hate is a strong word....here it probably doesn't even start to do my feelings justice. i'd go back to calgary pretty much every chance i got. i was always looking into transferring "someplace cool" and when i realized that was too much trouble, i started hitting the books like a mad dog just to make sure that one day i'd at least have the option of going "someplace cool."

and i did (and it was fun). and i haven't really looked back.

until a few weeks ago when i found myself in good ol' garlic city once again. i am driving around old strathcona with sister rax and i start getting all teary eyed and wistful. seeing my old stomping grounds: the buildings i studied in, the restaurants i ate at, the neighborhoods i walked through....just made me so nostalgic. university times were some pretty good times.

then we went to a wedding and saw many old friends. i may not always have liked edmonton, but by george, there were some amazing people there. i look at these people now, many who still live in edmonton, and just feel so lucky to have had the chance to associate with them. and i feel like a nard dog because i didn't appreciate then how rare people like that are.

and now i am half-wishing to move back to edmonton, and buy a house in glenora, and get together with friends and play settlers of catan every weekend, become oilers fans, go for winter dream hikes through the river valley, and eat a lot of perogies....

because this time i would appreciate every little moment of it.
seriously.
even when it is -45.

post notes:

1. so i may have had this conversion re: garlic city, but don't expect it to happen re: SL,UT.

2. gold stars to fellow former golden bears who say they miss garlic city. i want odes to edmonton!

3. oh and recently my friend chucky (one of those people i was talking about above) started calling edmonton "garlic city." i loved it so much i decided to do my part to make sure the nickname sticks. so now do your part!

goo gets married

2010-12-14T00:59:00.002-05:00

it was one heck of a weekend in garlic city. watching dearest lindsay marry spencer was such a great way to kickoff the holiday season. she was radiant. it was a joyous celebration and i feel honoured to have been included.

momma, rax and i practiced our modeling poses in the photo booth, made random kids rock out with us on the dance floor, and overate (shocker). total blast.

When I Rock the Mic

2010-10-31T13:30:00.003-04:00

I ROCK THE MIC RIGHT!!!!

1. thank you to robbie williams for inspiring me to get down with my bad self.
2. thank you to utah county for inspiring this totally "ama-zing" outfit.

DIY

2010-10-27T12:48:00.000-04:00

Big Eater

2010-09-14T23:13:00.002-04:00

son look at all the people in this restaurant,
what do you think they weigh?
and out to the window to the parking lot
at their SUV's taking all the space...
~Ben Folds

am i the only one out there who's noticed that like 80% of cheesecake factory patrons are two bites and a gulp away from a massive heart attack? these people are HUGE and i'm not talking like they've got cushion for the pushin'. i'm talking the kind of people who need to use the motorized scooters over at walmart because they can't WALK. they say obesity in america is an epidemic. a meal at cheesecake factory should clue us all in to the reason.

THE PORTIONS ARE HUGE.

now before you all go and accuse me of being one of those chicks who eats like a bird, lemme just say that i am a champion eater. i sometimes wish i was one of those girls who looked at a big plate of steaming pasta and said, "this is way to much! i could never possibly eat all of this."

these girls seem dainty and feminine--but i'm more the type to offer people help with their leftovers. this is why on a recent trip to CF i was able to work my way through the bread basket and this:and this:and still have room for this:

the thing is that just because you can, doesn't mean you should. i can eat a lot--but it isn't really good for me. not only because sooner or later my metabolism is going to crash and burn, but because eating a lot of food in one sitting doesn't seem to agree with my digestive system, a fact i had the pleasure of considering in depth while confined to the washroom the day after my visit to CF.

the thing is, i have this (kinda trashy) mentality where i think a place is good if they serve A LOT of food. i went to a restaurant in calgary recently where three ounces of steak took you to the tune of thirty bones. i was royally ticked off because i thought they were cheating me (never mind that it was of finest quality, practically melted in my mouth, and my dad was paying). when my mother reminded me that the canadian food guide suggests that adults only consume three ounces meat (or protein) at any given meal, i shut up and ate my meat (and pigged on the family style sides).

(that is not enough! who the heck seriously get's full on a deck of cards?)

but i am still kind of mad about it, because for some reason i get annoyed when a restaurant imposes portion control on me. on the other hand i get grossed out by places like CF which are pretty much shrines to gluttony. so what's a big eater whose worried about her weight to do? if i don't want to end up on one of those motorized scooters, i'd better get on the portion control bandwagon pronto....but i still wanna get my money's worth!!!

so here is the question, do you prefer going to a restaurant like cheesecake factory where you have to be the portion control police, or do you like it when a restaurant does it for you? when you dine at a shrine of gluttony what strategies do you use to control you food intake?

give me the straight. the skinny. the skinny straight.

mucho gracias.

And BINGO was her Name-O

2010-08-25T03:36:00.000-04:00

we are major scrabble nerds. we play enough to know all the two letter words. we keep track of our scores on a spread sheet. we read blogs about scrabble strategy. we know which words are not in the real dictionary but are in the scrabble dictionary.

like i said--MAJOR/LAME/FANATICAL SCRABBLE NERDS.

last night we had an epic scrabble war. check it out:
we each had three bingos. we each made a two letter word worth over sixty points. we were neck and neck through the whole game. i really wanted to win. towards the end my heart was thumping, i kept having to use the washroom, and i was sweating behind my knees*. physiological responses to a tight game are not abnormal for a serious scrabbler like myself. it's a stressful game.

we each only had two letters left and i blew michael out of the water with some really lame word like tai. the great thing about scrabble is that once you use all of your letters, it is game over. so between "tai" and adding michael's left over letters to my score and subtracting them from his, i was able to just break ahead. 526 to 532 (gold star for me).

and i am just writing this for two reasons. one, to brag. and two, so that on days when i am having the an major nervous breakdown about my life and feel like i have no useful skills, i can read** this and remember that i have "serious talent." i could go pro (pro-vided i only play against people with no more than an elementary school education).

in honour of my three seven letter words (and win), for the rest of the week i would like to be called MERCEDES "BINGO" WHITE.

*sweating behind the knees is my new nasty physical problem. although it is better than acne, it is still pretty gross. is this too much information?!? am i the only one afflicted with this condition?!? do you think putting antiperspirant there will quell waterworks i have going on back there? did you know the human brain weighs three pounds?!?

**and let's not talk today about the fact that i just admitted to being a total narcissist because i sometimes kinda re-read my own blog. in fact i am pretty sure that the only person that reads this is my mom (HI!) and that most of my profile views come from me looking at myself!

(i probably shouldn't blog at 2:30 in the morning. i'm kinda loopy)

michael aaron carey:

2010-08-24T04:23:00.000-04:00

we've been married a year. ok. a year and a couple months. and i just wanted to tell you that

i still like you. auspicious beginning, wouldn't you say?
here we are at the slc arts festival on our anniversary. we bought some art, ate some fries, and played tetris while other more cultured festival go-ers listened to jazz music. (i swear people don't really like jazz---they just pretend to like it)

another day, another degenerate dessert.

2010-08-20T03:38:00.007-04:00

today's special: marshmallow peanut butter slice

they weren't quite like the one's i remember from second cup.

i probably put in too much peanut butter. and i am pretty sure there weren't enough marshmallows. and i probably put the mallows in before the peanut butter mixture was sufficiently cool.....because after mixing everything together they sort of looked (and tasted like) marshmallow fluff (not we are complaining or that it stopped us from devouring the entire pan).

heaven help me (fit into my jeans).

degenerate dessert night?

2010-08-12T23:05:00.002-04:00

according to mireille guiliano, author of "french women don't get fat: the secret to eating for pleasure" all one has to do to maintain a girlish figure is eat small portions of food prepared only with the highest quality ingredients.

according to mercedes white, author of "the degernerate food diet: how to get and stay fat in middle america," (forthcoming) all one has to do to look like a beached whale is eat large quantities of high fructose corn syrup.

i try to eat good foods, of high quality and to control my portions. but lately, things haven't been going so well. at the grocery store i stock up on cheetos. when we go out for dinner i eschew the grilled chicken and roasted vegetables in favour of things smothered with cream and cheese. i had ice cream for breakfast more than three times this week.

on monday when i went to put my shorts on--they felt tight and instead of admitting that i perhaps had gained some kgs, i do what any normal PMSing woman would do, I blame Michael for shrinking my shorts in the dryer. (he didn't--but i'll resort to just about anything to avoid taking the blame for being a little on the plump side of "at this weight i have to lay down to zip up my jeans.")

right there i resolved to eat better: oatmeal for breakfast, squrrily bread for lunch. but then around 4 pm i found myself elbow deep in a carton of ice cream. opps.

so today i decided to try a little reverse psychology and make trashiest, sweetest, high calorie dessert i could think of. because everyone knows overdosing on crap is the best way to get a taste for it out of your system (right???) so i decided on HELLO DOLLIES (also called magic squares).

if you've never tried them here is a little amuse bouche: coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips nuts and sweet condensed milk cover a thick graham cracker crust.

and i pretty much ate the whole pan. and they were horrible in the best kind of way. and now i am obsessed with making degenerate desserts (marshmallow peanut butter slice is next on my list). if fact i think i need to have a white trash/ degenerate dessert night. who is in? (i am serious here).

Art as Ethos

2010-05-26T21:02:00.018-04:00

i want to decorate because a few months ago i started reading home decor blogs and now i have an inferiority complex about my house. if your house is a reflection of your personality, mine screams:

BORING.

since committing to a particular decorating scheme freaks me out, i decided i should just buy art. it is portable. you can make it work with almost any colour scheme. of course the problem with this is that my taste in art outstrips my budget for art by about 100%.

so i have been looking for posters from sites like etsy and allposters. today i looked at like 100 different versions of the "keep calm and carry on" poster (which incidentally has an interesting history).

i like it, but i can't make myself buy it. for whatever reason i have this idea that art should be a representation of who you are. people who know me know that "keeping calm" and "carrying on" doesn't exactly sum up my approach to coping. a more appropriate poster would read:

freak out and cry about it.

so anyway, long story short, this one is out.

but i like these two:

fern lady

russian doll

so friends if you know of anything beautiful, lovely or of good report (or cheeky) (and cheap) please send me your links. help me at least keep up the appearance of having a personality.

please? por favor? s'il vous plait?

MY Tunes

2010-05-25T21:05:00.014-04:00

When I was in high school I was obsessed with Bob Dylan. My after school ritual went something like this: get a snack, go to room, lay on bed, stare up at neon stars on ceiling (a misguided decorating choice), and listen “Tambourine Man” on repeat.

I did this for years. I did it until my younger brother had enough and decided it was time for my Bob Dylan tape to have a tragic encounter with the toilet.

One might think now that I am grown up, I’d have weaned myself from rituals like listening to songs on repeat. But one would be wrong. There are some new developments, however. For example Michael has replaced my brother in the role of "annoyed family member." Also, Bob Dylan’s hippy folk music has been replaced with music of the trashy euro club genre, specifically “Bulletproof” by La Roux

(And speaking of roux isn’t that some kind of flour and butter concoction??? Gross.)

(Opps and according to Wikipedia la roux is English electropop. My bad.)

According to itunes I have listened to this song 73 times (in 48 hours). This is a problem. If I keep this pace up I risk coming down with “bulletproof brain” (as in the worst case of writers block imaginable). This is problematic when you make your living as a writer!

So question: tell me what song should replace bulletproof?

And seriously if you aren’t already working out to this song, go download it and thank me for fact that you run 20% faster when you listen to it later.

I can't quit you:

2010-05-07T15:51:00.000-04:00

spray butter
perezhilton.com
gossip girl
sugar free candy
complaining about living in utah
nail biting

and just in case you aren' totaly gross out by me already, i am just going to go ahead and admit that i buy frozen hamburgers from costco, and i like them....

recent statistics*

2010-05-05T13:17:00.005-04:00

places traveled:

Calgary for some family time.
Phoenix for some hot yoga.
Las Vegas for all things that stay in Vegas.
Los Angeles for a wedding.
Boston to remind me of how much i miss the east cost.
Rhode Island to remind me that there are places where the people are bigger hicks than in Utah.

books read:
the trouble with physics
(the trouble with this book is it is BOOORING.)

a fine balance
(the indian version of anna karenina and a must read. MUST MUST MUST.)

the man who ate everything
(by jeffery steingarten of iron chef fame. god put jeffery steingarten on earth to make fun of' stupid food phobias. even though i am faily certain he would make a lot of fun of me, i still love him and his book.)

teach like a champion
(bought because my primary class is going to drive me to drink. the book is supposed to help with classroom management. the only thing it is helping with, however, is my resolve not to have children.)

sense and sensibility.
(favorite line: like him? esteem him? use those insipid words again and i will leave the room this instant.)

TV series watched
deadwood.
a dead-good western. don't watch if you are offended by colourful language.

the wire.
makes you wonder why you ever wasted time on law and order reruns. also don't watch if offended by colourful language.

the good wife.
based on the elliot spitzer/rod blagojevich scandal. i real gem of a show.

keeping up with the kardashians.
it is free on on demand. i blame on demand or a lot of poor tv habits.

Jobs Quit:
bridal store employee

Jobs Gained:
Ghostwriter (seriously).

*i mention all these things for a couple of reasons. first, i like lists. second, lists make me feel like i am doing something with all my time; the illusion of productivity if you will.

i never learn, or maybe i do...

2010-03-10T12:19:00.006-05:00

summer 2005: me, on the bathroom floor, writhing in pain after consuming a large sugar free crystal light slurpee. that night i vowed i'd never partake food of the sugar-free variety again.

famous last words....

last night: me, in the bathroom, trying to coax my body into releasing the toxic gases it produced as a result of consuming too many sugar-free candies. effort to no avail. i still feel positively raunchy today.

i'd like to say this time i've learned my lesson and i will never do this to myself again....

but i'm starting to think i'm a glutton for punishment.

Alberta Politics

2010-03-09T21:11:00.006-05:00

someone i know told me they are interested in the wildrose party. at the time they mentioned this new alberta based political party, i thought perhaps i should look into it. alas eating weight watchers chocolate toffee candies (only one point) and reading gofugyourself.com has kept me pretty busy for the last, oh, month or so.

so then the other night when i was in the tub listening to a cbc podcast and they announced they were going to be interviewing the leader of the wildrose party, i was like:"oh goody." ok actually, i remember thinking: "i am totally not in the mood for this." but then getting out of the tub means risking hypotherima and at the time death didn't sound that appealing. so there i was, a captive audience.

i'm not going to lie, i was less than impressed.

ms. smith spent the entire time talking about: how climate change is, in fact, not true; how we should not let american policy on carbon affect how we do business in alberta (because america is not the center of the universe); and how evidence that does not support climate change is suppressed by scientific journals in a conspiracy to support al gore (slightly overstated on my part).

wow. honestly you have ten minutes to talk to a NATIONAL audience about what your party stands for and you choose to talk about how climate change isn't real? no wonder the rest of canada thinks people from alberta are nut jobs. if i didn't know better i would say ms. smith is also the "genius" behind the sign that was once prominently displayed on the #2 highway going north from calgary; the one that said, "alberta separation, isn't it about time."

but i digress....

ms. smith may not like to admit it, but alberta oil companies are and will be greatly affected by american policies on the environment. the united states may not be the center of the universe, but they are a huge customer. a carbon tax there would devastate the economy here.

so what i want to know is where does denying climate change get us? how does it promote the interests of alberta oil companies to their international customers? if a country is concerned about the environment and is considering a carbon tax, we aren't going to get anywhere trying to convince them that climate change doesn't exist. that ship has sailed.

what we need is to lobby our client's governments (and our own) to ensure that SMART environmental policies are implemented. we need to invest time and money into making sophisticated economic arguments about the cost effectiveness of policies designed to reduce those carbon footprints. when people learn that a carbon tax, for example, comes at a huge economic expense so that 100 years from now it will not be 1 degree warmer, people are going to stop and think. people are not going to even consider your ideas if you start by making the politically suicidal move of denying climate change.

there is a part of me that wants to support ms. smith. i like newcomers. i like mavericks. i like people who are trying to shake things up. the thing is, her talking points on the carbon issue show how totally out of touch she is. do we want another out of touch government? um. no.

so does anyone have anything to say in her defense?

wowzer browzer

2010-02-05T12:18:00.008-05:00

in an effort to economize, i decided to get eyebrow shapings less frequently. a month and a half went by; they didn't look that bad. and then two and they were a bit spindly but passable. and then i forgot about it....

until the other day when i looked at myself in the mirror and, to my horror, realized that the two caterpillars had taken over my face. cripes. see for yourself:
so i made an appointment with a brow artist in slc. this brow artist woman works on all the "famous" people in utah according to her website (i am trying to think of who those people might be. carlos boozer doesn't really strike me as a metro sexual kind of guy. neither does president monson, maybe robert redford is her client?). anyway take a gander at her handiwork.
i feel like a woman again.

i am not going to say what brow artist charged, but i will say it is highway robbery. needless to say, i didn't save a cent....which means that walking around looking like i had two giant cocoons on my face for two months was totally pointless.

i hate when i try to be thrifty and it backfires.

Note Bien Mercedes

2010-01-28T14:20:00.000-05:00

they call them FIBER one bars for a reason. eating 5 per day, probably not a good idea

to avoid depression: don't weigh yourself the morning after a late night pizza party.

purchase gas mask. on the radio they said we are having a "yellow air" warning (have i mentioned how much i hate it here lately?)

when you are working in a bridal store and an 18 year old girl comes in chomping on a wad of hubba bubba sporting bouffant bangs and forever 21's latest, and she tells you she wants a simple, elegant wedding gown, don't actually show her one. what she really wants is the most gawdy thing you can find: pickups, long trains, 80's style silhouettes, lady gaga inspired embellishments etc. this would do:

the verbal sparing that takes place during the post state of the union commentary does not, apparently, compare to watching jimmer fredette drain threes.

just because you have the urge to say "farmer blow" every time you see/say/hear the name jimmer fredette does not mean you should. one should at least try to keep up the pretense of being a lady ( in my defense, i think the yellow air might is getting to me).

resos

2010-01-18T01:51:00.007-05:00

not long ago i realized that i have been making the same new year's resolutions since i was 12: stop biting nails, be nicer to my family, write in journal every day, make a quilt, be more artistic, do 500 situps each night....

if you think that after 16 years i'd make some progress on at least some of these fronts, you'd be mistaken. i am still the same moody, nail-biting, canadian-tire-sporting girl i was as a teenager.

admitting that kind of made me feel like crap, so i gave up on resolutions all together for awhile. i decided that resolutions are just a total waste of time, and failure is inevitable, and improvement is impossible and all kinds of other not very uplifting things.

this year i have stared to wonder, however, if the reason i have always been unsucessful with my new years goals is because i keep focusing on things that i either don't like or am not that good at naturally (i mean quilting, seriously).

isn't that how it is supposed to work though, you set a goal to improve at something you aren't very good at? yes. but does it have to be? why on earth to i think i need to be a quilter? why not just focus on becoming better at something i am already good at or like doing?

so i am trying it. next year i will have read the paper every day, have increased my scrabble average to 430 (on two person games), i will try a new recipe each week, and i will become a math master.

i'll let you know how it goes. here i am honing my scrabble skills over christmas with michael and gma and gpa white. what do you think of my christmas uniform? i wore that number for about 4 days straight. i didn't shower either. miraculously my husband still finds me attractive.

i heart cowtown

2010-01-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

since 14 i had one goal: get out of dodge. as far as i was concerned calgary was the most miserable, boring, uninspiring place on earth. my recent trip home, however, had me appreciating cowtown to a degree heretofore unfathomable.

calgary had me at free wireless at the airport, but i fell hook, line, and sinker over:

1. free luggage carts at the airport

2. sobey's: it makes whole foods look like reams
(if you don't know what reams is, consider yourself one of the lucky ones).

3. my parents' steam shower, where i spent about 12 hours a day.
(don't worry mom i squeegeed the ceiling after i used it)

4. the great canadian stupidstore. two words: joe fresh.

5. alberta beef

6. free health care
(NOT a word michael!)

this list, of course, doesn't include the obvious things like....family...friends... or fernando.

ex-pats out there, what are your favorite things about the motherland?

Unhappy Feet

2009-12-17T17:59:00.000-05:00

if you have a foot fetish....just stop now.
(i guarantee after seeing this you will think i am the nastiest person that ever walked the face of the earth.)

this is what happens when your feet get cold and wet and you ignore them:

(and just in case you are interested, it itches like the dickens)

this is what happens when you have weird shaped feet that you cram into cross country ski boots that are a little on the small side. (it was totally worth it though. j'adore le ski nordique.)

between the blisters and the swollen toes i can barely walk. i have been complaining for three days nonstop about my aliments. michael is sick of hearing about it. posting pictures is my shameless attempt to garner more sympathy.

dearest feet: i get it. i won't ignore you anymore. as a reward for your long-suffering, michael promises to treat you to many pedicures in 2010.

Haute Pizza (ie not frozen)

2009-12-16T17:08:00.006-05:00

it is no secret, we like our frozen pizza. we probably eat it 3 times a week (and we will probably die of preservative overload by age 35). in an effort to actually make food (what a novel idea) and to try something a bit healthier, i decided to make my own pizza.

i call it...

blue moon

roasted butternut squash puree

caramelized onions
spinach
mozzarella
blue cheese

i couldn't keep my paws of this thing. michael is lucky he even got a piece.

so here is what i want to know:
what are your favorite ingredients to put on a pizza?

Cry Baby

2009-12-04T02:05:00.013-05:00

maybe it was a bad case of pms...
maybe it was the full moon...
or maybe i am deeply emotionally disturbed person...

but on tuesday night i came home from work, made love to a bowl (or two) of parsley parmesan pasta and proceeded to cry my way through:

biggest loser
(i hate working out. 400 pounders freak me out. that jillian lady is SCARY. but, come elimination i was bawling along with everyone else. i am a cliche).

a sportscenter special
(about a kid who is obsessed with the USC football team and recently became blind).

25 pages of people of the book by geraldine brooks.
(tolstoy, she's ain't, but i've have a firm policy of being and equal opportunity crier when it comes to stories of unrequited love.)

viva la vida
(ya it's by coldplay. i know by admitting this i am going to lose my music street cred, but who am i to argue with tears...)

and then i fell asleep which is usually the best solution for the mad blues or the mean reds or whatever it is i have.

of course, a trip to tiffany's might help too....

Michael Makes Pie

2009-11-23T12:57:00.009-05:00

i've been humming tunes from sweeney todd all week. ever since michael told me he wanted to make mincemeat pies for thanksgiving, i can't get "worst pies in london" out of my head (mincemeat really is the WORST kind of pie).

michael had never eaten mincemeat pie before he attempted making it. i am sure if he had, he wouldn't have tried. my first encounter with mincemeat (at age 10) had me running for the washroom as faster than you can say "seconds". indeed so disgusted was i with the idea of mincemeat that the very mention of it made my stomach turn for years.

michael was not to be deterred by the prospect of me loosing my cookies over his creation. he slaved away on his mincemeat for the better part of a week, tasting, tweeking, heating and reheating until he got just what he was looking for.

so in the spirit of sweeny todd:

Ladies and gentlemen
May I have your attention, perlease?
Are your nostrils aquiver and tingling as well
At that delicate, luscious ambrosial smell?
Yes they are, I can tell

michael carey's meat pies.....

and they are pretty good!

what kind of pie did you eat for thanksgiving?

Poker Face

2009-11-23T12:13:00.010-05:00

i'm not sure how we got the idea, but last night michael and i ended up playing online poker (at the nickel and dime tables) until 2 am. we were up. we were down. in the end we lost all of our money, all five dollars of it.

how we figured we could beat the odds and win big last night is beyond me. maybe it was the fact that real salt lake beat the LA galaxy in the major league soccer championships in a shootout.
(utah guy in red. gross hair right?!?)
or maybe it was the fact that our favorite chef won the next iron chef competition.
(we are food network junkies. i like chef garces because he is ecuadorian)good things are supposed to come in threes right?

we were destined to win....

evidently, just not last night.

we are a good poker pair. i am prone to addiction and michael seems immune. i have a good hunches and he knows how to do the math. we may end up in a debtors prison as we dig ourselves into a whole, five dollars at a time....

or who knows, maybe we'll win big and go pro.

good things do come in threes after all.

wish us luck in our quest for easy money.

(who else plays....we should have a game night online...alan benson i'm talking to you!).

SuperNanny

2009-11-22T16:08:00.003-05:00

michael and i used to joke that we weren't going to have kids until we could afford to pay someone else to take care of them (at the rate we are going, we'll be ready that financial obligation about the time i hit menopause). i have always anticipated working outside the home and raising a family, but i wonder sometimes about what it would be like to raise children full-time.

this week i did a trial run when i babysat my niece stella.* stella is the perfect baby: she doesn't cry, she doesn't fuss, and to top it all off, if there were such a thing as america's next top model baby edition, i'm pretty sure she'd would clean up.

so there i was, with the perfect baby. the only problem is that i was bored out of my tree.

don't tell her mom this, but i probably let her nap longer than she should, just because i didn't know what to do with her when she woke up. what do you do with a one year old?

according to my mom, you should read books to one year olds to help develop their language skills. i looked through stella's books and decided that i'd let her nap a little longer because i'd rather read my book of short stories by anton chekhov than her book of stories about a little pony (ponies freak me out).

if stella has delayed language skills, i accept partial responsibility. the idiots who write books for babies (that make adults want to chew glass) are also culpable.

my adventures in babysitting tell me a couple of things about myself:

1. i might not be up for the riggers of full-time motherhood.
2. i might not really be a baby person.
3. i am selfish as all get out

people say it is different when they are your own kids. it might be, but it might not, which is why we diligently put money into a nanny fund every month.

i have all the time in the world for women who stay home and raise their children....but are there people like me out there? people who maybe just aren't that into babies, or who don't want to look after their kids full time, or who think ponies are weird?!? tell me i'm not alone!

*oh and in the interest of full disclosure, i only watched her for four hours. it was enough.

Let's Play Balderdash!

2009-11-16T03:12:00.008-05:00

excuses for failing to post:

1. in the last week i have consumed appropriately 75 cookies and subsequently gained 30 pounds rendering me completely immobile. my newly acquired canadian tire and relief society arms make it impossible for me to reach for my computer (not to mention get up).

(in my defense they were vegan cookies!)

2. i had h1n1. i had a fever of 106F. i was certain that if i put my laptop on my lap, the heat from my body would fry my precious apple.

(what makes me so mad about all of this is the fact that i spent 60 bucks on the nasty flu mist! 60 bucks goes a long way in utah, were milk only costs like 3 dollars! boston and nyc have totally wharped my perception of how much things should cost).

3. i've spent every spare moment during the last few days playing world of warcraft. yes, mercedes white plays world of warcraft (and she likes it). i have a level 60 warlock named bloodcurdle. be jealous.

4. i don' have a good excuse.

so friends, what is it that has been keeping my from my blogity blog?

lately

2009-10-25T14:02:00.001-04:00

reading:

we are renovating. it seems that paint fumes have gone to my head because i have the attention span of a gnat. needless to say i won't be reading war and peace this year. blog posts are more my speed these days. i read this one on health and diet (and life) last week and have been thinking about it ever since. i don't know if i agree with the thesis, but it is thought provoking and worth reading. in fact, all the posts are

listening: i'm not the one who is going to typically introduce you to new good songs. i don't know who is cool or hip or innovative. i do, however, know what i like; stuff that you want to sing along to, stuff that makes you feel happy, and stuff that makes you want to dance. i have been listening to firefly by owl city on repeat for about two weeks. so your self a favor and listen to it now and then write me back and tell me how you think this song sounds like love (because it totally does).

watching:if your idea of a good time is watching a masterpiece theater mini-series, you will love this new HBO mini-series about john adams. michael and i started watching it last night so far my opinion is: john adams is cool and thomas jefferson drools.

eating:romesco dip. lots of it. i've had garlic breath (etc) for two weeks. so does michael. it is worth it.

what are you reading, listening, watching and eating?

Tour du Plate

2009-10-23T11:41:00.010-04:00

we had a lovely canadian thanksgiving and i thought i'd better post about it before american thanksgiving rolls around. i'm going to go out on a limb and say this was the best canadian thanksgiving dinner i have ever made (admittedly not saying much).

the menu included:

chicken
we cooked the whole bird in the crockpot as recommended by julie of dinner with julie fame. it was perfection.
sweet potato fries tossed in truffle oil and parmesan cheese
hazlenut mushroom stuffing
prepared by michaela, the carey family executive chef. if you want to try something new this year TRY THIS!
roasted beet salad with arugula, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese and a red wine vinaigrette.
i am obsessed with beets.romesco dip prepared with roasted sweet red peppers, olive oil, and ground almonds
so easy and so good. we served it with fresh baked multigrain bread (the nutty chewy kind).
jarlesburg and gouda cheese, almond stuffed olives, fresh strawberries

cranberry blueberry sauce infused with lemon and nutmeg
if you use blueberries you need less sugar in the sauce

butter tarts and michael's special pumpkin cheesecake
made without a recipe but this dish is proof that when starting with cream and sugar, it it pretty hard to go wrong

now i am obsessing about what to have for american thanksgiving.

what do you usually have? what new recipe are you going to try? what do you consider your "best" thanksgiving dish? we need some inspiration here!!

New "Job"

2009-10-10T01:02:00.000-04:00

i pretty much thought my life would be over when we moved to utah. to be honest, for the first few weeks we were here, i was kind of lost at sea. luckily, a few therapeutic shopping trips to nordstrom rack, some hiking in southern utah, and a new "job" seem to have revived my spirits.

so let me tell you about the "job"*

i am a research assistant at the center for documentary arts in slc. i do things like hunt down news stories on immigration, read up on minorities in utah, and chat (a lot) with the fascinating people i work with. currently the center is doing research for an exhibit for the leonardo on the civil rights movement in utah.

i'm so excited about this because for months i've wanted to do something that will help me with my long term goals. this opportunity exposes me to the documentary arts which will help me develop the skills, contacts, and technical know how to begin work on my own project (soon).

moving forward is so much fun (even if it is in utah).

and in honour of the new "job" i got bangs. wow. bangs. i'm a real wild woman.

yikes.

brows need HELP.

i better get off here before i pick my whole face apart and spend the rest of the night looking into botox/lasers/peels.

*i say "job" because i work for free. i am sure my boss thinks i am both insane and desperate. (not far off the mark actually).

this weekend:

2009-09-30T23:00:00.001-04:00

katie did, so i did too:

(if anyone says these look like clown costumes i will jump out of the computer and give you a piece of my mind--which is that maybe they are a little clownish....and certainly as i child i would have flat out REFUSED to wear something like this, but they were fun to make! michael's poor nieces are the victims of my need for creative outlets.)

My Youtube Debut.

2009-09-17T01:34:00.006-04:00

things you should know before watching:

1. i don't sing. at 12 i took voice lessons for 4 months. i quit after my teacher would not let me move on from a song called little lamb (worst song ever). here you will notice me laughing mid song, forgetting lyrics and going terribly off key.

2. my last name is "white" which pretty much sums up my rhythm. please enjoy my oafish attempts at choreography (in particular around 1:01).

3. michael is completely responsible for the lyrics, and he "made" me sing it. in retaliation i am composing a song about health care to the tune of little mermaid's part of their world (ie something along the lines of: up where they have free medication, health care for me, if i could be canadian). if the irony of michael singing a song about longing for socialized medicine is lost on you, check out his blog.

and now

presenting

"nucular!"

to the tune of popular from the musical Wicked.

A Reason to Shop at Gap

2009-09-15T22:19:00.000-04:00

remember when the gap was cool? when we just couldn't seem to get enough? when khaki's swung? when even madonna was wearing gap jeans?

when the gap fell off the cool wagon, i can't say for sure, but what i do know is that circa 2000 you wouldn't catch me dead in the gap. the jeans looked like "mom" jeans. the shirts looked frumpy. the place was just blah.

around that time i jumped on the designer jean bandwagon. the fact that most styles didn't really fit, didn't look that great, and buying them meant i'd be eating kraft dinner for the rest of the month never seemed to phase me.

i 've needed new jeans for months and given my very strong feelings about the gap being the home of frump, it was with some skepticism that agreed to try some gap jeans on during a mother daughter shopping trip.
i knew before i even looked in the mirror that i'd found a winner in the gap's new 1969 sexy boot jean. i'm not exagerating when i say that these jeans look better than my seven for all mankind, rock and republic, or james jeans. at the fraction of the cost of premium denim, all of a sudden the gap is looking kind of cool again.

who knew.

go try them on now.....sexy boot. seriously. sexy.

Cafe Rio Abuse Problem

2009-08-31T02:49:00.004-04:00

3 days in utah, 3 nights at cafe rio.

i crave the salad.
(which i can eat entirely on my own in one sitting)
i like the soup too.

after three days of eating the same thing at the same establishment i could probably stand for some variety, but cafe rio is too cheap and too good and still completely novel, so maybe i should just get something besides my usual.

what do you recommend?

Martha's Vineyard

2009-08-17T18:38:00.007-04:00

ferry rides, lunch with friends, long walks, a lemonade stand just when we needed it, cooling off in the ocean, rides on a lazy river, ice cream, good conversation, lots of sunscreen.

it was a good weekend.

Crush on Cambridge

2009-08-17T18:00:00.004-04:00

i've spent large portions of my life being HATING the place i lived. when i'd complain about it, people would say well intentioned things like "mercedes bloom where you are planted."

stuff like that makes me want to chew glass. now i get that a person should try to make the best of their situation, but any gardener knows some seeds just do better in some kinds of ground. i just happen to be one of those fussy kinds of seeds...

luckily, at present, i like the ground i am in. and before we leave cambridge*, i think it is high time for me to publicly admit** that i have a big fat crush on my hood.

here are just a few reasons:

(and pardon my lame amateur photography...i didn't start playing with cameras until about two weeks ago).

1. picket fences

2. fresh pond (our answer to central park's reservoir)
i can't decide if the best part is that it is a stone's throw from our house or if it is the amazing doggie swimming hole. is watching strangers dogs play in a park as creepy watching strangers kids play in the park? if so we both ought to be classified as dog predators.

3. amazing flower gardens

4. Formagio Italian Market:

the beloved cheese and oil section. chez mc^2 we love our fats.

5. Mari Mekko:i like to go in this store and oggle this textile designer's amazing fabric prints. at $50 a yard i have yet to buy any because you know i prefer to do things like eat this week.

6. and i walk everywhere.

What is your favorite part about your 'hood?

*on friday we leave cambridge for utah. i haven't cried about it this week. this is progress.
**the first time i came to boston i thought it was the most miserable, dreary place with the rudest people.during my nyc years i'd often proclaim that i'd rather live in "deadmonton" than boston. luckily first impressions aren't always the lasting impressions.

Good Morning Nectarine

2009-08-08T08:50:00.000-04:00

the fruit season has been good to me

Feeling Crusty

2009-08-05T10:48:00.012-04:00

we've all read those "cute" letters to things like feet and waistlines on the shi shi blogs. i am not knocking them. i actually love them and the bloggers who write them, people like her and her....

i thought about writing some letters too.....except every time i sit down to write a letter i come out sounding more like hunter s. thompson in the fear and loathing letters than the nice, sweet, thoughtful blogger i aspire to be...

but the truth is that lately i've been feeling a little crusty. if catharsis works will getting my grievances off my chest make me feel better? here goes nothing.

dear michael: i have no idea what you put in that hamburger meat but now our house smells like a third world country. this is to put you on notice: you no longer have unsupervised seasoning privileges. also i am really glad right now that you insisted we buy febreeze in bulk.

dear utah: it isn't you, it's me. i can't handle your dry climate, or your funky culture, or how your people name their children things like Alivyiah, Tridger or Kaegrin. i'm sure you have some redeeming qualities, i'd just prefer not to be the one who has to look for them. (it is you).

dear jason chaffetz: i know you are trying to make a name for yourself in washington, but taking a page out of hilter's political play book isn't the way to win friends and influence people.

dear humidity: enough is enough. 4/4 mornings this week i've woken up soaking wet. i feel gross (and trust me it is your fault. it has nothing to do with the inordinate amount of fried food i've eaten this week...nothing at all).

dear really bad waiter at cambridge common: we have eaten at cambridge common twice in the last 7 days. both times you screwed orders up. you seem like a nice kid, but if you seriously don't know the difference between chicken fingers and chicken wings it might be time to consider a new line of work.

xo mercedes

i need to know i'm not the only one out there who feels crusty sometimes. leave your grievences in my comments....and i sort of feel better. thanks for asking.

A desk of your own

2009-08-04T18:40:00.007-04:00

virgina woolf wrote that if women are going to write they need money and a room of their own. this quote is one of the reasons i like vw; she is about as practical as they come. working on our projects is so much easier when we have a room dedicated to work. a room that is wholly our own. a room where we can work on realizing our goals. (and seriously hunching over the coffee table is starting to do damage to my back....)

but since rooms these little east coast apartments don't come cheap, i think i'd settle for "space" to do my work which is why i'd really love to win this lovely desk my friend whitney is giving away: if you or a lady in your life need some work space enter her contest here before Aug 8!

Northanger Abbey

2009-08-01T16:30:00.007-04:00

now i know why masterpiece theatre isn't falling all over itself to show their film adaptation of jane austen's northanger abbey: catherine morland is an idiot!

ok maybe that is harsh....

after all this is not supposed to be the story of a mature woman but a naive teenager. i should have known to adjust my expectations when austen describes her character as being "as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is." (p.12).

i shouldn't hold the fact that she isn't anne elliot against her. i mean after all, she can hardly help the fact that she is young, not particularly well educated, and inexperienced in the ways of the world.

here is the thing though. if i was going to sit down and spend some time with a friend, i probably wouldn't choose a naive polyanna type 17 year old. spending two days with catherine morland just reaffirmed my predjucides against these kinds of women.

being annoyed with people who don't take the world with a grain of salt probably says a lot more about me than it does about catherine morland or women who think like her. i'm serious. i am cynical. hmmm this isn't sounding terribly flattering.....

anyway needless to say, not my favorite austen, but it is probably better than a lot of the other drivel out there so if you haven't read it yet, it is kind of annoying but not a complete waste of your time.

Good Read

2009-07-23T00:53:00.006-04:00

I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susana Clarke.

Do yourself a favour and RUN to the nearest bookstore and get yourself a copy.

This book is the kind of good that makes you want to dance around the house singing about how wonderul it is to be able to read. It is so good, you might prefer reading it to eating cupcakes (the majority of the cupcake consumption came post book completion). It is so good you will wonder why you ever thought Twilight was a book worth reading...

Trust me.

Special Delivery

2009-07-23T00:30:00.005-04:00

last night we went to public enemies. it's ok, but then, i am generally easily entertained. we got to the theater about ten minutes before the movie started because in my opinion half the reason you go to a movie is to see the previews (who isn't dying over the julie and julia preview?)

anyway we are sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start....and all i can think about are cupcakes. a new little shop opened up around the corner from the theater and i was trying to figure out if i had enough time to make a cupcake run and get back in time for the first preview.

i didn't so we settled on a LARGE bag of popcorn (with extra butter topping--it is gross--i know-- don't judge me). by the time our movie was over the cupcake shop was closed, but i still had cupcakes on the mind.

which is why to my great surprise and delight i had a special cupcake delivery this afternoon. 12 perfect petite gateaux. they are all now gone. as you can see when i comes to cupcakes, in this house we don't mess around.

sarah you are so thoughtful, so generous, and your timing is impeccable. i'm so lucky to have a friend like you. i can't wait for a cupcake fest in person. soon!

And The Winner Is....

2009-07-19T18:22:00.006-04:00

since don't have cute kids like sarah to pull names out of a hat for me, i had to resort to random.org to determine the winner.

so here we have it:

and number 29 is allison stringham!

thank you to everyone for participating. have a wonderful week. allison i'll be in touch!

Skin Care Giveaway! Draw this Sunday!

2009-07-17T20:33:00.003-04:00

if you haven't had a chance to do this little skin care survey, time is a ticking! a winner will be announced on sunday, july 19th at 6:00 pm EST.

thank you to everyone who has participated. if you have friends or family who might be interested in winning $150 worth of skin care products please forward this post to them!

my best!

mrw

Skin Care Giveaway!

2009-07-08T19:50:00.003-04:00

Hello Friends,

I am doing a little market research on people's skin care patterns and preferences. If you are interested in participating, you can take the short survey here.

Completing the survey automatically enters you for a draw to win a complete skin care system tailored to your personal concerns (value $150). Since only the first 100 responses are accepted, you have a great chance of winning if you participate!

Additionally, any participant who expresses interest will have the opportunity to have an individualized skin care consultation and receive free samples of products recommended for their skin care concerns.

Please feel free to forward this survey to your friends and neighbours. I am interested in everyone's opinion!

Many thanks,

Mercedes White

Air Show

2009-07-05T15:04:00.007-04:00

before we met, michael was in the air force. he did a few tours of duty before starting law school, which technically makes him a veteran (and for some reason that totally cracks me up because when i think vet i think hippies from the movie born on the 4th of july and that is so-o not michael).

anyway when michael decided to go to law school they transferred him from an active duty unit to the air national guard. he goes one weekend a month to do "stuff" for the national guard. last weekend i went with him to see their annual air show.

here are some pictures....specifically for sarah who wanted to see a picture of michael in his uniform.
here i am with canada's pithy contribution to areal defense. these planes are OLD and they smell like something the dog did. oh canada, your planes leave something to be desired but your universal health care system still makes my heart go pitter patter.

michael looks mad in this picture. he isn't, but if he were it might have something to do with the fact that "someone" had been pestering him for twenty minutes to go on the airplane astro jump in the background. apparently going on an astro jump at age 31 is conduct not becoming of an officer....

oh please.

Chicago Trip

2009-07-05T13:54:00.007-04:00

chicago made quite the impression on me: architecture, clean streets, museums, friendly cab drivers (with an endless repertoire of dirty jokes). surprise surprise, the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the food (also the reason i currently have to lay down to do up my jeans). in particular i fell in love with the pizza pot pie at chicago pizza and oven grinder.

i know it sounds gross. it even kind of looks gross...but it is heaven on a plate and I NEED MORE. i used to think people who have food items delivered across the country are nut jobs....but then i guess it takes one to know one because guess who just looked into pizza pot pie delivery???

Wedding

2009-06-27T20:25:00.016-04:00

some of my friends spent a good chunk of our adolescence planning their weddings. they knew what their dress would look like, what they would use as guest favors, what colors they would decorate with and so on.

i hated men until about 24--and so i didn't think a lot about what i wanted my wedding to be like. assuming i got over my all consuming hatred of men and tied the knot, i did have a small list of things i wanted. back in those days my ultra romantic wedding wish list looked something like this:

elopement (which fulfills the "ultra romantic" requirement on my list. clearly, i read too many cheesy novels as a kid)

white pantsuit in lieu of wedding dress (NOT like ellen, LIKE christy brinkley circa 1994)

delicious post ceremony dinner (because nothing says celebration like an opportunity to eat my emotions).

michael and i were married on Friday. here is how i did on my oldie wedding wish list:

i think, technically, if you invite your parents it doesn't count as an elopement (but i am so glad we did invite our parents--i mean seriously a wedding without parents?!?).

the white pantsuit turns out to be one of those good in theory, bad in practice things. wedding dress shopping is hard. i gave up and bought a purple dress (accented with beautiful peonies picked out for me by my lovely mother.)

we had the most amazing dinner at oceanaire (i'm still full and it is sunday).

so even though i basically bombed my wedding wish list (1/3 is kinda bad)....i am so happy with how things worked out. Isn't it just the best when something works out better than you'd imagined it!

Paging Mango Itchybald to customer service...

2009-06-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

your "mother" left this message for you:

DON'T move to san francisco....

(please)
lauren leaves tomorrow. i think i am going to have a mental breakdown. thank goodness for g-chat. laureny even though i am so sad you are leaving--i hope sf is perfect, warm, and swarming with eligible gentlemen. i can't wait to come and visit!

and seriously let's DO this cooking blog thing. it will help us keep in touch.

Dare to Dream

2009-06-19T19:04:00.003-04:00

Today I have a post on Dare to Dream. Dare to Dream is a blog started by Whitney Johnson. Whitney's dream is to help other women pursue their dreams. She uses her blog as a tool to help connect, encourage, and support women as they work towards their goals. If you are interested, please feel free to read through the articles and leave a comment.

(I think leaving a comment entitles you to be entered into a draw for a $75 spa gift certificate)

By Popular Request...

2009-06-17T22:10:00.008-04:00

Levian Knockoffs:
2 sticks of butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 1/3 cup flour
2 cups chocolate chips
chopped walnuts to taste.

that's right no vanilla.

mix ingredients. chill dough overnight (i have NO idea why but it makes a huge difference in how the cookies turn out). shape dough into 12 "patties" (yes it only makes 12 but they are big so instead of eating a dozen cookies like i normally do, i just eat four). bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes. this temp/time combo will give you a cookie that is slightly crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. They should look something like this:

(picture poached from lauren's blog)

oh and by the way....i totally won the cookie eat off...and i have the love handles to prove it.

Help Your Self to an Opinion

2009-06-14T14:24:00.005-04:00

sometimes forming an opinion about issues is difficult. i'd like to say i have an opinion about the financial crisis, or the auto bailouts, or obama's economic stimulus plans, but based on the media coverage i've seen and read, i'm just confused. it is hard to find analysis that isn't overly emotional or ideological, analysis that is based on research and facts instead of just public opinion, analysis that presents both sides of an issue. intelligence squared is here to make opinion forming easier, one debate at a time. using oxford style debating (one motion, one moderator, two groups of experts facing off), intelligence squared helps inform the public about policy debates by putting experts on each side of an issue into conversation with each other. if you are looking to form an opinion on anything from is it ok to pay for sex to should illegal immigrants be allowed to stay in the usa, chances are they have debated it over at intelligence squared.

you can buy tickets and watch the debates live in nyc or if you are cheap like me you can listen on npr.

what issue do you want to form an opinion about?

Eat Your Heart Out Mrs Field:

2009-06-09T18:27:00.001-04:00

so it took:

6 cups of flour

4 eggs

a pound of butter

two days and two tries,

but i did it. i made a perfect chocolate chip cookie; slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. a levian bakery knockoff.....actually i think they are better. sorry sarah, no chickpeas in these (i decided to master "normal" cookies before i branch off into experimental baking).

and just in case you are interested, our cookies consumed count is:

mercedes 4 michael 4 (but if you count all the dough i ate, i'm the clear winner)

Bennett for Senate

2009-06-08T18:40:00.012-04:00

for most of my life i've been a liberal; a left of center pinko commie liberal. i like my socialized medicine, farm subsidies and government owned utility companies.

never in my wildest dreams did i imagine sitting down with a republican senator and actually LIKING what they had to say. funny how things work though, because that is exactly what happened this morning when michael and i had breakfast with senator bob bennett (r-utah).

so why do i like him? while answering a question about the difference between the republican party and the democratic party senator bennett said simply:

the republicans are the party of free markets and the democrats are the party of big government.

until just a few months ago i would have said that government sponsored solutions are the best way to fix america's problems, but economics 101, milton friedman, and michael carey have convinced me otherwise. i think the free market is the answer and senator bennett thinks so too

(and for bonus points with me, he supports comprehensive immigration reform).

now i have been sitting here all evening wondering if supporting a republican makes me a republican and if i am comfortable with that label, and what i actually think about each party's position on the issues i personally care about. this is confusing stuff! i like obama. i hate a lot of republicans. where does that leave me? i'm probably getting carried away here. don't you think worrying about my political affiliation is putting the cart before the horse, i mean i can't even vote yet!

Commencement Day

2009-06-07T11:28:00.009-04:00

let me tell you: harvard does it right. when i graduated we sat in an auditorium for like 5 hours while they read the names of every student who graduated from the faculty of arts and sciences. it was long. it was boring. i fell asleep. for michael's graduation we got to sit outside and munch on a delicious lunch while they read the names of all the people we didn't care about. totally painless....which is the least they could do after three looooong years of law school.

here is to the class of 2009!

michael with his parents marjean and george

me and michael

Veggie Tales

2009-05-25T23:11:00.002-04:00

i was blogger stalking the other night and came across a blog about a mother who is raising her children vegan. you can link to her blog here.

whenever i think of vegan parenting i think of the baby who died because his vegan parents only feed him soy milk and apple juice. according to this news article they were recently convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. i'll be honest, i approached vegan mom's blog with some (ok enough to feed a small country) cynicism about how she feeds her family.

after reading a few of her posts i guess you could say i was eating (vegan) humble pie. this seems like a smart and competent woman. her kids look healthy (i.e. not ready for leading roles in a world vision commercial). i liked her blog a lot and found myself slightly (ok massively) jealous of her glowing skin and shinny hair. it seems like this lifestyle really works for vegan blog mom and her kids.

but....

as a way of life for MOST people, i think it is problematic. to feed your children (not to mention yourself) competently, it seems like you'd have to spend all your time either preparing food or reading about preparing food. now i don't know about you, but spending all of my time doing either of these two things would land me in a mental institution faster that you can say roast beef dinner. i have better stuff do to like watch little dorrit, play axis and allies, and stalk the blogs of people i don't even know!

even for people who like cooking, want to be vegan, and spend a lot of their time reading about it---raising healthy kids on a vegan diet seems like an uphill battle. at least that is the conclusion that i reached after reading a study about the effect of a vegan diet on infants. according to the study all of the infants who participated in the study showed evidence of protein-calorie malnutrition, iron, zinc and vitamin B deficiency anemia, rickets, and experienced multiple recurrent infections. doctors also noted developmenal delays in all of the children.

(let me know if you want they study--i have it downloaded for my school library as a pdf).

so i have decided that in mercedes land the kids are going to eat frozen pizza and microwaveable hamburgers....but reading vegan mom's blog did make me think that we could stand to have a few more vegetables and legumes in our diet. i could never be full on vegan. i am from alberta for heaven's sake. telling people you don't eat meat will get you kicked out of the province. don't believe me....ask K.D. Lang. so to ease my troubled mind i threw an extra can of garbanzo beans into the white chili we had for dinner.

and after eating it....i feel so healthy. in fact i think i am glowing.

honestly though this is kind of something i am interested in. is anyone aware of studies, in peer reviewed journals, that talk about the positive effect sof a vegan diet for children and/or adults? i'd be interested to learn more. I read the McDougal Way years ago and thought it was pretty interesting....

My rock stars aren't like your rock stars....

2009-05-19T00:29:00.006-04:00

meet kate jones and martin rifkin. these lovely canadians are the inventors of gummy vitamins.

we picked up some up at costco. they are good. so good in fact that i might have what health care professionals refer to as a vitamin abuse problem. i don't care if i am an addict though because i am as healthy as a horse. i didn't even get a cold this winter (and i didn't have a flu shot either). i attribute my health to the obscene amount of gummy vites i consume on a daily (cough, hourly) basis.

and just in case you are curious, yes, we bought the kids version. why? because the kiddie kind taste better and we are the kind of people who care more about how stuff tastes than if it is good for us (a position we may come to regret when we are both so fat we need a crane to lift us out of the house). until then, taste wins every time.

Daddy Like

2009-05-15T22:31:00.012-04:00

remember when I used to scamper around the city looking like this?

(contrary to popular belief I am not wearing a black wig--read on for more insight into this seriously misguided hair colour choice)

when i moved to NYC to start grad school i'd just finished a stint working for MAC makeup. working there was glorious: my boss was thebomb.com, i had coworkers who were actually worth talking to, and a sixty percent discount on product (which lead to a serious makeup abuse problem).

if you want to work for MAC you have to just accept a couple of things:

1. at some point you are going to have to dye your hair black

which i did. totally caved into the peer pressure. when my mom saw me she told me if i kept my hair THAT colour i would never get married. worried she'd never live to see a grandchild, she offered to pay for me to get it dyed back to blond. even though part of me i wanted to say no just to prove i wasn't desperate, i've never been one to say no to free colour.

i wish i had because the colour session didn't go as discussed and i came out with a serious case of zebra hair which lasted for like three years (also not a great colour choice if you are on the prowl).

2. you are going to have to wear a truck load of makeup everyday.

i thought it was fun to get my creative juices going first thing in the morning. what to wear? blush or bronzer? gloss or lipstick? what type of coverage? why choose--i'd whore it up and wear them all--together--on a regular basis. usually it looked pretty good too.

when i got to NYC i kept up the makeup routine for several months. i liked wearing a truck load of makeup everyday--i thought i looked good and besides that, makeup was my artistic outlet (because i am a total artiste). eventually after being asked one too many times if i was a GOTH i decided i should maybe tone it down a little. i was 25! i was a grad student! people were supposed to take me seriously!

so i traded my beloved ruby woo and moxie lipsticks for oyster girl lip gloss, full coverage foundation for tinted moisturizer and eye shadow for eye cream (cause i am getting OLD). my application skills have deteriorated to a point where the other night when i went to put some eyeliner on (because we are going to a fancy party) i could barely draw a straight line.

anyhooo

while trolling the internet this afternoon i found this amazing website where they post makeup tutorials. the tutorials include application instructions and a list of all the products used. be forewarned, however, this isn't exactly the kind of stuff you'd find in instyle magazine. it is loud and out there, but also really fun and artistic so check it out.

here are some of my favorite looks:

(you can click on the pictures for closeups--the detail is amazing)

do you think there is such a thing as a makeup artist-anthropologist-librarian because all of a sudden i want to do makeup again.....

Summer Do

2009-05-08T16:05:00.015-04:00

This morning I had strawberries in my cereal. Finally it feels like summer! While eating I started thinking about the things I want to do in the next few months. Here is my list:

(because writing it down and posting it keeps me accountable)

1. SEW a dress. I was thinking this one is cute-ish (i.e. doesn't look like something an Amish person would wear--which it one of my biggest hang ups about homemade clothes).

2. READ the following:

The reviews on this Susanna Clarke book all say that it's a hard read but amazing: Jane Austen meets mystery (with lots of footnotes, which I love. I also like books with LOOONG introductions).

Because it is the only Austen I haven't read....and there are only so many times you can read Pride and Prejudice (or watch it, which is why I took the advice of my friend Nikki Kelly and put a movie called "Little Dorrit" in my Netflix cue--watching it is also a summer do).

Reading Allan Bloom takes me back to Political Science 100. Professor Heidi Studer rocked my world that year. She introduced me to Allan Bloom and reading him makes me nostalgic for that first year of university (which is sort of odd because I have tried to suppress all memories of that time in my life. I was pretty much a big fat disaster! And I do mean FAT!). I don't agree with everything Bloom says--but that if half the fun of reading his work.

3. PLANT my own basil garden. This tutorial makes it look super easy....but I feel about plants the way I feel about babies....TERRIFIED I WILL KILL THEM. Time to conquer my fears. Noelle, Miriam you two know what you are doing--does this tutorial look about right?

4. YOGA at the Cambridge Baptiste Studio--because nothing beats a sweaty downward dog!

5. CRUISE around Cape Cod on one a bike (but only for an hour MAX because am I the only one whose hips feel like they are going to explode after sitting on a bike for about 15 minutes?).

6. LEARN about anthropological theory (ya sounds like a blast eh?)

7. RUN along the Charles

(ok maybe it will be more like a shuffle. We went hiking today and I was out of breath after about 30 seconds of climbing. Maybe yoga isn't quite the cardio workout I thought it was. )

8. BAKE some Lemon Bars

I have been craving them for like three months and Starbucks is always out. Curses.

9. Pratiquez mon FRANCAIS. I am taking a course. Friends and family who speak the french, be warned: I'm gonna be in touch a whole lot because I can barely remember how to conjugate avoir.

What is on your summer-to-do list?

Undocumented Missionaries

2009-04-27T19:22:00.014-04:00

last week an undocumented lds missionary was arrested in the cincinnati airport while attempting to return home after completing his two years of service. he was detained, according to a church spokesperson, for “lacking necessary documentation to board his flight home.” you can read the news story here, which includes comments from church leaders.

the church allows undocumented immigrants to serve lds missions in the country in which they reside. although religious organizations are not liable for allowing undocumented immigrants to participate in church service, including missionary work, this arrest “certainly raises the stakes and complexity of such service."

i’ve spent the better part of the afternoon trying to sort out my thoughts regarding this issue.

on the one hand, members of the church have an obligation to obey, honour and sustain the law. even if allowing undocumented immigrants to participate in church service isn’t something the church is technically liable for, it is still illegal to be in a country without proper documentation. for some reason the church turning a blind eye to that sort of feels like….hypocrisy.

on the other hand, the “law” when it comes to how to deal with undocumented immigrants is sort of hazy. many police departments in US cities have a “don’t ask” policy. in these cities law enforcement are specifically instructed not to inquire about individuals citizenship status. Moreover, if they become aware of someone’s status, they are instructed not to report undocumented immigrants to uscis (unless of course that person is being charged with a crime). if law enforcement aren’t even required to turn in undocumented immigrants, coming down on the church for failing to do so seems like….hypocrisy.

immigration is an extremely complicated issue. i haven’t even scratched the surface of possible arguments for or against the church allowing undocumented immigrants to serve missions. what does everyone think?

all comments and perspectives appreciated.

Drugstore Do

2009-04-24T18:21:00.017-04:00

i told michael if he wants to be a contributor on this blog he better pony up.....but since he has another month of school left and is supposed to be "focusing" i decided to give him a get out of jail free card until june. before he joins us, i am going to do everything in my power to shoot the intellectual integrity of this blog straight to......seventeen magazine.

when i was growing up one of my favorite weekend activities was going with my sister to the drugstore. the drugstore was our mecca, a promised land of products that would make us beautiful, radiant and hopefully (at least in my case) less dorky.

of course you have to know what to buy, so for advice we'd turn to the teenage girl bible: seventeen magazine. at the drugstore we'd thumb through magazines (we had no intention of buying--because we are thrifty like that) looking for the cheap product recommendations.

anywho not much as changed in the last ten years. i still love going to the drug store and i still love a good product recommendation list. since seventeen magazine wasn't interested in my "expert" opinion, i'm going to make myself feel relevant by posting my product recommendation list here:

(some cheap....some not so cheap).

best body moisturizer:
nivea sun kissed firming moisturizer, $7

before going to hawaii i went with a friend to get a spray tan. the prospect of hitting the beach sporting florescent light skin didn't really appeal. the lady at the salon warned us that since we were both "so" pale we might get a little orange. my hands resembled tangerines for like two weeks.

since coming home i discovered this much gentler alternative, a body moisturizer with a gradual self tanner in it. it really works! no orange. no streaks. it also has firming agents in it (which probably do nothing) but it is the thought that counts.

best mascara:
maybelline colossal volum' express mascara, $8

i only bought it because it was on sale two for one. my lashes look freaking full when i wear it and it goes on like butter. enough said.

best anti aging product:
kiehl's powerful line reducing concentrate, $75

ok so it isn’t cheap AND it stinks big time but i am willing to overlook these faults because when i use it my skin is amazing (and i don’t have great skin to begin with). the product is a serum of vitamin c which helps to reduce fine lines. i think it even helped reduce some of my acne scaring. clear skin and reduces lines: this stuff is killer. start using it now to save yourself money in the long run (i.e. you won't need (as much) botox).

best lip gloss:
mac viva glam v lip glass, $14

a little bit pink. a little bit peach. ALL the proceeds of this product go to support aids charities. as one enthusiastic sales person told me: "one lip gloss can feed a child with aids in africa for like three weeks!!" trust me it will look great on you, but seeing is believing so next time you are walking by the mac counter do yourself (and the kids in africa) a favour and go try this gloss on.

ok this post is getting a little onerous. so even though i have about 8 other products i'd like to run off the mouth about, i'll do us all a favour and shut up. and any of you who did make it to the end of the this...i need a new eye cream. anyone have a favorite?