30 Photo Challenge

someone you spend a lot of time with


a picture of you


your favorite boy


an old picture of you


your sibling(s)


a picture you've never posted on a blog before


a person you miss


people who knew you now and then


your favorite place


person you can tell anything to


a picture of your everyday life


a place you love


a picture that reminds you of great times


the best day of your life


a picture that always makes you laugh


someone you always have a good time with


your parents


a picture from last summer


your favorite vacation


a picture of an accomplishment


a favorite memory


a photo that makes you smile


favorite moment from last month


a picture of summer


a random phone picture


your spare time


a photo of something you enjoy doing


a photo of your town


the people who are closest to you


someone who makes you happy

Book #19

It's a proven fact that if you set a book in Appalachia I'm more likely to read it. And if the author is from Kentucky and the book is recommended by Silas House (one of my favorite authors) then I'm like triple times more likely to read it and love it.

I really enjoyed this novel. It's on the younger side of YA literature but I found it to be a subtly poignant tale about life in Appalachian Kentucky in the late 1970s. This is around the same time my mother spent a good amount of time in Appalachia with her grandparents so there were lots of tiny references to things I was familiar with about that period of time in the mountains. I really liked making those connections. Overall, it was a very nice read.

Frugal Gardening

Regular garden planters at Walmart: $10
Multipurpose tubs plus the screwdriver and hammer I had at home to make drain holes in the bottom with: $5

Planting tomatoes and peppers and herbs amongst the flower beds:





Excellent way to utilize space and make that flower bed work a little bit.

I love this time of year.

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

I live approximately 40 billion miles away from a Starbucks, we all know this. I much prefer cold coffee drinks to warm ones. Up until today I didn't know how to get past these facts of life. Every time I'd attempted iced coffee from a cooled down pot of that morning's brew I'd just end up disgusted.

Then this New York Times article showed me the way.

Two weeks later, back in Brooklyn, I saw a sign: “Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee Served Here.” Fine, then. I threw down two bucks and took a sip. Though it pains me to admit, the difference was considerable. Without the bitterness produced by hot water, the cold-brewed coffee had hints of chocolate, even caramel. I dropped my sugar packet — no need for it. The best brews hardly need cream. It really is the kind of thing a gentleman might spend five days in hot-coffee solitary confinement for.

They ain't kidding. This stuff is liquid gold. Thine eyes have seen the light.

Here's how you do it:

1/3 cup of your favorite ground coffee
1 1/2 cups water

Mix that up in a jar, cover, and let sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. When the time is up strain it through a mesh sieve with a coffee filter in the bottom. Mix equal parts coffee and milk over ice. Feel free to add sugar, syrup, whatever. Store the extra in your fridge.

(I doubled this recipe when I brewed mine.)

Heaven. It's simply heaven. I might not ever leave home for Starbucks again.

Book #18

I read this one because it made the rounds on some of the book blogs as good feminist YA literature. Persnickety Snark wrote it its review, "It's a rare occurrence in YA as protagonists, like the characters in this book, are often categorised as saints or sluts. Vivian explores the unfairness of both labels and all the grey that exists in between."

I ended up really enjoying it.

However, I probably could have finished it faster if the cover wasn't so supremely bad. I'd have been mortified to read it in public. YA covers are the worst.

Book #17

I loved this book. Just as I expected. And my dad is totally Don Fey minus the snazzy dressing and the Republicanism. (Although he is just slightly more Blue Dog Democrat than I'd like. So, SAME THING.)

Choice quotes:

"My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne."

"Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? “I’m not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I’m just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I’d like to cut your chest open.” The crowd cheers."

"Then she took out a speculum the size of a milk shake machine. Even Michelle Duggar would have flinched at this thing, but I had never seen one before."

“Lots of teenage girls have taken comfort under the wings of half-closeted gay boys.”