Everything is Unfinished

Happy to oblige!

This was one of his very first toys. My parents bought it for him for Christmas - 4 months BEFORE he was born! He’s finally big enough to climb up on it by himself.

I found him like this one day, just laying on his back, surrounded by toys and reading a book to himself. Of course, he was reading it upside down, but that didn’t seem to matter. He’s loving books right now, and will even sit still sometimes for us to read to him.

This one just speaks for itself, I think.

1. Uneven :: bars
2. Wonder :: Woman
3. Spider :: Man
4. Emma :: Peel
5. Swing :: Dancing
6. Orbit :: satellite
7. Flirt :: kiss
8. Donation :: Columbus Scrappers
9. Veil :: black
10. Atmosphere :: airplane cabin

Here’s a little weekly game I saw over on Kathryn’s blog. It’s basically free word association. The author posts 10 words every week and anyone who wants to play just posts them on their own blogs and enters their own “answers”. If you’d like to play too, just click on this graphic!

1. Darling :: Nikki
2. Majesty :: Royal
3. Pebble :: Beach
4. Fate :: Death
5. Instant :: Camera
6. Screen :: Sun
7. Unplugged :: MTV
8. Dairy :: Cow
9. Benefactor :: Kind
10. Market :: Day

The first thing I whipped up in my new Purple Mixer of Awesomeness was my birthday cake. (Yes, I made my own birthday cake. 32 is not exactly a major milestone, big bash kind of year.) The cake was so delicious, I have to share the recipe with you.

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
Ingredients
1 packaged yellow cake mix
1 small box vanilla instant pudding
1 small box chocolate instant pudding
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups water
4 eggs

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat all ingredients except eggs and chocolate chips for 2 minutes. Add eggs, beat 1 more minute. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour.

So easy, and sooooo moist. In fact, there was one piece left last week, about 10 days after it was baked, and it still tasted fresh. I topped it with a glaze made from powdered sugar, water and a bit of vanilla. Here’s a tip about the glaze: don’t use very much water, or else it will just slide off the cake and pool in the middle and you’ll have to keep waiting for it to set up a little and spooning it back on.

Everyone should make this cake! I got the recipe from my friend Jen about a year and a half ago and this was the first time I tried it. Should have done it long ago.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 19 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Amy is the 68th most popular name in the US, which explains why I was called by my last name in college - there were 7 other Amys just on my floor of my dorm my freshman year! The only other Amy Peel that I know of, though, owns a dance company somewhere. I highly doubt that I’ll ever run into her or any of the other 17 Amy Peels in my lifetime!

Both my vacation from my blog and my vacation from real life. That’s right, I got me a new job. I started last Monday at the biggest retail coffee house in the nation, whose name I don’t think I need to say. So far I really like it - all of my coworkers are really cool, the work can be hectic but certainly isn’t difficult, and the atmosphere is great. And I know a lot of people like to bash the company for being a huge behemoth, but I have to say they really go out of their way to make both their employees and their customers happy. The reason I chose to work there is one example: health benefits for part-time employees. I can work 20 hours a week and get medical, dental and vision for me and Jack for a fraction of what Johnny’s insurance would cost us. I can also get into the 401k after a year, there are stock options, and free drinks while I work. I’m going to have to be really careful with that, because those Frappucinos aren’t exactly lo-cal. I also get a free pound of coffee or box of tea every week. Unfortunately for me, I don’t drink coffee or even a whole lot of tea, but if you have a favorite blend let me know and I may be able to hook you up.

In Jack news, he is doing wonderfully. He really loves looking at books right now, so we’ve been reading a lot. One of his favorites is a book about colors with slide-out panels and it’s practically destroyed from how often he reads it. He also loves to stick his tongue out, and walks around with it poking out from between his teeth. I’ve got a video of him walking around babbling to himself, and as soon as I figure out how to get it from the camera to my computer I’ll post it.