Two weeks ago, I invited those who were interested to ask me any question they liked, with the promise of an honest answer, provided that the question wasn’t asking me my street address or Social Security number. There were some great questions asked, and while these answers are a week late, I hope they still prove to be interesting!

No question of the week this week, but I do have many answered questions to make up for it:

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Readers who want to ask me any question and have it answered can comment on this post. I’ll be answering all questions on October 18!

The lovely Krissy has given me the Beautiful and Gorgeous Blogger Award. Similar to the Kreativ Blogger Award, I have to list 7 things people might find interesting and pass the award along to 7 bloggers¹. So, here we go!

7 Things People (May or May Not) Find Interesting

• I have a fear of being submerged in water. I dislike going to swimming pools, beaches, and taking baths as a result. I don’t even like hot tubs all that much!
• I dressed up as Sarah Palin last year for Halloween. My friend went as a pregnant Bristol Palin, using a towel tucked underneath her shirt to show a “baby bump.” Since we went trick-or-treating along Embassy Row in Washington, DC, there were some very interesting reactions to our costumes!
• My three favorite chocolate things are: Toblerone, Kinder, and Tim Tams. Give me any of those three and I’ll be a happy camper. And if you give me all of them, you might just be my favorite person forever.
• I have never had my hair highlighted or colored, and I don’t really see either happening in my future.
• I live in dorm housing on my school’s campus. I don’t mind it all that much except for times when neighbors are currently having very loud sex… like they are now.
• I’m allergic to 99% of all types of sunscreen.
• I have hyper-extended knees and elbows.

7 Blogs I Find Interesting²

• Alice @ Only Anne
• Amanda @ Jingwen
• Clem @ Oh Clementine
• Kaylee @ Reliquesce
• Meg @ Mekana
• Melody @ Bittersky
• Nadine @ Nadinerine

1. Pretend today is the Friday Seven instead of the usual Friday Five. [↩]
2. This list does not include Krissy as she is the one that gave me this award, but I do find her blog very interesting! [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I definitely got the quiet, relaxing summer I hoped for back in May. I think I may have gotten a little too much of this particular type of summer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Here are some of the few things I accomplished in the last few months:

• Failed my self-assigned summer reading
  To be fair, it was a very ambitious summer reading list, especially as I don’t read as much as I’d like to anymore. I didn’t fail it altogether, though. I did reread all seven of the Harry Potter novels, read three quarters of the complete works of Sarah Dessen, and read two of the books in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. I just didn’t read any of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares or A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
• Did lots of crafting
  Those of you that followed my blog this summer will know about my various ventures into crafting. Sewing, knitting, cross stitching… I dabbled in lots of it this summer and have a lot of finished products to show for my work. It was definitely a way to increase my summer productivity!
• Actually began writing a novel
  Longtime readers of this blog will remember a few casual mentions of “my novel” here and there. This summer, I finally got around to actually writing it and even launching my online writing portfolio, amandaosborn.com.
• Failed to find a job
  I talked about how it sucked to be unemployed in May, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a job for the summer due to the increasingly poor job market. However, being unemployed this past summer wasn’t all bad. I made conscious efforts to not spend money unless absolutely necessary, and I was able to spend time doing things I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to, like crafting and writing.
• Experimented more with cooking
  I’ve always loved cooking, and for a portion of this summer, it was my job to do the cooking and making sure no one in my house starved to death. I had lots of successes, like my seafood paella, red velvet cake, and mac and cheese. I had one disaster where a carrot cake turned into a carrot souffle… but I’d rather not talk about that

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

Obento, or bento, as it is also known, is a Japanese “meal, usually served in a lacquered or elaborately decorated box that is divided into sections for holding individual portions of food”¹. I’ve always imagined obento/bento² to be a simple lunchbox type thing, but according to this photostream I found on Flickr, that is not always the case

I know regular, everyday obento does not look like this. But God, wouldn’t it be cool if it did?! There’s bento of Calvin and Hobbes! Cooking Mama! Where the Wild Things Are! And so much more at the photostream I linked above!

I wish I could find obento like that… although if I did, I’d probably be too afraid to eat it for spoiling the pretty!

1. Source: dictionary.com. [↩]
2. I’m not sure what the difference between the two terms is, actually – someone who is skilled in Japanese, feel free to enlighten me? [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

The Best Mac and Cheese Ever

I’m a huge fan of mac and cheese. The cheesier, the better, in my opinion! But obviously just cheese and pasta is not the healthiest meal, so whenever I make mac and cheese, I use a tomato mac and cheese recipe. It’s chock full of yummy, tasty things, not just cheese: ripened tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, cream, red wine vinegar, garlic, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and of course, macaroni. It’s so delicious; I’m not sure I’ll ever enjoy “regular” mac and cheese without the bells and whistles that this recipe has!

Just thinking about it (as well as looking as the photo above, mmm) is making me hungry. I made some last night, and without a doubt, this is not only the best mac and cheese recipe ever, but it was also the best I’ve ever made it. Success!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.