The Joy of Baking (sort of) and Jennifer Aniston circa 1996

Fanny Farmer Doesn't Live Here
I volunteer with Big Brother Big Sister, and my "little sister" is Alexa, the world's most adorable 7-year-old. She has dark, super curly hair, no front teeth, and often punctuates her walking with energetic skips. We generally have an activity about 3-4 times a month, and she usually chooses. She has grown fond of my house and likes to spend time there watering my dying plants, swimming, and banging on the piano. This week she wanted to make "the kind of cookies you cut into shapes," which I assume meant sugar cookies. I have to admit, when she said that my heart dropped a little bit. Why? I really hate baking. Really. I pretended to like baking for awhile, just like I pretended to like jogging. I finally decided to be a little more honest and admit that I am no Fanny Farmer (and really don't want to be), so I gave up my futile attempts at baking. Although I am quite fond of cooking, I just don't find much enjoyment in baking. Baking requires so much precision and I find it stifling. I prefer the artistic freedom allowed by cooking. If you don't have an ingredient, you can usually leave it out or substitute, and you never have to measure anything. Or maybe what I call "artistic freedom" is just a ruse for laziness. :)

I sucked it up, scoured the internet for a good sugar cookie and frosting recipe, and purchased the ingredients and necessary implements (because pretty much no one I know here in Phoenix just had cookie cutters just laying around). Alexa and I spent several hours on Friday mixing and rolling and frosting, and actually had a pretty good time. Below is a list of things I learned about baking with a 7 year-old:

1. No matter what the recipe says, double the preparation time.
2. The smaller the cookie cutter the more cookies you get - and the more cookies you have to frost.
3. Egg shell shards can be fished out of batter pretty easily. Just make sure you get them all.
4. White frosting is not very exciting.
5. If your frosting recipe calls for 4 cups of powdered sugar, seriously consider halving the recipe. Trust me.
6. Sprinkles rock.
7. Baking with 2 people is definitely better than with 1.
8. I still prefer to cook.

New Do
I got my hair cut on Friday. I went to a new guy (one of the 3 straight male hairdressers in Phoenix) for a cut, which can be pretty frightening. I told him what I wanted . . . and I didn't get it (of course). What I got looks a lot like of Jennifer Aniston circa 1996, only shorter. It took a bit to get used to, but I actually like it now. Between the new glasses, the new do, and my lovely new blouse (thanks, Target!), today at church I felt like a totally new woman! I don't have a picture right now, but I will post one later in the week.

Check these out!

I was growing rather tired of my old frames, so last week I bought a new pair and I picked them up on Saturday. As most of you are aware, I have never been much for making decisions (what an understatement). It took me way too long to pick them out, and the poor employee at the optometrists' office had to put up with a whole lot of "what about this frame? Do you like this style, or was the last one better?". Anyway, it is kind of fun to get new frames. Wahoo!

Seriously, this is a really cool fan.

I live in Phoenix, and it gets hot here. Really hot. We are just barely into June and it is warming up pretty quickly. In preparation for the impending 4 or 5 months of oven-like temperatures and in an effort to save money on the electric bill, I got a new fan for my room to use while sleeping. It is a Seville Classics UltraSlimline Tower Fan. Let me just say, this is a seriously cool fan. From the picture below, you will notice that it comes with a remote (a necessary feature to sell anything electronic in America) and a little mini fan for . . . something.



This fan has timing features, three speed selections, and it oscillates. It also has two very cool features I am eager to explore more: the "natural wind" feature (select low, medium, or high speed) and the "sleeping wind" feature (again, select low, medium, or high). The "sleeping wind" (the name alone is intriguing enough for me) feature allows the air to flow "as an evening breeze slowing to a light night breeze." I am already so relaxed just typing that. The "natural wind" feature "automatically selects wind speeds randomly as you would find outdoors" and the instruction manual has intriguing graphs that show examples of the 80 second wind cycle for the low, medium, and high settings. This fan really does provide an excellent and convincing breeze. I am totally hooked. You should all get one. (Available at Costco! And I am not even getting paid for this!)

The fruits of my labor: a cure for insomnia.

After much blood, sweat, and tears, yesterday my very first audit report was published. Here is the link:

http://www.azauditor.gov/Reports/Universities/UniversitySystemWide/Performance/08-03/08-03_Report.pdf

A few highlights:

My name, page 2/72
I wrote the three bullet points on page 32/72
Finding 2 - this is my portion of the audit report that caused me a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears. And I think a gray hair. Or two. Page 34/72.
A beautifully crafted appendix, if I do say so myself, page 59/72.

Oh, and don't attempt to read while operating heavy machinery or while driving. This report can and will cause extreme sleepiness. Believe me, I know. I wrote it.