I want this

Can anyone bankroll me? No? Damn. Why don't I have an unlimited clothing budget? Why don't my parents own Anthropologie? Why doesn't freelancing pay more? Why, why, why?!

Sometimes, researching articles leads to this...

Sometimes, just sometimes, I write an article and get way too involved with it. Like this:

Yes. Writing an article about The Baby-sitters Club resulted in me digging up my old books. I used to have a ton of them, but I sold them off in garage sales over the years. Two of these still have "$.25 SB" stickers on them. Apparently when I was reading these, I was not yet at the point where I differentiated my cursive e's from my cursive l's. I've definitely improved my penmanship a lot since last year.

They say it's your birthday

It's my mama's birthday today... but she is traveling for work and I haven't been able to get her on the phone all day. But when her plane lands tomorrow, cupcakes and Jimmy Buffett will be waiting for her. I'm disappointed in the way my letters turned out... I couldn't find an alphabet candy mold tonight and didn't think ahead far enough to order any, so I had to hand-write them. My normal writing isn't so bad, but my white chocolate writing isn't so great. Oh well. I think she'll appreciate the effort. It's her favorite mayonnaise cake... and if you, like most people, wrinkle your nose at the thought of MAYONNAISE cake, you're soooo wrong. It's delicious. It adds a level of moistness and flavor that regular old oil and butter don't. MMMMM. I like white frosting with chocolate cake, but mom likes chocolate on chocolate.

And yes, I went slightly nuts with the sprinkles. When I was a kid, I was one of those girls who wore so many sequins and bows and puffy painted t-shirts and beads that my parents had to have been convinced that I was going to grow up to be a stripper. But the tendency to adorn myself with gaudy shit has passed; now I just coat my cupcakes with such finery. Anyway. Birthday cupcakes. Happy Birthday to the family matriarch!

p.s., if you are my mom and you read this blog before you get off the plane tomorrow, which is unlikely but possible, then pretend you are surprised. Or else Santa will take everything back!

Things That Make Me Happy Right Now

Interpret as you see fit. :)

New Twitter account

Argh, so someone hacked my Twitter last week and posted spam under my name. I guess Twitter is all Johnny-on-the-Spot about spammers right now (I know they just cleaned a bunch out), because the spammers Tweeted ONCE about "Make a Million Dollars a Month Working From Home!" and BAM, my account was suspended. I e-mailed them and told them to unsuspend me because I'm not really a spammer, but apparently these things can take up to a month to resolve and I'm supposed to be Tweeting about Lollapalooza for mental_floss this weekend, so I need an account STAT. Although if I don't have any followers, I don't know what good that will do me.

Anyway. If you were following me and still want to follow me, my name is now MadameLeota (there's a Madame_Leota as well, but that isn't me). Madame Leota is the head in the crystal ball at the Haunted Mansion, in case you were wondering:

I'm sure you see the resemblance :)