Yesterday I received a gift basket in the mail that I was supposed to pick up at the annual Lafayette Oatmeal Festival. This reminded me that I’m the twit who ditched the oatmeal festival (though for very understandable reasons). As I took the gift basket out of the box, it fell, making me the twit who also broke a Quaker oatmeal bowl she received for not attending the Oatmeal Festival. Whoops-si-doodles!

Then I took a picture of all these things and was reminded that my photos are crap and I cannot even be bothered to move the PediPaws I bought at Walgreens out of the background of my photos. (Nope, haven’t bought a Snuggie yet, but my friend Jenny knows how to make one!) Someday I’ll buy a D-SLR camera and become a real blogger!

Anyway, to feel less twit-like, I interviewed Ellen Kanazawa, the organizer of the Oatmeal Festival. Only, I interviewed her over a month ago, so again – I’m such a twit! Be grateful I manage to put on pants in the morning. So, [...]

• Continue reading "All your oatmeal questions answered!"

I have been packing for my ski trip this weekend when I suddenly realized I don’t know Jeremy, Jane or Jack Schitt about skiing. I know you’re supposed to go down the mountain. I know you’re supposed to avoid trees. I know I will fall on my ass many times. And that is it.

So dear readers, what else do I need to know about skiing? Please give me your secret snow skiing tips. I have my long underwear. I have my winter coat. I have my gloves and scarf and hat. Am I missing anything vital I was supposed to pack that I cannot rent for affordable prices?

I am also finally starting to get excited about this trip, which is a nice change from the general malaise towards life I have felt lately. I’m crossing my fingers the plane does not go down in flames and prove my optimism wrong.

PS – They are doing work on the web servers sometime in the next 24 hours (or they might have already done it). If anything goes [...]

• Continue reading "Please help me ski"

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have wondered why I was conducting top secret oatmeal experiments last month. Wonder no more! As a part of the Quaker Oats Living Proof weekend I attended, Quaker challenged the attendees to come up with a new oatmeal recipe that met certain nutritional guidelines. The prize was an all-expense paid trip to Lafayette, Colorado for the 12th Annual Quaker Oatmeal Festival. That was great, but the part about free ski passes sounded more enticing. I love me some oatmeal, but the idea of the world’s largest topping bar isn’t quite enough motivation for me to conduct oatmeal experiments in my kitchen top secret lab. I decided 1 in 16 odds were pretty damn good for winning anything, so I started doing unholy things to instant oats.

I remembered that Quaker Oats is owned by the same company that makes Diet Pepsi as well as other products like Tropicana and Lays Potato Chips, as illustrated in this photo of the lobby above. (This photo also makes me think [...]

• Continue reading "Recipe: Oatmeal Expresso"