Too bad Siri can't paint

Do I blog about the my new iPhone, with which I am obsessed or my recent home improvement projects, which have left me exhausted? Perhaps a bit of both. First, Siri is all she was promised to be. It fascinates me that people hate on Apple so much, and were so overwrought there was no major design change with this new phone. Our expectations as a society are totally outrageous - first world problems, says the girl who had her loving brother pre-order the phone at 3 in the morning last Friday so I could get the phone with a minimum of standing around in the Apple store, and bought a Kate Spate case for it to boot. I've really been talking it up to people, which I think is probably making me sound like a huge dork. An example: I asked Siri to "wake me up at 8.30 tomorrow" and she set the alarm for 8.30. I said "thank you," and she said, "your wish is my command." Indeed it is. Just please don't come alive in the middle of the night and terminate me.

On the home improvement front, I spent the last two weekends doing some painting. My bedroom put me over the edge. On or about the 415th square foot of wall I sat down on the floor and internally began to sob. About 200 square feet earlier, I'd broken the roller and had to tape it back together again, which caused me to have an awkward arm motion while painting. Some people might have gone to the hardware store to buy another roller, but I was afraid I would just give up if I left. As I was sitting on the floor, considering whether I could live with a 4 foot square area of white in the midst of a yellow (I know! Brave!) wall, I got some sort of superhuman strength and finished it up. Two bathrooms, a living room, and kitchen to go! Or perhaps I'll just leave them white with their color sample squares for some pizazz.

My room before (that purple square on the back wall is a color that didn't make the cut because I don't like to sleep in a tomb)

My room after (look at all that wall space!)
Benjamin Moore Ylang Ylang

Guest after
Benjamin Moore Limesickle

Ohio wins again

When I was a kid, I used to love watching things bake. I don't know if I actually did this (I assume I did because my memory is freakishly good on a bad day), but I remember sitting in front of the oven watching the things I made bake. My attention span never made it from beginning to end, but I still find something extraordinarily comforting about watching something go from batter to cake, or dough to cookie, or brownie batter to only slightly cooked brownie batter. Plus, it's warm near the oven and it usually smells pretty good. I discovered recently that my oven here in O-H-I-O has a light! I can see into the oven! For the first time since my youthful baking at my parents' house. I'm baking for a bake sale at work. I'm making the Rolo cookies (quelle surprise!) and cupcakes (the same ones my "friend" commented looked like dog poop on a cupcake). Based on his helpful feedback, I went and got some decorative pastry tips today at Sur La Table (my love for that place is big enough for a post of it's own and there wasn't one in PA or FL so score another point for OH) so that I wouldn't be known as the girl that brought dog poop cupcakes to the bake sale. Myself and the kitchen are covered in chocolate frosting due to my manly grip and my generic brand ziplocs that burst at the seams, but all the baked goods have been decorated, individually wrapped, and put to bed. Perhaps I'll take a picture of my next baking project with a new iPhone since I totally don't care that it's a 4S instead of a 5. It's only not a "5" because they used an S instead. Semantics. I will miss the robot voice that says "Droid!" a little bit... I wonder if the iPhone has an app for that.