I was going to wait until my website was done, but I think sooner is better than later.

See you there!

As Michael Bluth would say, my landlord has never felt the sting of sweat in her eyes from a hard day’s work. Ok, I don’t know that personally, but I do know that her last name is Yates, and that she doesn’t care about her tenants at all.

Here are five things that she said she would fix around the house and hasn’t:

01| The pantry. If the pantry was fixed, I would be happier to live in the house. My roommate and I cleaned it out for nearly 3 hours when we moved it, after a mouse infestation. A lot of hard chemicals were used. My landlord said she would send someone over to paint it so it would be ready for food storage. That was 1 year ago. I started emailing her and her father about it this summer and finally she had a contractor come and look at it. He came and looked at it and said he would tell her what he thinks should be done with the house. I know she hasn’t responded to him yet, it’s been a week.

02| The bathtub needs re-caulking. They cheap-ed out on their bathtub set-up by getting one of those “drop in” wall. Both the plumber and the contractor have said that they are cheap and will always have a problem.

03| The doorknob fell of the irregular sized door. For some reason, one of the doors to a room is larger than door frame and the doorknob was longer than the door. It was bound to happen sooner or later. The contractor offered to fix the entire door so that it fit. Let’s see what Landlord has to say.

04| The ceiling of my room. There is an imprint of the upstairs apartment’s bathtub on my ceiling from when it leaked and had extensive water damage. Like it, it looks like the bathtub is slowly sinking into my room. Parts of ceiling are chipping off. Also, my wall is kind of warped.

05| Our front door is slowly getting harder to open. I haven’t actually contacted her about this,  but it’s starting to worry me. The trick is to kick in on the lower right hand corner while you push.

To be fair, when I met with her personally during our move-in day, she seemed like a really nice person. I was happy to have a what seemed like a good landlord. I just don’t think she thinks about us at all, ever. When we email her, she might nod her head after reading what we’ve written, but the she goes to walk in the woods and to take pictures of strangers (she’s a photographer).  Sigh. I feel like they could have just made a better quality house since, combined, we give them $1775 a month.

01| Math class.

02| Balinese music in the plaza performed by the Wyoming Gamelan Chandra Wyoga.

03| Road trip to a go swimming. Isn’t Wyoming’s vastness beautiful?

04| Swimming in an ice cold lake! Honestly, the water was about the temperature of refrigerated water and it was only about 72 degrees outside. But we had to go in! It’s amazing what your body can acclimate to.

05| Next, Evan took me to a bike park that he found two days ago. I’m not usually known for my athleticism…

….And today was no exception. After we did the little up-and-down part (“rhythms”?) we went to the big side. I tried to jump a table and it resulted in a major crash which tore up my legs and arms. And a suspiciously painful bruise on my arm. Still worth it! I had gone off it before, but I tried to get some air without having a plan of how to land after said air was got. Lessons learned I guess.

06| Dinner. Pasta, chicken marinated in red wine served with spinach and prosciutto. Mmm.

07| Math homework.

Future plans: New York & Baltimore with Katie, Bob, and Igor?! YES PLEASE!

Hope you have a great summer too. And yes, I was totally thinking UP with this title. Go out and live while the living’s good!

NotCot.org tweeted these Old Spice commercials which are surprisingly funny. Thought I would share really quick since I’m too impatient to collect neat things to show you at once. So good.

Click here to see the commercials from NOTCOT.
(You have to scroll a bit)

Or here, to see all of them from OldSpice.com

This is one of  my favorite drinks (if not most favorite) and I recently discovered it in these cute little boxes at Safeway! $.99 of deliciousness. (It was by the deli in the little refrigerator islands).

Every time I went with my mom to the Asian store, I would get one of these. It came in a regular sized can and was about $.69. I would practically inhale it in the car. There are very few things I drink quickly and a lot of, and this is one of them. I was so excited to find it, even if it is a little over-priced.

If you haven’t had Silk Vanilla/Chocolate, you’re missing out. It think they are vastly superior to vanilla or chocolate milk. They are much smoother and a little sweeter without feeling sticky. It’s overall a more delicate experience that I appreciate. This is the closest taste I can compare it with.

This drink is meant to be a treat (not that I don’t drink the vanilla Silk as a treat), so it’s pretty much just sweetened soy milk. I couldn’t tell you if I love it because I’ve grown up with it or because it’s truly a remarkable drink—but my friends like it too. The only downside is that I accidentally got one without a straw!

If you run into it, I insist you try it

Stay tuned for the switch.

02| This is way cute. I thought this was neat because of the This American Life (I think?) recently did a story about a guy who got a cochlear implant later in life and did not work out well. It was an interesting story.

03| The inner indie kid in you tells you to love this website. (Paper N Stitch)

04| Evan’s birthday present from me, what else? Best camera duo.

01| Deadlines. Not that I’m unmotivated, but deadlines are just so comforting me. I will be done with x by m/d/y. I mean yes, they’re also nerve-wracking and horrible when you’re a procrastinator like me. But is there anything that makes you happier than a deadline getting pushed back? I would be lost without deadlines.

02| You can accomplish anything through hard work. This probably stems from our puritan culture, but I think it’s true. I always believe in trying your best. Even if I kick and scream, whine and shake my tiny fist, I don’t give up. I always feel better afterwords.

03| Never be satisfied, always be striving for more. “I did a great job, but I can do better next time.” Improving yourself, your situation, and…I don’t know, the world?

04| Knowledge is wonderful. Ever since I was little, I’ve loved school and learning new things. It’s always worth it for me. Even in gen-ed classes, I’m happy to be there (even if it’s deep, deep down inside).

05| Spontaneity. Do something for the sake of doing it. As someone constantly battling her true, introverted-nature, I consciously try to make my life something I’d be happy to look back on. I try to do random things that are outside my comfort-zone.

Obviously this isn’t everything, because corgis weren’t even mentioned, but there they are.

It's hard to make a close-up of pizza look appetizing

Try homemade pizza next time you feel like a college student.

It’s really not that hard and super delicious. I’ve tried to cover everything and I’m not used to creating recipes so its extremely long.

The Basics:

Crust| We have tried the Pillsbury pizza dough in the can and the pre-made Boboli/knock-off crusts. But the picture features our latest discovery: pizza store pizza crust! Laramie has a local pizza place called Grand Avenue Pizza and they sold us some of their dough. (for 2 medium sized, average-thick crusts it was only $3!). This has so far worked the best and tasted the best. I highly recommend you give it a try.

If you do end up using the Pillsbury pizza dough, be weary that it becomes harder to transfer the dough to the oven once you put the toppings on—especially if you get thin crust. More on this later.

Sauce| We’ve used the Ragu pizza sauce for a while, its no premium sauce, but we tried not to think of it.

Instead try, making your own. By a can of tomato paste (spiced ones if you want to be fancier) and some cheap red wine for cooking. We found a bottle at our local wine shop for $4. In a pan, just heat up the tomato paste and any where from 1/2 to 2 cans of wine– Depending on how thick you like your sauce. The wine might make the sauce a little tangy so be sure to taste it as you go. If it gets too tangy for your taste, try adding a little milk or a fresh tomato.

Cheese| I find this not a very thrilling part of the pizza, mozzarella or the cheese blend works equally well.

However, spinach and mascarpone pizzas are delicious, I had them in London. You just plop chunks of mascarpone cheese around at the end. It’s like heaven when you finally bite into it.

Pizza Stone| These are great for making pizzas, frozen or homemade. And they’re not as expensive as you think—just get a piece of unglazed ceramic tile from your local hardware or floor store. We got ours for free because the guy thought we were crazy normally they can be anywhere from $1-$3. It’s square only a foot in length, but it works perfectly. It also makes a cool criss-cross design in our crust because we’re using the “back” of the tile. Try to find one at least 3/4 of an inch in thickness. Thanks Alton Brown!

Prep for homemade pizza:
(These steps are for pizzas made with real dough. Read your packaging for individual instructions)

01| Preheat oven to 450 F.  If you’re using a pizza stone, let the stone warm up with the oven! The rack should be a the bottom position. Kneed dough if necessary. (I don’t think you need to for the Pillsbury).

02| On a clean, flat surface, roll out the dough to the shape and thickness you would like. Keep in mind that the crust will rise in the oven. We usually keep ours at about 1/2 inch.

03| IF you are using a pizza stone, you will need to put the pizza on something to transfer it to the oven before you put the toppings on. (Since, again, you have to let the stone warm up with the oven because it would crack due to the rapid change in temperature). We use the backside of a cooking sheet. Put a good amount of cornmeal on your surface and place the dough on top. The pizza should be able to move around on the surface easily, if not, put more corn meal on. Corn meal works better than flour because it won’t leave a flour-taste on the crust when you’re eating.

04| Spread olive oil around the crust. This will help it become golden brown when it bakes. Maybe some garlic powder too if you want it extra yummy.

05| Now apply the sauce evenly leaving border for the crust. Probably an inch or less would work, depending on how much you like crust. Remember, the crust will be a little bigger than it looks raw once it’s done.

06| Next the toppings. Cheese first, of course. We had ground beef topping, and for that you have to cook it before you put it on the pizza. We used extra meat because we’re trying to duplicate the delicious pizzas at La Casa in Omaha. Must visit if you go there.

07| Now the tricky part for pizza stone users. Transferring the pizza is to the oven can be messy business. Luckily, you have learned from my trial and error. Even with the added weight of the toppings, your pizza should move pretty well on the surface still (if not, add more cornmeal). You should be able to slide the pizza onto the pizza stone in the oven. For us, usually a side of the crust always incurs at least a little damage in this process, but that’s ok.

08| The pizza should take anywhere from 6-10 minutes to cook, depending on the crust you used and the thickness. Our pizzas are fairly small so they’re done in about 8. Just check the crust on the top and the underside to make sure it’s golden brown and you should be good.

Enjoy!