feeling nutty in 2015

Recently, some friends and I were having a post happy hour drink (yeah) at our local tap room, and the topic of abandoned blogs turned up. Specifically: Kelly's THINGS I'M TRYING and Josh's BALLARD COMMA BACHELOR. (Neither blog has been updated in three years.)

Although I do kind of believe that the "blog" has been fairly/totally eclipsed by other, lighter social media (talking to you, Instagram), I do miss the days of regular blogging. Door Sixteen just made a promise to do a little more posting, and it made me remember how much I always liked reading her blog, and that I liked writing mine.

Fueled by those remembrances (and by a bet I made with the aforementioned pals who have also quit blogging), I'm going to try and put up one post a month. That's doable, yeah?

After that boring introduction: I give you this, my Nutella Class Action Settlement.

Ages ago, I got an email in my junk account (heyo, Hotmail!) that asked if I had bought any Nutella in the past year, and how much. They said they were suing Nutella for false claims of being a "healthy alternative to peanut butter".  Did I want to join the suit?

Duh.

Fast forward like a year and a half or something, and this girl is $7.15 richer. Off to buy more Nutella probably.

bandits

Me and these girls went to the beach (thanks Mom and Dad Brown) and did hot tubs and late late beaches, and early morning beaches with dolphins, played cards and made blender drinks, and saw a few wild ponies at Assateaque, and went to Seacrets (yikes) and, perhaps most importantly, got some olde timey photos taken on the boardwalk.

It cost a million dollars and was (obv) totally worth it.

We also got a whole bus of people to sing Happy Birthday to Kimmy. 28!!!

snackMail

Been a minute since I did a review, and maybe I've never actually done a straight side-by-side. Here we go. It's about getting delicious snacks in the mail!

A little background. I listen to a lot of podcasts (or at least I did until I lost my iPod?), and a lot of them are telling me to try out NatureBox. Then I heard a positive IRL review from a co-worker at the bar. So I decided to take My Brother, My Brother and Me up on their half-price starting offer, and try it out.

I liked it. (Especially for $10). They have lots of good choices, and you get five snacks in the mail, monthly. I thought $20 (the regular, non-promo price) was a little steep though - so I cancelled after my first month. Then they asked why, I said it was too expensive, so they offered me another month at the promo rate. (If they keep that up, I'll stay with them forever, FYI).

It's five good-sized (chapstick for size) bags of healthy-ish snacks. Granola, pretzels, almonds, etc. Yum. (Except the Peanut Butter Nom Noms? Not great. Almost everything else was though.)

THEN I heard about a way cheaper option, called Graze.  Six bucks, and the first one's totes free!? Sign me up. Literally.

I picked my treats, and waited. After a fairly successful experience with Nature Box, I thought Graze would be pretty comparable. Then, this wimpy, tiny box came. (Again, chapstick for size).

Matt checks out the tiny snacks inside. They have weird, fake-out names, like "orange chocolate flapjacks" which means "granola bar", in Graze-talk.

Again, here: tiny snacks. The four little packages below are the whole shipment of Graze. Big old pass.

As much fun as it is to get things in the mail, I'll ultimately end up quitting both probably (unless Nature Box keeps doing their promo price forever, in which case I'm totally totally in for keeps.) 

You can/should do Nature Box though, at least once at the half off price. If I had a regular job I'd have it delivered to my work and it would be totally awesome.  

I'd also especially rec Nature Box if you have a big cat.

Phew. 100 pictures of boxes, sorry. Get at me if you need a discount code or a granola rec.

SEPTApocalypse

I take the train most days, either to and from school or to and from the brewery. So, like, a lot of SEPTA time.

Most days, unless I'm real wrapped up in a podcast or something, I end up thinking apocalyptic thoughts. Not at all like "oh man, I wish the world was ending" and not even scurred, like Melancholia is right around the corner - different.

It's more like, "if something big went down right now, and we all had to live in this subway car for a while (because obviously underground is going to be a safe bet), who will be on what team, and who will be Jack/Locke, where is the best spot to camp out if you know it'll be for a few weeks. How many granola bars are in my backpack?"
I guess I'm a little crazy. This mainly happens on the Orange line. Anyone else?

Speaking of which, I'm coming up on my 10 year anni here, and JUST REALIZED THAT THE ORANGE LINE HAS ORANGE SEATS AND THE BLUE LINE HAS BLUE SEATS. Duh, Sue.

here comes the Groom

Impending hot (sheddin') days motivated me to get in touch with my groomer. Then: good news. She's back in town, and doing house calls.

I do it for MLB's benefit, but also for mine. Less cat hair around AND it looks funny. Anyway. If you need a (super) affordable, personable, patient groomer, get at me. I would love to refer you. (She does dogs too, dog people. Bow Wow.)

Next up: look for some revelations about SEPTA, nail polish, and snail mail snack delivery services.

chill out

Today, two things about warmer weather (besides like: "I'm glad to wear dresses with no tights" and "bikes!" and "yards/roofs/bbq's!").

First, this doesn't effect me, but this is kind of funny:

A whole bunch of central air units were stolen from all these schools along Germantown Ave! Including my school. I don't know what the new plan is, but for now, it's putting a fence around the Place That Used To Be an Air Conditioner.

The good (for me) news is, the art studio is in the old(e) mansion part of the building that doesn't have central air, so: window unit will keeping doing for now.

Second: since the dead of winter, I stalked and wanted these clogs.

I finally bought them (tax return present to myself). I treated the leather. And I am now, currently, right this second, wearing them as I type this blog entry. This is the third or fourth time I've worn them - never much further than the coffeeshop or a bar in the neighborhood.

They are the worst.  They are so uncomfortable. I think, "they'll get better!"
They don't. Keeping bad. I read some reviews! They're pretty much like cute blog girls saying, "Boy, are these shoes the cat's pajamas!" and then a couple of them being honest and saying ".....and, you can't wear them if you have to walk anywhere."
Every step is like a small piano hammer is hitting the top of my foot.

That said, they are very cute, and I'll probably keep trying them.

The Swedes don't know everything though.

tag-along

I'm not exactly a person who's hip to the most cutting edge street art, but I do notice it when it's straight staring me in the face in South Philly.

This is my new* favorite tag (tagger?): "Dracula". I think it's so funny and good, in all it's variations.

This one, right outside the house, is also good. I like the fangs, I like the bite marks, I like the top hat, I like the cursive-y, fancy, font.

Is there an easy way to send a love (okay, appreciation) note to a tagger? Move over, ESPO. (Just kidding/as if).

*another favorite, though not as new, is "bagels".