Apple crisp isn't complete without Ice Cream (9.27.2013)

Inspired by the delicious and UofM invented honeycrisp and sweet tango apples of the farmer's market, Josh and I decided to make apple crisp this weekend. This is seriously one of the better ideas we have ever had. We had already purchased our apples on Wednesday and had all the other ingredients we needed at my apartment, and so on friday evening we got to work. His mom sent him his grandma's recipe, so that was very promising. The crumble was very straightforward and easy, as was peeling and slicing the apples. In short order we had heaven baking in the oven at 350 degrees and realized that we were missing one very important thing. Ice cream. Once at the CVS we realized that Edy's has pretty much a monopoly on ice cream sales at the U of M. For a decent sized container of vanilla they were pretty much the only choice - no cheap Deans or Country Fresh or Land O Lakes. Even though it is somewhat expensive we did what we had to do and bought ourselves a container of Edy's ice cream and returned to a much better smelling apartment.

Selling Ski-U-Mah

Despite having worked at the bookstore for about a year now, until this point I haven't bought one single new piece of gopher gear for myself. One would think it would be pretty enticing, I am there quite often, I know every item in the store, know what sizes are available and know how to get any size that I would need, and get an employee discount. So why haven't I? There is nothing wrong with displaying gopher pride, and there are quite a few items in the store that I really really like and would definitely wear. Part of the reason that I don't buy anything is that I strongly associate being at the bookstore with being at work, and I don't think that I should be spending excess time in the store without working, and feel bad tacking extra time on to my shift, on or off the clock. Whenever I have things to do at the bookstore that don't involve work (usually involving buying supplies) I know exactly what I need and am in and out quite quickly, because if I am scheduled to work that means I don't have time to and therefore don't have a lot of time to kill because I need to be somewhere else in a hurry. However, this Saturday I caved. I was working before the Homecoming football game and knew the weather was just a bit on the chilly side. I do have two Maroon and Gold sweatshirts to wear, and was in fact wearing my old maroon hoodie with a big felt gold M emblazoned on the front, but despite the chill had been quite hot to walk around in and be outside in. The only Gopher tshirts I have have all been free or basically free - shirts from welcome week and from hockey and football season tickets, so they are all short sleeved. Recently I had been thinking it would be nice to have a long sleeved MN tshirt to wear in weather like this, or at hockey games when it is slightly chilly but not always cool enough for a jacket. And when I say recently, it has been almost all year that I have been contemplating getting a long sleeved shirt. The homecoming sale was going on and everything was 25% off, 5% more than my employee discount so I figured I might as well take advantage of this sale and get a shirt for even cheaper.

The shirt I had been thinking about is our most basic, most plain, and always in stock or on order tshirt. There are four color options white w/ maroon, maroon w/gold, gold w/ maroon, and gray w/ maroon. It is a basic unisex long sleeve tshirt style with "MINNESOTA" written across the chest in a slight arc in heat pressed letters. Like I said, it is so basic that it is one of our staples, and therefore it is also slightly cheaper than many of our other long sleeves at 19.99 full price. The reason I liked this shirt was because it was so basic and classy - nothing extra, nothing that will get really outdated really fast, and  it is super easy to look at and read. I chose the maroon with gold letters because I don't like to wear large amounts of gold, I already have quite a few gray short sleeved tshirts, and because white gets dirty so quickly and it would be worn in the winter which and is a little more of a 'summery' color choice. So anyways. Also, the maroon with gold combo is also the exact colors of our university so it is maximizing the school spirit possible :)

I have been thinking more recently that I'd like to do my display project on something to do with "selling ski-u-mah" and the promotion of school spirit. How students buy in to it, alumni, fans, family members, etc buy in to the school spirit of the U of M and the many outlets they have to do that. Gopher pride clothing at the bookstore or at Goldy's locker room, buying sports tickets, the new goldy statue and fundraising efforts, having the gopher mascot bopping around campus, and how the U creates and/or promotes a sense of school spirit.

Early Morning Errands

Although the U is very well located and students have access to many resources nearby, there are a few that are lacking. A grocery store and Target nearby being two of those. Recently I discovered another more obscure resource that was lacking, a UPS pickup location. I had ordered some books off of Amazon for classes and by my error turned out to be the wrong edition or something. I needed to return it, but the return label was for UPS service and the package would need to be brought to a UPS pickup destination. A quick google search showed that the nearest pick up location was two miles from campus. So, this morning, I jumped on my bike at 7:45 to make the 8am opening and headed up in to Como.

Rainbow Run

Living in an apartment, we are really starting to feel the pain of not having a grocery store near or on campus. There are a few within decent biking distance 1/2 miles, but by the time I am done with work and class and would have time to run to the grocery store it is much too late and getting dark and not safe or feasible to take the time to go get groceries with the terrifying amounts of work I need to get done. So naturally, I decide to go in the morning. Before work at 8am. So, I awake at 5:30 AM, leave by 6, bike two miles to the Rainbow two miles north, and arrive by around 6:15. I have to closely adhere to my list and keep in mind that I have to carry everything myself on my bike back. I have come prepared with my backpack and a couple reusable bags to carry my groceries in but I really don't want to have to use the reusable bags. Because that is just annoying to carry on a bike handle. My grocery list includes, milk, bread, sandwich meat, raisins, broccoli and almonds. So nothing too out of the ordinary. I was able to fit most of my purchases in my backpack, but decided to keep the bread out and carry it in a reusable bag to make sure it would not get squished. I had cut a few rainbow coupons out of the flyer they sent us and so was able to save some money that way, in addition to taking advantage of a few sales they had on certain products I was interested in, so score. Overall this wasn't a bad experience, but it was slightly inconvenient.

Colorful Candles

Yet another bookstore find. While marking sale items down I came across some birthday candles that had flames burn different colors. Now normally these types of trinket-y things do not attract my attention, but they attracted my attention because my friend and Roommate Kelly's birthday is coming up in October. And these are definitely something she would like. For the irresistible price of 1.97 per pack, these candles would light up her birthday! (Oh my gosh that is such a terrible pun but I had to do it). Anyways! I decided to purchase the candles because Kelly is such a great and wonderful person, and these candles would reflect that! Plus it is her 20th and she deserves something special!

Children's Books (9.26.2013)

While working at the bookstore I passed the dangerous section, the general books department. I normally don't work in that department, but my project that day took me on a track past the department, where my eye was caught by the clearance books. SO DANGEROUS. As I continued to look I saw a children's book - Amos & Boris. The front was a simple watercolor of a whale and a mouse riding on his back. It looked so simplistic I couldn't help but pick it up and flip quickly through it. The pictures were so simple - basic outlines with pretty much one color fill but something about them drew me in and I really really liked them. I put the book down with the intent of coming back later to look, because I was on the clock and really shouldn't be wasting time. I kept my promise and after coming back to work, but before clocking in I went back to the general books to look at the book again. After checking the price - it was discounted to $2 and something cents, I used the employee discount as rationale and decided for whatever reason that this book was something I wanted to be able to spend time reading and pouring over. As I perused the rest of the children's book section I came across Blueberry Sal. I distinctly remember my mom reading this book to my sister and me when we were younger, and I remembered the illustration style, and the entirety of the book was just so nostalgic to me (except the glaring new-ness of it) that I decided to get it too. So now I purchased two children's books for myself as a sophomore in college and I am more than okay with that!

Nivea

When I finally made the connection between using Burt's Bee's chapstick and having dried lips all the time I switched to Nivea chapstick and it has been the best switch. For one, the actual chapstick looks great, but the packaging is also really well designed and thought out compared to conventional chapstick. The cap is the majority of the visible  tube, and is very easy to click off and on of the tube because how much available space there is to grip the cap. Basically, I really enjoy using this chapstick for mainly that reason. Their graphics and visual packaging isn't over the moon amazing, but they have a very recognizable font/logo, and when they need to include a decent amount of health and safety information on a package so small as a chapstick tube there isn't a ton of room leftover for creative liberties.