Ramble

I think my previous Fantasyland list is getting to me.

Under the excuse of "I have to look for a song my students know," I spent at least an hour today getting hip to music again. I can't believe how easy it is to be so out of it without a television or a radio. It makes perfect sense, but I guess I figured I had just gotten music through osmosis. Actually, I probably did. I had more friends in high school than I do now (curious, I know) and we spent a lot more time singing at the top of our lungs in cars than I do now. No worries, I still sing at the top of my lungs alone in my bedroom. It's just not the same.

Anyway. My point is: MUSIC IS TERRIBLE nowadays. I know I sound like my parents (who, in all honesty, were too hip to bother saying that, they just nodded patiently and waited for me to stop talking), but I couldn't get through more than half of the songs on Billboard's Top 100 before spitting at my computer screen and stopping the song mid-play (on Rhapsody).

I did, however, fall slightly in love with AKON, so that's a bonus. I know, I'm pretty mystified by it myself.

The good news is that I found a song to do. I think the kids will really dig it because it's got all the important words - namely "ghetto" and "girls" - but the message is a good one and it's not all about violence. I considered taking the number one song, and vetoed it. Why? Well, the words of wisdom from 50 Cent just seemed a little too strong for 15-year-olds:

Of course, it goes on, but I think I turned it off after that (I so didn't).

The other way I implemented a little piece of Fantasyland was by making my first official loaf of gluten-free bread. 100% from scratch, yo. This has been something I have been semi-working on for awhile, trying to get the right flours and what not. My bread concoction came from Cooking Gluten Free! (their exclamation point, not mine), which is a pretty good book. I've already done a few recipes out of it, and they have all turned out somewhere between good and excellent. I'm down with that.

Today's bread required the following products which I have never used in my life prior to this week: tapioca starch, potato starch, brown rice flour, sweet rice flour, and xantham gum. You can imagine what a party it was finding this stuff in a French supermarket. The trick was to buy it all in the Asian markets. I found everything but the xantham gum there.

Anyway, woo-hoo, the bread was a success. I'm happy it wasn't a huge failure or I might have written off funky flours forever.

Tomorrow, The Boy is bringin The Little Guy from Belgium to stay with us over the weekend. I hope the rain lets up so we can all go to the park together.