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The 5 Best Things You Can Get at Trader Joe’s

August 16th, 2013 by pladd

I don’t do my normal shopping at Trader Joe’s, because Food Lion is closer and cheaper, but there are some things you can only get there that I can’t live without.

1. Cookie Butter

I always buy crunchy, but smooth seems to be more popular?

Holy crap cookie butter is good. I decided to try it after reading this article, which mentioned a store needing to limit them at two per customer. While mine doesn’t seem to care, I can see what all the hype is about. It’s a dessert spread that tastes like cinnamon cookies. Steven will literally just eat it plain off a spoon. I like it best on apples, and have been trying it in place of peanut butter in some desserts, to great success. It’s less sticky than peanut butter, which makes it easier to eat too. Everyone should try it at least once–it will probably change your life.

2. Bite-size chicken samosas

Steven bought these because, why not? Indian food!

We made these one Sunday to eat while chilling out rewatching Veronica Mars. Then the episode was over, the plate was empty, and I was like “What should we do now?” We both kind of looked at each other, at the empty plate, and decided instantly, “Go back to Trader Joe’s and buy more of those”. So we did. They are awesome. Not spicy at all, and the outside is more like phyllo dough than other samosas I’m used to. I’m obsessed.

3. Chai Tea Latte Mix

I usually just buy regular kind, but certain times of year there are also pumpkin, salted caramel, and others

You know me: I’m an insufferable tea snob. I have even been known to look askance at even Teavana because you’re buying tea from a chain in the mall you philistine and I bet you let it steep too long too. Actually, you might not know this because I pretty much keep it on the DL. Let’s just say, that once I was sixteen and passed up every fun thing you could do in London to visit the Tea Museum instead. And there a strange old man ambushed me near an exhibit of mustache cups and ranted for like fifteen minutes about how “the art of tea is dead–everyone is just drinking brown water and, the worst part is, they think they like it.” Instead of being alarmed, I decided he was the best and have made his snobby tea opinions my own. It wasn’t hard, since I was a pretty snobby 16-year-old. I like to think I’m not anymore–about everything that’s not tea.

Which is why it’s shocking, shocking that I ever bought this in the first place. It’s tea from a mix! And the shameful secret is, I REALLY like it. I don’t know if that means I’ve just been pretending all this time, or it’s something special or what. Most likely, it is just 100% sugar with some cinnamon on top, but I don’t care. Plus, the containers are really useful for keeping buttons/paperclips/whatever after they’re empty.

4. Mango and Cream bars

There are also raspberry and coffee flavors, but why would you choose that when there is mango

These are the perfect size–they’re about as long as your palm! With slightly more mango to cream, they are a perfect, light dessert when you feel like something sweet, but don’t want anything too big or heavy. Plus, mango!!!!

5. Pear Cinnamon Cider

Unfortunately I think this guy might be seasonal?

I’m not as into apple cider as Steven, but I love this pear version!! It’s subtler than apple, which I like, though it’s still as warm and spicy on a cold day. How often do you get to eat pear at all, let alone in juice form? Look for it when it starts to get chilly!!

Okay, now I’m hungry.

Tagged: cookie butter, food, lists, tea, trader joe's

Posted in lists |

Banned and Challenged Book List: 2012

April 22nd, 2013 by pladd

I know it’s not Banned Books Week yet, but last week was National Library Week and the ALA put out their list of the most frequently challenged books of 2012! Apparently there was a 25% jump in challenges last year, largely because the ALA has made reporting a challenge easier. As always when such lists come out, I automatically put any titles I haven’t read on my library hold list. I am pumped to read some Captain Underpants!

Here’s the list! I’ve bolded the ones I’ve already read.

1) Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey.
Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group
2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
3) Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
Reasons: Drugs/alcohol/smoking, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited for age group
4) Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
5) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson.
Reasons: Homosexuality, unsuited for age group
6) The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini.
Reasons: Homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit
7) Looking for Alaska, by John Green.
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group
8) Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: Unsuited for age group, violence
9) The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit
10) Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, violence

Get ready for some awesome reviews!! And for me to decide which Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark picture gives me the worst nightmares still because you know that’s going to happen and that is why they are awesome.

Tagged: ALA, banned books, lists

Posted in Banned Books |

Three Things I Learned Yesterday from Children’s Books

March 5th, 2013 by pladd

I’m currently doing science about access features in children’s non-fiction, which has me looking through about 200 books this week from every section of the Dewey Decimal System. This includes all the sections in which I’d normally not venture, and I’m pleased to say I’ve learned some things.

1. The Hays Code

This code of motion picture standards began in the 30s and was in effect in some form until 1968. I learned about it in a book about the fashion of the 1930s:

Which I wouldn’t normally check out but was actually full of awesome pictures

In a pop-out box about the burgeoning film industry, the book described the Hays Code as:

…prohibiting “scenes of passion”, unpunished acts of adultery or seduction, profane and vulgar language like the words guts and nuts, nudity, cruelty to animals and children or showing any representations of childbirth, the Hays Code also outlawed depictions of certain types of crime. Gangster films could no longer show machine guns or even allow the screen gangsters to talk about weapons. The code also insisted that law enforcement agents never be shown dying at the hands of criminals and that all criminal activities shown were duly punished.

So Golden Age Hollywood did not love a cheeky villain.

2. The Pony Express only lasted for 19 months

This sad dose of reality brought to me by:

A Dusty, Thankless Job You’d Rather Not Do

I actually really love the You Wouldn’t Want To Be… series, with such titles as “You Wouldn’t Want to be a Victorian School Child” and “You Wouldn’t Want to be Mary Queen of Scots”. I love its underlying premise of “Look how much history sucked, children.” Because, man, did it ever. The smell alone would probably kill me, and there are two separate books in this series just about pre-modern medical practices. A younger me probably could have benefited from reading “You Wouldn’t Want to Live in a Medieval Castle” or “You Wouldn’t Want to be a Samurai” because the media had given me the total wrong impression about how awesome things were, totally downplaying all the uncomfortable grossness of a time before sanitation and advil.

Anyway, this one was about the pony express and what was expected of the riders. They tried to downplay the fact that service only lasted for 19 months before telegraphs came in–and was interrupted for various conflicts with Native Americans–but it still crushed my mental image of what this was all about.

3. Someone wrote a children’s book about the housing bubble

It told me everything I needed to know about my immediate past

This book is bizarre, and reading it is pretty surreal. My favorite parts were a picture of an aisle inside what is clearly a Whole Foods with the caption “Many Americans bought grocery items in bulk to save on food costs during the recession” and a picture of Bennigan’s explaining how chain restaurants closed in 2008 because more people were eating at home. Newsflash future child readers: Bennigan’s closed because it was Irish-themed terribleness and people still buy groceries in bulk because we are still poor. I guess that’s why it was so weird–it adopted the same tone as the pony express book, like it was explaining the strange and distant past to me, except that it was really just telling me about 2009. My life has not changed noticeably since 2009! I’m still buying groceries in bulk and complaining about the rising cost of fuel, stop using such definitive past tense.

Also, according to the big bold text at the end “The Great Recession officially lasted 18 months” which is even less time than the pony express operated, yet somehow this book is longer.

Back to the library science mines!

Tagged: facts, library science, lists, science

Posted in Library Tales, lists |

5 Things I Got From My Mom… That I Couldn’t Be Happier About

July 12th, 2011 by pladd

Naturally I have to start my week of Kick Ass Women with my mom! It’s hard for girls not to be super influenced by their moms, so I’m lucky mine is such a great role model. Feeling like you’re becoming your mother seems to be a pretty common concept for women, at least in movies, books, and newspaper comics, and it is usually met with dread and annoyance. Personally, I am pretty excited about it since it means turning even more awesome! Here are 5 Things about me that I can already recognize are part of this process, and I am totally stoked about all of them:

1. The Drive to Find Something You Love, and Do It No Matter What

If you know my mom, you know she’s a math teacher. It’s impossible to not know this about her, it’s so much a part of who she is. It is kind of ridiculous how much extra time outside of school she spends preparing, grading, and communicating with parents and students. In one of the education classes I had to take in grad school the prof was telling us about how most teachers suck because they don’t communicate with parents. She finally admitted that some teachers will try to contact a parent if the student is doing poorly, but “have you ever heard of a teacher who contacts a parent with positive reinforcement?” I get that she was trying to make a point, but I still raised my hand and said, “Yes, I lived with her for 18 years and the rest of y’all really need to catch up.” Okay, maybe not that last part.

My mom, outside her classroom!

Because I grew up with this, I didn’t really think it was weird that she went in hours early and stayed hours late to help students before and after school, or spent entire evenings calling parents, or made breakfast for her classes before the big AP test. That’s just what you do when you have a job, right?

Well, in the real world, it turns out not really. This study found that only 20% of people are very passionate about their jobs, and that was back in 2005. The same year, coincidentally, that I got my first job and poured about 50-60 hours a week into making the library the best place ever. Sure, it’s not the most glamorous or well-paying job ever, but I love it, and I don’t mind pouring more time and energy into it than anything else in my life because I know it’s worth it. Just like to my mom teaching is worth it. Perhaps the most important lesson she taught me through her own kick ass example is to love what you do, and do whatever it takes to do what you love. Because in the end, happiness is more important than money or fame or any of the other things I might be hoarding if I weren’t so into librarianing.

Not as important as loving your job... but both would be nice

2. A Healthy Attitude About Beauty

This had to be on the list since a preoccupation with beauty standards is something it’s almost impossible to escape as a girl in our society. I’m not saying I was totally immune–I suffered through middle school just like everyone else, thanks–but it definitely could have been a lot worse if I was also feeling subconscious pressure from my mom. It’s not like it would have been her fault, but you internalize so much at that age she couldn’t have helped it. If I’d grown up seeing my mom plaster her face with thick coats of makeup every day before daring to show her face outside or spending hours “fixing” her hair I’m sure I too would have assumed I needed all that, just to be presentable. Instead, she never really worried about it.

"The only thing I'm worried about is why you are still taking pictures when it is summer in Houston and I am dying of heat stroke, DAD"

Pretty much every potential fashion/beauty discussion I ever had with my mom growing up centered around the question “Are you comfortable?”, from which shoes to buy to how to deal with my hair. It’s not that we don’t want to look nice, but that will always be a secondary concern to things like “Can I walk?” and “Am I melting because we live in Florida?” Seeing the money and effort and worry people expend on beauty in the real world, I’m glad I never learned to stress about it too much.
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Tagged: lists, Mom Ladd, story

Posted in lists |

24 for 24

May 20th, 2011 by pladd

Tomorrow is my 24th birthday! Today is Steven’s 26th birthday, but who cares about that? If he wanted things to be all about him, he would have his own blog. In case you are still searching for the perfect present (and I assume the entire Internet will get me presents), here is a list of 24 things I like that might help.

1. Terrible Movies

You have to be in the right mindset to watch something like Night of 1000 Cats or Stick It! or Titanic II. Luckily, I am always in that mindset.

2. Terrible Books

I like to think that I’m a little more discerning about the books I read than the movies I watch, but then I remembered how much I like making fun of things that try to be Twilight. Plus this summer I am going to try to tackle the ridic book Anna Baron gave me in one act payment two years ago: The Black Jewels Trilogy:

Anna Baron knows how to give gifts

3. Prehistoric Animals

Like an ostrich, BUT DEADLY

Dinosaurs are cool and all, but I really like all the weird stuff that came after them. I think I have seen all the National Geographic and BBC specials on stuff like this, so if you could just get me an actual leptictidium, that’d be favorite.

4. Art

For the rest of this epic face-off between James Fox and Middle School Patricia click the link in the paragraph below!

I will freely admit to being terrible at most art, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. Whether it’s making up self-involved comics as a birthday present or making a pig mascot of a lemonade tin. I think my decided lack of artistic ability has taught me some great shortcuts that can easily fool people into thinking I’m competent.

Like coloring inside the lines

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Tagged: BIRTHDAY, books, letters, lists, Middle School, Steven, time travel

Posted in lists |

Grad School Yearbook

April 22nd, 2011 by pladd

Yesterday was potentially my last day on campus ever! I turned in my final paper, went to my last class, and am so not going to graduation. The bus ride home was probably one of the most anticlimactic Last Day of Schools ever. I felt absolutely no remorse/sadness, and not even really any relief. In an attempt to try to reclaim some of that Last Day of School Nostalgia, I’ve decided to make a list of Grad School Memories. I’m imagining it as a kind of Middle School Year Book, with the kind of entries I remember thinking about for days before actually writing in another person’s. If only Grad School had yearbooks, these would probably be some of the entries I would write to the people/things I remember most:

Goth Prof

Sadly not an actual picture of goth prof

Goth Prof, I know you were only a PhD student stuck teaching me cataloging first semester, but your class really meant something to me. It was probably one of the most practical in grad school, where we learned a practical skill and all of the assignments were directly related to cultivating it. You didn’t waste my time, which was awesome. Also, you dressed like you were going to a goth Ren Faire most days, which was also awesome. One time when I was absent my partner claimed you wore red, but I don’t believe it.

Yahoo Answers for Credit

Yeah, I've totally got a reference book for that

Reference class was another one where most of the assignments actually seemed practical. Answer random reference questions assigned by the prof, answer questions for the ipl… answer Yahoo! Answers questions. Yahoo! Answers, you may or may not be the future of reference services, and I’m not sure you’re really where the majority of people are now turning for their “information needs”, but I’m not going to complain about an assignment where I get to spend time with you, answering ridiculous questions instead of reading some boring article. Answering ridiculous questions (“What’s the PINKEST book in the library??”) is pretty much why I got into this business in the first place. That, and the mystique.

“I made this PowerPoint from scratch!”

Couldn't find a picture of them, but here is their natural habitat

Oh, People Who Take Library Grad School Seriously. You are hilarious! I sincerely enjoyed all of my time in class with you. The times you asked the professor what size font the final paper should be in on the first day of class. The times you asked questions about ridiculous hypothetical situations like “What should we do if a child vomits on the floor and another child tries to eat it? Could we be sued for that?” The times you actually thought the professors knew what they were talking about. The times you created elaborate reasons for your side of the books/technology debate (“What if all world governments collapse and we find ourselves living in a post-apocalyptic society? We probably won’t have electricity. We’ll need BOOKS to tell us how to SURVIVE.”) The way you would make a 20-slide PowerPoint for even the shortest of presentations. Yes, your antics pretty much kept me endlessly entertained, but also showed me to my own path, my grad school mantra, if you will. Which brings me to:

What are you going to do, fail me?

Not Pictured: Grad School

I’m pretty sure nobody fails grad school, at least not Library science Grad School. All you have to do is reassure the faculty (however erroneously) that yes, they are useful. While other people got worked up about the fonts on their PowerPoints, I just silently repeated my Grad School motto, “What are they going to do, fail me?” and stopped worrying about it.

“Teens like clothes, right?”

Oh, Professors Who Have No Clue What They’re Talking About! We’ve come so far since I first met you! Just think, back then I still had some respect for your ability to teach a class without sounding silly! Ha ha, and then that memorable day when you were forced to acknowledge that teenagers exist and, hey, some libraries actually have the gall to try to put on programs for them. What was your suggestion? Oh right, I remember because I wrote it down for evidence: “Teenagers spend a lot of money on clothes, so maybe you could bring in some ‘cool’ teens to tell the other teens how to dress.” Yeah, that was it. And maybe you might have heard a weird noise after you said that, as an undertone to the general uproar from those of us actually listening to you? Yeah, that was me, screaming with my mouth closed.

Magic Cupcakes!

I know this was only a few weeks ago

But you've got to admit, they're pretty awesome

Preschool BFF Reunion!

On Wednesdays, we wear pink

Megan!!! My favorite grad school memory by far is discovering that we have always been besties! Megan and I have been grad school friends for awhile–ever since we discovered that we are both awesome–but it wasn’t until my mom saw a post she made on my facebook wall and said, “You know, your best friend in preschool had that same name!” that we discovered we go way back. Natch it’s hard to remember all the deets from when you were three, especially when we both moved away shortly after.

Reunited and it feels so good!

Tagged: Goth Prof, grad school, lists, nostalgia

Posted in lists |

Wedding Planning: I Don’t Know Why It Gets a Bad Rap

February 11th, 2011 by pladd

Okay, I do. I can see how it would be way stressful if you were planning something big and fancy with lots of important details and things you can’t control like the weather. But if it rains on my wedding, the ten of us at the ceremony will just stand under umbrellas. Since I was planning on wearing flip-flops anyway I don’t envision myself freaking out.

The most trying decision I will probably have to make is what costume to wear to the amazing Halloween party we are having in celebration at my house afterwards. For guests, costumes are optional (but awesome!) but Steven and I of course will take any excuse to dress up and we’re thinking of matching somehow. Here are some ideas I’ve already had:

1. Pirates
Dressing as pirates would have some precedent, since it was “how we met” (here is why that has to be in quotes), and is always fun. Plus, Steven suggested we could up the ante by dressing as STEAMPUNK pirates, which would be even more exciting.

I am a fan of tradition. Especially pirate tradition.

2. Princess Bride
My favorite costumes are literary characters being, you know, a librarian. Plus, Steven seems really into wearing one of those puffy shirts.

Of course, if I could get a ridic crown it would be my top choice

However, I’m not sure I am as into any of Buttercup’s dresses. Or just the idea of wearing a big fancy dress in general. How am I supposed to hop around playing Rock Band in that? Yeah, Rock Band requires hopping. You haven’t seen how great I am at it.

3. Paper Bag Princess
This is something I thought of recently, based one of my favorite books ever, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.

I don't know why feminism is not all over this book

Basically, Elizabeth’s beautiful clothes and jewels and castle are all burned down by a dragon, who prince-naps Prince Ronald, who she’s going to marry. So she puts on the only thing she can find, a paper bag, and goes off to save him. She outwits the dragon with her cleverness, but then decides, when her prince is like “ELIZABETH, WHAT are you WEARING?” that he is a jerk and she doesn’t need him anyway. Now that I think about it, Elizabeth the Paper Bag Princess has maybe been my secret role model all my life. Anyway, I could TOTALLY make an awesome dress out of paper bags. A bunch of people have done it out of newspaper and paper bags are more durable! Steven could be the dragon! I outwit him all the time, and we all know Steven is all about dragons! It would be perfect. This is maybe my favorite choice so far.

My mom told me that when she told a few people about my wedding plans they said, “You must be so disappointed!” I think she responded, as I would have, “How could I be disappointed with SHEER AWESOME?” Those people are just being Prince Ronald and are no fun. I’m going to steal some paper bags from the grocery store next week and practice!

Tagged: costumes, lists, wedding

Posted in lists |

5 Things I Learned in High School that I actually HAVE used later

November 30th, 2010 by pladd

So, in preface, I went to an IB highschool, which was fun and also kind of a lot of work. On the plus side, the English classes were probably more rigorous than every English class I took at Rice except one: Literature and the Environment, senior year. I distinctly remember thinking, “Wow, I haven’t worked this hard at writing a paper/reading a book for class since high school.” On the downside, 2:1 girl to guy ratio so, you know, so few guys that I never, ever had a date, but enough guys that I could still feel like it was 100% my fault.¹. Here are five things that I learned in high school that have actually come up again later in life:

1. Math
Yes, it is one of my life regrets that I took higher level IB math instead of higher level IB French in high school. I would have aced that French exam, or at least failed less embarrassingly than in math. “Oh well,” 18-year-old Patricia thought. “It’s not like I’ll ever really need this again.” WRONG. Not only did 20-year-old-Patricia decide that Math 101 would be a great, easy way to get some D3 credit out of the way (it was), but grad school Patricia finally got a job because she was a double threat of English AND Math tutoring skillz. Also, the research methods class I’m in now is like made of statistics, or is trying to be. Maybe it’s just because no one’s awake that early in the morning, but a lot of us don’t seem up to the questionable challenge. The professor has had to remind us that y=mx+b multiple times so far and a lot of times just tells us how to get the stat pack to spit out numbers and says “… and don’t worry about how this happened.” I assume the rumors I’ve heard about this exam being hard are because all of the English BAs in this library program have forgotten what a square root is.

It looks like this, just fyi.

2. Grammar Rules
My senior year I had an English teacher who was obsessive about grammar. Every time we turned in our 4 essays on whatever book (“journals” as they were called, but that makes it sound fun and reflective when it wasn’t), she would mark all of our grammar mistakes with a highlighter and a system of abbreviations of her own devising. Then we would have to correct all of them and turn them in again, a process that seemed way more laborious while doing it than it takes to describe. My first journal corrections (don’t ask me why I saved these), I had 19 (mostly dangling modifiers). By the end I was only getting one or two (mostly word choice), so clearly I was improving. And, yes, I can see the appeal of being able to write mistake-free, but what’s the point of obeying some of these more obscure grammar rules that my supervisors won’t know about or follow? See above about the tutoring job; I’m pretty sure half the reason I got it was using the words “dangling modifier” in an appropriate way.
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Tagged: high school, lists, math

Posted in lists |