Friday Frenzy: Laughter is the Best Medicine

This week has been crazy busy for us at Alpaca Clouds.  I worked two jobs to make some extra cash moneyz for my future cardboard box of an apartment and it exhausted the HELL out of me.  NibsnInk moved to a new place (& will probably be posting about her moving madness soon).  WahYizzle got to go with her, which made me jealous, because they had fun girly moving times and I slowly suffocated in the windowless hell cave where I work.  Drama queen? Yes.  But I'm sleep deprived and entitled. 

So today I decided to post a ton of ridiculous videos because when I stress out, nothing feels better than laughing to the point of tears.  (and shopping.)  Sit back, stop doing work, and enjoy! 

First stop:  Kristen Bell's Sloth Meltdown.  If you haven't seen this, you haven't lived.  Make sure you're sitting down: 

The lovely BHB tweeted this video and I laugh EVERY time I see it.  Best 9 seconds ever.  (Yes, I realize there's a "that's what she said" in there somewhere.)  

Prepping for some down time this weekend with Theo Katzman: 

And lastly, whenever I feel depressed or discouraged about the challenges I face, I think of Jessica.  This girl is a badass and she knows what's good about life!  All of us should really wake up like this every morning:  

Happy Friday, all!

  

-Beetle, xx. 

Friday Frenzy: The Manic-Depressive Shopaholic Shawty

A frenzied WahYizzle is a bipolar WahYizzle (I realize this sounds like a Pokémon description and I’m okay with that).

Furious and Feminist:

I love New Girl, but this analysis of Zooey Deschanel’s character is spot on. Even though I have to agree with Jennifer Wright's article, I’m not going to stop watching it because the show isn’t over yet, so there’s still time for her to grow out of the naïve, childlike girl with a heart of gold trope (yes, that is intended to be a pun of sorts, now RECOGNIZE!). Here's a video by Anita Sarkeesian on the many manifestations of manic pixie dream girl in contemporary pop culture.

Happy and Materialistic:

Anyone want to line up with me on Sunday, Feb. 5 for the launch of Jason Wu for Target line?

Picture from http://www.fashionologie.com

Picture from http://www.thelooksforless.com

Hope you guys have a great weekend!


-WahYizzle

Friday Frenzy: CAKE

Happy Friday, friends!  We're (sort of) taking a brief break from the Barcelona posts for this week's Friday Frenzy, brought to you by gluttony and easy recipes.    

This is basically how I look at every meal.
(courtesy of cheezburger.com)

When I was in Barcelona, L taught me how to make tiramisu in the fastest, easiest way I have ever seen in my life.  It requires no baking.  (No, really.)  S & L don't have an oven in their apartment, so this is one of the few cakes L can actually make.  It takes more time for me to write and explain it in this post than it does to actually make it.  


We did have to tweak it a bit, since everything has to be low-fat friendly in my house after my sister's gall bladder surgery.  (Check out her kick ass food blog and follow her on the Twitter machine at @CraftyBelka!)  Here is our final result: 


instant coffee (3 tsp)
Mascarpone cheese (1 box, 227 g)
egg yolk (1)
egg whites (2) 
sugar (4 tsp)
lady fingers (1 pack) -- How old does it make me if I giggle every time I hear the words "lady fingers"?


Step 1:  Make really really strong black coffee.  We put 3 tsp of regular instant coffee in one cup.  Pour it into a wide bowl so it can cool off.


Step 2:  Beat egg whites with electric mixer until they stand up when you lift the mixer out of them.  


Step 3:  In a separate bowl, mix in mascarpone, egg yolk, egg whites, and sugar.  Beat well (either with a spoon or electric mixer) until you have an even, thickish, creamy consistency.  


Step 4: Dip lady fingers one by one in coffee.  Lay them down flat in your tupperware of choice.  Then add one layer of the cream you made in Step 3.  Add one more layer of lady fingers, and another of cream to top it off.  (You can technically alternate and do as many layers of lady fingers/cream as you want, but I think two was more than enough for us.) 


Step 5:  Refrigerate until cold (I know that sounds stupid).  Basically, if you do this in the evening, leave it overnight.  If you do it in the morning, you can eat it probably by the evening.  It just has to be cold.  


Step 6:  Sprinkle some cocoa over it and enjoy!  We used Godiva and it was heavenly.

I can't say no to chocolate and coffee.

Voi la! 

Has this put you in the cooking mood for the weekend?  (or maybe just the vegging mood?  That's fine too.)  Let us know what your favorite dessert recipe is!  


-Beetle, xx.

Friday Frenzy: Globetrotting Alpacas

This week's Friday Frenzy is brought to you by the letter H for hyper because I'M GOING TO BARCELONA, FRIENDS.    


That's right, at 7:05pm today, I will be overcoming the forces of gravity and watching what will probably be a god awful chick flick on my way to the land of tapas and cigarette smoke.  It's going to be legen -- wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is -- DARY.  


After visiting Spain twice, then living there for 6 months and traveling all over that ridiculous country, I'm so excited to be going back and not doing anything touristy.  I'm going to be visiting two of my amazing friends -- S & L -- who pretty much embody my ideal couple.  S is from Azerbaijan and L is from Spain.  They come from entirely different backgrounds, but they merge their cultures and constantly learn from each other.  They work like crazy and spend every penny they save on travel.  They've been to more places than I can even wrap my mind around and I'm so wildly jealous.  I live vicariously through them by stalking their Flat Stanley-esque photos on Facebook.  Judge me. 


They came to the BK for the first time back in October.  Here we are with my sister, RB, during a lunch break from the hell cave:

Clockwise from the left:  Me, RB, L, & S sitting down.

We here at Alpaca Clouds are broke off our asses, but certainly try not to be uncultured swine by zooming to unknown lands when we can.  Click the Read More button below to see where we've ventured!  

Friday Frenzy: Puppy Friday

Happy Friday, wonderful readers!  (all 3 of you.)


Aside from the glorious weekend finally arriving, today is especially important because we are kicking off the first Alpaca Clouds Edition of Friday Frenzy!  


To get through days at the windowless hell cave that is my day job, my coworker JD and I started sending each other pictures of cute animals throughout the day to remind us that joy does exist outside of this twilight-zone pit of doom.  This soon evolved into Puppy Friday, which we also continue on the Twitter machine (hashtag #PuppyFriday).  


Here are a few to get us started here on Alpaca Clouds.  Show us some of your favorite in the comments section below, or tweet as us, bros.  (Yes, I just said bros.  It's Friday, I'm allowed to stop thinking.  Shut up and look at the puppies!) 

(courtesy of imgfave.com)

This is how I feel at work.  every.  day.
(courtesy of imgfave.com)

Please.  Just make the work e-mails stop.
(courtesy of imgfave.com)

Look at this freaking baby Corgi and tell me you don't want to squeeze it.
(courtesy of imgfave.com) 

This concludes our first Friday Frenzy!  Be sure to post some of your puppy favorites to us too!  There is no such thing as too many puppies.


And now that your mood has been sufficiently lifted, go out and be merry!  (Or buy yo' fine self a drink.  It's 5 o'clock somewhere.)  


Happy Weekend! 
-Beetle, xx


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