44th presidential inauguration

We've got a televison in the conference room on my office floor, and so a few coworkers and I watched Obama being sworn in. Loved his speech.... Inspiration! Hard work! SCIENCE!

My favorite part, though, was how giddy-nervous Obama AND Chief Justice Roberts were during the actual swearing-in part. And I could swear Obama giggled just a tiny bit right when he stood up. It was just an awesome, human moment among all the pomp and circumstance. I think he's crazy for wanting to take up the mantle of Chief Executive during a time like this, but I'm excited that he's excited. I think that speaks more about the work he'll do during his term than any pretty words could.

Although I have to say, I'm fairly certain that Aretha's hat was the most exuberant party in attendance:


"EAT MY SPARKLES, NAYSAYERS!" it seemed to say.

consumerism wow: 3 t-shirts i covet

Warrior Plumbers by Chris Hastings, the Dr. McNinja guy. I'm of that particular generation for whom seeing references to Super Mario Bros. is like hearing the lullabies my mother used to sing to me. And that in that bizarre-realism sort of style that Hastings does? Behold, and feel as though it were your own: The indignation of the sucker-punched Piranha Plant! The crispy plight of the Koopa Paratroopa! The dull, niggling concern of the Goomba that really, it shouldn't have feet, let alone shoes. A bunch of sizes are reprinting, but TopatoCo turns that stuff around pretty quick! The shirt is $19.75, and ships via your choice of USPS or UPS.







Love Is Blind by Tara McPhearson, the popart & comics lady (warning: sometimes she draws boobs, so if you're not okay with that you shouldn't click through to her art). A print of hers was placed on the set of Juno's room! She just did a cover for Popgun, which my friend APK is Assistant Editor for! My aunt is dating her father! (This is possibly the worst TMcP bio ever. I'm just entertained by the little ways her work keeps popping into my life, lovely and surprising and sad like violet-flavored toaster pastries made with salt instead of sugar.) Women's sizes only! Apologies to people who are not womens. I just ordered this shirt today, and I'm slightly dubious about how it'll fit (it's printed on American Apparel's Sheer Jersey 2-Sided Top), so I'll post updates when it arrives in case anyone's curious. The shirt is $24 and ships flat rate.




Piggy Board by Preston Haynes, who is some dude on Threadless. I'm not sure what sort of message this shirt sends, other than the perhaps obvious "Lauren wants to be friends with the person wearing this shirt because they are probably rad," but I like it! However, if you're a dude who fits somewhere between the sizes XS and 2XL, you won't be able to buy one until/unless Threadless reprints it. I find this to be a frequent problem with Threadless tees… they've got a great catalogue, but the odds of finding everything (or anything) you want in your size are something like the odds of secretly being Batman: it depends on how much you're willing to compromise with reality, and what sort of Fates you've pissed off. The shirt is $12, and Threadless ships via UPS.

review: Dolfin Chocolat: Milk, Hot Masala from India

One of the best things about being a grown-up is that you can eat chocolate recklessly, like a 4-year-old who's gotten into the pantry, whenever you want. I usually keep a few bits & bars in stock in case of immaturity emergency -- anything from Vosges to Choxie. I've been depleating my supplies recently, so the other night while I was at the grocery store I picked up a couple of minibars by Dolfin, a Belgian company that I'd never tried anything from, including their Milk, Hot Masala from India bar.

Upon opening the bar, it smells like chocolate and then SPICE and then chocolate again, and then spice. I suspect that they're not kidding about the "Hot". My little 30g/1.058oz bar has 4 sections, so I break one off -- it's a milk chocolate but it's got a good snap to it, if not much temper shine.

Tasting a piece, the spice hits my palate first -- this tastes like an Indian restaurant smells, an almost floral bouquet of cardamom, cinnamon, and pepper. The flavor of the chocolate only comes to the front as it begins to melt -- but it's so smooth, like a sip of creamy cocoa. Bars like this are why I'm getting into milk chocolate again after years of being a fiend for dark. It's a really big, full-mouth flavor, surprisingly not hot for as spicy as it smells, and so rich that I'm perfectly fine with eating only one quarter of the tiny bar at a go.

My only (and slight) qualms with the bar: It's got a very very slight grit to it due to the lovely spice content, so once in awhile I find myself chewing on a bit of spice -- but it's a texture thing, not a flavor thing, and overall the quality of the chocolate is so nice that I can forgive it. Also it's got a bit of an odd aftertaste to it from the lingering spices -- I think the cardamom's going to stay with me awhile. A drink of water mostly clears my palate.

If you like masala spices, and/or cardamom in general, you need to find a bar of this pretty much immediately. It's brilliant, feels indulgent, and the minibar is sized for preventing too much of a caloric splurge (~41 Calories/7.5g quarter section, or ~164 Calories/bar… for contrast, a Hershey's Kiss is ~26 Calories/4.6g kiss, and I have to eat 3 or 4 of those to feel sated). I give it 9.2 nom nom noms out of 10! Though I found mine at my local Whole Foods, Google lists several online retailers who carry the Dolfin line. I bought mine, at a discount, for $1.69 (normally it'd be $2.20 or so at my WF).

I'd definitely try other bars from this confectioner -- and that's a good thing, 'cause I've got a bar of their Dark with Pink Peppercorns that's next in line.