Quips & Anecdotes - Today's My Birthday

If you can figure out what is on my shirt (its purpose/idea/concept), I will deem you awesome in my mind.

Today's my birthday, and I did not want it to come! I don't want to get old. I don't want to know that my metabolism will only keep slowly. Gee golly, I don't want to know that I have been out of school for x amount of years already. On the plus side, 23 is my favorite number so that should mean that this new age will be promising, right? It's a point in my life when all the pieces should fall together. My blog's getting a bit more noticed (yay! thank you to all my readers!), and I'm getting to know Orange County even better and better. Who doesn't want to know where all the good eats are?

Anyhow, so it's my birthday and I'll be spending the day pretty much with family. I'll be heading over to nom at some food trucks at the Great Park's 7th Anniversary celebration for sure (join me? tweet me if you're there!) in the evening. I'm excited to watch some cooking demonstrations and taste a bit of whichever trucks will be there. So if you're not going to that, I've got awesome ways for you to celebrate my birthday too (because you totally need to celebrate it)! You can pick more than one way, of course, haha.

The Free
Cook something new and tell me about it! I want to hear stories (and maybe even see pictures). I love it when people expand their culinary knowledge. Maybe you should use an ingredient you haven't before or a technique you just learned. Just DO it

*BONUS: The Golden Foodie Awards are still running their voting for Best OC Food Blogger until the end of the day so if you think I deserve a vote, please click here!

The Free Feel-Good
Do me a favor to both feed people of the world and increase your vocabulary (I love word games!) by playing at www.freerice.com. It doesn't take much of your time, it helps the underprivileged, and it is educational. Let's forget about how freaking addictive it is, and just focus on the positive traits. I'd really appreciate it if you'd do something cost-free and nice today - post in the comments below or on the fan page with how many grains you contributed! I'll think of an awesome "prize" to give the most giving person who will also become quite knowledgeable with words =].

The Not Free Feel-Good
Donate to the nonprofit where I work - Developments in Literacy! Visit www.dil.org/donate and help us educate underprivileged children in rural areas of Pakistan. We develop curriculum, train teachers, and strive to provide the highest quality of education as possible to these children (particularly girls) through means of safe learning environments, proper school buildings, stocked libraries, and increased usage of technology through computer labs and internet programs. For only $100, you can educate a child for an entire year - think on that! If you do donate, I thank you immensely and ask that you please send me an email or leave a comment below letting me know you've given; you don't have to say how much but I just want to know that you did so I can verify (at work! because I can!) that it came through =]. Please, please do tell me!

The Not Free Make-Minerva-Feel-Good
I haven't fleshed it out so much since a long time ago but I do have an Amazon Wishlist for some kitchen things. It's available here if you so desire but I honestly would prefer if you contributed via the other methods above!

The Not Free Make-Us-Both-(Possibly)-Feel-Good
Food adventure - enough said.