The Bear Bitch’s Project

I just wanted to share some of the things that I was completely addicted to over the spring season, in no particular order:

1. Ben & Jerry’s Dublin Mudslide Ice Cream: Irish Cream Ice Cream with brownie chunks and fudge swirls. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

2. Michael Ball: I (re)discovered him because of my revived obsession with The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. Michael Ball is the original Marius as well as the replacement Raoul. I love, love, love the sound of his voice. Its so smooth and silky. Click here to listen to a short (30 seconds) audio clip of Michael singing "All I Ask of You" from Phantom. <swoon!>

3. Pastry-scented Body Products: This is another addiction sparked by Tatin. In the process of finding butterscotch cologne for her I discovered the wonders of pastry (and liquor) scented body products. At first it was just anything chocolate scented but now my favorites include Pink Cupcake, Cinnamon Roll (pictured above), Kahlua & Cream, Buttered Rum, Jelly Doughnut, and Fudge Brownie. Can you gain weight by just smelling pastries?

4. Calligraphy Fountain Pens: When I was growing up, my mom would always use calligraphy fountain pens and everytime someone would complement her on her penmanship she would always say "Its just the pen." My mom has beautiful handwriting so no one ever believed her; now I know there’s some truth to what she says. They can’t turn frogs into princes but calligraphy fountain pens really make a difference. My cursive has never been all that great but now that I use these pens it looks so much nicer and ever since Joe Hedges said that I have "amazing handwriting", calligraphy fountain pens have become one of my favorite things! Can you blame me?

*I just had to name drop, and yes, I listen to Michael Ball and Joe Hedges - sometimes in the same day and sometimes right after the other. I’m weird like that.

5. http://downthisvideo.com/ - Thanks to this really cool website that allows you to download videos from GoogleVideo, I now have a lot of neat stuff on my iPod Video.

Apparently, a love for The Phantom of the Opera runs in my family.

This is my 5 year old niece, Olivia, who begged her dad for a Phantom half-mask after bumping her cheek into furniture.

Oh, for those of you who remember my godson, Leandro; that’s him at her back. He definitely isn’t that little baby I used to take to school with me anymore.