Can I bum a hobby off of you?

**Updated: Stainless steel is the solution to my garlic problem in item 6. NOT sterling silver. Who am I, the queen of America? I don't have sterling silver spoons.

I thought I'd use this post to share some very useful/important/pretty things with you. That way we can bond over a love of said things, or I can at least get up another post and not feel as bad about going so long without posting. Not too much going on a lot of the time, so sometimes I just don't have many words to say. So today, instead of sharing thoughts or ideas, let's just talk about stuff! Ready?

1. I love these tank tops. (Caution: the model in the link is adequately covered, but the shirt is pretty dang tight. Maybe don't show that to a kid.) I probably have 15 of them. I wear one under everything. They're long (even on me, and I'm tall) and thick enough that you can wear them alone, and they fit nice and snug and suck in any pudge you might worry about. They are especially great under low-cut sweaters and dresses, and I wear them under virtually every top I have. They come in about 30 beautiful, vibrant colors. I buy lots of the brightly colored ones because they're so pretty, and then most mornings I throw on a white one. So I have 4 in white. I just can't say enough good things about them. I will likely never buy another brand of tank top. Maybe after Jillian is through with me, I'll be able to wear the brightly colored ones by themselves. Incidentally the workout is still going great, and I'm starting to notice my pants being a little loosey, and also in addition to the shred, this week my sister and my mom are doing the Sacred Heart diet. Yikes. Notice the complete lack of cheese and starchy carbs, and on an unrelated note, I am never, ever going to do that diet ever. Anyway I like these tank tops. I highly doubt you would regret buying (at least) one. Though they are usually buy 1 get 1 half off, so you may as well get two.

2. Mexican food. Who doesn't love Mexican food, is what I'd like to know. I cannot get enough. Tacos, quesadillas, nachos, taco salad, queso, rice and beans, even the dang chips and salsa. I get so bummed when we go to San Jose because I want to order some of it all and I never have enough room to eat everything I want. I wind up eating half a basket of chips and then all I have room for is one measly taco. Guys. What is the deal? I could really, truly go every single day. Are they using some kind of drugs in the cooking? ARE THEY?!

3. Are you familiar with haystacks? Birds' nests? Beaver dams? Chinese noodle cookies? Whatever name you know them by, your life is bound to be better because of them. Except when you can't wear your beautiful pink tank top because you ate too many haystacks. But then you can comfort yourself by enjoying another haystack. I made these for a cookout recently and had lots of leftovers, and I have been preparing all week for the fight I imagined Mike and I would have regarding who got the last one. He let me have it without a word. I love that dude.

4. Bon Iver. Ack. If you don't have his cd(s), I feel sorry for your ears. This guy has the most wonderful voice. My sister Emily introduced me to this music, and she gets to see him play at Bonnaroo in a few days. I'm so jealous. (note: some of the songs have PG-13 words in them)

5. Cake Wrecks. Not only are the cakes hilarious, the blogger who maintains this site is hysterical. She cracks me up. Particularly when she uses the word flotsam. That word is a riot. I've read all the archives. Hoo boy, some people are just not bright. Cause it takes a special kind of bakery employee to turn 'happy fatherhood' into 'happy falker satherhood.' A special kind.

6. Last night I fixed a pork tenderloin marinade that requires minced garlic. I don't know about you, but I dread dealing with onions and garlic because they make my hands smell dreadful. For days on end. I can't get away from the smell, it gets all up in my fingernails and on my pillows and makes me a little nasueated every time my hands get too close to my face. So unpleasant. Well it turns out there's an easy remedy. A really easy one. Stainless steel! Maybe you already knew about this, but I've been wandering in the Hand Stench desert for years. Come to find, all you have to do is rub your hands all over a stainless steel spoon (or sink, in the event that you really manhandled the garlic). The smell isn't totally gone from under my nails, but it was so great to discover such a simple remedy. And that pork is going to be extremely delicious. Not long ago I was preeeetty intimidated at the thought of cooking pork, but I found some recipes online that seemed fairly straight-forward, and here we are 1 year later and we have pork at least once a month. The recipe I use is here.

I'd say that's enough linking for one weekend. Saturday we're going up to Mike's parents' house to hang out by the pool and eat. I will use that time to consider taking up a hobby of some sort, because if you asked me right now, Erin what is it that you like to do in your free time?, the answer is eat and sleep. And somehow I feel like life is meant to be about more than just the things that, you know, everybody has to do or else they die. What do you like to do? Can I do it?