Liesel’s wearing socks with sandals! Hee!Thanks to my aunt who is disabled and watched The Sound of Music on permanent repeat, I grew up addicted to the Von Trapps and their be-curtained antics. My favorite song to belt at the top of my lungs was always “My Favorite Things.” (Lie: My secret favorite was the “High on the hill was a lonely goatherd” one – sampled crazily by Gwen Stefani – because I love to yodel but I couldn’t admit to that in public.) For the longest time though, I thought the lyrics were “When the dawn bites, when the beet stings…” I didn’t know what kind of crazy world those German kids (who, oddly, had no accent even though many of the other main characters did – I wonder how the director decided which Germans should have accents? Only the bad ones? Perhaps that is why young Rolf dumps Liesel so unceremoniously.) lived in but boy howdy did I want a sweet little sundress with matching kerchief made out of green ’70’s patterned drapes. The whole hiding-in-a-graveyard scene was pretty awesome too.
ANYHOW.
Two of my favorite things combined to make today pretty darn awesome, no graveyards or drapery dresses needed!
1. My book! Everything for The Great Fitness Experiment Book (Year 1) is at long last signed, sealed and delivered! Without getting into all the gory details, it has been quite the harrowing process and sending off the finished manuscript was one of the coolest moments of my life – hopefully soon to be usurped by that moment when I first hold the actual book in my hand. I don’t have the exact pub date yet but it will be soon!
2. Vegan chocolate might have saved my life. You will recall that I was feeling all bitter and deprived after being forced back into veganism by my adorable-yet-dairy-intolerant Jelly Bean. When to my rescue came Averie of Love Veggies And Yoga. She informed me that not only can you make vegan chocolate, but it is incredibly easy! Here’s what you do:
1. Melt 1 Tbsp of coconut oil in the microwave.
2. Stir in 2 tsp powdered sugar (Averie uses agave syrup because she eats “high raw” vegan – not sure what the “high” means but lots of vegans don’t eat conventional sugar due to it being processed through animal bone char. Me being a forced vegan, I don’t care about the bone char so I use the sugar because it seems to give it a more authentic texture.
3. Stir in 2 Tbsp cocoa powder.
4. Pour into a saran wrap lined bowl and freeze.
That’s it!! In 10 minutes you have real honest-to-goodness (still loaded with 14 grams of fat and sugar) chocolate! It’s DELISH. I even added rice krispies to mine today. I made my own Crunch Bar, y’all!! Tomorrow I’m going to add flaked coconut and roasted almonds to make my own Almond Joy. I may never go back to traditional chocolate again! Averie’s site has tons of yummy healthy recipes – go check them out!
Sadly, my attempts at making my own coconut ice cream have not been as successful. Probably because I don’t have an ice cream maker. Oh well, my mistakes were still pretty tasty. Even if I had to chip them off with an ice pick.
What is your favorite thing today? Anyone else have a favorite mis-heard song lyric that you sang wrong for years?
Yay! Congratulations on the book, I am so happy for you! Today my favorite thing was learning to play Bunco at a girls group, even though I lost 🙁
I couldn't name how many songs I have sang the wrong lyrics to, there are just too many to count. At least my hubby thinks it's entertaining!
Wow! Gotta go check out her sight!!!! I LOVE "The Sound of Music," and my son LOVES the goatherd scene because of the puppets.
My favorite mis-heard lyrics were courtesy of my dad, who was notoriously hard of hearing and in complete denial about it. From U2, "Running to Stand Still": The REAL lyrics are "White gold and pearl, stolen from the sea, she is raging." Dad's version: "Bright golden girls, stolen from a cheap Israeli." Which he found quite offensive, being Jewish.
bjbella – I have heard so many good things about Bunco! I need to learn!!
Azusmom – ohmygoodness I am laughing so hard! I love your stories about your dad.
I am so so so so very excited for you Charlotte.
Harrowing indeed but it's almost born!!
Book! Book! Book!
What wonderful news!!!
(and yes, i also wanted a 70s green patterned drapery dress and kerchief. oh sigh.)
I think that's actually Brigitta in the socks-with-sandals.
Also, congrats on the book!
That's GREAT about your book!!
I have had the lyrics to Tom Petty's The Waiting wrong forever! Singing, "Every Day is one more yard, I take it by the yard," did get me through the drudgery of medical school however 🙂
Because of the backlog build up with my column on hiatus for a while they are running them every couple of days on calorielab. Visit?
Kateoak – Is it Brigitta?? I thought she was the blonde one! But now that I think about it, you are probably right – I think there was another sister after Liesel. Darn it, now I must go google!!
OMG, I have to make the recipe for peanut butter cups that's on Averie's site! Those look awesome! And I think I could even make them for my mother who's vegan no oil no sugar.
Yay about the book! Definitely let us know when it's on the shelves. Which publisher did you go with?
my friend's mom always thought the destiny's child song from charlie's angels said "throw your hands up fat man" rather than "at me". so now everytime i hear the song i sing "fat man" hah
and woooooooooooot book!!
Charlotte, you might try these coconut popsicles. http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/limber-de-coco-coconut-cream-popsicle/ They call for sweetened condensed milk, but I bet you could sub out almond milk or rice milk and add some gelatin to thicken. Worth a shot for coconut-based dessert – I love coconut, too!
Christin
Yep, it's Brigitta. I know this for sure because as a small child I wanted to be named Brigitta but I wanted to BE Liesel. (How gorgeous was Charmain Carr, anyway????)
Just wondering…can I start camping out at Barnes & Noble NOW, or should I wait a bit?
How did I not realize you’re writing a book? But it makes so much sense since you’re hilarious and I’d read an entire encyclopedia by you and probably wouldn’t even get drowsy by N.
My favorite misheard lyric is from Friends. Phoebe tells everyone she loves the Elton John song about the Who’s the Boss guy. “Hold me close, young Tony Danza.” HA!
My favorite thing today is riding the high of finding out last night that BFs paper work to complete Graduate school has gone through and on Monday we'll be able to submit the paperwork for his Canadian Work Visa! One step further away from him having to move back to the US to work.
Have you ever heard of this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Scuse-While-Kiss-This-Guy/dp/0671501283
It's full of fun misheard lyrics!
My favorite is "Jesus is just a rat with beads" ("Jesus is just alright with me").
My sisters and I used to have these contests where we'd see who could sing "the yodeling song" fastest, it's one of my best childhood memories.
Hark the Harold Angel sings
Glory to the New York King!
Oh cannonball, Oh cannonball…
(Church at Christmastime was fun in my family!)
SQUEEEEEEEEE!
I want your book NOW! It's going to be given to everyone I know. So exciting!
My Dad was once singing along to a Neil Diamond song and burst out with "I've got an Anthony Steven's side" (I've got an emptiness deep inside). When I finally stopped laughing long enough to correct him, I tried to find out why he didn't wonder about the weirdness of the line he'd been singing for 20 years, but he had never even stopped to think about it!
Congrats on the book!
How exciting on your book!!!! Congrats!!!!
So excited about your book Charlotte! That's great news.
You know the Bangles song "Cruel Summer"? I had a roommate in college that grew up thinking it was "Cru Samba". She referred it to as a lovely little Latin diddy. 🙂
I can't wait to see your book, I'm so excited for you, congrats!!
And I too grew up on Sound of Music…sigh, just LOVE that movie!
congrats on your book, what a great feeling that must be!
sadly, there are tons of songs that i have been singing the wrong words to for years.
my favorite thing today was about 15 minutes ago, when after a really crappy day, my husband accidentally did a play on words and cracked us both up. i so needed to laugh.
So excited to hear about your book, will be looking forward to it with eager anticipation!
Also, the von Trapp family is Austrian, not German. Austrians tend to get a little upset when you call them German. In Salzburg, Austria you can actually tour various shooting locations. As cheesy as the tour was, it was a lot of fun!
Charlotte, congrats on the book…wow, people tell me I should write a book and Im like, I don't want a million gray hairs as that's what it would be: super hairy and gray hair inducing! You are amazing, congrats!
And glad the chocolate is saving your life 🙂 and please, enjoy more of it. I am always doing just that!
Sorry I'm a little late to the party. Life's been getting in the way of my google reader 🙂
xoxo
ACK! I wrote this pithy comment and got booted…now I have to try to recreate the pithiness….at 3 in the morning, not easy.
Anyhow, how on earth did you fit in writing a book among the bajillion other things you are doing? YOu amaze me girl. I will definitely be in line to purchase! That is, if it is available here in the "Great White North"….hey….lightbulb moment! How about a "Great White North Fitness Experiment"? Hmmmm
Tara
P.S. My favorite lyric blunder is "The Hotdogs Go On" for Celine Dion's "The Heart Does Go On"….if you hear it incorrectly even once, you will hear it incorrectly FOREVER….sigh
I was going to post that the chick with the socks wasn't Leisel, yet other people have already done that! I can't believe anyone besides me has spent so much time watching that movie (besides you, Charlotte). I forced my boyfriend to watch it recently, as I know have it on DVD. For some reason he doesn't appreciate it as much as me 🙂
Song Lyrics…I always thought the words in that Love Child song were "Love Child, Never Miss A Beat" and it's "Love Child, Never Meant To Be". I think. Sorry about the weird capitalization I just did there.
I am so excited about your book!!! Yay!!
Also, that chocolate sounds tasty. But I don't have coconut oil. Do you think that there's anything else that could be substituted for it (even though it's got a consistency unlike pretty much any other oil/butter/margarine out there)?
Sagan – Well you can just use butter unless you are trying to be dairy free for some reason. Any fat that is solid at room temp would work. Even – heaven forbid – shortening or lard.
Fabulous on the book! Couldn't happen to a nicer, smarter, funnier gal than you. Honestly.
I LOL'd big time on the socks and sandals. No offense to Euros out there, and I do realize that it's very practical, but the sock&sandal ensemble will not win fashion awards over here 😉