Happy Shrapnel

These tiny little cakes are super great. They are beyond delicious.

If you go to the Tennessee T-Cake site the home page has this really cheesy story about how the T-cakes came to be, along with an awkward photo of what is supposed to be a “southern belle”. Kind of funny really.

The T-cakes are a bit hard to describe which is part of what makes them so unique and fabulous. The texture is very delicate and light. The taste would probably best be described as a subtle, brown sugar, carmel flavor…sort of.

They come in these dainty white and beige little boxes. The smallest box you can order is a set of 12 for $12.95. The individual cakes are very small, so a set of 12 is not particularly big.

They make excellent small gifts. Last Christmas I tied red ribbons around the little boxes and gave them as gifts. But you will certainly want some for yourself first.

These treats are feminine and unique. A positively charming little confection.

One quick little “thing that is super great” is Giorgio Armani’s Star Lash Mascara. Hands down the best mascara you will ever own.

The only possible down side is it is not waterproof, but waterproof mascara is so hard on the lashes anyway. And it does cost $26.00, but really that is right in line with most high-end mascaras, (which in and of itself is ridiculous, but there is little we can do about that at the moment is there?)

Do not get the Armani Soft Lash or the Maestro mascaras as having tried both, I have found them both to be crap.

The Star Lash on the other hand does it all. It lengthens, it thickens, it separates. It’s perfect.

Life is Beautiful is a spectacularly odd movie. It is also one of the loveliest things I have ever seen.

Right away this film is curiously annoying. Roberto Benigni is just to the left of unbearably over-the-top. I have read that this movie is a “tragi-comedy” but other than those over-the-top slap-stick moments, I would say the “comedy” parts of the movie are really just goofy at best.

Benigni is of course the star and also director and his real life wife, Nicoletta Braschi, plays his wife in the movie. Even better is that throughout the movie you can almost sense that she just may be genuinely mildly irritated with him in a way that is truly real and charming.

The sets are overly colorful and look fake, a bit reminiscent of that “It’s a small world” ride in Disney Land. And there almost seems to be some slight underlying irreverence throughout.

And yet…

It is BEAUTIFUL. Profoundly beautiful. I can’t say exactly why, and it came as such a surprise to me when the movie was over, but it was. Just perfectly lovely, just as it was.

Just watch it, you will see. It is a little piece of completely unexpected magic. You very well may say to yourself, (as I did after I watched it) …“that may be one of the most beautiful things I will ever see.” I was unbearably touched by it in a way I can’t quite explain.

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful…that word sums it perfectly.

And what could be better than an unbearably beautiful surprise?

Okay, I should preface this “super great thing” by saying that if you are one of those people who thinks things are “too sweet”, then this isn’t for you.

For the rest of us, this Inca Kola is a refreshingly unusual drink. I have read that people think it tastes like bubblegum, it doesn’t. It doesn’t really taste specifically like anything I’ve tried before which is part of it’s appeal.

It has a high caffeine content for a soda, which I personally like…37 mg per can. It is also hard to find which also kind of endeared me to it. The easiest place to buy it online: Mexgrocer. And I have not seen it in any stores although I would assume it’s out there.

This isn’t a soda you would necessarily want to drink while eating or whatnot. Have it as a sort of dessert.

Drink it super cold, but not frozen at all and not over ice.

The words I would use to describe it are sparkly, (not actually a word, but you get the idea,) and delightful.

Yes, I know, it is just a soda, but it is yet another tiny little thing that is simply super great! And isn’t the combination of appreciation for all these tiny little great things that we stumble across in the course of everyday life the very tidbits that make living great?