Hazelnuts and Hulu

I tried a new cupcake flavor this week from a new (to me) cupcakery. The Dots shop is right next door to the UPS store where I went to drop off an Amazon return, and the minute I realized that I would need to go to UPS, I decided I would stop for a cupcake. Months ago, I didn’t stop when I went to that UPS the first time, and I have regretted it ever since. You may wonder why I didn’t simply go to Dots without the excuse of needing UPS, and I will tell you why: getting in and out of that Whole Foods plaza is a colossal pain, plus there is barely any parking. I really wanted my Amazon refund, however, so I didn’t wait until the weekend when I could easily go to a UPS near my house, and I decided that I deserved a cupcake reward after dealing with the plaza. 

The hazelnut crunch flavor wasn’t my first choice, but they were out of Meyer lemon. Dots’ cupcakes are a nice size, reasonably priced, with a perfect amount of frosting. Yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing as too much frosting. The cake itself was dense, but not dry, highly flavored, and less oily than Sprinkles’ cake. The frosting was tasty, rich, and creamy, with a lovely hazelnut blob in the center, but it was nowhere near as delicious as Sprinkles’ frosting. So yeah, not bad, not bad at all, but I would rather have a Sprinkles. In fact, Sprinkles has a chai flash flavor I might need to try before they're gone on October 20.

In other news, I cancelled Hulu. I’ve been thinking about it because my special $1/month expires this month, but I wanted to try the Golden Bachelorette. I’m meh about it, even though Joan is oceans more likable than Gerry, the Golden Bachelor, and her suitors are nice, fun, funny, etc., but the problem is… I just don’t care. Since I've been paying attention to Bachelor Nation stories, it turns out that overall the couples have a dismal rate of future togetherness, many splitting up soon after the season’s end, like Gerry and Theresa. It’s even looking like fan faves Joey and Kelsey are having issues! So, what’s the point of getting invested in these peeps’ soulmate search if this process does not work. There, I said it. Maybe conducting a romance in front of cameras for the world to see is not the way to create a genuine connection. Maybe choosing from 25 contestants whom producers selected for their ability to entertain the viewers isn't ideal. Maybe it’s not fun for the “winner” to watch the season after it ends and see their forever person considering others, not to mention sleeping with them. Ouch.

As far as other Hulu shows I’ve been watching, I am also meh about them. While I enjoyed the “hair band” episode of Dancing with the Stars, I don’t really gaf who wins at the end. This season of Only Murders has some great guest stars, but even so I have lost interest. As far as romcoms, Christmas romcoms, and whatever else, I can get all that on Netflix (and Prime). When I checked my Hulu account today, I not only found the expected jump from $1 to $8, but also it turns out that the price will rocket to $10 in November. WTF? Not worth it. I had always planned to dump it after the special, but then I decided to try the Bachelorette first.

I've just started S2 of You on Netflix. Since I only read the first book in the series, I have no idea if the continued story is true to Caroline Kepnes' writing. The first season began to diverge from the book quite a lot by the end, so I imagine S2 continues in that vein. It's not grabbing me as much as S1, but we'll see. I plan to watch for a while ~ there are four seasons with a fifth coming soon.