Monday, December 31, 2007

Bonjour from Paris!

It's our last day here, and it's New Year's Eve. I'll write more later about it, but you can take a look at my Flickr for a few pics that weren't totally awful (as well as a handful of shots that were on my camera from Thanksgiving, bunnies, etc. that I never bothered to upload).

Mine and mom's are here.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Four birthday cakes.

That's what I made this year: four recipes of cakes for birthdays, including my own. I am not calculating how many calories or how much fat that is, but I did use whole wheat flour and everything was vegan, so damn, it was practically HEALTHY, right? Plus I am addicted to Vegan with a Vengeance/Veganomicon, so that's what all these came from.

Apple spice cupcakes -- Sunday with Kevin, his mom, and her boyfriend
The panuche on top was a bit overpoweringly sweet, but the cupcakes themselves were lovely. I'd describe them as fluffy apple muffins. Mmmm.

Blueberry coffee cake and jelly donut cupcakes -- Tuesday at work
Easy and a big hit at the office. I brought my own desserts to negate HR's desire to buy something gross and overly sweet and force everyone to sing the birthday song. I hate the birthday song, except when it's (a) a comedic version or (b) off-key and coming out of my adorable boyfriend while he's still in bed, his head peeking out from under the covers. The jelly donut cupcakes were not quite as good as I'd hoped, but the blueberry coffee cake I made on a lark (thinking 12 cupcakes wasn't enough for my office of piggies) was pretty awesome.

Chocolate raspberry layer cake with "ganache-y" icing -- Sunday with Kevin's dad's family
We haven't left yet so this is sitting on my counter, wrapped in plastic, looking like something I would have paid $20 to buy at Whole Foods but that I actually made my fuckin' self and I think it's going to be a winner. Amazing.

I didn't make any cookies this month, or even pies, but I feel my cake-baking has been successful. I am now ready to go and let the professionals in France bake everything for me and show me how fat and happy I can really be.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Happy birthday to me! And my mom!

And Kevin! And all the other December birthdays I know (and there are PLENTY).

I still haven't written about Thanksgiving. Bad me. But it was delightful, I promise.

But I will talk about my birthday.

My friends Steve and Jenn conspired with Kevin to surprise me (in the sense that I wouldn't know what we'd be doing, not that I didn't know anything was happening) with a fun birthday activity.

We left around 7. Kevin had the directions all written out and didn't say a word, just silently drove up 280. We got off at the exit I know to be Palo Alto and headed towards the part of town where Homma's Brown Rice Sushi is. Excellent! After a filling meal, we got back in the car and headed north on 101. Definitely not staying in Palo Alto, as I might have thought -- what, it could've been something at the Stanford Theatre, perhaps -- but rather all the way up to the city, then off at 9th and Civic Center... hmm... this is the exit for Slim's. But no outward appearances gave away the event itself, not even the signage at Slim's. We were inside before Steve told me: we are seeing Shonen Knife!

Now, Shonen Knife is a band I am only a little familiar with and never would have thought to go see, but that has totally changed. This show was fucking awesome, people. That was some solid rocking out we did. So the birthday surprise evening was a success. Even Kevin had fun, which was practically the icing on the cake for me.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for work. Paris plans are coming together (I'll be posting pics to Flickr, of course) and this ridiculous year is wrapping up, finally.