Photos

First off, the birthday cake for my hubby's dad. Please excuse the slightly less than perfect frosting. I had had too much wine on decorating night. ;)

And then the rest are photos from the butterfly conservatory in Deerfield, MA.

Visitors

Well, everyone left yesterday morning. All in all, a very fun weekend. Tiring, but fun. I have photos from our visit to the butterfly conservatory - but I'll have to post them later. I hope you're having a good week.

New Layout

As promised, here are photos of the new livingroom (living room?). I may or may not have photoshoppped some things out of the photos. Anyone who can list 3 things wrong in these pictures wins a prize.

Otto, very upset that we were moving HIS couch. He has issues with moving. Ever since we moved the both of them across the country. Any time we start to move furniture, pack bags, give off a moving/leaving vibe - he freaks out. I think this was his attempt to hold onto the couch and not let us move it. Fortunately, he only weighs about 20 lbs.

TV, couches, rock collection from Santa Cruz beaches. Carried from beaches in coolers. And then wrapped and carried in boxes to Massachusetts.

Tabitha, couches, bookshelves.

Tabitha, again.

Hutch my ex-boss gave us. Wedding dishes/glasses mixed in with knick-knacks.

Actual cake toppers from our wedding cake. Next to photo of cake toppers on actual wedding cake. (It was a Halloween wedding).

I did take work photos; I'll post them later.

Cake

My hubby's parents will be in town this weekend. All the way from California. And since we missed his dad's birthday, I'm making a birthday cake for him. Rich chocolate butter cake with cookies & cream filling and vanilla buttercream icing. Plus, I'm going to color the buttercream with a bunch of colors and try to do some funky decorations on it.

We asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said, at first, chocolate. And then he told my hubby that I had made some kind of bundt cake with syrup when we were in California. And he wanted that. But I have no frickin' idea what he is talking about. I've never used my bundt cake pan. And my hubby insists he remembers me making that cake. Seriously? My hubby can't remember what he ate for lunch yesterday. And I'm supposed to believe that he remembers a cake I made years ago? Nope, I'm not buying it. So, chocolate it is.

Pictures tomorrow. Per Estella's request, I'm taking my camera into work tomorrow to take photos of my upstairs exile. I'll have to block out all references to my company's name. And since I'm in marketing, and my desk is covered in marketing material, that will be difficult.

And I will also take photos of the livingroom. Which is already starting to get that lived in look. We will have to take care of that before everyone gets here. How do we already have tumbleweeds of fur when we just vacuumed??!

Oh, yeah. And pictures of the cake once it is done.

Why?

I'm still up and it is almost midnight. I know I'm tired; I know I'll be tired tomorrow. I just can't bring myself to get in bed. I keep checking back on KoL to see what else has sold. Some people are suckers. I'm selling all kinds of crap for way more than they are worth. And then giving my clan the meat. For those of you who don't know KoL - I'm sure that sounded dirty.

My hubby starts his summer job tomorrow. He's going to be play testing video games. Frickin' perfect job for him. He'll be getting paid to do what he's been sitting at home doing all month.

The house still looks mighty clean. We reorganized the livingroom and unearthed another cat we didn't know we had. And then promptly threw that cat in the trash because it was just fur, no body. I'll have to take some photos of the new layout. It definitely looks like there is more room. It's more open.

Today was a good day at work. Busy, enjoyable; I got lots done. And I'm a sucker for compliments. They have moved me to an upstairs office. It is much quieter and I sometimes feel like I've been exiled and sometimes feel like I earned the privilege. Only day two, so not a solid opinion. Less laughing, which is not so good; less craziness, which is great. Yes, that was bad grammar.

Pictures tomorrow. Of our livingroom, not of my new workspace.

Defenseless

So, we've been watching "'Salem's Lot" on TNT. Which was a good book, by the way. And I've realized that if this town were ever overrun by vampires - my husband would never believe me. Seriously. I've made him swear that he'd believe me, but he so easily forgets.

Also, we've both agreed that the zombies in "28 Days Later" are more frightening than the vampires. Because, theoretically, vampires have to be invited into your place. Zombies don't care. They are just in it for the brains. And they are infected with rage. So much scarier. And we've realized that we have nothing in our apartment with which to defend ourselves.

Cleaning

I am not a dirty person. I like my kitchen and bathroom very clean. I keep our bedroom straightened up - though it could be neater. The problem with our place is the dust and the kitty fur. Luckily we have hardwood floors - it makes the clean up easier. Because I hate vacuuming. But we have some tumbleweeds of kitty fur built up under the beds and some of the furniture. I think we both tend to dust/vacuum/sweep/mop when there is an excuse to do so. And our current excuse is that Aaron's parents will be in town along with his sister and her husband. His parents will be staying in a local motel (but will be at our apartment at some point) and his sister and her hubby will be staying with us. So it's mass-cleaning time. Actually moving the pictures on the shelf while I dust. Actually taking out the vacuum to do the entryway rugs. Ugh, but it needs to be done.

Thursday

Sorry I haven't been writing. I've been busy-ish and it's been really hot around here. It's crazy working in air conditioning and then hitting the wall of heat as soon as you venture outside. It makes me even more of a hermit.

I'm officially addicted to Kingdom of Loathing. I get up early every morning to play. And I don't get up early for much.

Also, a street cleaner went by our window three times last night starting at about 3 a.m. Very loud and very slow. This is a fairly rural area - wtf? And why so late? So many times? The street looks no cleaner.

More later.

Photos

For my grandmother's 85th birthday, my cousins gave her a balloon ride for a present. The view is over the valley in which she lives. After the ride, they all drank champagne in celebration.

And then yesterday, my hubby and I went to see a couple of vintage baseball games at a local park. They were in celebration of the town's 350th anniversary.

Cute player being interviewed by ESPN:

Poker?

(I hardly know her)
We're addicted to poker on television. It started with "Celebrity Poker" on Bravo. And then expanded to the World Poker Tour (Championship?) on ESPN and Bravo. And then my hubby was playing poker every Friday night with his math buddies.

Tonight was a bit of a boring game on "Celebrity Poker" - all people I don't really like. So we (my hubs and I) dumped out our little change coconut (what? we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon) and started a little mini tournament. And I lost. A couple of times. But, in my defense, it doesn't really mean as much when the money stays in the house. If I was playing his buddies and there was a possibility that I might actually lose, I would have bet differently on a couple of hands.

Whatever. If we were playing for real, I would kick my hubby's ass. I can read him like, um..., like a newspaper? a billboard? what do you say? I find him pretty transparent. That's the gist of what I'm trying to say.

Anywho. It cooled down a bunch today. And I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I've been thinking it was Friday since about Tuesday. Which is a total bummer. I think I said the same thing last week...

Sleep

It just hit me how much I'm dreading going to bed tonight. Because it is so fricking hot and sticky right now. I'm going to stick to the sheets. I hate sleeping with no clothes on. Probably a left-over reaction from when I was young and my mom would come into my room without knocking. Do not want to be naked then. No way in hell. So I try to find the most non-existent clothing when it is really hot outside. I'm now in a flimsy tank top and really worn out hospital pants. And I'm sweating. Normally I love heading to bed with my hubby. And not just when it's about to get hot and heavy. We snuggle a bit, hold hands. He likes to put his hand on my hip when we sort of spoon. But now, it's just - stay the frick away from me, you hot sweaty beast! Seriously, he emits about 3000 degrees. While he's tossing and turning. And yet the covers are still on the bed. Because there is an off chance that it might get cold tonight. Will we never learn?

Photos

These are from where my hubby's dad grew up. Bishop, CA. Just gorgeous. I've never been there, but it looks absolutely breathtaking.

Hot, hot, hot

It's steamy here right now. In the 90s and probably about 150% humidity (yes, I know that is not possible). I just took a shower after coming back home from the gym and I'm already in need of another one. The kitties just keep moving to slightly cooler parts of the wood floors and sprawling out. Last year we tried dunking them in cold water when it got really hot. Otto just took the abuse. Tabitha was a whirling dervish of claws and fangs. I'm not sure if her feet even hit the cold water. If only we could have explained our reasoning.

In other news, the people across the stairwell from us have moved out. Which is good, because they were chainsmokers and the place stunk. But now we have a new stink. The apartment maintenance folks were here today sanding the wood floors. And then they reapplied polyurethane. Hence the stink. And the air is so stagnant and non breezy and the fumes are just sitting here like an unwelcome guest. [wiping sweat from brow. sweat from just TYPING]

I kicked ass at work today. Too bad I can't tell you about it. Other than I kicked ass, big time.

The Wedding

I thought I'd go into more detail about the wedding this weekend. I've known Sarah since Kindergarten. And we've managed to stay great friends all these years. She and Kristin have been together for almost 12 years. And they now have twin boys, Nathan and Jack. It was really wonderful to be a part of their celebration. So much love, friendship and family in the air. This is the sanctity of marriage for me. Loving someone so much that you want to declare and to commit to this love before your friends and family. Very life-affirming and lovely. They were married in a gazebo in town, under pine trees and overlooking the beautiful park. And during the wedding, big fluffs of tree pollen were cascading down on us. Perhaps not so great for the allergy-sufferers, but very magical and very Massachusetts for the rest of us. Lots of adorable babies (my ovaries are hurting, big-time) and wonderful friends. I don't think I stopped smiling all day. Hooray for Massachusetts.

The Cake

Dark chocolate espresso cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. Spiral details in white chocolate. I kind of freeformed the icing as it was a more casual wedding event. Beautiful day, beautiful brides, great friends.

Cakes, etc.

The wedding cakes are coming along nicely. The layers are done, filled and iced with a crumb coat of white chocoloate cream cheese frosting. The white chocolate ganache didn't turn out like I wanted, so I moved on to another recipe. I've made some light purple/pink swirls out of white chocolate. These may or may not go on the sides of the bigger tier. The smaller, top tier will have small polka dots in icing. And then I'll put a pearl border.

The only issue I'm running into right now is time. The wedding is tomorrow afternoon, reception right after the wedding. But I'm walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life tomorrow morning. My company has a team. And the judging and photos are tonight after work. Judging because each team comes up with a theme and has a tent around the track at the local fairgrounds. All fine and well, but I need to get back tonight to do the final icing and decorating of the cake. I'm thinking I can do the outside icing tonight and then do final decorations once I get back in the morning from the relay. Blah, blah, blah. Just a lot of pressure from the ladies at work to stay at the relay tonight and hang out. I just don't have time. Oh well, I've already contributed a lot to this relay. There's more story there, but I don't have time this morning to go into it.

Cherries are the Devil's Fruit

Or are they officially berries? Anyway, all year I wait for bing cherry season. Because I love them so very much. And out here on the East Coast, the season lasts about one month. June. Now. Cherries in the supermarket. And I tend to buy a big bag and eat them as soon as I get home. All of them. And then my body rebels against the fruity intruder. Here comes the "too much information" portion of tonight's blog entry: basically, my innards explode. I took the Immodium too late. Running to the bathroom at the smallest bubble in my stomach. My hubby laughing at the noises that were coming out of the bathroom.

But you know what? I'm going to keep eating them until they are no longer in the supermarket. Intestines be damned. My hubby is just lucky that we aren't still in California where the season lasts for several months.

Tuesday

I'm back. In fact, we got back yesterday afternoon. It was a lovely weekend - cards, beer, sunshine. Oh yeah, and I saw the rest of the crazy family, too. I ate fried clam bellies and fried oysters and walked on a beach. We are going to be going back to the Cape in July and I can hardly wait. That will be for a week and we'll be in North Truro - our old stomping grounds.

I'm going to be working on a wedding cake the rest of this week. Two friends are getting married - it's kind of spur of the moment as they were waiting until it became law in Massachusetts. Not a huge wedding, and thus, not a huge wedding cake. But it is still a lot of preparation. I think I'm going to do a dark chocolate cake with espresso ganache filling and white chocolate buttercream icing. I'll post pictures when it is done.