Saccharine Thoughts

After a tiring weekend of driving and lots of buttercream icing, I can mark one more thing off my list of things to accomplish before my birthday in November. My junior high pal Megan was married in Mineral Wells this weekend, and I had the privilege of playing an active part by making her wedding cake. Megan chose a Fall theme with lots of yellows and oranges and owls everywhere. When we met back in May to discuss the sugary details, she simply provided me with 5 pages of printed cake pictures, an invitation and a ribbon sample, saying "I trust you to make me something I'll love." Uh, pressure much? So I took the confidence she had in me and ran with it, creating the 4-flavor 5-tier 240-serving monster of a pastry you see here. In a turn of potential disaster the bottom layer (filled with lemon-cream cheese goodness) slid on the board, threatening a cake-toppling catastrophe. Dad and I *carefully* pulled it out of the back of their CRV and got it to the display table, t...

This is very much what our quest to choose a hotel in Toronto was like for the past 2 weeks.

credit Well friends, I feel it's time to fill you in on the big Fall vacation plans. In ten days' time I will be on a plane next to aforementioned Blue Eyed Boy on an 8-hour flight to Canada. Note: I have already been sufficiently shaken and reminded (thank you Jack ) that I am going out of the country with a guy who I met over a poker game 6 weeks ago. I also couldn't be happier about it. Why Canada, you ask? Well to start with we have been in Texas all summer where, up until last weekend, it has topped a hundred f'ing degrees every day. No joke. The deciding factor, however, is that BlueEyes and his brothers are set to perform at the Toronto Improv Festival , and I was invited to tag along. Pretty sweet deal huh? Ok, honestly it took about a week of batting around tentative travel plans for me to think so. As we started to talk about actual dates/times/places, my feet began to freeze. Yes, this girl got the jitters and came about this close to backing out, but thank...

credit Here, my friends, comes the next installment of Two Dozen Doozies, my quest to undertake 24 new things before I turn 24. This specific doozie came rather unexpectedly, and I was quite sure I didn't want to cross it off my list until I was much closer to my November deadline. I sat through the summer with arms crossed, obstinately and presumptuously thinking that I knew what was best. Yes, I thought, I'll wait a while. I have plenty to focus on. Heart has some healing to do. No dates for this busy little lady. The universe retorted, "Oh really?" And threw me a curve ball in the form of a boy with pretty blue eyes and all the right words. Dammit. So one fateful Wednesday in July from across the poker table, boy made eyes at me over his winning hand of cards. "Smooth-talking asshole" were the misinformed descriptors that came to mind, and I thus gave him little more than my name and the time of day until the following weekend. That weekend, date went as ...

Today is Miss Tuft's birthday! She celebrated on Monday with truckloads of barbecue, croquet in the park and the last show of the OOB Fest. I also made her, as promised, a triple-murder-by-darkest-chocolate Twilight cake because she is wonderful and I wanted to hear her squeal. Mission: accomplished. Tufts, you have quickly become one of my favorite people in the world and I wish you the best birthday the universe can muster.

Inside joke today. If you're not in , don't ask. Just giggle.