christmas feast

i made my first duck this year. i have eaten duck once or twice before, and jeremy has had it several times, but neither of us have ever made it ourselves. it was actually really easy AND i got to use my monster crockpot/roaster oven. the meal also included le suer peas, salad and baked potatoes. i completely forgot when i was at the store that i would need something for dessert, so we made cookies the day after christmas. oops!

the cats LOVED the liver and gizzard. pulling that stuff out of the duck was really disgusting. but i'm glad they enjoyed it, seeing as jeremy wouldnt let me buy them new toys or christmas outfits. apparently cats dont like being dressed up in elf ears. but i still think rumpy would be the one who does. i guess we'll never know. :D

gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread house

here is how it started: pieces from a kit that mark and lanelle gave us. jeremy and i had been talking about making a gingerbread house, but he wanted me to bake my own slabs of gingerbread and that just wasn't gonna happen.we each decorated a side and i got the front door and jeremy did the back door. we all know he is infinitely more patient than me, so he was also in charge of the icicles. it was the perfect activity for christmas evening. we finished up studio 60 while decorating away. surprisingly the cats weren't interested in all the candy, which is good, because the absolute last thing we needed for christmas was rumpy high on sugar.

other christmas activities included talking on the phone with all of our families, opening lots of great presents, and just hanging out. we have spent christmas day by ourselves for the past few years and it is nice. of course we miss being with our families and seeing everyone etc. but we also very much appreciate a day to just be together all day without having to even take a shower or put on shoes. that is the true meaning of christmas.

rumpy's first bath

after he got out of the tub, aka the sink, rumpy tried to dry off. big sister cricket helped. or maybe she just likes the flavor of the kitteh shampoo.

box office christmas party

steph and i threw an amazing party for our staff. we had a potluck and a white elephant yankee swap. it was the first box office christmas party ever, which made it even more fabulous.

we bought christmas crackers (a tradition in my family) and all popped them open for our paper crowns and fun little toys. we also played last word, which i totally stole from the ellen show. i picked the category, then two or three people take turns naming things in that category (like christmas songs) until time is up and whoever gets the last word wins. i wound up with a baby aloe plant from the yankee swap which i named juliano, after julianna. she wanted me to name the plant after her, but since all my plants are boys, i had to alter the name a little bit.

this will defiitely become a new tradition at the palace!

Santa...

Came a little early this year so that all the good little girls could look amazing at the christmas parties. I love santa!
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our tree

this is the first year in a while we have put up a tree. last year we didn't have one since our apartment was too small, and most of our stuff was in storage and not very easily accessible. this year, we got to go out to my friend's parents tree farm and pick our own. it had snowed the day before so it was the perfect setting.

after much deliberation and hemming and hawing, we settled on a huge one. jeremy and ryan cut it down then cut several feet off of the top and bottom so it would fit in our living room.

we got it home and dug out the christmas decorations. we have collected so many ornaments over the last two years that hadn't hung on a tree yet, and so many of our older ornaments hold special memories. it was fun to tell stories about our childhood memories connected to ornaments we grew up with, or reminisce about vacations we have taken together (we get an ornament at every vacation locale).

it feels and SMELLS like christmas at our house now. there are presents for jeremy under the tree (he hasnt gone shopping for me yet) and lots of boxes from our out-of-town people scattered around the living room. i'm loving it.

merry merry merry merry christmas

what are your favorite christmas carols?

silver bells is a favorite. it reminds me of playing poker with my grammer in the summers, sipping chocolate milk shakes and burning incense. weird? yes. but i do love that song.

carol of the bells is one of my favorites to hear live (when done well of course).

oh holy night is my all-time favorite christmas song.

i also love little drummer boy and silent night. i'm pretty traditional.

i'm not a huge fan of the non-traditional ones like grandma got run over by a reindeer and the like. they are funny on occasion but i wouldnt buy them on a cd or anything.

what songs make you feel like it is christmas?

Hot hands

I don't need them anymore. I can take rumpy with me everywhere.
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in which i try to write a song

i've been trying to post for days and every time i try at home my whole computer freezes. so im trying this at work.

we had our first real snow yesterday/last night. its beautiful outside. we are going to stephanie's boyfriend's parents house this afternoon to pick out our tree. i've started wrapping gifts and jeremy is at the mall today while i am at work finishing up the list.

on thursday i had the day off and i wrote a song about what i did. it is incomplete. maybe you can help me finish it?

on the second of december, on my day off there were:

7 rounds of fetch with rumpy!
6 rooms a'vacuumed!
5 loads of dishes!
4 batches of Christmas cards ordered!
3 loads of laundry cleaned!
2 pounds of veggies chopped!
1 pot of soup made!

as you can see, it was busy but i had fun. i love having days off in the middle of the week.

Family TV Time

Ain't nothing like it!
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thanksgiving: the ugly

well. during my pie making, casserole stirring, sweet potato cleaning fury this morning, i also treid to do what my mom taught me about cooking (and actually one of the few things i actually remember from the kitchen before i went to college): clean as you go. so i did three loads of dishes. i was mostly caught up, so i pulled the plug on the sink and went about my business. i notice rumpy sitting on the floor in front of the sink staring a something. i look, and there arent any bugs (there are surprisingly few bugs here and i like that). instead, he was watching water drip out from under the sink. i open the cabinet and there is about an inch of water under there. the sink pipe rusted through right in the middle of dishes, so all of the water i was rinsing with was going under the sink and on all our stuff we keep under there. jeremy helped me pull everything out and dry it, and clean up the water under the sink. ugh.

i got over that, because it meant no more dishes for the day. and that cant be a bad thing, right? i made my pies and got everything else cooking. dinner was fabulous. (see previous post). a couple hours after dinner i got us each a piece of pie. i made it from scratch from the pumpkins we carved for halloween. i did this two years ago and it was the most amazing pie ever. this year...not so much. in fact, it was pretty much inedible. i ate little bits of mine so i could justify spoonfuls of cool whip. jeremy took one bite and spit it out. it was really really bad. so, no pumpkin pie for me this year. and it is, of course, my favorite part of thanksgiving. and, of course, i made two. what a waste!

thanksgiving adventures: the good

i made my first turkey this year. since dinner was just the two of us, we just got a couple drumsticks and a bone in breast. i found a recipe where all i had to do was rub some onion soup mix on it, pop it in the crock pot, and let it go. it was delicious! the green bean casserole and baked sweet potatoes were winners as always. jeremy likes the cranberry sauce from the can, so that is always easy to add to the table. we spent the day watching the parade, watching football, watching top chef, and hanging out with each other and the cats. it was (mostly) perfect.

we have so much to be thankful for this year: our new home, new jobs, new friends. i miss my people in los angeles sometimes more than i can stand, but we are making new friends and building some great relationships here too. this next month will be challenging for me at work because of how busy we will be, but i have to keep in mind how lucky i am to have a job i love and that gives me so much flexibilty. jeremy is getting settled at citizens and really starting to enjoy the people he is working with also. we have three awesome cacti, two great cats, and a bonsai tree. between the both of us we have five (white) golden rings.

hopefully this holiday season brings you as many things to be thankful for as it has us.

happy thanksgiving!

The baby

When he is laying in my lap watching tv he is so cute. When we wake up to discover he has chewed through jeremy's ipod earphone headset cordn not so much.
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star wars in concert

most of you probably had no idea that i am a massive star wars geek. there. i admitted it. jeremy and i exited the church at our wedding to the star wars main title. i have watched all of the movies probably a million times. seeing harrison ford on the red carpet at the oscars a couple years ago was one of the highlights of my life. having said all of that, i had the second highlight of star wars geek life last thursday. the royal philharmonic concert orchestra is touring the world. they play select songs from all six films set to movie clips and sound effects. anthony daniels (c3po) is there (IN PERSON!) and narrates. they had lots of costumes from the shows in the lobby.

from the first notes of the fox fanfare to the augmented major seventh to the death march, i had goosebumps. me and thousands of SUPER nerdy people were all on the edge of our seats. jeremy was just laughing at how serious we all were taking it.

let me also say one thing. i know that i am kinda dorky when it comes to star wars, but i was wearing jeans and t-shirt. i only point this out because of the number of grown-up people there in costume. there were kids in costume too but they are cute and not dorky. after about fifth grade, dressing as a star wars character any day but october 31 is weird. the concert was amazing, and it was so cool to see the props and the movie clips with the live orchestra. they also had some of the original sheet music that john williams had done bu hand. there were pencil marks and erasures all over it. too cool for words!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Review: Star Wars: In Concert Melds Movies, Music Masterfully (wired.com)
• Star Wars In Concert: Beyond Brilliant! (themovieblog.com)

12th vs 14th

i didn't experience any particularly bad luck (or good luck for that matter) on friday the 13th, but the 12th and 14th were rather exceptional.


good things that hapened on the 12th:
the doorbell rang twice, once with a free book for me and once with new clothes for jeremy
i found my awesome purplish pink sweatpants that i bought at a j. crew warehouse sale in college that have been in my parents' attic for four years while we were in california and which i forgot i owned but practically havent taken off since i refound them
i made a really weird soup with cinnamon, apples, and lots of veggies and chicken that turned out really really good (and super mdf!)
jeremy got his first paycheck from citizen's bank
it was sunny outside so i got to use the clothesline instead of the dryer (it really doesnt take much to make me happy!)

bad things that happened on the 14th:
i got the idiot teller at the bank who doesnt know how to make change
the ticket machine broke and i was on my hands and knees for a half hour fixing it
we dropped a box of filed tickets and had to refile them all
there were two shows of cats on the same day which meant LOTS of people showed up at the wrong time and blamed me
it was raining so even though i used an umbrella the hems of my pants were soaked every time i had to go outside
k-state lost and we got to watch every agonizing minute on tv

today is going to be another good day though. we both have the day off, its after noon and i'm still in my pajamas, jeremy is going to the shooting range, theres a baby cat perched on my shoulder (he just hangs out there like a pirate's parrot), and i'm happy.

Unhappy Halloween

Jeremy's pumpkin started growing a face tattoo shortly after we set it outside. Mine slowly deflated like a sad balloon the day after the party. It was fun to carve them, but I was sad they didn't make it very long!
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second new hampshire visitor

jeff was in town for his annual hunting trip. the trip ended sunday morning and his flight was monday morning, so we were able to sepnd sunday afternoon and evening with him.

he arrived at our apartment shortly before i got home from work, so after he washed days of hunting dirt off and i changed out of my sweater and into something lighter-weight (it was WARM on sunday!) we headed to 900 degrees neopolitan pizzeria for dinner. they were having live music, so we got dinner and a show. it was fun.

we came home and played cards. jeff had mentioned 99 as a game he played with all the guys while hunting. i remember playing it with my aunt norma and other family at my nana's dining room table once a long time ago, so i knew the game. jeremy caught on quickly (it isnt super complicated) and we played several rounds. i won the first two and jeff won the third. by then we were all exhausted and he and jeremy had to get up at 4:30am to get to the airport so we all headed to bed.

it was a short visit, but still really nice to see him!

CATS

i know i've been talking about cats, CATS and kittens for a while. this will be my last post mentioning them for a while. but a couple things are worth mentioning.

first, we went and saw CATS at the palace on saturday night with mark and lanelle. it was so nice that mark and lanelle finally got to meet jeremy, and to see them again. the show was amazing. the cast was amazing and a few of them were espcially superb. the two cats, rumpleteazer and mungo jerrie, sang one of my favorite songs. rumpy is definitele well named. although he doesnt look like these twin cats, their personalities fit him to a tee. they are trouble-makers and super playful and like to rip up paper and get intot things that they shouldnt. definitely sounds like my rumpy! after the show we went to ignite for dinner and to spend more time with them. so fun.

our cats are getting along better than ever. they chase each other around and play tag. rumpy is great at playing fetch, and whenever cricket has had enough of him, so goes and sleeps on the guest bed where he never thinks to look for her. he will come running when i yell "jellicle cats come to the jellicle ball!" and cricket usually moseys along behind him at her own pace. they crack me up. now, every night when we watch tv, i have a cat in my lap, jeremy has one in his, and we are all four so happy!

happy halloween!

halloween weekend was also opening weekend of CATS at the palace. so not only did we get a new cat at home, i've been living cats all day at work. we've been wearing the ears with our cats shirts during the week, but with it being halloween and i all, i got into the cat spirit a little more for the saturday performance. one of the girls in the show is also a box office employee, so she did super basic cat makeup for me. all the kids and old people who came on saturday night really got a kick out of it.what's the fun of working in a theatre if you can't dress up once in a while right? i brought home a playbill (i love that wokring at the theatre means my name is in all the playbills) and we went through the character names in order to find a name for our new baby.

we decided on rumpleteazer. although the character in the show is a girl, its not really a feminine name. we have been calling him rumpy or rumplesneezer. he caught a minor cold during those two awful days he had to be at the shelter. jeremy still calls him "cat" or "blackie" but is slowly making the transition to rumpy.

he and cricket have been getting along famously and he sleeps by my feet every night. we love him.

we had no trick-or-treaters either on halloween or on the sunday before which was the designated trick or treat time for manchester (thats the stupidest thing i ever heard of) and that kinda bummed me out. but since i was working during primo t-o-t hours, i guess im glad i didnt miss any cute kids. and we didnt buy candy so oh well.

what did you do for halloween?

national cat day

yesterday was (apparently) national cat day. jeremy celebrated by caving on the kitten issue and taking me to the shelter to adopt one of our foster babies! we brought him home last night and he readjusted in a snap! cricket was happy to have him back. he was her favorite of the litter. they have been chasing each other around all day. he slept curled around the legs all night last night, and sat in my lap this morning while we watched tv, just like well-behaved cats are supposed to.

the one we picked was the black and white kitten. i thought he was a she the whole time he was living with us, but they figured out at the shelter that he was a boy. i guess they found where it was stamped on the bottom.

we havent figured out a name for him. cricket didnt have a name for aboutthe first two weeks because we (i) wanted the perfect one. jeremy has been calling the new baby blackie or gato negro but i dont like either of those. i suggested snowball, but that was mostly a joke. i also kinda like kramer. i really want a name that has a "k" sound to match cricket and our last name.

anyone have any ideas?

last day with the kittens

well, i had to take the kittens and scarlet back to the shelter today. thankfully lauren wanted one, so she went with me. jeremy was at the palace building the CATS set (he has two jobs now, but still hasnt started at the bank). i needed the moral support. they were crying and scared and i didnt want to give them up, but that's the nature of fostering i guess.

thankfully at least one kitten has a great new home. lauren and kevin have one maine coon cat ad today adopted sookie, the calico kitten from the litter. jeremy never caved on letting me have a second cat, so for now cricket is an only child. but seriously, look at him.

he's the cat whisperer. and he like to pretend he only tolerates cricket. liar!

hopefully in a few months we will foster again. i need some time to get over my loss! i get to see sookie in her new home tomorrow though and i am happy about that. she is such a sweetie. apparently lucee, her new cat sister, is scared of her. thats because sookie had to learn how to stick up for herself at our house. her brother and sister played rough!

the shelter is such a sad place. they said kittens get adopted quickly and i sure hope thats true because there are so many animals in cages there! they are doing the best they can but it is still sad. i almost came home with a rabbit for jeremy but didnt. she looked a lot liked babe did though (minus satan's eyes).

two more days

just when cricket is really warming up to the babies, it is time to take them back to the shelter. sookie (in this picture with cricket) is going to my old boss's house. lauren is going to love her and take care of her. i'm still holding onto hope that jeremy will cave in and let me keep the black and white kitten, but it is highly unlikely. either way, most of the cats in our house will be leaving on monday.

the manchester animal shelter is overrun with cats right now and it is really sad. they are a no-kill shelter, which is great, but some of the kitties have been there for years. they even have kittens that aren't being adopted there. kittens are really hard to find in a shelter so you know there must be a cat saturation in manchester (catsuration?). it breaks my heart to think of any of these babies in a cage for weeks, months, or even years.

so this was supposed to be a cute picture and a witty post, but it is turning into kind of a downer. if you are looking for a pet, check your local shelter before paying a breeder. or, make a donation of time or money to your shelter. it really helps all these poor babies.

and like bob barker always said, spay and neuter your animals!

(it is still a cute picture!)

foooootball

steph and ryan came over on sunday to watch the patriots ruthlessly destroy the tennesse titans. the game stopped being fun to watch midway through the second quarter. i think the final score was around six million to zero. they brought charlie over (steph's westie) and oh boy! did the kittehs ever love that game! watching the babies hiss at the dog while he is jumping around in his carrier was mildly entertaining. cricekt spazzed out and clawed me, which was also very fun. so the five cats spent the night under the bed with the door closed and the four of us and charlie had some soup and chip and salsa and hung out.

right before they came over lauren brought kevin over to meet sookie and make sure they wanted to take her. they fell in love with her, which i knew they would. she is a sweetie. majorly a scaredy cat, but so sweet. she cuddled with cricket on the bed today for hours. it was adorable and heart melting.

tonight we tried to watch house, but the stupid baseball playoffs were still going - it was like the 30th inning of whatever game was on. yankees suck. so jeremy went to rite aid, and i did dishes. watching house would have been better.

blog action day

today, october 15, people with blogs all over the world are all writing about the same thing. this year's topic is climate change.

whether you agree with al gore and the global warming people or not, the fact of the matter is that the earth is our home, and we need to treat it nicer.

i'm not one to go all crunchy granola and tell people to start skipping deodorant and reusing grey water (although those ideas have merit in the proper setting). i'm talking about small things that you prolly wouldn't even notice you are doing that help out in the end.

take one minute shorter showers. you'll save money on your water bill and whatever you use to heat the water bill, you'll use thousands of gallons less water in a year.

when you get to a parking lot, just park and walk. those people that circle around waiting for a spot or idle for ten minutes waiting for the old lady to load her bags of cat food in the back of her station wagon are wasting time. they are sending carbon monoxide and other pollutants into the air and water. park in the back of the lot and walk. you'll get some fresh air and a little exercise, your car has less chance to get dinged up, you'll prolly even get into the store sooner than if you had tried to find a killer spot. (exceptions to this rule are made in my household if it is raining, especially if i have blow-dried my hair).

walk or bike more places. take the bus or subway. go down to one car per household. we have one car and it works. we walk to rite aid to get milk or whatever. i rode my bike to work when it was warmer. i also have taken the bus around. not as ghetto as it might seem, and, since the bus or subway runs anyways, you aren't adding any extra to traffic, etc.

stop using so much paper. do you really need that printed out? try using a real towel or real napkins instead of paper. more laundry, sure, but it is better for the environment. and sitting down to dinner with cloth napkins can sure dress up a lean cuisine!

there are lots of great resources on and offline to learn more about what you can do and how it matters. every week slate.com's green lantern posts an article about eco-friendly real-life questions like is beer or wine better for the environment? what's the most eco-friendly birth control method? and many more. i have several great green living books. there are green blogs by the thousands.

reduce, reuse, recycle. we all learned the adage in school. now it is time to figure out how to put it into practice in our real lives.

ARC review: hush, hush

hush, hush

becca fitzpatrick

out this week in hardcover

from the back:

A sacred oath, a fallen angel, a forbidden love.

Nora Grey is responsible and smart and not inclined to be reckless. Her first mistake was falling for Patch. Patch has a past thta could be called anything but harmless. The best thing he ever did was fall for Nora.

After getting paired with Patch in Biology, all Nora wants to do is stay away from him, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of her. She can feel his eyes on her even when he is nowhere around. She feels him nearby even when she is alone in her bedroom. And when her attraction can be denied no longer, she learns the secret about who Patch is and what led him to her. Despite all the questions she has about his past, in the end, there may be only one question they can ask each other: How far are you willing to fall?

my review:

the cover is gorgeous and intriguing. the first half of the book was completely riveting. things fell apart a little for me in the end, but i still enjoyed the story. it was nice to read a fantasy/sci-fi teen novel NOT about vampires for a change. there is still that forbidden love/i know he is bad news but i still want him anyways aspect.

simon and schuster is doing some really fun promotional stuff for this book. if you want to know more about it, get screensavers etc, check out teen.simonandschuster.com.

if you like the twilight style of books, you'll prolly enjoy this one. a little darker, with more danger elements, but comparable.

fall is coming!

and it is gonna be pretty!

there are so many lakes and ponds here, and almost all of them have parks around them with walking, biking, and cross country skiing trails. jeremy is excited to try cross country skiing, and i can't wait to hit the slopes again. but first, i need something to thicken my blood. today was in the 40s and i was freezing all day long. sad but true. matt (a guy at work) was wearing a hawaiian shirt and shorts. it made me cold just looking at him.

in general though, when the sun i sshining, the fall weather here is just gorgeous. i bought a couple more sweaters and a super awesome scarf and i'm ready. it will be weird to bust out my coats after years of not wearing them though!

family fotos

jeremy and i took a little tour around our fair city, getting some shots of fall leaves and having a fun day off together. this one is of us in front of the merrimack river. you can see part of the mill yard in the background. we live just on the other side of this river. we are in the parking lot of UNH manchester (like k-state salina).

we brought cricket out on her leash to try and get a complete family foto. she was mildly cooperative and liked to eat the weeds. she was scared of the c ars, even though 90% of her day is spent watching them from our window.

cricket teaches the kittens

that she is not to be messed with. we have come to a place of tolerance in our household, of acceptance. (see above, where all the babies are peacefully coexisting on the couch with her.) but every so often, cricket still has to show the babies who is boss. (see movie below, in two parts.)

and then this happened:

the kittens are six weeks old now, so we have them and scarlet for two more weeks. we have to give them up right when they are getting fun!

the good with the bad...

i don't think i have updated the blogosphere with our good news. jeremy has a job! he will be a banker with citizen's bank, starting at the end of the month. we are both super excited and can't wait to learn more about what this position holds for him.

the bad... there was an incident at work that super sucked. it caused a lot of extra work for me and my team but we got through it. it allowed me to see which of the members of my box office team can step up and handles challenges and which freak out under pressure. good info for a manager to have! we got through it, and although there will continue to be repercussions (mostly for me, and mostly in the form of extra work), whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

right.

p.s. the kittens are almost six weeks old and have offically taken over the entire apartment. but they are too cute to contain! we have been able to keep them out of the bedroom (that's cricket's domain) but the kitchen, bathroom and living room have kittens everywhere all the time! i love it, and that's why i would be a crazy cat lady if jeremy let me.

ARC review: Secret Society

Secret Society

by Tom Dolby

Ok, so I couldn't find the greatest picture. However, this book was really good.

From the Back:

Once you get in... you never get out.

Do you ever wonder how some people have it all? The best schools, the hottest parties, the priciest clothes, the easiest jobs? Maybe it's not because they work hard or get a lucky break every once in a while. Maybe it's because they're part of a secret group. A secret society.

For more information and other reviews, check the amazon listing.

My Review:

This book reminded me a lot of The Skulls. The biggest difference in the way the two secret societies were portrayed was that this society is co-ed, and starts in high school. Students at private schools all over New York City are tapped one night to join this society. It is the kind of offer one does not decline. Then, unsettling things start happening. People are disappearing. And the three main characters of this book (Nick, Phoebe, and Lauren) wants answers. They face challenges both from inside and out of the society. The end is a cliff-hanger that will leave you wondering when the sequel will be in stores.

The issues faced by characters in the story include partying and relationships, but both are handled in a way that makes this story appropriate for high schoolers and older middle schoolers. Parts of it were a little simplistic for my taste, but that didn't change the fact that I very much enjoyed the story and am interested in finding out what happens to these main characters, as well as some of the peripheral characters, in the next book.

If you enjoy YA, this story will definitely appeal to you. And, since the story is not told exclusively from a female perspective, some boys might enjoy it as much as us girls will.

scary cat!

too bad she isn't all black... and too bad she wouldn't stand still for her photo opportunity!

the kittens have successfully found a way out of the dog pen, so now we walk in the kitchen at random times to find them wrestling in the middle of the floor. the grey and white one found her way behind the stove and refrigerator and fell asleep. she came back out when she got hungry though! her mama is too fat now to fit back there. thankfully she isn't all skin and bones like she was when i brought her home.

they are super playful, and very much enjoy tormenting cricket, who (for the most part) puts up with is good-naturedly. we really do have the best cat in the world.

before and after

since we didn't carve pumpkins last year, this was cricket's first experience. she really enjoyed sniffing the pumpkins. a little strange, but as long as she wasn't in the way, we allowed her to "participate" in carving. we got the pumpkins from the store, but i hope to visit a corn maze/pumpkin patch before halloween.

it was a great evening - we watched private practice and the office and carved away. can you guess which pumpkin was carved by which one of us?

skated by

after having to make two extra batches of frosting (and bake two carrot cakes, since the first one didnt come out of the pan in one piece) i finished the roller skate cakes for steph's parents 25th anniversary party. it was friday night after working all week and she was coming to pick up the cakes in the morning. i felt good, i packed them up and sealed the box. then jeremy came to look at them and said... "uh babe? the black skate fell over. i told you carrot cake was too dense to stand up." thanks for the i told you so after the fact.

thankfully steph liked the look of the cake on its side - looked like a pair of skates that someone had just casually tossed on the floor. we refrosted teh smooshed parts, iced a dozen cupcakes, and went to bed. the cakes (and chocolate candies we made last week) were a huge hit at the party. the skates looked like the skates her parents used to have when they were first together and used to roller skate all the time. aw!

so my first cake baking/decorating experience in new hampshire was successful, if not exactly how i imagined it would be. and i'm happy because they were happy!