Flux Capacitating

The one in the back...that one! That's my sweet tooth.

Well,it's 2:00 and I'm thinking about cupcakes.  See those cupcakes up there?  See that look of sneaky joy on my face?  This picture was staged for the cupcakes that we had for Drew's graduation--it's hard to tell from here, but they are powdered with edible glitter, and embellished with sugared flowers.  You also might not be able to tell that they're pound cake cupcakes with homemade chocolate and vanilla butter cream frosting from here, but they are (were) and I miss them.  I would love to take credit for such pictures of perfection, but these came from a spot near my office called Cappellino's Crazy Crakes (he makes cakes with edible hinges among other things!) and it's 2:00 and I'm thinking, "man, I could really go for a cupcake right about now".

Oddly, for me, looking at pictures of deserts is almost as satisfying as making them, or hopefully eating them.  I really don't care for the grocery (please let me express for the 1000th time my extreme gratitude to Drew for largely being the one to navigate those foreboding aisles!) but when I do go, I always have to walk by the bakery counter and just look at everything.  Of course I would love to be looking at beautifully constructed and creative confections with fresh flowers and glossy chocolate ganache, but I'm not going to lie, those cakes with the race cars and unicorns airbrushed on top are a fine substitute.  People talk about endorphins being released from exercise etc, but I think I have a similar experience when I looked at well-crafted food.  Tiny torte shells!  saturated raspberries dancing on butter cream!  Delirious swirls sweeping across the face of a cheesecake!  Cheesecake!  A bakery is, for me, a lot like a museum.  It's an emotive experience where I can see professional creations that I not only enjoy looking at, but on some level aspire towards creating one day myself.  Ok, well I don't think I will ever sculpt or paint, but just maybe I'll make that wedding cake.  It's weird, but I honestly love it.  So, my point in all of this is: It's 2:00, I want a cupcake, but the indulgence of the last month is suggesting that I go for something a little more, ahem, healthy and so I am satiating myself by looking at a desert that I really really enjoyed.  Some might call it crazy, I call it...well, crazy.  And there's nothing wrong with that!  

More from the e-mail vault.

Entitled something to the tune of, I would hate to have to learn English (and in reading over this list, I think I would!)

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there was no time like the present, he thought it was time to 
present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen on how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

“I ran up the door, closed the stairs, said my pajamas and put on my prayers, turned off the bed and hopped in the light, all because you kissed me goodnight”

Well, the truth is, I've always been a little funny about being pressed for details if I'm not ready to give them up.  Aren't we all?  It's hard for me to quickly open up about details of a trip, event, movie etc when I'm still processing it myself.  Maybe it's rooted in not wanting to talk about something being in the past when I'm still reveling in the fresh memory of it, or maybe I just don't have the brain space to adequately describe where I've just been before I've had the time to see it a little more wholly.  I've always struggled with feeling a little unkind fresh from an adventure because friends and family will generously ask how it went and I uncharacteristically dodge verbosity and say, "it was really fun!" and pretty much leave it at that.  Then, two days, one week, a month later, I'll just start to babble on about it and unload all of the details ad nauseam.  This just happened in returning from Charleston a couple of weekends ago with my favorite ladies--Drew asked how it went, I said it was fun and kind of clammed up.  A few days later we were driving somewhere and all of the information just kind of burst out..."and then we...and after that..." and so the stories were told.

This long introduction is all to say that Drew's graduation was, ahem, really fun! and I suspect that as I process the details, the weekend will become a lot like pictures of my spare little tomatoes and Grace on this blog: plentiful and maybe a little too much.  We cherished every single second having Jo Ellen here, it was really wonderful to be able to share a landmark with family and to get some good Baton Rouge energy in our house and lives.  Drew was gracious and lovely and I'm sure that I came as close to bursting with pride as a woman can. 

As I was off of work for a few days, we spent the majority of Monday in silence--that perfect home sweet home kind of silence--while I read a book (Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl, great foodie memoir!) and Drew played chess.  We finally shook ourselves out of our lazy day fog and headed to the local fish guy to get supplies for sushi (oh yes, I took pictures, just you wait) and came home and quietly rolled sushi together.  The best surprise was that while I was looking in the fridge for more things to roll up in the nori--mmm, leftovers in the sushi!-- we decided to roll in some left over cole slaw and man was that a happy surprise!  I know it sounds gross, but really is was a fantastic addition, especially with the tuna.  

In much the same vein as my feigned silence on the subject here, Drew and I didn't really start talking about the weekend and the implications of Drew being "finished" with school until last night over dinner.  In the way that only young people can, we've regarded the graduation not so much as a doorway, but something of a steel wall at the end of a very fast approaching train that we've been strapped to for just under 3 years.  It sounds dramatic, but I kid you not, it has been a little surprising to step through a door and stand looking around in this new space called Future.  Ahhh, hello Future, I didn't see you lurking there.  I am entering into the home stretch of my final tenure with The Hook (3.5 weeks and counting) and Drew is getting ready to be a nurse and somehow it seems like there is an awful lot of air in the air all of a sudden.

One thought in zen philosophy is that water heats gradually and boils suddenly--it is a gradual process which may make it seem slow, especially with a furrowed and impatient brow, but when the change takes place, it takes place instantly.  Knowing that doesn't shake the surprise, especially realizing that each new day will still be a march forward with one foot in front of the other marked, for me, with an infinite amount of hope along the way, but it is fun to think that perhaps in the arena of this one pot, we've just come to a boil.

From the Weekend...

Well, it was a great weekend!  We listened to some amazing music (my three favorites were, in this order, Bombadil, David Grisman and Amos Lee), got pretty dirty camping and shook the 'ol money makers.  Our photog friend Tom took some great pictures so I'm popping those up.  Floyd Fest is great because it's a family friendly festival so it stays very relaxed and there's not a lot of worry about leaving gear etc in the camping area before heading to see the music, and everyone is happy doing their own thing.  We laughed and laughed with our friends, staged a foot race, discovered some new artists, and started making plans for next year.  Here are just a few of the pictures... 

Our local brewery, Starr Hill was on hand so we had to raise our glasses for them!

Our friends Tom and David:

Kate and Katie and I laughing it up in the camping area:

Me, Katie and Kate hammin it up for the camera:

Bombadil (do check them out!) on one of the smaller stages:

We played quite a bit of ladder golf

Scenes from the night:

Next up--Drew graduates on Saturday, so we're cleaning house, buying party food and getting ready to celebrate his awesome accomplishment!

Use the side door.

Well we're headed to Floyd Fest tomorrow morning to spend the weekend camping, catching up with friends and listening to some pretty great bands, so there will be a couple more days of silence here on the blog.  Drew had his last class on Tuesday and he presents his final project next Friday and then he is d-o-n-e.  I think it hasn't really sunk in for either of us that the past three years of school are really and truly coming to a close, but I imagine that when it does, we'll look kind of like those folks above...except with our shirts on.

Look Ma!

This website has been entertaining me this afternoon--it's always fun to see yourself in unusual places, I suppose!

mantle, a lovely word

I love mantles because they take on such an alter feel and I do believe that they are the other half of the reason that people love fire places so much (you know, in addition to all of that warmth and crackling and whathaveyou).  I recently found this little bird to add to our mantle and I just love that it seemed so at home right next to Drew's beloved glove form as soon as it was there.  

Now close the windows

Now close the windows and hush all the fields:
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
I will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

-Robert Frost

Here's our cat Mable yesterday morning:

And here is the image that I saw walking down the hall just a few minutes ago this morning:

I can only imagine what she thinks about every morning at one of her windows, but this morning ritual looks like a poem to me every day and if I ever get the words right I will stick them here too.  Sometimes the images just seem to say it all though.

proverbs, plants and ice cream.

Unfortunately it wasn't the best day ever--a few hiccups that aren't earth shattering, just some things that dampened my mood.  I just wrote a sentence about lemons into lemonade and I remembered that I saw a bumper sticker this morning on the back of a very old subaru that read something like, when life hands you lemons just think oh look! free lemons! and additionally saw a little sign in a bookstore this afternoon with a Scottish proverb etched into that read, be happy while you're living for you're a long time dead.  At the first of these two I admit to rolling my eyes slightly because it was early and I was already working on some lemons (and possibly driving one) of my own.  The second of these sage tid bits just made me laugh a little.  How true.  So, I came home, caught my breath with Drew, ate some ice cream and took pictures of the little things.  The little growing things.  And so, without further ado, I share with you some triplés d'affection, or things in three that make me happy.

zinnias (too high for you, mr greedy rabbit!):

Tomatoes blushing and peeking, and a lone jalapeno guarding the perimeter:

And the patio flowers sitting like chatty women keeping an eye on the comings and goings of the yard:

I guess some days it just takes proverbs and plants and ice cream to keep one's perspective on point.

we laughed

Regardless of where you fall on the political scale, I think it's fair to assume that we're all in agreement that we're very lucky to live in a country where you can agree (or disagree) to disagree (or agree) and that there is an over arching theme of each to his/her own.  Which brings us to satire.

Here's a website called, Things that are younger than John McCain.  It's a blog, not a list, but there were some funny ones on there like, the six pack, the Wizard of Oz, polyester and more if you feel like poking through. I'm not taking this space to knock John McCain,  I just think that this is a very amusing and harmless way to voice dissent.  I haven't looked, but I'm sure that someone else has put up a site called something to the tune of, Things that have more experience than Barack Obama--in both cases the author might be adding unnescessary fuel to what I consider to be easy (and distracting) points of contention, but it doesn't mean that they won't get a laugh out of me in the process.