Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Karma

Two things of interest happened to me today:

1. I bought lunch for a homeless guy at Subway. It was a spur of the moment decision, and it surprised even me. He had a footlong seafood sub with extra mayonnaise, chips and a drink. He was very grateful.

2. A bird shit on my arm as I was walking to the gym. It was truly disgusting.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

30 is in fact the new sexy

I bet you've been wondering if I've been too hungover from my birthday party to tell you about it. The answer is yes...ha ha not really! What, me drink? Hee hee.

Elisa hasn't had a chance to get her pictures up yet, but my friend Avery has sent some to me. We had such a great time! Elisa flew in from San Antonio and brought a surprise with her...a watermelon pinata filled with Segovia candies (pralines, caramels and coconut flavored).

We spent pretty much all day on Saturday running errands for what would turn out to be the most rockin' party that we've ever thrown...literally. We rented a karaoke machine, and it turned out to be a huge hit. You know, there's always that concern that people would be too shy or modest to want to get up and sing. Luckily I have friends who are neither shy nor modest. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The pinata was planned by Matt and Elisa, but since Matt had never been to a party that involved a pinata, he was a little unsure about the logistics. It took a while, but they finally got the pinata up the tree. Elisa spun me around 30 times, and went to town, totally whacking the pinata into submission (apparently, I have a gift for hitting the pinata). When it cracked open, I heard a cheer come up from the crowd, so I tore off my mask...but no one was picking up candy. C'mon y'all! There's candy all around! Hoarde it greedily! We had to prod people along to get the candy, but they all finally took it. A few more people took a turn at the battered watermelon, and although there was no more candy in it, it was still thoroughly enjoyable. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Ah, the rest of the night was kind of a blur, but I do remember singing, drinking and eating that delicious cake...marble cake with strawberry icing filling and cream cheese icing on top. It was quite nice too.

My house still hasn't recovered completely, which is a sure sign that it was a memorable party. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Saturday, August 18, 2007

A life with no regrets

Today's the big day! Its my 30th birthday! Elisa's here and we're off soon to go pick up some party supplies. I'm really excited, and a friend of mine from college just called from Qatar to wish me a happy birthday.

I was telling a co-worker of mine that I don't feel like this is really a significant birthday, and she said that its probably because I'm happy with my life. And its true...I am happy with my life right now. I can honestly say I don't have any major regrets in my life. I've done things my way. And I'm really happy about that.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Getting ready to par-tay!

My birthday is in a week. That's right, on August 18, I turn 30. I'm really excited about the whole thing, and we are having a party at our home to celebrate.

One thing that's kind of frustrating about D.C. is its lack of regular bakeries, and that's important because I love cake, especially birthday cake with my name on it. The famous bakery is Cake Love, but I certainly do not love that cake. Its too dry, and the frosting tastes too much like lard in my opinion. Plus, they are incredibly expensive.

For Matt's birthday last January, I tested various cupcakes around the area. I had a cupcake from the now-defunct Reeve's bakery, which actually gave me heartburn. Reeve's bakery was a fixture in downtown Washington for a long time, and I really wanted to like their cupcakes, but I just couldn't. However, they were most well-known for their pie. I also tried a cupcake from Heller's Bakery, which tasted more like your standard grocery store cupcake. Not bad, but just a little too sweet (I bet it would be a good cake for a kid's birthday, though). I finally ended up getting awesome cupcakes from Buzz Bakery, in Virginia. It was well-worth the expense and the drive. The cupcakes were moist and dense, and the icing was not too sweet. Plus, they were beautiful little things. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

For my birthday, I really wanted a cake though, and I had to begin the process of searching for a bakery again since Buzz doesn't really do large cakes. Back to the foodie message board for ideas. Of course, the problem with asking foodies about stuff is they tend to give you suggestions like this. Don't get me wrong, those are beautiful cakes, but really, I just want a cake, not necessarily a work of art. There's a lot of French bakeries in DC, some places aren't open on weekends because they do more a breakfast pastry kind of thing. At some point you start to think, "Why can't I just get some damn cake?!" And then I remembered a place that I had come across online in my previous research.

This morning I tested out a cupcake from Just Cakes. The cake itself was nice and moist, and although I find the icing a little sweet (perhaps because they dusted the cupcake in decorative sugar), I liked it enough to order it for my birthday. We'll see how it turns out.

Oh, and this morning I also bought liquor for the party. Lots and lots of liquor. I think it will be a good party.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

When I say its hot, its really hot

Okay, I'm the first person to snicker when people start complaining about the heat here in DC. Yes, 85 degrees can be considered quite warm, but don't start bitching about how humid it is too. Believe me, 78 degrees and 40 percent humidity is not all that uncomfortable...actually, I find it a little on the cool side.

But when you hear me complaining about how hot it is, you better take notice. Because then you know its hot enough to get a Texan complainin'.

Today it reached a 102 degrees. Plus, our ac at work was basically not functioning, so inside my library it was 80 with 63 percent humidity. Nevermind the fact that the library is supposed to close when the humidity surpasses 60 percent (we didn't, but that's a whole other rant). I was uncomfortable all day, and when I stepped out for a smoothie in the afternoon, I felt like I had stepped into an oven. I'm just glad that my deodorant kept working.
So yeah, y'all, today was hot.