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.

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.

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.

Southwest airlines boarding passes

I learned something this week about printing a boarding pass on Southwest airlines. If you have access to a computer but not a printer, you can reprint your boarding pass at the airport (either at the kiosk or with an agent). You don't lose your boarding group assignment or anything. The boarding agent says that when she has to fly but isn't near a computer, she calls a friend to check her in and she picks up her boarding pass at the airport. Just something to know.

I'm dying here

Today is the day that Harry Potter comes out. I am also at work today. Luckily, I work in a public library so getting my hands on a copy wasn't difficult. I just really, really want to be reading my book right now.

Harry Potter predictions

I predict the following characters will die in the last Harry Potter book:

Neville
Ginny Weasley
Lupin
Bellatrix Lestrange
Severus Snape
Voldemort

Laura vs. the Volcano

We're back from our annual fourth of July trip to a national park. This year, we chose Lassen Volcanic, one of the smallest and least visited national parks in the country. Why would we choose such a place? Well, proximity to gambling is one reason. The other is that we were meeting quite a few people from the West coast for a weekend of hiking and camping.

A scant 2 and half hours from Reno, this national park doesn't really have any "oh, wow" moments like the Grand Canyon. The mountains are in the southern Cascade region, and the namesake mountain, Lassen Peak is only about 12,000 feet. But while it may lack sexiness, this park is still a fun place to hang out and hike. Also, there's an element of danger here too...Lassen Peak is still an active volcano, and it last erupted in 1915, spewing lava and volcanic rocks all over the place. If you're a badass (which I'm not), you can even hike up the volcano.

This was a fun trip, mainly because we were with such a great group of people. Despite the fact that I like to camp with at least one former Eagle Scout and none were present this time around, making fire was not too complicated, thanks to the dry conditions in California. Actually, I'm surprised that there weren't fire restrictions in the campground.

There was one really scary moment when a few of us got lost in the wilderness, literally. We were following a trail that just seemed to kind of die off, so we wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go. Finally, we heard cars on the main road so we made a beeline for the road, only to discover that we were about a mile from the trail head.

One of the great things was the big, blue sky. It was such a brilliant blue, and for most of the time, there was nary a cloud in the sky. At night, the stars were out in full force, and it was amazing to me that there were so many. Matt even saw a few shooting stars.

It was a welcome change from big-city life (although I really missed the food...the one time we went into town we had a crappy experience at the local pizza parlor/bar), and I would gladly go back.

Owning a home, without owning your building

Okay, there are some really great things about owning a condo. One, I never have to hassle Matt to mow the lawn, because we don't have a lawn. Two, its easily affordable in DC.

Lately though, its been really frustrating just doing general home improvements. We tried to get a ceiling fan installed in our bedroom, but the electricians said it couldn't be done because the ceiling didn't have enough depth to hold a fan, and also, the only way they could run the wires would be through the outside brick, and obviously, they can't do that.

We thought about replacing our scary little spiral stairwell with a real stairwell, but found out that it would be very expensive (we used the money to pay down a little bit of our mortgage instead).

We're lucky enough to have a private entrance to our unit, but the door has to be replaced now because of several cracks. A contractor came out and said the entire door frame would have to be rebuilt, and to do that we need pre-approval from our condo board.

This was supposed to be the year of home improvements, but so far everything has gone by the wayside. Maybe I'll just go ahead and get the carpet replaced and feel like I've actually accomplished something.

Worst...first day of summer...ever

Actually, today wasn't too bad in general. Matt and I met up with some friends, ate some crab, drank some wine. What totally sucked was the temperature. A rain storm swept into the area during rush hour and brought a cold front (the second time this month). When I got out of the Metro, the temperature had dropped to 69 degrees, but it had mostly stopped raining. Later as we ate on the patio, another rain storm came through, with huge gusts of wind. We were freezing. However, we did enjoy a gorgeous sunset once the storm blew out of the way. It was bright orange, with gray clouds swept across the sky.

So, okay, the comraderie was nice. But its just wrong to have a summer day in the 60s, especially since is the second time this month that this has happened. I'm pretty sure this weekend will be really nice though.

Summer in DC

Nothing says summer in DC like families of tourists coming in droves to the city. They walk around in matching shirts, stand on the left side of the Metro escalators--blocking the way of people walking on the escalators--and look around instead of looking at where they are going. Pretty much typical anywhere you go.

Good tourists try not to take up too much room on the Metro during rush hour, and make way for us drones who aren't lucky enough to be on vacation.

Coming home from work today, there was a couple with a very small baby in his arms. The wife was following behind with the stroller, which she proceeded to fold up once she got on the train (good). Someone offered them seats behind me, and they sat down gratefully. After a few minutes, the baby started to get fussy, and you could tell they were mortified, as people turned their attention away from their iPods, and toward them. "Shhh," the dad said. "You don't want to disturb the workers."

The workers. I felt like calling him, "comrade". It was a strange end to an otherwise uneventful day.

Best of my love

Someone forwarded me a link that tells you what the number one song is for the day you were born. My birthday song is "Best of my love" by the Emotions!
Speaking of birthdays, mine is only two months away. I've been trying to figure out what a cool 30th birthday party would be. I think it will probably involve eating and drinking, but that's about it.

Oh yeah, that song link: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm
Go Spurs Go!

The Slug Course

For our fourth anniversary, we decided to do a very Matt and Laura thing and go out for dinner (of course). We chose a restaurant in our neighborhood that has a very good reputation among the foodie community, that we hadn't been to yet because it can be a little pricey. Like many high-end restaurants in DC, they pride themselves on using local, in-season and organic products.

Our first course consisted, of course, of salad. I enjoyed a salmon seviche (that's the way that they spelled it, so that's how I'm going to spell it) with greens, and Matt had rabbit with romaine. As we were finishing up our salads, I saw Matt stop and look very intently at his plate. He kept staring at it, and I could tell he was getting very, very ansy. I glanced over at his plate, and saw a teeny tiny little slug squirming on the very last piece of lettuce. It was horrifying, but at the same time kind of amusing. The slug, if that's what it was, kept moving around, clearly terrified. Matt looked completely distraught. He flagged the waiter over (who was very, very good), and said, "There seems to be an animal on my plate, and it seems to be alive," while the slug kept squirming. The waiter was properly mortified, apologized, and whisked the plate away. He came back a few minutes late, apologized again, and said the manager was coming over to speak to us. The manager came a few minutes later, apologized profusely, and offered us a complimentary glass of champagne to give us a few extra minutes to decide if we wanted to continue our dinner. We decided that we wanted to stay, and enjoyed the rest of the meal. We support organics, after all.

All in all, the salad was comped, as well as our bottle of wine, and two glasses of champagne each. All of this without throwing a hissy fit in a nice restaurant, like some people would do. We'll probably go back, but probably won't order salad again. Supposedly, they also have the best burger in town.

Under the boardwalk

At the beginning of the month, I thought to myself that I should try to blog more often. Well, I didn't. Lately it seems like my life is all about work (or working out), and when I get home, I'm re-reading Harry Potter. Lots of excuses, right?

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we kicked off the beginning of the summer with a trip to the Jersey shore. We camped in Cape May with some friends, and were pleasantly surprised by the beauty that is south Jersey. The weather was great for most of the weekend, except for Sunday night when it rained pretty hard. I didn't feel like there were a whole lot of people on the beach, and when we visited the boardwalk amusement park in Wildwood, we didn't have to wait in line much. Actually, apparently they were anticipating a small ground on Memorial Day, because the entrance fee was discounted pretty heavily. Plus we got to eat carnival foods, like ice cream, fried Oreos, and funnel cake. Thankfully we did our eating after the roller coasters.

It was cool to see a real, live boardwalk, with rides and skeeball, like you do in the movies. I guess the real downside about the beach was that the water was freezing cold, although there were a few warm currents coming in (it felt like someone had peed). But otherwise it was a great weekend. Jersey...its not just for mobsters.

Ode to a softshell crab

Oh, softshell, you who sacrificed your
short little life for me
so that you could be deep-fried and crunchy.
Wonderful crab, prepared in a multitude of ways,
making DC worth inhabiting in the summertime.
The most yummy of all the crabs--
yes, even over stuffed crab--
I thank you for being so delicious.

Wiiiii! part deux

So remember back in December when I wrote about Matt really wanted a Wii? Well, let's revisit that subject.
For the last six months the D.C. area has been a Wii wasteland. We would go around to various electronic and game shops and interrogate teenage store clerks: Do you have any Wiis? When do you expect to get Wiis in again? How many Wiis do you usually get? How fast do you sell out? Lately we felt like we were this close to finding one: Well, we got some in two days ago, but they sold out pretty quickly. Matt was finally coming to the conclusion that the Wii in fact does not exist, and its a vast conspiracy by Nintendo to get people talking about a product that they might introduce in the future.

Yesterday, we left Best Buy, dejected by missing a Wii shipment (and subsequent sell-out) by a day. We decided it was time to move on with our lives, so we went shopping at a mall in Virginia. Coincidently, there is a game store in that mall, on the lower level. We peered over the railing as we walked by, and on the door they had posted a sign that said "Wiis now in stock." We raced down the escalator, startling some senior citizens out on their afternoon constitutional, and into the store. "Do you have any Wiis?" I asked tentatively. "Oh, yeah," said the store clerk. We held our breath as he went into the back, and when he came out with a Wii box, we high-fived and hugged. Our search was over. This Wii was coming home.

An evening conversation

Me:...So if I lose 2 more pounds, I'll have lost 60 pounds all together.
Matt: That's great, Laura! Do you want a cake when that happens?
Me: Yes. But don't let me eat too much.

So yeah, looks like I've lost those last two lbs. Matt says it looks like I've shrank. I don't feel any different, except I'm more likely to be more active. Tonight, I walked more than mile just to go to dinner. And then, despite the fact that we were stuffed, we walked home--another mile or so. And it didn't bother me. Well, my feet kind of hurt, but my feet always hurt, so that was no big deal.

Its tough, though, because I look at myself, and think that I still have quite a ways to go. Easily another 40 to be at a healthy weight. I think that I'll never see the end of it, and then I'm going to flip it around and gain back that 40 pounds when I get pregnant. Yup, I said it. I want to have a baby.

Anyway, that's still a ways to go. As always, I will keep you posted.

Laura (libarian) es hermosa!

Yes, friends, I seem to have a secret admirer. This piece of graffiti was marked onto a table at my library. And that is exactly the way that everything was spelled.

Kind of made my day. Although I would have preferred it if they hadn't written on the table in permanent marker.

I'm an answerer

Lately, I've become addicted to Yahoo! Answers. If you don't know what that is, basically people post a question to the website, and other people answer them. The questioner and other users can vote on the best answer, and you get points for having the best answer.

Its kind of exhilirating to be chosen as the best answer. Its also really crazy how many people don't know how to use the Internet! I mean, some of these answers you can find on Wikipedia. Some of the questions are kind of funny (how do they keep the colors separate in a Cadbury creme egg), other questions are straight from a kid's homework assignment.

I always get a little thrill when my question is chosen as the best answer, but when I told Matt that, he said, "Aren't you just doing your job?" Which is true, I guess. But it just goes to show that in the age of the Internet, librarians are needed more than ever.

Its so sad

This morning I was reading the Washington Post online. The Virginia Tech massacre is a very big story here, since its only a few hours south of DC and the shooter and a few victims were from the area. Underneath the stories about VT were a few other world headlines, in much smaller type. The one that caught my attention was "Baghdad blasts kill 131."

After Monday, that particular headline sent me reeling. I can't imagine living in a country where mass killings are so...ordinary. I can't imagine daily have to relive the sorrow, shock and pain of 9/11 or Virginia Tech. But that's what the people of Iraq, particularly in Baghdad, have to live with.

After that, I flipped through the Post's online photo album of the victims of VT. I teared up at work as I saw so many young people's lives taken away from them, as I read about the heroics of some of their professors. And I wondered about the Iraqis whose pictures we'll never see, and the infants who may have died at the scene, who never had the chance to grow up to be heroes.

This isn't a commentary about the war. Its just my own thoughts about two terrible situations, and how the media covers it. We may have become desensitized to coverage about the war, and perhaps its a shame that we're only reminded about the horrors happening abroad when a horror happens here.

Me, on a diet

Me
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

Every now and then I'll catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and think, Wow, I look good! I hadn't realized how good I've been looking until I started putting my pictures from Paris in a photo album. I happened to put them in the same album as my pictures from London and Rome, which we visited in May 2005.

I can't believe how much I've changed! It's like I'm a different person. And its not just because I'm wearing an opposite color jacket either, or my hair's a little longer (the shoes are the same, and I'm wearing a pink shirt in both). I'm honestly surprised that people recognize me.

Looking a pictures like this really motivates me (she writes, while eating Easter candy). Its been a tough couple of months for me, losing weight-wise, since I've only lost about 10 lbs this year. It seems like there's always an excuse to not watch what I'm eating.

Matt and I were joking the other day while at Subway, and I couldn't finish my 6 in. roast beef sub (on wheat, no cheese). "Is this going to turn into an after school special? 'Laura, Please Eat Something'?" he said. Luckily, I love food too much for that to ever become a problem.

Snow in April

Snow in April
Originally uploaded by laura_gonzales.

It snowed this morning. Yes, today, April 7, it snowed about an inch in our nation's capital. Nevermind that this is the same week as the Cherry Blossom festival, or that is was 75 degrees four days ago, or that the tourists have been running around in shorts. It snowed this morning and the blooming trees were covered in the white stuff. Apparently its been 83 years since the last time it snowed on this date.

The snow's pretty much gone now. Its been above freezing all day,, although it may freeze again tonight. I keep hoping that's going to be in the end of it, and spring will finally come to us full-blast, in all of its sneeze-inducing glory. I'm just not cut out for these yankee springs.