Friday

Super tired, preparing for class last night and didn't sleep much. Now I don't want to do anything but haven't finished my hand out for class tomorrow.

Tomorrow night should be fun, right now I am more tired and have too many things to get done to be excited. the Jessica will be there - yeah!

later. And happy 30 to me, tomorrow at 10:00 sharp - when I begin class (hee hee).

Short and Dirty

- Spoke with Ms. S today - finally! My fault, I have had her name next to "call" on my to do list for several days now.

- First day of training for teaching. Yawn inducing and still no lesson plans for first few classes.

- Had a lovely dinner with Meesh last Thursday. She came to campus to buy her books, we had a lovely chat and dinner at Veggie Delight.

- As I mentioned to Ms. S, I have already received some lovely Birthday gifts, Plet helped me organize the party - doing all that icky call around for prices and locations, Ms. S is staying in Vegas and taking care of business - which is exactly where I want her to be right now (there are other years), my big sis hosted me in Seattle and Ms. B sent me "Vegan with a Vengance" (Book love from far away, I love it!)

- Speaking of Settle, I am still planning on posting but until I do, here are a couple teaser pics:
Tiramsu Cupcakes (Sorry T3, they have coffee and alcohol in them!)

Marble cupcakes with an almost perfect yin-yang shape on the bottom, the dot in the top is actually where a bubble and therefore a hole formed in the cupcake, I haven't done anything to this cupcake other than bake it and peel the wrapper off. And yes, that is my chubby hand holding the cupcake. Nice nails though right?

More to come.

Whew Becky!

Okay, will post all about my Seattle trip soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights:

- Ate vegetarian Vietnamese food with my big sis - new favorite! Nothing like a good Pho and spring rolls.
- Went to the Experimental Music Program - amazing.
- Had an almost vegan cupcake and Champagne party with my sis and her friends
- walked everywhere


I like Seattle, not sure if I could live there but love to visit. So green and I love that there is art everywhere. I will post more later with photos. Oh - my sister lives in the Queen Anne neighborhood so we were able to walk to the space needle. Didn't go up since the lines were horrible, I'll have to do it next time.


Okay, I am suppose to be working and since it is my boss' last day, I better get going! (tear)

Shhhh...

I'm not suppose to know yet but I just found out that when my current boss leaves the company on August 15, I am going to be reporting to my previous boss, who is really cool and we get a long like a house on fire.

It's nice to have a little more information about the upcoming semester.

Oh, I also found out that I will be teaching from 10-11 and 12-1 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (No Julie, you may not come and sit in the back of the class to see me teach. The classrooms are tiny and I am capped at 26 students. Plus, do you really want to spend $5.00 on parking for one hour?)

This weekend

It was an adventure. I guess I failed to mention that I was working the retreat I was at this weekend, rather than attending it. It occurred to me that this means that I will be working ten days in a row. That's last Monday through this Wednesday when I fly out to Seattle to visit my big sis, leaving for the airport straight from work. At least I had from 3:00 yesterday off until I came into work this morning and I have my evenings free. Wee!

I'll try to write more later, but no guarantee.

Arizona!

I loved AZ except for...

These are HUGE and they fly! Ew ew ew ew ew ew!

This one was dead when we came out the next morning and Ms. B picked it up so I could get a good picture. EW!

We had so much fun, the three amigas. It rained every afternoon and one day we saw a double rainbow. Here is a partial picture. Meesh actually has a video following the whole double rainbow. so pretty!
That's the Mr. on the right, out taking a look.

I liked Tombstone, nothing like $6.00 for three cranberry vodkas. We had a good time with the Kareoke bar. Meesh sang Earl by the Dixie Chicks and Ms. B sang...oh heck, I can't remember! Meesh? Ms. B? What were the other songs sung that night? Maybe next time I will get up and sing.

Below is a picture of the main hotel in Bisbee, where we visited for the day.

Got to try lots of yummy flavored honey from "The Killer Bee Honey Company". The Orange honey and the Cinnamon honey were my favorites. I need to order myself some. I couldn't buy any then because the jars were over 3 oz. and I only had carry-on luggage. A great afternoon, even though we had a flat tire and that is an adventure for another time. Plus, I don't have the best pics for that.

This was my attempt to take a picture of the storm that was falling in slect areas while we were driving back to Tombstone. It was so pretty. It was strange to see how the rain was falling in some places but not in others.


Any who, that is some of the trip. It was a lot of hanging out and visiting. One of my favorite memories was sitting in the hot tub in the evening with our hosts and enjoying a glass of wine and some great conversation. I can't wait to go back for another visit. 8 months is too long to go without seeing a good friend. Hmm, that means I need to get my butt to Vegas as well....

Ciao!

Holy Moley!

Just checked out August's Horoscope at my favorite site: Check out how it starts for me.

You are a flexible, mutable sign, so when the chips are down, you roll with the punches better than most signs, but that doesn't mean it's been easy. In the coming two years, your entire life will look different, with new friends, associates, and possibly a new position, home, or partner - or the whole kit and caboodle. It will be exciting, but change demands a great deal of adjustment, and that's been the hard part.

Not what I wanted to hear...

A Tale of Two Cupcakes

Yes, this past weekend I baked cupcakes twice. And since I have been a little lazy on the posting, here are two sets of pictures to drool over.

First, Pineapple Right Side Up cupcakes for my Saturday night dinner party. Single view.

And these are full size cupcakes for a change, not minis as I am want to make. Here is half a dozen.


For future bakings, I think I would like to try a lighter whipped pineapple mousse type topping. As yummy as the pineapple compote on top was, I think I would like a lighter sweet as to not overpower the delicious spicy cupcake below. I also got some critique on the use of the marachino cherries. I was told I should have used a half cherry and I had a couple people pick their's off, which I kinda don't understand, I think they're yummy! My only change with the cherries is I might wash them off a bit so I don't have the red juice drip on my cupcakes like you can see in the picture above.

Cupcakes #2
For work I decided to try my hand at the Chai Latte cupcakes. After several false starts finding out that I was missing ingredient after ingredient, I finally got baking. Mini's at work:(Yes, that is the 'marble' table in the breakroom)

Once again, I had a heck of a time with the recipe. I had to really play with the baking time as they seemed uncooked in the middle and I also feared that they were sticking to the lining. So I sprayed the liners, which then made them rise funny because of the extra 'oil'. The next morning they were fine, the original batch came off the papers with out any problem.

These were not my favorite but they were inhaled at work! Normally there are a few left in the main break room when I am ready to go home and I transfer them to a paper plate and they are gone by the next morning. The cupcakes were gone by 4:00. And I take a seperate container to the Design Factory since it is a seperate building and they rarely come up to the break room. Those cupcakes were gone by three, and I usually have to give them two days to finish and then there are usually a couple still there. Who knew?

Coming up next, an overview of my AZ trip and finally! some of my Mexico trip.