Birthday party: Candids

I liked this picture of Lara, but I really liked the shadow behind her.
Kyle and Sarah:
Is he playing Rock Band or plotting your demise? You decide:
Mandy's Jello mold. It's hard to see in this picture but she made a lamb, an owl, and a heart. Everyone was impressed.
Candice, Peter, Tiffany, and Jim, all smiles:

Birthday party: Rock Band Idol Winners

At the party, Jay ran a game called "Rock Band Idol". It was basically American Idol with wildly better prizes that the real Idol, which were: a package of fake mustaches, an inflatable globe, and something else that I can't remember. Here are the four finalists. You can probably see who won first place: it's either Dastardly Dan or Josh. Second place was Sarah, who won major Song Choice points over Rob (who apparently should stick to Journey and Boston), and bringing up the rear was Tony.

Birthday party: Erin and Nate

I know I said that birthday party pics were coming a long time ago, but I'm just now getting around to it (lots of grading, what can I say?). Plus, someone (and you know who you are) took a bunch of great pictures and has yet to give them to me (slacker). Anyway, file this series under "they'll probably hate me for this," and they're not even great pictures (fuzzy), but they made me laugh. Here are Erin and Nate laughing heartily at one another:
Oh, Nate! You're so funny!
Gosh darn it people, sit still so Jay can take your picture!

Everyday Amusements: Danger Men Drinking

This is a sign that the corner neighbors proudly display. And let me tell you, there is some truth to this sign, because there are constantly men out on this porch, and I don't think I have to tell you what they're doing. Fortunately, I have yet to see any danger, because they are very friendly. We knew it was spring when the Danger Men were seen out on the porch.

Everyday Amusements: Sexy Frog

Today I'm beginning a photographic series of my favorite everyday things. This is the most everyday item on the list, since we really do see her everyday--in fact, we see her every time we enter the house. I give you Sexy Frog:

Sexy Frog resides in our front yard, and looks like she is perpetually posing for a nudie pic. We can't take the credit for Ms. Frog, since she was already there when we moved in, but we've become her biggest fans.

Easter Cupcakes

Not much to say about these. Cute, though, aren't they?
I made twelve egg cupcakes and the rest of the batch just got dollops of frosting. When I was doing the dollops, they looked amazingly like little piles of doggie doo. The little hearts and flowers helped reduce the excrement-ness...or made it look like the dog had had a very interesting meal. Your choice.
I've been attempting to improve my photography skills, and this week, I've discovered--gasp--wait for it--how to turn off the flash (work with me here people, I'm a musicologist, we're not so good with technology). It helped, don't you think?

I've also been trying to do that nifty thing where the front item is in focus and the ones behind are progressively fuzzier. This is the closest I got:
I want to eat that front one now, don't you? Now I just have to learn how to remove the cans of cat food from behind the picture before I snap it.

Has this become a baking blog?

The answer: no. It's just that baking seems like the only thing worth taking photos of lately. I do have some party pics that I just haven't gotten around to yet. Anyway, here is something non-bakey:

http://blog.firstascent.com/

Everest climbing season is underway and I discovered this great expedition blog recently. The First Ascent Everest team includes Ed Viesturs (star of the '96 IMAX movie) and Dave Hahn (who was on the '99 expedition that discovered George Mallory's body), among others. There are tons of Everest blogs out there, but this one in notable because they upload a very polished video dispatch every day. The "arrives Everest basecamp" dispatch from a few days ago includes some gorgeous footage of the icefall. I can't wait to see what they produce when the actual climb begins.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...I'm off to do some baking.

Because on your birthday...

you get to decorate your cake however you want. This birthday girl wanted to practice the technique of filling in shapes with the star tip, so she made a kitty stick figure on her cake.
And she wrote "yay" in the corner, just for kicks.

Partway through the evening, someone very carefully cut out kitty's head and served it to me. I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat it, and by the end of the night, kitty's head was reattached to his body, only upside down.

Party pictures coming soon.

Sunflowers

I made these for a small gathering at my friend Erin's house. They were really fun to make. The sunflowers were oreos with frosting petals and Fruit Roll-up leaves, and the ladybugs were M&Ms. I loved using my frosting tips and will definitely be using them more often.


Some cupcakes had two sunflowers or more:
And some had ladybugs, while others were not as lucky.

My favorite show is returning

Looks like we get both IMG and Himex this year:

Everest: Beyond the Limit