Getting my hair did.

You know how when you clean your house you often make it worse before you make it better? If you're doing it right, anyway. I know Joan knows what I'm talking about. Well when getting your own self beautified you also have to make it worse before you make it better:

After I got my hairs did I went out for sushi with Ben and Sarah. It was after 7 by the time I got there and they're both totally jet lagged so I offered a rain check but their goal for the evening was to stay up until 9 (WATCH OUT!) so we went out anyway.

This particular sushi boat moves FAST so that, plus the fact that poor ol' Sarah was t-i-r-e-d meant that by the time she got her arm up in the air, her roll of choice had already ZOOMED by.

Fun Fact:

Going to a sushi boat with Ben and Sarah is not advisable because they end up with a stack of five measly plates COMBINED and you feel like a major OINKER for the six plates in front of you. I will say that I think six plates at a sushi boat is NOTHING compared to the plate towers other people build, but it still made me very self conscious.

When I was still on speaking terms with WWBF we'd go for sushi all the time and I don't know how he did it but I SWEAR half of his plates would end up in MY stack. No biggie because YOU KNOW I WAS PAYING FOR IT ALL ANYWAY except that believe me when I say that I'm SURE it was a subconscious (or maybe just passive aggressive, now that I think about it) Weight Watcher move. (And I guess this is where I should explain that I met him at Weight Watchers, for those of you who weren't around for that roller coaster.)

Unrelated:

I think I might want this cake pan:

The main problem though is that it looks like a WALL of cake and that doesn't appeal to me because, you know, cake is useless without frosting.

Thanks for the link, Jordy.

On the agenda for the weekend:

1. Hot date with Tony & John! We're gonna cross another item off the list of 100 things to try in SF before we die. Possibly #43.

2. Drag queen brunch for Sarah's birthday! We'll be brunching with two pregnant chicks and one of them is pretty close to her due date so we all need to cross our fingers that she doesn't go into labor before Sunday because we're past the cancel-by date so we'll have to pay for her anyway. DAMN HER for not considering the drag queens while planning her family. Sheesh.

2a. And no, I'm not talking about the birth of my future niece or nephew. That one still gets 9 more weeks of cookin' time. S/he did, by the way, kick my hand the other day. My hand was on L's belly at the time, so it's to be expected and all, but it was still a strange experience.

HOLY CRAP I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT IN NINE WEEKS.

Killers, Billy Joel & Cupcakes

Yesterday was kinda blah but today? Whooooo boy...my Tuesday got off to an exciting start. I rolled up to my boot camp location at 5:29AM and saw a police line and a couple of not-the-standard-park-service-police-guy-who-usually-patrols-the-area police cars (one with a dog inside who was going APE SHIT).

The whole picnic area alongside the building was taped off:


Totally un-scenic workout area, don't you think?

BTW, Kristy & Jason -- juuuuust on the other side of that building is where I took you for pictures under the bridge!

That particular neck of the woods is really dark and creepy at night (or early morning) but there's also a steady stream of runners passing through so it's an awesome spot to kill someone, but you'd only have a few minutes to do it. Earlier in our session I thought for sure the plastic bags I saw shining in the moonlight were covering up severed body parts but as it got lighter outside they just looked like piles of junk.

So we don't know what the heck was going on, but there was lots of excitement out there this morning. And even though we don't think anybody was murdered out there last night, they did appear to be searching for someone in the tall grass as I drove in and I was still glad the coach didn't make us run up the mountain (where it's pitch black and you can't see more than a few feet in front of you) and into the hands of the killer. I'm sure our tired asses will be forced up that hill next time though.

In other news:

1. I bought Billy Joel (and Elton John) tickets yesterday! Joanie and I went to see Billy Joel a couple of years ago because it was an item on my life list and maaaaaaaaaan, that guy is one hell of an entertainer. Thank goodness for tax refunds because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to pay for the BAJILLION dollar tickets. Aren't you rich enough, Billy? Elton? Come ON.

2. I attended my "orientation" to house and dog sit for Ben & Sarah while they go on the vacation I planned for them. I'm a full-service travel advisor, I tell you. Travel planning AND house/dog sitting! Except maaaaaaaaaaaybe I forget that hotel rooms in Rome might be stupid expensive if you're there on EASTER SUNDAY. Doi. And maaaaaaaaaaaybe I don't notice that the cheap and easy ways of getting to Sorrento from Naples don't operate during the off-season. OOPS! Enjoy that commuter rail, kids!

2a. While I'm kickin' it at Casa de Slowsky I think I'm gonna entertain myself by trying to make these:

The only problem is that if all is successful, I'll be left with a gang of delicious things that I should not be eating and two of the people I might try to pass them off on will be in Italy.

3. Okay, blah blah blah. Killers, Billy Joel & cupcakes. I have work to do.

Happy Burthday in the Middle.

I knew he'd get a kick out of it so I sent my dad that picture of the ("Olynpics") cake from Cake Wrecks and HOT SPIT if he didn't present this cake to me for my birthday yesterday:



I burst out laughing and the cake nearly landed in my mom's lap, but hahahaha! It was on purpose, of course, but BEST BIRTHDAY CAKE EVER!

And FYI cake snobs, my dad and I are like the only two people in the world who think Safeway birthday cake is the only way to go. Fancy schmancy cakes with whipped cream and ganache and bittersweet chocolate shavings?

HELL TO THE NO.

And incidentally, I clicked over to Cake Wrecks to get the link and found something you all really need to look at.

Happy Birthday Over the Top

In the past 90 minutes I've seen three separate links to a blog called Cake Wrecks. How did the whole world know about this site before me? Not that I'm a trendsetter or anything, but I like cake and I like stupid, so the fact that the entire internet got there before I did is an indicator that I need to take my head out of the sand.

So anyway, Cake Wrecks. I love all the creepy baby butts and the slutty pregnant woman cakes and the quotation mark disasters, but here's the one that inspired me to share:



Number one, it's the most boring cake in the universe and whoever decorated it probably has the pizazz of a stale marshmallow. Number two, it's actually very reminiscent of a cake my dad ordered four score and seventy-nine years ago. Or, more specifically, back when I was a kid. The olden days.

My dad, a former Marine (except once a Marine, always a Marine and all...SEMPER FI!), likes to celebrate the Marine Corps birthday with his Marine buddies and this particular year he went down to the local bakery and ordered a birthday cake with the Marine Corps emblem (which he also had tattooed on one of his teeth) and Happy Birthday written over the top. When he went to pick it up he balked because it wasn't quite what he expected.

What was wrong with it?

It actually said "Happy Birthday Over the Top."

I don't know how old I was at the time -- no more than ten or eleven (NOTE: I shouldn't talk smack about dumbasses because I totally just typed "ten or 11") -- but even then I knew that this was STUPID. I wish I had a picture to share but that was in the olden days before my dad (or really anyone else for that matter) had a digital camera to capture the magic, so you'll have to use your imagination.

Double Bonus: The bakery lady thought the Marine Corps emblem was a team logo or something. This is more forgivable though because I think the only reason I know what the Marine Corps emblem looks like is because A) I was the only five-year-old on the block who knew the lyrics to the Marine Corps Hymn and B) my dad DID have it tattooed on his tooth and all. For reals.

But FYI: