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And we're back

So it's been a while! But these days I've got a little extra time at work to kill so I figured I would dust off this old thing...

Here is an update. Ironman came and went. I sat on the couch, gained 40 pounds (ate a lot of good food though), did some renovations on the house and I'm getting back in the workout game. Stay tuned for more amazingly exciting updates :)

Cuteness Runs in the Family

Spiky ear hair may also run in the family, but it's a little too early to tell.

Confessions of a Cheapskate

[My husband informs me that I talk too openly about things like poo, pee, vomit, and other personal matters. So, to avoid shocking anybody who has come here to read about cake, triathlon training, or the cutest dog in the universe, I am hereby issuing a TMI warning. If you're easily grossed out by bodily functions, you might want to skip this post. The rest of you sickos, read on.]

I recently posted about my new coffee obsession, and the fact that I am a much nicer person in the morning after I've had a cup or, let's be honest, two. I used to scoff at all the caffeine junkies lining up outside Starbucks for their jolt of java, but I'm sad to say that I'm now one of those addicts. Though Starbucks (yuck!) isn't what did me in. No, I blame Hines Public Market Coffee for initiating the downward spiral. I was always satisfied with green tea until an innocuous looking bag of Hines beans and a French press proved just how delicious coffee can be.

Besides making me perky, coffee drinking has another side effect: it gets things moving, if you know what I mean. And normally I view this as a good thing. It's really quite satisfying to get the daily constitutional over and done with and go on about my day. The one problem is timing. I'm never really quite sure just when nature will call, whether it will be two sips into the first cup or halfway through the second. Because I work from home, this inconsistency isn't normally a problem, except for days like today when I have an early morning meeting on the calendar.

I think you probably know where I'm going with this by now, so I'll just cut to the chase and tell you that during this morning's teleconference I was faced with an extraordinarily urgent need to...drop the kids off at the pool. And not to be crass, but the kids couldn't wait. And I have to say that while you're trying to lower yourself gently so that the sound of the bum hitting the seat remains inaudible to your colleagues is not the ideal time to discover that your cordless telephone lacks, of all things, a mute button.

Oh I tried to do my business quietly, I tried to cover the phone's microphone with my finger, I tried coughing and pencil tapping to disguise any errant sounds. But about halfway through the...evacuation...one of the people on the line paused mid-sentence to say, "Is my audio okay for you guys? Cause I'm using this new headset and I seem to be picking up a lot of...outside noises." Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I know what he meant. And I'm pretty sure that if he heard "outside noises," everybody else on the telecon heard them too. Despite my desperate attempt at control. Despite my finger across the microphone.

If there is a moral to this story, it must be LISTEN TO YOUR HUSBAND. Because even though you want to cheap out on a basic phone, even if you don't think you will need any of those fancy, over-priced features, your husband is right when he says that someday you might. Someday your coffee might be a little stronger than usual. Someday you might need to release the hounds with a quickness. And, who knows, someday you might just think that little mute button is worth every last penny.

Cocktails, Dancing, What Have You

Well, I can't sleep. It's after midnight and James and Disco are snoring away next to me, but here I am awake. Perhaps this explains my desperate need for coffee in the mornings? Anyway, since I'm up, I thought I would tell you about my recent trip to Philadelphia to visit my university roommates. Really I went to visit Nilika, but by a stroke of luck, Lucey was in town too. So it was a double whammy. Looking through my photos from the trip, I now realize that there aren't very many. I guess we were just too busy having fun, so I will have to fill in the gaps for you.

Where to begin? How about with Obama? Philly loves him, apparently.


Nilika threw a housewarming party, and Lucey and I got caught in a downpour on the way there.



Neel's roommates were fab. We did lots of wandering down the historic, tree-lined streets in Nil's neighborhood.


Much of this wandering took place after long nights of cocktails, dancing, what have you. Judgements may have been impaired.



Despite the lack of photographic evidence, it was an excellent trip. Nilika, Neel, and the Fitzwater family were incredible hosts and showed us a great time. Now they'll all just have to come to Victoria so we can return the favor!

One Hell of a Revelation

After a late night of cake-making, I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to prepare for an early meeting. Took Disco out to do her business, checked email, watched some Tour de France...you know, the usual. But upon stumbling into the kitchen, I found something that made me want to head straight back to bed, curl into a fetal position under the covers, and wish for the resilience of a cockroach.

Plague? Check.
Pestilence? Check.
Not a speck of coffee in the whole damn house? Checkity check.

Let us pray.

Happy, Happy Birthday Granny!

May there be many, many more!!

White Rabbit Goes Camping

Sarah's boyfriend took her camping on Saltspring Island for her birthday, and he wanted to surprise her with a camping-themed cake. Who did he call? White Rabbit Cakery, of course! We created a forest cake for Sarah, with birds in the trees, a bear scratching his back, and a googly eyed snake winding around a tree trunk. And lots of mysterious eyes peering out from within the forest. Oh, and of course there was a red pup tent -- who didn't grow up camping in one of those? -- with a pair of feet sticking out. We considered putting two pairs of feet, but not knowing Sarah and her boyfriend very well, we didn't want to get the poor chap into trouble! Inside was our signature chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling. We hope the cake survived its journey to Saltspring and was enjoyed by birthday girl Sarah and all her camping buddies.

Chef James Presents: Cherry Lime Pie

Did I mention he cooks now???  Oh, baby!!!

Sparks

About a week ago, James and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary with a big meal, a bottle of wine, and a late show.  With the notable exception of our bulging bellies, it felt like any other night out together, and we both agreed that the third anniversary calls for less pomp than the second, and only a fraction of the first.  It's a good thing, don't you think, that we're not counting the days with tick marks on the wall, not treating every month survived together as a remarkable milestone?  But just because we've settled in for the long haul doesn't mean we're not enjoying ourselves.  Sure, our life together has become comfortable.  Sure, we've broken each other in.  But there is still laughter.  There are still sparks.  And in the words of our favorite psycho cheerleader, changing the routine now would be, like, total murder-suicide.  Seriously.

Adventures in Cooking

So I've never been able to cook. I mean I can make toast but that is about the limits of my culinary skill. Kristi has always been the one to pick up the slack in our relationship and provide me with healthy tasty food. Problem is when she is not around I stare into the fridge look at all the food and have no idea what to do with any of it. I've decided to take a stand and learn how to cook for myself.

There are these things called cookbooks that are surprisingly easy to use! Who knew? In the past week I've been making a few soups and last night I cooked dinner for Kristi and I. I saw some amazing looking turnips at the farmers market and heard them calling my name. Yes, you heard me right. I said turnips! Turnips alone however wouldn't cut it so I also made a lentil soup to go along with it. I present to you Glazed Turnips and Mediterranean Lentil soup.

Glazed Turnips (so good!). From Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Burley

Mediterranean Lentil Soup. From Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters

Sexy on the Inside

Abi's mom sent us more pictures of the heavy metal cake, complete with a sexy inside shot. Enjoy!

To Market

Today was our third Saturday at the Moss Street Market. It was also the first sunny day in MONTHS, and the first day that we sold out long before the market was over. Coincidence? I think not! We also had a very special order to fill today -- an Iron Maiden birthday cake for our friend Abi -- which was fun but very challenging, and it's left Cara and I both thoroughly exhausted. But before I tuck myself in for the night, here are some long overdue pictures from the past few weeks.

Cupcakes in boxes:

Cupcakes out of boxes:

Cara made us this awesome menu chalkboard sandwich board sign thingie:

A recent special order, a birthday cake for a talented writer:

And finally, a bird's eye view of today's Iron Maiden birthday cake, mind the wicked flames:

Disco says it's bedtime. Sweet, cakey dreams, everybody!

Vegetables Never Tasted So Good

White Rabbit Cakery, formerly known as the Sugar Sisters, will be at the Moss Street Market every Saturday in May (except May 17) from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. If you live in Victoria and don't know where the Moss Street Market is, shame on you -- it's at the corner of Moss and Fairfield. Cara and I will be there peddling our fabulous (vegan) cupcakes, mini cakes, and cookies. Advance orders are welcome, and can be emailed to info@whiterabbitcakery.com.

We'd like to keep this going all summer, but we have to sell enough cakes to keep our spot. So hop on over to the market, ignore all the icky vegetable stands, and come see us for a serious sugar high.

Don't Try This At Home

Today I managed to ruin both a dinner plate and a tea towel with a single stick of unattended incense. And just as I was starting to mentally prepare myself for the fire safety lecture I was certain I would be subjected to, I stepped outside to see that James had left a bag of garbage next to the front door. That's right folks, the man forgot to take the garbage down to the dumpster and left it on our doorstep for all the world to smell. From where I sit this looks like a tie game, and I am thinking I am probably going to get away with tea towel arson without so much as a dirty look. Amen and hallelujah, and who says all the fun stops after the honeymoon?

Finger-Licking Good

Me: Are you here for the giant raccoon?

Animal Control Officer: No. I'm here for the cougar.

Me: Cougar?!?

Animal Control Officer: Yes. We've had a report of a cougar on the other side of your building.

Me: Yikes!

Animal Control Officer: I suggest you get inside.

Me: Okay.

Animal Control Officer: And take that cougar-snack of a dog with you.

What a Way to Go

8:00 am Wake up early to bake pie.

10:00 am Put pie in oven without a baking sheet underneath.

10:34 am Pie overflows.

12:30 pm Remove ruined pie and set oven to Self Clean.

2:45 pm Die from inhalation of noxious oven cleaning fumes.

2:47 pm Eaten by rabid, pie loving terrier.

Candlelit Dinner Optional

A few days ago, my husband announced that he has already picked out my birthday present and that it's a really good one. Don't be shocked and amazed by the fact that my birthday isn't until July. That James is a real catch, and he gives a good present. And since I know him to be both romantic and thoughtful (occasionally even at the same time), I immediately thought, YES!, this wonderful man is buying me a new dishwasher, one that won't spew soapy water all over the floor every third power wash cycle.

But then I thought, wait a second, James can do better than that. If this man is a true romantic, and I know that he is, then instead of a buying me a new dishwasher, he must have signed me up for appliance repair classes. Because then when my dishwasher breaks I can say to myself, sorry ma'am, can't find nothin' wrong with it, write myself a check for 500 bucks, and then mosey on down to the local Home Depot to buy myself something shiny and stainless. Teach a man to fish, right honey?

Snack Attack

I just finished a recipe for the latest issue of the Victoria Vegan. This time, instead of baking for people, I baked blueberry dog biscuits for Disco. She liked them. A lot. And it sure took a lot of them to get her to sit still for this picture.

P.S. About Portland: it was fun and it rained. The end.

P.P.S. Those dog biscuits aren't half bad!

Grouchy

The morning started out fine, except that I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Excited, I guess, about today's roadtrip. So I got up early and made coffee and got nicely caffeinated while reading the news (and by news I mean my favorite blogs). And then I packed all of my perfectly folded (to avoid wrinkles) clothes very precisely into my suitcase, a pre-trip ritual that I typically savor, a sort of obsessive-compulsive delicacy if you will. And then I did what I normally do when there are vegetables in the fridge that aren't likely to be eaten before they're past their prime: I put a huge pot of water on the stove and chucked them all in to simmer for a few hours while I got ready for work. If you're never made your own vegetable broth, you don't know what you're missing. It's so easy, so cheap, and makes use of those veggies that are on the bubble...too wilted to munch on, but still too perky to toss. So far, so good, I thought. It was shaping up to be an excellent day.

But then I couldn't fit all the dirty dishes into the dishwasher and had to HAND WASH some --horror of horrors -- which made my hands all dry and scratchy, and I think I can feel a hangnail starting to form. And then I tripped a breaker while blow drying my hair and couldn't for the life of me get the little breaker switch to stay flipped in the proper direction. And then, when I was throwing out the cooked veggies after straining off the broth, I missed the garbage can and dumped the entire pot onto my left foot, covering one of my new shoes in a mountain of sloppy vegetable mush. To their credit, the shoes cleaned up nicely, and the only reminder of the incident is the fact that one of my shoes now smells...well,vegetable infused, for lack of a better term.

Despite what you may think, I didn't come here just to gripe. I also came to ask you to pray for James today, if you do that sort of thing. Because the poor guy has to sit in a car with his grouchy, scratchy, vegetable infused wife all the way to Oregon today, and he's going to need all the help he can get. So send him patient vibes and keep him in your thoughts. Oh, and if you have thoughts to spare, I know a certain hangnail that could use a little attention...