Sunday, March 31, 2013

A Post In Which I Feel Better That Break Is Over By Eating Twelve Pounds of Dessert

As soon as I started to do a bit of the work on Friday afternoon--work I'd put off doing all week long--I realized that my break was finally over. But right before I did that first bit of work (grading, of course), I had my ladies' lunch: Julie and Max, Mary and Sophia and Lydia, Caren and Lindy (Lilette was home with Tim), and me and Rebecca (both of us childless).

Pretty ladies!

Maxie Five Cents, looking cool as usual

One nice picture just after sitting down, before the toddler hijinks began

Maxie Five Cents, staring me down. He's a tough cookie.

And then I knew that my fun was over and I had to do a bit of work (and a bit more knitting and a bit of straightening up before my amazing V-Write mentee, Angelica, and her friend Chantal came over for some hang-time on Saturday.) But I swear that I did a little work.

On Saturday the girls suggested that we make an Oreo pie, and I thought it was a fine idea. Better than fine, actually, so we got our ingredients and the girls got to it. Although they first had to see what all the fuss was about baker's chocolate. Was it really as gross as I told them it was?


Yes. It really was.

They quickly got over that, though, and went to work.

Cooking up some pie filling

Chantal, scraping the cookie crumbs for the crust

Angelica, pouring out some crumbs


A layer of ice cream? Don't mind if we do!
The almost finished product
Once the pie was at this stage (and covered in more crumbs, obviously), we stuck it in the freezer and I started dinner while the girls did some work. Angelica did her science homework and ACT prep, and Chantal worked on a cover letter for a job she's applying for at the Anti Cruelty Society. Obviously, they will both be successful because they are both fantastic.

But to be really successful, they needed to eat a balanced meal. So we sat down to eat some vegetable soup with pasta and sandwiches,

Dinner
and, of course, pie.

Dessert--also part of the formula for success
The mostly eaten product
The girls went home with leftovers (a half pie in my house would not have lasted the night) and set our next date to go check out the Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights.

And today, Sunday, was Easter; and there was a lot more dessert. I mean, a lot.

There was lamb cake:

The most suspicious looking lamb in Chicago

And since that lamb was so suspicious, we took care of him, and quick.

Oh, sorry lamb. Did you need that head? TOO BAD. Lamb jerk.

There was also marzipan cake (nearly as fun to say as it is to eat!):


There was another cake (caramel) and good four pounds of cookies. Bo was responsible for eating 2/3 of them. I might have been responsible for eating the other third. That's what aunts are for.

We burned off a few calories by playing catch.


And then T. and I retired home to watch the season finale of The Walking Dead (o.m.g. how am I supposed to wait until October for the next season? October!?) and the season premiere of Game of Thrones (o.m.d. [d for dragons, of course]). And I have more work to do before tomorrow, but instead, I worked on this post and am now watching Superman on t.v. And I might eat a cookie before I go to bed. Yes. I think I'll do that right now.

My finished vanitas picture. T. suggested the inscription.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Spring Break 2013!

I'm on Spring Break this week, and so far the days have been pretty relaxing--just me, Roo, and our streaming Netflix account.

So far, I've done a lot of not a lot, and that not a lot has consisted of the following:

Knitting a sweater for Roo:

I will most likely finish it just in time for summer

Taking Roo on some walks:

Roo is a good addition to our colorful neighborhood (yes, that's a mermaid next to that tree)

Watching some fun junk on the t.v., including:
  • The Evil Dead (they've remade it and the new version comes out next week)
  • V/H/S (an interesting concept, but not very successful)
  • The Switch (good only because there's the mention of a three-legged dog, but that doesn't come until the end of the movie, so just fast forward through it)
  • The Wave (pretty creepy and interesting)
  • And four episodes of Revenge (which I am quickly falling into a trash-t.v.-romance with)
And thinking about finishing the vanitas painting I started during our English/Art Appreciation learning community. Here it is:

It's unfinished. But, I also have very little talent.
It's my first painting, and it was really fun to work on, so I'm definitely going to finish it before my break is over. I do not guarantee that it will be better than it currently is, but it will, at least, be different. So that's something.

Roo and I also went to visit Trevor at work this afternoon after I'd gotten home from a work trip to check out the professional development department at Moraine Valley Community College (it was a lot of fun and it made me feel productive after all of that t.v. watching). T's work buddies liked Roo a lot, and she loved being the center of attention:

Checking out the cubicile scene

Touching base with T.

Giving some kisses

Tomorrow I'm meeting some of the girls for a ladies' lunch (a very luxurious thing to do), doing some errand running, and cleaning up the house before Saturday, when Angelica (my Open Books mentee) and her friend Chantal are coming over for dinner (I will cook), baking (Angelica will bake), and homework (Angelica will do, and I will help). I'm sure that more pictures of that will follow, so until then,

SPRING BREAK 2013! WHOOOOO!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Corporate Confections

The other day I was given a poignant example of the canyon sized difference between working in corporate America and working in non-profit education. And it came in the form of pastries.

This was what Trevor had waiting for him on Friday afternoon:

Baked goods and banana pudding, courtesy of Magnolia Bakery (which is trying to wrangle some business from CS Brides)

And this was what I had:



Now, don't get me wrong; I love my job and I really love Country Donuts. But sometimes, I miss that corporate America decadence.

Luckily I have a wonderful husband who shares his treats.

T. brought me home this beautiful and delicious cupcake. This was my reaction.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Photo Shoots, Part 1

Happy One Year Anniversary to the gorgeous Fran (Napier) Power and Neill (Power) Power!

The two were married last year on a warm, sunny St. Patrick's Day afternoon. The ceremony was lovely and the party was full of family, food, candy, and a whole hell of a lot of dancing (there may also have been drinking). We posted about the Napier-Power wedding officially, but we never posted about the fame that followed a month later.

Trevor, who works as a photo editor for four magazines published by Modern Luxury, immediately recognized Fran & Neill's attractiveness and submitted one of their wedding photos to CS Brides, one of Modern Luxury's sister publications.

Here's the photo he submitted:

I mean, they're gorgeous, right?
Of course the editors published the photo, and it ran in the Fall/Winter 2012 print and web editions. It's still on the CS Brides website, so check it out (and I'm not saying that the other couples on the site are duds, but, well...yawn.)

So, here's to many more years of happiness for Neill and Fran! And hurry up and get to a milestone anniversary so we can have another party.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

There is Nothing New to Report

Except that Roo and I had an official snow day last Tuesday (campus was closed--all classes canceled) and we spent the morning eating the delicious breakfast sandwiches that Trevor had picked up for us at the corner deli (Roo, actually, did not have a sandwich, but Trevor and I thoroughly enjoyed ours).

Sandwich
Then, poor Trevor had to go to work, so Roo and I whiled away the time, playing with toys,

This is my squeaky pink dog. Her name is Cliffina

Walking in the snow,

Snow.

Eating macaroni and cheese,

What? You didn't expect that breakfast sandwich to tide me over for the entire day, did you?

And napping. 

There is no picture of us napping.

Otherwise, not much is going on. Hopefully we will do something fun and interesting very soon.

Catch you guys later.

See ya.