cupcake

So, I was running errands in the city ( San Francisco) and I went to check out a cupcake place I'd heard about in the Marina District, Kara's Cupcakes. I have been wanting to try this place out since I heard about it so I decided that I would try it out today. A friend of mine is having their birthday today and she encouraged me to go out and eat a cupcake in her honor and I decided, why not?

So I picked out a half dozen to take home and decided to eat two there. I picked the following flavors (the descriptions are as they are stated on the menu):
(2) Passion Fruit- vanilla cupcake passion fruit filling and vanilla buttercream
(2) Meyer Lemony Lemon- vanilla cupcake with tart lemon filling and lemon buttercream
(1) Fleur de Sel- Chocolate cupcake with caramel filling, ganache frosting and fleur de sel
(1) Java- chocolate cupcake with rich espresso buttercream
I decided to try out the Meyer Lemony Lemon and the Fleur de Sel, as pictured below.


The Fleur De Sel was tasty. The chocolate cupcake was moist without being too soft. The chocolate ganache was rich and sweet. I could've done with more caramel filling to contrast the chocolate flavor but it was good. The fleur de sel (sea salt) rpovided a great flavor contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate and the caramel. The pic below is of me eating one.


The Meyer Lemony Lemon was very good. It had a lot of good lemon flavor and the tartness of the filling was a good contrast to the sweetness of the lemon buttercream. I love Meyer lemons and I would definitely order that again.

PS: Happy Birthday, Leslie

Seventy

After 23 Days, 14 hours and 13 minutes of gameplay, my first World of Warcraft character (an orc hunter on Shadow Council) has reached level 70. WOOT! Now I just need to work on getting my flying mount and better armor.

I know that a lot of you are probably thinking that I'm some kind of a dork for posting about this but I'm not that hardcore a player and this is a major accomplishment for me.

Turkey

I cooked for Thanksgiving again. The turkey was brined and cooked Good Eats style.











Corn Pudding (always a favorite)










Stuffing (used a sourdough loaf)









Mashed potatoes and gravy (The gravy was from a bottle but the potatoes were made from scratch)

webcams

I've always thought they were kind of cheesy. Yesterday changed my mind.

Recently I've been falling for a girl I haven't met and only know through RoFo, emails, IMs and subsequently, on the phone. I was already deep into infatuation with her before last night.

Last night, she logged onto IM and, naturally, I said hello. She then pops up a window I've never seen before, it asks me if I'd like to view her webcam. I pushed the button to accept and there she was. I'd seen pics before (she'd sent them to me via email and cellphone picture mail). I had heard her voice before over the phone lines. I'd seen her thoughts and words typed out onto the screen in front of me. But this... this was different.

Yes, she is pretty. I had seen that in the pictures before. But, the way she moved was what drew me in. The way her face lit up when she smiled into the camera is indescribable. I was mesmerized by this expressive face on my screen. As I watched emotions pass over her face, from a frown, to a questioning look and back to her sparkling smile I realized I was falling harder. I knew she was a real person but seeing her face move on my screen made it all the more real for me... made HER all the more real.

That's really all I have to say. Thanks for listening.

star**cks

I was driving up Highway 101 with a friend. We were coming up from Mountain View heading back to Daly City and we spotted the following sign. We both did a double take and I asked him if he "just saw what I think I saw." Answering, "Yes," we decided to take the nearest exit and double back to the billboard. I took the following picture with my phone and I thought I'd share a little "anarchy in the Bay Area" with everyone. Note: there was an upside-down star (?pentacle?) drawn over the logo on the cup but my camera phone didn't pic it up too well. Click the pic for a bigger view.

ratatouille

Thanks to my sister's knack for getting movie passes, I saw Ratatouille tonight. I loved it but, then again, I am a bit biased. I'm truly into this movie because it takes place in a kitchen. Patton Oswalt voices the rat Remy who feels out of place in the Rat World because he wants to "a maker, not a taker." His refined palate and great sense of smell help him when he finds himself in his hero's Parisian kitchen fixing a soup. There he meets Linguini, a garbage boy who is mistaken for the creator of Remy's tasty soup. Remy sets to helping Linguini keep his job and becomes the puppeteer that helps Linguini succeed in the kitchen. Torn between being a rat and wanting to be more than another taker, Remy straddles the fine line and succeeds. An uplifting story and lots of kitchen action, now that's my kind of movie!

cut

I polled my friends via text message and asked them whether i should just trim my long hair or cut it off altogether. The overwhelming majority chose cut the hair.

Results were as follows:
Cut it short: 8
Leave it long but trim: 2
And my cousin, in his infinite wisdom, created a write-in vote: "rock the hawk"



Before








After








For nostalgia's sake a pic of the hawk

Once

I watched a movie for the third time in the theater today. I would think that's pretty unusual these days with the rising cost of movie tickets and the increasingly mediocre quality of movies making it to production. but this one was/is different. The movie I'm talking about is called Once.

The story is simple and yet effective. Girl meets Guy. Guy is singing songs on the street corner. Girl gets Guy to fix her vacuum cleaner. Guy finds out Girl is a musician/songwriter like him. Guy and Girl get together to write songs and record a demo. Guy and Girl's lives are changed forever by their meeting each other.

The truly great part about this movie is how it intergrates the music as a part of the film experience. The two main characters (not named anything more than Guy and Girl even in the credits) are writing songs throughout the entire movie. When they sing, not only does the music become the soundtrack of the movie it almost becomes another character in the film. The song lyrics seem to narrate the feelings and thoughts that the scenes try to portray visually. This was the first time I have seen music used in this manner and it was amazing.

I hope everyone gets a chance to see this film. I recommend finding it when it comes out on DVD if you can't catch it in the theaters. A definite MUST see.

poster

I bought a CD poster almost 5 years ago. I thought it was a novel idea to put up CDs as an "art piece." I've always liked the look of some cover art and I thought this would be a great way to display them. The poster allows me to display the entire CD (case cover and all) while still being able to access the disc inside (See picture one and then 2 with the open cases). I finally put it up this week (yeah, way to procrastinate) And put a bunch of CDs in it. I actually went more for favorites and "classic album" value over good cover art. Though I think that my choices have good art as well.

Here's a list so far if you're interested (from top left, row by row) The blanks are blank for now but I ut in some thoughts for that space:

blank (John Mayer- Room For Squares)
Paolo Nutini- These Streets
blank (John Mayer- Continuum)
Astrud Gilberto- Astrud Bilberto's Finest Hour
blank (Jon McLaughlin- Indiana)
Death Cab for Cutie- Transatlanticism
Green Day- Dookie
Stan Getz- Getz for Lovers
blank (Dave Barnes- Brother, Bring the Sun)
Pearl Jam- Vs.
Steve Miller- Young Hearts: The Best of Steve Miller
Stacey Kent- Let Yourself Go
My Chemical Romance- Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
Lemonheads- It's a Shame About Ray
Dixie Chicks- Fly
They Might be Giants- Flood
Dashboard Confessional- MTV Unplugged
Harry Connick, Jr.- When Harry Met Sally Soundtrack
Counting Crows- August and Everything After
Jeff Buckley- Grace
Ben Folds- Rockin the Suburbs
Pearl Jam- Ten
Kyle Riabko- Before I Speak
Lauryn Hill- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

vampire

Which Vampire: The Masquerade clan do you belong in?

Some Kindred, either from ignorance of their linneage or dilution of clan traits due to thin blood, have no distinguishable clan to speak of. These Caitiff are often seen as little more than pawns by most factions, especially the Camarilla. Cannon fodder at best and hunted outcasts at worst, they keep to themselves or others of their kind for the most part, viewed by those of "purer" blood as clueless proles or weak-blooded, useless drones. Of course, at times, their independance from clan politics can prove significantly advantageous.
Take this quiz!








Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code