Alaina's Bat Mitzvah: Getting Ready

Alaina, Alexa, and I went to Sheer Bliss, where Kim used to work, to have our hair done for the Bat Mitzvah. Alaina went with a classic look for her hair, while Alexa and I had a chance to catch up. Alexa has become such an interesting person. I wish we lived closer so I knew her a bit better. Alaina after her appointment:
I went with a curly look and I loved how it turned out! The stylist lifted some of it up on top of my head with bobby pins to give it some height and it looked really cool (although it hurt when I lay down for bed later).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch that was the Durham Hilton, party set-up was in full swing. Kim's friend Marti was heading up the decorations committee, with help from Elisa, Casey, Sheryl and Molly.
Marti made the centerpieces, which were made of layered pink and green sand topped with flower arrangements she did herself. It was a good look.
Molly and I rocked our way through the hotel to her ipod (sharing headphones, of course), and set up for the candle-lighting ceremony.
A cupcake tower was part of the dessert extravaganza. Here the baker sets it up.
The finished product. The cupcakes were tasty, but the cake on top was AMAZING. We cut into it on Sunday evening--really chocolatey layer cake.
I made the a sign-in book for guests. I basically designed scrapbook pages without any pictures where guests could write messages to Alaina. I tried to incorperate her interests and favorite colors. It was a challenge for me, because I rarely scrapbook, but I am very happy with the outcome. I layed out the pages on tables to make them accessible.

Alaina really loved the book, which made me extremely happy and proud as well.

With everything in place, we were set to leave the hotel and proceed to the Temple for photos and the main event.

Cakewrecks

On Thursday, November 5, Miriam and I met up to attend an author presentation at Barnes and Noble. The speaker was none other than Jen Yates, the creator of the hilarious blog Cakewrecks! Jen recently authored a book by the same name, depicting many of the wrecks, with anecdotes and bits of humor. She and her husband John are in the process of a book tour around the country. Miriam and I were wicked early, which meant we got actual seats.
We also had ample time to look at the "wreckplicas" of cake wrecks--mini cakes or cupcakes intentionally decorated to look like ugly cakes featured on the website. Here is one example:

For each stop on the tour, local professional bakers bake and decorate cakes for the audience to eat after the talk. Often, these cakes pay homage to wrecks on the website, either specific wrecks, or the genre.
The other cake baked by Fancy Cakes had a back-story. Jen and John had called the bakery to ask them to do a cake for the signing. Leslie at Fancy Cakes said, "oh, Cake Wrecks! One of our cakes was on that site." Whoops... It was a rather well-made cake, featuring Obama. The only objection came from his "awkward hand placement."

Leslie, who was there at the event, joked that they "dusted off the cake" to bring it to the signing. I assumed she was kidding, and had baked a copy of the cake for the occasion. When we got close to the cake after the talk, I saw that it was, indeed, dusty. Ew.

Anyways, Jen and John were quite funny--they had us laughing really hard. What I liked about them was that they seemed like regular people--a little geeky, a little awkward in an endearing way, and not afraid to laugh at themselves. Jen's mic kept making terrible noises, so there was much laughing about that.

They showed a slide show of some of their favorite wrecks, and told us how the blog started. After a few odd questions from the audience, we ate some delicious almond cake and waited for a long time for Miriam to get her book signed. Meeting them was comfortable and fun, and I got the sense that they were genuinely pleased that we were there.

Getting Acquainted with Prince William

The last few days I've felt like I was in a fog. The weather has been cooler and rainy, and I come home every evening unsure of what to do with myself. Yesterday I made curried lentils and cauliflower. They came out really well; I could taste all of the tumeric. But I should have just eaten them for dinner and taken a break. Instead I ate them for dinner, then lunch today, and then dinner tonight. This was a poor choice.

Yesterday (9/10) driving to work I missed my exit and ended up in rural historic Virginia. I knew it was so because I passed the historic site of the Battle of Bull Run, and the historic brick building standing next to it.

Also, because the fences looked like this.


I thought it was pretty cool, but was soon extremely lost, so I called my boss and said, "I'm lost. I'm not sure where I am but there are these funky fences..." Luckily, she knew where that meant I was, so she gave me directions and I got to work only about 10 minutes later than usual.

Because gas prices are about 30 cents cheaper in Manassas than Bethesda, I figured I would see if the same was true with groceries. It was interesting to compare the Giant there with the Giant I shop at usually. I think the products in a grocery store can really reflect the demographics of the area--flavors of snacks, types of produce, and relative amount of devoted space in the "international" or "ethnic" aisle. In Manassas, the kosher section had about 2 boxes of matzah and some Kedem Tea Biscuits, while further down the same aisle was this extensive collection of Goya sodas. And this doesn't include the cans of fruit nectar. In Bethesda, there are 4 kinds of Bisli, but only coconut soda and Malto.


As a public health person interested in the demographics of the region, this reflected what I had been told about Prince William County. Few Jews, many Spanish speakers. It's my time out of the office that is helping me to get to know where I am working. It's really different from Bethesda, and I like it.

Friday, September 11: Today was a very busy day at work, but good. I got a lot done. After work I was feeling, as we put it in my family, "sad and lonely," so I went to downtown Bethesda for some coffee and people watching. It had been raining, so the number of people out and about was reduced, but the teenagers were out in droves. Not older, oh-so-cool teenagers, but 14 year olds in tight packs, lighting candles in a piece of cake and singing happy birthday in front of the gelato shop. And vaguely pubescent boys, skateboarding through pedestrians while warning, "on your left." This all reminds me of growing up in Pittsford and having nothing to do on weekend nights. At least these kids have somewhere walkable.

I popped by the grocery store tonight for some beans (not for me, for a potluck!), and found this gem of a cake. It's made of cupcakes and I think is a lion that ran into a wall.

The Last Few Days

Friday August 28: A fairly low-key day with a trip to the grocery store. There we happened upon this gem of a cake. It's always appropriate to present your 3-year-old with Elmo's Road Rage. The only reason I even look at the grocery store cakes is this website. This woman collects images of professionally-decorated cakes gone horribly wrong, and shares the love with the internet. Good for some serious laughs.
Saturday, August 29: We started the morning off with a trip downtown (in Bethesda) to our favorite bagel place. They make real bagels--chewy, crusty, absolutely delicious. We picked up some toasted everythings with homemade chive cream cheese and headed next door to get some locally roasted coffee. Quartermaine doesn't mind if you eat your bagel with your coffee. Bethesda is hopping on a Saturday morning--families, joggers, dogs. Also on Saturday we went downtown to Natural History to the Ocean Hall, which was kind of disappointing. Although, I really do like marine life. Reading about them on giant placards, not so much. And going to the Mall on weekends makes me want to tear my hair out--lots of whiny touristy families. So we went to the Old Post Office and rode the elevator up for a view of the whole city. It was cool to see how much I could recognize just from my knowledge of where things are and what they look like. Sometimes I feel like I belong to this city.

Sunday, August 30: Nora was in town for a bit, so Sarah and I met up with her for Dim Sum. Nora and I managed to dress the same, so we thought we'd get some nice photos. But I couldn't resist tickling her, so we also got one of these:
Apparently, the National Hillel chose Chinatown for its home, which resulted in this awesome sign:

In other news, I am starting my new job tomorrow. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! I will be the H1N1 Specialist in Prince William County, in Virginia. Basically I'll be their swine flu go-to girl. I think it will be really cool, and what an opportunity!!! I will have a long commute in my car, so I am taking any and all suggestions for books on CD, including but not limited to juvenile and young adult titles.