Early Birthday Dinner

I got to begin my birthday celebrations early this year! Since Rose was going to be in town for Leslie's wedding, and Suzanne was going to be OUT of town on my birthday, everyone got together tonight at Salaam to celebrate my 30th!
Pink champagne!

I wore my dream shoes!

Mmm, grilled peach salad.

Suzanne got me a feather headband like the one she has that I LOOOOOOVE!!! Lucky ME!!

Anne got me a belly dancing scarf!! Jingle jingle!

Suzanne made her infamous french toast with bacon cupcakes.

Summer made little flags for them with my insignia!

DELICIOUS.

Rose!

Mr. Studlyhunk even dropped by for a minute! He's been out in California, getting his portrait painted for Blue Moon Wines' Heavyweight Red collection. Didn't it turn out so good?!

After dinner, I found myself faced with a pretty serious dilemma. The bread at Salaam is so good, SO GOOD, that I really wanted to marry it. But then Suzanne busted out her cupcakes and I wanted to marry THEM, too! I love them both!! Here I am giving the cupcake some lovin' while the bread tries to get my attention:

Now it's the bread's turn! Cupcake, don't look over here!

I think that turning 30 has given me wisdom, because that is when I had a GENIUS idea. Make a sandwich! A bacon cupcake sandwich on Salaam bread! Ménage à trois!

AROUND THE WORLD!












UPDATE 11.21.2012: Check it out! Chris Monday happened to write his September 16, 2009 daily comic about this exact birthday dinner! You can see it for yourself in his new comic journal Drink More Water. The sad part is that we would've totally been happy to share our cupcakes if we had only known!

Cape Cod Reunion

We got back late last night from a trip to Cape Cod! Yang and Sarah rented a huge house to celebrate their one-year anniversary and invited us all to join them.

The weather was cold and rainy almost the whole week. The one nice day we took a day trip to Provincetown. The rest of the trip we spent relaxing inside by the fire, which was really nice. Forced to relax! We ate tons of good food and drank tons of deliicous cocktails!

Click here to view Cape Cod photos!

Cheers!

Tonight, Ben and I shared a bottle of Cupcake Vineyards Merlot. How could I NOT buy this wine? Cuteste vineyards ever!

We also had these little baby Prosecco champagnes that Summer gave me when I bought the house. We had been saving them for an evening where we felt really settled and comfortable in the new place, and that got postponed when we had the basement flood. But now things are settling back down and we wanted to celebrate! To the house!

Deringer Wedding!

Ben and I traveled to Blackberry Cove this weekend, to witness one of the most awesome weddings of all time! Clark and Anne got married, and it was one of the sweetest, greatest ceremonies ever, because they are SO happy together and so in love! Yay, love!

It was a camping weekend, so we headed in on Friday night. We ate pizza, played games, and drank beer! On Saturday, we headed to Yellow Springs and Young's Dairy Farm. Mmm, ice cream! Then it was time for the big event! A beautiful wedding, and then a super fun party.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Deringer!


Click here to view wedding photos!

The Mine Mural

Tonight we went to Stuart's Opera House to see Steve Earle. Beforehand, we went to The Mine Tavern a few doors down for some beers. They had added a patio since the last time we were there. Check out the mural. Look at the perspective on that dock! And look!! That one lady is NAKED!!!

Elliot is a very lucky man!

We ordered pizza from Mama Renie's across the street. LOOK at that little BABY PIECE!! Sooooo cute.

Dream Shoes

Today I got my DREAM SHOES in the mail!! A big shoutout to Tasha for discovering these shoes. When I saw hers, I knew that I HAD TO HAVE THEM. And they fit perfectly! I love them.

Black Bean Beef Burgers

Ben's coworker gave him her recipe for black bean beef burgers, and I made them tonight. They were delicious!

Grilled peaches on our salads, too.

Chanterelles

Ben and Joey went mushroom hunting, and came back with a huge bag of chanterelles!

I sauteed them in some butter with onions, and we ate them with pasta.

Yum!

More Pizza!

We grilled pizzas again tonight!

YUMMMM. I could eat grilled pizza every day.

Misuse of Quotation Marks

Today is Cheryl's birthday, so we celebrated at work with a cake! I guess Kroger didn't really want her to have a Happy Birthday.

Ushanka

Today, Nancy had a bunch of us over for some swimming to celebrate the fact that her sister Valaree is in town! We were drinking Suzanne's famous Chi Chis, which are made by filling a frothy pitcher full of pineapple juice, frozen lemonade concentrate, 1 can of Coco Lopez and a fifth of vodka. When you're ready to pour your drink, you pour some of that slushy deliciousness into a cup and then add some seltzer water to fill up the rest.

Valaree misunderstood the directions and thought you were supposed to add VODKA! She made a cocktail for me (vodka + vodka = lots of vodka), and before you know it, somehow I ended up with Kent's ushanka on my head:



ONE STICK! FOR WHOLE COUNTRY TO SHARE!



WE ONLY HAD ONE POTATO!



THE GOVERNMENT TOOK MY FUN!!



Etc., etc., etc....



Hahahahaha.



Needless to say it was a very fun afternoon!

Grilled Pizza

One of my favorite things about summertime is making grilled pizza. This one has pesto, grilled shrimp, artichoke hearts, feta, and tomatoes.