The White Chocolate Devil

I can’t say for certain if I am losing weight because of my trips to the gym. Getting on a scale doesn’t happen very often. I do know that yesterday, my work pants were in severe danger of falling off entirely. I am obviously losing inches. Even after one week of not going to work out, the inches lost have been maintained. That’s pretty good for me. Especially since I ate a very small variety of healthy things this past weekend. Pork ribs, sausage, and cake made with no less than 5 sticks of butter was on the menu. My sister’s birthday party was less of a party and more of an eating frenzy. My brother in law made some of the best barbeque I have ever had the pleasure of chewing with the few teeth I have left. I am still craving the perfectly tender and juicy flavor of the smoked chicken halves he served sans sauce. We don’t need no stinking sauce.

I followed up the barbeque of the century with an exotic cake for my sister to make her yearly wish on. Four french vanilla cake layers were alternately spread with intense chocolate ganache, and a homemade raspberry curd. The entire monstrosity was frosted with white chocolate butter cream frosting, and then coated with white chocolate shavings and studded with fresh raspberries. The layers themselves were not remarkable. The chocolate ganache was too bitter and needed to be sweeter. The raspberry curd, nor the cake lent the chocolate any sweetness at all. On the other hand, the white chocolate frosting was entirely too sweet. But once the four elements combined, there was blissful blending of all flavors that made a truly outstanding dessert. I did not make this recipe up on my own. You can find and follow the exact same recipe I used here at: http://www.evilshenanigans.com/2010/04/raspberry-and-chocolate-ganache-cake-with-white-chocolate-buttercream/ . The truly evil thing about this cake was how yummy it was. I almost want to make this cake again this weekend. I know I shouldn’t. I don’t need the temptation or the fat and calories. But I am compelled to make this again, if only to prove to myself that it was as delicious as I thought it was, and I wasn’t making it all up in my head. Yea, that’s the ticket!

This weekend I will be hard at work finishing the invitations for the upcoming baby shower. As soon as the baby shower is over, and the baby is here, we will be focusing on the next big event on the horizon, which will be my hetero life mate’s marriage to her very long time boyfriend. She has grand ideas and we have much planning to do. To say that I am excited for her is an understatement. This is tantamount to all of her dreams coming true. There is no reason in the world for the excitement not to be high! There are very few in this world that I could wish so much happiness for. She deserves her happily ever after, and I can’t wait to be there every step of the way. I’ve got my boxes of tissues already on order, because I know in the next year or so, there will be many happy tears shed. I don’t mind shedding tears for her she is so totally worth my tears.

Reach Fer The Sky!

Yesterday, while couples across the world were snuggling and sharing boxes of chocolate for the romantic holiday of the year, I was at the dentist having my tooth pulled. Bad timing? Yes. Am i relieved the pain is gone? Absolutely. While I was at home recovering, I made a lovely steak dinner for my husband, that I couldn’t eat. But I did get to eat the side dishes I made. I made a brownie/cake and enjoyed a small portion of that, so I could say I had some chocolate.

The snuggling part didn’t happen because my brother in law came over to visit, and by the time my husband crawled into bed, I was passed out. It was the least romantic and memorable Valentine’s Day in the history of ever. I did at least try to make it special for my husband. The steak, the chocolate, doing his laundry, and the silly/sappy card were all tokens of love and shows of appreciation. I know we shouldn’t just use one day to show how much we love someone, but I choose to hold it as a special day.

Just as we should be celebrating being alive every day, we lavish extra attention on each other during our birthdays. St Patrick’s day we kiss Irish people and get drunk, and Thanksgiving we stuff turkey’s with stuffing, and then stuff ourselves with the stuffed turkey. We don’t really need those special days do we? But they are traditions that we hold dear. That is how I view Valentine’s day. It’s tradition, and we observe it. I know people have alternately turned it into singles awareness day, and you know what? That’s fine. Do what you need to do. I still like the romantic stuff.

Tomorrow is my sister’s party. We are looking forward to hanging out and celebrating her 30th birthday. I have all sorts of yummy things in store for her. I’m hoping the weather holds up, and the jello wrestling ring that I am planning on setting up can still happen. If not, I still have a few other things that I can keep her occupied with. Least of which will be target practice with blown up pictures of the least favorite people she has dealt with over the past 30 years. Nothing says “getting over my past” like shooting your crossbow between your ex boyfriend’s eyes. That’s not really what I have planned. We don’t really care about those people, I just think it would be funny.

This weekend, I am also looking forward to looking at hand guns for myself. My husband has been giving me lessons on how to operate his, but my hands are too small to easily reach the clip release one handed, and the slide is harder for me to pull back with my left hand without moving the gun to an unsafe position. He is just as excited as I am. We are bonding over fire arms, which is entirely more useful than bonding over video games. It makes me happy to be doing something with my husband other than our usual routine, and learning how to properly defend yourself with a gun just makes good sense.

As soon as I have the hand gun right for me, hopefully we will be taking our courses to conceal carry. I am being told that there is legislation in the works that would allow us to open carry without a permit. I think this is a highly unwise position. I think everyone who wants to buy a gun must at least once, go though lengthy and proper training. The more people out there with guns who know what they are doing will be a relief. If we just let any old fool have a gun and let them carry it on their hip in public, well we deserve to get shot if that happens.

What The Puck?

Someone is sitting on the fast forward button again. The weeks are flying by in a cloud of paperwork. I sit down Monday morning at my desk, and when I finally look up from my work, another week has slipped past. This week was no exception. The only thing that keeps me from floating off in a sea of numbers and demanding people is when my phone alarm tells me it's time to clock out and go home. Thank goodness for that alarm.

Time flying by does have it's advantages. Such as, next week is Valentine's day, and then my sister's birthday. She is joining the dirty thirty club. Welcome to the party little sister! Geritol cocktails and centrum silver pie will be served. The party ends at 9pm , because that's when old people like us have to go to bed. Don't forget to soak your false teeth, and put some Bengay on those aching joints. ;) Since she hasn't read this, I'm not dead yet. But she will soon enough. In lieu of flowers, please donate money to my husband. He will need it to bury me.

In other news, I'm planning on sewing some things for my best friend's baby shower. I have the materials, I just need the time. Somewhere between making dinner and passing out from exhaustion, I've got to make time for it. It will be so cute, and totally worth it. Plans are in the works for an amazing party for baby B. He will be spoiled before he even takes his first breath. That's the way it should be.

Tomorrow night, the hubby and I are taking the youngest nephew to a hockey game my company is sponsoring. He is into watching sports now, and while that is cool, I am clueless. My family isn't an athletic one. Our sports have always been hunting and fishing. I guess we were bound to have a sports fan come along eventually. Tonight he asked me who I would be rooting for at the game tomorrow. I played it safe by naming the home team. I don't know jack about them. I have a feeling I will be answering a bunch of questions. Maybe I should read up on the game before we leave. I don't know hockey from a puck on the ground. *Lame pun totally intended.