Cake Ramblings

I love cake.  I love cake a lot.  So going to cake tastings and choosing one baker and her cakes over the others was going to be difficult.  Much like puppies and kittens, all cakes are beautiful and deserve good homes.  There are also no flavors of cake that are off-limits in my world.  All flavors are good.  Coconut?  Check. Dark chocolate strawberry? Check.  Pineapple walnut? Check.  All three together?  Sure, I'm game! I could go on and on but you get the idea.  All desserts and all dessert combinations are OK with me.  So it was difficult to not only narrow down the bakers but to narrow down the flavors in the tiers.

Ah, the tiers.  I need to rant here.  I am personally starting a one-woman campaign to end the single-flavor multi-tier wedding cake.  Who is with me?  Most, if not all, bakers will be happy to make each tier a separate flavor without adding additional cost.  So you tell me why you would choose one flavor when you, and your guests, could have multiples to choose from?  More flavors = more choices which = happier guests.  The next time you go to a wedding like that you kick the newlyweds in the shins because it is the only way we can stop such madness from occurring.  With all the cake choices in the world why limit yourself?  Aaaarrrggghh! Also, we discovered bakers are really pleased to get to make something other than white cake with white frosting. 

We had a great time playing with the design and figuring it all out.  Because our guest list is small and cakes designed for our numbers of guests just look sad and lonely we upped the size of the cake to approximately double our guest count.  Seriously, those little two tier jobs really make me sad.  But then again, the cake is the part of the wedding I care the most about so I might be a little skewed.  Anyway, we are keeping the design a secret until the wedding day but I can safely say our guests will get three flavors of awesome (Kevin wants to keep the top tier for our anniversary otherwise they would get four) and it will be large enough to feel like a special occasion cake.  I love this cake so much I want to hug it.  Now I have to wait three and a half months to get to meet it in person.* sigh*

I Can Finally Stop Obsessing!

I am laying on a bed in Portland with the sun (yes actual sun) on my face looking out at the Willamette River with my head full of wedding ideas. Instead of amillion different ideas in my brain about all the possibilities of what we can do and how it should look we have finally made permanent decisions on how it should all be. Hooray! I don't think I could stand thinking about it one more moment . Yesterday we started our great Portland wedding vendor marathon weekend with visits to the ceremony and reception venues again, a cake tasting and meeting a DJ. Today is more cake and also florists. We are both so excited about what we have decided on and created! I really want to share the cake design but that will have to wait. Sure, I'll put on the wedding dress a billion times and show everyone but the cake is special.

Marathon Training - Week 3

So far so good.  I feel good and only had a little leg weakness after doing 18 miles in three days which my legs are not used to.  Here are the stats.

Monday - Should have been a rest day but I had to get my long run in that I missed Sunday.  I counted them towards last weeks miles but it contributed to some tired legs come Wednesday night.
Tuesday - Three around the neighborhood with light snow falling.  Kind of pretty actually.
Wednesday - Six that were supposed to be at marathon pace but fell far short of that.  Actually the first three were OK and then my legs started to feel wobbly and I slowed down a lot.  I didn't mind too much when I reminded myself of the previous two days' mileage.
Friday - Three around the neighborhood.  I am really starting to get used to the running in the dark thing.
Sunday - Eleven down by the lake.  This came in at an even 12:00 which is probably where my long runs should be right now.  What made me happy though was the last mile I managed an 11:13 which means I still had gas in the tank and could have either gone further or faster.  This is a good sign.  When I stopped after the eleven my legs were mighty wobbly though.

Weekly Total:  23 miles

According to Hal, this week was actually supposed to be my step-back week but I had to swap weeks because of the upcoming Portland wedding vendor marathon extravaganza.  My long run next week is only six miles and I get to run it down by the river in downtown Portland.  Oh, and I am adding strength-training in this week.  And another round of East Coast Swing classes. 

Trees Were Killed To Make This Post

I need to take a moment and brag on my guy a bit.

Ever since building the amazing kitty condo a year and a half ago, Kevin has taken an interest in wood working.  Actually, the interest was there before but he just hadn't done much with it.  Last year he designed and built our wonderful spice rack so one can quickly find the cumin. 

Just recently he built an LP holder for all of my old albums.  It holds all of them beautifully and is on wheels so we can wheel it out from the storage closet and listen to records like old folks and then wheel it back in when we are done.

Kevin would like to point out that these are indeed my records and not his.  But who doesn't love a little Culture Club on occasion?

Currently he is working on garage cabinets for all of his hiking and climbing gear.  There is also talk of a kitchen bookcase to hold all of our cookbooks. I am very proud of his ability to make these things but also how he will read and study just the right way to do them and then actually take the time to do them correctly.  Those of you who grew up in households where people knew how to make things might not think this is any big deal but I did not grow up in such a household so I think this is extremely cool.  He never ceases to amaze me with what he is capable of and with his interest in learning.  But if we could do something about the dust in the garage....

Marathon Training - Week 2

Week two went well other than a minor meltdown during Sunday's long run that had zero to do with running.  I rebounded strong the next day though so training schedule disaster averted.

Tuesday - Three miles on the basic home route after work.

Wednesday - Five great miles at the lake.  This wasn't supposed to a marathon pace workout but it turned into one and it felt fabulous.

Saturday - Three "meh" miles on the home route.  Nothing special but I did drag my butt out of bed early to do them because I had a busy day of wedding expo and Dave Alvin concert ahead of me.

Sunday - Wow, I shouldn't even mention this one.  Got up early in the very cold temps, went down to the home lake path and proceeded to have a kind of meltdown.  I go 1.3 in before I said "screw this" and stopped.  I didn't even run the 1.3 back to the car.  This was mostly brought on by many nights of interrupted sleep because of my dear and his never ending sinus dripping induced cough and snoring and an existential bridal/wife identity crisis brought on by the preceding days wedding expo. 

Monday - (which technically starts week three but I am fudging a little here) Nine miles in the bitter, bitter cold and pitch black after work at the lake to make up for the nine I didn't run on Sunday morning.  I was slow but felt really strong for the whole distance.  This also made me resolve to get faster.  Speedy people could have had that run done in around an hour-ish.  It took me 1:49.  Being a slow runner is a bigger time commitment.  I didn't finally thaw out until I jumped in the bathtub at around 10:00.  But I did it.

This week brings my first double digit run since June!

Weatherproof Wedding

Since our wedding is in the Northwest in May I  figured I needed to plan for rain.  I won't want to ruin my hair and makeup walking to and fro and my fabulous shoes are satin and therefore could be destroyed by water so I needed a plan of action.  Also, we want to take photos all around the Edgefield grounds and those grounds can get muddy and dirty.  So I decided to create the inclement weather wedding ensemble.

Voila! 

I might actually love this look a little too much.  Although I think the dress is a smidge long and should be taken up a stripe.

I Might Regret This but...

...I just committed myself to doing something kind of scary.  Scary but exciting.  Details to come at a later date.