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| My very favorite tree in autumn, 2015 edition... |
Hello all! The fact that I can be this perky while in the midst of a day that I can only characterize as crappy is a testament to the power of this community. :0 Today is JAMMED with tasky things, none of which are pleasant, but hey, life is good, right?! Right. My
worry strategy game plan is still carrying over from two weeks ago. I'm telling you, it works! One thing at a time. Things are going to ease a bit as the week wears on, and especially after this work week is completed.
The weekend, though, was perfectly delightful. We had dancing, scary movie watching, Mass attending, and baking with my bunnies. Bliss. So, let's get started, yes? Grab your tea or coffee and settle in.
Saturday dawned as another dancing day, this time with my troupe. After the anxiety
last weekend's performance brought, it was a happy relief to be headed off to dance with my girls. Our gig was at a benefit dinner for a local anti-domestic violence initiative. Well, I should clarify that that's what we *thought* the gig was for. It was actually for the same organization, but for an after party following the benefit dinner. So, instead of performing in some large banquet room, we discovered upon our arrival, that we would be dancing in someone's living room. And there are 7 of us. :0
We had a bit of an ominous feeling when we drove up, right from the outset. We had all piled out, hot pink coverups all aglow, and were frowning at the nearby structures trying to figure out where to go, when we heard a squeal:
"Oh look. It's THE BELLY DANCERS!"
Yep. That's us.
"You guys look AMAZING! Can I take your photo?!"
If she liked our coverups that much, I had high hopes for her opinion of our actual costumes, but the fact remained that an odd vibe was permeating our evening. After taking our picture, our enthusiastic new fan guided us into the party. Or rather, "party." :0
We get inside. Five people are standing around a small table with chips and Halloween candy set atop it in bowls. Importantly, the people were all SUPER nice. Wonderful audience, truly. But, you know. There were *5* of them. WE outnumbered them!
We stuffed ourselves into a corner and had a quick belly dancer meeting:
"All right, we're scrapping the veil. There's no way that there is enough room."
I should clarify at this juncture that our dance space was, literally, a living room. With furniture and a fireplace and stuff in it. :0
"We'll do the Shaabi. Then
Habibi ya Eini and the drum solo. Just squish yourselves in as best you can. Maybe modify your arms like we have to do with our wings a lot."
Translation: you will inadvertently hit each other, hopefully not resulting in loss of an eye. But everyone just pretend that nothing has happened and we never speak of it again. Nothing to see here. Next!
As we were talking, a little boy kept rolling a giant stuffed ottoman through our hallway meeting space, adding to the surreal nature of the moment. He kept calling us "princesses" though, and thus was given a gold star. :)
We quickly got ourselves ready, anxious to get this one over with. And so this was the first performance in which I:
(a) was nearly tripped by a troupemate,
(b) had to dance right up next to an audience member for lack of anywhere else to go, and
(c) was backed directly into a folding table.
Oh, and during the drum we nearly caused a vase to vibrate off of the fireplace mantle and onto the floor. But we made it! After we were done dancing, we packed up our stuff in record time and high tailed it out of there. Right into the pouring rain. But we were in good spirits. It's always an adventure, that is for certain.
After I got back home and got Anne in bed, Mike, Henry and I watched
The Haunting, which we had recorded from TCM. Every October, we watch as many scary movies as we possibly can. Some (where appropriate) with Henry, though mostly by ourselves. We really enjoy this tradition each year, complete with complimentary cocktails depending upon the movie.
The Haunting just seemed like a free-for-all, so I prepared a vodka tonic with flavored vodka, because why not? And can I just say that if you want to make your house look super duper, extra scary and creepy, design it with lots of turrets and gargoyles in every corner. This will guarantee that, for all of time, people will think that your house is haunted. ;-)
Sunday morning brought our usual 10 am Mass, this time incorporating in a 50th wedding anniversary celebration of our favorite usher and his wife, so sweet! No Children's Liturgy of the Word for some reason, but thankfully Anne seemed pretty content to stay in the pew with us. She was sleepy and kept laying on me, so that helped with behavior management. ;-) After we got back home and finished lunch, she and I embarked on a baking expedition:
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| My cute little helper... |
Our goal? Chocolate cupcakes with fixins' on top to make them look like flying bats. I got the idea from a cooking magazine, because goodness knows I never would have been able to come up with this idea by myself. :0 The cupcake mix was out of a box, so it's not like I can screw that up. Very easily. Mind you, I HAVE done that in the past. There are red velvet incidents of which we will not speak. But *usually* I do fine with baking mixes. So we whipped those up while Mike pre-prepared our dinner of sausage lasagna. Isn't he wonderful?
After the cupcakes cooled, we frosted them and added the bat decor. Ta DA!
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| Do you see the bats? Kinda? |
See, in the magazine they have eyes. But eyes involved icing piping, and Tiffany just doesn't roll like that. :0 Give me a pastry bag and be prepared to be scrubbing icing off of the floor and the upholstery approximately 30 minutes hence. So we forewent the eyes. But they have Hershey Kiss bodies and halved stripe cookies for their wings. See how they're kind of flapping? Kinda sorta?
Anne was thrilled with them, and I was rather proud of them myself. ;-) So it all worked out well.
How was your weekend, dear reader? Do you have any favorite Halloween baking recipes? Do tell!
