(96). Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Relaxing day today for the most part.  The 6 mile run this morning was not as enjoyable as it was last week.  Not sure if it’s due to the fact that I’ve been trying to do more hill workouts on the treadmill mid week, or if it’s because last week I took Friday off and yesterday I got stuck to the schedule and got a workout in (late albiet, but in!).  I guess we’ll see how next week goes.

The Huskers won against Baylor (! finally after the past two weeks of insanity), which set the day off on a good note.  Roasted some pumpkin seeds while Nick was at the airport picking up Nikhil….  made them in three flavors this year:  salted, curry, and smoked paprika.  Tried to brine them before roasting (based on this post I found last week), but I didn’t notice a difference at any rate. The flavored seeds were good, but I think good ol’ sea salt and olive oil is still my favorite.

And we were off to Patterson’s Happy 30th/Halloween festivities!  I’m still not a huge fan of our point and shoot camera, so the pictures taken on it were minimal, but alas – for your viewing enjoyment.  I do with we had a before picture of Julie as a bunch of grapes – what a brilliant costume!  Melanie may be posting more pictures at some point today – hers are sure to be more complete than ours!

Nick & Colleen as German Folk

Mehul & Liz as Cash for Clunkers

Hilary as Swine Flu, Christy as a Redskins Fan, Patterson & Lee as Star Trek folk

Greg as Dan Snyder, Nikhil as the Big Bad Wolf

Julie as a bunch of (here, deflated) grapes

(79). Happy 3rd Birthday, Cashew!

(71). Pottery painting for Bones’ birthday!

(53). Happy 30th Birthday, Nick!

It was a bit rough for most to wake up this morning, but for the 6 of us that got up and met up by 9, a walk around the Oktoberfest grounds 3 hours before the first tapping allowed us to see the already packed big tents….it also gave us, all 5′9″ and over, front row standing spots for the kickoff Oktoberfest parade. Beautiful horses! Met up with the masses at Hofbrauhaus for lunch and the majority of the afternoon before heading to the englishter garden to another beer garden. Late night back towards Marienplatz…. Getting up tomorrow will be fun.

(47). I won’t allow it!

Full day today. Up early in the ROC to hang out with the kids a bit before their month long excursion with nana. Headed to marks for a plate at 9:30 (yep, AM) before rolling out of town. Wegmans in Williamsport allowed us to pick up pretty much everything we needed for tonight. Home around 5:30PM, and within 2 hours, 2 five cheese pizzas, pesto pasta, watergate salad, corn on the Cobb with green butter, and decorated German chocolate cake were done, the house was decorated, and showers were had.

Thank you to all who made it up this evening- we hope you got a bit of a kick out of Troll 2 and that you didn’t leave hungry! Nick is now ready to kick off his actual 30th sleeping well that you all have seen thus flick. I know he’s looking forward to seeing everyone after our trip:)

Mehul- thank you for the cheese souvineer!:)

(40). I <3 Weekends at home

Today was brilliant.  Got up, leisurely breakfast, did a few hours of work remotely.  Took Pinot for a long walk.  Went to the mall.  Worked on some Oktoberfest stuff – big pamphlet that is just about done.  Figured out what we were doing for Nick’s local birthday festivities (Troll 2 movie night!).  Watched EuroTrip, Glee and Greek.  I love being at home

(25). Happy 30th Borch!

Man, I hate that guy.

Tiered Cake…

About 2 years ago, I turned 27 and realized that the big 3-0 was not really that far away.  I like making lists, and decided to make a ‘30 things to do before I turn 30′ set of goals for myself.

Looking at this list now, it’s interesting because I can see how some of my priorities have shifted in the past couple of years, while others remain exactly how they always have been.  With half of my list checked off and another handful not really being applicable to my goals anymore, the remaining items now have less than a year to go before their self-imposed deadline.

One of these goals, which has now been most recently checked off, is to make a tiered cake.

Liz talked to Nick and I weeks (months?) ago about Mehul’s 30th celebration, and it was decided somewhere along the line that a cookie baking competition would be a part of his birthday bbq.  I thought this would be the perfect excuse to get my tiered cake baking on, and Liz thought it would be a fun addition, and so, I was off.

Last week, my time consisted of going to work, and working on the cake.  Mid-way though, I realized it was going to be fairly intense and I thought Nick thought I was crazy.  But then, once the ganache was set and the cake was decorated, oh what a cake it became…..

Cookie Themed Tiered Cake:

• Base layer – 14″ round cookie cake
• 1st cake – 9″ round vanilla cake (4 layers) with chocolate mousse filling (3 layers), topped with a 9″ round cookie cake – at one point, yellow cake/chocolate frosting was Mehul’s favorite combo
• 2nd cake – 6″ round chocolate fudge cake (4 layers) with oreo buttercream filling (3 layers), topped with a 6″ round cookie cake
• All cakes were coated with a raspberry wash prior to filling and stacking
• Both the 1st & 2nd cakes were giving a vanilla buttercream crumb coat prior to frosting with chocolate ganache
• Double Stuff Oreos (1st cake) and mini Chip’s Ahoy (2nd cake) were pressed into the chocolate ganache for decoration
• Cake topper was a gladiator holding a happy birthday balloon and a double stuff oreo shield

Turned out pretty tasty, and was very pretty to look at to boot   We cut the cake strait down the middle so that I could take a picture of all the internal layers – will need to upload that soon, but in the meantime:

Today!

29

Have I mentioned that I have the best husband ever?

Sunday, after a tasty Indian buffet brunch, we headed home to relax when lo and behold, Nick suggested that we bring Pinot with us to go to Wegmans to pick up supplies for that evenings birthday dinner with Melanie and Javed.  I had to stop in to work for a quick 5-10 minutes and was pumped about the opportunity to bring Pinot & Nick into my office with me.  And a trip to Wegmans to boot!

We went shopping and got home around 7:30PM, when after opening the door, our friends jumped out from behind the couch with streamers and balloons yelling “Surprise!”  Nick planned a surprise birthday party for me, complete with ice cream cake with my picture on it, full on party decorations (including a birthday princess hat!).  I sort of thought something was going on – Nick doesn’t usually ask if we can bring Pinot places, that is my job – but I didn’t realize that it would be everyone!  THANK you everyone for coming over to help me celebrate!  and THANK YOU Nick for making me feel so incredibly special   Pictures are on Melanie’s blog – I wasn’t using a camera for the evening! Sort of kicking myself for that as I didn’t get one of Nick and I that wasn’t taken by me, but what can you do

Monday, birthday day itself, I took the day off of work and slept in (funny how guilt sets in when I sleep in till 9 nowadays, wonders have officially ceased!).  A rainy, rainy day, we set off to Cava in Rockville for lunch (a new restaurant for us, it was good) before going to Target, watching Marley & Me at home (much sadder than the book) and heading down to DC to celebrate Greg’s 3-0 (my birthday buddy!) and heading out to dinner for my 29th.  For my 29th dinner, Nick scored us reservations to Proof.  I think it’s on my list of top 10 dinners of all time, between the ambiance, the food, and my date!  AND – a 6 plate cheese course for dessert, what better way to end the meal.  The Caps won game 2 about 20 minutes before we left the restaurant – how cool is it to live in DC.

With a birthday like that, I’m excited for the year to come.  I hope I can make Nick feel as loved and special during the coming year as he always makes me feel!  Call me mushy, whatever, I’m coming off one heck of a weekend high.

more about “Colleen_29in2009 014 on Flickr – Phot…“, posted with vodpod

(Thank you Colby for the video!  )