So I thought I would give it a shot. Amy has recently taken a cake decorating class, so we had a lot of the supplies and she was kind enough to help me identify any tools I might need (I think mostly so I couldn’t use that as an excuse if it didn’t go well). So the supplies were gathered and it was up to me to create a Millenium Falcon cake.

I looked on the internet for some images of the falcon so I could get the dimensions reasonably correct.

It actually ended up going pretty well. I twittered a series of steps that I took to pull it off:

step 1: bake 2 cakes (4 mixes) and stack them

step 2: print out template from google image search

step 3: carve the easy stuff and wonder how to carve the dome

Step 3b: attempt radical disassembly strategy

step 3c: dissassembly/carve/reassembly seems to be paying off

step 4: base layer of frosting – now to investigate fondant

(Note: I was going to cover the entire thing in fondant – I even covered the back half before tasting some of it – yuck! So I opted to go with butter creme instead and use the fondant sparingly for decoration)

step 5: gun metal butter cream

step 6: use sparse pieces of fondant

Start some detailing work (radar dish and gun in center looted from Lego Millenium Falcon)

step 7: profit! Happy Birthday Amy!

This is one of my favorite photos from their wedding.

How cool is my Mom’s wedding mini-skirt dress! It was also extremely helpful to little girls who wanted to play dress up years later.

Through the good times . . .

and the hard times . . .

they stuck together and are still going strong. Soon they will be in their home away from home in Cayucos, CA for the winter. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!! We love you and will see you very soon!

Josh and I started the weekend meeting Tyler (who was there on a Jet Blue stopover) for drinks with Mandy, Mark, Michael, and Alison. Josh and I then hit a greasy, yummy pizza place for a quick slice before seeing Wicked which I have been wanting to see for quite some time. It lived up to my high expectations! We then enjoyed a pedi-cab ride through Time Square on our way back to the hotel.

After a trip to see ground zero, a little shopping, and lunch with Guy and Matt (they conveniently called out “Barbie!” to Josh making it easy for me to remember they were fraternity friends) we had a great dinner with many of the party goers and then headed to TenJune to celebrate.

Scott and Julie had reserved a private room in the club and we danced from 11PM-4AM!! It was so much fun – and we were so happy to be there.

So great to see Chloe in New York!

It had been much too long since we had seen Matt and Rachel.

Mark and Mandy tear up the dance floor.

Such a cute shot of Chris and Saira.

Josh and I all dressed up.

Mandy and I enjoying some baby-free time.

You will all be happy to know Drew and Vivian came together and he is not taking advantage of her 4AM sleepiness!

I’m thinking Scott and Julie had a good time We did too!!!

We were all feeling a little irresponsible until we realized Saffie (or maybe Kristen) had washed out the bottle before handing it over to Kai. Whew!!

It was great fun to see Saffie and Kai interact more and more. As they both are not crazy about large groups of children I see them hanging out together in the quiet corner of the playground – perhaps trying to drum up interest in a game of pinochle.

I decided to watch American Gothic. It’s a one season wonder of a TV show from Sam Raimi and Shaun Cassidy oddly enough. It aired sometime in the 90’s (I think) and was a bit of a cult hit. I heard “if you liked Twin Peaks or Carnivale . . . ” so I was sold. I bought the dvds years ago but got distracted after watching the first two. I did however discover while reading reviews of the DVD set that apparently the series was out of order on the dvd release. Huh? How could that happen? But it apparently did as reviewer after reviewer complained that a Gothic newbie would be completely confused watching the dvd set as is. So I printed out the list of episodes from one of the Gothic super fans and thought I’d try it their way.

Fast forward to yesterday when I decide to start watching it. I go downstairs and find the dvd set. I am happy that the episode list I printed out is still folded inside the case (I was actually swelling with pride I was organized enough to keep the two items together) I go to put disc 1 into the dvd player . . . and it’s not there. Or anywhere. Damn.

Oh, but this won’t stop me. I’m not even going to download it illegally – we have technology here to offset my dvd losing habits. I turn on a tv. I switch it to the apple tv. I go to this thing called boxee which then lets me access Hulu. I then watch the pilot of American Gothic on my tv via hulu via boxee via apple tv. The quality is atrocious. It errors halfway through when I push a button to try and get the gigantic bar on the bottom of the screen to disappear and I have to start over from the beginning (and I can’t fast forward).

Next step is to go on my computer. Add American Gothic to my “play now” queue on Netflix. Go back to the tv. Switch to the xbox360. Go to the new Netflix area and watch the second episode of American Gothic. Except for a brief freezing at the beginning of the episode when the xbox tells me my internet connection has slowed and it has to rejigger something it is a very pleasant experience. However. Episode 3 of American Gothic on the xbox netflix queue says “need disc for viewing” or something like that. Uh, hello netflix. If I had the fracking disc I wouldn’t be here would I!!!

Resigned to the fact that I may be switching from Xbox/netflix viewing to hulu/boxee/appletv viewing of American Gothic until I get to disc 2 of the series (which somehow isn’t until the 8th episode – when I rent The Wire episodes I of course only get 3 and then have to run in front of the mailman to make sure I catch him, to make sure I can get another Wire fix ASAP)

Then this morning Josh comes down the stairs with disc 1 of American Gothic. Wheww! Back to old school dvd watching (at least it’s old school in our house).

Aaaahhh toddlerhood. I think we have officially arrived!

Any great tips on how to have houseplants and toddlers peacefully coexist?