January 31st, 2011

My third birthday cake!  This one courtesy of my parents and an excellent French bakery - it's double fudge raspberry and it's amazing.  It's been such a nice week, my birthday and getting back into the rhythm of things, and this was the perfect way to end it.

~*~

January 30th, 2011

My family took my boyfriend and me out to dinner last night to celebrate my birthday!  We went to my favorite seafood restaurant and engaged in the family sport of banter the whole time.  (No one banters like my family does.)  And there was cake afterwards too.  Good times.

~*~

January 29th, 2011

Mallorca!  Puerto Rican pastry, sweet and buttery.  We ate two for breakfast this morning heated up on the stove and dusted with powdered sugar.

~*~

January 28th, 2011

This man is Amiri Baraka.  He is a civil rights activist who was contemporaries with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and a goddamn phenomenal spoken-word poet and playwright as well.  Last night I got a chance to sit for two hours in my old college theatre and listen to this man lay out the sorry state of affairs in the world for me, and it was breathtaking.  I mean, I've written papers about this man, and here he was in front of me.  Unbelievable. I got tunnel vision.

Do yourself a favor - look up "Somebody Blew Up America" on Youtube, find the version of him speaking it.  Listen and use it.

~*~

January 27th, 2011

Birthday snow!

~*~

January 26th, 2011

It's my birthday today!  And this is a picture of the absolutely decadent chocolate birthday cake Jules and his family surprised me with our last night in Puerto Rico.  I love surprises and I'm enough of a nerd to still be excited about my day.

~*~

January 25th, 2011

My boyfriend's lovely family, who have kept us and taken care of us for the last week or so.  They are all so amazing and kind to me and I've had so much fun down here.

~*~

January 24th, 2011

Contrary to first glance, this is NOT a shark.  This is a freaking huge barracuda that swam up alongside our boat when we stopped by Culebra (a small island off the east side of Puerto Rico) yesterday and bloody well refused to leave us alone.  

We found the shark later, when we were snorkeling.  If I had to describe it, it would probably come off sounding like this:

(I have an enormous fear of sharks.  I am not ashamed of this.  Underwater toothy death is a perfectly reasonable phobia.)

But actually, the shark looked more like this:

It was kinda cute, actually.  If you have to meet a shark snorkeling in open water, might as well be a nurse shark.


What makes me laugh is my boyfriend's family was insisting there were no sharks in these waters - guess I proved them wrong.

~*~

January 23rd, 2011

La Mina waterfall in El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico.

~*~

January 22nd, 2011

The beach in the Piñones area where we spent a good hour yesterday sunbathing and playing in the water.  Most relaxing.

~*~

January 21st, 2011

Yesterday was a sad day.  We had to put down two lovely family dogs who were old and sick and just couldn't be cared for anymore.  My boyfriend was very brave in making the call, and I think we did the only thing we really could do to ease their suffering.  Rest in peace, Archie and Ria.

~*~

January 20th, 2011

The beach where my boyfriend, myself, et al went swimming late yesterday afternoon.

~*~

January 19th, 2011

Boyfriend and the lovely Moya at the movie theater we went to yesterday (which was fabulously pretty) to see "The Fighter" (which was pretty fabulous.)

~*~

January 18th, 2011

The view from boyfriend's family's boat yesterday, off Puerto Rico by an island where we spent the afternoon swimming and sea kayaking.

~*~

January 17th, 2011

The most unflattering picture of Jules I've ever taken, but more importantly, taken in his parents' home in Puerto Rico.  We're on vacation for a week!


~*~

January 16th, 2011

Our coffee collection at home.  We keep good stuff, yo.

~*~

January 15th, 2011

These are brownies made from my favorite recipe, made in honor of one of my closest friend's birthdays.

~*~

January 14th, 2011

Playbill from the musical/comedy my boyfriend and I went and saw last night, The Drowsy Chaperone.

~*~

January 13th, 2011

Books as a Solstice present - always a good thing!  These are The Orphan's Tales by Catherynne M. Valente, and they come highly recommended.

~*~

January 12th, 2011

This is Nimble, the Marmoset.  Shakespeare nerds will get the joke.  Surprisingly, he is not mine - Jules is responsible for this latest addition to our lot, by means of a well-planned Christmas gift for him.

~*~

January 11th, 2011

If I'm not careful, this is going to become a cookie blog.  I can't help it - cookies ALWAYS make me happy!  These are rich chocolate chip heath bar cookies.  Absolutely decadent.

~*~

January 10th, 2011

More shots of this weekend, with two more members of my spiritual family.  Both of them are also some of the most awesome people I know.

~*~

January 9th, 2011

This girl is another very dear friend of mine and one of the most awesome people I know.  My spiritual family met yesterday to celebrate a very late Solstice together, and it was the first time I'd seen her since summer.

~*~

January 8th, 2011

Pancakes for breakfast!  Not seen: my incredibly patient boyfriend who was up with me at 7:45 acting as my flipper.  Love that man.

~*~

January 7th, 2011

I climbed a tree today.

~*~

January 6th, 2011

Spiced ginger sugar cookies!  These little beauties are what I'm counting as my first good cookie recipe of the New Year.  My roommates went nuts for them.

~*~

January 5th, 2011

The sunrise this morning from my apartment.

~*~

January 4th, 2011

Today's happiness is sort of more ironic amusement.  You see, the cookies on the left are what I THOUGHT I was baking - they're called sugar shuttles, and in the cookbook they looked amazing.  The cookies below are what I actually ended up with.  Somewhat less shuttle-y than expected.


Least they still tasted good though.  And the boys from the last entry?  Didn't give a damn what they looked like.


~*~

January 3rd, 2011

The boys!  These are the guys I'm living with for the spring, all together for the first time in our apartment.  They're all a bunch of ridiculously sweet nerds.

~*~

January 2nd, 2011

These are my two dogs, Duncan and Strider.  Both old, both creaky, both still puppies.

~*~

January 1st, 2011

Happy New Year!  I spent last night out on the streets with three of my dearest people, seen here.  Two best friends and The Boyfriend (as he was aptly titled all night.)  Can't think of three I'd like more to ring in the New Year with.  


Welcome to 2011, everyone.  Here's to keeping this madness going!


~*~