new york new york

Thanks Malissa for a great time in New York! So glad that you are friends with my boyfriend so I get to reap the benefits of having a friend in Manhattan.

This past weekend Luc and I took the train up to New York City and enjoyed a nice afternoon in Central Park with Malissa and her Young Professionals group. Met a few lawyers, some financial people, a Broadway director, and a Rockett/Rod Stewart Roadie. Luc and I both agreed that we felt like country bumpkins talking to some of these people. It was fun. Then we met Malissa's new boyfriend and had dinner together at a nice italian place. On Sunday we had brunch and then Luc, Malissa, and I took the Statin Island ferry to see the sights and to catch some breezes in the stifling city. Pictures are up and they look good. They are in the "June 2008" album.

pesach

Pesach, or Passover, was celebrated at my humble abode last night. Why, may you ask? Well, because it's fun. That's the main reason. It came to be because Luc's friend Malissa, who is Jewish, typically invites Luc to her home to celebrate Passover. This year, however, the last night of Passover is the night of Luc's choir concert. Hence he could not go. Malissa then decided to bring Pesach to Princeton. We cook the entire thing from scratch. Matzoh-ball soup, sweet potato tzimmes, apple-walnut charoset, pot roast, matzoh, apple-pecan salad, chocolate dipped macaroons, and caramel matzoh crunch. Oh, and we made matzoh brei for breakfast the next morning (it tastes like french toast: matzoh mixed up with eggs and fried in a skillet). We of course had Manischewitz wine. Tastes like grape juice. Maybe that's why Luc drank it so fast. For the story of how our seder went, I direct you to the pictures I took, currently residing in their own album on my "photos" page. The pictures tell the story, complete with captions and time stamps. And now, I leave you with this:

The Two-Minute Haggadah
A PASSOVER SERVICE FOR THE IMPATIENT.
By Michael Rubiner

Opening prayers:

Thanks, God, for creating wine. (Drink wine.)

Thanks for creating produce. (Eat parsley.)

Overview: Once we were slaves in Egypt. Now we're free. That's why we're doing this.

Four questions:
1. What's up with the matzoh?
2. What's the deal with horseradish?
3. What's with the dipping of the herbs?
4. What's this whole slouching at the table business?

Answers:
1. When we left Egypt, we were in a hurry. There was no time for making decent bread.
2. Life was bitter, like horseradish.
3. It's called symbolism.
4. Free people get to slouch.

A funny story: Once, these five rabbis talked all night, then it was morning. (Heat soup now.)

The four kinds of children and how to deal with them:
Wise child—explain Passover.
Simple child—explain Passover slowly.
Silent child—explain Passover loudly.
Wicked child—browbeat in front of the relatives.

Speaking of children: We hid some matzoh. Whoever finds it gets five bucks.

The story of Passover: It's a long time ago. We're slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We cry out for help. God brings plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through; the Egyptians aren't so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without being persecuted again. (Let brisket cool now.)

The 10 Plagues: Blood, Frogs, Lice—you name it.

The singing of "Dayenu":
If God had gotten us out of Egypt and not punished our enemies, it would've been enough. If he'd punished our enemies and not parted the Red Sea, it would've been enough.

If he'd parted the Red Sea—(Remove gefilte fish from refrigerator now.)

Eat matzoh. Drink more wine. Slouch.

Thanks again, God, for everything.

SERVE MEAL

black tie optional

Last night was the annual Grad School Formal. It is a black tie optional event, so it is super swank. Since I sprained my ankle last week, I was sad because I wouldn't be able to dance much. It was still tons of fun. Luc was my date (obviously) and he wore his tuxedo, with his new tuxedo shirt that I bought him (because I turned his old one pink trying to wash it). He looked spiffy. I wore a black dress (the only dress I own) and sported a very nice ace bandage around my ankle.

I had a lot of fun. Danced 5 songs: two with Luc, two with Peter (who actually knows how to waltz so dancing with him is awesome) and one with Tom.

Pictures from the night have been uploaded to the folder "April 2008" which you can find on the "photos" page. Enjoy the pictures!

a year to the date

On March 26, 2007, Luc hurt his knee playing intramural broomball and wound up on crutches for a few days. Almost couldn't dance at the Grad School Formal (a black tie optional event). He rallied back from his injury, off crutches in a few days, and managed to waltz with me at the formal.

On March 26, 2008, I hurt my ankle playing intramural volleyball and wound up on crutches for a few days. Will I be able to dance at next weeks Grad School Formal? Not sure. Ankle is still in an air cast and should be until next Thursday or Friday. At least I can go and enjoy the snacks and drinks.

Odd coincidence, don't you think? I knew that Luc had hurt himself around this time last year, but when I was looking back at the photo I took the day he got crutches (the day after he hurt himself), the date coincided with the date that I got crutches, meaning we both hurt ourselves the same night (the night before obtaining crutches). At least I can say I sprained my ankle going up for a hit and came down on someone's foot. That someone obviously put their foot over the line onto my side of the court. Luc just hurt his knee slipping and falling on the ice. No one was around him.

Intramural sports: 2, Meg and Luc, 0. Maybe next year we'll make it through with no injuries.

best family in the world

I am so blessed with having the absolutely best family. Why is that? Because second cousins and cousins once removed take time out of their drive from D.C. to the Albany area to say "hi" to me in Princeton. Ok, so I phrased it like they are really distance relatives (who actually talks to their "removed" cousins?), but to me, they might as well be aunt, uncle and regular cousins. That's just how my family is. We know everyone ... and see everyone fairly regularly (thanks to Aunt Ginny's yearly Christmas parties).

So, Sandra and Tom and their kids Emily and Everett were driving home and called me to ask if they could stop by and say hi. It was a great surprise. Apparently Sandra put a lot of effort into contacting me. She called her mother (my great-aunt), who didn't answer, so then she called Aunt Carolyn (my other great-aunt) to get my parent's number, who could then give her my cell phone number. So everyone knew she was coming to visit me.

While talking with my mom before they showed up, my mom told me to take a group photo. I was like ... that's so cheesy. I'm not going to ask them to pose for a photo when they visit. Well, I didn't even have to ask. Sandra hops out of the car, camera in hand, saying she needs to document their whole trip. Voila. There is a photo (I guess I am glad it happened ... only other photos I have of me and Sandra are (1) her holding me at my baptism, she's my God-mother, and (2) wedding pictures that I ruined with my scowling face because I ripped my dress and was sooo sad, I was the flower girl at Sandra and Tom's wedding. I am still really sorry about that, Sandra).

Luc got to meet some more relatives. I don't think he'll ever be done meeting my relatives. I did find out that people do, in fact, read this blog, because they knew all about how he surprised me with a trip to California for my birthday. Thanks for actually wanting to know what is going on in my life ... I mean, it seems pretty important to me. :-D

feeling positive

It's been a tough few months. I may have mentioned that one or two times before. When something consumes your life, it's all you can think/talk about. I'm feeling good now, though. Things are looking up. I'm beginning to enjoy going to lab in the morning. Have all these ideas in my head that I want to try out. Excited to learn again. My days are good now. Full of friends and life and happiness. Full of promise, excitement. Winter is almost over. Spring is coming. That is exciting to me.

My weekends are becoming jammed packed with fun things to do, places to go. Classes are really good. Learning all about the chemistry of how proteins are formed and how they interact. Finally starting to understand statistical mechanics (this is the 3rd time I've taken the class). I feel in control again. Volleyball league started up, so now I can be active again. My muscles were so sore from last week's game, and it was absolutely wonderful. I loved the pain lacing up my thigh muscles every time I walked up stairs. I hope to start up with Taekwondo again soon. I'm going to look for some schools in the area.

I put up a few pictures from this weekend. Mart came down to visit, because I got her opera tickets to see Carmen in NYC for her birthday. The show was Saturday night. On Friday night we went to a student belly-dance performance. One of my friends, Jess, is in the troupe. They put on a good show. I took a few pictures for Jess. Then Saturday we hung out in our PJs until about 2 pm, then we got ready to go to NYC. We took the train in and went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. It is called Sapphire and is near Columbus Circle, in case anyone wants to know. The only drawback to the evening was that Mart's shoes decided to slice off parts of her foot. Mean shoes. We stopped by a drugstore to buy some band-aids and performed some surgery by the Poland Springs display. Poor Mart. She still couldn't walk well, but at least more skin wasn't being sliced off. The show was really good. We could see pretty well, despite being in the last row in the topmost balcony (balcony 5 of 5 or 4 of 4 ... I forget). Mart brought binoculars, so we could see better. We caught the 12:42 am train back to Princeton and were soo happy to get into bed. Mart left around 1 pm today, so we just had breakfast together. Luc came over too. Travis called and I got to say "hi". I haven't talked to him since he left for Iraq in November. He should be coming home soon though, which is good. I know that Mart misses him.

With that, I think I'm going to go join some friends at the D-Bar ... even though it's a school night. I'm a rebel.

breaking out

I am breaking out of this lethargic shell that seems to have enveloped me for the past month and a half. I feel as though I have fallen off the planet ... since sometime mid-December. This is due to many reasons: I went to Spain, had to defend my First Prop, had to get through final exams/projects for the last semester, started up a new semester ... but mainly because I have been a bit sick for like a month and a half. It was like the never-ending cold that just got worse and then other things decided to hop on the bandwagon and make me feel terrible. Never fear, I am actually feeling better. Like feeling better for multiple days in a row. This is a huge feat, believe me. I never realize how valuable health is until it is snatched away.

So I uploaded some photos. Don't get too excited. Only a whole 4. Haven't been out taking pictures much lately on account of the whole not-feeling-too-well. They are of Mart looking silly and my Rock Band band all dressed up for a party. Luc takes the cake as the craziest.

I also re-vamped my movies page ... adding little clips from my trips to California and Spain, as well as the Bollywood skit my class put together for a roast of our professors we did last October.

Those are the things to look at. Stay tuned. I plan on making these posts more regular as I crack this lethargic shell.

i'm in a band

Yes. That is true. I am a drummer in a 4 person rock band. Didn't know I played the drums? Well, I didn't either. I am quite good though. The band's name: Rïtzenhauß. How did we come up with such a clever name? Well, at our first band practice, we were having a lot of trouble, so Luc picked up a nearby coaster and read it. It said "Ritzenhoff". We changed it because we wanted to add cool characters like an umlauted "i". Rïtzenhauß was born. We are originally from Stockholm. Other members of the band: Luc (lead vocals), Josh (guitar) and Jess (bass). We've been touring Europe lately: Amsterdam, Paris, London. The usual. Although we just played a gig where we won a jet, so now we can tour other continents. Next stop ... maybe Boston ... maybe Seattle.

Yes, I am in a Rock Band* (like Guitar Hero) band .... just look at the comic. We are awesome.



* For those of you who are not so video game savvy, Guitar Hero is a video game where you attempt to play a guitar, matching the notes (or buttons) on the screen as they scroll by. Play it well, and the song plays, play it poorly, and the crowd boo's you off the stage. Rock Band is a new version of Guitar Hero that incorporates multiplayer play. Instead of just one guitar, there is now a guitar, bass, drum set and mic for singing. Play songs together, get money, fans, win things, keep touring. It's fun.

so I passed ...

In case you didn't know, I passed my general exam. What that means is that I am officially a Ph.D. candidate now and get awarded a Masters degree. I think that is a pretty worthy milestone. I think everyone already knows though, because I sent out an email to practically everyone I know. Here are some of the responses I received:

"Congratulations!!!! I knew you would pass. Best wishes for continued success."
-Dr. Lucia

"Yay!!!!! Go Meg! :)"
-Sue Brassard

"YAY!!! Congratulations!!! Of course you are awesome, we all knew THAT! I know this has been a tough and stressful semester, and I am so happy that it worked out so well for you!"
- Kate Coleman

"as if there was a question as to your awesomeness :D well done madame bellows. next time you're around, i'm buying you a pizza. no but seriously that's awesome!"
- Chris Piecuch

"WOOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!"
- Malissa O'Donnell

"and ever the modest one, as well, ms. bellows. :P hehe that's GREAT news! i'm proud of you, my princeton-dwelling friend! celebration in RI? hmmmMMM?"
- Brian Dowdell

"Good work meg!!! I am super proud of you, but really, no one ever doubted you would pass with flying colors. I think a bellows knows only one type of color, and that is the flying type."
- Ben Potter

"WOO HOO from the chilly tundra"
- Aunt Janet

"Congratulations Meg"
- Uncle Jim

"Dear Meggie, Nice going, I always knew you would, you are such a hard worker and great achiever. Uncle Bob and I are very proud of you. Keep up the good work."
- Aunt Marilyn

"Well no surprise that you did so well in your general exam. Congrats Meg!! You ARE indeed awesome! Best of luck in your next few years as an official Ph.D candidate!"
- Ana Franco

"WOW! That is great! Now you have increased my bragging rights again. Not everyone has a genius for a flower girl!"
- Sandra Marston

So thank you to everyone who helped me though this semester, especially my family and Luc for putting up with my nervousness and sense of worthlessness. Still hasn't quite sunk in that I am through it, but I really appreciated having you all there to talk and whine to. :-)

On to more challenges ... or rather, a hopefully calmer and more relaxing semester+summer.

love thanksgiving

Not just for the food, which is amazing, but for the company. I seem to have done my "moving away to college" about 5 years too late. I feel a bit behind the curve, but I'm catching up. Going to college at URI, I never felt like I left home. I was still in RI, which, we all know, isn't that big. Family was always around the corner, as were old friends. Now, NJ isn't that far away, I mean, it isn't California, I can still drive home in one day, but to me it is just far enough to make going home such a big deal now.

I miss home. Not necessarily the physical place, although I do love bumming around my house in my PJs until 1 pm. I miss the closeness of family and old friends. The water nearby. Random visits from Poppa. Two families getting together for dinner and to reminisce about old time going back 24 years. Visiting Nannie and being able to see no less than 15 other family members within walking distance ... because everyone lives so close and is always visiting one another. When I come back to New Jersey after being home, it takes me a few days to readjust. I suddenly feel rather alone. Takes time to settle back into my apartment and my life, which sometimes seems so distant from that back home in RI. Not in a bad way, just in a nostalgic way. Every time I get back to NJ from RI, I think of new ways to decorate my apartment to make it feel more cozy, more homey, and remind me more of the places I miss. Last time I hung up a series of framed photographs I took. Four pictures, one for each season, one for each place I have lived or places that are special to me (Pawtucket, Little Compton, Europe and Princeton). This time I have decided to put together a photograph wall in my hallway. I procured a copy of a photograph from home. A traditional photograph we took for many years on the steps of the beach house. This was the one where we finally got all the family in: Poppa, Grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins ... everyone. Everyone was home from college. Back in RI from Minnesota. To that I have two old pictures of my Uncle John, who passed away when I was 15 and was my most favorite uncle (sorry Uncle Jimmy and Uncle Brad ... but I miss him). I hope to add some other old pictures and some new ones too. Have to add a picture of me and Mart. Maybe we'll take a good one in Spain in a couple of weeks (so excited!). I am looking forward to my picture wall. Who knows what else I will come up with next time I go home.

To everyone who made my Thanksgiving so enjoyable, thank you. Thanks to my family for another ever entertaining holiday together. I love holidays with the Bellows'. To Chris and Brian, thank you for hosting a fabulous dinner for me and Luc and all your other guests. It was so great just to be together again making food and eating and reminiscing about the best times we had together (mainly Germany). Finally, to the Colemans, keeping the friendship that I have known my entire life going. It was great to see Laura and Charlie and Skylar and just fun to all have dinner together again. Only thing missing was us sleeping over afterwards. I guess you had a full house, so it is understandable.

Nostalgic tonight? I little. I am just readjusting to being in New Jersey again. Miss everyone already!

secret travel

As many of you know by now, I ended up in California for the weekend. I was just as surprised as many of you may have been to find out, since I did not find out myself until I was at the airport. Here is how Thursday's events transpired.

After enjoying my lunch by the fountain, I headed to the benches outside the E-Quad to read my Economist. It was hot, so I sat in the shade. Around 1:30PM, Tom approached me with a plain manila envelope. The envelope was sealed had my name typed on it. He said he was instructed to give me the envelope at this time, then left. As he walked away I opened the envelope. Inside the envelope was a single sheet of white paper, and upon this paper was typed "http://www.geocities.com/agent_bellows". I laughed. This looked like it was going to be fun.

I encourage you to click on the link and find out what my next instructions were. I was to meet someone at "the docks" and mention I wanted the "special with no onions". I knew where "the docks" were, they were these wooden benches by the fountain. I must have re-read the instructions 3 or 4 times, because I was unsure if I was to meet this agent that day, or the following day, and if I really was to pack up and leave work. After talking with Mart, I decided to risk it.

In order to investigate who I was meeting, I circled around the building before the fountain, coming to the fountain by a different direction. Along the way, I looked for clues as to who I was meeting. I found it in the form of a Colorado license plate on a nearby parked car. I saw the agent (Luc) sitting on the "docks" and approached him and gave him the code-phrase. He immediately got up and told me to follow him. We approached his car and got in. He asked if I had my wallet/keys/cellphone with me, then we drove off.

We stopped at the "safe house" (his apartment), where I dropped off my laptop and lunch box. We got back into the car and started driving.

I was obviously being taken somewhere, so I started to try to puzzle it out. First I thought we might be going to New York City, but we got on Route 1 South, not North, so that ruled that out. Then I thought maybe we are going to the Jersey Shore, or even Delaware or Maryland, but we got on 95 S, not 295 S, so that ruled those out. Now we were obviously headed toward Philadelphia, but I couldn't fathom what we would do there. As we passed through the city itself, I saw highway signs for the Philadelphia International Airport. Surely not.

We got off the highway an exit before the airport and proceeded to airport parking. Oh my goodness. I couldn't believe it. We were flying somewhere. After we parked, Luc popped the trunk and in the back was my luggage, all packed and ready to go. I had no idea. We hoisted our bags and made our way to the shuttle stop, and from there, to the airport itself.

At the check-in counter I anxiously awaited hearing our destination ... LAX. We were going to California. I couldn't believe it. I was thinking Providence or something. Not clear across the country.

The plan was to stay with Luc's dad, who was on sabbatical in LA. Luc had wanted to visit him before classes start, and oddly enough, plane tickets were half as much during my birthday weekend than during any other weekend, so he took me along and surprised me.

Once in California we went swimming in Santa Monica (saw the ocean for the first time), went to Disneyland on my birthday and I got to wear a pin that said it was my birthday and everyone wished me a happy birthday that day, and we went to Hollywood before hopping on a plane back to Philadelphia.

It was the best surprise ever. I put up pictures, so I direct you to the "travels" page and from there to the "photos" page.

relaxing weekend

All I have to say is that I took a nap in a pool. It was wonderful. For pictures, go to the usual spot. I also saw Vassar College this weekend (spent the long weekend in upstate New York with Luc and his friend Malissa).

more updates

I'm not going to talk a lot today. I mean, I just posted yesterday. All I have to say is that "Manwitch" has been uploaded ... so now you can relive the memories, or see them for the first time. Also, photos have been updated from my recent trip home to Rhode Island with Luc and Tom. Last time I'll see Mart until December!!!

Also, just wanted to direct your attention to a new "friend". Mr. Thomas "Tommy J" Eyster has created a blog for everyone's reading pleasure. Specifically, one of his recent posts describes our trip up to RI, so you can read his for more info. I'm too lazy to write that much.

road trip and other movies

It took a while, but it is finally here. Why did this take me so long to finish (it took about 2 months)? Well, 1. I am slightly lazy. 2. I was moving into a new apartment. 3. My computer broke ... twice. 4. Sometimes just didn't feel like editing. 5. Computer broke. 6. I took over 2 hours of footage and made a 5 minute movie for your viewing pleasure (I know my target audience). 7. Computer still broke.

Whatever the reasons, it is done. I hope you enjoy it. I had fun figuring out Final Cut (new video editing software I bought with my MacBook). I have also uploaded Jedi vs. the Blob (finally), so if you want to hear my Yoda voice, you should also check that out. Hopefully Manwitch will also be making a reappearance now that I can finally compress them (using Final Cut) so I can upload them for your viewing pleasure.

To see the Road Trip, just click on the embedded video above to start playing. To view all my movies, please direct your browsers to the "movies" link on the right. Happy viewing!

busy weekend

It's been a while. I know. Maybe I've been busy. Maybe my computer broke and I had to send it in for repairs. Maybe I just moved. Maybe it is all these reasons. Regardless, here I go again. I know some have been waiting for pictures from my new apartment, but sadly, that is still yet to come. Maybe the next post. I'm still decorating.

This weekend was rather busy. On Saturday I woke up early to do some filming. What filming? Well, filming for this year's Bierabend. For those of you who don't know, Bierabend (which is just German for Beer Evening) is an evening that the 2nd year graduate students host for the department and new 1st year graduate students. We film skits making fun of grad life, professors, the department, etc. and then serve food and beer and make people laugh ... hopefully they'll laugh. After filming, I went to Ikea to get some random things for the apartment. Not too eventful of a day, but it was long (after Ikea I went to church). I was out and about from 8:30AM to 7:30PM. On Sunday, I had the expressed privilege of seeing a certain Kate Coleman (mom of my bff ... or something). She and her husband (Reid) were in Philadelphia for a conference (well, Reid had the conference, Kate was just tagging along) and so Luc and I took the train down to Philly and had lunch with her, went to the art museum, walked around, drank beer at an outdoor cafe, and had a delicious fondu dinner. It was great. I hadn't really be been to Philly just for sight-seeing. We had fun. There are pictures, of course, for your looking pleasure.

Until next time ... you can wait for some apartment photos.

little compton weekend

I love Little Compton. Quite possibly my most favorite place on earth. It's so good to me, I bought coasters of Little Compton for my new apartment. I am excited about my coasters.

Luc and I headed up to RI on Thursday for a long weekend with my parents and their friends at the beach house. Despite rather hazy/foggy weather, we had a good time. We had brunch at the Commons (a breakfast/lunch place in the village), went kayaking, beach exploring, bike riding. Quite the nice weekend.

There are pictures up, as there usually are when I do things of interest. Some of my dad's friends from lacrosse also were there ... so we had a full house. Here was the guest list:

Poppa (grandfather)
Lois (grandfather's girlfriend)
Mom
Dad
Me
Luc
Skip (lacrosse friend)
Ellie (wife of lacrosse friend)
John (lacrosse friend)
Tracy (wife of lacrosse friend)

They weren't all there every night, but they were all there on Saturday night at least. It was qutie fun. Full of good food, drink and revelry. We should do it again. And next time Mart should come too (she was in Virginia visiting Travis).

cake woes

I wanted to bake a cake. It was going to be Luc's birthday and I felt that baking him a birthday cake would be a great idea. I am a great girlfriend, after all. I thought I would impress him with my awesome baking skills. Skills definitely needed to bake a cake out of a box and frost it from a tub of store-bought frosting. It would be delicious and wonderful looking. A work of art. Mart always liked how I decorated her birthday cakes. This was a great idea.

Or so I thought.

Baking the cake was the easy part. You just mix stuff and throw it in the oven. Voila. Easy. Cooling the cake, an even easier step one might think, wouldn't cause trouble ... but it did. After putting it on the cooling rack I put it in the fridge, since my fridge contains only butter, milk and turkey ... therefore there is plenty of room for a cooling rack with two cake layers. This became a problem when Luc called up and said he was coming over to cook me dinner. A nice gesture, to be sure, but definitely what I didn't need at the time. Due to my lack of cleverness, I came up with no excuse. He was headed over. I opened all my windows and tried to fan out the "I just baked a cake" smell. I took the cakes out of the fridge (for he would surely see them there) and put them in the linen closet. Yes, I cooled a cake in the linen closet.

Luc came over and was none the wiser. Cake was successfully cooling. My plan was succeeding. That night, we went with Tom and Jess to see the newest Harry Potter movie (quite good, by the way). After the movie we had about 30 minutes before we were going to rendezvous at the D-Bar for Pub Quiz. I cleverly told Luc I had to back to my apartment to do the dishes (which I did have to do) so I could go alone and frost the cake (still in the closet).

Now, here was the biggest problem of the evening. You see, my mom gave me a tip to frosting cakes years ago. I always remember that she gave me a tip, but I never quite remember what the tip is. It has something to do with how to stack the layers, and inevitably, I do it the worst possible way. The funny thing is, if I were to go by my intuition, I think I would get it right, it's fairly obvious, but because I am thinking too hard, I do it wrong. This time, I did it wrong by thinking the flat bottoms of both layers should be apart (this may seem like a crazy way to do it, but I have tried 2 other combinations before this as well which had failed, I was sure I was right this time). Here was my theory:

I put the bottom layer with the flat side down so it sits evenly on the tray. I put the top layer flat side up so it is even on top, and match the touching sides so they sit evenly (usually they bake lopsided, so this was the point of the tip ... I thought). Perfect cake ready for frosting.

So, I put the first layer down, frosted the top, and placed the second layer on top. I then immediately noticed that the sides of the cake were about two inches apart. This was not going to frost well. Then, in my infinite wisdom, I carefully picked the top layer up, thinking I could just flip it over. That was a bad idea. The middle stuck to the frosted bottom layer and pulled a chunk out of the top layer. Now I had a hole in my cake. I thought this was even worse, so I put it back as it was and tried to frost my mistake. It was not coming out well at all, so I carefully lifted the top layer and pulled more middle out. Great. Whatever. I flipped it over. Now I had one seriously frosted middle. I was worried I would run out of frosting. The sides were now touching (good) and so I frosted the rest of the cake. I put a huge glop of frosting in the middle to try to hide the hole. It worked, or so I thought.

I put the cake away (again, hidden in my closet so Luc wouldn't find it) until morning. In the morning, I took it out to put candles in it and saw that while flipping, not only had I created a hole, but I had created cracks in the top layer. Cracks that had settled during the night, letting frosting seep through. The cake looked like it had been through a war zone. I failed in my ability to impress with my baking skills.

It was still a tasty cake though.

Pictures from the evening and Luc's birthday outing to Dave & Busters in New York City can be found in the usual place. Oh, and for those of you who were wondering, my mom's tip was to place each layer with the bottom side up, matching the lopsidedness so it settles evenly. ... that way the sides touch, the top of the cake is flat, and the halves don't slide apart (that can happen with another combination: flat sides together).

finally, the beach

I finally went to the beach for the first time this summer. It took too long for me to get there. And let me just say, I went to the beach, not the shore. I was home this past weekend and Luc, Sue and I went to Little Compton for a fun day at the beack. Pictures of our kayaking adventures have been uploaded. Look at them, see what we did. It was fun.

fireworks and things

I know. It's been a while. This could be strictly due to the fact that nothing interesting that warranted reporting has happened to me. What has happened since I got back from Colorado? Well, I go into lab every day. Then come home, eat dinner, sometimes Taekwondo, sometimes a bible study, and then go to bed. And guess what, I do it all over the next day. Why the rant? Because people keep commenting on how I haven't written. You know who you are. I will write when I have something to share.

Like now. I have something to share.

I spent the fourth of July sitting in rain at a minor league baseball game ... and it was fantastic. For real. We were kind of under an overhang, but all that mean was that we got the big fat drips on our knees. Never fear, we used the free t-shirts we acquired at the entrance to shield our knees from the elements. Shirts were soaked, but knees were dry.

The game was quite comical to watch. It was the Trenton Thunder versus the Altoona Curve. What is a curve, as far as a mascot is concerned, I have no idea. I couldn't even tell what the mascot of the Thunder was. Could have been a bird. Could have been a dinosaur. No one could figure it out. The game was delayed 1 hour by the rain, but then it cleared up a bit and they played 2, maybe 3 innings. Scoreless. No one on base. Rather boring, but I was content with my ball-game food. Then, the Thunder just ran away, scoring 7 runs in one inning. It had started to rain again and the Curve were slipping and sliding and dropping balls all over the place. We thought they were doing so poorly because of the rain, but no, it was just because they were terrible. When Trenton took the field, they did fine and got three quick outs, then scored 3 more runs in the next inning, making it 10-0. After that, they called the game. 4.5 innings total. It was raining quite hard, but they still had fireworks. Now, these were no Pawsox fireworks, but they were decent enough. Still enjoyable.

So that was my fourth of July. I uploaded a few pictures from the event and also a few previous photos, and by a few I mean 3. I know, I haven't taken many photos lately. Oh well. It happens. You can find them in the usual place.

back from colorado

Let me just say this ... road trips out to your destination are much much more fun then going back home. Going back home feels a lot longer, and the trip was probably exacerbated by the fact that I caught a terrible cold about a day before we left Colorado.

Anyway, I am home again in good ole' Princeton. It feels good to be home, although I had an awesome time in Colorado. Most of anything I had to say about the trip I said in the previous post about Colorado. Since that post, I just went into more mountains and took more pictures, which you can find by clicking on the "travels" link to the right of the screen, and from there click on "photos".

** Note -- do not simply click the "photos" link to the right. You will find no Colorado photos there. Why not? Because this was a trip and as such is documented in the "travels" portion of the website.