Flamethrowers and Umbrellas

We had a busy weekend of baking, baking, and more baking. First it was a second batch of red wine truffles - which I have yet to photo, argh - then a pair of souffles for our Saturday evening. I have photos of those, but they're being held back until after Katie's wedding, since they're a part of her present. Then there were the triple-salted caramel cupcakes (recipe courtesy of Sprinkle Bakes) on Sunday, which kept us up late. The photos for these, although also a part of her present, don't need to be kept back since we presented Katie with a cupcake of her own on Monday.

They were fun to make, although I burned myself on the hot caramel in a quite stupid manner. Lady actually has a full write-up of the experience over at Materials and Methods, her new blog. Go! Look! She just opened it this weekend and hopes to fill it with all the craftsy and bakesy things she likes to do, as well as a touch of the science.

We have a busy weekend coming up - visiting with the_verb and a potential photoshoot, then my grandmum and aunt will be in town. And in between need to finish up Katie's present. Phew!


We had a fledgling on the windowsill of our office Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. He chirped and chirped so much and it was rather amazing how enamored the office became of him. We watched him hop around on the sill, get fed by his mother, try and make friends with the reflection in the window, chirp dejectedly for hours, and squish himself into the corner all cold and alone. I was amazed no one tried to rescue him, and also grateful - as a fledgling, he needed to be left alone. Seeing his mum return occasionally helped with that a lot.

We were sad to see him the next morning, still there, a little ball of fluff. He must've been cold. It'd been raining all night. He perked up after a while, resumed his chirping. Then his parents came back mid-morning, fed him, and went to the roof. There was a massive amount of chirping, so a few of us got up to look. And just in time too, for ZOOOM, the fledgling was off! Hurtling across the space between buildings and almost, almost making it to the lip of the roof. But not quite, and he had to go back to another windowsill to recoup.

We went back to our desks, satisfied that he could fly now and would eventually get out. But then another coworker cried out a few minutes later, "he's stuck in the net!" There was a flurry of concern - would he get out? We'd seen other birds get stuck in the net that was supposed to hang across the top of that gap and keep them out entirely, but had been allowed to cave in halfway. Those birds were discovered too late. But this one was small, a little fledgling sparrow, and he could at least hop through the holes in the net. Yet he kept going further into its folds instead of out and kept growing more flustered.

Then two people went up on the roof and together unfolded the net. The fledgling took his opportunity and fled with his parents and a great cheer went up throughout the office. We had all been worried and I don't believe there was one person left unconcerned with the fledgling's plight. It was really quite adorable.

The weather for the past few days - even the past week - has been phenomenal. Amazing how a few clear skies can really make the winter seem as if it's receding. I really took Florida winters for granted. Cloudy skies and cold and nice on occasion, but I like me some good ol' radiation.

Needless to say, my mood has improved quite a bit from the last post. I still get nauseous whenever I think about grad school, but work isn't too bad and I've got some new plans in the works. I got a raise, albeit a little one considering how many responsibilities I've taken on since starting, and I've gotten near pleadings not to leave even if I do get into grad school. Boss-lady let me know that I could even go part time. And she mulled about my possible future in title today, as well. Not that I have to worry about the need for this kind of business going away anytime soon, anyway. I really have awesome timing sometimes. Still, lady not having a job is depressing for both of us, even if we should just be happy one of us does have a job in this stupid economy.

As for my plans, well, that would be me taking advantage of the part time. This would have to be after lady gets a job. Since she'll automatically be making more than me, I would be fully comfortable hacking my hours in half and devoting the rest of my time to writing. I've found that trying to write with a full time job is hard - I'm so tired when I come home and the weekends are eaten up by errands and much-needed down time. I can do it, it's just slow going. Maybe by then I'll have one of these edits done and I can focus on a finished product. The idea of it thrills me.

Other things that have perked up my mood recently were our anniversary and a trip to the doctor about these headaches and being able to drink coffee again and delicious, delicious cupcakes. Going to the doctor has put a lot of the little anxious voices in the back of my head to rest. I did faint when they drew blood and ended up having to take the whole day off from work instead of the morning, but now I know there's nothing seriously wrong with me. A little low on the iron, apparently, but I'm not going to randomly keel over dead. Stupid anxiety. But I haven't had an attack since beginning of January and I had coffee the last few days and had neither palpitations nor attacks. It was glorious. I won't be drinking coffee every morning again for a while, yet, but at least I don't have to start worrying about the effects of caffeine before I even start drinking it. And cupcakes! Oh, how we've feasted upon cupcakes these past few weekends. I might have to try my hand at delicious-ness this coming weekend...

So things are all right. The economy sucks balls and I won't be getting into grad school, but things could be oh so much worse.