the meal

Roast duck, red potatoes, braised brussels sprouts and carrots, and rosemary olive oil bread

And a very nice bottle of Proseco with a cool Etruscan mural on it... 

ah - la Rein de Saba

Arial view of the cake 

What the Boy Wanted

We have a birthday tradition at our house. Ask for anything for your birthday dinner and also specify your type of cake.

My DD usually takes the cake challenge and does this: make me a green cake, make me a blue cake, etc. For dinner, she usually picks her favorites. (For dinner, when it's my turn, I make reservations.)

But my son has to be different. He looks upon this as some kind of challenge for me. So for his birthday, I roasted my first duck ever. Not bad. Very tender. But not a lot of meat on a duck. And I felt like I was cooking Daffy... Last year he challenged me on the cake to make a maple cake. LOL It certainly was maple-flavored. This year he asked for a cake I've made before - Julia Child's Rein de Saba (Queen of Sheba.) This is a chocolate and almond cake. Very, very chocolaty - especially when you use Scharfenburger's Unsweetened chocolate. He took it easy on me for the rest of the meal - just asked for red potatoes and brussels sprouts.

starting to puruse

market reports.
And - ding, ding, ding - we have a winner!
Right off the bat I found this:

A Most Noble Pursuit detail

Ten designers - one large sampler, or ten smaller ones.

no stitching

But I did make cards yesterday - 1 sympathy, 2 valentine's, 1 get-well, and 1 just thinking of you.

Totally spaced on making one for DS who turns 17 tomorrow. Can barely believe it was 17 years ago that we were just waiting for this baby to arrive so we could leave Germany. He arrived 2 1/2 weeks past my due date.

So Mr. B - here's to you, my smiling, happy boy. You make every day brighter.

snow, pretty snow

Got about 11 inches. Not bad. We got the perfect snowman snow. It's still clinging to the trees today.

I went out yesterday twice and took some awesome pics. Need to put them on the 'puter where others can see...

Hmm. So that was a officially a snowstorm for my birthday. Thanks. I only shovelled the sidewalk. Left the rest for the boys.

Need to make a pilgrimage to the Stitching Post as a birthday treat. Though I did buy a beading book, and 2 cookbooks yesterday. What's a birthday without a little treat?

Winter Olympics

Hmphf.
Just can't get excited about this. I'm sure I'll watch some of it. But. Heavy sigh. I'm tired of the packaging. Would like access to the competition with ability to pick and choose what to watch.

It's all just kind of blah.

a finish

So it's beading, not stiching. What can I say?

I finished my Big City Lights bracelet on Tuesday. It's by Hurricane-Designs - Carol Cathey. Went on to do 2 Swarovski bracelet kits - need more practice with using headpins for the earrings. But did manage to do a bracelet that matches the beads that my sister had restrung for me that used to belong to my grandmother. That was a mouthful.

Off to do another charity/gift project. First one was my only stitching finish for this year so far. This one will be simple and fast as someone who volunteered to contribute, didn't. And won't answer e-mails from coordinator either. How absolutely rotten. Especially considering the circumstances. I can see backing out, but tell someone if you are suddenly overwhelmed and unable to participate.

Super Whatever

Hmm. Anyone else think the refs affected the outcome of the game?

We did attend a Super Bowl party. Had a good time. Left at halftime, so I don't get to comment on that show.

Favorite commercial: the Fedex caveman one

Least favorite commercial: godaddy.com and I'm annoyed that my DH laughed at it. Not just the first time either...

project runway

Oh no. Andrae's out. In my mind, Santino should have been gone long ago and there's no justice to this show if he makes it to the finals.

Now for my challenge idea - how about just once making them use plus size models?