Off to New Hampshire!

Our friends, Brian and Seema, are getting married this weekend at A Castle in the Clouds in New Hampshire...we are so excited to get up to the NH mountains during leaf season!

As many of you know, Justin & I are getting married this November. Brian is brother to my bridesmaid and longtime friend, Kim! Brian and I got to know one another during preparations for Kim's wedding in June of 1999 and have remained friends through the years! I couldn't have been more excited when we met Seema for the first time...she's really fanstasic! Brilliant, funny, outgoing, and outdoorsy...she encompasses all of the things one would hope for in the partner of a friend.

Brian and Seema have been hiking the Appalachian Trail since February and completed the 2,000+ mile hike just a couple of weeks ago. The Trail is where they met for the first time when Brian was hiking in 2004, as well as where Justin and I met during our hikes in 2003! Looking for love? Try hiking!!

Keep an eye out for photos...I plan to put that spanky camera to good use!

Just the Facts...oh, and a sense of responsibility!

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore FactCheck.org? Insert the collective groan of all of my friends who reply "everyday!"

After two presidential debates and a VP debate, I find myself ever more frustrated with "undecided" voters. Undecided or uninformed? There is a difference. I am, however, thrilled with the plethora of non-partisan websites available to help the average voter sift through the rhetoric and get down to some of the nitty-gritty. Click here, here, or here for some examples. Every individual is entitled to his views and values, it's one of the freedoms that makes our nation special, I only request that we educate ourselves on how things really work and what the whole story is before we determine that the party/ candidate we support is truly furthering our priorities.

That said, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to jump up onto my well-worn soapbox for just a brief moment. I am unbelievably frustrated by the average American's sense of responsibility when it comes to our political processes. We are a democracy...in many ways! We vote with our ballots, with our wallets, and with our feet. We scream about diminished wages in our communities, but then shop at our new Wal-mart. We elect the politician that claims to be able to provide us with amenities without increasing our taxes and then call him a "dirty politician" when he fails to deliver the amenity without increasing taxes. When we require impossible promises in order to elect a candidate, impossible promises are what we will get. Remember that each candidate knows that he cannot effect any change if he does not achieve election into office, so he must prioritize winning the election first. We complain about the media, but which newspapers do you buy? Which programs do you watch? We want drama and we're willing to pay for it, so drama is what we get. Bill O'Reilly...really? Is that news? How does that man have his own show? Some population of individuals watches him...that's how!! We buy into campaign ads depicting this or that candidate as having voted down this or that bill, but fail to remember that oftentimes unrelated amendments are attached to those bills and are often the reason that the candidate voted one way or another on the bill. I could go on and on...

There is a huge amount of information available out there to help clarify the issues. Know where you stand, understand the process, and VOTE accordingly!!

Domestic Violence month as well!

In addition to October being Vegetarian and Breast Cancer Awareness month, it is also Domestic Violence Awareness month.

Earlier today I was driving along, listening to NPR as usual, and they had a really compelling program on the show, The State of Things. It featured a local non-profit organization, Hidden Voices, and focused on their new performance, "Speaking Without Tongues." The performance demonstrates the terror and shame of violence against women and "is based on true stories gathered across the state from women who have been, or still are being, abused."

The show spoke with some of the women performing in the play, survivors themselves of domestic violence, and it was just a really riveting program. It served as such a reminder to me of how different each story is and how it's not only the poor or uneducated that find themselves victims. The discussion also reminded me that we all have such a duty to both serve as examples and to raise our children to understand that strong women capable of asserting themselves and their opinions are still feminine and that men who (as one of the show's guests eloquently articulated) are gentle are still strong and masculine. The guest pointed out that we deprive our boys and men of so much when we teach them that violence, harshness, and subjugation of others are the only ways to demonstrate strength and masculinity. Her words really resonated with me .

You can listen to the program here.

A Success!

Our friends, Wendy and Adrian, got married last night! The wedding was at a local venue called "The Barn at Valhalla"...it was really gorgeous!! Wendy wore a J.Crew dress that she found for a steal on Craig's List and it was PERFECT!! She looked amazing. We had such a good time!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I made Wendy and Adrian's wedding cake. It was the first cake I've done for an actual wedding! All of my previous cakes were for birthdays or going away parties or simply practice cakes. Let me tell you- making someone's wedding cake is some serious pressure! While Wendy and Adrian are just about the most forgiving and low-maintenance people I know, the knowledge that this is their ONE big day meant that my perfectionist tendencies were in overdrive. So here's the full skinny...

Four tiers of carrot cake with cream cheese icing, all from scratch. I used Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes for the carrot cake recipe (although I added chopped pecans and walnuts to mine) and The Barefoot Contessa for the icing recipe (it's the one for her coconut cupcakes- the hint of almond makes all the difference!).

I started baking Wednesday night. I continued into Thursday, when we ran into our first problem. Our dog, Pickle, has never (in almost 5 years!) ever eaten anything left on our kitchen table. As far as we know, she's never even tried. But Thursday morning I left some cake layers on the table to cool while I went to class and when I got home, one layer was gone completely and another had some bites taken out of it. Pickle not only looked slightly uncomfortable, but was actually 3 1/2 pounds heavier than normal! So Thursday evening, amidst Palin-Bingo and the VP debate, I finished baking all of the cake layers and started making icing.

Late afternoon on Friday I took all of the plastic-wrapped cake layers over to the venue along with the icing and all of the tools I thought I could possibly need. I've never driven so slowly on a highway or yelled so loudly at drivers who cut me off as I did in that 10 miles! But I arrived at the venue with cake intact and set to work...only to realize, after about four hours of icing, that I didn't have enough. So it was back to the grocery store and to my trusty Kitchenaid mixer to make more icing. And of course I made entirely too much in my desperation to not have to repeat the procedure, so my next post will just have to be "101 things to eat cream cheese icing on"! I (actually "we" would be the proper term since I dragged Justin with me each step of the way and required his DJ skills to keep the cake-making hopping) finally finished around 1:00am and put the nearly completed cake in the catering fridge.






Saturday was the wedding day!! After having a great lunch with my friend, Meredith, who was in town to photograph the wedding, we headed to the venue. While Meredith started taking photos, I made the dome of flowers for the cake topper. Around 4:00 we moved the cake from the fridge to the table- a task that took two strong guys as the cake weighed in at nearly 60 pounds!! Once there, I put the final touches in place and the task was done!

I am relieved to report that Wendy and Adrian were pleased with the final product and the cake was a hit with the guests...whew!! Here are a few photos...

October is also Vegetarian Month!

As I'm sure all of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, clearly a cause that is well deserving of our attention and action! As a cancer survivor, this is something near and dear to my heart! Get your mammograms and do your self-exams, ladies!

What you might not know, is that October is also Vegetarian Month! While I'm not a vegetarian, I agree that committing, at least for the month, to a lifestyle that is both healthy and humane is worth doing! For a great overview of the "hows" and "whys", click here.

My Mom became an ethical vegan several years ago and continues to be an inspiration! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Mom!

Up to my ears in carrots!

Our close friends, Wendy & Adrian, are getting married on Saturday (yay!) and, as their wedding gift, I am making their wedding cake. They requested carrot cake with cream cheese icing and I started the baking last night! Imagine15 pounds of carrots...

(Please remember that I am new to this whole photography thing, so forgive my imperfections!)

In love with my spanky new camera!

Some people relate best to great sculpture. Or painting. Or theatre. For me, the art form that has always captured my imagination most is photography. I love the ability of talented photographers to capture a moment in time, be it the power of nature or the power of love. I'm irrevocably moved by the images of Ami Vitale and have become a renowned "blog-stalker" to the likes of Jules Bianchi and Emilie Sommer. Maybe it's that awareness of the fleeting nature of time that has become ever more pressing with each passing year or the commonality of the human experience that pervades every milestone moment, but the sense of connection that I experience when looking at images reaches me in a way that no other art form has ever done.

Never having considered myself "artistic," I have been intimidated for years at the idea of even attempting to create such art. But here I am, the proud new owner of a Canon 40D and two starter lenses! I am SO excited to begin the process of learning! Intimidated, but excited! I am not harboring any delusions of grandeur, I simply have a dream of more beautiful and poignant photographs of my friends and family. So here I go!