Bugged Eyed!

 \/ \/ \/ These are my sunglasses

 (and that is my awesome dog, daisy!)  

My sunglasses are HU-GE!

I wear them Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring.  Running down streets, riding in boats, skiing down hills, swimming in the ocean...

On Mexican vacations... both of them... that were 3 years a part.... 

In family pictures...

They are fugly to the extreme, and they only cost me $12 or so... but they cover all around my eyes and keep the sun from glaring and my sophisticated laugh lines from forming....

It's entirely probable I will be wearing these same sunglasses 20 years from now and the trendsetters will be trying to buy them off of me because they're so 'sophisticated'. 

Bug Eyed: It's how we do it in Howktown.

A tasty failure

Jo Jo Potato's visit was not only made famous by lackluster acid cooked fish, but also by a brilliantly disastrous attempt at confectionery cuteness.

Have any of you read Bakerella's blog? Well, let me tell you, if you like cakes and sweets that are beyond cute, take a peek. A while back I was reading her posts on making Cake Pops, and after a whole season of sheep, bunnies, cupcake, chicks, and many other cute cakes on a stick, I had to try it.

I figured the only way I'd make this idea more Minnesotan was to deep fry it after I got it on the stick... (hey, that's not a bad idea!) but I was going to pass on that this time around and stick with the recipe.

The red velvet cake was a spectacular photo op! Photos mostly by Jo Jo Potato, some by me.

The goal was grand. It was going to be a culinary and artistic combination that only foodie artists could achieve! In our minds it was going to be impressive.


Here is what we came up with.

notice all the lumps, cake peeking through the frosting, and cake balls to heavy for the sticks?

We had a couple of execution errors in there. It became clear to us that it wasn't as easy as it looked and that something that we took for granted (like the size of the cake ball on the stick. Bigger isn't better!) were more important that anticipated.

Once again, my parents loved them. My mom said that if you didn't know what they were supposed to look like, they looked 'kinda cool'. That's kind of like responding to a kids painting in art class with "interesting" if you ask me.

The upside to this wrecktastic adventure was these cake on stick thingies actually taste good no matter what they look like.

Plus we found that putting a little ribbon around the stick improved there appearance score quite a bit. That is until...

You drop them on your way into work so all the sticks are poking out making them look like impaled brains.  Go HOWK!

Joint Venture on Breakfast brings Agreement in State Approvals

Saarisburg and Howktown approve of breakfast and coffee coffee coffee COFFEE!

Dateline: 1st street 8:30am

The Ladies Who Lunch in the respective communities of Howktown and Saarisburg decide that breakfast would be more suited to their tastes. 

The Queen of Howktown, missing the proflic dinning establishments called "diners", convinces Czarina Kylie to check out a family tradition known as Edie's.  "Plus there'll be coffee"

The first approached looked promising, as all the seats near the window were filled with Octogenarians playing dice and drinking coffee.  "This is the real thing." says the Queen. " I just hope they let us young whippersnappers in with out too much trouble"

"Indeed" agreed the Czarina.

Easily seating theirselves in the aisle tables they take a gander at the mixed generational decor. Is that art deco counter bar original? The countertops were definitely redone in the fifties with the boomerang design in green, black, and pink. Needless to say, the coffee was fresh.

Eggs, OE, Bac, and WT was ordered and coffee was abundantly provided and consumed.  The conversation was picking up pace by the end of the meal, and the duo decided that if Yoga was to be adequately performed by at lunch time, a departure may be necessary.  Luckily further work to be that day would be achieved quickly after this mornings caffeine consumption. 

Czarina Kylie works as she walks after Edie's

The Queen of Howktown then departs to mow the lawn, dig up oregano, plant strawberries,transplant flowers, and then ride her bike to Yoga. 

Where Am I? What and Who now?

This last week has been a busy one for the Queen of Howktown. First off all, my massage schedule was packed to the gills. It was full enough, in fact, that I felt that I had entered a time warp and lost two whole days by Thursday.

Thursday morning I walk down the stairs with my rubber arms swinging by my side like the Great Ape of the jungle, when came upon my mother and sister. I swear they were speaking in a foreign language. I did not know what the bleep they were talking about, and the words that I could understand, still didn't make any sense. "What?" "Who and the Where now?" I flabbergasted toward them. They just rolled their eyes and continued.

Saturday I slept in until 10 am, something I haven't been able to do in ages, and then I drove up to the cities to see one of my best friends, Andrea. She's from "The Apartment" (whose name rings infamously among certain folks), and I haven't seen her since she's had her first child almost 3 years ago, and she's had second child almost a year ago.

On the way, I tuned to Public Radio. Now, I'd been hearing rumors about this "Splendid Table" show from Czarina Kylie and how I should totally listen to it. It just so happens that as the power button of the radio released, 660 Indian Curries were being described and I was hooked. I also learned how to squeak an artichoke and that avocados used to be called Alligator pears.

I just realized that this post is going to be a mile long if I don't consider the readers and split up the post. Anyway, it's been a jammed packed week,and next week will be the same.

For later:
Avacados and Artichokes!
Yog-awesome!
The APARTMENT!
and something really funny, I'm sure.

Cribbage - or as I like to say "CriBATCH!"

Cribbage Board
Originally uploaded by apdonovan

So last week Doug says "I'm bored of kicking your ass at King's Corner".
"Grsnnurrfff!" I reply as I try not to let the diet Coke snort through my nose. "I'm thinking kicking my ass at King's Corner is a little bit of an exaggeration considering I just handed your ass to you 5 times."

"Talk about exaggeration." he roles his eyes "but you know what I'm sayin'. it's getting a little dull"

"What about 'Gin Rummy'"
"I never win"
"Oh, I see the problem now" I nod, "You want a game that you can consistently kick my ass at, and that I won't kick back"

"Well, now that you mention it... oh, and did I tell you, my mom just taught me how to play cribbage, wanna play?"

"I've never played it before"

"Perfect"

Things Boyfriends are Good For.

When I graduated from Massage School five years ago, my dear friend gave me an iPod so I could have lots of mixes of massage music to play in my studio. It was a brilliant idea, especially since she included speakers with it. It would have been fabulous if I had a massage studio that first year being out of school, but I didn't. I worked for other people under their rules, so massage music didn't make too much of a dent on the thing.

15 GB ( a size I thought I could never fill) and countless road trips and trips to the gym later, the thing's battery won't hold a charge and I can't add any more music to it, not to mention the earphones are held together with yellow electrical tape. I try to be reasonable, because it technically works. I could get a new battery for it... but I still wouldn't be able to add more music without taking some off. I could just use it plugged in by my bedside (which I did do for several months) but the screen is so small and monochromatic! It must be a tough life I lead if my major worry is the purchase of a luxury item!

Needless to say, I do have other priorities and I have only coveted my friends Apply Devices with full color screens and oodles of storage space. Until I noticed that my boyfriend isn't using his iPod because it 'doesn't seem to work right'. "If i can get it to work can I 'borrow' it?" I ask. "Of course, but I want it back".

** heheheh*** giggle giggle. {whisping} He seems to forget that I am a recovering MacAddict and did a stint working with some Mac Tech Support that taught me a few things}

HOWKTOWN STRATEGY--

::RESTORE::
::RELOAD::
::GET DOWN AND BOOGIE::

Ahhh, I am now the proud borrower of a newish iPod. I made sure to put a picture of us on there just to show how dedicated I am to the relationship... between me and the iPod.

HOWKTOWN Advocates borrowing with actual permission from the Owner. HOWKTOWN is not down with "air quote" borrowing. If ya get what I'm sayin'.

Conference: No AUNTS!: Not Funny/Funny: Saarisburg

So, I have say that I had a tremendous weekend. Tremendous in a big, overwhelming, busy, and slightly bizarre way.

It started with a threat of a BLIZZARD... by last exaggerated report it was supposed to be 10-15 inches! I think it was only 6 inches predicted. So, my inital 'in and out' travel plans were changed by "too out of it to make definite plans so fly by the seat of your pants and hope that everything works out as long as you don't get stuck in the BLIZZARD plans"

Howktown doesn't recommending planning a weekend like that... but you know, you just gotta roll with it.

Howktown Weekend Itinerary:

Saturday
Food Allergy Conference with the Czarina of Saarisburg - my fabulous sister Kylie (Kylie would like to point out that she believes all bacon to be a fad).

This is what I learned at the Conference -
• No Aunts - they are only interested in talking to grandparents, parents, and nurses. No Aunts.
• Always carry two epi-pens
• When it comes to reactions to allergenic foods "Past results do not determine future performance"
• Writing notes to fellow royalty (ahem. Czarina and Queen of course) during boring lecture on crusty rashes is considered NOT FUNNY.
• They talk more about kids and how to parent them, then how to deal with your own allergies
• Making up a list of what is approved in Howktown during boring lecture on wet cream wraps so no one notices is FUNNY.

So while at the conference we got a ton of free stuff, luckily I could eat most of it. We were both really good at lunch (when we skipped a couple of speakers to stuff our faces at Chipotle) and we adhered to our Allergen Free diets. It's one of the few places we can both eat with out a problem. I had a yummy carnitas bowl and we decided that in addition to Howktown, Kylie will be in charge of Saarisburg, and then later we determined that Sara is Mayor of Ingvaldia (we didn't decide on the Mayor part, I just made that part up. She's going to have to get back to me on her official title.) These are the Latest Kingdoms in the Mental State of Hilarity.

Sunday Morning I learned how to play cribbage with Doug's mom. Went to see Sunshine Cleaning by myself and ended up being that girl by her self in the movie that keeps texting (I was telling them to stop calling cause I was in a movie! The phone was on silent!) and is bawling over the part when the girl remembers finding her mom dead. Then I sat around in the mall trying to get a hold of the people who kept trying to call me and find out where I was sleeping that night so I could avoid THE BLIZZARD! Had peanut buster parfait, for good luck.

Monday I drove down to Rochester to have some more interactions with doctors... wand then Kylie and stopped at Perkins. We had a great server and tipped her well. The coffee was good, and we were bad. I had a sandwich and pie (WHEAT!) and Kylie had pie (DAIRY and PEANUTS) and tried to pretend we didn't just spend the weekend at a food allergy conference. I did make her put her ONE epi-pen (for her daughter!) near the top of her purse... just in case. Then finally I was allowed to come back home. I had successfully avoided THE BLIZZARD.

When i got home, i was informed we had half and inch of snow. I just wheezed my self to sleep and was happy to be home.