Everyone, wish A. a Happy, Happy Birthday!

Today is my good friend A.E.R.'s birthday! YEA! If you see her, make sure to wish her a happy birthday! Apparently, Ophelia and I have decided that we only get our shit together for special appearances for people's birthdays these days. So, if you have a birthday, maybe let us know? That way, we'll bake more. Ophelia has been so upset with me that pictures of her have been absolutely out of the question. Um, also pictures of the kitchen, and most of the rest of the house, and me, and my car, are also completely out of the question. Yeah. That's how the job market and dissertation stuff have been going.:P No need to ask.

As you can tell from the photos, things didn't turn out exactly as we had intended them. Is anyone surprised? For weeks now, I've been planning on making A. a CubbieCake, since she is such a huge Cubbies fan. As someone who understands very deeply the connection with sports teams, I was all for this. A. likes cakes that aren't chocolate heavy, so I was going to make a white cake, dye it red, and then put the logo on the top. Um, yeah, that was what I was going to do. Instead, I couldn't get the cake to be red, so it turned out pink. I didn't want it to taste crazy weird because of the food dye, so I had to stop. A. isn't exactly a "pink" person, so that was strike number one. As you can see from previous posts, I like to make things that remind me of the people who I am making them for, so I tried to do the best with what I had. Initially, as you can see from the photos I had intended to do balloons or flowers or something on the top. But, that's just not A. If you know her, you know what I am talking about. She's smart, funny, kind, has a ton of energy, is hard-working, but most importantly, is unique. You'll never meet another person like A. I love her company, and the company of her fiance and two loveable dogs (one of whom we joke is my biological daughter the way she is all over me when I'm there:). With A., it's very easy to go from 0 to silly to serious to silly again. I just couldn't put standard flowers or balloons on her cake. She's anything but standard. So, what happened is my attempt to capture A. in a cake -- colorful, bright, complex, unique, wonderful. Can't wait to have some soon! Happy Birthday A. -- I'm so glad to know you!