Birthday Cupcakes

This week, one of my co-workers had a birthday. Someone bought a card. Someone bought balloons. And I made cupcakes (no surprise there). Below are yellow cupcakes with white chocolate-butter cream frosting.

Critter Control

A few weeks ago I had a wasp in my house. I killed the poor bastard and felt bad about it. Then, last week I saw this: That's the light on my front porch with a wasp nest very close to it. It's gone now, and I feel bad about killing the bugs that called it home.

I don't have a picture of it, but I also had to knock down a robin's nest that was built over the motion sensor light on my garage. The leaves or whatever the bird used to build it kept blowing in front of the sensor and turning on the light. I hope it built another nest somewhere safe.

The H Truck

About 10 years ago, I lived in downtown Cleveland (4th and Prospect above Flannery's). At the time, I had a 1990 Chevy Cavalier, and I just about never drove it since I walked to work. I sold the car, which worked out well until I moved to Tremont (near the old Grumpy's) and soon after got a new job in the suburbs. My grandfather offered to let me borrow his truck (which he previously bought from my dad) until I got a new car. I didn't hate the truck, but I didn't waste any time buying my New Beetle either.

We called it the Hillbilly truck, which got shortened to "The H Truck."

Over the years the truck got rustier and started having problems. My grandfather can fix a lot of things, but The H Truck proved to be too much for him to keep up. In the last few years all of his patches and by-passes started failing. I told him he should follow-up on his threat to "put a match to it." He didn't, but he did donate it to charity recently. At my request, he took a few pictures before they hauled it away.

Goodbye (and good riddance) H Truck! We'll miss you (sorta)!

Brew Matters

Phoenix Coffee is having a seminar at their roastery this Monday called Brew Matters that will show how one type of coffee can be brewed five different ways. There is some inside dirt on the Phoenix employee blog.
A couple pals and I will be there. If it's half as good as the last event we attended at the roastery, it'll be smashing!
And how cute is their ad in response to Starbucks closing to retrain their staff?

Oscar Predictions

My picks are in bold

BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

I didn't see There Will be Blood, but I bet it wasn't any better than No Country..., friend-o.

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney
Daniel Day-Lewis
Johnny Depp
Tommy Lee Jones
Viggo Mortensen

People like that milkshake line, and he's been cleaning up at other shows.

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett
Julie Christie
Marion Cotillard
Laura Linney
Ellen Page

She was the best lip-syncher of 2007, and she shaved her eyebrows for the role!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett
Ruby Dee
Saoirse Ronan
Amy Ryan
Tilda Swinton

They love to give best supporting actress to a pregnant lady and to a lady playing a dude.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck
Javier Bardem
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hal Holbrook
Tom Wilkinson

C'mon, look at his hair!

BEST DIRECTOR
There Will be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson)
No Country for Old Men (Ethan and Joel Coen)
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
Juno (Jason Reitman)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel)

It might go to Schnabel. I hope Sean Young interrupts him if it does.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Diablo Cody is totally going to win and then write about it in Entertainment Weekly.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Atonement
Away From Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

They like awarding actors (Sarah Polley) for writing.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Assassination of Jesse James...
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

When I watched it, I felt like I was in Texas.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort
The Counterfeiters
Katyn
Mongol
12

It is about the Holocaust. "Nuff said.

ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Who didn't cringe when the rats fell from the ceiling? Eww.

EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will be Blood

I guess I'm rooting for this movie? I'm screwed if There Will be Blood cleans up.

ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will be Blood

Any screen grab looks like a work of art. I don't know if that's what this award means, but that's why I picked it.

LIVE ACTION SHORT
At Night
Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Sounds like a drink.

COSTUME DESIGN
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd

Keira's outfits look good on her because they look exactly the same as they do on hangers.

ORIGINAL SCORE
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma

The typewriter sold it.

MAKEUP
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

She looked convincing as a teen and as an "old" lady.

ORIGINAL SONG
Falling Slowly from Once
Happy Working Song from Enchanted
So Close from Enchanted
That's How You Know from Enchanted
Raise It Up from August Rush

I'm currently obsessed with this song and feel the movie should have more nominations.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Umm, it's an election year?

SOUND MIXING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

The movie sounded good when I had my eyes closed because the shaky camerawork made me nauseous.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freehold
La Corona
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

No reason given.

ANIMATED SHORT
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Even Pigeons Go to Heaven
My Love
Peter & the Wolf

The Beatles are very popular.

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Did you see them transform? Awesome.

SOUND EDITING
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will be Blood
Transformers

Same reason as Sound Mixing.

Cake Slice

Strawberry cake with chocolate frosting.

A birthday cake for my oldest nephew.

Yummy when served with vanilla ice cream.

Giant Banana Muffins

The muffin is almost as big as the teapot! Okay so the muffin is pictured next to a kid's tea set, but I made it in a jumbo muffin tin, which makes muffins that are about twice as big as regular muffins.

Here's a close-up:


The recipe came from the same muffin book as the zucchini nut muffins and the pecan muffins, and since that book is inconsistent, I wasn't sure how these would taste. They were yummy, but next time I'll try adding some nuts or coconut to liven them up. I love the jumbo tin though. I may never make a cupcake-sized muffin again!