Party Time

We had a costume party at work tonight and it was fun. Everyone was dressed up and looked good. Jonah and Michelle were the cutest couple there, but Sierra and Sam were great too. First up for the evening, we had a contest for best costume, then a pumpkin carving contest. My pumpkin is on the left and Michelle's is in the middle. I won second place, for which I got fluffy socks and a candle. Next we had a mummy dressing contest. Michelle, Jonah, Mark, and I were on a team; Mark was our mummy. He looked great. David had to carry their mummy over to the judging area, quite a feat since Sam was their mummy and he is considerably taller than David. The three mummies, our mummy, Mark is on the left. After that, we went across the street to get drinks. Michelle and I got lavender Italian soda, but they were super strong, so we couldn't finish them.

Uncle Harry's and Fresno State

Due to a canceled class, I was thrilled to be able to meet up with three of my London flatmates this morning. Juan, Alicia, Ashley, Ashley's friend Jeremiah, and I met up at Uncle Harry's bagels for an early lunch and a short visit to catch up. We enjoyed good bagels and conversation and it was so nice to get to see them again, I have been missing my flatmates and London a lot lately. Ashley, Alicia, Juan, and I outside of Uncle Harry's. Back at Fresno State, I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures around campus while I had my camera with me. This is an unexciting picture of the bell tower, which isn't much for looks, but I love getting to hear it ringing the hours and "the leaden circles dissolved in the air". It was cold and rainy today, which I wasn't expecting so I wore my flip flops and slipped and fell in one of the open air hallways. But now, I'm cozy at home wearing my socks and pjs.

Reshingling the Ridge Line

Dad, Mom, and I continued our project of reshingling the ridge line on the roof today. We started last Saturday by figuring out what we were doing on a small section. Today we began in earnest. The old ridge shingles are in terrible shape because they were defective. We have been finding pieces around the yard after wind storms for awhile, but I was surprised how bad they really are; some places are down to the tar paper. Dad pulled up the old shingles, Mom collected them, swept, and laid out new shingles for me, and I put the new ones on. After Dad had pulled off the section we were planning to do today, he joined me in nailing on the new ones. Everything went well and looks good, we were able to finish about half today and are planning to finish the second half next Saturday morning. It is quite the project, Dad and I are both sore already from the hours we put in this morning hammering and lifting, but we are happy with our progress and the results thus far.

Michelle's Birthday Celebration

Michelle's birthday was on Wednesday this week and to celebrate we had family dinner Thursday night. I was responsible for making the cheesecake. It made me a little nervous because I don't have much cheesecake making experience, but it was also exciting and I had a lot of fun. Thursday I put the finishing touches on the cheesecakes and Micah helped by eating the leftover chocolate decorations. We had two cheesecakes: a chocolate swirl and one with raspberry sauce. The birthday girl and me with the finished product. Mmm, cheesecake, I love it! We had a lovely dinner and the cheesecakes turned out well.

And the Winner Is...

We had a competitive afternoon at Wildflower Cafe today. I don't remember how it started originally, but we got an order for 2 pear walnut salads, so Mark said we had to see who could make a better one. It ended up being a tie, he got two votes for looks to my one, but I finished in almost half the time. Then we had a cake frost off. Our baker, Veronica, frosted the first cake, followed by Sierra, one of the owners. Then I got to frost a German chocolate cake, which turned out pretty good looking, if I do say so myself. Mark finished things off by frosting his first cake, but it was a tricky one that had a raspberry filling on each layer, so it wasn't fair. But we had a fun time and all the cakes turned out well, although Sierra had to help Mark a little with his, which evened things out since he helped her with hers. Anyway, it was a fun way to spend an afternoon at work.