Happy Birthday, Julia Child!

It's Julia Child's 100th birthday today!  My first job out of college was for public television, and I remember getting goosebumps standing on the stage where The French Chef was shot.  You could see the pipes for her kitchen in a corner!  When they tore down those offices, moved across town, and sold the land to a local college (years after I had worked there) I remember feeling melancholy that her studio was gone in turn.

Anyways, I feel like so many people are inspired by her, so it would feel done and disingenuous to talk about it here.  She did a lot for French cooking, and making it accessible, she did a lot for women in television and in a field that was dominantly menfolk.  And she did a lot for those cooks who when a mushroom or chicken falls out of the pot and no one's home, dusting it off and putting it right back in the pot and pretending it never happened.

I mean, that's never happened to me.  I don't know what you're talking about.

I found this clever video that has a variety of clips of her through the ages, and it felt appropriate today.  There are many more clips on youtube, which I'd recommend checking out.

A big day for a little guy

Ummm, I'm the cutest cat ever.

Today Lewis turns one!  We didn't adopt him until February, so we didn't know the little peanut until he was about 9 weeks old.  It's hard to believe, though, that my baby kitten is now a kid cat. 

(note, what I'm writing next points that I may be a crazy person when it comes to my cat)

Every morning, when my morning alarm goes off, Lewis comes running from wherever he is in the house and jumps on my chest and immediately starts purring and cuddling.  I honestly can say in all my cat-owning years, I've never met a cat who is that affectionate and snuggly.  So to the haters... cats can be loving if they are special cats.

Anyways, this morning after he ran in to snuggle me before I got out of bed, I sang him happy birthday and then treated him to his favorite cat food (which is going out of business... that's a story of meltdowns for another day).  Ricky also gave him some yogurt.  I'm sure we'll do something equally crazy tonight.  That being said, my coworker told me she makes her dog a carob cake every year for her dog's birthday... so on the sliding scale, I feel like I'm looking pretty good.

So today is just a little shout out to my favorite cat, Lewis PC.  And when I say he's a little guy... it's true.  He's only 11 lbs.  The photo is of him sitting on the back of the couch and having his paws on the windowsill as he looked out the window at birds, cars, and leaves.  It was quite cute.

I blame Dan

My plan was to post something, but I went to my friend Dan's birthday party, where we played games and drank beer all hours of the night.  We also learned about everyone's favorite retired cop now toll booth collector, Johnny Nickles.  It was a great way to spend Friday night.

As an apology, here's a cute photo of a schnauzer puppy.  I knew you'd like it.

Happy Birthday to Sinbad... and Tracy Morgan... and Pete

Today is Pete's birthday.  (there are a lot of family birthdays in early November)  When we were little, we joked that the only famous person that shared Pete's birthday was... Sinbad.



Whenever we'd talk about who shared our birthdays, Pete would joke that we had awesome people share our birthday... and he had Sinbad.

I recently discovered that he shares his birthday with another black comedian... Tracy Morgan!




So a big happy birthday to Pete and to the two black comedians I now associate him with in my head.

Birthdays

My mom turned 50 on Saturday, which is insane.  I made cupcakes (see photo) for the party her family threw for her.  They're chocolate buttermilk cake with a chocolate cream cheese frosting.  As we know, my mom loves whales, so I found dolphin sprinkles... which are as close as I could find to a whale sprinkle.

It's definitely odd having my mom turn 50, since I always felt like I was the friend who had the young mom.  (which is true... my mom is one of the youngest of my friends who are my age)  But I guess since I am growing older, I guess that makes sense.  And, if you think about it, my mom is still the young mom since she's only turning 50 now.  And I'm pushing 28.

It was a good party.  Everyone met up at a local restaurant that's a family favorite for BBQ and volleyball in the back yard.  Low key and definitely fun.  Only two cousins couldn't make it, since they go to college in far away states, so the turnout was quite impressive.

I'm glad we could give my mom a special day, since she deserves it and does so much for us.  She said she enjoyed it, so that's all we could ask for.

Life's like a movie, write your own ending

As the Google homepage showed us this morning, it's Jim Henson's 75th Birthday! It's crazy to think that he only would have been 75. I also wonder what else he would have created, had he not died so young. Given his full body of work in only about 30 years, I imagine it would have been quite prolific.

There's this amazing PBS Documentary I recommend you check out called The World of Jim Henson. I bought it in college on VHS because they never printed it on DVD, but I think it's on YouTube in pieces. It's really impressive, and shows a lot of his older work, like Sam and Friends and his commercials.

It really is a very Muppety year for me. At my surprise 27th birthday in April, we watched The Muppets Take Manhattan, it's Jim Henson's 75th birthday, I bought The Green Album, and the new Muppets movie is coming out in November. Huzzah!

Some of my favs:

A big day for sure

The Millie girl is 12!



Millie's been slowing down a lot in her later years, and is certainly in her winter, so I hope she has a great birthday and a tasty treat. A very happy birthday to you, my dear dog.


Also, work has been crazy, but I'm planning a post about what I did on my summer vacation and all the knitting I've done as of late.

Steve, I didn't know it was your birthday!

Today is Ricky's birthday! He's 29. Will be treating him to tasty cupcakes and food and beer tonight... and then the final of Top Chef. What a perfect day it will be.

I won't be letting him hold the cupcakes with candles in them, though, because clearly then he makes an awkward face during it.

5-0!!!

Today Leo turns 50. Hurrah! Exciting times for sure.

We'll be celebrating in style tonight with steak and games and good cheer.

Happy 70th...

to John Lennon!





That's one of my favorite songs, but so we don't end on a sad note for his birthday:



And one from the Beatles...particularly Yellow Submarine, which was essentially my introduction to the Beatles:

Would you believe in a love at first sight?

A little happy birthday shout out to Ringo Starr, a top notch drummer and tiny conductor for a magical train station.

All I want to do is sleep and watch Chronicle

Zoning out with his one true love... coffee.


This is a quick birthday shout out to my wonderful boyfriend Ricky, who is 28 today. We'll be eating cupcakes and delicious food later on to celebrate.


That is all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

I think after four years at an Irish Catholic college and 26 years of not being Irish, it's safe to say my caring about St. Patrick's Day has bottomed out. I think it's a silly holiday and excuse for people to pretend their a heritage as an excuse to drink themselves into a gutter. That being said, Erin and I are spending tonight with Bob at an Irish pub for dinner, and I did begrudgingly throw on a green shirt at the suggestion of Ricky, but that's about as far as I'll go.

So instead, I think I'll say Happy Evacuation Day to all the Massachusetts residents out there who read my blog.


Oh, and an even bigger happy birthday to my friend Karin. That's the real holiday right there.

Today is your birthday!

Leo, at left, on Thanksgiving watching more football than anyone can possibly handle. I may be biased, though...


Today is my stepdad Leo's birthday. Heading home tonight for tasty food, cake, fancy mustard and pretzels, and beer. He's pretty awesome and kind and great, so he deserves all of it. He's also the best husband for my mom, something I will always appreciate since she needed someone like him in her life.

Yaaaay!

Birfday

Do I have something in my nose?


Today is a big ol' shout out to my middle brother Pete, who turns 24. Yaaay Pete!




Oh and Day 2 went well, but I ate more ice cream today. And french fries. I think I will love this job, but at this rate, I also think I may put on about 50 pounds in the process.

Birthday shout out to Mummmmmm

The sea was angry that day, my friends...like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.


A very very happy birthday to my wonderful Mum today! This is one of my favorite pictures of her, since she is so in her element: out on the ocean, on a boat, with her family.

Fleecing Larrys on his 21st

Today is a pretty awesome birthday shout out. Yes, my little brother Sam, aka Sam Bam to some and my cell phone, is turning 21. As of 5:15pm, his liver had not shut down, which is a good sign. I think him having class until later today helped keep that in tact.

So Sam is, in short, awesome. And has a sometimes ridiculous life. This is both good ridiculous and bad ridiculous. Here are some highlights:

--He is the person my blog is named after.
--He swears more than any trucker or sailor you know.
--He's accomplished a lot in his life in a short 21 years.
--He's almost fought a homeless man in an alley Tired and Emotional, as well as getting kicked out of the Middle East Nightclub.
--He made his own Halloween costume by taking a sharpie on a Hanes shirt and drawing the Superman logo on it.
--He can fall asleep anywhere in any position.
--He loves singing.
--He's one of the few people in the world who actually hates Tom Hanks.
--He owns more shirts than I do.
--He's awesome, and I'll take 6 hours out of my life any weekend to drive him back to college.
--He sends me funny texts about how I'm a ho bag in India.

I could continue, but I feel that this is also me just going on and on about how awesome my brother is. Wait, I lie. That's exactly what this post is. But he's worth it.

So a big happy birthday to my little brother and much love from your older sister.

I'm on a boat, and looking a little bit like Heat Miser.

Where It's At!

More on bowling later, but I wanted to highlight the AMAZING cake my lovely best pal/bizarro twin Erin made for my birthday:


HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT??? Erin made it from scratch, including the record, which is melted dark chocolate in a cake pan with a serrated knife creating the ridges. She's awesome.

Oh, and it was delicious.

Somewhere right now...

...my mom is singing this song about me to herself.



She's not a big Carpenters fan. Far from it. But every birthday card I receive, and every birthday, she sings the bridge to me:

On the day that you were born
The angels go together,
And decided to create a dream come true.
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue.



So, as you may now tell, today is my birthday. It's also my champagne birthday (25 on the 25th). I don't usually like to celebrate and promote my birthday (last year I worked then went to the DMV to get my license renewed... and that was about it) but this year since it's on a weekend and it's a big one, I am going bowling with some good friends in Boston, then probably getting a beer or two at The Burren. I'm looking forward to all of this. I'll probably share stories from it.

Simple Joys have a Simple Voice

Today I trekked to NH to visit my friends Alissa and Brendan because... THEY HAD A BABY ON FRIDAY! EEEEEK!!!!

I got the call this morning that Alissa had had the baby the night before. So I trekked up north with a few friends to see the little dear. And she is perfect. Perfect size, disposition, features... everything. Such a great day. So in love with this baby and little family.

Also, it's amazing how something like this completely changes your mood. I'll admit, I've been a little stressed and cranky lately. But there's just something about feeling that much love for a new baby that makes you feel so much better about things. It brought such great joy to my week and weekend.

I will not be posting photos of the baby, but just take my word for it... she's stunning and perfect. The greatest new life and birth for the eve of Spring.