Shit Ton 'O Love

Although I am quite happy in my current job at Cisco for now, I definitely don't presume I will be there forever. In fact, I have a lot of "Plan B" lives planned! One such life has always been to open a cupcake shop and bake. Perhaps also a pie shop? Something involving baked goods.

I became even more enamored by the idea after discovering the show "Cupcake Wars." It just seems really fun to create creative cupcakes of nummy proportions! 

A woman I work closely with had a birthday this week. At work, we usually get a pre-made cake that we all gather around at the end of the day to celebrate a birthday. Instead, I offered to bake cupcakes for the office. The woman I made them for, Toni, loves cupcakes, and more importantly, the flavors I chose. 2 catches of frosting, 3 batches of batter, 6 dozen cupcakes, 4 sangria-ed friends, and about 5 hours later...

Starting in the front left and working clockwise:
1. Red Velvet: this is the red velvet cupcake with the classic smooth texture. We added miniature chocolate chips, and topped it with homemade cream cheese frosting. SheShe added the finishing touch of the mini chocolate chips on top :)
2. Banana Nutella: in the back is the banana nutella cupcake. We used vanilla batter with fresh, well diced bananas mixed in. In the center is delicious nutella. The frosting is a homemade classic vanilla with some nutella mixed in for extra hazelnutty goodness. I obviously lacking a piping device, thus I used a zip-lock back. ...this resulted in the nutella frosting looking a bit like poop, thus these were fondly named "Shit Ton 'O Love." They were my favorites!!
3. S'mores: At the bottom of the liner is a layer of graham cracker crust (delicious). The batter is normal milk chocolate, and at the top we melted some marshmallows to act as the "frosting." If I were to make these again, I think I would have more graham cracker crust, and add some pieces of chocolate into it.

I have already taken some orders at work, and my business is off the ground! Don't be surprised when I open a cupcake shop in the future.

Run, Forrest, Run!

As some of you may know, my new year's resolution this year was to begin running. I've never really been a runner before, and by "never really," I mean the last time I ran a mile was 6th grade gym class. One of my coworkers runs half marathons a few times a year, and I decided I wanted to run one with her over Labor Day weekend. I've been training since about the beginning of February, running more and more over the weeks. Today, I had my first 10K (6.2 miles) called the Mermaid Run.

Kayla and Edel woke up super early with me (aka 6:30am) and we headed out to Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area in Fremont, CA. They were amazing and came to cheer me on :) I got there wearing the free T-shirt I got for registering, and my first official race bib (#1114). The theme for this year's run was "I run because..." and every one filled in their bib's with various quotes. For example, "I run because I'm awesome," "I run because I can," "I run because it makes me happy," or "I run because I have long legs." I was flirting with various things ("I run because monsters are chasing me" or "I run because Jenny said so") but settled on:

The race began at 8:30, and I was surrounded by a giant crowd of people. I had no idea how many people ran! All shapes, sizes, and ages. But anyway... the time ticked by and so did the miles. My stride came and went. Miles #1 and #4 were the toughest. I had a nice stride in the middle and by the end. Of course, for me, a nice stride is still between 12 and 13 minutes per mile. But hey! It's not like I was in a race or anything (cough). I finished the race in an hour and 18 minutes, somewhere in the middle to third quartile of the pack.





Upon finishing, I downed a bottle of water, and laid on the grass. It wasn't as great as Michigan grass, but it made do. I've spent most of the afternoon napping, rightfully so. And now I am watching the Star Wars episode of Family Guy from the classic Sosne position - reclined.




I feel really good and proud of myself. I never in a million years would have imagined I could run a single mile, let alone 6 and change. I think running a half marathon in September will feel overwhelming, and I can't wait to accomplish the goal. ...I'm also scared shitless, because doing what I did today TWICE seems ridiculous! Luckily I have 3.5 months more to train :)

Now here are some Joe Man pictures, cause I said so...