Carrot cupcakes: Success!

So, i got a great bicep workout grating another cup and a half of carrots, and this time everything went swimmingly. Didn't over-walnut the batter or overbake the cakes themselves. Had a little less maple syrup than i wanted for the frosting, so i added some vanilla extract and grated nutmeg on top. Not as maple-y as i would have liked, but still delish!

But seriously, enough about baked goods already, heather. Here's the really interesting thing i have to tell you all:

It snowed here in Las Vegas.

No, seriously.

If we had flown out here just two days earlier, our flight would have been canceled because McCarran International Airport was clooooosed. Four inches in the city itself! Six in Henderson, nearby! And it stuck to the ground! When our plane began its descent, the mountains surrounding Vegas (on three sides) were completely covered in white. It was a brisk 44 degrees when we got to my mom's house, and the backyard had a nice thick layer of snow on it! I'm sure her cactus garden was like, wtf? But they'll survive. And their little cactus memories will always have the frosty winter of '08 to remember.

So of course, Nat and i made snowmen, and i found out something very wonderful indeed: he had never made one before! His first snowman, and it happened in Las Vegas! Unbelievable... you know, last time he was here it was 120 degrees out, and windy, and we felt like we were in a convection oven every time we stepped outside. Truly bizarre.

Anyway, since my mom has a digital camera, i might be able to put some of the photos up here....



..so yeah! There's your proof positive. Mine is the small, silly-looking one, and Nat's is twice as big and strangely buxom. It was much fun. They lasted the night, and we decided that if they were still standing in the morning that my brother could kick them down. (we all really wanted him to.) So today, their demise came. Leaves flew, rock "buttons" fell to the ground, only rocks once more. i think this was a prelude to our trip up North. i know that all of us were feeling a little unprepared, but now we have been ushered in to the time of snow. Some of you out there are already living it, i'm sure. It's just been awhile for us :) Can't wait to see it falling, though. There is nothing quite like it.

Happy December to all.

p.s.) sorry about the weird formatting- we had some issues getting the pictures on.

The Meadows.

How on earth did Las Vegas get its name?

i guess a couple of hundred years ago there were green areas, as the result of natural wellsprings. Hard to believe, if you ask me. Although cacti can be very deceptive. when i went to Death Valley as a youngster, i had no idea what to expect. i just remember thinking, with a name like that, it can't be good...

But how wrong i was! To this day, i have not seen a more brilliant flaming orange than the hue i witnessed on the bloom of a flowering cactus. It stopped me dead in my tracks, actually, as the plant itself was absolutely towering. As my eyes wandered down, i realized that the ground was blanketed in hot pinks* and yellows and reds. From the road, you could see none of these details.

Plus, we had an unopened bag of potato chips in the the car that expanded so much during the trip that it looked like a mylar balloon. When we went to open it, it exploded salt and vinegar deliciousness all over the back of the van. Very exciting! i highly recommend a trip to Death Valley, especially for anyone who likes gorgeous moonlit desert nights, lizards, and living in a convection oven.


As for me, i'm heading to Vegas for the umpteenth time. Okay, it's more like the 8th time, but i haven't said "umpteenth" in awhile. My mom has a booth in another craft fair (her 2nd), and i'm hopping a train/bus there to help her out with everything. This time i'm bringing my camera, and hopefully the result will be fancy eye-catching photos for me to post. i know you guys like that stuff.

Wish me luck on the Greyhound. ::sigh:: i'm getting to be an old hand at all this... is that normal? Should i just give up my fear of flying already, or hold on to it for dear life? Hah! Interesting sentence, that.

Toodle-oo.

*Originally typed as "oinks", which was much more interesting. Corrected for posterity.

In Retrospect:

*Saw Lynda Barry at Comic-Con. Had her sign her new book; when she was through, birds were singing and hearts were shot through with arrows on the page. She is such the sweet thing.
*Also: sat through the second half of a presentation about Japanese Bat Man comics from the 60s. Never thought i would see something like that, and it was highly enjoyable. It helps when the person speaking has unbridled enthusiasm ;)
*Ran into a friend, which is always nice; saw some amazing custom wood Ouija boards; purchased a lovely print of a raven/clock thingamabob; ate some crappy soft pretzels. Oh! And had ketchup squirted all over us as we sat on the floor leafing through the day's schedule- turned out that someone had dropped a packet, and a passerby stepped on it, unknowingly causing major trauma for Nat and i. It was almost like Carrie. (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.)
*And finally, we got to see the first 20 minutes of Bill Plympton's new feature-length animated film, Idiots and Angels. Wow. It was really something... the fact that Tom Waits collaborated with the music didn't hurt, either! Can't wait to see the whole thing. His short Hot Dog was hilarious, as well, one of the high points of my Comic-Con experience.

*I left for Las Vegas the next day by train/bus, to help my mom work her table at an arts & crafts show. Not as much foot traffic as we'd all hoped, but we got to iron out a lot of kinks in the whole process, and met some truly great people. This is good for my mom, as she needs to make some contacts if she wants to get ahead with her business... I think a lot of people just weren't ready for her type of stuff. Most of the booths consisted of homemade candles, or knitting, or jewelry, and of course the requisite painted boards with sweetie-pie slogans like "Sisters: friends for life" and "Simplify". Not quite my ball of wax, but different strokes for different folks. I don't think people understood that my mom makes everything by hand, not just orders them online or something. So frustrating!
There was a freak lightning/thunderstorm early on Saturday morning that just made my day, though... the rest of the weekend the sky was filled with the most unbelievably stunning cumulus clouds. Beautiful.

*Got to see Io passing over the face of Jupiter, just after going to my very first planetarium show. For all who've never been to one of those: i highly recommend it. What a way to ground yourself, yet open up to the majesty and vastness of the universe all at the same time. Whew.

*The other day we were waiting at the bus stop to head over to Balboa Park. A young Italian tourist couple was sitting next to me, and the girl took one look at my legs and made the most disgusting face, which of course was not lost on me. She then said something in a snide tone to her boyfriend, who was standing up finishing his cigarette; he walked over and tried to casually check out my legs, then grimaced as well. (Look, i'm very pale and i don't shave, OK?) They both began laughing and i felt my heart start to explode in my chest... i am not angry very often, truly. But this was more than i could handle. I looked hard at them over my sunglasses and then remarked loudly to Nat how some people can be extremely rude, and that just because you are speaking a foreign language, there are other ways to interpret somebody's meaning. How stupid did they think i was? Finally a third friend came by, and the whole process was repeated: the guy smiling and telling her, and she offering a none-too-subtle glance down. I couldn't take it any more, and said to him (and thereby them), "What is wrong with you?!!"
They all tried to feign innocence, and mumbled in Italian, but still smiled. I strongly resisted the urge to rub my hairy leg all over the smooth, tanned leg of the girl sitting next to me. I'm sure that wouldn't have solved anything. But man, it would have been fun to see the horror on her face.

For now, i will have to be content with the fantasy.