Fun With Toys

Today, Chris and I are taking off for New Orleans, where we will participate in a time honored tradition known as the Marathon of Beers.

Glad you asked.

The Marathon of Beers is the type of event that could only be born in a college setting -- the soil there, which supports sloppy freshman and excessive drinking games -- is rich for such an event to blossom and grow.

The event itself consists of teams of ten, each of which picks a team color. This year I'm on the pink team, captained by my friend Alexa, and Chris is on the yellow team, captained by his friend Ben. The event is spread over five stops, with a mile at each stop. At each stop, each team of ten is responsible for drinking 26 beers between them. So, you start at point A, drink 26 beers between your team of ten, and then run a mile to point B. Where you drink 26 beers between your team of ten, and then run to point C. Where you... well, you get it.

Anyway, last night we were making our preparations to leave town for a few days, which, for me, includes making cupcakes to bring to our lovely hosts. In honor of my team color, I made lemon cupcakes with pink frosting.

Now, while making cupcakes is always something I enjoy, this batch was especially special, because I got to use my new star tip for the first time! It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but by the end I was cruising along. It definitely gave me a newfound appreciation for bakers. It is not easy to do all that piping. But, I think it's pretty obvious that it paid off.

Also, you can't tell from the picture, but I also filled these cupcakes with frosting, using the cupcake coring device I got from Chris's mom for Christmas. It's so excellent, and creates perfect little cavities in the cupcakes to fill. So cool!

The other toy that I'm so excited to break into, which arrived last night, is my Create-Your-Own Seder Plate. I'm hosting a seder for Passover, and wanted a seder plate to match the one that my friend Sara found in New Orleans. It's sort of a paint-by-numbers situation.

The best part about it is that, through Internet search to find it, I discovered what may be one of the more hilarious websites of our time: OyToys.com. Only, on the label that came on the box, the . in .com was replaced with a Star of David. Seriously, visit it. I dare you not to find it hilarious.

In the midst of all the cupcake/seder plate fun, that boy that I live with and I also took a date night to go out for some sushi that we'd seriously been craving. It was a really nice night here, and the nice weather has been continuing today. I'm knocking on wood, but it seems like Spring may actually be here for good.

Special shout to the sister, who has a big interview this weekend! Good luck, sistah-friend, I know you'll do great.

Hope everyone else has good weekends planned too! Wish us luck for our big race!