Because sometimes you have to throw your own parties.

I threw myself a birthday party. I knew the first part of this month might not be easy for me, so I planned ways to intentionally take care of myself. I wanted to feel surrounded by loved ones and welcome in a new year, and a birthday is a perfectly normal reason to have a party. (Unfortunately a I-survived-the-depths-of-hell party is a little less socially acceptable.) And since I didn't have someone to throw me a party, I decided to throw one for myself. This probably broke some etiquette rules, especially because I made it a potluck party, but I don't even care. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Here and there.

• I bought vacuum cleaner. A Miele. I love it. It's black and silver, though I chose it for other reasons. However, it coordinates very well with my home's color scheme.
• I vacuumed the whole apartment the day I brought it home. There are no longer little rocks on the floor in the 3-foot (half) radius around front door. And Booboo was pretty comfortable around it, which is a huge change from how he was with the previous vaccuum.
• At the store, the registration process for the 10-year free warranty (!!!) asked for the reason for buying a vacuum. There was not an option for "My ex left me for another woman and took the vacuum cleaner with him." So the guy at the store said I should just choose "Replacing a broken vacuum."
• My new Miele rolls behind me so easily, like a happy little puppy following me around. It was on sale, plus I even got an extra $40 off because I took one that had an almost invisible scratch on the bottom. Honestly, I probably did more damage to it on its maiden voyage around the apartment the other day.
• You know the risk I talked about in the last two paragraphs of this post?

I wish.

Bonne fête, S!

Cupcakes in Montréal

We were excited to find cupcakes at a bakery here in Montréal and brought home cupcakes with high hopes. After eating them, S offered his two word analysis of them:

"Not Swirlz."

I agreed with disappointment. We may be doomed to forever eagerly try cupcake after cupcake, only to conclude they don't live up to our Swirlz-derived cupcake expectations of What a Cupcake Should Taste Like.

Cupcakes galore.

S and I both really like cupcakes. In Chicago, we used to love to go to Swirlz in Lincoln Park. Mmm... Our favorites were the bittersweet chocolate and the red velvet, but we also enjoyed trying other yummy varieties. Had the wedding been in Chicago, I would have really wanted to have some Swirlz cupcakes at the reception. But in Quebec City, we did not have that option, and the only cupcake shop in Québec did not compare with the Swirlz cupcake standard I now use to analyze cupcakes. So my non-pastry-chef-self decided to go with the only reasonable option in our sans Swirlz world...Duncan Hines.

A million thanks to Bridesmaid M and Minister M who took charge and made having cupcakes at the soirée a reality. The day before the wedding became our little early celebration of National Cupcake Day which was on October 18th. M and M had a cupcake baking marathon and made 200 cupcakes, in both the normal and mini size, while I worked on the program design. We decided to transport the cupcakes to the venue un-iced in boxes (to avoid transport disasters) and ice them on the day of the wedding right before setting them out on cupcake towers my mom got for us. The cupcakes were a BIG task involving a lot of time; I am so thankful for M and M who made it possible. People enjoyed the cupcakes and commented on how good they were, and I LOVED having (and eating!) cupcakes at the reception and on the mini-moon 'cause we took some leftovers with us.

Cupcakes do indeed make people happy.