30 is the new 16

I haven't written for a while. It turns out that it's hard to juggle school and work and colds and 30th birthday party planning. But things have slowed down, and now I have time to sleep and ride horses.


Michael turned 30 on Wednesday. It's kind of a big deal, and we celebrated accordingly. Michael rented a Nintendo Wii since we had so much fun playing it in Ottawa, and it totally dominated the festivities. Thankfully my mom sent sparklers that managed to distract everyone enough to take a cupcake break. That's right, the reign of the traditional angel food cake has ended. I wasn't up for the headache with the egg whites, so Michael gave me permission to try something else. I surprised him with gingerbread cupcakes that were topped with warm caramel sauce and whipped cream, all made from scratch. I've never made caramel sauce before, and that was the most interesting learning experience. As far as health is concerned, caramel isn't very redeeming. It is sugar and butter and cream and a little bit of water and vanilla. That's it. It's scary to make in the same way that making donuts without a deep fryer (i.e. with a big pot of hot oil, like how my Baba makes them) is scary: you can really burn yourself. I got the cake and the caramel recipes from the Joy of Cooking.


In order to recover from the party and the cold that I had for a week, I slept for 11 hours last night. I'm not sure I've ever slept that long before, and it was glorious. Instead of spending the weekend in full recovery mode, I decided to sign Michael and I up for some horse riding today. It still seems like a totally random activity, but it was fun. A coworker of mine set it up, and I thought why not? I'm up for new activities. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but it turned out to a relaxing jaunt through the woods near Prospect Lake. I even calmed down enough to hold my camera up with one hand and take this picture:


I think I have the right amount of fear in my eyes.