If This Theater is a-Rockin'...

Captain Awesome and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary yesterday by going to the San Francisco Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. And no, that was not a symbolic choice.

About 10 minutes into Act I the "cheap" (my ass they were cheap!) seats began dancing about, much like the folks on the stage. Murmuring- was this part of the production? Were we about to fall into the pit below? Were we all going to die in a stampede trying to exit the theater?

The dancers didn't appear to miss a beat- I'm guessing half of them were in mid-air when it happened anyway- so the audience settled down and moved on. CA and I, relatively assured of the structural integrity of the War Memorial Opera House, also settled in to watch the show.

I've lived in California my whole life, and this was a small - 3.6 - earthquake, but it was one of the more memorable ones I've been through! And, to give the inevitable terrible punchline to this story, we can definitely say the earth moved on our anniversary.

(I know, it was painful, but it had to be done)

Cookie Spritz

As some of you have found out, I love my cookie press. It is my friend. Even though it frequently doesn't work. Even though I change the recipe every time I use it. Even though I hate how fucking complicated it is to get the stupid cookie out of the press in decent shape.

I love it.

I recently made 3 batches of dough preparatory to making huge quantities of Christmas cookies that I am freezing. The idea was to avoid doing ten million baking tasks right before Christmas without losing out on oodles of homemade Christmas cookies.

I made lemon, almond, and "candycane" doughs. They were lovely. I made Captain Awesome smell and taste each batch while I proudly patted the dough ball and he rolled his eyes. I have made all but half of the candycane dough into cookies. Delicious, delicious, multitudinous, vaguely shaped cookies.

Why not use a cookie cutter? you might well ask. Because it's a Cookie Press, dude! Don't you get it? It's way cooler than rolling out the dough and cutting. And, in theory, faster. But not really.

Nevertheless, I have not given up on the hope, nay, the dream, that one day I will conquer my cookie press. And then, friends, oh, and then, the river of beautifully shaped, fragrantly scented cookies that will pour from my door!