Hello Cupcake - Goodbye Dense, Dry GF Cupcake

After reading the rave reviews of a new cupcake shop that just opened up last week in Dupont Circle, I decided I had to taste for myself. This is no ordinary cupcake shop you see, in addition to their regular gluten filled varieties, they sell gluten free cupcakes!

http://www.hellocupcakeonline.com/

So while I was in the middle of reading a very dull, dense report at work yesterday, all I could think about was how I had to try these cupcakes. (Yes, I'm slightly food/sweet obsessed.) After calling to confirm that at 2pm they still had some GF cupcakes left, I headed for the metro (boring reading material in hand for the ride).

45 min and $15 later ($12 for 4 cupcakes (why go all that way for just one?!) and $3 for the metro fare) I opened up my box of cupcakes and devoured what was absolutely THE BEST cupcake I have EVER had - gluten filled or gluten free. It was phenomenal! Who knew anything made out of rice flour could taste so good? You have no idea the challenge of gluten free baking. I was in absolute heaven. The flavor this week for the GF cupcakes was carrot cake, one of my favorites. I can hardly wait until Monday when I will call and find out what next week's flavor is. I'm hoping for something with chocolate!

And though I was tempted to keep every one of my cupcakes for myself, feeling so deprived of good cupcakes for so long, I dropped one off at my GF friend Linda's house, who declared I must be the nicest person she knows. Awwww.... She too thought it was the best cupcake she'd ever had.

So, yet another story to add to the list of the lengths (and expense) I go to for good sweets!

And after a good dose of sugar, I finally managed to slug through that report.

The Great Dog Paddle

Labor Day in Fairlington is the last day of the summer pool season, and the last 15 minutes the pool is open is designated the Dog Swim. All the canine neighbors head to the pool for some good wet fun.


I honestly had no idea there were so many dogs in my neighborhood. I have never seen so many wet dogs in one place before - it was chaos, but so funny to watch!

Since I was babysitting Sam all weekend, he got to go to the dog swim. After hearing all the stories about him at the lake in Wisconsin this summer, I had high expectations that he'd be the first dog in and would have by far the best dog paddle around.

I guess if you're a dog, pools and lakes are somewhat different, starting with the fact that there's no beach entry to the pool. Sam was not about to just jump off the deck into the pool, and Lori and I were initially unsuccessful at enticing him with tennis balls. So we headed to the baby pool, thinking that would get him started. Only he didn't want to have anything to do with that either. But once Lori went and stood in the middle of the baby pool, he started to feel differently and with a little push from me, in he went. And out almost as fast!


Next we moved onto the big kid pool. With a good push from Lori, Sam fell right into the pool and swam after a ball, demonstrating a perfect dog paddle that would have won him a gold medal in the Doggie Olympics. We will have to work on his start though!