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!

The Office Olympics

So this summer I finally had the opportunity to bring the Office Olympics (which were held at SRI) to EEI, complete with synchronized chair dancing. :-) I had been planning this for 4 years!!

Each division competed as its own country (complete with national anthem - ours was BTO's "Taking Care of Business") and sent representatives to participate in a variety of individual and team events such as the Equestrian Event, Wastepaper Basketball, and the Pencil Javelin Throw, to name a few.

The Olympics kicked off with a pizza lunch at the Opening Ceremonies and concluded with an ice cream social for the Closing Ceremonies, and as I said after the Games at SRI - I've never had so much fun at work!!

Somehow I got talked into participating in the Synchronized Chair Dancing with others in my division, which of course was captured on video. (username eeivideo password edison)

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?pi=0&ps=20&sf=&sa=0&sq=&dm=0&p=B85028082C087A00

The judging was as scandalous as the Olympics Gymnastics judging, but what else would you expect! Our team "BOGolia"wound up with the bronze medal (reasonable) but the team that should have won ("AndTigua" - our Accounting and Technology group) had the misfortune of going first, and thus finished last. Definitely check out their routine if you get a chance. The Marshall Islands (our Communications group) took the silver medal and their performance is entertaining as well. If you can't tell, most of our songs have an electric theme to them (since I work for an electricity organization) and the A&T groups songs all have to do with accounting and technology.

FXCM Summer Party

For the second year in a row, Stan was nice enough to host and Frauke was nice enough to plan the FXCM summer party. It was again tons of fun with great food, great friends, and great music! The house band put on a concert - though with the last night of Olympic swimming on TV, most party goers left in time to get home and see the U.S. men win the gold medal in the 400 free relay. Go USA!

A Deep Creek Wedding

My friends Kyle and Laura got married a couple weeks ago. (I've been consumed by Olympics viewing and am quite behind on my posting!) Set in beautiful Deep Creek Lake, it was a spectacular weekend. The weather was a perfect 70 and sunny and all the festivities were outside. Friday night was barbeque and bluegrass, Saturday was the wedding day bike ride in the morning, followed by the church ceremony and lakeside reception.

Haig rode is penny farthing for the bike ride and did an amazing job navigating the hills despite having a front wheel as tall as Theresa and no brakes!

The Perfect Ending to the Trip

Theresa and I scored unrequested upgrades to business class for the flight home!! Woo hoo!! Shortly after passing through security in Munich to get our connecting flight to DC, we heard our names on the loudspeaker. We go to the desk, where they take our tickets and give us new ones. We looked at them over and over again while standing in the line to board for the economy section. Row 8 and 9, I knew that had to be at the front of the plane, but didn't see anything at first that indicated business class. But the longer I stared at the ticket, growing increasingly impatient with the long line to board, I found the word "business" right at the top of the ticket. SCORE!!! I pointed it out to Theresa and we simultaneously stepped right out of line and high fived as we passed through the business class boarding area (no line). What a difference it makes to spend 8 hours in business class as opposed to economy... if only I could be so lucky on every flight. We think it had something to do with the airlines overloading the United flights because of a Lufthansa strike.

Our Last Day of Vacation....

It had to come eventually, and our last day of our 3 week vacation had arrived (way to soon). Back in Warsaw, Tammy, Theresa and I headed to Wilanow Palace, built for Jan Sobieski in the 1600s. Amazingly, the palace survived WWII, and now showcases a large collection of European art. After touring a couple of palaces in Warsaw now, Theresa and I realized when you tour historic homes in the U.S. such as Monticello or Mt. Vernon, you see the house as it was used by those who lived in it. At Monticello you see Jefferson's study, his bedroom, etc. They try to recreate the house as it would have been when he lived there. In Poland however, the palaces are essentially galleries for Polish and European Art. Warsaw was destroyed in WWII, yet much of the Art was saved. The Poles are very proud of this and the Palaces serve as a location to display the art.


After our palace Tour, we were STARVING!! I'm beginning to think being a tourist burns more calories than swimming, biking and running. Naturally, when we passed a Mexican restaurant, we stopped dead in our tracks and convinced Tammy to join in the international Mexican food adventure. Theresa's assessment: edible, but they use ketchup for salsa. (And there didn't seem to be much alcohol in the drinks either...)


Next, we had to have ice cream. For a week, I'd seen people walking around with these huge tall soft serve ice cream cones. I stupidly tried the gelato the first day in Warsaw. The gelato itself was fine, but there was something clearly lost in translation because I ended up with 3 times as much whip cream in the cup than I did ice cream! This time, at Theresa's suggestion, I got the cone (just like everybody else does), and since the ice cream was so tall, I just ate it down to the cone and then threw the rest away. It was yummy!

After our ice cream, we headed back to the apartment to pick up Heather who worked all day. We went to dinner and then to a lounge for drinks. It was a great ending to a great vacation that resulted in making several new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and cramming as much exploration into 3 weeks as humanly possible!

We saw this poster on the wall in the lounge - apparently the Poles like ketchup!!