Cupcakes and Veggie Stock

Round two on the cupcakes went much better thanks to a recipe suggestion from Megan. These were pretty good, but I think I might tweak them a little bit next time and just use hot water in stead of hot coffee.

The veggie scraps that were filling a tupperware in my freezer are now on the stove simmering away and turning into veggie stock. Mmm.

Reassembled

After the bookshelf falling off the wall disaster that happened sometime after 5pm last night and 8am this morning, I've finally put my office back together. Fingers crossed that the bookshelf doesn't fall down again or at least doesn't fall on my head.

Baking Fail

I tried to make some cupcakes last night. Specifically the Mary Presidential Birthday Cupcakes. Well... as you can see they didn't turn out so well. I've been at 5300 feet for months now and this is my first major baking disaster. Time to start working rejiggering the cake recipes.

Overflowing the pan, not rising properly and still gooey at 20 minutes into baking.

Crack Climbing is Hard

After years and years of talking about it... I finally made a trip to Indian Creek over the weekend. I discovered that I have a lot to learn about climbing cracks. I pretty much got my ass whooped by the climbing, but it was super fun and I am ready to go back and try it again. Mucho thanks to Aaron and Nicole for their instruction and words of encouragement.

Jon and Aaron

Nicole climbing

Nicole, Aaron, and Jon getting ready to climb

Me trying to climb

The South Sixshooter... on the agenda for next time.

More pics are here:

Indian Creek Spring 2011

Fountain SS

The weather has finally gotten better... dry and warmer. I've spent the past two weekends climbing on the Fountain SS. I'm finally getting used to the Fountain, which isn't like red rocks or southern SS as it has been thermally altered and it feels more like granite for climbing purposes.

Jaro and some of his Iowa friends were out here for spring break. They climbed... a lot... mostly in Eldorado Canyon and some bouldering at Flagstaff. Motivation for spring climbing has returned. The pictures below were taken by Jaro's friend Adam, who has a super duper nice camera.

Jaro leading something in Eldo

Jaro's hand placing a cam in Eldo

Bouldering at Flagstaff

More bouldering at Flagstaff

Next weekend... Indian Creek. Super excited.

The Big 40... Happy Birthday Farooq!!!

Birthday from the past with super stylin' hair and warm up suit.

The Big Loop

I finally finished my big loop scarf and I love it. Unfortunately it is supposed to be in the 60s all week so I probably won't be wearing it much! I'm sure it will get cold again though.

The pattern is Encompass from the Yarn Harlot. I used almost all of three balls of Cascade 128 superwash instead of a chunky alpaca yarn. Apparently alpaca stretches a lot and merino doesn't. I ended up having to add two more repeats of the pattern to get the 60 inches of circumference on the finished scarf. Super easy pattern and great scarf. Love it.