dust yourself off and try again

meet me on the corner and we'll start again

Sometimes, you need people to keep you honest. Oodles, it seems, has kept me honest on more than one occasion. I made mention of maple sugar and then never bothered to follow through with tales of inadequacy and blunders in the kitchen, until she caught me. She strikes me as immensely sweet and good-natured, but also able to give you that b*tch, please look when necessary. I got just that look on Saturday night. I mentioned to her, as I have a million times in comments, that I was going to make her cheesecake soon. She gave me the look. I had to hang my head in shame, because I had no defense. She was right. I have been billowing a lot of hot air with little to show for it.
[This, incidentally, reminds me of my uncle, M mama, who one of my cousins used to call ATNA- all talk, no action. See, everyone in my family is a little silly.]

I have mentioned that kitchen experiments have been disastrous of late. Dabbling here and there, I have met with defeat over and over. I thought I needed a cooling off period. Step away from the kitchen, come back refreshed. It is true that occasionally you need a little distance from a problem before you tackle it again. But other times, you need to up the stakes.

So, that is what drove me to get it together and spend a couple of hours hanging out with cream cheese, sugar, and handmixers yesterday afternoon. That and a completely unwarranted purchase of a mini cheesecake pan from The Crate & Barrel Outlet in Berkeley the weekend before. I really think I ought to have my credit card confiscated before being allowed to walk into Crate & Barrel or Sur La Table.

Normally, I would have spent a day like yesterday hiking. However, that was not meant to be, since I did not get home until three o'clock on Sunday morning. So it goes when you are partying it up with maisnon on her birthday. Levende Lounge wound up very crowded that night, but we stayed the course. The Bro-seph, PG, maisnon & I all applauded ads for making a Mahky Mahk request. SJM bonded with the bro-seph and PG about motorcycles, while oodles, ads, and I looked on befuddled. I think SJM was a bit disappointed that they were not more advanced riders.

I find clubs like Levende to be a little difficult to bear, especially with a large group of people. I'm short-attention span theater in places like that, and that gives me stress for some inexplicable reason. So, I wound up being a little lame, since I retreated to chatting PG up about his latest conquest. It was a good reminder that I am better off in small groups. But, I think maisnon had a good time, and in classic maisnon fashion, there was an impressive turnout for her first birthday as a California resident.

In other news, it wasn't until this morning that I realized that I have three cousins living in NYC right now, and not one. Even worse- I am only going to see two of them. The third does not know I am coming, and it is going to stay that way. So now you know that I am a jerk to my family as well as to everyone else. Fair and balanced, indeed.