wildflowersoul

Ahhh, nap time. Dishes washed, laundry going, and meat sauce for tonight's lasagna completed. And he's still sleeping?!

It has been a while since I've done cupcake reviews. Here you go!

Cakes for Occasions in Danvers turns out some surprisingly delicious cupcakes. I say surprisingly because their Yelp reviews are kind of all over the map, so I went in skeptical. But there was a Groupon for a dozen for, like, $12, so the price was right for a trial. I'm not sure how much they cost normally, which is going to be the tipping point for whether this becomes a mainstay cupcakery for obtaining a dozen. My favorite cupcakery is way too expensive to buy a dozen unless it's a really special party, so I'm hoping this place is Lyndell's level of cheapness. Anyway, great moist cake with just the right crumb, tasty frosting, just the right size (on the smaller side for gourmet cupcakes, but not ludicrously tiny like Kick Ass Cupcakes).

Coven in Salem has also really stepped up their cupcake game. They are a bit pricey and are huge, so I hold myself back from chowing down too often. But around St. Patrick's Day they had Guiness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting, and OMG, those cupcakes were amazing. In fact, Coven now ties with Beverly's Cupcake Cafe for Most Favorite Cupcakes In the World.

Kind of surprised that so businesses actually close for Easter. Tried to go to Market Basket this morning but was denied.

Oh, and The League on FX turns out to be a really funny show. It does not look funny at all from the previews, but we gave it a shot and have been in stitches.

I had a fabulous weekend. Finally! We are officially all moved in to the new place and officially totally out of Somerville. To celebrate, I just deleted all davis square related crap from my LiveJournal.

So Thursday night cayetana had the genius to set up some drinking at the Burren, and it was tons of fun. Just what we needed after an egregiously hard week of getting up at 4:30 am and doing lots of last minute moving/cleaning chores.

Friday Drew & I headed down to NYC on a late afternoon bus. We were not wowed by awesome on the Mega Bus this time, as the trip down took about 5.5 hours and involved lots of traffic and slowness. So we straggled into the city, checked into our hotel (a great find, too, on East Houston and much nicer than we'd expected from the price tag- the Gem Hotel), grabbed a couple slices of pizza, and went on our merry way to the Metafilter meet up. I maintained the perfect level of drunkenness, something I strive for on New York visits but rarely achieve (mostly I achieve "kill me now" hangovers that last the entire next day). Is it sad that this is an accomplishment? Anyway, we hung out with a ton of really interesting people, had lots of good conversation, and stayed out until 3 am. Woo!

Saturday we got up too early and obtained the cupcakes I have dreamt about for months from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. I actually now think the cupcakery in Beverly has cupcakes that are even better than the NY place. Trooped around the city in an exhausted haze, got lunch at Burgers & Cupcakes (I have a problem). B&C has changed ownership and changed both their burger recipes and their cupcakes recipes, and I sadly report that I'm not sure I'd recommend going back. Not as good as the last time we went there. After that we piled onto the bus and headed back to Beantown, where I arrived just in time to make it to dr_alycat's lovely and fantastic bridal shower. Fun times!

Yesterday we got a lot done on the unpacking front, and now have a living room cleared of boxes (not that the boxes are actually unpacked, mostly they've been shuffled up to the office and drawing room to be dealt with later). The kitchen is, like, half-unpacked at this point.

So much indie rock in one weekend! Saw Dressy Bessy last night at TT's, it was a great show. The Built to Spill Don't Look Back show in NYC was also awesome.

Our New York trip: fun and exhausting.

Thursday we arrived in the city, dropped our bags off at our weird "b&b" (bed, no breakfast, surly owner), and headed over for our long, long wait for The Daily Show. They overbook their reserved tickets, so you're not guaranteed to get in even if you have tickets. We got there wicked early, waited in line for a looooooong time, but it was worth it because we did get in. The actual taping of the show is so fast, it really is just about the time it takes to watch the show without commercials. Jon Stewart is awesome and comes out before the show to take some audience questions. The show was conveniently about five blocks away from the venue for Built to Spill, so we left the taping and went over to the concert. I had been hoping to get there after the Meat Puppets finished their set, but we were early and had to sit through them. Dinosaur Jr. rocked out, and then Built to Spill played Perfect From Now On, and they were amazing, and it was all I hoped for. It's my favorite BtS album. After that we met up with the rest of our traveling group in Times Square, went to a really crappy bar, and headed back to Brooklyn to sleep.

Friday Drew & I went to the Central Park Zoo, it was raining so the giant bunnies were not outside and I felt a little cheated. Yes, the highlight of every zoo experience for me is seeing bunnies, even though I have three perfectly good bunnies at home to see all the time. But the polar bears were adorable. We then hit the Met, which I've been to a couple of times, so I hit my museum tolerance pretty quickly. Since it was raining, I think half the population of the city was hanging out inside the Met, making it kind of claustrophobic. We fled the museum to meet up with friends and commence to drinkin'. Continued drinkin' at Vol de Nuit. Got a tasty late dinner at a place called Acme, and by the time we got to Brooklyn our store of energy was spent. Why does it take so friggin' long to get anywhere in New York?

Saturday we had brunch in Carroll Gardens, waited forever for an F train to take us into Manhattan, scored The Best Cupcakes I Have Ever Had, Ever at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, and went to The Strand for some book action. By the time all this was done, it was pretty much time to catch our bus home. Ok, seriously, those cupcakes? They were divine. They were better than Lyndell's. I would take the 4 hour bus back down to New York just to get those cupcakes and then come right back. Nom nom nom.

So that's that. It was a ton of fun, but involved way too much public transportation. If it hadn't been raining I would have walked much more and probably wouldn't have burnt out so much on getting around town.

So I'm reading Them by Jon Ronson, thanks to Drew's recommendation, and it is awesomely entertaining. I am genuinely surprised by several things: 1) the number of different interpretations on the "New World Order" theme, 2) the number of people who appear to believe that a small secret group is controlling the world, and 3) that people honestly think any group of people is organized enough to actually carry out all the activities that the New World Order supposedly carries out. Dude. Sometimes it's an exercise in futility for a group of us to figure out dinner plans for one night. The book is really quite good, though.

Also, I have the sniffles.

Also, also Drew made peanut butter chocolate cupcakes this weekend and they are delicious. Take that, Kickass Cupcakes! Oh, and a cupcakery review: We tried the cupcakes at Modern Pastry this weekend (from the Medford location). Good, better than Kickass, but not great. The cake was moist and tasty, but the frosting was a bit too thick and definitely too sweet. Good size to price ratio, though. Lyndell's is still the winner, with a close second coming in from Joseph's Bakery in South Boston (my work often gets our cupcake treats for "First Fridays" from there).

Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square- Verdict: Fail. Hardcore fail.

Ok, first of all, if I'm going to pay $2.89 for a cupcake, I'd like it to be at least the size of a Hostess cupcake. Or at least the size of a cupcake that fits those normal cupcake paper thingies you can get at the grocery store. Or, at the very, very least, make it the size of something you can bake in an Easy Bake Oven. Smaller than that and you are starting to lose me. Overbake the tiny little cake part of the cupcake and you continue down the path of loserdom. Add crappy frosting and I am gone. Also, the price of a dozen is just absurd. $33 for a dozen pathetic cupcakes is just for suckers, especially when a few blocks away are the tastiest cupcakes on earth that sell for $9.90 a dozen. If you're going to charge such outrageous prices, at least cut people like a $5 break on a dozen, it will make them feel a little less like they're being ripped off.

By comparison, the cupcakery in New York that we tried last year (Crumbs) has cupcakes that are huuuuge, delicious, and cost $3.50, which is reasonable for taste, size, and what I consider to be the "New York City tax" of things being more expensive than necessary in Manhattan. I couldn't even finish the cupcake I got at Crumbs because it was so huge, and those of you who know me know I can pack in some food like nobody's business, and have no shame about scarfing down edibles.

I love the Emperors New Clothes-esque sentiment that so many denizens that bastion of LJ community sanity are spouting. Or maybe they really have never had better baked goods and they love throwing money down the toilet. Whatevs, I give that place 3 months before they've gone under, unless they change things up a lot.

Anyway, I've been "jogging" in the mornings lately, and I'm kind of digging it. Right now the morning temperatures are perfect, and at 6 am, the roads are quiet, it's just starting to get light outside, and it's quite pleasant.

Ugh, I know I shouldn't, but every once in a while I drop back in to see what craziness is going on in davis_square, and get my blood pressure pumped up with the inevitable dumbassery going on in there. Dumpster diving... you know, I don't care if people want to do that themselves, as nasty as I think it is, but the dude who very proudly proclaimed that they dumpster dived and brought the retrieved goods to homeless shelters.... just... dude. If you care that much about feeding homeless people, don't give them food you picked out of a trash bag. Please. Homeless people have dignity, too. I bet the people running the shelter would be pissed as all get out to find out that donated food has been plucked from the trash, I'm sure that violates the sanitary code.

In good Davis Square news, there is a new cupcakery opening soon. Cupcakes!

Also, today I will most likely be voted in as the new chair of the Union List Committee for the Association of Boston Law Librarians. I say most likely because I'm the only person nominated for the job, and I think I'm the only person on the committee, but you never know, some librarian may just start a throw-down with me at the meeting.

ETA: The Tiki Room is closed?! Noooooooo! But-- this summer I am doing this. Tiki Tour!

I have a confession. For the longest time after reading Beowulf in high school, I thought Grendel was a big old dragon. Then the dragon idea was deflated by "English majors" who apparently have better reading comprehension skills than I. So I then thought Grendel was a big old hairy monster. Imagine my disappointment when watching Beowulf and Grendel and finding out that Grendel was just a lame troll.

Man. My bunny's name isn't as badass anymore.

And, um, wow. That movie was a big old turd. In fact, it is on my list somewhere between the Star Wars prequels and The Mexican, though not winning the Worst Movie Ever award, as that is held by Unbreakable. Inappropriate colloquialisms, unmatching accents, Sarah Polley's wretched "performance," and Grendel peeing on a door for some reason. Ugh. I'd like those two hours of my life back, please.

Anyway, so that happened this weekend (sorry to the folks who saw it Friday, my logistics for seeing it couldn't work until later in the weekend).

But my weekend also involved ice cream filled cupcakes, so I can't complain. Science has proven that they are delicious. And the store has a variety of other pastries that can be injected with soft serve.

Ok, bunnyroo is my hero.

Seriouslah.

She has directed me to Cupcake Nirvana.

I have a problem. a delicious problem

Note to komos and tenillypo: If you'd rather we bring back cupcakes instead of making you cookies as partial bunny-feeding karma repayment, just say the word. There will, as always, also be booze for yous.