Itteh Bitteh Kittehs

We were in Eugene this past weekend, visiting family and generally being bums. We finally got to see my sister Helen's house and her baby kittens. As a way of explanation, my sister volunteers for a no-kill animal shelter and finds homes for displaced/unwanted kitties. She ended up with the kittens (and their mother) because they were found on someone's farm land while she was picking up cats to be spayed.

We call this a "cat stack"

Helen tried to see how many cats she could stick in her mouth. The answer is one.

I think this one was Moonbeam.

They have the cutest blue eyes

My mom was either wearing this cat as a hat or this cat was wearing my mom as a belt.

This cat was so snuggly!

Josh played a video of cats meowing and the kittens freaked out. Uh-Door-uh-Bull!

While in Eugene, Helen and Josh also jammed on the banjo, guitar, and ukelele:

The end of an experience

As part of my training, I was a therapist at a private liberal arts college, but this week was my last week. It was sad saying goodbye, but they gave me a present:

(It's a blanket, not a sweatshirt).

Next week I'll be doing psychological assessments (for custody hearings, mostly, it seems) and family therapy (in McMinnville of all places), but this week I got to luxuriate in my tiny, windowless office (that I shared with two people and lots of files), finish a mound of paperwork and listen to hours of audiotaped sessions. The life of a (student) psychologist is totes glamorous, let me tell you.

Piecakes or CupPies

For my last full week at Lewis and Clark, I wanted to make some cupcakes from my cupcake decorating book (remember these and these?)

This is what they were supposed to look like:

Cute, right? The frosting was just vanilla buttercream with cocoa powder and yellow food coloring mixed in. The design is pretty simple, here is what they look like in progress:

After baking the cupcakes, I frosted them, leaving a little unfrosted edge. That was supposed to be so I could make a crimped part of the crust out of frosting. I covered the frosted part with M&Ms. Believe me, it was a total chore eating all the non-red or blue ones! ;)

After covering all the cupcakes with M&Ms, I then piped lines on them to simulated the basketweave crust top. Unfortunately, BOTH of my pastry bags sprung leaks, so I didn't get to finish the edges, but everything else turned out okay:

I have an issue right now with determining the right consistency of frosting; the last cupcakes I make were practically dripping and this frosting was a bit thick. I'm not sure which to try next, but I love the cupcakes that look like regular food (like corn on the cob).