Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

FRIDAY-NIGHT
I watched the latest CSI (S10Ep14). For my opinion on the casefiles and Nick & Greg, see my comment here or read the whole thread in the New episode discussion post at nickngreg

SATURDAY
The CupCake Experiment
PART 5: Honey CupCakes, try #4
Remember my first two tries at this recipe? And how Sillie came over a week later to teach me how to bake them properly?
Well, I figured I didn't really succeed until I managed to make them all by myself, so this weekend I tried again: I decorated the cupcakes with frosting-markers, the figures are supposed to be flowers... Ahem.

SUNDAY
Mom and I traveled East to visit my 'old' friend Oscar (whom I met in university in 1989; unlike me he actually finished medschool and is a GP now. He's married to Rixt, whom I also know from university; she's now a gynaecologist.. They have three children and are such grown ups compared to me;). We hardly ever see each other, and I had been quite nervous for this visit, but ofcourse they managed to make me feel comfortable and we talked and laughed like old times.

After that mom and I went to see the grandparents (my dad's parents, but he hasn't seen them since my parents divorced in 1992). They are very religious and we are considered heathens, but this time we only got scolded for arriving late in the afternoon (apparently they had been waiting for us, while we were having a good time at Oscar's, oops)
I offered them my cupcakes, we were forgiven. *grins* Actually they both said the cupcakes tasted good. My mom agreed. I know they are supposed to say that, but I choose to believe they meant it;)

( Who wants to see random pictures of today? )

It was a good day today.

So much fangirling this weekend: I did not even have time to blog. So I'm slacking making some time at work to report:-)

Had a double fandommarathon this weekend with artistic_sillie. She brought SuperNatural to get me up to date, I had saved CSI to watch together. We also put two films on the program and I added Gilmore Girls episodes with Baby!Jared and Badboy!Chad.
First film on Fridaynight was Overboard which I picked so Sillie could finally read the excellent J2 fanfic The Second Man from tru_faith_lost and captcrashsc (that I recced here.)

On Saturday we watched CSI Season 10 episodes 6 through 13 with exception of CrossOver Ep7, and episode 12 because those sucked. Hey, that's only 2 out of 8; if you are still ignoring CSI based on last season's lameness, you are missing out! So far it's mostly an awesome continuation of the Nick/Greg goodness \o/. The casefiles are pretty interesting too *grins*.

In between marathoning Sillie helped me with the CupCake Experiment; as it turns out the massive fail on my last try was caused because I added sugar on top of the honey, thus making the mixture too overwhelming for the amount of flour. Lesson learned :-)

After the last CSIs we made a short break for dinner (spaghetti) and after the aforementioned Gilmore Girls we watched Ten Inch Hero. So I finally got to see Jensen and his mohawk. I especially approved of the kilt and the sideburns. The beard? Not so much. But even that couldn't hide the cute;). Too bad the film had to resort to the Breakfast Club method so make that point. I also finally got a good look at Danneel, who is indeed adorable, although I desperately wanted to feed her and her eyebrows worry me.

Speaking of eyebrows: Happy Birthday George Eads! And speaking of birthdays: Happy Birthday cinderlily! And Jensen Ackles! And Roger Daltrey. And Mark-Paul Gosselaar. And Tim Daly. Wow. Lot of pretty people are celebrating their birthday today! I feel tempted to do a celebratory picspam tonight! Congratulations to all:)

Where was I? Oh, right: Supernatural. We watched a couple of episodes before bed and continued on Sunday morning. I think I admitted before that I wouldn't watch the show on my own; it feels like Buffy-light for boys. But it's no punishment to sit down and fangirl, so even if the stories don't always rock my socks, I still had a very good time and judging by the squee next to me, Sillie didn't mind watching the episodes again :-p Before I get kicked out of fandom; I do think Jensen, Misha and Jared do an awesome job; I'm especially impressed by Jared's ability to be evil. (Even more so after being reminded of his dimpleness in Gilmore Girls;)
We finished our marathon with some fanvids Like this one:)

So, yes. Fun was had. At 14.22 I brought Sillie to the busstop and waved goodbye.

I spent the afternoon getting fandom out of my system and Sunday evening I snuggled in my readingchair to finish the Green Carnation Trilogy by Floortje Zwigtmans.

What an awesome weekend.

I spent all of Saturday morning on a new edition of the CupCake Experiment; but after two horrifically failed attempts at baking Honey CupCakes I gave up. Part five of the experiment failed beyond belief: it was like the first try all over again. In fact it was worse. So much so that I don't even have the courage to post pictures (yet).

Maybe it was because this time I tried to make them for company; I had invited the neighbour and his kids over for a movie-party up in my loft. It was a present for N's 9th birthday a couple of weeks ago. They brought 'The Cat In The Hat'. Which is an awfully bad film, but I had promised they could watch whatever they want. Apparently they had seen it a million times already, because before every horrid joke I heard giggling beside me. Oh dear. It's a good thing they have me as a neighbour now; they obviously need my guidance. *grins*

Don't worry, I hid my grumpy side well; a good time was had by all;)

Unfortunately at the end of the party (which included hot chocolate with minimarshmellows and popcorn plus chips (instead of cupcakes;) I twisted my back while cleaning up. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in bed trying my best to relax. But even when I finally went to sleep I was still in agony.

I guess the day had been more stressful than I thought.

After last week's break (due to an excellent long weekend to London with tanisafan) I continued the CupCake Experiment this weekend. Since I still hadn't managed to make a whole succesful batch, I decided to try the plain vanilla recipe again, this time with raisins.

I whisked and I whisked and I whisked and must say I was rather proud of how the batter turned out: it finally felt and looked like it was described in the book! After the previous tries I also figured out how hot my oven needs to be and I learned not to fill the cups too high. artistic_sillie suggested I put the paper cups inside the plastic ones, so they would keep their shape.
I added raisins to half of the batter, to experience the difference...

( I'm getting better at this... )

No melted cupcakes this time = no need to scrub the oven afterwards! Wahey.
They tasted great, except that I noticed I used too many raisins; those three cupcakes had a bit too much air in them and the insides were a bit soggy. But they were yummy too, so I still win:)

Next time I may pick a more daring recipe...

The CupCake Experiment PART 1B
After yesterday's failed first effort, I gave the recipe for Plain Vanilla CupCakes another try.

Things I changed:

I used real butter instead of margarine

I used less egg

I used kitchenscales to weigh the ingredients

I whisked longer and got fluffier batter

I changed the temperature from 175C to 200C

Look at my funky new kitchen scales!

Ahem. So once again I made a mess. But I guess 2 out of six is an improvement;)

Next time I will:

Mix the bakingpowder with the flour before mixing in the other ingredients

Not put as much batter in the front cups and maybe put the whole batch as far to the back of my oven as possible

All other suggestions are welcome! I will try another recipe next weekend:)