Death by Chocolate

Just wanted to share the ridiculous chocolate cake I made last night. I promised some people in my ward and someone that I work with that I would make this cake I found for them. It was really fun to make! One piece pretty much had you knocked out by too much richness though! The fun thing about it is that you can kind of do whatever you want to make it as chocolatey as possible. Linds, I bet you especially would like this cake!
http://artofdessert.blogspot.com/2011/10/chocolate-wasted-cake.html Here's the link to the recipe if any of you are so inclined to try it.

CHINA

China is going down as one of our best trips ever - still trying to process all that was there - thousands of years of culture and history and people all in two weeks. Here's just a sample. I'd be more than happy to show you more where these came from!

Near Beijing - the Great Wall - you can hike on it or right beside it for 1500 miles.

Tianamen Square - just outside the Forbidden City. There weren't any signs forbidding photos, (unless they were in Chinese?) but maybe this guard was contemplating why there weren't.

The skyline in Shanghai - OJ's favorite place.
Thousands of warriors in Xi'an. When he was only thirteen years old the emperor ordered them made for his tomb. That's planning ahead. It took about 70,000 craftsmen several decades to create them. Each is life size and unique.
6:30 AM In Hangzhou on the banks of West Lake. I thought this was a fabulous way to start off your morning - a little tai chi by the water with all your friends.

The Lijiang River cruise with its beautiful and unique mountain range was a highlight for us.

Our group stopped in Hong Kong for a couple days on the way home and in lieu of little grandsons, there just happened to be two other mouseketeers in the group and this is where we ended up :)

It goes without saying that our first choice would have been to have each of you as travel companions but this group of friends was wonderful too. We feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to see and learn so much of such an amazing country.

I Speak No English - Kids In The Hall

Sometimes, when life is tough, and smiles aren't easy - sometimes, comedy shows help.

Kids in the Hall - Potato Salad

I've always been puzzled by this skit. Puzzled, yet strangely amused at the same time.

Books Books Books

One thing I've started dabbling in this year is handmade books. No reason to get excited yet, I've only made 2 or 3 and very low key small scale types at that, but it has been fun to try something new! I wanted to post about it so that I have incentive to follow up somewhere with future attempts. My love for scrapbooking, cool prints, and journaling is why 'How to Make Books,' caught my eye at the library.

I have always loved the notebook section of any place, particularly Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters.

Here are the fruits of my first few dabblings: Picture one is a paper book with fabric slip cover... I wanted to compile my nice notes from my bridal brunch!




The second and third 'books' are paper cover books, the smaller one is done by folding the paper a certain way into 8 sections, one cut, and adjusting the folds to make pages with one sheet of paper and no staples.

I think I will go put some kind of book together now!

Planetarium!

Little known fact: I love astronomy. I am fascinated the universe! Last week I finally got the chance to go to a planetarium show at the Eyring building on campus. The first thing we saw was a video about some facts of the universe. Here's a cool fact I remember: a pinpoint size amount of matter in a neutron star (which is incredibly dense) weighs as much as the Empire State building! So crazy. After that video we just got to watch cool light show videos that were synched to music and made us really dizzy. So it was a cool experience. Hopefully I can squeeze in an astronomy class somewhere to expand my knowledge even more!

Pain heals...

So yesterday I was playing in our multi-stake flag football league and having a lot of fun. Then, just before halftime, that changed. I was playing center and my job was to block the incoming rushers, then go out for a pass and be open in case the quarterback couldn't find anyone else open. He threw it to me and off I ran.

I dodged the 1st defender with a spin move (spinning makes it really hard for the defender to pull your flag), made the second guy miss by cutting back, then came the next defender. I went for the spin move again, but we bumped heads or something and down I went. I put my hand to my eyebrow and it came back with blood on it. That, combined with the pain, led me to think that something went wrong with that spin move.

As it turns out, when we collided, my glasses got pushed up and the top of the frame cut into my face between the eye and the eyebrow. Needless to say, I was done playing. Off I went to the Urgent Care facility (kinda between the doctors office and the ER since it was a Saturday) and they patched me right up. They used medical superglue to close the cut (it wasn't bleeding anymore) and sent me on my way. Though the joke is that we should've had the Elder's Quorum do it since it was just superglue.

I have a picture of what it looked like, but seeing this is a family blog I won't post it. If you're interested, I'll email it to you. Lindsay says it looks like Halloween makeup, except it's real. Be careful when you're out and about, that's for sure.