That and This

…always will!

Paul and I got to shoot Senior Portraits of some good friends of ours yesterday, wonderful boys who we’ve known since they were about ten. We went over to the high school theatre and had a blast playing with all the leftover props from the recently closed Peter Pan (in which the twins played Pan and Hook!)

I was especially excited because since Paul was primary photographer, I got to play with my Lensbaby when he didn’t need me to hold the reflector. Basically, it’s a lens mounted on a rubber tube that you move and compress to focus. It can be extremely challenging hitting the sweet spot of focus in just the right place, and since I can’t zoom or change aperture it forced me to really pay attention to shutter speed and my own physical location. It’s such a challenge that out of 200 photos, I told myself I would be thrilled to get one really good one - I was so lucky to get at least three, one of each of my boys!

Shawn, showing off his fencing skills. He had very definite ideas about what he was looking for in his photos, and we had a blast bringing his visions to life. I think we did them justice!

Casey, so laid back and easygoing! His "Whatever!" attitude is such a perfect compliment to Shawn’s energy.

I love "sneaky" shots like these, when the attention is focused on the other photographer and I can catch the unguarded truth of pose and expression.

And of course, my wonderful Paul! I think it was too dark out in the auditorium for him to tell if I was really shooting him or not.

picture: ? caption: me source: icanhascheezburger.com

Picture: ? Caption: me Source: icanhascheezburger.com

Picture: ? Caption: me Source: icanhascheezburger.com

Okay, I’ve been planning this for a while, and I think I finally have enough to start. As far as I can tell, at least viewing the first 4 pages on Google, no one else has done this yet. My next step is giving them their own page; submissions are extremely welcome! (So far pretty much all of it is thanks to Icanhascheezburger.com)

picture: ? caption: azhdragon source:icanhascheezburger.com

picture: ? caption: me source:icanhascheezburger.com

picture: ZeekyBoggyPoop caption: me source:icanhascheezburger.com

picture: stuffonmycat.com caption: tolan source:icanhascheezburger.com

picture: ? caption: me source:icanhascheezburger.com

picture: SWAT strachan caption: me source:icanhascheezburger.com

Dickens loved to sing - sometimes along with music, but usually acappella.   He would just m’rowl away, just for the sheer joy of it.  Sometimes he would even go stand in the shower to hear the echo.  I would hear him in there just meowing me an opera.

I heard Rocky meowing just now and thought for a second it was Dickens.  This is just so very hard.

We loved you so much, darlin.

Ok, this is the second coolest marriage proposal I’ve ever seen. (Click on the picture for the rest of the story.)

Woohoo!  The very first Google entry for “eel cutlets” is yours truly!  I never thought life could be so thrilling…  I’m on the first page for “leftover porridge” and “princess bride party” as well.   There go my fifteen minutes…

So about a month ago, I’m reading “The Totally Geeky Guide to the Princess Bride,” when inspiration strikes. When I was a kid, Mom always threw elaborate theme parties for our birthday, and here I am all freaked out about hitting the big 3-0 - what better remedy than a Princess Bride Party?

Of course the first thing to do with any new idea is google it. There was a surprising lack of menu ideas, but I did at least find us cool t-shirts at cafepress. (Click on the picture to make it bigger.)

The next step was menu planning. (This is the point where Paul declared me “truly my mother’s daughter.”) The staples of the meal were a 28-inch “Pizza Of Unusual Size” and “Make-Your-Own Mutton, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches.” (Alas, I had to substitute bacon for the mutton - it’s just too hard to find a nice lean mutton nowadays.)

Our favorite party munchies, bacon-wrapped smokies, became “Shrieking Eel Cutlets” (recipe follows.) Cream cheese with strawberry pepper jelly made a nice “Lightning Sand with Fire Swamp Jelly,” and the requisite fruit and veggie trays became “Fezzik’s Fearless Fruit” and “Inigo’s Vengeance Veggies.”

Desserts included Dread Pirate Robert’s Trifle (”Who are you?” “I am no one to be trifled with.”), Miracle Pills (chocolate truffles), Perfect Kisses (Hershey’s, of course), and Albino Balls (the pecan divinity left over from when my family didn’t make it for xmas!)

I told people to bring booze, but couldn’t resist a trip down the wine rows at Rouse’s, where I found “Three Thieves”, “Wild Horses” (with the prettiest white horse on the label!), “Irony”, “Royal Bitch,” and of course - “Andre.”

You just cannot stop people from bringing food to a Louisiana party, no many how many times you say you will feed them, which is actually really nice! It was fun coming up with names for Kristin’s lasagna (Prince Humperdink’s Lasagna - the perfect comfort food when you’ve just killed your bride), Katie’s “Guilder Chocolate Cake,” and Renee’s “Six-Fingered Salad” with shrimp skewers!

The highlight of the evening though was Paul’s cake! It took me a while to realize that phrases like “I would really like a birthday cake at the party,” “my mom used to make the coolest theme cakes,” “it feels so wrong to order your own birthday cake,” and “I just cannot find a pirate cake anywhere in Slidell,” were all “girl communication.” Once I switched to “guy communication” (”I want you to make me a Princess Bride birthday cake. Here is the recipe. I found decorations at Big Lots. Here they are.”) then we were in great shape and he made the coolest cake!

To keep from backseat cooking, I made the shrieking eel cutlets while he made the cake. He did let me help put some of the blue frosting around the cake’s shrieking eel just because he could tell I was going crazy wanting to help!

Finally it was Party Time!!! We had 15 people, which is a little low for one of our parties but a nice size for a TV-oriented one where everyone was in the living room instead of all spread out. I didn’t go as crazy with the invites as usual for that exact reason - if I missed inviting you to this bash rest assured our next one (probably Halloween) will be the usual huge open house!

The party itself was as awesome as I had hoped. Almost everyone there knew the movie well, if not by heart, so there was plenty of reciting along with the lines. When it finished, we started it over, then ignored it while we jabbered. The last guests wandered out around quarter to three. It all felt very much like the many, many nights in high school watching the same movie with best friends, exactly the magical time I wanted to recapture!

A few more pix, then the promised recipe follows.

Kristin brought her Buttercup and Westley Build-a-Bears that her ex-fiance made her.

Kristin, who incidentally is one of our Very Favorite People, hopes that her ex-fiance will stumble upon our blog and see how much fun she and her bears are having without him.

Those are Paul’s “Idiot-Proof” directions written on her hand. We are very glad Kristin made it to this party, instead of spending another night driving around the ghetto across town looking for our house.

Kristin’s Ex-Fiance: we all decided you are a loser. How can you not love this face??? Plus, she made it from Orlando to Slidell without a pee break, and makes a mean frozen lasagna. This is obviously a girl of many talents!

Paul featured this shot of me on his blog. I wish I had thought to put my light-up tiara back on first. Oh well, it very nicely shows off the AMAZING haircut and color that I treated myself to on my last day of being 29. (Brian at Attractions Salon is a genius!)

Paul, my party was amazing!!! Thanks for putting up with me this last month - I love you so much!

And finally, as promised, the best party food evah.

Shrieking Eel Cutlets (aka Bacon-Wrapped Smokies, aka Meat Candy.)

One bag of cocktail smokies

One or two packages bacon, depending on the size of your smokies bag - the thicker bacon works better

One box brown sugar

One package wooden toothpicks (plastic will burn!)

One or two glass casserole dishes

1) Cut the bacon in half or thirds, depending on how long it is - you want it to wrap the smoky with a slight overlap.

2) Wrap each smoky in a piece of bacon, stab it with a toothpick to hold it all together, and lay it in a greased glass casserole dish. (I use spray “butter” to grease the dish.)

3) Sprinkle brown sugar liberally over the top of the smokies - I use one box brown sugar for two casserole dishes.

4) Bake at 325 for about an hour, until the sugar is melty and bubbling.