February 28

I really enjoy baking... it's very therapeutic for me. I baked a series of circus themed cakes for a work friend whose son is having his first birthday... here's the ringmaster.

February 24

Another panoramic of our facility...this one from Ange Fantuzzo's 50th anniversary party. This is the second company I've worked for (the first was Marriott) where people actually work for the same company for 50 years. It boggles my mind, but I have huge respect for anyone who can pull it off... I'm too nomadic in nature to really put that much time into any one place.

February 23

This is my friend Marsha Faye- a fellow G.R.I.T.S. (Girl Raised In The South), she happens to be one of my favorite people on the planet. This was actually taken last year when she visited us...I stumbled upon this picture and felt it needed to be included. 

By the way- those are NOT her real teeth- Marsha is famouse for this lttle trick- she took an orange peel and made dentures out of it. Every time she does it, it just tickles me, and I usually laugh until I pee my pants. (I also laugh at farts- just can't help it...they're funny.)

February 22

We were in the mountains with my in-laws and friends for the weekend... all of us have dogs, so there were 5 in the house. Stump (the only male and the smallest) and his bitches- Polly, Sunshine, Molly, and Zoe. This is Zoe. She's a rottie on the outside, but a chiuauah on the inside. She's all about sitting on my lap, until the camera comes out- then she freaks out. She's like an african tribal person, afraid that snapping a picture will steal her soul.

February 21

Dick is preparing a little breakfast, and the dogs are ready! You'd think they'd never eaten before- they are all watching very carefully.

February 20

This is Jill's fish- and its pooping. Apparently fish poop, although I've never seen one do it before. It's the red teardrop looking thing directly below the fish.

February 18

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you- you are really looking at a chocolate bar flavored with bacon. Is it horrible? Quite the contrary- the smokiness and saltiness of the bacon goes wonderfully with the dark sweetness of the chocolate. Chris brought this home to try, and I can safely say that this is my new favorite candy bar. Anthony Bourdain once said that God lives somewhere between the skin and bones of a pig- I am truly a believer. 

And, by the way...you can buy this at Wegmans. :)

February 17

I've recently been playing around with panoramic shots, and photomerge on Photoshop- it's a great feature. I took these at our United Way fundraising kickoff event. The server in the right hand part of the picture is also the server walking away in the middle left hand part of the picture. 

I thought that was pretty cool.

February 16

Stump thinks he's a cat... he loves to lay on the back of the couch, and I swear he watches TV. It's really good to be a dog :)

February 15

My little man- all freshly coiffed with a Valentines Day do. This dog has tremendous patience- with me shoving my camera in his face all of the time. But he's just so fluffy and good!

February 14

Valentines Day! I was at the Rascall Flatts concert with my friend Martha and her boyfriend Mark. Why wasn't I with my husband you ask? Because my husband is a chef, and he was busy getting his ass handed to him at the restaurant. Valentines Day and New Years Eve are the two holidays when I can count on not having a date. No big deal- it just means I get to hang out with my girlfriends. 

The concert was fun- I'm normally not a big country fan, but these guys put on a good show. 

February 13

Being in an office with a bunch of people in cubicles usually leads to trouble, especially on food-inspired holidays...

Behold the buffet of sweets today! My giant cupcake, along with some ever-so-tasty butter cookies provided by Jill, and the remnants of a plate of chocolates brought to us by of of the new guys on our team (who gained added cool points by the cute note he attached to them).

Yay sweets!

February 12

Holy Giant Cupcakes! I was playing around with a recipe and a new giant cupcake shaped pan for a friend's sons 1st birthday- I'm going to make a tent for a circus theme...but in honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd make a tester cupcake to bring in. Cute, huh?

February 11

I like food. A lot. Always have. I had some leftover sliced baguette, so I was going to dry them out and grind them into breadcrumbs. When I looked down, I saw they were laughing at me. After a short spin in the cuisinart... who's laughing now?

February 10

When I got home from work, there were a bunch of drops all over my tree by my back door- they looked like crystals, so I snapped a picture.

February 9

This is our wine cellar. My darling husband built it- specifically the shelves and the table. Didn't he do a good job? The corks in the table are representative of the bottles we have shared with friends and family. Anytime we share a bottle, I write the date and where it was consumed, and stick it in the table. It reminds me of all of the good times. 

February 8

This is the shell of a snapping turtle. Specifically, the first one my husband ever killed in the name of sushi. He was in New york for the week, and was giddy over this little adventure- this was the souvenir he brought back for me. While I wasn't thrilled at the murdering of turtles, I thought its shell was beautiful and made for an interesting photo subject.

February 7

My birthday seems to keep going, and going, and going! My friend Martha surprised me with a birthday pedi today- and it was actually warm enough to wear flip flops! We completed the day with a wine tasting, chocolate tasting, and a dinner with the girls at Tastings. A great day :)

February 6

Jill will kill me for putting this up, but it perfectly describes my attitude on Friday- my wine group (Les Femmes Wineaux) converged on my house the night before, and I was feeling particularly over hung. Friday was an "ugh" sort of day.

February 5

Introducing the Wineauxs... Back in Charleston, I belonged to a little (girls' only) wine drinking group called "Les Femmes Wineaux"...ladies who love wine, but prefer to use a glass. 

How to play: whoever decides to be the host will open up her home, and provide hors d'oeurves for the group. the rest of the Wineauxs come over, and they each bring a bottle of wine- any flavor, any color. And we drink them during the course of an evening. It was a great group, and I missed them terribly when we made the move to Rochester. Soooo- I started the Rochester chapter! We have a great group- all different kinds of gals. Most I recruited by just being out and about- this is Molly and her friend Caryn- I met Molly taking a photoshop class at the Genesee Arts Center, and Molly brought her friend. As of now, we have about sixty-ish names on the email list, and we're growing every day. This picture was taken about 5 minutes before we broke out the bubbles, and created what was to be a massive hangover for the next day.

February 4

Here's my hunter dog! I let him out to pee this morning, and there was a wounded crow in the back yard- now Stump isn't what you'd call an agressive dog...he's a lump. He's not viewing this crow as a snack- more like one of the many stuffed animals he has, only this one moves on its own.

Jack, on the other hand, is hanging out underneath the truck waiting to pounce.

February 3

Today was very pretty- Jack was sitting on my kitchen counter (not something I normally let him do, but he was very needy and needed to be very close to me), and the sunlight was hitting him just right, so I snapped a picture.

February 1

Superbowl Sunday!

I'm wearing a birthday present from my Easton peeps (can you guess which team they are rooting for?)

I also had a Martha moment- anyone for a football cookie? 

Go Steelers!