View of the Day

The view from our first hotel room in San Diego.

After 12 hours of traveling we finally made it to our "happy place". Say it with me now: Ahhhhhhhh.....

Summer vacation, finally!

While everyone else is saying "goodbye" to summer and heading back to school, Mr. Cupcake and I are headed down the shore for our summer vacation! Because of the Mr's busy schedule (and his charming inability to leave work unless every last thing is done to absolute perfection at the direct risk of his personal life), we haven't taken a proper vacation since we moved to New Jersey in March. We had the opportunity to travel together at least once every 6 weeks while living in Dallas, so needless to say, we are ready for a few days of R&R and "us" time.

Here's to days filled with sand and sun,

calm, peaceful nights

and maybe a jackpot or two!

The bags are packed, and the mammoth September editions of my favorite magazines are waiting to be read. I can't wait to see what shenanigans we find ourselves in this time!

Live Blogging: Newark Airport

I am blogging to you, live (as opposed to??) from the Admiral's Club in Newark Airport. I've been sorely behind in my rantings and ravings lately and wanted to remedy that while I had some spare time.

Mr. Cupcake is quite the seasoned traveler and has flown over 200,000 domestic miles since October, 2006. In this time he has had one flight that was canceled on him. The powers that be must not be too happy about our moving back East because we have not had much luck on this particular trip. We boarded our 7:05am flight to Newark on Tuesday morning and upon getting our wings de-iced, the de-icer guy noticed a problem with the plane's engine (that the rest of the mechanics and the pilot did not?!) and we were promptly de-boarded. American wasn't able to procure another plane for our flight, so they canceled it entirely. Three hours later, we boarded a new flight and taxied to the runway a scant hour after we were scheduled to takeoff. Not so fast! There was some bad weather in New York, so we were blessed with over 2 hours of waiting on the plane, on the tarmac before finally taking off a mere 6 hours after we were supposed to.

Surely with all of that hassle, the travel gods would smile on us for today's trip back to Dallas. Clearly not! After being delayed 30-minutes, our flight was canceled entirely because the co-pilot mysteriously was "unable to make the flight". Fan-freakin-tastic. So as an entire plane full of people bum rush the counter, we book it to the Admiral's Club. OK, so Mr. Cupcake booked it while I lagged behind. Miraculously, he is the very first on line and the wonderfully cheerful receptionist was able to snag us the last two confirmed seats on the plane. Whew! Finally, a ray of hope.

Even though our new take off time has been delayed twice, I feel OK. I just need you to cross your fingers that we actually get off the ground sometime tonight!

San Francisco: In Pictures

1. Dungeness Crab at the Wharf (just before being devoured with a loaf of freshly baked Boudoin)
2. The sea lions hanging out at Pier 39
3. Mr. Cupcake's inability to lay off the Crackberry
4. The sea lions nearest the tourists, modestly (thankfully!) hiding their naughty bits for a split second

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Conventional wisdom suggests that one should not be capable of having a bad day while on vacation. I am living proof that those people don't know a damn thing.

I woke up this morning feeling like someone had pummeled my lady parts. Nice, huh? Truthfully, it is an ongoing issue that I am aware of and need to deal with, but my vacation is not the time to remind me. Being out of commission certainly put a damper in my plans, not to mention my mood. It was not shaping up to be a very good day.

Especially after I realized that I left my comfy and fabulously warm pashmina (the mint green one I wore at my wedding) at the Admiral's Club lounge in Dallas. Not to mention my annoyance of having to cancel my spa appointment since I now need that money to replace said pashmina.

It is Chinese New Year's Eve and I am staying right on the edge of Chinatown. The promise of yummy dim sum is practically taunting me from outside my window and I was starving by 3:00. I thought of just ordering room service but who wants to pay $28 for a salad with rubbery chicken - when you can walk downstairs for the exact same rubbery chicken and save a few dollars. Ever the thrifty traveler, I get dressed and trek downstairs. Of course, the hotel has no food service from 3-4p so I wait it out in the lounge/bar area and work out today's crossword puzzle. Finally, at 4 I order a cobb salad and diet coke. What shows up along with the bill is, well, hotel food. And who charges $3.50 for a glass if Diet Coke these days? Ahh, yes. Hotels do. Then it hits me that I just paid $28 for a salad with rubbery chicken. The same rubbery chicken I could have eaten in my room, under the covers, watching Seinfeld reruns on TBS.

Blasted...

Here's hoping that tomorrow is a better day!

Edited to add: This was today's Happiness Project blog. Rather fitting!

Traveling Fool: 2007 Edition

Continuing the tradition from last year, here are the places I've traveled during 2007 (using the Dallas / Fort Worth metroplex as "home") :

San Antonio, TX**
San Diego, CA*
Minneapolis, MN
Austin, TX
New York, NY
Durant, OK

Rules: One or more days were spent in each location and cities marked with * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Last year I wanted to up the non-East Coast travel -- which I think I've accomplished. This year I hope 2008 will bring me abroad. We shall see...

Where was your favorite spot to visit in 2007?

San Diego: Part Deux

Sailboats along Harbor Drive.

In truth, I never *want* to leave San Diego. Despite my kicking and screaming (which made for an interesting trip through airport security), we made it back to Dallas last night. I'll post more photos ASAP, since none of my little helper elves bothered to come and magically work on my orders while I was gone!

Good reads?

I'm heading back to San Diego for the better part of next week and want to pack my bag full of books since I have absolutely no intentions of doing even a shred of work while I'm there. I already have a copy of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, thanks to Alyssa's recommendation. Kitchen Confidential is also waiting for me at the library. Any must-read recommendations from my dear readers? New releases and all time favorites, biographies and fiction, trashy and educational- all are welcome.

Temperamental Posts

It seems that quite a few posts that I've written in the past week or so just aren't posting. Not sure what's going on, but it sure does lead to a rather boring blog to read. My apologies! I'm really not that boring. I swear!
Our July newsletter will be going out tomorrow morning (technically, later this morning since I am somewhat of a night owl by nature), telling one and all about our new belts that I created with vintage trim that I got at an estate sale a few months back.
I'm headed out to Minneapolis for the weekend and am beyond excited to be visiting the birth land of Target. Sort of a pilgrimage, if you will. There will be NO Mall of America side trip, partly because I am not a "mall shopper" and like to support independently owned stores as much as possible -- and partly because we're not renting a car. Mainly the former. I keep hearing such wonderful things about the city and I'm looking forward to a bit of discovery. Lots of museums are in my future. Plus, we're staying at a super posh hotel, which can make even the most boring trips something to write home about.
Tomorrow/later I'm going to try and figure out what's going on with my posts... fingers crossed they're not all just lost out there somewhere!

Cupcakes on the Road: San Diego

Cupcakes on the Road: South Park, CO

I am in full-on procrastination mode today, which made it a perfect time to stumble upon a site that lets you create your own South Park characters. And who am I to turn my nose at that?! For your viewing pleasure, we have:


Me


and just for kicks, Mr. Cupcake, Business Edition

Traveling Fool: 2006 Edition

Inspired by Melissa's (of May December) post and still not believing that I now live halfway across the country, I came up with my own list of places I've traveled during 2006 (using NYC/Northern NJ as home) :

Newark, DE
Lanoka Harbor, NJ*
Atlantic City, NJ*
Philadelphia, PA
Washington, DC
Richmond, VA
Baltimore, MD
Dallas, TX*
San Antonio, TX
Hamburg, NJ**

I'll use Mel's system, where one or more days were spent in each location and cities marked with * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

This year will hopefully see a boost in the non-East Coast spots. How about you -- what was your favorite place that you visited in 2006?

Cupcakes on the Road: San Antonio

Greetings from San Antonio! Mr. Cupcake and I decided to take the weekend away and celebrate our wedding anniversary and just plain relax. After a super tasty brunch on Thanksgiving Day (I did the big turkey cooking thing last weekend) we packed up the car and headed down here to San Antonio and one of the most beautiful and peaceful resorts we have ever had the pleasure of staying at.

Mission San Juan Capistrano nearing sunset.

Today was spent walking around downtown, through the River Walk and exploring several of the Missions that were set up in the 1700s along the San Antonio River. Mr. Cupcake even got us tickets for the Spurs vs. Mavs game. After all that walking (who designs these sports arena parking lots, anyway?!) we are beyond exhausted and are looking forward to letting our heads hit the pillows.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the outerlying towns which, we were excited to discover, were settled by Germans and still maintain much of their heritage. Never being ones to turn down a 'Fest and being suckers for anything holiday related, the festivities planned in these towns sound right up our alley!

Day trip!!

It has come to our attention that both Mr. Cupcake and I are completely stressed out and not the most fun and upbeat people to be around lately. Aside from some personal/family things we have been dealing with, we both have been spending entirely too much time at work and have developed a bad habit of bringing our work "home" with us. The fact that my studio is actually what should be our dining room and has slowly taken over half of our living room doesn't help the cause. Plus, Mr. Cupcake has been putting in some extra time at the pharmacy so we can have a little extra money until my fall show schedule starts up again, so I think he deserves some R&R.

So what is a fun, young couple with no extra money to travel to do? Enter - The Day Trip! I've designated this Saturday as our Official Day of Fun, Emergency Edition. The rules are simple.

• The day must be spent outside of our home.
  
• Location of outing(s) may not be more than 1 1/2 hours away since sitting in traffic is certainly not fun.
  
• Both of us must agree on the day's activities and meals, since it is no fun to spend hours doing something you don't enjoy.
  
• NO talking about work or our families!!!

And that's about it. Some of these rules may be more tricky to follow than others, but considering the sorry state of our moods, drastic action must be taken. Stay tuned for a full report next week!

To be back at the ranch.....

Wishing I was in Arizona today...

Look at that sky... and those amazing Bougainvilleas (the picture really doesn't do them justice). Much better than being stranded and working because your car decided today was a good day to not start.

But I digress... I can't believe that it was almost 3 years ago now. How far we've all come, right ladies?! How many kids and weddings has it been since that weekend?

We miss you Poco......