The Long Wait is Over

After so many months of waiting, Sarah and I finally got to go see Quantum of Solace over the weekend, and it rocked. I figured I couldn't let such a momentous event pass by without making mention of it on the blog. The movie was great. I will admit that it may not be as good as Casino Royale (Daniel Craig's first outing as 007), but this movie was a respectable entry into the canon of Bond films.

The action sequences were amazing, although they do seem to follow the same shaky-camera method made popular in the last few Bourne movies. The plot was pretty good, but it basically just serves as a vehicle for getting Bond from one continent to the next so that he can kill more bad guys. But between the car chase, boat chase, and airplane chase, you fail to notice the parts of the plot that don't really add up.

All in all, the movie was everything I could have hoped for, and sets a precedent for amazing Bond films yet to come. Hooray!

An Ode to Georgetown Cupcake

Second only to my wife's amazing cupcakes, Georgetown Cupcake makes a pretty good snack. Whenever we are in Georgetown, we can't help but stop in.

It was nice to know that although our political differences may tear us apart, Georgetown Cupcake is there to bring us together again... with special election cupcakes!

Here's Sarah's Donkey cupcake. I can only presume that it tasted like hope.

Here's me and my elephant cupcake. It tasted like delicious, crushing defeat. Thanks, Georgetown Cupcake!

James Bond Party

So, we had a pretty awesome James Bond party for my brithday on the 24th. We had a few friends over and made some fancy hors d'oeuvres, including (from left to right) asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, pecan-crusted chicken, onion and goat cheese tartlets, bruschetta, and madeleines.
The madeleines were my favorite. I got addicted to them in Romania and now Sarah makes them when I've been good.
Instead of a cake, I opted for Sarah's award-winning chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. We were able to keep with the James Bond motif, too.

Here I am blowing out the candle on my cupcake tower. I was dressed in a full tuxedo when the night started, but here I've taken off the jacket and bowtie, which unfortunately makes me looks almost exactly like John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever.
The afterparty was a bit less exciting, but overall, it was an awesome birthday. Plus, we went and saw Coldplay this last weekend as a finale to the birthday extravaganza, and that was amazing too.

The Greatest Halloween Cake Ever!

Sarah and I had a great time at the ward Halloween party. She dressed up in a traditional outfit from Panama, and I dressed up like I do on most days. One person asked if I was Robert Plant, so I guess I'll say that's who I was.

This is Sarah's amazing cake. It took a good ten hours to build the whole thing, but it was worth it. It won first prize at the Halloween party!

The windows took the most work. We used a special type of icing called color flow icing, and it takes about 2 days to set up completely. Then we glued them to some popsicle sticks and jammed them into the cake. And Sarah says she couldn't have done it without me, but she's just being nice.

Museum Day

Sarah and I decided to go visit some of the awesome museum around DC, so we visited the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum. Here are just a couple of pictures, including me with one of the statues from Easter Island, and Sarah in front of the Capitol. Also, I'm wearing my parents' favorite sweatshirt, so they should be glad to know I still have it.

Other people have interesting lives too!

I have added a link on the side of our blog, so that people can look at some other fun blogs of some of our friends. Feel free to go to their websites, and make fun of them too!

DC Cupcake Competition Photos!

We finally got some pictures from Sarah's cupcake competition. The competition was a lot of fun, and Sarah got second-place in the amateur division! She did a fantastic job, and was one of the few competitors who actually brought enough cupcakes for all of the people that showed up. I know because I helped frost all of them (Sarah's mom helped too).

Every participant had to have three types of cupcakes: chocolate with vanilla frosting, yellow with chocolate frosting, and a "wild card" entry. Sarah chose to do an Italian creme cake, which was a really creamy cupcake with walnuts and coconut. It was a real crowd-pleaser, and a couple of people asked Sarah is she would be willing to cater their upcoming events!

The cupcakes were delicious, but Sarah and I have sworn off of them for at least a month. We have moved on to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and cakes for the ward Halloween party, and for my birthday. Stay tuned for pictures of the upcoming culinary masterpieces.