Blogs about pictures from Pew Pew Laser Blog

Snickerdoodles.

While these aren't my personal favorite cookie, they are my most requested cookie. The husband and many co-workers agree that these are the best snickerdoodles in the world. I keep the cinnamon and sugar mixture on-hand in a small jar; I re-use it for the next batch of snickerdoodles, or on buttered toast. Here's the recipe.

Glass Work - First Half of 2009.

This is how it all started. In April, the husband and I took a vacation to the Lincoln City area of the Oregon coast. We combed the beach, but never found one of those delightful Finders Keepers floats. We happened upon the Lincoln City Glass Center, so I signed up to blow my own glass float - shown at right.

In June, I took a beginner's glassblowing class at Art By Fire. Here are all of the pieces I made during the four 4 hour classes - a bowl, a drinking glass, an ornament, paperweights and sculptures. The class was a ton of fun, it hooked me on glassblowing. Almost every minute that I wasn't doing it, I was thinking about blowing glass.

I take every extra opportunity that I can to work with hot glass. In addition to structured classes, Art By Fire also offers once a month special events where even the absolute beginner can walk in and (guided heavily by the pros) create a piece in 15 minutes. In the first half of the year, I made another ornament and two small bowls (also known as "roman bowls") during these events.

Here is a close up of the glass bowl that I made during the beginner's class. I've filled it with the cute jack-o-lantern Lindt truffles for Halloween. The bowl will last much longer than the truffles.

Many thanks to the husband for his effort producing all these wonderful photographs.

PAX '09.

This weekend I went to PAX - a gaming exposition in Seattle put on by the folks at Penny Arcade. It was a ton of fun.

I participated in the brilliantly conceived Distributed Tournament System (DTS) - wherein every expo attendee can participate in a tournament. Every attendee gets two DTS buttons, and can challenge other button-wearing attendees to any game; the winner takes a button. The top 20 ranked button owners earned fabulous prizes. I won two buttons playing Tetris DS, but then lost 2 in Tetris and 1 in New Super Mario Bros. The husband lost one button in a Thumb War. We weren't contenders, but at least we came away with a souvenir button.

I enjoyed the various card / tabletop games that we played. After we'd had a Fluxx game going for about 5 minutes, we got some interested looking people to join. We learned how to play Munchkins in the official Steve Jackson gaming nook; I wouldn't mind having a copy of Munchkins. And we were invited to play a pick-up game of Catan that included quite a few laughs.

The Saturday night concerts (with opening band Freezepop, Headliners Paul and Storm, and Closing Act Jonathan Coulton) were excellent. That the concerts lasted until 2 am was a little extreme.

On the day after PAX, I discovered I had come home with a little unanticipated swag. Remember folks, I'm staying in my pajamas all day for your safety.

Cupcakewrecks.

I love cupcakes in ice cream cones. There's the added cute factor, and it seems very appropriate to use edible material instead of cupcake papers. When I was a child, my mom made some delightful ice cream cone cupcakes that were decorated to look like clowns.

Unfortunately, my ice cream cone cupcakes have never worked out well. This chocolate batter didn't finish baking in the expected 20 minutes, so I left them in for about 35 minutes. By that point, some batter had erupted out of the cones and over the side. The cupcake that remained protected in the cones tasted OK, but the cake encrusted on the outside of the cones tasted pretty burnt.

As you can see here, I frosted (dipped, really) and decorated them anyway. They look a little wrecky, but I think they're also a bit charming.

Hawaiian Fever, Part Seven.

This day was our last full day in Hawaii. In the morning we toured Steelgrass Chocolate farm. The tour was mediocre. We did get to see live cacao trees with chocolate pods, as well as a vanilla orchid and some other exotic plants. But the farm was hot and humid, and the area we toured was rather small. We ended the tour with a tasting of a variety of dark chocolates. I enjoyed eating the chocolates, but I do not like tastings. It seems to me that a "tasting" is a lot of sitting around sharing adjectives. Given the cost of the tour - $60 - I wouldn't recommend it to other visitors.

In the afternoon, we went to Kapa'a and Hanalei and did a little more shopping. Kapa'a had a beautiful glass art gallery and a very unimpressive glass blowing shop; no glory hole - only a blowtorch and an oven! Finally, we capped our trip with one more round of snorkeling in the best spot on the island.

Hawaii, and Kauai in particular, were wonderful. We are scheming to go back as soon as we can. I shall have to start buying Powerball tickets.