The Unconventional Conventionist: It's Fun To Picture Blog In Your Pajamas

What a whirlwind winding up the last 3 months of 2008 for me.

I started a new job in September, and after a quick "figure out where everything is" phase of the job, traveled most of November. Which was crazy. It put me in the position of early voting, which I've never done before as I have always LOVED pulling the lever on actual voting day. I was way out of my normal element, out of town, in St. Louis watching the whole election develop.

Before I knew it, it was frikking THANKSGIVING, which means December is immediately around the corner. And from then til now (and probably most of January,) I've been a little VBA code warrior, which was not my original understanding of the new job, but there is so much goodness coming out of it, I really don't mind that extra dimension. It's just really been a fight for time to blog, as you, dear reader, can tell from my shameful lack of posting in these very politically interesting times.

December then posed it's own time crunch issues: Visitors We Love Were Coming To Party During The Holidays. That means really paying attention to serious menu planning and food shopping, but that's really a cheap excuse.

My partner Mr. B (also known as "belch") is my co-blogger for this post. And what we really do, is what we know: Food & Partying. It's our hobby and form of entertainment. We do it for ourselves, our neighbors, and our loved ones. It's not only economical, it's a form of creativity and we both have always thought that hospitality is a form of love. But it eats a lot of damned time.

But! Since we just had a leap second added at 12:00 UCT today, VOILA! There became enough time available to picture blog a little. We're sitting here, either ridiculously or humorously (for fabulous gay men who are NOT venturing out for New Year's Eve) in our pajamas, champagne in hand, looking toward the New Year, by looking at the photos from last weekend.

[If you click on the photos you'll get an enlarged version.]

We decided to try making chocolate candies this year. We made all the candies in this shot except the famous "Mozart Kugeln" which I just adore. There are chocolate dipped cherries (rolled in fondant), white chocolate molded candy with a peanut and chocolate ganache in the middle, and chocolate dipped pretzels. They all came out pretty good.

Belch: After painting the detail in those "christmas present" candy molds? Fuck that. Sticking with simpler shapes from now on. What a pain in the ass."

Cake. Cake is good. We are no stranger to cake, but started a new twist with this chocolate madness. What we do is split up the work. I'm good at machining out product, but belch is FABULOUS at making it look nice. So I made the sponge and the ganache for this cake. Belch did all the "eye candy" on it, including drawing out that that crazy topper.

Belch: Icing is fine, but you gotta go vertical for an eye-popping topper. I call this design "Thought Catcher" (lol)

Belch: My sister, her camera, and boobs. A giant bowl of shrimp cocktail. Why does UC wear that Santa hat?

Belch: My other sister is evidently the "Ghost Of Christmas Pictures." She and boob-sister cover their faces and I always wonder why? I think it's because They Are Wanted By Law Enforcement Officials.

40+ years aged people making zoom zoom noises. Yes, it happens. Judge not.

Belch dresses a table like nobody else. But I have to say that little bungalow era houses like the one we live in lend themselves to holiday decorations really nicely.