Sweet as Honey

For those who don't know this about me, (and you should be ashamed of yourselves since it's all I talk about)...I love little things. When I was a kid, I helped my Mom collect miniature, unusable tea pot sets. Now that I think about it, I was the one to overreact to their cuteness. She probably went along with it to make me feel good. To this day, my family sends me miniature bottles of condiments for presents because they know the reaction it will get. I gush over how cute anything is that has been shrunken from real size.

Going along with the I-Like-Tiny-Things theme, I have been in the market for months to locate the perfect honey jar. It may sound like a long time to wait for something that simply holds supersaturated sugar solution made by bees, but I am a very patient shopper when I have something specific in mind. And this was certainly worth the wait. A few months ago, I found a wooden honey dipper at Williams-Sonoma. I wandered around the store holding it in my shaking hands (hey, I was excited...it was cute and small!) trying to find the honey jar that could accompany such a purchase. I occasionally visit this store to make myself feel depressed that I will never spend any money on its premises. What an amazing place! Anyway, I found the dipper but couldn't find a little dish with a hollowed-out lid to leave room for the dipper to stay in the honey. There may be nothing worse in life than a honey dipper that has no place in the jar. So I put the dipper back (after twenty minutes of mental debate, mind you) and walked out of the store, knowing I was now on a mission to find my ideal honey jar. With as cute of a honey dipper as was offered by Williams-Sonoma. But not costing $40 and an arm. Is that so much to ask?!

And tonight.....ah, tonight. I found it. At, where else, my favorite store in the whole wide world. Unexpectedly, the jar wasn't white to match all of my other serving dishes. But it was tiny and adorable and made for honey. And I did a photo shoot with it, like any normal woman would have done. Which may just to reiterate again how I feel about miniature things. Now I will just have to find some excuses to cook something that requires honey.

There's Always Room for Another Bed...

...even in a two-bedroom apartment that already had six beds in it. And one of the beds is even ours! Just in case we didn't have an adequate number of beds, we purchased another one last week.

While I was away for work for five nights, John slept on the floor and saw significant improvement in how his back felt. He has an old man back (as he calls it), probably thanks to sleeping on concrete for two years in Hungary. Our current bed hurts him, as does every bed in the apartment that we have tried (we've had a lovely selection). I couldn't believe my ears when I arrived home from work to hear him say, "So I've been looking at the Sleep Number Bed." Three hours later, we walked out of the Select Comfort store with receipt in hand. It was surreal, and at times I wondered if it had all just been a nightmare. You see, having TWO beds in a two-bedroom apartment can be a bit much. We had that times three. Three beds, two futons, and a hideaway couch with bed in tow. So I couldn't believe we would add to the fun by getting another bed! But we did. Make that seven. Seven beds (Count Dracula could do a special from our place).

Early Thursday morning, several huge boxes arrived in our living room thanks to John carrying them downstairs before he left for work. We didn't have a chance to assemble it until Friday evening. I was worried we should have paid the extra $100 to have somebody put it together for us. But I didn't play with Legos and Erector Sets all my life to not have it benefit me as an adult! It only took us an hour, with occasional help from the online assembly guide. We have slept on it two nights now. It's too soon to say whether it is healing his back, but we are the perfect host for Musical Beds in case anyone thinks that is a real game.

John's Birthday

"Did you marry a man or did you marry a pansy?"

This was my favorite quotation of the night from John. I was casually suggesting that if he was getting full, it wasn't required of him to eat the entire Grande Burrito from The Cheesecake Factory. I married a man for sure, since he ate the entire thing (of course). And the pictures don't do this monster justice...it takes four people to carry it to the table.

It was a full day of celebration which began in the middle of the night when the Present Fairy magically placed John's birthday goodies on the reading chair in our room. It was the first thing he saw when he woke up! John opened presents before he left for work. Good man...who can wait?!

For his birthday cake, I made John an insane double-layer chocolate cake filled and covered with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. It also had a smooth, Hershey chocolate and peanut butter frosting that oozed over the entire surface of the cake. I am proud of myself. I had to go to a bakery supply store to get the two 6" pans necessary to make Bakerella's recipe. It was quite an accomplishment to only come out of the store carrying what I went in to buy! I could spend millions in a store like that! John thought the cake was delicious, and that's all that mattered to me!

Happy Birthday, John. My litte Burrito King. I'm glad you're finally as old as me. I thought that month would never go by!