My Sister Visited! It was Fun!

My littlest sister, E3, is one of those unlucky college students whose school has finals after winter break. She came to visit Mr. H and me after he finals at the end of January. She drove over six hours by herself!

The Grape Slushie I Got Myself because You're Only
Exactly 10,000 Days Old Once

She arrived on Thursday night in time to celebrate my 10,000 Day Birthday!

The Cake I Baked and Decorated for Myself

She was pretty tired when she arrived so we ate dinner and cake and headed to bed soon thereafter.

I baked the cake using cake flour! And I tried out strawberry frosting for the first time. When I went to the grocery store with Mr. H he asked me why I was getting plain vanilla frosting again so I shook it up. I almost got purple vanilla frosting but Mr. H likes the strawberry frosting so I went with that. I will go back to plain vanilla for the next cake since I thought the artificial strawberry flavor was off. The sprinkles and green icing on top were found items in my pantry. I am so glad they did not make us sick. We've had the sprinkles forever and I'm not sure when the green icing was purchased and used the first time.

E3 didn't want to do much other than chill. But, on Friday, she help me resolve my Gap Dress Dilemma. I had tried on this Gap dress in December at the store (and tweeted about it before anyone else did*) and ordered the tall size online because I'm kind of tall and this dress was short. It came and I was convinced that the regular in the store had fit better. I went back to the store and bought the regular size. But I still had no idea. E3 isn't much of a clothes person but she thought the Tall looked better on me and the internet agreed.

Please Help! Which Gap dress is better on me the regular size or the
tall size? The regular's waist hits closer to my natural waist but it three
inches above the knee so I think it's too short to ever wear to work. The tall
hits an inch above my knee but its waist hits at my belly button, several
inches below my natural waist. I'm only 5'8" but I usually go with tall
sizes for pants since my inseam is 34" or  35".

Tall was the winner.

We managed to see catch Catching Fire at the theater with E3 and my brother-in-law on Saturday.

On Sunday we went out to eat dinner. We to Mr. H's favorite place first. It was closed on Sundays. Then we went to our favorite place, usually open on Sundays, but closed that particular day. Finally we went to the Sea Dog. I feel so-so about eating there because it's an old mill and noisy inside and the food is good but not great. But in the summer they have the best outdoor patio around. We enjoyed our dinner. They had fried pickles.

The best part of E3's visit was Monday morning--a doughnut taste test extravaganza! Mr. H had brought home some leftover doughnuts from his doughnut club at school. (The teachers take turns buying doughnuts for their teacher meetings.) They were from the local place, Frosty''s. E3 said she didn't think it was the best doughnut she had ever had.

On Monday morning before she left I went out to Dunkin Doughnuts, Tim Horton's, and Frosty's and bought chocolate doughnuts and other doughnuts besides.

#myrealselfie #nofilter Pre-shower, early morning doughnut
 run to Dunkin, Timmy Hos, AND Frosty's for a taste test
with my sister #afrosandbaseballcapsdonotmix

I cut up the doughnuts into halves and kept track of which doughnut came from which place.

The Key to the Doughnuts and the
Ranking of Doughnuts on the White Board

The Dunkin' Donut Was Double Chocolate
(Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting)
The Tim Horton's Doughnut Was Chocolate Cake, Glazed
and the Frosty's Doughnut was Chocolate Cake with Sprinkles

Somebody had to eat their words. In the blind taste test, E3 thought the Frosty's doughnut was from Dunkin' and she thought it was the best. She thought the doughnut from Dunkin' was the worst! This confirmed my assessment of the various doughnuts. To confirm the results we also had a glazed chocolate doughnut from Dunkin' because we suspected that the coating of glaze might trap moisture in the doughnut and keep it tastier longer. But we declined to change the rankings after trying more doughnuts.

The Instagram Record of the Event

I sent E3 on her way with a doughnut from Frosty's and a blueberry doughnut from Dunkin' and she made it back to her school safe and sound despite the impending storm. (I kept the cookie dough and brownie batter filled doughnuts for myself because I am the most selfish sister ever.) She said she was happy to be some place other than school and to eat home cooked meals. I hope she managed to get some rest before she starts up her last semester!

*After I bought the dress it exploded on social media. I am kind of afraid that people will think I bought it just because I saw other people with it even thought that's not true. I kinda feel like I am channeling my middle school/high school self with this concern but for some reason it's bugging me a lot.

One Year Later - Our First Anniversary

For our first anniversary, I had wanted to have photographs taken. I was to busy to arrange that and Mr. H is not a fan of having his photograph taken so I did not want to ask him to do that. Fortunately for him, I wasn't feeling well when we got back from my parents'. I have very sensitive skin and something had irritated it so I had a rash all over (allergies, asthma, and eczema runs in my family) and I felt uncomfortable wearing a tee-shirt even. I did not feel like having my photograph taken either.

We went up to our Alma Mater and walked around before lunch.

If only the weather had been this lovely a year ago.
It was grey and rainy when we got married.

Then we headed to the Grand Central Cafe for lunch. We only discovered them after we graduated but I am glad that we did as they make the most delicious brick oven pizza ever! We shared a pepperoni pizza (delicious) and I had a hard cider that was made in Maine.

 

Our plan was to watch a movie next but we finished lunch well before the movie was supposed to start. So we went to Bull Moose, a music, book, and video game store. They had just remodeled the store in town and it was huge. We bought also bought a four sided die to help us choose which type of candy to get at the theater.

Selfies in the Dark Cinema
Waiting for the Movie to Start

Rail Road Square Cinema was showing: Lovelace, The Way, Way Back, and Fruitvale Station. Fortunately Fruitvale Station was not showing at a convenient time for us as I heard that this movie about Oscar Grant made people bawl and I didn't want to watch a sad movie on my anniversary. I thought Lovelace would be a good file to watch but apparently this movie about porn starts got bad ratings and my husband thought we wouldn't enjoy it. I trust my husband's judgment about what movie to watch so we saw The Way, Way Back and I am so glad that we did. It was a fun movie. We ended up choosing a Seattle Chocolates Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar with 53% Cacao for a movie snack and it was delicious.

Best Cake Ever!

After the move we headed to pick up our Anniversary cake from Got Cake? Paula baked the most delicious cake for our wedding (the best cake I have ever had and perhaps my favorite part of my wedding) and now she was baking us new cake so that we wouldn't have to eat gross frozen cake on our Anniversary!

When we got home, my mother-in-law came by just as we got back. She had purple (our wedding color) ballons for us! She also made up a happy anniversary song and left it as a voicemail message on our answering machine! She is so wonderful.

BACON!

After picking up our cake, we went home. Since we ate out for lunch, we stayed in for dinner and had Sharp Cheddar and Bacon Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese Dinner. Dinner was absolutely delicious and after dinner we had champagne and cake!

The glases and champage are from our
friends' wedding a few months ago.

Red Velvet

And, we had presents for each other. My husband gave me an appropriate first anniversary gift--books made out of paper. I gave him Red Sox Boxers from Vineyard Vines.

Home at Last!

The next morning my sister, E2, picked us up at our friends' apartment. She is in her third year of medical school and is doing her surgery rotation near their apartment. That afternoon she had to attend a lecture and my parents' house was on the way. It was also her birthday. I'd like to think that my presence made the best birthday present ever.

She took us up along LSD and Sheridan Road in her convertible and it was a lovely day. (I tried to get a picture but it is hard to take a picture from a moving car.) We finally got to my parents' house and my mom met us there on her lunch break. E2 opened some presents from my mom (my presents for her were still in the mail as I had sent them on ahead) and then when went to Jimmy John's for lunch (I was  unpleasantly surprised to learn that the sprouts had been replaced by cucumber slices).

The company and conversation at Tapas Gitana were delightful.

For dinner we went to Tapas Gitana and I spotted someone else wearing Lilly (this almost never happens in Maine)! Dinner was delicious! Their potato salad (Patatas Con Alioli) is the best and I had sangria for what I think was the first time. I also had the pleasure of trying fried artichoke hearts. But, they were all out of olives? How? Who knows.

          

On Saturday, we celebrated my sister's birthday by driving up to Illinois Beach State Park (just south of the retired Zion Nuclear Power Station. We drove up in my mom's new RV. (I feel very ambivalent about the RV and I think it is my mom's midlife crisis. When I have a midlife crisis I am getting an Astin Martin, not an RV.)

The Power Plant in the Distance Adds to the Ambiance

I got car sick in the RV so I was so happy when we got to the beach. My sister was sick because they work med students too hard so she ended up spending the whole time at the beach sleeping in the RV. My husband and I sat on the beach reading.

I walked around the beach and tired to take pictures of the skyline in the distance. I tried to go swimming but every time I got deeper than my belly button my diaphragm seized and I couldn't breath. Also, the beach was very rock and there was a maxi pad floating in the water. (I know Lake Michigan is gross but come on I'd never seen anything that gross at Gillson.)

#nofilter, All the Photos from my Phone Turned Out Lovely.

I planted an idea in my sister's head on the way back: Dinner at Walker Brothers Pancake House. We ended up going to the one in downtown Wilmette, along Green Bay Road, it is the oldest one and I think it is the nicest one since they don't make things like they used to anymore.

Carved Oak and Stained Glass
at Walker Bros.

Afterward, we went back to my parents' house and ate cake and opened her remaining presents.

She asked for confetti. She got checkerboard.
The monogramed crab water bottle
I got her is in the background.

The cake was from Deerfields Bakery as my mom and I could not plan far enough ahead or wake up early enough bake one. So we went to the bakery to buy her a cake. Deerfields Bakery has wonderful baked goods and my mom usually gets their super wonderful chocolate chip coffee cake for me when I come home to visit. This time I just got a real chocolate long john (I ordered a chocolate long john at a Dunkin Donuts in Maine and I got something that no joke looked like a turd, see the below photo for proof) and a chocolate chip sweet roll which was like a single serving coffee cake.

I asked for a chocolate long john in Augusta, Maine.
This is what they gave me. Would you eat this?
I did because I was hungry. It tasted much better
than it looked, which isn't really saying much.
But chocolate is never yucky even if its in a gross shape.