One of the things I did for the Shower was make cake pops with the amazing help of Blowuprobot and XM (bassist in Backlights).  They did a ton of work to make this shower a hit (have I mentioned that I love being pregnant?)  XM also made really delicious cupcakes.  She’s also known to make mummifed pigs in a blanket.  Anyway, they did a lot of research into this cake pop business and we spent the day before the shower making them.  I think they came out pretty good, although someone said that they kind of tasted like Luna Bars, which actually do taste okay but maybe not in the context of dessert.

Putting cake pop batter into the cake pop shape maker (much more sanitary than squishing baked cake into a ball by hand as per blowuprobot's insistence)

After being baked for 6-7 minutes

Cooling on the racks

Blowuprobot handmaking decorations while balls cool!! She's amazing!

Cake balls ready to be decorated

XM coming up with some sketches for decorating

At awe at how much one or two dots of eyes can change something from 'meh' to 'amazing!'

We made so many pops and they looked so cool!

Half eaten pop. Pretty good!!

Hanging out. Tee bone said that he was able to complete a game of Battleship while drinking Stumptown coffee w/whiskey the whole time. That is baby shower success!!!

More food from Fresh Direct (definitely recommended) and a tray of XM's animal themed cupcakes with her handmade table decorations!

More handmade decorations!

The bathroom!

Right after the shower, we rushed to Pianos in the LES to play one last Backlights show before we take a break for the baby. Badass!

I got Phil a cake to celebrate his new job.  Why?  Why not?  And why not add a candle on it too to make a celebration wish?  Why only eat cake for birthdays?  I mean, my mom did this for our family for 30+ years for nearly any occasion when almost the entire family were in the same house despite avid protesting of no more cake, so why end the tradition?  Because even though we always pleaded and begged my mom, “please, no more, no more!! nobody wants to take in any more calories than the 4000+ we’ve already consumed from the excessive galbi and lobster and heaping bowls of rice from the dinner we just ate,” we’d still eat the cake and it would taste pretty good, if only because it made my mom happy.

This holiday Pill and I made cheddar cheese (crust) apple pie at his parent’s house.  The pie came out fantastic and I believe the key to making a good crust is ensuring that the butter is kept pea size throughout the mixing process, and making sure to use ice water and chilling the dough before baking. We had leftover cheesy dough which P. used to make mini croissants.  Those were promptly eaten.

Among the standard tacos of chorizo and chicken that they served, they also offered sesos and ojos.  I tried the sesos and it wasn’t bad.  I just wished that I hadn’t wikipedia’d ‘sesos’ afterwards.  I didn’t try the ojos but I did take a photo (top) to illustrate what eating such a taco could be like.  Reports on its taste were also, “not bad.”

We ate at Joe Shanghai’s in Flushing which was a treat for them as much as it was for me since they pretty much only ever eat/make Korean food.