cupcakes and flowers

so i have been craving strawberry cupcakes for weeks now! i finally decided to go ahead and make some and went to the store to buy a mix, and they didn't have any! crazy. so then i went to 2 other stores and NONE of them had any! i was so bummed. i have a recipe to make them from scratch, but honestly i like the mix ones better (not to mention they are way easier!) so last night after dinner i started the process. the cupcakes themselves took so long to make that i decided to just go to bed and make the icing today. now, i have never considered myself a baker. in my opinion you are either a cook or a baker, and baking is just not my thing. but the icing for the strawberry cupcakes is what i always have trouble with. i don't know why but it NEVER turns out like it should. it's always kind of runny and grainy. today i even made cream cheese icing and added some pureed strawberry to it, hoping that it would help the consistency. no such luck. i don't get it. AND it doesn't taste that great in my opinion either. however, when combined with the cupcakes it's not too bad. the only thing is, now i have 24 cupcakes on my hands! jamie isn't a big dessert person, so i'll end up eating as much as i can and then throwing out the rest. unless... does anyone want to come over and help me eat???









i had a very pleasant surprise while searching for the cupcake mix yesterday--peonies are in season!!! if you know me you know i LOVE peonies! i saw 2 bushes in people's gardens and lots for sale at the markets. maybe i'll get lucky and jamie will buy me some for mother's day, hint hint!





oh! and one more thing. today while sophia and i were at the dog run, one lady (with 2 dogs) had a frisbee. of course all the dogs were surrounding her and excited about the frisbee. i was on the phone, but watching sophia the whole time. anyway, one of her dogs had a wire muzzle on when we got there. i thought that was odd, but then she took it off and i didn't think any more about. the dog with the muzzle seemed to be doing some agility training, and at one point the lady had it sitting up on a tree stump. all the other dogs were on the ground looking at it and waiting for the frisbee to be thrown. i saw the dog jump down and heard a slight yelp and the next thing i know the lady is examining it's nose. then i see her wrapping it up in a bandanna. now none of the other dogs are excited or fighting, or anything, just standing around. then the lady says "who's chocolate lab is this?" i say "mine." she says "your dog just broke my dog's nose!" i'm like "what???" so i go over there and she tells me again that my dog broke her dog's nose. i said "how?" she never really gave me an answer, just said they were playing or something. i'm like "i just don't see how my dog could have broken your dog's nose." she said "it was an accident, it wasn't her fault. i'm going to have to take her to the emergency room, she'll need surgery! do you have contact information?" i said yeah, but i didn't have anything to write with, so she had me call her cell. i never gave her my name or anything though. i asked her if she needed help and she said no and left. it was so strange. there were lots of people there and no one saw anything happen but everyone thought it was weird. i kind of think the dog had a previous injury since it had that muzzle. i hope it's okay, but i also hope she doesn't contact me, because it clearly was NOT sophia's fault.
so, that was my day. and tomorrow is friday : )