If I Knew You Were Coming ...

I baked a cake tonight, and while I don't want to brag, it's looking mighty fine.

It's a recipe from my mother-in-law, and it is one of the most gloriously 50s desserts I have ever seen -- a fluffy pink-and-white maraschino cherry cake with pink icing studded with maraschino cherries. Sandy made it for Christmas this year, and it was outstanding. I've baked it in honor of St. Valentine's Day -- it looks like the kind of cake one should eat after stuffing My Favorite Monster valentines into brown paper mailboxes with heartmen with sprongy arms, or mangling red construction paper and doilies into greetings for mom. I was going to make a cupcake version, but I couldn't figure out how to transport the cupcakes into work. And I'm out of cupcake papers. But it's made more challenging by SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010! Looking out the window, I would guess there is 6 inches, maybe 7 on the ground here in Rye (yeah, we moved! Details later), with the snow expected to continue until 6am. The feeling that it is SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010 has been exacerbated by the fact that Nate -- who closed his store at 2pm -- has been watching news coverage of the storm nonstop, starting last night, continuing into this morning, and picking back up again after dinner. (Note: News 12 Westchester just said we have received between 6 and 8 inches -- Boom! My estimating skills are better than I thought.)

It's all very reminiscent of the blizzard of 2003, which is my all-time favorite. It took place over Valentine's Day and the President's Day long weekend -- Nate was visiting for the first Valentine's Day we ever spent together, and he got snowed in for two (or was it three?) days. It was great. We ate huge meals, watched our crappy only-public-access channels TV, I wrote some stories and once the weather broke and I was stir crazy, walked to Times Square, ate at Applebee's, and watched people step in the huge slush resevoirs by the curbs, when we weren't stepping in them ourselves. Totally the best blizzard ever -- rated on a scale where the blizzard of 2003 is a 10, SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010 is a 5. Maybe a 6, actually, given that we both got home early to avoid the icy Snowpocalypse roads, which gave us enough time to snuggle like demons and still have time for me to make a cake.

So, apart from my cake, what's been new in the almost-year since I last posted? The knee, as it approaches one year post-surgery, is in fine shape: it hasn't dislocated or snagged or even wobbled. The scar is no longer an angry livid red but a more pale fleshy pink. It's still sore after I go to the gym or go for a run, but it works, it bends, it supports me, it's amazing. Nate and I moved to the burbs after he got offered his own store in Connecticut, but other than that, life isn't too different. Same job, same rad husband, just more fresh air and a more costly commuter rail bill. And a better oven for cakes.