Skipping Town

There’s nothing like new cake stand to inspire baking. At least that’s how it’s seemed to work with Andrew, whose favorite wedding gifts include the KitchenAid mixer and a variety of muffin tins, cake pans, and the like. (I do my fair share of baking too, though at this point my baking is limited to bread via the bread machine.) Each time he bakes something, we artfully arrange it on our new cake stand and contemplate becoming bakers. That thought is discarded after acknowledging the grim reality of waking (and baking) at 3am. In any case, here’s some evidence of the masterwork: Chocolate cake... Strawberry, blackberry, and kiwi muffins...

Big news on Broadway: they’re reviving South Pacific . When I heard the news yesterday, I groaned and said in an alarmed voice, “Are you serious?!” Andrew raised an eyebrow, backed away. “It’s a wonderful show,” he said suspiciously. “It’s based on a Michener book. It’s full of great songs.” He sang a bar of “Some Enchanted Evening.” But Andrew can’t fully appreciate my difficult relationship with South Pacific . After all, he hadn’t been there for the buckets of fake-tan-paint. Sophomore year of high school, I was in South Pacific . Many of you reading this blog saw, or were also perhaps in, that play. It was hardly the worst high school play I’ve experienced; as far as shows go, it was blessedly free from complicated dance numbers, complicated, dissonant Stephen Sondheim ensemble pieces, or overly complicated scenery, which would have “inspired” our director to “improvise” in ways that were always—so consistently!—a complete and utter disaster, leaving already-dramatic high school ac...