Trey B Cakes

Trey B Cakes is a dessert bakery that opened this year in Sacramento. I wouldn't say that it is the best dessert's I have ever had. But their gelato is quite tasty. Okay, pretty much everything is very tasty. But honestly, I go there for Fred. F is Trey's dad. C and I would head to Trey's almost every time we'd get dessert and F would always pull up a chair at our table and chat with us. We'd get enough "samples" to feed a crowd. 

Last week T, C & I stopped by for dessert. The Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcake - heaven!

Christmas Decor

Due to the fact that life this holiday season is surprisingly chaotic, even for me, I decided to forgo a Christmas tree. But last year I hand painted all my ornaments and I love them so much I still had to hang them. Luckily I have many feet of Christmas lights and tinsel garland.

They were surprisingly easy and so much fun to make. I love that each one is different and that each of the balls is still shiny but toned down. I just grabbed some squeeze paints and went to town. It was addictive. Which is why every single one of my glass bulbs is now painted. 

D Sings

Last weekend was the holiday concert for the Oakland East Bay Gay Men's Chorus which D started singing with after moving to the bay. I must admit that I have been un-enthused about the holidays this year. Halloween, Thanksgiving, nothing has had that holiday feeling. I must thank the concert for at least getting me slightly thrilled at the prospect of Christmas. 

N and I had a great time, N watched the Oregon/UCLA game, I took photos and texted. We were very attentive attendees. At one point the choir came out completely dressed in medievalesque garb and sang some tavern songs - maybe you know the opera, I was simply confused. Costume changes are always fun I guess. 

D, ready for the quartet. 

Back in November when I stayed with D & N the quartet came to rehearse their number, I happened to recorded one full song on my phone. You can all now enjoy a little bit of the concert, well, it was one of their first practices, a month before the performance - but still lovely. 

D got his own solo, I got goosebumps. Actually I got them three times during the show, I'd call that a success. 

I wish I had a photo of this, but one of the choir gents had a leopard print cuffed Santa hat, after the performance the local Concord botox queen was hunting down that cat hat, as I overheard her say, "I just must have it!"

Here is the song - sadly I could not for the life of me figure out how to get the music file to upload without putting it to a video and iMovie required photos to go with it, so you may have to look at them all again. Or just close your eyes and listen. 

G's Birthday

I cannot believe she is already 13. I remember being 16 when she was born and thinking that when she was my age I would be 32 - it seemed ancient. It's hard to remember she isn't still 2 years old.

I think everyone else will agree that this is our favorite picture of the night. I don't remember what B or C is telling her, but she was not thrilled about it.

One of her birthday achievements was to finally get her own facebook account. C & I helped her set up an email account and then hopefully laid some fear in the girl over safety concerns on facebook, rules about friending people, adjusting all her securities setting to be what we thought they should be, etc. 

Of course, a facebook account means a profile picture. She brushed her hair and posed.

I had to get some volume in her hair, I couldn't resist, I couldn't let her use the above photo. What kind of sister would I be? 

Then it was perhaps slightly too mature for a 13 year old. 

Ah, that's her.