Renae Renaissance

I’m afraid I don’t have a recipe tonight, but I thought I’d drop in, say hello, and post a couple of pictures. My birthday was yesterday, so I baked myself a cake. You may have noticed I don’t make many desserts, so my cake baking – and decorating – skills are mediocre at best.

It’s a little unintentionally Rocky Horror Picture Show. Mark gets to share the cake with me because his birthday is Friday! Plus there was a lot of room left over on the cake after I got to Renae…. It’s a red velvet cake with Tofutti cream cheese icing, and it’s not that great because I overbaked it. And red food coloring proving strangely hard to come by in Northern Virginia, it may more aptly be termed a mauve velvet cake. Oh well. I also made pumpkin muffins and those were very good.

Mark got me the BEST PRESENT EVER! It’s not food related, but it’s so great I have to share!

The Oxford English Dictionary! Now I’ll know every word in the language! And Fortinbras got me a special bookshelf to house it. It’s really, really nice.

To celebrate my birthday, some friends and I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Renae and Renaissance are different forms of the same French word, meaning reborn and rebirth respectively, so I like to claim ownership of the RenFest. The Renaissance Festival is not exactly burgeoning with vegan – or even remotely healthy – food, though. My friends seemed determined to eat the most ludicrous foods they could get their hands on, including deep-fried macaroni and cheese on a stick (I kid you not). For dessert they had a deep-fried Twinkee and a couple of deep-fried Oreos. It was truly astonishing. I took a lot of pictures, but trust me, you don’t want to see them.

I did eat some curly fries, however. It was my birthday. I can have curly fries on my birthday.

Mark and me.

My friend Melissa has been talking about this vegetarian restaurant up in Clarksville, Maryland for months, and as it wasn’t too terribly far from the RenFest she suggested we go there for dinner. Great Sage was really great! Nearly everything on the menu was vegan and it was all very delicious. The staff graciously tolerated our antics and even gave me a free drink. And I just noticed their lunch menu has a tempeh reuben, so methinks we’ll have to make it up there for lunch sometime!

The weather finally turned cool this weekend. Brachtune likes it when it gets cold because Tigger will tolerate her presence in exchange for body heat. It’s pretty rare they get this close!

That’s it for tonight…I’ll try to muster up a real post tomorrow!

8 Comments »

  1. Cyn Said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 4:00 am

    Wow! OED = best birthday present ever. That sounds like a great birthday.

  2. Cindy Said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 8:38 am

    I prefer jewelry myself, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

  3. Jes Said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 10:26 am

    The OED for your birthday?!!! You lucky lucky lucky person. That’s so wonderful! I’ve been eying the two volume condensed version at my used bookstore for months. And isn’t it amazing how the cats get cuddly once it’s cold? My old she-bitch (love her to death, but really, she’s an old witch) and my new lady kitten were actually within 1/2 an inch of each other this morning. It was amazing!

  4. Lenora Said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 11:30 pm

    Happy Birthday to both of you! You’ve got an awesome blog.
    I’ve never actually had red velvet cake, but I’ve heard it’s quite something 😀

  5. Jennifer Said,

    October 22, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

    I can’t believe he got you the OED! That is crazy awesome (and what a big spender!). 🙂

    Happy Birthday to both of you!

  6. renae Said,

    October 22, 2008 @ 1:58 pm

    Thanks to all for the birthday wishes, and it’s heartening to know that I’m not the only person whose always wanted the OED!

  7. Charley Said,

    October 23, 2008 @ 1:17 pm

    That’s a lovely picture of you an Mark. ^_^

    Happy Birthday!

  8. Jain Said,

    November 25, 2008 @ 8:16 pm

    Oh, swoon, I’ve wanted the OED ever since I could read, it seems — what a gift!

    A friend got on my computer and somehow butchered my bookmarks and feeds. After several weeks of searching in vain to reclaim your blog, I finally wracked my brain for search terms, added “cat,” and went right to it!

    So that’s why I’m a month late in saying, Happy belated birthdays to you both!
    ~Jain

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