More Fun in the Bakery

I've recently discovered a love (and dare I say talent?) for creating "interesting" cakes.

This one (in the shape of the "om" symbol in case you don't recognize it) was for a dual birthday last week:

and a cookie cake for our resident cookie monster

and this one was requested from the grounds/facilities crew for a staff member who was leaving the team. This staff member was often in charge of ploughing the roads and parking lots on Kripalu's property so we made a (somewhat to scale) replica of Kripalu

complete with the main Shadowbrook building and the Annex (built by Carl, the facilities supervisor out of graham crackers and marshmallow fluff) as well as chocolate roads, cream cheese frosting snow, broccoli trees and even a tractor plough and stop signs...

so fun! and it tasted good too.

A Perfect Trip to Florida

While it was short, it gave me all my favorite things:

sunrise over the atlantic, and swimming in the ocean

the smell of orange blossoms carried on hot, wet air after an intense spring thunderstorm

azaleas blooming all over the place

krishna lunch and all my favorite people in gainesville (quite amazing: in 24 hours I saw pretty much everyone I know that still lives in Gainesville - without a phone and without really making any effort, it all just came together)

I sat on the Plaza of the Americas for about 2 hours and people cycled through as classes ended and began... listened to kirtan and lay in the sun. It was great to meet some of the new trip leaders and hang out with old ones, and know that TRiP is in good hands.

a visit to the Lake Jackson Marsh for painting with my mom, some gator sightings (it's mating season)

as well as my aunt's birthday lunch, opera with my grandma, a lecture by Jim Leher, cooking for my mom and grandma, and a good solid dose of love and perspective on the world...

All in all, a very successful trip.

~

and now.... because I heart irony:

I saw this on the way to the marsh

allow me to zoom in on those two signs

well, I suppose they did fail to specify what it was destined for...