From the ages of about 7-13 I was a RELIGIOUS watcher of Saved By The Bell. SBTB for those of you so inclined to join me in my memories of the show. I would sit on our couch every Saturday morning, or lay in front of our TV with my bowl of Cheerios with 3 inches of sugar sitting on the bottom and shovel spoonful after spoonful into my mouth and pray that it wasn’t that awful rerun where Zack tries to make himself like Jessie, and it all goes just very very weird at the end and I am left with that unsettled feeling of the world not being right for the rest of the day. I swear when they kissed in that episode I heard whales breaching themselves on beaches ’round the world. It was THAT bad. Almost as bad as Zach and Lisa kissing.

::shudder::

Almost as bad as Slater and Jessie lip-synching  ”How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” while dressed in costume!

The reason I bring this to your attention is simple. I just saw Tiffani Amber Thiessen( Oh Tiffani- Amber, we continue to celebrate your need for two first names and an I instead of a Y unique first name spelling!)on an entertainment news segment, and Kelly Kapowski looks amazing (AS ALWAYS- DUHHH), however, she has definitely come into her own as a woman and is rocking some major curves (please note I did NOT say “gained weight” because I really feel that she is finally resembling a real woman with internal organs. Yay for livers and spleens TiffanI!!!) And my 13 year old bang wearing-acne faced- wispy side burned self began jumping for joy within me.

How many times did Kelly Kapowski wear cut off shorts and a shirt tied under her boobs while I sat in a nightshirt with some kind of sad looking princess bear on the front? HOW MANY TIMES? How many times did Kelly’s biggest problem revolve around Zack VS. Slater, when mine was frantically realizing there was only enough Peanut Butter  Captain Crunch left for ONE BOWL? HOW MANY TIMES?

And for this…for this I let my inner fat kid smile just  a little bit, that age has finally caught up with Kelly Kapowski. She too wears long necklaces to distract the eye! She TOO is rocking the long shirts in style now! She TOO is looking forward to winter layering weather! (ok,  I made up that last part, but I bet she is. We all love sweaters.)

Don’t get me wrong. Homegirl is still beautiful. But it’s nice to see that she might have just given into an Oreo craving or two, after many many years of cheerleading costumes and cutoffs.

                                                                            I gotta say, I think she looks better now.

                                                                And I’m still jealous of her hair, even after all these years.

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As a teacher, there are moments where you want to pull your hair out and run screaming for the hills. When all you want to say is WHEN IS IT MY TURN TO USE THE BATHROOM? You wonder if they hear you. Do they GET IT? Are they mentally present? What happened at home last night to make her look so timid? Why is he so angry? You wonder and you wonder…and the moments of nonstop clouded multi-tasking thought upon thought begin to pile upon your shoulders…and then…

There are moments when a motherless child reaches for your hand to hold.

When a little boy who has struggled all of his life to find confidence, finally finds it in your presence.

When you finally break through the bravado and see that the tough guy is just so scared to fail.

When “come see my sandcastle” is really “please tell me I matter somewhere.”

These are the moments that matter. These are the moments that teach.

Happy 2010 school year to all the teachers out there!

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. – Emma Goldman

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Yesterday I had the chance to visit a place that is now very near and dear to my heart. And my stomach. My husband has been raving about this place since his little mini trip to the city a few weeks ago, and he just HAD to take me there. Now I know why. Put simply? Amazing. Delish. Outstanding. A place that makes you sing with delight as you chew.

I had never had a crepe before I entered the doors of Crepes on Cole in San Francisco. However, I can guarantee you that my first crepe, will not be my last crepe, now that I have experienced the joy.

I had a grilled chicken sandwich on a baguette with a side of the house potatoes(red potatoes with rosemary, holy delicious good), and mixed green salad. Mr. Squish had the french toast which I would have liked to have gotten a picture of but we didn’t think of it until after the demolition derby happened on his plate. Apparently it was good.

After lunch we had a banana (banana, cinnamon, brown sugar with whipped cream, thankyouverymuch) dessert crepe with a side of vanilla bean icecream. It was really…well, in heaven, I will eat banana crepes all day.

This is not the banana dessert crepe with a side of vanilla bean icecream because well…again, we inhaled it with the speed of  a fat kid with candy running from his teacher. This is a picture of the Raspberry Blintz.  They serve Savory AND dessert crepes at Crepes on Cole, and from the looks of it, both are extremely popular.

One of the best things about Crepes on Cole isn’t a crepe at all. It’s the owner. I had the chance to meet Sam, who had welcomed my husband a few weeks ago. Sam is quite popular amongst the patrons, and it wasn’t unusual to hear every person going in and out of the doors to greet him by name. He came and sat with us and talked with us awhile. And let me tell you, Sam is a very fun guy to talk to! While we talked, he offered me a coffee on the house- and if you know me, you know that one thing I don’t turn away is coffee. He made me a cappucino.

It was heavenly. Sam was about as nice of a guy as you can find. A guy that you want to give your business to, because, aside from making out of this world crepes, he’s a genuine guy.

Sam was such a nice guy, that he offered to make me another banana crepe, and Ed another french toast so I could get a picture for my blog. He’s just cool like that. I assured him that I would tell all of you dear squishies just how amazing his place is, and what an awesome guy owns the place!

So, for anyone taking a little vaycay to San Francisco, I HIGHLY recommend you stop there. You won’t regret it.

Here’s the info: 100 Carl St. at Cole St. San Francisco, CA 94117  (415) 664-1800.

And to Sam: Thank you for making our day just wonderful- filled with great food and lovely laughter! You’re a gem Sam!

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There is something to be said for sinking your toes into warm sand side by side with friends, isn’t there?  Something about warm sunshine and cool breezes…relaxing into easy conversation and breathless laughter. Something about new friendship and old friendship and just plain friendship and summertime and moments of letting go that make all those hurried scurried breathless-in-a-bad way days worth it.

Once again, my new friend and my…friend of yore (If I say old friend I might get in trouble) had the chance to gather and giggle like we love to do. And oh. Was it grand.

Sometimes, time with friends like these just feels like one big exhale. One big sigh. And it’s lovely. We love our men like nobody’s bidnezz…but there is nothing like explaining to your girlfriend that she will simply have to hum loudly or turn up the Friends DVD while her friend uses the restroom after too much fiber for dinner. It’s nice to be able to explain your bodily yelps to friends, isn’t it? I think so.

While we were out and about I had the opportunity to eat perhaps the BEST curry sweet potato quinoa salad I’ve ever had (Also the only  one I have ever had, but whatevs.)

It was delish. And in case you’re thinking I was all fancy shmancy healthy eater on this little trip?

Yeah, that was a chocolate covered marshmallow and s’more and both were almost the size of my head.  It was glorious. I might have sang a bit of  “Jesus Loves Me” in my head, simply because this was proof.

My friends were astonished at the size of my luggage and wanted a picture. Obviously I felt this was time for the Zoolander model face:

Now before you get all “that Squishygirl must be a diva!!” on me, please note that Mr. Squish was also on a little trip during this time and took the normal (read, not able to fit a human in) luggage.

We also had matching shirts that Amanda painstakingly made for us. They read “Perfection with a side of gum” on them, because ….well…you had to have been there. And Ten pink marshmallows to you if you know where that quote is from! (PSSST…My pajama pants are a clue!!!!)

And in case you ever wonder about whether a getaway with your girlfriends is necessary:

It is. It is so very necessary.

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So, this past week was quite a week. After returning from Las Vegas (Viva La Squish!!!…I know that is probably getting old for you dear Squishies, but I simply cannot stop saying it in my head. When I talk about my blog I whisper kind of pervy like in my head “Viva La Squish!” to myself and then I think, this is really not normal.) it was operation Birfday in the Squishy residence and I had quite a job ahead of me, that I planned to document step by step for this here blog.

Didn’t happen. Let me to explain it to you.

Mr. Squish is a techy. He loves all things technology. He is a zero and ones type of guy. He is the exact opposite of me. I measure things by simply imagining how many Twizzlers will fit end to end on something. He actually uses a measuring tape and is able to say things like “one and one eighths of an inch.” Usually I sigh heavily and pop another Junior Mint in my mouth around that time. If you haven’t noticed, I like the snacks.

So, for Mr. Squish’s 30th (THIRTY. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. MY HUSBAND JUST TURNED 30. I’M MARRIED TO A 30 YEAR OLD. and he will be too in 6 months. SOB.) I knew I had to raise the bar in many different celebratory areas, and I had to nail it. He insisted on no 30th birthday party, surprise or other wise, so I was left with gifts and cake. Couple this with the fact that he has talked about NOTHING other than Android related things for about 6 months, and well, there’s my “theme”. “Babe, did you know the new Droid can do this?” “Babe, did you know that the camera on the new Droid can jump out of itself, take it’s own picture, develop and frame itself while hanging itself on our wall?” ..etcetera Et freaking cetera. It’s been a topic of conversation.  

I began my quest for Android related gifts and found a few cute shirts and hat that he would like. That part was simple. Now I needed to find a way to either buy or make a Droid cake of my own.  No professional bakery had time to make the cake, and therefore I was left to my own devices. I needed to make this out of cake:

OBVIOUSLY the arms and legs were going to be Twinkies. Is that apparent to anyone else? I DID try to make them out of cake with loaf pans but had I used them, the Droid would have looked like he had some sort of swollen limb disease.  This development also made me venture to Walmart, otherwise known as Land that I Loathe to get Twinkies. I never thought I’d be in Walmart buying Twinkies,but hey, never say never. Did you know they no longer come in twin packs? I guess they figure if you don’t eat them by the tens than it’s just not worth any Twinkie glory.  I made the body in a square pan and used a pie pan for the head,  which I cut in half. I used green Twizzlers for the doodly boppers and  Junior Mints for the eyes. And Lo, an Android cake was born:

I would have posted pictures of the progess, but I was literally up to my elbows in green icing. It IS impossible to lick your elbow, by the way.  I frosted each piece individually and then forklifted it with two spatulas over to the foil platform. The Twinkies were surprisingly difficult to frost. I’m sure I looked hilarious during this process but it was definitely worth the look on Mr.Squish’s face when he saw it:

He was overjoyed. So overjoyed that we had friends over that night to EAT THE CAKE yet he insisted we eat the other half of the head in the refrigerator so we didn’t cut into the Droid. That night we dismembered the huge behemoth and stored him piece by piece in the fridge. Somehow, that was better than cutting him. Don’t ask. Either way, he loved the cake.

Seriously, do I not have the cutest husband ever? I love that man.

My Creation.

So proud of our robot child

It was quite the weekend, I must say. So there ya go- this is what a birfday looks like when you’re married to a geek   technologically minded person.

What about you? Have you ever made a cake that you feared would wind up on Cakewrecks?

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