To help celebrate my birthday, I invited over a few close friends for coffee and cake. Ordering a cake is a bit of a production because I avoid gluten. The entire DMV really only has one gluten-free bakery,
The Happy Tart, which is located in Alexandria, VA - a good 45 minute drive for me. However, the drive is worth it, as their items are all amazing. Last year I had purchased a triple chocolate mousse cake, which contained three layers of different mousse flavors: white, milk, and dark chocolate. This year I choose the marjolaine, described on their website as: "Almond meringue layered with chocolate ganache, hazelnut cream, and vanilla cream." It is a long, skinny cake, and when I got home, I realized that it didn't fit on a single platter in the apartment! I resorted to placing the cake on a cookie sheet. While not the world's prettiest cake (or simplest to cut!), this dessert was incredibly rich and decadent...so much that I was the only person to finish an entire piece. Naturally, the nicest part of the afternoon was to spend time with friends.
We discussed all manners of things, including the Olympics, travel, babies, books, Oscar nominated movies, and so on. Earlier in the day I had read a
wonderful article in the Washington Post about Americans' obsession with work, so I shared that with everyone. Because I don't have a working TV at home, I had not seen the commercial the writer references, so I had to look that up.
Link to the video inside another article is here. Anyone who knows me would attest to the fact that I would much rather have more time off (and spend my funds on travel) than more toys (as can be witnessed just by glancing at my *very* old car). I am definitely interested in hearing your opinions on this commercial (particularly if you live in Europe), and the article. Comment away!
As for the lovely Latvian team bobsleds I mentioned in yesterday's post, it turns out that a young Latvian-Canadian woman who now lives in Latvia, Julija Gifford, was responsible. Please do check out
her post on the design process. Kudos to Julija for a beautiful job!
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| This photos does not adequately show the Latvian ornaments - check out Julija's blog for better pics! (Source: Yahoo Sports) |
Thanks for tuning me in to Jūlijas blog! How very cool that she had a hand in the design process - I LOVE those sleighs!
ReplyDeleteI was a bit flabbergasted when I started reading her blog...I'd been admiring them and loving the 'raksti' on Sunday evening, then Monday I find out she's the mastermind behind the ornamental design. She's a GVV grad, so I feel like our community can take a bit of credit, too. ;-)
DeleteGod that ad was irritating - and to me, he's always going to be Dave from Desperate Housewives. Hard to focus on anything he was saying! I guess they conveniently forgot about the millions of Americans who work two to three jobs just to scrape by - and take no holidays. I'm going with smug and repulsive on this one!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Obviously, anyone trying to survive on minimum wage (a piddly $7.25 an hour in most places, which translates into $290/wk or $15,080 for a 52-week year with no vacations whatsoever) is clearly not the target audience. I mean, really, how many people can afford a $75,000 car? Only someone who lives in what looks to be a $3 million house! Even median household income in the US for 2011 was $50,000... The ad is aimed at what we nowadays like to somewhat snarkily call the 1%.
DeleteAnd - really - has any 90 yr old ever looked back on her or his life and said, "Boy, I do wish I had spent more of my time working and less time with family and friends!"???
I can't watch the ad, but I found the article interesting. It would have been nice if the author had gone into the reasons WHY Americans need to work so hard without any holiday. How has American society developed that way while the rest of the (developed) world hasn't?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that such articles have been written, she was just trying to make the point that working so much is not all that it's cracked up to be. She recently wrote a book called "Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time " (http://us.macmillan.com/overwhelmed/BrigidSchulte). Chronic "busyness" has become somewhat of a status symbol among middle class and upper class families in this country. So, not only do American work too much, we run around and do too much other stuff - overschedule their kids, etc. No leisurely Sunday strolls in the Schwarzwald here! Yes, in many way, the American way of life is VERY different than in many other countries.
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