I've gotta offer buttrfli a Homer Simpson-esque woo hoo!! for her accomplishment in landing the job. Well done, and what better way to celebrate than a great meal?

sunsetsunrise, you must tell me how to crystallize flowers...I imagine your creations were beautiful and outrageous, as you'd said! Baking was my first foray into the culinary arts, from my initial success with chocolate chip cookies--I never knew it was so easy and fun to make something so seemingly unendingly delicious, but I was also a little kid at the time! I liked decorating my own cakes, and cookies of all types were always a favorite. I stopped baking due to an unbelievable life event, and because the fun was so tied up with who was lost. Baked again for the first time last Xmas. Cooking, however, is all still so new to me! I've been learning so much, though that's on hold now too. I grew up in a household brimming with creative cooks, so it seemed a natural progression, though I put it off as long as I could in favor of eating.

I am sorry that anxiety has put obstacles in your path of enjoyment, sunsetsunrise, and hold out hope you may regain all you've lost, with gusto.

Everyone else, please don't think I don't read and appreciate your accomplishments. I do. You guys make my day more than you know.

I wore a new t-shirt today, one I like a lot, with long sleeves and a scoop neck. I also talked instead of yelled when I got upset--that wasn't easy.