Will walk for cupcakes

Oh cupcake, how I love thee. You're so sweet and delicious, I could

just eat you up.

Last Saturday after walking/dodging raindrops at the American Brain Tumor Association 5k with my friends, we went on a mini cupcake crawl around Chicago. We overeagerly planned to walk to our destinations...all 5 of them. Unfortunately, none of us took into account how much our legs/ankles/hip flexors (in my case) would HATE us for all the walking we did (guess we forgot about that 5k earlier in the day). By the time we got to our third stop, we were literally crawling. 

But despite the minor pain and cramping, the cupcakes were AMAZING. And I think the only way to describe my euphoric frosting-topped tour would be through photos. Yikes, I might start drooling a little...

Sidenote: I am going to try my hardest to describe these cupcakes without using my least favorite words (moist, creamy, gooey). Unfortunately, those words often apply in this case. 

Stop 1: Swirlz

A delicious peanut butter crunch cupcake. Yes, the photo is a little off, but I was just so darn excited to eat it, I couldn't waste time with my silly camera. It was SO good. The perfect blend of chocolatey cake and peanut butter frosting. It tasted like a giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cup...only better.

So excited to eat cupcakes. This was the exact moment I wished I could pull a Zack Morris and call a time out to freeze the scene. I would have jumped over the counter and stuffed as many of those cupcakes into my bag as I could. Sometimes I really wish TV "special" effects applied to real life. (Please excuse the hair...it was raining and gross that day)

Stop 2: Sweet Mandy B's

The sun made a brief appearance when we got here. It was a sign that we were about to experience a little piece of cupcake heaven.

A hastily taken photo of the display case. I got one of those white ones—the Snickerdoodle cupcake. The frosting was a bit too...creamy (ugh, I had to say it) for me, but I loved the cake part of it. It was the pinnacle of cinammony deliciousness. 

Stop 3: Molly's Cupcakes

Best. thing. ever. I love sprinkles. I think they present a great philosophy for life: Sometimes all you need is a little color to make life sweeter. 

 

A glamour shot of my mixed berry cupcake. I think I fell in love with it a little bit before I ate it. It was filled with blueberry and raspberry compote and was topped with blueberry frosting. It was amazing. The frosting was so light and whippy (yes, that's a word) and it complemented the cake perfectly. 

From there, we were supposed to go to Southport Grocery and Dinkel's, but we were all way too tired. Plus, we were all spiraling into sugar-induced comas at that point. But it was so worth it. My favorite? Probably Molly's. But Swirlz was a very, very close second. And so was Sweet Mandy B's. I loved them all. 

Before we went home, we made a quick stop at Pocket Puppies, a pet store that specializes in teeny tiny dogs. The dogs were adorable, yet freakishly tiny. I was afraid I was going to break them. 

Cutest. dog. ever. This was a 9-week-old Yorkie. Normally I'm not a fan of pet store puppies (the thought of puppy mills makes me so sad), but we couldn't resist holding some of these little guys. They were so cute. I hope they all get good, loving homes soon.

So then I went home and passed out. I literally took a 3 hour nap, woke up and got ready to go out, found out my plans were cancelled due to exhaustion, and went back to bed. All that walking and sugar killed me a little bit. But I loved every sugar-coated second of it.

Hmm...now I want a cupcake.

If your cat is on drugs, that's not a good thing.

Last week, my coworker was telling me how she will be catsitting for her neighbor while she is out of town for a few weeks. To be completely honest, I'm not a big cat person, so I usually tune people out when they start going on about their precious kitty cats. Sorry, but I've never met a nice cat before...

Well anyway, the night before her neighbor left, my coworker had to go to her apartment to get trained on how to take care of the cats. Yes, trained. Apparently both cats are like 412-years-old and basically on life support. She has to give the cats a mixture of 7, yes 7, different prescriptions, 2 different kinds of shots, an IV and special mashed-up food.

Are you kidding me? First of all, I think it's crazy that the girl would leave her seriously ill cats with a neighbor and ask her to give her cat shots twice a day. I would vomit if I had to do that. Second of all, why are those cats even alive? I mean really, they sound sick! The girl even told my coworker that she wouldn't be surprised if one of the cats died while she was out of town. What?!

I don't mean to sound heartless. I love animals. Ok correction, I love dogs. And it's horrible to see them when they're suffering. Growing up, my family had an English Springer Spaniel named Chelsea. When she was 12 we noticed bumps on her skin, took her to the vet and found out that she had very aggressive skin cancer. After a couple of days, we realized how much pain she was in and put her to sleep. It was so sad, but it would have been worse to keep her alive and in pain.

After Chelsea, we had Maisy, a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. She was essentially my dog. We got her my sophomore year in high school and I absolutely adored her. But during my senior year of college, my Mom called to tell me that Maisy had been acting very lethargic, so she took her to the vet for tests. The results were devastating (ok I might cry as I type this, why the hell am I telling this story?) Her kidneys were almost completely diseased and quickly failing. The vet said we could put her on dialysis and keep her alive for another year or so, but that would be it. It was heartbreaking. As we saw our little Maisy getting slower and weaker every day, we decided to put her to sleep. And it turned out the day she went down was her 6th birthday. Yeah, she was only 6...

Ok wow, now I'm all teared up over here. Anyway, the point is that I can't imagine watching your beloved pets suffer. The girl's cats are basically on life support and now my coworker is responsible for keeping them alive. She was given an 8 page guide for the cats, including lengthy descriptions of their personalities. One was described as weak, grouchy and old; the other is rickety, skinny and doesn't eat. Hmm...sounds like my coworker is in for a fun time!

But who am I to judge, right? She must be very attached to them. I only hope they aren't suffering too much...

And on a happier note, my parents do have two happy, healthy little misfit mutts right now that keep us all quite entertained. Aww Rufus and Nellie. So cute.

Also, this reminds me that I really need to tell you all the story of how I was asked to proofread a 3-page cat obituary once at work...it was probably one of the funniest moments of my life.