Hells Yeah!

I don't have quite enough time to summarize my awesome weekend trip to Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland (yes, I went to Iceland for a three-day weekend. Screw my carbon footprint. I found super cheap airfare and decided to just do it. More on that soon, swear.), but I do want to say two things to update the blog:

I just found out I got another $1000 scholarship, on top of the $1000 scholarship I got a couple weeks ago and on top of the big pile of money the school gave me in the first place. Yesssss... the unexpected money will help me to be fiscally responsible and manage both my immediate financial planning and long-term goals-

Oh, who am I kidding? It will free up more cash for my next trip to Iceland!!

Also, I love my current class and chef. I've been looking forward to the class itself for sometime, but wasn't sure about the chef. He's this very tall, very lanky guy with a dour expression (think Abraham Lincoln) who strikes fear into the hearts of many students (Legolas was terrified of him).

We've heard stories (of course) about him reducing students to tears, giving horrifically tough exams or being overcritical. I wasn't dreading him mainly because he has his cabinet covered with pictures of animals, including his dogs, and a dog lover can't be that evil, right?

Of course, Hitler was a devoted dog lover, but let's not think about that.

Well, as with Darth Chocolate, it's all just a facade. Chef AbeLincoln has a sense of humor dry as the Karakorum Desert, but he's extremely nice and interested in teaching (and interesting... the man is a part-time lumberjack). He was intimidating during our practical, but now that we're in his class he's like the uncle you wish was your dad. At one point he somehow got Daria's shoe off her foot and walked around with it, refusing to return it until she answered his question.

The class itself is one big delightful geek-out. We're doing gluten-free, vegan, reduced-calorie, low-fat, no sugar added, etc., baking, and after following chef's directions for the first half of class, we're now on our own, developing versions of products by baking small "control" batches using the original recipe and then tweaking it this way and that to make it gluten-free, vegan, etc.

I'll share more about class, and about Vestmannaeyjar, but right now I'm headed home to let Plush Smalls show off his bandana at the local park. He's still quite pleased with himself. There'll be no living with him now.