windupbasilisk

Since I'm going to the office on Tuesday and my whole team is supposed to be in, I am finally going to be able to get some feedback on funfetti cupcakes. So today, I baked both the Sally's Baking Addiction recipe (black and white cupcake papers) and the Smitten Kitchen recipe (yellow and red cupcake papers) (pics), and I think the Sally's recipe is the winner. I particularly like that it uses melted butter instead of having to cream the butter and sugar, so it can be done easily by hand. (For Christmas, I will double the recipe, so I'll use the stand mixer anyway, but overall, I do like a recipe that can be made without one.) My plan is to make the SK frosting attached to that recipe (doubled, and potentially tripled if necessary since I have 72 cupcakes to frost (38 Sally's, 34 Smitten Kitchen - overall they made 40 and 36 mini cupcakes, respectively, but I ate 2 of each). Normally, I would go for cream cheese frosting for funfetti, but both my nephews have said they prefer buttercream, and since this is specifically for them (and to replace the vanilla cupcakes I've been making but have been unhappy with), I figured I'd go with their preference. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I am so sad HGTV cancelled Bargain Block - I still have the last couple of post-New Orleans episodes to watch, but then it will be all over and I will miss Keith and Evan a lot. I heard they also cancelled Married to Real Estate, which I also enjoy but still have a couple of seasons I haven't seen, and that Unsellable Houses is probably also going to get canned, which is a shame because that is my other favorite HGTV show and I have already watched all that is available. On the plus side, it seems like Home Town will be coming back, and I do enjoy that one, plus the new season of Help! I Wrecked My House (now in Park City, UT) has started (though I haven't watched it yet). And of course, my Elementary rewatch continues.

*

Ugh, I woke up at 3:30 this morning coughing my lungs out and didn't really sleep much after that. It's that itchiness in my throat and chest that make me think allergies, especially given that I haven't really been around people except at the dentist's office yesterday, so I don't think it's covid? But who knows at this point? My quest to get this year's flu/covid shots has been derailed a couple of times but I am off again next Friday, so that is going to be my next attempt.

In more fannish news, I read that Dungeon Crawler Carl has been optioned for tv, and now I want a Carl vid to Mike Ness's version of "Don't Think Twice."

*

Pet-sitting over the weekend was ok, not great. Bleu was a good boy and a sweetheart. Brie was fine when we were inside, but once she got out, it took a couple of hours - repeatedly - to coax her back into the house, because even though she was happy to climb into my lap on the couch, she flinched away whenever I stood in the doorway and called her to come in. Even just sitting in a chair and propping the door open and putting down treats to lead her in took a while. So that was not great. Additionally, because of the cat, I had to take a ridiculous amount of allergy medication just to breathe and my throat and chest were itchy the whole time.

On the plus side, the pizza I ordered was delicious!

I took yesterday off and scheduled a grocery delivery, which never arrived. Apparently none of the drivers would take it? I don't know what that even means, but I took that personally. I cancelled the order, and then today, put in an Aldi order which arrived on time and only cost half as much. *hands*

I'm off again tomorrow for a dental appointment. We are battening down the hatches for a govt shutdown at work, but should be okay if it doesn't last too long. Otherwise, there could be furloughs.

If you, like me, want to escape into fanfic, here's this month's recs update:

unfitforsociety has been updated for September 2025 with 10 recs:

✭ 9 Batfamily and 1 Batfam/Spiderman crossover

***

Slow Horses: Bad Dates: We are so back, baby! ( spoilers ) Very interested in seeing where this is going.

I am less on the bandwagon and more cautious and disbelieving about the Mets' playoff chances. They control their own destiny for now, but having to play the Marlins to cement their wild card spot is giving me very unhappy flashbacks to past collapses. Also, if Tyrone Taylor is not in CF the rest of the way now that he's back from the IL, then I don't even know what we're doing here.

Lastly, I will be pet-sitting overnight at my brother's tomorrow, so hopefully the new-ish dogs are okay with that. We'll see how it goes!

*

Baby Miss L is super into Halloween and has two Hello Kitty dolls dressed like skeletons that dance! She might be a skeleton herself this year! Her costume has not been finalized, but there is time.

As I've mentioned, I was never big into Halloween - it was my mom's birthday, so a lot of the time I was home celebrating with her - but it's fun to see the baby into it.

Today is the 12th anniversary of my mother's death. That is a whole seventh grader! It makes me sad that my parents will never know Baby Miss L.

*