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So we did more piping practice with chocolate today in class, but we were all getting kind of sick writing “happy birthday” over and over. Me and the other people at my table decided to practice our skills by piping things you wouldn’t normally see on a cake, like “Next time I won’t miss” with a picture of a gun piped in chocolate. My personal favorite message was “It’s not your baby,” which Chef Peggy seemed to find amusing. Other heartwarming messages included, “Lets go get drunk,” “Get a Clue,” and “I’m not your real mother…sorry.” It was like Hallmark sponsored class today, it was so touching. And if I ever decide to have the mailman’s love child, I’ll be all set

So tomorrow I start my second week of class at Western Culinary, and we actually get to start baking, which is really cool. We finished up all the sanitation stuff on Friday and we start talking about ingredient functions tomorrow. It should be a little more interesting despite the fast that it’ll still be a lot of lecturing ’til the end of the week. It wouldn’t be so bad but the room that we’re in is the chocolate kitchen, so its like 65 degrees and we’re sitting on really uncomfortable stools at marble tables. The problem with the tables is that they’re really cold; if you rest your arms on them for too long, they get numb. But it’s only a few more days and then we’ll be up and moving around.

The weekend was pretty uneventful, Jon got back from Minneapolis on friday night, so we pretty much just spent time together and hung out. We did go over to our neighbor’s house for dinner last night, which was a lot of fun. They’re really nice people, about our age, and they have a really cute 1yr old daughter. It was nice to be social and not have to worry about driving home late at night.

The only really major thing we did today was buy a new tv for the living room. The one we had before was a gift from Jon for my 16th birthday, so it was getting pretty old, and since we had a little extra money, we decided to replace it. We ended up getting a 48 in. toshiba projection tv, and a new dvd player to go with it. The old tv and gamecube, ps2, and dvd player are going to go in the 3rd bedroom with the futon, so it’ll be like a den. The new tv gets delivered on Thursday, so we’ll prolly spend all next weekend watching movies.

So we played around with piping using pastry bags today. Chef Parks showed us how to make buttercream roses, and after a few that looked more like sea anenomes, I made some that were actually pretty decent. It was kind of neat, since it’s something I’ve never done before. The “buttercream” frosting that we used to practice was actually shortening with powdered sugar and food coloring in it, and it was kind of nasty. They reuse it over and over for piping practice, and it’s kind of slimy if you get it on your hands. It looks like the real thing, though. I might have to break out the can of Crisco and practice at home

So today was my first day at Western Culinary, and it was pretty uneventful. My teachers all seem really nice, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better. We didn’t do a whole lot today, mainly orientation-type stuff, like going over the student handbook and all the basics. We don’t start cooking until the end of next week though, which is kind of annoying. We need to go over all the sanitation stuff first, and some basic ingredient stuff. It’ll be more fun once the hands-on part starts, but so far so good.

So I got all my stuff moved into Jon’s room with a minimum amount of drama, and today we went and got a futon frame for the matress we have. Now the other room has a futon, bookshelf, and tomorrow the chair I bought is being delivered. Hopefully over the next week or so I’ll get it looking like a room with an actual design, rather than just a mishmash of furniture.

So I went to the new student reception for Western Culinary last night, and I really enjoyed it. It was like I was surrounded by fellow foodies, which was nice. The other really cool thing about the reception was that instead of the usual stale cookies and crappy burnt coffee that usually accompany that kind of function, there was an open bar and a full dinner, which was really good. I figure since it is a cooking school, we’ll be well fed at most events.

The only other thing of note going on is that I’m working on rearranging the 2 spare bedrooms upstairs. Right now, one is Jon’s computer room and one is my computer/stamping room. I was really excited to have my own room to do whatever I wanted with, but now it seems like Jon and I go into our separate rooms and don’t really see that much of each other. So I’m thinking I might move my stuff back into his room (there’s plenty of space) and make the other room into a den/guest bedroom. However, any major moving and/or rearranging seems to cause Jon a great deal of anxiety, so hopefully we can get through it without killing each other. It’s funny, I remember my mom and dad having arguements over rearranging very similar to those that Jon and I have. Maybe its a male/female thing, men like stability in their surroundings and women feel the urge to rearrange more often. But that’s just my completely non-scientific theory. I blame HGTV…I watch for two or three hours and get all ambitious.