🍑🌙 | my birthday ♡

my birthday ♡

tomorrow is my birthday~! I’m planning on having a pastel mermaid-themed cake with buttercream icing ^w^ and ordering pizza out for the occasion, in addition to heading to my local starbucks to get a free birthday drink uwu (it’s dumb that it can only be redeemed on my birthday, but whatever it’s fine…)

a friend got me a watercolor set, a GORGEOUS pink ink from sailor for my fountain pens, and a VERY cute smol doggo plush. I haven’t painted anything just yet with my new watercolor set; I need to order some watercolor paper and get to sketching!

I’ve had some mixed emotions going into this birthday, since I’m beginning to feel kind of embarrassed about telling people my age (mostly because they seem so surprised that I’m in my 30’s?). I suppose I could get very negative and introspective about it, wistfully mourning that people must find me very immature or something, but I have chosen to take this as a compliment that I have not yet succumbed to boomer-dom.

getting older is really weird, because frankly, I feel like time stopped sometime in 2016 and we’re stuck in an “eternal september” situation. I’m sure a lot of the reason for these feelings is how chaotic things have been since 2016 what with having the worst US president ever, covid, my own hospitalization in 2020 and near-death experience with pneumonia that year, and just how insane things have been since the covid-19 pandemic surfaced. I remember watching Tokyo Idol Festival in 2020; the girls were still performing outdoors at the various stages, but it was to a crew of cameramen and other staffers, as the festival was streamed online for the first time since its inception. It also happened to be Sally Amaki & 22/7’s debut at Tokyo Idol Festival, but they performed amazingly despite the lack of a crowd in the hall with them, and I was so proud of them!! ;w; Sally even got to lead the morning aerobics which was so cute~!

but despite all of these things, time marches forward, even if it feels like it’s at a standstill, and I will be another year older tomorrow evening.

I’m not sure how regularly blog updates are meant to be given, so I’m sorry if you were expecting more updates from me more often, but I usually don’t really know what to write in these sorts of things ehehe~♡

my kitchen is still a mess, and we’re still working on getting completely moved out of our old house (at this point, there’s just trash to collect & set out for pickup and a few minor things left, like my air purifier; I have intense allergies ), so I haven’t been able to venture into baking very much yet, especially not any larger projects like bread baking (operation cat loaf will have to wait it seems ). I have been looking at cookie recipes and trying to perfect a sugar-free (or at least, very low sugar) peanut butter cookie, as those are my partner’s favorite, and we recently learned he is diabetic. peanut butter cookies are his favorite, and a huge comfort food for him, and comfort foods have been hard to come by since we learned of his condition. therefore, I have made it my mission to perfect peanut butter cookies he can eat!

I found a pretty good recipe that is flourless (carbs are something he also has to watch bc of how they are converted into glucose; his doctor & nutritionist have warned him to be cautious of them). the cookies taste great, but the texture is very crumbly, almost like a pecan sandie, which he loves. the problem is trying to remove them from the cookie sheet when they’re done, as they are VERY unstable & crumbly until they cool and harden. I tried adding a tiny bit of keto flour (1/3c if you’re curious), but it changed the flavor entirely too much, so I’m planning on trying to add xanthan gum next time instead (albeit a LOT less, probably a tablespoon, as I’ve heard it’s VERY powerful stuff).

I haven’t made any tiramisu lately because I ran out of savoiardi and had made it for like…four or five weeks in a row. i thought it might be best to take a small break from it so I don’t get too burnt out.

I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 with a group of friends from my free company in ffxiv (I decided to take a break from the game once dawntrail was released), and it’s been SO much fun that I’ve started a solo playthrough as well. with another group of friends, I’m also playing Divinity: Original Sin 2. Neither of these games are the type of game I would’ve bought and played on my own, but I’m having a lot of fun with them! It’s similar to playing a dungeons & dragons module, so if you’re a tabletop enjoyer who can’t get a group together, these games might scratch that itch for you.

anyway, I hope this blog post finds you well.
until next time~!

published: 2024.07.22
by mana