Randoms, and the joys of stress baking

Please observe the super healthy breakfast I made for myself and Ben on Saturday...and yes, we demolished half of the pan by ourselves in under an hour. It's cool, you don't have to tell me how awesome and impressive we are. We know.

APPLE CRISP! Favorite of fall baking

On Sunday, my mom came over after church/choir and helped us rake leaves in the backyard. There were a LOT of leaves...like, a whole lot. The maple tree on our neighbor's property (the same tree that is infested with carptenter ants that like to invade our attic) drops most of its leaves into our backyard every fall, and we rake and dispose of them. Delightful.

Ben and my mom, hard at work. Don't worry, I was helping too :)

The fruits of our labor

This has been a rough week at work. I don't really want to get into it (also, can't really get into it, nondisclosure and legality blah blah blah) but Monday and Tuesday were especially stressful. Luckily, Monday is was saved by some quiet reading time and an amazing yoga class. Most Mondays I head to my favorite coffee shop and relax with a book and a beverage (this time, mint tea) and then head to my favorite yoga class at 7. Currently I'm reading this book which is fascinating and also terrifying...I'm only about 1/4 of the way through but so far I highly recommend it.

Class was PERFECT and exactly what I needed. I do love to push and challenge myself in my yoga practice, "do the thing that scares you" and whatnot. But there is a time and a place for that, and there is a time and a place for...not that. There are poses that actually do make me feel fear, and I will pretty much only ever do them if forced (visvamitrasana, he full form of vasistasana with the leg up, and upavistha konasana), and also poses that are not scary but are definitely confrontational (urdhva dhanurasana, dhanurasana, pinca mayurasana...so basically backbends) and these are great and beneficial poses. But some days I'm like crap, this entire day has been confrontational; can I just do some hip openers and stretch my hammies and do my favorite arm balances? And on Monday the answer was YES. For the record, this is my favorite pose.

Tea + Book + Yoga = happy times

At some point during the day on Tuesday I consumed five mini Milky Ways in a fit of blind rage and sent Ben some very violent and probably concerning text messages about punching people in the throat. Luckily, I did not punch anyone and instead channelled all of my stress into a batch of ghost cookies which I then decorated with pink sparkles because why not. And I ate them while watching Sleepy Hollow and New Girl, so I immediately felt one billion times better about life.

The products of my rage

Today I worked from home (again! yay!) because I had a coffee meeting in the morning near my house. Since you've all now seen what I look like on a workday when I can't be bothered to put on real people clothes, I figure you're all dying to know what I look like on a normal day at the office. Ta da:

Blazer and Tshirt from H&M
Pants from J Crew
Shoes from Target
And no I'm not wearing socks, my ankles are actually that white
.....

If you're wondering what the heck is that thing in the bottom right hand corner of the above photo, the answer is obviously, a bust of William Shakespeare wearing my blue wig from Halloween. Duh.

Working from home is about 80% less stressful than being in the office sometimes. I get just as much done if not more, but it just feels easier to keep everything in perspective and remember what is really important in life. I think that right now, I need the occasional WFH day for my sanity, and because I have trouble keeping frustration and disbelief from showing in my facial expressions WFH days also keep my eyeballs from freezing permanently into this position:

This is the face I make after 1 hour calls with IT

Holy Moly

Ben is on Spring Break this week, which means that while I'm slaving away at work, he is sending me photos such as this one:

Cuddles plz

Seriously.  How am I supposed to get any work done after that.

Also, today is Holy Week.  For some people, this means they get good Friday off.  For others such as myself, it means that we have choir rehearsals and services almost every night this week.  But you know, it's all good because on Sunday we get candy and brunch.

This Sunday was palm Sunday, which at my church involves all of the small children (literally, all of them) waving palm fronds as they process.  This is just a hot mess because a) you're giving children objects which can be used for waving in the air and hitting other children, and b) inevitably someone's palm frond breaks, resulting in tears.  The adult choir also has to carry palm fronds.  This is just silly because we end up holding the fronds along with our music folder, introit book and hymnal...and this time we had another extra book to carry as well.  Ridiculous...nobody is that coordinated.

Also, on Sunday I somehow managed to lose Ben's car key while in the process of running home between services because earlier that morning, I forgot to turn off the coffee pot.  After that I made rye crumble bars because sometimes, all you can do is bake it out.  Luckily, Mini managed to unearth the car key in the process of pulling the contents of our dining room table onto the floor.  So helpful.

Honestly, that's all I've got.  I led a 4-hour brainstorming session today and my brain is completely fried.  My body is also fried after a 90-min yoga class, but in a good way.  Take a lesson from my ridiculous cat and sleep well.

Helloooo there!!

Well hi!  Long time no chat, so to speak.  It's been pretty busy around here for the last week or so what with Valentine's day and all the birthdays, and the british soap operas which required my undivided attention.  To quickly summarize:

What I have not been up to:

- Blogging

- Reading nearly enough

- Following the Republican primaries

What I have been up to:- A lot of yoga

- A LOT of work...

- Celebrating my mom's birthday

- Celebrating my dad's birthday
- Celebrating my birthday
- Wasting time on facebook
- Baking cake
- Eating cake
- Watching squintillions of hours of Downton Abbey while consuming said cake

Internet time suck strikes again

And oh yeah... last Thursday was my 29th birthday!  It was totally not a big deal, but some of my work friends were mad that I didn't say anything, so we're going to celebrate together next week when we travel to the thrilling locale of north Texas.  

After work, I hit up a hot yoga class, and came home to find a freshly-baked batch of cookies and a home cooked meal courtesy of my wonderful husband :)  Mini decided to help with some chores, and even Sidney somehow found the time to make me a card, despite his lack of language skills and opposable thumbs.

I help u.

Happy B-Day!  I didn't pee on the floor today!

Pasta Carbonara

On Friday, we went out to dinner with my parents and my mom's friend Pat, who was visiting from Portland.  Pat and my mom have been friends since before I was born - she was like an aunt to me growing up, and is definitely an honorary member of our family.  It was really a joint Birthday celebration - my parents and I all have birthdays in the first half of February, and over the years we've moved towards more of a joint celebration than celebrating them all separately.

We went to Blackbird, which was fantastic as usual.  I had the celery root and mushroom risotto, which was amaaaazing.  Ben got the Walleye Po Boy, my parents both ordered Orichette, and Pat had the Cassoulet - definitely my favorite dish at the table besides my own :)  After dinner we walked back to our place for coffee and cake.

All of us at Blackbird

On Saturday, I had some friends over for drinks and more cake.  Amanda brought a delicious chocolate mocha torte, and the makings for Blood Orange Gin Sparklers, which were fan-tastic.  And gin-tastic.  Amanda was quite generous when she poured mine.

A few friends brought beer and various snacks, and I baked a second cake - Dorie Greenspan's French Apple Cake (via David Liebowitz's blog).  It was a lovely night and we had a great time just hanging out and chatting.

In other news, it finally snowed!!  And I am obsessed with Downton Abbey and wish I could be BFF's with Dowager Countess Violet.  And that I had all of Mary Crawley's dresses.  And this week's episode of How I Met Your Mother almost made me cry.  WHAT?!?

Also the most exciting part of my day was re-entering some numbers into a spreadsheet.  They were cost-related numbers and they were much lower than expected.  It blew my mind.

My life is super exciting.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Happy Tuesday!  The worst part of the week is over!!!

I made a cake

It's pink.  I'm quite proud of it.

It would be easy to think I only decided to make this cake after seeing other certain bloggers post similar blood-orange glazed cakes in recent days (differently shaped, but still), but in reality I've been planning on baking this for over a week and hadn't gotten around to it yet.  Just ask Ben, who has somehow been restraining himself from eating the blood oranges sitting on our kitchen counter, because he knew I was saving them for a cake.  What a guy.

I have a lot of valentine-y dessert ideas floating around in my head, but this one sort of snuck up on me as I was perusing the Smitten Kitchen archives.  I'd been wondering for a while if I could use blood oranges to make a pink valentines cake, and when I came across Deb's recipe for a grapefruit yogurt cake I was inspired to try it.

I have a mild obsession with blood oranges.  I know they're everywhere now, but somehow they still feel like a novelty to me.  My first attempt at making curd from scratch was during a kitchen adventure with my friend Amanda involving a blood orange tart.  It was delicious but for some reason the curd never set properly - someday I'll re-make that tart and show blood orange curd who's boss, but until then...there will be cake.



I made some small tweaks to the Smitten Kitchen recipe (other than the obvious swap of blood orange for grapefruit) but I'll give her credit for this cake's amazing texture.  It is incredibly moist with a fantastic crumb.  And when you add to that the jammy, almost berry-like flavor of the glaze....  OK now I need another piece of cake.



By the by, I'm pretty sure Sweetheart candies are sounding the death knell of romance in our modern age.  "Time 2 Dance"?  "Text Me"?? "High Five"???  This was the most romantic one I could find.  Whatever happened to "Be Mine?  It's just sad.  Plus they got rid of the white ones which were my favorite, and replaced them with some nasty blue fake raspberry thing.  I am officially done with you, Sweetheart candies.

Also, I'm in the middle of an epic Downton Abbey Season 2 marathon, so I'll leave you to your cake baking while I go and see what's up with Matthew and Lady Mary.  Happy weekend!

"There better be cake at this dinner."

RECIPE: BLOOD ORANGE CAKE


For the cake:
- 1.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 4 teaspoons grated orange zest
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice

For the glaze:
- Juice of one small blood orange
- Enough powdered sugar to make a glaze consistency

Preheat your oven to 350.  Grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  In a larger bowl, whisk the yogurt, sugar, eggs, orange zest, vanilla extract and coconut oil together to combine.  Add the dry ingredients in three batches, stirring to combine each time with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.  When all ingredients are incorporated, pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean (but just barely!  don't overbake).

When the cake is cooled, remove it from the pan and onto a plate or serving platter.  Combine the juice and powdered sugar to make a glaze, and pour over the cake, until the whole thing is covered with a thin layer (you'll probably want to use something easy to pour from, like a liquid measuring cup).

This is seriously delicious.  Enjoy! :)

A few random things

I'm really not sure what to make of the unseasonably warm weather we've been having.  It was a little chilly on Sunday, but the cold had mostly vanished by Monday, and yesterday it was 45 degrees.  I almost thought I'd misheard the weather forecast - four to five degrees?  Nope.  Forty five.  Forty plus five.  In January.

Knowing Minnesota, this is either the universe's attempt to make up for the freezing deluge of snow that was last winter, or we'll end up paying for it in the future.  I'm hoping for the former, but betting on the latter.


That reflection you see is not ice...



March?  Nope.  January.

 Since I got into the office super early yesterday I took the liberty of leaving a little early as well.  Usually Ben gets home at about 5, and I get home around 5:45-6 so by the time I'm back he has already walked and fed the dog and we start working on dinner.  Last night though, I managed to get home in time for all three of us to walk together!  I had a quick snack before we left, so that I would be reasonably close to my 2-hour pre-yoga eating window before my 7:15 Anusara class.  I find that if I try to eat even a light meal within 60-90 minutes of practicing I feel really nautious - especially if it's a hot class or if we're doing a lot of twisting or intense inversions and backbends.

Our walk was great, class was great... overall it's been a great week, with the exception of a few minor glitches that happened on (surprise surprise) Monday.  Luckily even the dumb things I've done that make me question why I'm allowed to have any adult responsibilities are usually balanced out by a few awesome things:

Things I've done this week that were kind of lame
- Forgot my security badge on my desk..on Monday.  That badge is going to get me in
  huge trouble someday.
- Forgot my wallet on my desk, also on Monday.  Luckily I had the foresight to leave it in a
  drawer rather than just out in the open...but I'm confused as to why my subconscious hid
  my wallet by putting it in a drawer rather than in my purse.  Just wondering.
- Tried to eat oranges as a snack at work.  This is a bad idea, trust me.  Oranges were not
   meant to be eaten on a white surface while also typing on a computer.

Things I've done this week that were totally awesome
- Made cupcakes filled with scotch-flavored pastry cream.  Yes, that is correct.  I used single-malt
  scotch to make a cupcake filling.  Judge me.  I dare you.
- Threw a birthday party for Ben.  I didn't take photos but it was super fun.
- 11.5 hours of yoga
- Read some books

alcohol + cupcakes = magic

So overall I think the awesome list wins. 

This was very random.  Just to finish on a high note, here's a photo of Sidney looking suspiciously like tree-dwelling monkey:



Sup.


Happy February?

Potter Party!

The weather here has been just bizzare... right now it is 97 degrees and the humidity level is literally worse than the Amazon (my dad saw it on the news). Just so you know I'm not kidding... yesterday I noticed that the roads were wet, not because it had rained, but because the moisture in the air was condensing onto the ground. I whipped out my camera to get a picture...and the lens promptly fogged up before I could even get a shot:

It is gross. And we lost power last night around 8:30 while I was at yoga - our neighbor called Centerpoint, and was informed that it probably wouldn't be on again until midnight, so instead of spending the night sweating buckets in our place with no fan or AC, we drove 10 minutes to Ben's parents' house and slept in their air-conditioned guest room.

But that isn't really what we're here to talk about - let's chat about Harry Potter! As I've already mentioned, Ben and I are pretty obsessed with Harry Potter. Back in early May I had the genius idea that when the 8th and final movie came out, we should have an all-day marathon of the first seven films and then go see a late showing of Deathly Hallows Part II. "Great idea," said Ben. "How long would that take exactly?" I did the math and realized that in order to make a 10:30 show, we would have to start the first movie at around 5am. So instead, we decided to limit viewing to our favorite scenes, and start the first movie around 11am. Much more realistic.

Our friend Jay came over around 9am to help Ben make batches of Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice. They both have bartending degrees so they had a great time "brewing potions" in the kitchen... meanwhile I was making a mess whipping icing for the Cauldron Cakes.



Having no clue what a Cauldron Cake looked like, I ended up basically making cupcakes, hollowing out part of the middle and filling them with icing. To make the handles, I unrolled some Haribo Licorice Pinwheels, cut them into strips, and stuck them into the edges of the icing.

Signage made from our leftover wedding invitation envelopes - so resourceful!

The rose icing was the same recipe as I used for Cake in a Jar only I doubled the recipe - I don't know what I did differently this time (probably added more milke) but this batch turned out even better! Fluffy and almost meringue-like. The "polyjuice potion" icing was Deb's PB-Cream Cheese icing which is one of my favorite things on the planet

^^ Picture of the finished Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice
- I did not take this photo and cannot be held responsible for its blurriness.

I also made savory Pumpkin Pasties - empenada dough filled with butternut squash, goat cheese, rosemary and caramelized onions. For the dough I threw 3 cups of flour, a pinch of salt, 1 egg, 3T water and 1T apple cider vinegar in the food processor, chilled the dough in plastic wrap for about 45 minutes before rolling it out and filling the pasties.

They were yum.

And we had tons of fun watching the movies! At first we were reluctant to skip scenes, but by the end we were being pretty ruthless so that we could get to the end of the 7th film and still make our showtime.

And yes, I am wearing a Gryffindor scarf. In July. Don't judge.

Yay Potter Party!

It was a blast, and we really enjoyed having everyone over. Luckily most of our friends are just as nerdy as we are :)

Champagne Cupcakes with Champagne Vanilla Pastry Cream and Rosewater Icing

.... in a JAR!

Something you should probably know about me, is that when I am already ridiculously busy I have an insane tendency to take on wild, creative projects that have little to no chance of succsessful completion - or if I do complete them, it will be with less than 3 hours of sleep. I have to get up at 6 and I've already stayed up writing a paper until 12? What an excellent time to make lemon curd! Or, I have three presentations due tomorrow? I should definitely scrub the shower and bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

I'm getting married in 48 hours and have a zillion things to do before then? Why not make a cake recipe I've never tried before that involves several components including pastry cream, bake it using a method that may or may not make my oven explode and then give it to all my friends as a gift? BRILLIANT.

One thing that made wedding planning a joy rather than something resembling a horror film was having awesome bridesmaids: my sister, my cousin, and three of my closest friends make the Dream Team Bridal Party. I know it's tradition to give gifts to all of your bridesmaids - but with Ben and I just getting out of two income-free years (aka grad school), we're feeling a bit of financial strain. I don't want to give my friends something totally lame, nor am I able to spend a lot of money, so I decided to do what any logical, time-constrained person would do: I decided to make things.

There are a number of homemade-gift pitfalls I was keen to avoid (see: dried-flower-wreaths, really-terrible-art etc.) so, I decided to focus on my strengths - what am I good at? Like, what can I actually make? I am terrible at drawing, even worse at sculpting, can't sew anything that isn't composed entirely of straight lines (i.e. curtains and pillowcases, and even these things are hit-and-miss) ... BUT - I am good at baking! And I love music! That should be enough to work with right?

And indeed it was. I am inordinately proud of these cupcakes - they are like a magical taste explosion of deliciousness. Trust me. And the cake-in-a-jar method worked brilliantly - portable cake, who could ask for anything more?

RECIPE: CHAMPAGNE CUPCAKES WITH CHAMPAGNE-VANILLA PASTRY CREAM AND ROSEWATER ICING
whoo...that is a mouthful (literally!)

For the Cupcakes:
- 1/2 c butter, softened
- 1 c granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 t vanilla
- 1-3/4 c flour
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/4 t baking powder
- 1/2 c sour cream
- 1/2 c champagne, prosecco or other sparking white wine (I recommend going with something on the sweeter side)

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and mix. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. In another separate bowl, mix sour cream and champagne together (1/2 cup each). Add the flour and champagne mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Batter will be thick.

Pour by 1/3 cups into small mason jars - bake for about 20 minutes at 350 but be careful not to overbake! As soon as the top springs back when you touch it - then you'll know they're done :)

For the Pastry Cream:
- 1/2 c heavy cream, divided
- 1/2 c champagne or prosecco
- 2 T cornstarch
- 5 T granulated sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 T unsalted butter
- 1 t vanilla (or slightly more, if you like vanilla as much as I do... :) )

In a medium bowl, whisk the cornstartch and 1/4 cup of the heavy cream. Combine the remaining heavy cream, sugar and 1/2 cup champagne in a saucepan and bring to a boil - then remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg and egg yolks into the cornstarch/heavy cream mixture. Pour 1/3 of the boiling champagne mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs do not cook. Return the remaining champagne/heavy cream mixture to a boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and beat in butter and vanilla.

Cut a well into the top of each cake (go about 2/3-3/4 of the way into the cake, and leave at least 1cm on each side on the top) and fill the well with pastry cream. Slice off the very top of the cut-out-piece and place it back over the top of the pastry cream.

For the Icing
- approx. 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 c unsalted butter
- pinch salt
- 1.5 - 2 tsp rose water
- 2-4 T milk or heavy cream
- very small ammt of red food coloring

cream butter, sugar, a tiny bit of milk and salt together using a stand mixer or hand mixer. Use just enough milk until it comes together. Add 1 t of rosewater and mix together. Taste it, and add more rosewater as desired to reach the flavor and consistency you're looking for. If it's still too think and you don't want any more rose flavor, add milk instead until it thins out a bit.

I got 8 cake-in-a-jars out of this recipe, and the frosting was the perfect amount...it frosted all of them and I barely had any left over.

The champagne cupcakes and pastry cream are from Sprinkle Bakes - the frosting is my own creation - enjoy!

Saturday Shenanigans

Oh hello there.

Don't worry, I won't keep you long. I just wanted to drop in and let you know how awesome my Saturday morning is right now.

Rhubarb-picked-fresh-from-Ben's-parents-garden awesome.
Fresh-summer-strawberries awesome.

Watching-TBS-Saturday-Morning-Movies awesome.

I've always firmly believed that fruit desserts for breakfast are totally acceptable. After all, pie and crumble bear a striking resemblance to turnovers - they're just put together differently. I hope you agree.

Piping hot Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble, straight from the oven.
The Princess Diaries 2 on TV (Ben is a saint for putting up with my TV whims, by the way).
Yoga with Desiree Rumbaugh allll day.

Did I mention Saturday is my favorite day of the week?
Happy weekend.

Blondies and first video post!

So... remember how I've been posting all of those healthy recipes full of vegetables?

...yeah. No more of that. Inspried by the lovely Brittany and Jenna, both of whom have posted AMAZING looking blondies in the past week, I decided to whip up a batch of them for myself...granted they are from a box, but I'm pressed for time with class tonight and a paper due tomorrow, so box it is.

And then, for some reason I decided to make a video. No idea where that impulse came from...none. If you've read my "about me" page, you'll know I'm actually kind of shy and awkward...although I do like talking to myself and also to inanimate objects, and besides, who doesn't want to watch a video of me walking around my kitchen and talking to my baking pan?

In any case, these videos are probably totally ridiculous, and in reviewing them before posting I already noticed several glaring problems:

1) My microwave/thermos/paper towel/cookbook shelf features quite prominently, as do my Emeril recipe card box and Land O' Lakes coffee thermos... maybe they should pay me advertising fees. hint hint. product placement??
2) Total fail on showing the pan with the brown butter in it. You can see like... a corner or the pan, and the rest of the shot is basically the front of my shirt and the kitchen floor. Completely not intended.
3) They're kind of useless.
4) I sound SO Minnesotan... do I always sound that Minnesotan??
5) Also I have no idea how to do video editing on my computer, so instead of one continuous video, there are three. It's like a trilogy. Let's pretend I planned it that way.

3)





...so... here's the verdict. These are DELICIOUS. Not quite as delicious as a from-scratch batch of Deb's brown butter blondies, but really great in a pinch...they are RICH though. And you can definitely taste the brown butter so I'm glad I decided to add that step :)

Sorry it took so long to get this up...uploading the videos took for.ever. Hence these video posts will probably be few and far between (yep you can breathe a sigh of relief now... ) Have a great night!

Mornings like this are why God made coffee

I got up at 5am today to bake scones for a potluck. It was still pitch dark outside...and actually, to be fair it was still pitch dark when I left at 7 to catch the bus.

You would think that getting up at 5 would be the most horrible, torturous thing ever...but the funny thing was, I actually kind of liked it. Even though it is ungodly early, I really enjoyed having 2 hours to shuffle around in my pj's, mess around with a delicious combination of flour, eggs, butter, cheese and fruit, and then curl up on the couch with a cup of steaming french-press coffee while the smell of baked goods permeated my apartment (see? If you try hard enough, you can even make getting up early sound as lovely as a tropical vacation).

I've decided to finally embrace my special relationship with coffee. I've tried several times to give it up entirely and switch over to tea (because I LOVE tea...)... but why fight what's meant to be? I'm not an addict by any means, but without just one cup in the morning I feel off for the rest of the day... and I really do only need one cup. It can even be a fairly small cup, it just needs to be coffee. There's just something so relaxing and calming about the whole routine...everything else in the world can change, but I still have my morning coffee. If Kevin Upton were here right now he'd probably tell me that the whole thing is a placebo effect and I'm being irrational...but he's not here. And so I will continue to bask in my enjoyable dependence on coffee.

FUN FACT: A couple few centuries ago, coffee was touted as a possible cure for the plague.

On an entirely different note, I had a fantastic dinner with my dad tonight at Bar La Grassa. I've been wanting to go there ever since I saw it written up in Bon Appetit, and it did not disappoint! The interior ambiance is great, with sort of a rustic, dark-wood-and-chandelier-with-an-update kind of feel, and the food is amazing. I got a mushroom pasta and my dad got the papardelle with veal, both were great and the beet and avacado salad we had as an appetizer was amazing. I will definitely be back - they do private parties so I'm thinking... bachelorette party kickoff? Heck yes.

Tomorrow I will sleep in until... 5:30... at which point I will try to make the 6am yoga class. We'll see how that goes... :)