Does anyone have an easy but DELICIOUS recipe for chocolate cupcakes? The bakery here wants $30 for a dozen so I'mma bake 'em myself.

It is not snowing in San Francisco.

I don't know what we're doing this weekend. We got the tree up. Probably some xmas shopping but there won't be a lot of that so that's not huge.

Oh! Jen K. and her guy are coming over for dinner on Saturday. And JZ is going over on Saturday afternoon to do a neighborhood cleanup thing with the folks who host game night.

Have we really talked about them much? They're like a group house over in the Inner Sunset neighborhood (next nabe over from us, and where JZ's new church is).

Anyway, they host game night which is free and non-denominational, and they're not selling Amway or Scientology or anything. They just do it to foment community. And they've created all these decorations in the little gardeny plots on the sidewalk with hand made figurines that are very fetching and sweet.

And they did a homemade Haunted House on Halloween.

And they're hosting a neighborhood cleanup.

And here's their tricksy ulterior motive: they want to give back to the local community and help bring people together. Those bastards!

Spidra, there is a good Cook's Illustrated one. I think it may have been posted in natter at some point in the past few years, but I don't have easy access to it at work. You might want to try Googling it.

Anyway, they host game night which is free and non-denominational, and they're not selling Amway or Scientology or anything. They just do it to foment community. And they've created all these decorations in the little gardeny plots on the sidewalk with hand made figurines that are very fetching and sweet.

Did they do a game night this past month? It occurs to me I haven't gotten an email in awhile.

David, sounds like commies to me. Watch out.

Plans for the weekend: media tonight at Calli's if I'm not too zonked, flex reimbursement paperwork (blecch), maybe some Xmas shopping, dog park.

the children of the anti-vacc people are paying the price

I know a set of parents who have refused most vaccines for their 4 children. I wondered at one point if the back-to-back vaccines with a possible mix of mercury contributed to Reed's autism. I spaced out Sarah's vaccinations, but the autism rates are different for girls so I don't know if the experiment really worked.

Also headed to the Narnia movie this weekend. Other excitement includes soccer and wrestling, attending a birthday party for a classmate of Sarah's and a basketball ref meeting for me. Somewhere in there I hope to sleep and laze about with Peppermint Joe-Joe's.

Did they do a game night this past month?

They did at least one when you were out of town, I recall.

Thanks, Sue. I posted the question on another board I'm on and got no suggestions so I Googled for Mexican Chocolate cupcake recipes. It's not that I can't Google, but it helps to get a recommendation from someone who has tried a recipe and knows that it actually turns out well.

[link]

That's very cool, David.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning (set the alarm) and that's good. More daylight for me. At 1pm I meet this guitarist and I really hope that turns out okay because performing again would be awe. some.

Spidra, here is the cupcake recipe I mentioned: [link]

May see the Narnia movie tomorrow, may go to a friend's brunch on Sunday. Other than that, resting up.