Friday Eve, Red Velvet Cupcakes, and Friends

Thursday ranks among my favorite days of the week.  By the time Thursday arrives, the weekend seems close enough that I can relax and bit and begin to enjoy a more casual mindset.  Thursday, as Friday Eve (or "Thriday" as my sister Anne refers to it), becomes the day of happy anticipation for the expected freedom from the hectic pace of the work week.  Thursday may have wonderful merits all its own, but I see it as the big assist thrown to Friday, to help usher in a well-deserved break with unstructured time.  Of course, I never seem to find unstructured time, because I manage to structure the heck out of the 48-plus hours that commence as I walk out of my office on a Friday afternoon.  I'm working on that...

This Thursday was particularly nice.  My boss agreed to give me Friday afternoon off, thus getting my weekend off to a head start.  This afternoon, one of our lovely student assistants, Dara, shared red velvet cupcakes she baked for a little birthday celebration we had for her co-worker Logan.  I LOVE to enjoy other peoples' baking, and these cupcakes were outta sight!  Dara made Paula Deen's recipe for red velvet cake, and topped them with cream cheese frosting.  They were beautiful and equally delicious!  I had one and told myself it was standing in for the yogurt and protein bar that are usually my afternoon snack! 

Dara's Red Velvet Cupcake!

After work, I met six friends at Jacob and Anthony's in Saratoga Springs.  We ordered drinks and shared appetizers (pictured below), and wished our friend Mary Cogan a happy belated birthday.  Our young server Marcus was terrific and enjoyed overhearing (I think he enjoyed it) the banter, at times silly and at times serious, between a bunch of 50+-somethings making sense of our worlds.

And to top it all off...

Mary's complimentary dessert
at Jacob & Anthony's!