Planning Weekend Recap: Cake Tasting is a Gateway Drug

So this isn't so much a recap as a warning to those who have not gone through this yet.

This is your brain:

This is your brain on cake:

Our last cake tasting was almost two weeks ago and we haven't been able to get cake off the brain since! We've been able to be good, for the most part, but it's getting more and more difficult as time goes on. Last week we used the excuse of sampling the local cupcake bakeries to go and check out Polka Dot Bake Shop which is right around the corner (yes, trouble).

Douglas and I went in expecting to get maybe two cupcakes each to sample and enjoy. Once we got there and saw what was in the case, however, we were up to six or eight cupcakes we wanted to get (of course three of those were the grasshopper pie flavor - definitely worth it). Each cupcake is $2.50. We were so near to 10, which would have been $25, that I just decided to say "screw it" and get a dozen for the same price. We walked out of Polka Dot with a full dozen and included some chocolate-free ones for Louis to try. The full dozen made it home, but about four cupcakes didn't make it through lunch - two of them being the grasshopper pie flavor. The grasshopper pie is a chocolate cupcake with some milk chocolate in the cupcake with mint buttercream icing with an Andes Mint on top - and we all know what a sucker I am for Andes Mints *drool*. Getting that out of the way, I can now share the other flavors we tried:
chocolate with chocolate buttercream
chocolate with vanilla buttercream
yellow cake with chocolate buttercream
yellow cake with vanilla buttercream
red velvet with cream cheese icing
german chocolate cake with a coconut/nut topping
cotton candy (dyed yellow cake with pink sugary cotton candy flavored buttercream)

They were all quite tasty. The cotton candy one surprised me. It was very sweet, which was expected, but it wasn't overkill.

Of course, those were the offerings last Friday, and most of them are on the menu, again, for tomorrow. So tempting!

And then, of course, there's Just Baked on the other side of town.

They won me over with their chocolate maple bacon cupcake. It doesn't sound that great, but it tasted exactly like biting into a thick warm Belgium waffle, drenched in maple syrup, topped with a big pat of butter with a side of bacon. Seriously, my mouth is watering as I type this. If you like breakfast, you'll dig this cupcake. I'm really glad these guys are across town because I might become too much of a regular otherwise (did I mention they have Oregon Chai?). Flavors we've tried include:
chocolate maple bacon
signature chocolate
sugar cookie
vanilla vanilla
french toast
chocolate mint

Flavors we'd like to try include:
chocolate Amaretto
root beer float
churro
hot fudge sundae
campfire smores

Again, *drool*

Ever since doing our cake tastings and deciding on a baker, we haven't been able to stop thinking about how good the cakes by Lisa were and we've been having to try to compensate. The key is moderation, but we've eaten more cake in the past two weeks than we've had in probably all of last year. What can I say? We've tasted blood and we want more, more, MORE, MORE!

The upside is that I've learned that the cupcake shops here in Charlotte are much better than the ones in Georgetown. Georgetown Cupcake has a terrible icing to cake ration and their cake leaves a lot to be desired (dry, lack of flavor, etc.).  They appeared to be selling on icing and whatever they shoved into the icing as a topper. Baked & Wired had much better cupcakes than Georgetown Cupcake (also known as DC Cupakes). Neither, however, were as irresistible as Just Baked or Polka Dot.

If we resist going to either bakery tomorrow (they both have really good flavors on Friday), I might have to attempt to make my own batch of mint buttercream and whip up some cupcakes.

So, fair warning - when planning to do cake tastings, don't think that you'll only be bad during that day or weekend. It will stick with you until you O.D. and it's taking quite a while to O.D.

Planning Weekend Recap: We Have a Photographer!

Now that I've shared the tastiest part of the weekend, I can share with you another part of the planning that was very important to me - the meeting with the photographer.

You may remember my recent rant about the wedding budget and how we may not be able to afford vendors like a photographer or DJ and my follow-up a few days later about finding my miracle. Well, this past weekend, we met with that miracle.

After coming across a lot of expensive photographers that seemed to all be doing the typical shots:

Let's make shapes with our hands so you can't see our faces in photos! Flickr.com

Everybody jump! - Tsk, tsk. Simon didn't say... Flickr.com

I really want a picture of this so we'll be out of focus, ok? Flickr.com

Now, I'm not saying that these are bad photos or of bad taste, mind you, they're just not my style. That being said, I was getting more upset over the fact that A) I wouldn't be able to afford a photographer for my wedding and B) if I could, I wouldn't be able to afford one or find one whose style I liked. Well, my fairy godmother worked some magic while I was doing my umpteenth Google search for photographers local to the area and I came across someone I hadn't noticed before: Brendan Bush.

As you may, may not know, photography is a hobby of mine. Sadly, I've been less active with it lately, but I still get a few shoots every now and then. Having done some informal shoots, I learned that my preferences for shooting were very similar to my preferences for being shot. My preference is for candid shots you may/may not have known that were even taken. I've never been a fan of the pose-and-hold-it-while-I-take-five-minutes-to-better-position-you, your limbs, and your hair-perfectly-so-that-I-can-get-my-staged-shot mentality. Again, I have nothing against those who prefer that style, it's just not my taste. I feel that not being posed or feeling like you need to be posing helps bring out a lot of truths in the moment that help to really convey what was going on at that time. That is what I want my wedding photos to be. I want them to tell stories, not look like they belong in a magazine spread.

Enter Brendan, a photojournalist who freelances around the area of Roanoke, VA, and happens to do some weddings. His style appeared to be right in line with what I was wanting. Since I was more picky about photography than Douglas, the responsibility of this vendor fell to me (Douglas has been wonderful and handling most of the vendor communications thus far). So I reached out to Brendan and waited with baited breath to see what his pricing was. Upon getting his reply, I nearly fell out of my chair! After getting over my initial excitement (that he was way cheaper than the others I had inquired to and I would be getting more bang for my buck), I quickly perused the Wedding Bee boards to make sure I was getting a good price and not just a better-than-the-others. After satisfying my curiosity that I was, indeed, getting a heck of a deal, I jumped at the chance to set up a meeting with Brendan for our already planned weekend in Roanoke.

Brendan suggested we meet at the downtown location for Mill Mountain Coffee - meaning I could sip Oregon Chai (my fav!) while we chatted. I was almost over the moon! This guy was making it very hard not to jump the gun and hire him on the spot! Of course this meant that I started freaking out. Was this photographer too good to be true? The kicker will be that we won't get along at all and I'll have to keep looking. I was a bundle of nerves walking to the coffee shop.

Lucky for us, Brendan ended up being two people in front of us in line to get drinks and even offered to buy ours (he beat us to the punch of offering to buy his). He was very relaxed and chill. It was like we were meeting a friend of a friend, a little awkward but still comfortable. We spent the meeting just going on about ideas we had for our wedding and some new ideas we had come up with over the weekend. Brendan really got a kick out of everything and told us about his mentality for shooting. It took everything I had to not jump out of my chair and pull one of these:

TotalFilm.com

The final nail in the already sealed deal for me was when I made a joke that the "Care and Feeding" section of his contract made him a Gremlin and he went with it. Major score! Whether he got what we were talking about (comic books, movies, etc.) or not, he just was enjoying the conversation and the ride. He was going to have as much fun at our wedding as anyone else, and when photographers have fun, they take great photos.

Despite the odds at the time, I found my perfect photographer and he totally fit our budget without us compromising anything else. This was a HUGE checkmark on the very short "What I Need for My Wedding" list.

Planning Weekend Recap: We have a Baker!

Hello, again.

If you've been following along, you know that this past weekend, Douglas and I went up to Roanoke for three days of nothing but meetings related to the wedding. We had appointments with the rabbi, a venue, a photographer, two catering options, and three bakers! Don't worry, we'll get to everything.

Let's start with the one part of wedding planning I was really looking forward to (and really enjoyed) - cake tastings! We chose bakers who all worked out of their own homes in Roanoke, VA.

Three bakers. Three days. Three tastings.

Unfortunately, Douglas and I didn't go into these meetings being as prepared as we would have liked to be. Typically, we'd come in with at least a rough idea of what we wanted. We came in with "we're not doing fondant" and that was about it. We had only started discussing the wedding cake, past the cake and icing selections for the tastings, a few days earlier and neither of us really had a strong idea of what we wanted. Luckily, all three bakers were fine with that. Being unprepared, we were able to spend more time talking about us and our ideas for the wedding so that the bakers could get to know us and our style instead of spending the time simply designing the "perfect cake". One of the bakers even emailed us a follow up pointing out how much she enjoyed the appointment because she got to know her potential clients.

Let's start at the beginning. I apologize for the lack of photos, but we were having so much fun, the cake was gone before I even thought about breaking out the camera!

Friday - Baker #1: Kelly's Cakes
For Kelly, we got to choose three types of cake and three fillings to try. She whipped those choices up as cupcakes which we then split.

Flavors sampled:

• Yellow cake with raspberry filling
• White cake with chocolate mousse filling
• Marble (chocolate/vanilla swirl) cake with an oreo cream filling

Highs and Lows:

1. All three flavors of cake were very tasty and moist.
2. The buttercream icing was sweet but not as sweet as you'd find on most birthday cakes.
3. The raspberry filling was also tasty, not too sweet.
4. The chocolate mousse was a let down as a filling. The mousse itself was quite tasty, but it just didn't do anything for us with the cake.
5. Kelly actually used a chocolate pudding with crushed oreos filling instead of the oreo cream filling for our tasting. This filling with the marble cake was very good! It ended up being our favorite combination from this tasting.
6. Kelly was very easy to talk to and had a photo album of past cakes for us to look through. 
7. Kelly's husband had a bookshelf full of zombie books which included the Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. This endeared them to us very quickly.
8. Our meeting with Kelly had a very relaxed vibe to it. I felt like we were more likely to design something birthday cake-ish with Kelly. That wouldn't be a bad thing considering we're going for a relaxed and fun vibe for the wedding.

Saturday - Baker #2: Cakes by Lisa
For Lisa, we got to choose one cake and one filling to try. Lisa put this combo together in a 2 layer 6" round cake (essentially the top tier). If we wanted to try other combinations, she would make any additional number of cakes for $15/cake (cost of ingredients). We went with two combinations to try.

Flavors sampled:

• Devil's food cake with raspberry filling
• Marble cake with chocolate mousse filling

Highs and Lows:

1. Typically Lisa leaves the cakes out of the fridge for a while so that you are able to taste the cakes as they would be on your wedding day - at room temperature. Unfortunately, due to her busy appointment schedule that day, she wasn't able to have the cakes out for too long before our arrival.
2. The chocolate mousse was once again a disappointment as a filling. The mousse itself was very tasty but the cake with mousse filling was underwhelming.
3. The devil's food cake was by far my favorite cake out of the weekend. There is nothing quite like a well done devil's food cake. 
4. Douglas really enjoyed the raspberry filling which seemed to have been made from real raspberries (seeds and all). 
5. The buttercream icing was sweet but wasn't too sweet and was quite tasty. There was a proportional layer of buttercream icing to the cake and the combinations worked well.
6. Lisa had about four photo albums of previous cakes for us to look through. She had a decent variety of designs. After sharing our story of the ring Douglas used to propose, Lisa threw out the idea of doing sugar printing of some of our favorite comic book cells to drape over the cake. A very interesting concept.
7. The reason I pointed out the temperature factor in the first bullet is to point this out in this seventh bullet. We took what was left of the sample cakes home with us and left them out for the rest of the day. We then served them as dessert after a family dinner. The cakes were definitely at room temperature at that point. What a difference!!!! The cakes were phenomenal! All of a sudden, the mousse filling worked amazingly well with the marble cake. The devil's food with raspberry was devoured! There was barely a crumb left untouched of either cake by the end of the night. 
8. Our meeting with Lisa was relaxed but still felt a bit formal. The cake we started to design had more of a traditional feel to it with some quirky design features to give it personality. Also, not a bad thing since this is still a wedding. 
9. In discussing the chocolate pudding and oreo combination we had at our last tasting, Lisa left the table, grabbed the left over mousse from when she made our cake, crumpled some oreos into it and let us dig in! If you have an idea of something you want, she's game to try and make it work. While I'm not sure whether we'll be adding the oreos to our mousse filling for the cake or not, I can tell you that Douglas and I left no mousse left to get tossed out.

Sunday - Baker #3: Casey's Cakes
For Casey, we didn't have to make any decisions on flavors. She provided a spread of cake flavors with buttercream icing in the form of many cupcakes.

Flavors Sampled (of the ones we can remember):

• Raspberry cake
• Chocolate raspberry cake
• Blackberry cake
• Dreamsicle cake
• Amaretto cake
• Key lime cake
• Strawberry cake
• German chocolate cake
• Red velvet cake
• Marble cake
• Chocolate cake
• Almond cake
• Lemon cake

Highs and Lows:

1. Out of the three bakers, Casey's was the least sweet buttercream icing. It was still tasty, though.
2. The typical flavors didn't wow us: chocolate, yellow, marble. But some of the special ones did: raspberry, blackberry.
3. The cake was full of flavor. When biting into the blackberry cake, I felt as though I was one step away from having juice in my mouth! 
4. Casey had a large number of photo albums of past cakes for us to look through. Out of the three bakers, she had the most variety in her cakes flavor-wise and design-wise. I really dug her hexagon shapes, especially when she mixed them in with the standard rounds or squares. 
5. The feeling of this meeting was very laid back and casual. It was like sitting in a friend's kitchen and running with any idea you could come up with. This meeting was the only one where we ended up designing an entire cake. We were able to take elements from different cakes in her photos to put something interesting together. 
6. Since we had too many cupcakes to try during our visit, we were able to take some back with us to NC. On our trip back, Douglas and I weren't feeling too well and feared that it was the cupcakes that were upsetting our systems. We decided not to rule Casey out until we sampled the rest of the cupcakes after dinner. The cakes were still moist and full of flavor, but we realized that the flavors were simply too strong. They were fine for a bite or two, but no one could see anyone eating an entire slice of cake. 

Summary
No matter who we were going to go with, we learned that we would be looking at a 3-4 tier cake with buttercream icing and different flavors of cake on each layer. The cake would cost us less than $500 depending on the design work we would end up wanting. Cake delivery, set-up, etc. was all included in the cost and the top tier was always offered as a gift.

We learned that we do not like the idea of an all white cake. It needs some personality and color to it. We found some different ideas of designs and how to work in our wedding colors that we may/may not end up using in the long run. We won't be covering the cake in fondant, though there may be some elements of the decorations that may end up being fondant.

After taking a day to come off of our sugar high from days of eating cake and buttercream, we reviewed our experiences with each baker and what we thought of our samples. The choice was very easy to make for us and was based on the cake and icing.

Today we emailed Lisa to book her for our wedding! We have a baker! We enjoyed her cakes so much that we're already planning to ask if she'll do two more sample cakes for us to purchase for when we get all of the parents together in town for a sampling of the wedding menu. We can't wait! We ate so much cake from Lisa and never felt heavy, bloated, or overly full. Just typing about it is making me crave another slice of that devil's food cake!

Douglas and I got an added bonus while meeting with the bakers - insight into the local caterers. One name kept popping up as a highly recommended option. The catering story, though, is for another post.

Wedding Hair - Update

If you remember from way back in August, my hair was going long. It's still going.

At that point, my hair was here:

Shoulder length

And now, it is here:

Oh yeah. Check out the Threadless tee!

And from the back...

That is right around the bottom of my shoulder blade! It has been a good number of years (let's say some point in middle school) since I had my hair this long! I am very lazy when it comes to my hair, so I've been wearing it up almost all the time while growing it out. This past weekend was the first time in a while that I wore it down. Of course nothing really drives home the point of how long your hair is until the wind hits it and blows it everywhere! Boy did I pick a windy weekend to wear my hair down. My head felt like this, but without the whole decapitation thing.

Medusa

 

 

Each strand had a mind of its own. Luckily, it didn't get too knotty. I'm still using Herbal Essences Hello Hydration daily, but sometimes have to resort to what's available while traveling. Luckily, I was able to fall back on Infusium 23 which I used last time my hair was this long. It worked wonders to keep my hair de-tangled.

That ends this teaser post. Check back tomorrow for the start of the updates from the weekend (cake tastings, venues, caterers, groomsmen outfits, etc.)

Digging the Tracks - Part 2

The last time we were "digging the tracks" was back in December. Fittingly, we left off with the "Time Warp". Fast forward to 3 months later, and here we are.

Track 5 was Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant. This little ditty came into our lives via the video game Borderlands.

I've only played the game a little but Douglas has beaten it several times and has played all of the DLCs (downloadable content). The humor in this game is what hooked us. Weapons have names and descriptions that reference movies and tv shows. The robots, called Claptraps, scream out in horror as they lie leaking, bust a move across the screen and shout for your attention, or turn evil mastermind and make your mission miserable. (I love the Claptraps and am still waiting for the toy to come out). Did I mention that there is a zombie DLC? Anything with zombies gets a plus in our books.

Track 6 shows more of our violent side (although I'm noticing a trend with evil masterminds or psychopaths in some of these track choices). Stuck in the Middle seems like an innocent enough theme for all of life's rough spots where your significant other is standing by you, until you watch Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs.

I became a Tarantino fan with Kill Bill vol 1 and never looked back. Funny that Douglas was the one that took Noel and I to see it in theaters. I own all of the movies that Tarantino directed and Reservoir Dogs gets better each time you watch it. Ever since I first saw the scene with Madsen, I knew I would never hear Stuck in the Middle without thinking of his little dance and the "activity" that followed.

Track 7 is evil. I would love to just leave it at that, but then Douglas would give me a lot of crap for it. This is one of those stories where you need to know another story first. Douglas is more of a Monopoly player and I am more of a Trivial Pursuit player. He's more strategy, I'm barely what could be considered strategic. Being a Trivial Pursuit lover, I own many versions of the board game. Douglas enjoys playing, but doesn't enjoy it when I continually beat him. Then came Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit vol 2 and playing with Ryan.

Ok, more background. I didn't grow up with cable or satellite, so I was not exposed to shows like "Doogie Howser, MD", "Full House", "Family Ties", and "Growing Pains". 1980s and early 1990s tv is my Achilles heal. I point this out to explain how/why they kicked my butt.

Back to the game with Ryan. As we were all playing, I was sitting with zero pie pieces and zero correctly answered questions. Douglas and Ryan, however, were not only answering questions before the asker was done asking, but one in particular, they sang. It was an easy enough question: How many faces has Bon Jovi seen and subsequently rocked? They sang the answer - for the game winning pie piece. Despite my continued failed efforts to win Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit, I still play because one day the answer to a question in the Fad category will be "slap bracelets"!

Track 8 is another movie reference. Hotel California is a great song on its own so it doesn't really need anything extra. And yet...

We all know that "nobody f***s with the Jesus", but accenting his intro with a flamenco version of Hotel California by the Gipsy Kings. Lebowski is one of those movies you either love or hate. I had the luck of watching it with a good friend of mine who really reminds me of Walter. His enjoyment of the movie, while drinking a white russian none the less, automatically gave me a positive association. It is one of a very limited few films I actually don't mind Julianna Moore in (she left a bad taste in my mouth after Hannibal and I've never been able to forgive her - I am also a big Silence of the Lambs fan). While Douglas doesn't have the same appreciation of Lebowski that I do, he's coming around. He's throwing out quotes from time to time and is getting better at catching Lewboski references in other movies/shows.

That's all for now folks. Stay tuned because next weekend is our big wedding planning weekend in Roanoke so we will have a LOT to cover on the blog next week.

My Luck with Shoes

I despise shoe shopping. I typically have so much trouble finding shoes that fit that I rarely venture into buying a pair online knowing that odds are good I'll be paying return shipping and a restocking fee with nothing to show for it. Why do I have so much trouble? Because of these babies:

I love my big German feet (thanks, Nana)! However, they do make things difficult. Even though stores have started to carry more of a variety in the bigger sizes of the past few years, they are not all created equal. A size 11 in high heel peep toe A fits totally different than high heel peep toe B. So it's a crap shoot. When the long awaited Wonder Woman boots showed up today around lunch, I couldn't wait to slip them on. Well, it wasn't so much a slip...

I...have...THE POWER!

Ok ok. It wasn't that bad. However, there was a bit of a struggle since the boots are very snug in the calf to the point of the zipper having a bit of trouble (and my calves aren't that large). My initial reaction to the boots was disappointment. The calf hugging was nice once zipped but the material bunched up at the ankle which doesn't give the boots a sleek look. I spent the rest of the work day bummed out because I was considering sending them back. After work, I trudged upstairs, box in hand, to take some photos for the blog. What was going to be about five minutes of some quick snap shots turned into about a half hour of photo fun which resulted in a great realization: I love these boots!!!

Now the boots have a special place in my closet and I am a very happy Crystal. This may have to be my look for the rehearsal. The boots, that skirt, and this shirt:

Proximity Shirts from ThinkGeek.com

Newsflash! Wonder Woman Boots!

Guess what are making their way to me from SuperheroStuff.com?!

The boots I couldn't have! They have 11s and 12s!!! With only a $1 restocking fee on returns, I should have no problem finding the size that works for me!

These babies...

SuperHeroStuff.com - Wonder Woman boots

...are mine!

While I'm still planning on wearing flats for the ceremony and photos (I do not want to tower over Douglas when we're being married) I could totally rock these babies at the reception or, at the very least, the RHPS after party! Oh yes, you read that right, Rocky Horror.

Potential for Photography!

I am super psyched! Not just because our big wedding planning weekend is coming up, but also because there's a photographer in the mix! Oh yes, photography is back on the table and it is looking goo-ood!

So what happened? I keep finding myself on rolls lately with Google searches or reading the boards on WeddingBee. During one of these rolls, I was Googling for photographers local to Roanoke. I skipped past the typical companies that pop up and are high-priced (they start at $4k!) and soon stumbled upon an experience photojournalist who had relocated to Roanoke with his wife. He freelances on projects and appears to be building a wedding portfolio on the side. After looking through the two weddings he had on his site, I knew I had to contact him and find out his pricing. Imagine my surprise when he writes back that with a second shooter, a disk of edited images with printing rights, 4x6 print proofs, online hosting, and 6 hours of shooting it'll only cost us $1,500!!! My jaw hit the floor. I will do my damnedest to make room for such a deal in our budget (it may already fit in our budget, but more on that later). This sounded like too good of a deal, so I inquired to some of the other photography companies I had come across just to get actual numbers from them. The lowest I got back was $3,500 and that didn't include half of what this guy was offering. Stoked that I had found our photographer, I jumped on and emailed him straight away. Wouldn't you know it, we had an entire email conversation over a couple of hours last night. Talk about your quick responses!

As if all of this wasn't enough, he takes payments in three installments - 1/3 to book, 1/3 before or day of event, and 1/3 when he delivers the photos. Score! We were also able to set up a meeting with him during our crazy wedding planning weekend. He chose Mill Mountain Coffee as the meeting place (talking affordable photography while drinking delicious chai...uh, yes please!) and even though he's bringing the contract with him, he's giving us all the time we need to look it over and get our deposit in. He wants to use the meeting simply to get to know us and what our plans are for our wedding. Pinch me, I'm dreaming! I'm really hoping we all get along at the meeting, because that's the only bump I could see in this road right now. How amazing is it to go from looking at possibly nixing photography to possibly finding the photographer that fits our style and budget?

We've also had another awesome realization this week. There is the possibility of our invitations w/envelopes and RSVP cards costing us less than $80 (not including stamps)! CRAZY!

So here's where we stand:
Food - Plan A: Catering, seeming like less of an option, but still holding out for another go-round to see what they come up with at a lower price point now that they know the style of food we like. Plan B: local restaurants that cater, seeming more and more like a great option but will need to take into consideration hiring our own staff and getting event liquor license (started pricing and isn't too bad). Plan C: DIY, holding off on exploring this option until after the meetings.

Venue - Hoping to nail down a meeting with our long favorite option that has been under renovation. Just learned that the carpet is going to be purple (tell me it isn't beckoning me) and am really excited to see mock-ups of the interior and talk price. With any luck, we'll be able to lock it down!

Photography - pending any road bumps in the meeting, we may have our photographer!

Cake - Meetings scheduled with three bakers. I've been drooling since we picked out the cake and icing combinations we wanted to try.

Flowers - haven't started looking and am still considering going without. It seems so pointless to buy flowers that I will only hold while walking up and down the aisle as well as in photos. We'll see. I can be convinced either way at this point.

DJ - browsed briefly but haven't really started looking yet.

Invitations - pending picking a layout, finalizing wording, and locking down a venue, they're mostly done...so not really.

Dress - bought and at the shop!

We are so excited that after mid-month, we should have most of the wedding stuff locked down!

And here it is, your moment of zen:

My recently acquired Harley from Arkham Asylum (does a little dance)