It started with a desire
to see if we could recognize the character of Albuquerque in this
phenomenon. The Officer and I watched
together, cheering for the spots we knew collectively and sharing stories about
the places we’d gone individually. It also
helped that a long time ago we were students of film together, and this
particular series is rich with visual metaphors and unique camera angles. We plowed through the Netflix offering in
time to experience the final season, albeit a few days late since we don’t do
cable. [Thanks, Amazon!]
Reader, if you don’t know
what’s happening this Sunday night [an answer involving overgrown boys in
tights, means you should probably stop reading now], this post won’t make any
sense to you. But if you hail from the
5-oh-5, love the smell of hatch roasting in the cool autumn mornings, know the
lyrics preceding “woof, woof, woof,” and despise balloon traffic, then you
already know what’s coming. And you’re
experiencing the disorienting, pendulous rollercoaster of manic expectation
tempered with a desperate hesitancy for it all to come to an end. At least, that’s how I’m feeling right
now. Pins and needles, people. Pins and needles.
So what’s a New Mexican girl to do? Well, if you add to this week the Officer’s
birthday, it means that you celebrate like Hank’s still alive.
Thus, I present to you: Breaking
Bad, the birthday edition
The essential ingredient
to any Breaking party would be the Heisenberg Blue. Thus, we’ll start with the cook. I’m more Pinkman than White, so I followed
the recipe for “Blue Crystal Meth Rock Candy” over at Sugar Hero. But as every breaker knows, things of this
nature can never go smoothly – Why can’t they just go smoothly? – and I messed
up. Granted, I was aware of my very
limited chemistry skills and anticipated multiple batches for my learning
curve. However, much to my delight, my first
cook turned out perfect.
Well, my blue’s more
Tiffany than Heisenberg in the big batch, but I was as excited as Marie in
Butterfields with the results.
Don’t you guys just love
it? Should I be this excited about rock
candy? Especially when that candy
represents…
Anyway, Sugar Hero calls for clear flavoring,
but the Officer’s not big into peppermint, so I ended up using my standard
brown vanilla.
I was afraid when I added
it that it would ruin the batch, but in a happy accident, I grabbed my liquid
food coloring (instead of the gel the recipe demanded). When I squeezed, rather than 1 drop of gel, I
ended up with a flood of blue in the pot.
Oops. But my theory is that the
excess blue countered the brown, and I ended up with this beauty.
Now, because this was a
birthday celebration, we needed a banner.
What a fun way to incorporate the iconic Breaking Bad logo! I printed off the requisite letters from Shanty 2 Chic and handmade the periodic table segments.
Here’s a close up of the
familiar style. Green construction paper
torn into squares and lettered with white crayon, using online periodic chart
as a guide – yeah, nothing like using your kids’ crafting supplies for project
in this genre. Gold-star parenting,
here, folks. At least they were asleep when
I was crafting.
The "O" is for Officer.
The eldest mini helped me
hang it, during which she commented, “The square ones are from that element
chart, huh, Mom?” She’s a smarty. After deciding my original plan of hanging
the letters by fishing line wouldn’t work – none of the letters would face the
same way, thus destroying the effect – she queried, “is this show about a
scientist?” Um, sure, love. Sure.
Luckily we were too pressed for time for her to pursue her line of
questioning. That’s the benefit of doing
things at the last minute. Score one for
procrastinators.
Again, this was a
birthday, so we greeted the Officer with this table spread…
…and eggs with bacon.
I found those little
valentines online via social media, and I want to give credit, so if you know,
please let me know in the comments! I
scattered them around for fun.
Because it’s our tradition
to imbibe a frosty brew while watching, I found these labels at Host the Toast and turned
the one of the Officer’s favorite brews, the Vanilla Porter from Breckenridge
Brewery, into Schraderbrau to honor
our favorite among the fallen. 
We lunched on Tuco’s
burritos at our local coffee shop.
And for dinner we had
Gustavo’s tacos and guac. I used El
Monterry mix to season the tacos, but ran out of time for the Ricin Bean Dip by Morgan at Host the Toast. I plan to make it when we watch the
finale. Of course, we followed all this
yumminess with mini Heisenberg cupcakes; which are generic mini cupcakes frosted and then sprinkled with rock candy.
Finally, the Officer’s
presents, among other things, were seasons 1-5.
As wrapping paper, I used paper bags (Target was all out of white;
sorry, purists. If you don’t know why I
couldn’t run to another store, see this post on coffee-less-ness) to which I
added the Pollos Hermanos logo found
over at Dave’s Geek Ideas. So now we can break bad anytime we need a
fix.
But, I’m begging you,
fellow breaker, DON’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE FINAL EPISODE UNTIL AT LEAST
WEDNESDAY! The Officer works Sunday
nights, and like Jesse and Walt, we only break together.
Happy breaking, friends. I have a feeling we’ll all need a little rock
candy to get through next week.
Update:
We had the opportunity recently to head to the 5-oh-5 and take a self-guided Breaking tour (thanks, internet!) so we didn't have to suffer through the stops that have since been remodeled or obligatory merchandise-driven (Rebel Donut, anyone?). We found out that 308 Negra Arroyo Lane is only 3 blocks from my in-law's house (my MIL rides her bike past it everyday--who knew?!) -- WHAT?! Anyway, here are the two stops we took photos at. But know that ABQ has many, many hidden delights for those who chose to mine for them.
The Crossroads Motel -- Jesse's not there; we checked.
308 Negra Arroyo Lane (not real address)
Yes, I'm wearing purple for Marie.
We were 1 car of 4 full of fans, in the space of 5 minutes.
Walt and Jesse --everyone -- we miss ya. Thanks for the ride.
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