Cake and Cookie (122/365)

TIME: 11:58 am
PLACE: Otts
SUBJECT: Cake and Cookie

*~*~*

We had a little get-together to welcome back MonkeyBoy and to say goodbye to DramaQueen (she's moving out of state after graduation).

The bakery at the supermarket thought I was a bit nuts for wanting a cake with icing only on 1/2 of it, but they came through.  The un-iced part was actually pretty good.  I liked it better than the iced side myself.

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog (092/365)

Tim: Well, that's no ordinary rabbit.
King Arthur: Ohh.
Tim: That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!
Sir Robin: You tit! I soiled my armor I was so scared!
Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

TIME:  6:06 PM
PLACE: Supermarket
SUBJECT: Rabbit cake

I would never buy this cake for Easter.
I’d be too afraid it would kill me.
And my bones would be strewn about its lair.

Candles, Campfire & Cold Cat (046/365)

TIME:  5:08 PM
PLACE: Living room
SUBJECT:  Stella and her cake

We finally had Stella’s official birthday party today.


TIME: 6:11 PM
PLACE: Backyard
SUBJECT:  Fire

It was only about 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
But Stella wanted to have a bonfire anyway.
The kids didn’t care about the cold.
They gathered around the fire, roasted marshmallows and made s’mores.


Jack stayed inside.
But he was still cold.

Birthday Cake (162/366)

“Birthday Soup is good to eat, but not as good as Birthday Cake.”

Else Holmelund Minarik, Little Bear

TIME:  7:40 PM
PLACE:  Dining room
SUBJECT:  MB’s Birthday cake

MB’s 13th birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated tonight with family and his friends.  I made this cake with icing for the official “blowing-out-of-the-candles.”   The cake he really wanted – and I did make, just for him to eat – was a non-frosted, 9”x13” version.

A Cake & A Sign (152/366)

“Gainfully unemployed, very proud of it, too.”

Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love

TIME:  5:03 PM
PLACE:  Gregg’s Bar & Grill
SUBJECT:  Dad’s retirement cake

Dad’s work had a get-together this afternoon for his retirement – which is officially tomorrow!  Geez…he turns 70 and thinks he can just stop working.  Well, all I can say is that he just better be frugal in his golden years so he doesn’t spend all of my inheritance.  Ha!  Enjoy Pop!  And remember, when you get bored, I’ve plenty of projects for you to work on at my house.

 
TIME:  6:11 PM
PLACE:  The bathroom of Gregg’s
SUBJECT:  A hand washing reminder

This sign may have been up just as long as Dad has been working.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake: Pre-Squirrel Attack (113/366)

Lindsay Leikin: Does something smell like pineapple?
Shawn Spencer: Pineapple upside-down cake. Would you like some? Wait, before you answer that, are you a fan of delicious flavor?

Psych: Season 2, Episode 3, Psy vs. Psy, (air date 27 Jul. 2007), Television.

TIME:  11:38 AM
PLACE:  Back porch
SUBJECT:  Pineapple upside down cakes

I baked 4 pineapple upside-down cake mixes – each in 2 single layers, 8 total – for the Cub/Boy Scout BBQ today.  As I said, I made 8, but the scouts only received 7 of them.  Why do you ask?  Well, because after I took this photo, I walked back into the house to put the camera away, came back outside and discovered a squirrel nibbling at the cake on the left.  Gah!!!!! Stupid tree rat!  After screaming at it like I banshee and scaring it off. I surveyed the damage.  It wasn’t much.  The squirrel hadn’t been there long and only ate a tiny bit on the side.  Still, I didn’t think the BBQ customers would care for a squirrel tainted cake.  My solution?  I cut out the area where he was eating and fed it to the dog.  Then I fed my family the rest of the cake.  We’re not picky.  We like pineapple upside-down cake so much we’ll eat it even if it does have squirrel cooties.

First Communion (106/366)

Anne Streiber: You're dressed like for your first Communion.

Communion, Whitley Streiber, writer, Philippe Mora-dir., Allied Vision, 1989.

TIME:  10:30 Mass
PLACE:  Church
SUBJECT:  StellaDella’s 1st Communion

She had the veil…


…and the shoes….


…and the dress.  And she made her 1st Communion this morning.  Surprisingly, the host didn’t burn her throat when she swallowed it, nor were there any sizzles when she was sprinkled with the holy water. *wink*


Her brother and sister (and Grandpa, not pictured) were on hand to witness the momentous occasion. 2 out of 3 were happy to be there.


Later in the evening, at her party at home, she insisted that a candle be placed on her Communion cake so she could blow it out.  I obliged.  Of course, I couldn’t let that go by without a rousing rendition of “Happy 1st Communion to You!”  (in the style of “Happy Birthday”)  Congratulations StellaDella!

Let Them Eat Butter Cake (102/365)

“Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616).  The Oxford Shakespeare.  1914. Twelfth-Night; or, What You Will. Act II. Scene III.

TIME:  4:24 PM
PLACE:  Kitchen
SUBJECT:  Breton butter cake

I was in a Suzy Homemaker mood this afternoon and decided to make a butter cake recipe from an old May 2002 Martha Stewart Living.  The recipe called for simple ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour and salt.  It was very dense and almost like a shortcake.  Martha topped hers with a spiked strawberry compote – but I just went with some fresh sliced strawberries sprinkled with brown sugar.  The kids were going to be eating it and frankly, I like to consume my alcohol directly from some sort of drinking apparatus.

Don’t Fear The Reaper (042/365)

“The candles blew then disappeared
The curtains flew then he appeared (saying don't be afraid)
Come on baby (and she had no fear)”

Blue Oyster Cult. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." Agents of Fortune. Perf. Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. Columbia, 1977.

TIME:  8:08 PM
PLACE:  Home
SUBJECT:  StellaDella’s birthday cake

THIS is the cake my 7 year-old daughter wanted for her birthday party.  Well, she really wanted zombies and werewolves, but the bakery at the grocery store did not have those figures.  So SD settled on a cake with a grim reaper, a vulture, a headstone and black balloons – more specifically, an “Over The Hill” cake theme.  The woman who took our order thought it was hilarious that my sweet looking, red-headed, little girl wanted this to be her birthday cake.  When I picked it up this afternoon, she told me that the decorator called as soon as she faxed the order to verify that we really wanted this particular cake for a seven-year old.  Yes we did. *shrugs* It’s her birthday and this is the cake that she wanted…I’m just happy that she was able to get her one that she liked.

I Guess They Were Hungry (029/365)

“Hungry men don't ask, they take.”
 
Kenneth Kolb, and Nathan Juran. Sinbad (Kerwin Mathews), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, explaining to the wizard why the men killed the baby roc (1958).

TIME:  10:11 AM
PLACE:  Kitchen
SUBJECT:  Cake

I baked a cake last night – DramaQueen was the only one awake when I made it and she and I each had one piece before we went to bed (from the frosted side, I only frost one side of the cake because MonkeyBoy and HandsomeHusband like un-iced cake).  I put the cover on the cake pan and we went to sleep.  Fast forward to this morning…I slept in until 8:30, took my shower, got dressed and headed to the kitchen.  This is the sight that greeted me - Holy guacamole!…it looks like a horde of angry locusts descended upon it…what did the poor cake do to my family to deserve such decimation and destruction?  I did manage to have one more piece before it was devoured completely.

See-Food (164/365)

 
“Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (American best selling writer, author of Life's Little Instruction Book)

TIME:  6:57 PM
PLACE:  Living room
SUBJECT:  StellaDella and her cousin Shayne

We had MonkeyBoy’s family birthday party this evening.  It’s a good thing we have them…it forces me to clean my house.  SD and Miss Shayne were eating birthday cake and Shayne was being goofy, sticking out her tongue with a mouthful of cake and icing.  SD thought it was hilarious of course.

Fifty Years (121/365)

 
“A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity.  The order varies for any given year.”

Paul Sweeney

TIME:  8:08 PM
PLACE:  F--- Restaurant
SUBJECT:  Uncle Albert & Aunt Ann

On May 5th, my Uncle Albert (my mother’s brother) and Aunt Ann will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.   They had a dinner this evening for family and friends at a local restaurant.  They had their wedding album there and I had forgotten that my mother was a bridesmaid in their wedding.  Mom looked so young in those photos  - at the time she was just about to turn eighteen.  If HandsomeHusband and I make it to 50 years of marriage, he will be 89 and I will be 78, what do you think are our chances of making it to those ages?

Bolt (043/365)

 
“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”

George Harrison (Musician, producer and composer, member of The Beatles, 1943-2001)

TIME:  8:11 PM
PLACE:  My brother Michael’s kitchen
SUBJECT:  Bolt on birthday cake

StellaDella finally went back to school today.  She sucked it up because they were having the Valentine’s Day party this afternoon.  She made it through the day and had fun.  DramaQueen tried returning to school too, but I ended up leaving work at 10:30 this morning to bring her home.  They all have a 3-day weekend because of President’s Day on Monday…that should help with the recoveries.

We had SD’s and my niece Brandi’s family birthday party this evening at my brother’s house.  SD was happy with her Bolt decorated cake.  Instead of blowing out her candles, we had her use a plate to fan them out instead – we didn’t want to take the chance of any residual sickness landing on the cake.

Birthday Boy (241/365)

 
“…now I am six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now and forever.”

A.A. Milne (1882-1956), “The End” (l. 11-14)…Now We Are Six, 1927

TIME:  6:29 PM
PLACE:  My sister’s house
SUBJECT:  David Charles

6 years ago today, my younger sister had her first child, my nephew, David.  I was 3 months pregnant with StellaDella at the time.  When my sister went back to work, I watched him once in a while.  I remember taking him to the the mall when he was about 3 1/2 months old.  The salesclerks asked how old he was and when was my other baby due.  When I told them he was born in August and my baby was due in February, I got perplexed looks.  You could see them trying to do the calculations and not being able to figure it out.  I usually took pity on them and told them that he was my nephew, but sometimes I just left them wondering!    

Candlelight And Cake (163/365)

 
“Most of us can remember a time when a birthday - especially if it was one's own - brightened the world as if a second sun has risen.”

Robert Lynd (Irish Essayist and Journalist, 1879-1949)

TIME:  8;03 PM
PLACE:  The dining room
SUBJECT:  MonkeyBoy & his birthday cake

When this picture was taken, we were singing (quite off-key and it sounded like we were singing a funeral dirge!) "Happy Birthday" to MonkeyBoy.  I'm so glad the cake is hidden in the dark.  I ended up making the cake myself.  I took MB to the bakery to pick a cake out, but as we were looking at the available cakes, MB told me that what he really wanted was for me to make him a "plain cake", he did not want any of the "fancy ones" we saw.  "Just cake and icing Mom."  OK, if that is what the birthday boy wants, I will bake him a cake.  Well, it ended up turning out very CakeWreck-y.  But he was happy with it and it tasted good, so I guess that is all that really matters, huh?  He really cleaned up gift-wise - that boy took in over 150 dollars!  In addition to the cash, he received a Wii game, a game for his Nintendo DS, a coin counting bank and some walkie-talkies.  Before he went to bed, he hugged and kissed me and told me that it was the "best birthday ever!  Thanks Mom!"  You know, that makes it all worthwhile.