Odds and Ends

Last week I mentioned that I was going out to celebrate my sister's birthday all day long. This is because although the mother, the middle sister, and I all live within an hour of each other, the oldest sister lives about 3 hours away from the rest of us, and unlike the rest of us who all stay home, she has an actual job. Therefore, for birthdays and things we all agree to meet in a town that is half-way between her house and ours...on her day off. We usually meet for lunch and then wander through small town shops and such. However, since "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" was showing, we decided that it was a movie we all wanted to see together, and it was showing in the town where we meet! So, we met at a "K-Bob's" steakhouse for some lunch before heading over to the movie.

Now seriously, if you are a waitress, or are employed in any type of "service to humans" job, you should just assume that your patrons just might have a blog, and anything stupid that you do will be proclaimed across the internet...just a tip from me to you.

Our waitress, was very nice and she was chatty, like any good southern waitress should be. She took our orders, she didn't make fun of me when I asked for onion rings instead of fries, but then asked to have the onions and pickles left off of my burger. (I've been to some places that teased me..."Well, do you want onions or not???" But we all know that an onion ring and a raw onion are two completely different things, now don't we?) Anyway, she came out to tell us that our food was ready and asked me if I needed any mustard or mayo for my burger...which was ready, she just had to go get it. I don't know why, but she felt the need to let me know that my food was just waiting to be brought to me. Anyway, I took the mayo, turned down the mustard, and she left to go get my burger...which was ready, and waiting. Except that when she brought it to the table, there were my onion rings, an open bun with only lettuce and tomato (no pickles or onions), and nothing else. She had taken the plate out before they put the meat on it!

Not really sure if she was implying that perhaps I didn't need the extra calories that the burger patty itself added to the plate, or if perhaps she just felt that a vegetarian diet would be good for me...although she works in a steakhouse for pity's sake!

Anyway, she took my meatless plate back to the kitchen and brought it back with meat, and it was delicious. So I ended up with a good lunch and blog-fodder. It was a win-win when all was said and done.

Oh, and "The Sisterhood..." was great! I liked the first movie, so I bought the book, but decided that I really liked the movie better...I know that doesn't usually happen. After that I never read any of the other books, but the new movie kind of makes me want to give them another try. Or at the very least, it made me want to go buy the first movie and watch it again. So, if you liked the first one, go see the second one...you'll like it!

Now, you may or may not have noticed that I actually posted daily for most of last week, and then I disappeared again for a few days. I disappeared because I was catching up on some work around here (the kids and I totally cleaned and re-arranged the amusement park that is our backyard) and then I had to bake a bunch of Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls for Benji's Youth Group bake sale. And when that was finished, I had housework to catch up with (I am trying to totally clean and rearrange my house too) and I spent two days in the kitchen. It's sad really, but my daughter asked if we were moving because we were cleaning everything up! Sad, so sad.

Anyway, then I had to mess up my nice clean kitchen by making two giant cakes for This Vicki Courtney Event. I was so honored to be asked, and I had lots of time to come up with a design, so it was a really fun cake to make. I only made one display cake. The other was just a giant cake to be sliced and served, not to be looked at, so I didn't take any pictures of it. When Mocha with Linda asked me to make the cake, I thought it was a "Mother Daughter" fashion show, so I came up with the idea to do a runway complete with red carpet, lights, and mother/daughter dresses made out of cookies coming down said runway. When I found out how many people they needed to feed, I turned the stage into stairs to add more cake! Anyway, here is the finished product. There is a lot of detail on the carpet and the "floor", but lately when I post pictures the whole "click on this to enlarge" thing hasn't worked, so I don't know if you'll be able to see all the detail or not. I'll try it, but honestly I can't figure out what I'm doing differently. If you can't enlarge it, try clicking on my "flickr" photos on the sidebar, and enlarging it there...that is if you care to see the little details! Anyway, I couldn't capture it because of the flash, but those were real lights, and they really lit up! (There were supposed to be more of them, but some of them just wouldn't light...aarrgghh!) Someone commented, when I brought it in, that it was like an Ace of Cakes cake because it had real lights. I assured her that Duff would have used pyrotechnics rather than little light bulbs, but I appreciated the compliment!

So, now you know where I've been and what I've been doing...and in case you were wondering, today is more of the same. I need to re-clean the kitchen, I need to bake two cakes for tomorrow, and then I'll be doing laundry and packing for our trip this weekend! If I tell you that next week will be less hectic, would you believe me? Nah, me neither...but one can hope!