TGIF! Let’s jump right in!

1. I made fondant and modeling chocolate this week, then a made a rose from the modeling chocolate without a mold. I’m just doing stuff to build skills.
2. I drove 30 miles to a cake decoration supply store and bakery. OMG I’m in love! I was excitedly telling my oldest son about it, and he pauses then asked, ” Mom are you going to buy the place?” I laughed and answered, “Nope I’m going to learn from them and have fun.” He LOVED that answer. He also loved that I don’t do a cake unless I want to do it. The kids have seen me do years and years of deadline and stress, so they are encouraging me to enjoy more. I’m listening to my kids…sometimes
3. Poor Wizard. He’d be mad that I said that, but the man can’t get a break. So he’s in the middle of getting a dental crown and we realized something’s not quite right because even with the temporary on, he’s having pain after eating.  So now the crown is on pause, and the dentist is sending him to another specialist to make sure he doesn’t need a root canal. It’s been that kind of year for him. Nothing is seriously wrong, but these things medical/dental twists and turns keep cropping up. But its way better to find out now before the permanent crown is on and they have to drill through that. The good news is, Wizard has a good attitude and is doing what he needs to do.  I can’t ask for more than that.
4. I found this picture of the cool new horse patrol in my town. I covered the name of the city/county in a little nod to safety (yes, I know determined people can track it–and then they’d find the police station of my town, LOL). Here are the horse patrol officers that make my day when I see them around town:
5. We’re going to go see Turbo on Sunday (Halloween) in the morning for a while. It’ll be fun! In a weird coincidence of timing, I texted my daughter-in-law, hit send, and my son called one minute later. Total coincidence. Then while I’m talking to him, his wife called him to tell him I texted… We’re just a weird family. FYI: She wasn’t calling him in panic because her mother-in-law wanted to come over, she was checking his schedule before answering me We got it all worked out.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and all the kids out there have a safe and fun Halloween!

Here’s a picture of Maggie.

She’s on top of her kennel because, obviously, she’s the top dog Anyhow, she wanted to say hi, and ask a question: Do you all think that Maggie–with those gray rings around her eyes and mask around her nose and mouth–can pass as a racoon for Halloween?

Happy Wednesday!

It was an okay weekend.  Not much to talk about. I got my mammogram done on Friday and that ended the week packed with appointments   This weekend I did a cake for my brother-in-law, but I wasn’t real happy with it. He, however, was very gracious and seemed pleased and that’s what counts.  I’m not showing it because it has his name on it, and I’m not sure he’s comfortable with that.

And on a related note: Someone in my town posted that they were looking for a cake decorator who can make a “simple” dragon cake for their kid. I was tempted for two seconds before I recovered my sanity. First, I don’t WANT to do this as a business, it’s a hobby and nothing more. Second, I not good enough (I’m not insulting myself, I just need more experience). And third, I would stress myself sick. Better that I stick to doing cakes for fun, family and friends, or even someday entering contests for kicks. But I really don’t want someone relying on me not to screw up their event!

My other claim to fame this weekend is that I cleaned out my close and drawers. I through out a sizable bag of clothes–much of it old things that I loved and hung onto even thought the really don’t fit anymore. I’m pretty proud of myself for that! Otherwise, I ran errands, did a little cleaning and am struggling with my vision. It’s nothing to worry about, just my vision getting a little worse, which we knew at my last eye exam. I just couldn’t tolerate the new prescription in contacts, so that’s been a whole thing.  Then add in some sinus/allergies causing blurriness and the world goes out of focus So I didn’t try to write.

I may start looking into Lasik to see if we can get my vision to at least something more easily corrected with glasses. But I’m a little leery of that. If anyone has  personal Lasik experience they’d like to share, I’d love to hear it.

That was my boring weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week.

1. Maggie had a recheck and more booster shots at the vet. So far I’m very happy with the new office. Maggie was sore for two days after her shots. The poor dog has been through a lot this year. But she’s caught up for a while now, and hopefully won’t have any more problems.
2. We went to the dentist. I had a great checkup. Poor Wizard had to start a crown to replace an old filling that had cracked. I feel for him, but now the worst part of that is done.
3. Today, I will hopefully get my mammogram done. It took a LOT to get this appointment, but I imagine it’ll go fairly smooth. Fun fact about me–I’m weird enough that I sign into the sites to see my images of any of these exams, then do research on Google Images to see if I can “read” the x-ray, MRI or whatever it is. I never seem to remember that I’m not a doctor, nurse or anything remotely qualified, LOL. It’s just a quirk. I’ve been more right than wrong in my uneducated guesses, but I’m still not a doctor
4. In book news, Katie Couric makes me sad and annoyed. I try not to comment on books written about politics. But since this one was written my a journalist/entertainer on her career, I’m just gonna say what I feel: I’m utterly disgusted. What really ticks me off is the way she treated other women. Gaining or keeping success by trying to repress others is just revolting. I was pretty ambivalent about her before this, but now, she seems downright unlikeable to me. To be clear, I’m basing my opinions from excerpts released in the media, and her pre-release media interviews. I won’t buy the book. Okay, I’ll stop now
5. I have to think about Thanksgiving. And not only that, I need to actually reach out and discuss it with others like my kids because, as it turns out, they can’t access my thoughts and need actual concrete communication from me. Who knew?

So that’s my five now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Should we invite these two (pictured below) over to the blog for a play date?

Looks to me like they are friendly and know how to play nice! I think they’d fit in her really well

Fast but good weekend. Saturday I ended up spending all day making a cake for Special K’s birthday. It’s a simple drip cake, but I complicated it by deciding to make homemade lemon curd (filling), the most involved icing–Italian Meringue Buttercream, and I wanted to try lemon-white chocolate ganache for the drip.  Anyway, here’s the finished product:

I didn’t do a carved cake because I didn’t think Special K would want fondant

Sunday, Wizard and I went to breakfast then spent the rest of the day with Oldest, Special K and Turbo, and Youngest son came by to play with Turbo for a while.  We had ribs and chicken for dinner. And speaking of Turbo, I knew he wouldn’t care for the lemon cake, he’s a chocolate lover like his grandma. But I have bunch of various sprinkles, so I gave him some ice cream and let him pick any sprinkles he wanted for his topping. He loved it!

Oh and Grandpa watched Turbo while the Youngest took me, Oldest son and Special K on a Jeep ride. When we got back–you had to see it, Wizard and Turbo are both sitting still and innocent on the couch. Like I mean they were doing nothing. Turbo doesn’t do nothing. That kid has the energy of a tornado. Special K walked in, looked at both their faces, and her mom-radar kicked in. “Okay, Turbo, what did grandpa give you?”

“A cookie,” he promptly answered.

Evidently, Grandpa and Turbo had Oreos while we were gone. We all laughed. For the record, Grandpa gave him one cookie, and that’s perfectly fine.  But they really need to work on their innocent act, LOL!

This week is packed with various appointments like Maggie’s vet, hair appointment, the dentist, my mammogram and other stuff. It just all landed on the same week but that’s how life goes sometimes.

So that was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF! Let hop right into sharing five random things about our week;

1. It was a generally frustrating week for a few reasons.
2. My computer starting running slow yesterday online. I’m trying to figure out if it’s the internet or my browser. I’m going to tackle that again today. If it’s the browser, that’s all fixable. My McAfee assures me all is well there, but of course, things can slip through that protection. And my computer is old, so we’ll see.
3. The community mailbox on our street was broken into, so we all have to pick up our mail at the post office. I went this week to grab our mail, and when I came out I passed two sheriffs on horseback. It was both cool and funny. I have so many questions…my first being where the blazes are they keeping those horses? I’ve been to the police station (both police and sheriff work out of there) and have not seen a stable. That particular day had been a run around stress day, and that one moment of walking by the two officers on gorgeous horses made me smile. I’m going to assume these are happy, well adjusted horses who like their job. They weren’t shying or showed obvious signs of distress as cars and the usual city noises flowed around them. But I’m inexperienced with horses so I’m not a good judge, but still…they seemed happy enough to me.
4. We’ve tried and tried to find toys Maggie likes. She’ll play for less than a minute then stop. I finally found something she likes a bit more — a puppy chew bone that’s rubbery. She only chews on it a few minutes, but that’s like 10 times longer than the other toys, and it turns up in different places in the house so she carries it around. This makes me weirdly happy. One day I’ll find something non-edible she she flat out loves (besides me, LOL)!
5. Last I heard, we’re having Turbo and his mom and dad over this weekend to celebrate Special K’s birthday. She wants ribs and lemon cake, and I’m looing forward to that.

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!