Will someone talk to me? Pleease?

[Sugarlump]

details taste shape colour cream etc mmmmmmmmmm feed my fantasy please say chocolate!!!!

Ha, no not chocolate.  In fact, it was just one of these, but with a few hundreds & thousands sprinkled on top.  And actually it wasn't as yummy as I made out; it was a little sickly sweet and I wish I'd got a shortbread biscuit-y type of thing instead. 

I want a cream cake now ... may have to drive to tesco's and hunt one out...
can't remember when I last bought myself a cream cake. i might treat myself to a decent bottle of wine or some olives or even twiglets but never think about cream cakes ... 

[jbeany]

Have you tried cake bites?  You bake a regular cake (cheat, just use a box mix) then when it is cool, break it all apart into really fine crumbs with your hands.  (Takes a lot less time than it sounds like.)  Mix it with about 12 ounces of frosting (about 3/4 of a store-bought frosting tubbie) by smushing it all together with the back of a spoon until it's sticky and almost like Play-doh.  Roll it into 48 1-inch balls and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill.  Transfer to fridge until you are ready to dip them into melted chocolate or those colored candy melts.  Add sprinkles (Quickly if you use candy melts - they set faster than chocolate) and put the last of the melted mix into a plastic bag.  Snip off a tiny corner and use the rest to make swirls or designs across the top.  Let set firmly and then hide them if you want to get any for yourself....

I did lemon cake with lemon frosting, then dipped in white and semi-sweet chocolate.

Check out bakerella.com - I got the recipe from her new book.  (And logged on the same day she announced that she hadn't been posting because her kidney transplant had failed after 15 years and she just started D again.)

[Sugarlump]

Lemon cake and lemon frosting "sigh" that would be so good ....can't believe I am having "cake fantasies!" 

[Brightsky69]

well...I may wake up tomorrow on an unpaid vacation.

[willowtreewren]

We were going to go camping this weekend at Big South Fork National Recreation Area. EVerything was coming together. We had a staff meeting so we got off work early, and there was nothing else on the agenda until our book club at 4:00 on Sunday. We did the weekend grocery shopping last night and started packing up the camper. I had the refrigerator food all ready in the fridge.

Got home and called to see what would happen if there were a shut down and were told that we would have to leave in the morning in that case. Since it is a two hour drive, we decided that it wasn't worth the risk.

Oh well. We have plenty to do at home anyway. 

[okarol]

I love all the plants with fresh green leaves, here are a couple photos from my street

[Sugarlump]

My purple and white tulips are dancing (in the wind) in my front garden. So good to know spring is here 

[Poppylicious]

Have you tried cake bites?  You bake a regular cake (cheat, just use a box mix) then when it is cool, break it all apart into really fine crumbs with your hands.  (Takes a lot less time than it sounds like.)  Mix it with about 12 ounces of frosting (about 3/4 of a store-bought frosting tubbie) by smushing it all together with the back of a spoon until it's sticky and almost like Play-doh.  Roll it into 48 1-inch balls and pop in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill.  Transfer to fridge until you are ready to dip them into melted chocolate or those colored candy melts.  Add sprinkles (Quickly if you use candy melts - they set faster than chocolate) and put the last of the melted mix into a plastic bag.  Snip off a tiny corner and use the rest to make swirls or designs across the top.  Let set firmly and then hide them if you want to get any for yourself....

I did lemon cake with lemon frosting, then dipped in white and semi-sweet chocolate.

Check out bakerella.com - I got the recipe from her new book.  (And logged on the same day she announced that she hadn't been posting because her kidney transplant had failed after 15 years and she just started D again.)

These sound scrummy.  I'm planning on spending half a day nearer Easter baking ... I think these may make it onto my Must Bake list.

 

[Sugarlump]

Can I come round for afternoon tea then??? 

[jbeany]

bakerella also gets all fancy and shapes them into fun things like baby chicks and sticks them on lollipop sticks.  I wasn't that ambitious!

[Sugarlump]

Who is this bakerella person and why doesn't she live next door to me!!!! 

[jbeany]

Lol! 

http://www.bakerella.com/

[Sugarlump]

She'd be my ideal next door neighbour (after David Beckham of course!)

[cariad]

The most aggravating day yesterday. My older son had baseball practice at 5:30 in the afternoon. Gwyn, being the sportier of the two of us, was going to take him. I was to pick our four-year-old up, which I did around 5. As I was leaving, I ran into Gwyn on the street and rolled down the window to say a few words to him before leaving. It was my second trip to the school that day, the first of course being in the morning.

OK, on the way home I tell Liot that we will have the house to ourselves and can just relax, grab a snack and a drink, watch the television or play on the iComputer (the iMac they got for Christmas). I walk in the door, take off my shoes, Liot runs upstairs (two flights) to turn on his iComputer, am just settling into my slippers when the phone rings. Gwyn has a flat and does not have the tools to change his tire. I grab this T-shaped spanner that he wants and explain the situation to Liot who is so amazingly understanding he just says "OK. Just give me a minute to shut down the iComputer." I pack up a few drinks and snacks and return to the school, take Aidan down the road to his practice, get there and he has somehow forgot his mitt at school. Since I packed all of his things for him together, this defies explanation. Return to the school and Gwyn says he managed, with a little help from maintenance, to get the nuts off the cap. I've known Gwyn twelve years, so I tell him that since the spare is not on the vehicle, he needs to call me with plenty of warning if he is going to need me to turn around and return to the school because something has gone wrong. He swears yet again that he has it sorted, that he will have Aidan his glove within a few minutes and I can go home and relax.

You see where this is going.... I get home and see that I've missed a call. I ring Gwyn back and he did not actually get the nut off the cap, he just thought he did. Aidan does not have his glove, our car is stuck behind the school, Aidan needs to be collected in half an hour, and I have to explain to Liot yet again that we have to get back in the car and do this a third time. I bribed him with my iPhone. Gwyn requests that I grab his collection of spanners from the garage. I remind him that we get free roadside assistance with my gold AmEx and urge him to call them. A friend of ours, one of our transplant support people, passed by and lives right across from the baseball field, so he offered to deliver the glove to Aidan. Thank you, that's twice you've come to our rescue! I deliver the tools to Gwyn, go sit in the carpark of the baseball diamond, collect Aidan, stop back at the school and Gwyn tells me that no matter what he does, he cannot get that last nut loose. I tell him I am not driving to that school a fifth time, so he must find his own way back. He tells me that he noticed that his other tire is flat, too, and that the roadside assistance person is stuck in traffic. Gah! It's a nightmare.

So, this all started around 5PM, and at 7:45 Gwyn tells me that the mobile tire repair service from AmEx made it there, he got the nut off by using some sort of gigantic tool, and even though he is really not supposed to for some reason, he repaired Gwyn's sidewall tire allowing Gwyn to drive it home, and hopefully drive it to a tire shop on Monday morning.

Not a great way to start the weekend. It will cost us $675 to replace all four tires. Bah, humbug.

[del]

We went for 2 walks in the woods today and for a little ride on our new quad.  I even drove it today!!!  Lot easier than the old one. This one has power steering and has a lot more power.  Old one was about a 30 horsepower motor and this one has 60 horsepower.  I even make the tires spin!! 
I think I had a side effect to a statin drug I was taking for high cholesterol.  I have a really bad shoulder and neck. Have to talk to my doctor on Tuesday.

[Poppylicious]

It will cost us $675 to replace all four tires. Bah, humbug.

*ouch*

We're in the process of buying a brand new car.  The day we had to send Tabatha to Rainbow Bridge (to frolic with all the other animals) Blokey got into a fight with a White Van Man.  It was his first accident in for ever and the damage, although minor, amounted to a couple of hundred quid.  On top of that the EBS (I think) broke and that's up to £800 to fix! 

*sigh*

Our brand new car is patiently waiting for us - please keep your extremeties crossed that our current car gets fixed and there's no delay (or extra cost) in bringing our new baby home!

Why is it that people won't play me at Scrabble on Facebook.  Is it because I is so good?

 

[cariad]

I sympathize, Poppy! I thought marrying an automotive engineer would help with the car issues, but I think many times it only makes them worse.

The other day my younger son ran around the corner from the playroom and said "Mom, Mom! You know that Kitty Boo is a marsupial for his feelings!"

He had been reading his National Geographic Tag Reader facts about animals. Kitty Boo is the name of his Kimochi Cat, which is a stuffed toy cat with a pocket on his front where you can place all of these different feelings - little soft circles with faces drawn on them and the name of the feeling on the back.

My little boy is obsessed with animals. We were in my room watching one of his television programs and he asked me what dinosaur I would want to be if I could be any. I had no idea how to answer so replied with one of his favorites, struthiominus. (sp?) He told me he would be a velociraptor. Then we got into what they ate and I told my son I had to be a herbivore because I did not like meat. He broke the news to me that Struthiominus is an omnivore as if here were telling me the most distressing news ever. Then he suggested I should be "Euplocephalus - they're stronger and mightier than Ankylosaurus!" They are also herbivores. I had to get him to tell me the name several times, then still had to look it up on the Internet to have a hope in the world of spelling it out.

[MooseMom]

"White Van Man"....I remember them!!  Do they still have billions of traffic cones on just about every motorway and A road in the UK?  I remember there used to be a toll-free number you could call to report traffic cones that were there for seemingly no reason at all.

[Sugarlump]

Oh yes we have more orange traffic cones than people in the UK!
Especially on the A14 and A11 on my way to clinic.
I often get urge to drive at them and knock them all flying!     

[Poppylicious]

Oh yes we have more orange traffic cones than people in the UK!

And don't most of them reside in uni student bedrooms?  Speaking of mislaid road signage items, when we moved into a rented flat there was a Lollipop Ladies sign in the cupboard.  When we moved out we just left it there; I really wish we'd brought it with us.  (I don't know why.)

MM, the BBC have just made a comedy called White Van Man - it's not bad, but I'm surprised it took so long because the opportunity for White Van Man comedy has been around for aeons.  Do you have White Van Man in the States?

[ODAT]

Going to a redwings game today - it is a "teambuilding" for our department. We get the company's suite and get fed. lol

Looks like the weather will co-operate. Hope the wings win!

[cariad]

ODAT, that's the best way to see a sports team. Have fun and good luck to the wings.

I actually have real clothes on for the first time in days and am going to attempt to go out and get some things done: labs, buy a present for one of my son's friends, perhaps grab some groceries. I contracted shingles AGAIN (last time in 2007, followed by baby getting chicken pox from me, also contracting coxsackie which gave me viral meningitis which almost killed me. I HATE YOU, HERPES ZOSTER!!!) My left leg feels like it's been badly burnt, but I see improvement today - I don't want to run into a hospital and shout just amputate already!! I am staying away from narcotics as long as possible so that I can drive without being a danger. I can take Ibuprofen again! Finally seeing how the other half lives!

[Poppylicious]

Shingles?  Yikes.  I've never had the misfortune, but I know people who have and I understand that it is incredibly painful.  You poor thing.  Enjoy the Ibuprofen! *huggles*

[cariad]

Shingles?  Yikes.  I've never had the misfortune, but I know people who have and I understand that it is incredibly painful.  You poor thing.  Enjoy the Ibuprofen! *huggles*

Aw thanks, Poppy. Wow, is there anything that huggles can't cure?

Success - got my labs drawn and a trip to Target. How I spent $160 I don't know, but Easter candy, present and card for Aidan's good friend (Pokemon black version for Nintendo DS in case you are just dying to know...) presents to hang onto to give to the kids for their summer birthdays, and Clif bars for breakfast are all purchased.

Gee, I guess there's my answer to the high total, huh?

[Poppylicious]

Aw thanks, Poppy. Wow, is there anything that huggles can't cure?

Huggles cure?!

*gasp*

I'm slightly embarrassed now, and may keep all my *huggles* for myself ...

Following a two week Easter break and a Bank Holiday Monday, I had three hours at work this morning.  Wednesday's I don't work and I'll have four hours at work on Thursday before the long four-day Bank Holiday weekend (with thanks to Will and Kate).  Life is somewhat bliss. 

(and would be more blissful if there was no work involved at all)