It must be fall....

.... I have my annual sinus infection. Love the feeling that I've been whacked in the face with a baseball bat. Oh no, really, I do.

My doctor said I may be allergic to ragweed just enough that the late summer bloom creeps up on me and eventually I get congested enough that I develop a sinus infection. He is a big fan of the Neti pot and.... ugh... have you ever done that? It burns! It burrrrrrns!!!

So next summer the plan he proposed is that I start taking allergy/ decons faithfully from Aug 1 to the first hard frost. So, don't make plans with me then... I'll be in a cloudy fog. Yeeehaw.

Going to lie down now... they're REALLY going to be happy to see me at choir tonight. Hi, Stanley! (sneeze) Hi, Bette (sniffle). Hi, Icky (cough)... I can already feel the love.

Margarita Fudge

Last night I was mulling over what to make APB as a gift for his birthday. I am sure he has a sweet tooth, because of our Cheesecake Tuesday habit. I also know he wanted to try a margarita cheesecake recipe he came across. (Technically... he mailed it to ME, so I conclude he wanted ME to try it and give him some or all of said cheesecake. Hah. )

So I came up with the idea of Margarita Fudge. (Not chocolate fudge. What I had in mind was a "white chocolate" base, with the lemon and lime flavors.) I used Google to search for a recipe... with no luck. Is the idea that bad? I didn't think so. I found a white chocolate fudge recipe to base my experiments on.

This morning I was trying to figure out when the liquor store opened so I could get some tequila. A good friend I happened to be chatting on the phone with said "Carly... maybe you don't want to be at the liquor store WHEN IT OPENS, looking for tequila." Point taken.

The same friend recommended using margarita mixer, like the ones you can find in a grocery store. I found a powdered version, called Mixer Stix. Bingo! I was worried about adding too much liquid and this seemed like a good option.

So I made batch one today, and it was somewhat of a success. I put in some lemon and lime zest, and sprinkled some kosher salt on the top of the fudge. As AB said "the taste of the salt comes and goes while you eat the fudge" which is what I was hoping for - the effect similar to how the salty taste of a margarita varies depending on which spot on your glass you drink from... Mmmmm.

I will attempt batch two when I get mini bottles of tequila and triple sec.

At last, now I will make my million$. Who am I kidding? I need to buy a Lotto ticket.

Its the thought that counts

So I had this great idea to make a Vera Bradley-esque pattern on B's cake. But I had crappy colors to work with. I had a fall design in mind and so I used some light brown and some green marbled leaves, and it was ugh. BAD.

Lucky for me I was able to peel off the entire top of the cake and scrap it. So now we have this. It's only marbled in one corner and I couldn't stop laughing at my bad flowers. But it's kind of cute considering I went into it with no real plan at all....

Happy Friday!

Carly(via Blackberry)

For my next trick

.... I will use these tools to make a cake for today's birthday girl.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Arrrrr

It be a lame pirate cake for me lad. And talk like a pirate day was last week so I'm done with that now.

I will simply add that my first attempts at his name were brown "rope" and it looked bad. I then tried brown and yellow and still it looked rather like pooo.

So pretend for me that 'tis a treasure map right there in front. Gahh. Although my fondant marbling was rather nice...

Carly(via Blackberry)

Fondant time

D's birthday cake. Any guesses?

Carly(via Blackberry)

Impatience

Technically that is not the proper spelling of this flower.

But I am waiting for official word of good news that I have been promised.... Waiting is difficult.

I planted seeds in this flowerpot right after I left my job. Now, finally, a flower. I didn't notice the buds... They were right under my nose.

Many years ago I volunteered at a wonderful organization. Now there is a very strong chance that I am going to work there. Waiting waiting waiting, for seeds to bloom.

PS: My children are eagerly awaiting their birthdays this week. I've got presents hidden pretty much right under THEIR noses.

Carly(via Blackberry)

He'll never last

D's bus driver, to the kids: "Stop yelling! It's my first day!"

Carly(via Blackberry)

Always remember

to put on your parking brake. Safety first! Yes, that is a cinder block.

Seriously though. How does he RELEASE the PB? Does this guy always have a co-pilot? And what does he tell them? "Pull it out really quick and then put it in the back..." - - there's no way for that conversation not to be loaded with TWSS jokes.

(Thanks AB for the photo. )

Closing up for the season

With a sniffle I read a passing remark about the Emmys being the last awards show of the season. There is nothing I enjoy more than sitting watching the various celebs on the red carpet and picking out my favorite gowns.

I'll give you my top five choices...

#2 Kristin Chenoweth's dress was beautiful but either she scraped off a bunch of the sequins or they were left off under her arms for comfort (that stuff gets scratchy, I have been to a number of black tie dinners in my day...). It ruined the almost perfect look, if you ask me.

#3 Sandra Oh - loved her metallic dress and especially the shoes.... a splash of color

#4 Jennifer Love Hewitt - for some reason I really liked the flowing yellow dress

# 5 Carrie Ann Inaba - I only saw the top half of her dress, but it looked like her hair and makeup and accessories were well put together (If it was a mermaid dress, I retract any and all compliments)


BUT ANGELA KINSEY! Oh my!!! #1 !!!You will never see her look like this on an episode of The Office.







Fabulous. Winner. Hands down.


I adore Seal, but the combination of Heidi Klum's baby bump with her mermaid dress was just WRONG in so many ways. (On a related note: Tina Fey, please lose the black dress mama, you're gorgeous. )

Blake Lively's boops looked great, but it wasn't the dress, which was unexciting even though it was red. It was her being young and perky, and... why do I suddenly have a headache? I will Knot comment on Leighton's dress. Ugh. They should find out who Hayden Panettiere uses. Really.

Raspberries for people I thought could do much better ... Kardashian (pick one) , Padma, ... Christina Applegate and Sarah Silverman who were drowned by their dresses... I need to go work out now. Adios!

Cash crop

This is my entire harvest for this year.

I estimate they cost me at least $7 each not counting my time spent planting and watering seeds, buying "good" dirt and digging up a small section near the porch... and a few stakes that are still much taller than my plants.

I shall eat them in a little while, with coarse salt (and a tiny pinch of sugar), pepper, and olive oil.

They had better be DELICIOUS.

Carly(via Blackberry)

The other lonely hearts club

Or, the Why Do I Feel Like the Octomom of Corporate America's Dating World...


For the single gal, Saturday night can be very dismal, as you sit home in fuzzy slippers imagining everyone out having a fabulous time, wearing beautiful clothes and clinking glasses and laughing.


For the unemployed gal, Monday morning brings the overpowering joy of filing for unemployment insurance ("no, I did NOT refuse any job offers last week, I worked ZERO days, I am NOT back to work full time"). Same fuzzy slippers, but this time imagining everyone standing around with hot cups of coffe, chatting about America's #1 Jackass, or that cute girl who threw the foul ball back.


Having nowhere to go is freedom and imprisonment at the same time. There are very few people who can take a two hour lunch these days... and you can't really stop in and hang out with your friends while they're at work without them getting a little bit twitchy.


The time that I thought I would spend the MOST time on my hobbies has turned into The Time Where I Do Things For Other People Because I Have Time Because I'm Not Working. The flip side of that for a procrastinator is that the more time you have, the more time you can waste on things like Facebook quizzes and Twitter. Or :::cough::: blogs. And yet I also blog less than usual now that I'm not working. Although I have finally solved that problem of being a CraigsList virgin and I'm having a garage sale. Please, kill me.


It's a mixed up, upside down feeling. The world will thwap you again and again in the face - suddenly EVERY sales clerk asks me if I would like to open a credit card with the store to save 15 % on this purchase. I don't really want to say "uh, no, out of work, don't plan on opening new credit cards nowadays"... even though in terms of cash flow, things are good for now. Every purchase is already a little bit dicey ... "should I buy this? I should Wait Until I Get A Job." Do you go on and live your life, or do you wait for that wedding ring / new cubicle to make decisions?


And interviews? Blind dates, in all their gruesome glory. What do I wear? Will I get lost on the way over? Will they be nice? Oh god don't be late Carly, for god's sake leave the house on time and don't be doing something stupid at the last minute to make yourself late. And don't have anything stuck in that little spot in your front teeth, and don't trip, I know you've been in flip flops all summer and now you're wearing stockings (OMFG I hate stockings with every bit of my tattered soul) and high heels but for god's sake don't trip when you walk up to The Interviewer. Don't make the wrong jokes. Don't spill the bottle of water they so nicely offered, all over the table.


And then AFTER the interview, the torture truly begins. Wait for the phone call. Does he like me? Does he like someone else more? Should I call? Will he call? Should I email? I should email. What should I email? F-ck.


I don't want to date anymore. I am somewhat discouraged by the thought of replacing my cubicle job with another cubicle job. But summer's over and all the cute boys, uh, good jobs are taken and now I am going to have to decide what to do with myself .

They don't call it Monster.com for nothing ;-)

Homework

My children were talking about a poem today that D had to read. She actually helped him with the essay questions. In the course of their discussion they came up with this insight, and I had them write it out for me.

I loved it because I am struggling with identity issues now, as I apply for jobs similar to the last one I had. I want to be doing different work in five years but for at least one of my options I have to do some tech retraining.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Seriously

It's hilarious... I see a squirrel dart frantically off when I approach, and then I trip over a half ripe sort of weird klunky fruit. They are hiding them everywhere.

You won't believe where this one was...

and then this one wasn't hidden at all...

and there was one buried in here...

but this (a zoom out from the first photo in this post...) made me laugh the hardest.. see it?

Attention critters

Please, please, stop leaving these weird clunky fruits on my doorstep. (Not to mention the other ones I've found on the perimeter of my household.) It's not hidden! I see it.

Thank you.

Carly(via Blackberry)

Clicks and random sidetracking

This week I had some success with some of my photos.

Out of the blue someone from Schmaps (google it!!)contacted me via my Flickr feed to request permission to use a photo I took at the Empire State Plaza. Wahoooo! It is not final yet... They were contacting finalists though. No prize $$$ but it's still pretty cool to think that I would have a photo credited online. It's a photo I took of the Egg, from across the fountains, with the yellow sculpture in front. The sky is all blown out but she liked it anyway.

As I write this my trashy neighbors (who had a mattress leaning against the back of their house all winter) are loading stuff into a trailer. Please please please move. I think they are emptying their garage; when last I saw it there was junk from floor to ceiling. Please please move!!

My other neighbor was in her driveway cleaning out the cages for her birds yesterday. Her bird kept screaming "DAAAVID" in a way that made me think the dude gets in trouble a little too often.

Not like my Mom's bird who screams things at the dogs like "WHAT did you DO?" And "GET in your BED". But that's another story.

Where was I ?

Another email was from my Meetup photography group. For an upcoming speech by Richard Florida at the Palace theater, they are looking for photos of NY state and the region I live in to use/project on a backdrop. I sent four in, and mentioned other locations that I had, and got an email back asking me to submit some of those. Again, no money, but I would win a free ticket to the speech. If you remember me taking a photo of the sun streaming through the windows of an abandoned building (while I drove down the highway), that was one of the photos...

Well, I am sitting on my porch enjoying the weather we should have been having ALL SUMMER but didn't... So I will sign off for now. Adios.

Wait... One more story. Today my daughter and I ran into her former Spanish teacher. It was funny because B is in high school now and she got a 71 on the state Spanish proficiency, so she never has to take Spanish again. Senora offered to help her w/ Spanish if she needs it. Ummm, yeah...not so much.

(My daughter carries a fully loaded purse. Two types of antibacterial lotion- -girly scented and plain, kleenex, a mirror, a pen, pencil, AND a Sharpie, a deck of cards, money, her phone, gum,.... Not sure what else but I may have McGyver in my house. She's prepared. I just needed to share that). Adios!


Carly(via Blackberry)

Never Forget

Get on the bus

Well I dragged my daughter out of the house sobbing and screaming and pushed her onto the bus this morning.

Ok, I'm kidding. I told her to quit being a wuss and get on the damn bus.

You know I didn't mean that either, right?

But she did cry a little bit in the house this morning. And yesterday. And the other day. It's been a big day looming over her.

It's hard to go from a class of fewer than 15 kids in your entire grade to 100+. So we joked about sending her to school with a little one-shot bottle of rum, just to make a good first impression and all.

Yesterday, to distract her, we went to Sephora. My plan was twofold... A sharpener and some eye makeup. I bought some sephora lip liner down in Pitt, and I love the color, but for the life of me, I can't get a sharpener that will fit it because it's an odd size, a bit wider in diameter than a standard slim pencil but not as wide as a "bigger" standard. It's making me crazy. So that part of the mission was a "fail" and I have a very cranky email waiting for someone at Sephora's customer support team today. (Sorry, but geez. Wtf. ). I am going to use my son's jacknife to sharpen it, so help me.

I also wanted her to have a little bit of makeup in the right colors so that she can wear it if she wants. The consultant in the store who helped us did give us some good colors but her own eyes were REALLY "dramatic" so
I got nervous. Luckily my daughter has not gotten on the bandwagon of Pushing Mom's Buttons yet so she did a very subtle application this morning.

Pray that she can open her locker at least once today. That will be one of the big hurdles for her that no IEP can help her work around. Riiiiiiiight, lefffffffffft, right, good luck. Oy. I told her to just give her combination to someone cute and not leave anything valuable in the locker. Does that make me a bad mother??



Carly(via Blackberry)

Books

.... that I would like, in no particular order.... so here they are alphabetically... they all seem like very fun books...

• Bent Objects: http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/
  
• Cake Wrecks: http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
  
• The Pioneer Woman's cookbook: http://thepioneerwoman.com/my_cookbook/
  
• Post Secret... (there are actually several books here... ) http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
  

these are currently on the "when I have a job, I hope I can treat myself" list.

(Which is where the iPhone is, and a "good" camera, and so on...but these are much smaller purchases!)

PS: Send good thoughts my way; I had an interview for a job that I would *love* to land. The interview went well, now I am "patiently waiting". Heh.

IMG00282-20090906-1933.jpg

A horrible, grisly murder at the birthday party....

Carly(via Blackberry)