A cake for the boss

It was my boss's birthday yesterday and I decided to bring in a cake to celebrate. I originally planned to give the recipe a test run at my mother's belated Chinese New Year celebration, but my dad kibboshed the idea because one of the dogs in attendance has been known to steal food off countertops (big dog, esp. when on hindlegs). So I broke my cardinal rule about not bringing in food that has not been proven a success before. It would be easy to get around that standard if I were making cookies, but when it's a layer cake, you can't exactly cut a slice and try it out the night before.

I was extra worried because I'd never successfully produced a layer cake. I tried once when I was in middle school, but the top layer didn't want to stay in place, and it was awful and I stayed away from layer cakes ever since. However, this Ina Garten recipe really tempted me and I gave in. It was really easy to make and the layers baked perfectly. I didn't use her frosting recipe though, because using a raw egg yolk in frosting sounds gross, and I was making it the night before, and I didn't have pasteurized eggs. I used the Magnolia chocolate buttercream recipe instead and all was good. The layers stayed where they were placed, and the frosting didn't fall off the sides of the cake overnight.

At work the next day, my boss, being the low-key type, agreed that I'd just put the cake out and he'd get the first piece. Absolutely NO SINGING allowed. I didn't invite anyone to partake, well except for Jennie, who had advance warning, but a crowd showed up for cake, not even knowing that it was for a birthday. Everyone liked the cake and there was even a remark of surprise that the cake wasn't store-bought. And there was the usual, "Why don't you open a bakery?" comment. The very idea scares me.

So I guess my boss got what he wanted with a low-key birthday, as people talked more about the cake than the fact he was one year older.

Traveling in style

I went on a short business trip last week to a cover/jacket printing plant in Maryland.

To transport our group down there, the vendor hired a "limbusine," which (as you figured) is a bus with the trappings of a limo. We were supposed to have a lovely bus done in creamy colors with wood accents and huge leather chairs, but that bus was in the shop. We wound up with the stripper bus, which you could also call the prom limo on steroids. There were strobe lights, subwoofers and speakers beneath our seats, whirling red laser lights, and that fake stars-that-change-color paneling. And three TVs. The picture on the left was taken on our trip back to NY, which was a lot more subdued than our trip down to MD.

Sometimes, travel was made difficult because of the sheer size of our vehicle. It made me think of the time I went on a cruise and we had to take a tender to shore because the ship was so large it couldn't even dock at the island. I kept imagining little golf carts to take us from the bus to the restaurant.

Codpieces and suspender thongs

This past weekend was quite big for movies and DVDs. Josh and I went to see the 300 on Saturday morning. New York City movie prices are horrible and Manhattan theaters don't have matinees, so you wind up paying about $11 per ticket no matter what time of day you go. Luckily, we go to the movies in Brooklyn now and it's $7.50 per ticket before noon. None of those NJ "matinees are before 6pm" deals.

When Josh started saying that he wanted to see 300 a couple months ago, I said that I'd go to see the practically naked guys flex their muscles in leather codpieces. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie is really good, considering I thought SinCity was just okay. 300 has a better message for the audience, and we had a good crowd that day. It was probably too early for the teenaged assholes. During the end of one of the battle scenes, another viewer in the audience shouted, "SPARTA!" and we all cracked up.

After the movie, we went to Manhattan and picked up Borat (who knew flourescent green suspender thongs for men were so hilarious?) and the first 8 seasons of South Park.

Technical difficulties

My laptop is not at its best right now. It was on and open on my bed a few nights ago when the kitties decided to have a race around the apartment. The laptop wound up being on their track and their galloping claws ripped some keys off the keyboard. Normally, I would pop them back on, but they were yanked off so powerfully that the little plastic frames that connect the keys onto the board have been broken apart as well. Thank goodness for warranties!

Since I work, it's hard to get a service call, so I'm sending my laptop back to Dell this week. I'm also hoping they'll replace my LCD because it has that smiley face effect going on thanks to putting pressure on the top when the laptop is closed.

Posting will be scarce until the laptop is back.

No loitering

Yesterday morning, I was puttering around my bedroom before leaving for work when I looked out the window to see a teenaged boy outside our building on the sidewalk. He was leaning against the car parked at the curb, just standing. Every time I was by the window for the next 15 minutes, I checked to see if he was still there, and he was, staring at our building. I started to feel creeped out.

Then the weirdest thing happened. He reached inside his coat by his neck and pulled out a wriggling white rat. He held it, letting it crawl back and forth between his hands and then put the rat back into his coat on his shoulder, where the little fellow did a few laps around his neck. He took the rat out a couple more times after that, and the next time I looked out the window, he was gone.

Josh never saw the rat, but he said he locked the front door quite firmly when he left before me.