1-31-09 Saturday (Happy Birthday Pearl)

Today, a cake made history. Not just any cake. It was a birthday cake. A cake we had made for our dear friend Pearl for her birthday. OK, I'll explain. Sometime in June of last year, we bought a birthday cake for Pearl. We had the man at the Publix bakery write "Happy Birthday Pearl". It came out horrible, but it was the last one they had of the kind Pearl would like. We bought it anyway. Later we noticed that the balloons and the writing were having a directional dispute. That made Nancy, Pearl, Laurie, Jim and I laugh even harder.

I follow a blog called "Cake Wrecks". They take professionally made cakes that have come out awful and post them with a wonderful commentary. I submitted Pearl's cake in September and today I was surprised to have found it posted. Click here to see. What's even more amusing is to read the comments users have submitted. At last count, this entry had 44 comments. "Cake Wrecks" is a huge blog.

We left the hotel and made our way to the Roseville Fairgrounds, where we were a few weeks ago. Good news! On the way here, I got some photos of that castle off I-80. Here's what I got:

After a quick setup at the campground, I called my Aunt Claudia. A 30 minute ride later, we arrived at her house. We decided to go have lunch at a Chinese restaurant that she likes. She drove. She's a small/petite kinda gal and is driving this big SUV that's been attacked by a lift kit. I'll get more photos of her, but here she is getting into the vehicle. The restaurant was called Fats. It was upscale Chinese and was awesome. We ordered an appetizer (Chicken in Lettuce Cup water chestnuts, pinenuts, and hoisin sauce) and 3 entrees to share. Food is served family style. Here's what we had:
Fat’s Almond Chicken with almond crusted chicken breast and zesty orange sauce. Genghis Khan Beef stir-fried flank steak over crispy wonton. Sweet and Sour Pork with pineapple, onions, and bell peppers.

Now it's time for a BAD DASHER! story. So the other day we went out and about and when we returned, we found destruction. This fine pleather recliner in our room complete with exotic texture, was torn apart. Dasher apparently was digging into the cushion to save a poor child who was undoubtedly stuck in it. We really must get Dasher to stop watching Lassie. Anyway, he destroyed it. the cushion is attached and can't be flipped. Maybe the hotel won't notice if we try to repair it. Thinking that we have been upholstery repairmen all our lives, we buy a $10.00 kit at Walmart. You know, the kind of kit that you mixed several colors together to make a new color. You apply the magical colored goo, spread it around and iron something somehow. Or something like that. Jim did it. The area was too big to handle, the iron couldn't get where was needed and it might just be worse than what Dasher had done. The picture below is the after. Generally, I prefer "after" photos that look better than the "before" photo. Mmmmmm, not so much here.

But... he IS cute.