Sunday, February 12, 2006

Not Eggsactly as Planned

Ever made eggs with these? It all started by watching Food Network. There was a show (I think it was Sugar Rush) that showed a guy making a cake to look like a fried egg. He used white fondant for the base and then a cake which he cut out a cone on filled with yellow colored cream stuck the cone back in and covered with yellow fondant. When you cut into the cake the cream poured out like the yolk of an egg. It was very cool and something I knew Megan would like as she loves fried eggs. And with her birthday coming up I started planning. Never having worked with fondant I immediately threw that out of the design, and figured I could start with a jelly roll size cake baked in a cookie sheet as the base, I have a great shaped frying pan (not so great for frying burgers) that I could use for the yolk. As I progressed in my thinking I wanted to go smaller to individual eggs, so I came up with sugar cookies for the egg whites and ice cream scoops for the yolks. The inside of the yolks could be cool whip. All properly dyed to the appropriate colors. So while Megan was taking the ACT's yesterday I baked sugar cookies, I tried pattying them out into different shapes but they all kind of formed into ovals while cooking. I colored the ice cream yellow and put it into mini muffin pans to form into yolks and put into the freezer to refreeze solid. I colored the cool whip yellow and put it into a different bowl in the frig so she would not see it.

I picked her up from her morning of testing and we went down to Saginaw for a day of shopping, we had a great time and each got some new clothes and discounted calendars. You may all see some of the questions from the daily calendars start appearing on her blog. After a late lunch at Long John Silvers we came home and I made her make her own cake.
She decided on brownies instead of cake and I had her make it in 8" round pans so it could be a layer brownie. She also saw some individual silicone mini muffin cups that I had picked up because I could not remember if I had mini muffin pans at home or not. She decided she wanted to make Reese cups in them. We used the extra chocolate to spread between the layers of the brownies and will dust the top with powder sugar using the decorative stencils that Kathy gave me. A picture will probably go in here was I have that part done.

This morning I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a can of air. One thing I had not fully considered was how to stick the ice cream on the cookie. I thought a blast of cold air should do it. I sent Megan to her room while I prepared the surprise. First mistake was I should have sprayed the muffin pans so the ice cream would come out. Second mistake I should have hollowed out the formed ice cream while it was still soft. Third mistake was not considering that the compressed air would blow the ice cream and cool whip across the room. But all in all I don't think they came out too bad. Now I have to go start dinner.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

What's wrong with the lamp

Megan happens to love her lamp.

Okay so it's been a while, Mom just mentioned that even Adam is more current than I. But what can I say my life is totally boring. Work is work, nothing exciting, unless Aged Debt reports turn you on. In which case I'll let you know my Medicaid Aged Debt report is currently 11 pages, it was 40 when I started.

The weather has been incredible for Michigan winter. We are going through a cold spell where the temperatures are actually hovering around normal. I don't recall a single day so far when it was below zero, even for a wind chill. I'm certainly not going to complain about that, although I have met some people who do. When we were having 20 degrees one day and 50 the next some fools were saying, "I wish Mother Nature would make up her mind" I on the other hand knew that when Mother Nature made up her mind it wouldn't be on 50 degree temperatures, so I was willing to take them whenever I could.

I think I have finally manged to actually cancel my voyager (corecomm) account. Getting a divorce was easier (but then again I remarried the same guy so maybe that doesn't count) and I mentioned that (not the remarriage part) to them in the last of many communications with them. It started when I received an email stating that my account was up for renewal and since they had a credit card on file all I had to do was nothing unless I wanted to change something in which case I could call there customer support 24/7. I knew the credit card number they had was no longer valid and I did not want to continue my account since I was getting the DSL, so I called the customer support and told them I wished to cancel my account. I was told that I could only cancel an account M-F 8-5. I explained that those were exactly the same hours I worked (ok so I fudged a little) and that I was not available to call during those hours, I also explained that the credit card number they had was no good and since they couldn't get any money they would just cancel it then. Little did I know. I continued to get email from the voyager account, nothing but spam, but it was still coming so I knew the account was still active. I sent them an email to cancel my account, which I knew they did not do since I had asked this on my first phone call. The reply I received said "we do now accept cancelations by email" I replied with if you do "now" (which I knew to be a typo of "not) then take this as my cancellation. The reply told my to call customer service 24/7. I then received a dunning notice from them that they would turn my account over to collections if I did not call and give them a current credit card. Of course I could call 24/7, and since I received the card on Saturday when I was home to get the mail I called then. Again I was told that I could only cancel on M-F 8-5, again I explained that I was not available then. The kid then told me I could designate someone else to call for me, I asked his name and he replied JR, I then designated him to close my account. He said that he was not authorized to do that, and I explained that I had just authorized him. Not trusting him to do this I did call on Monday, after talking to the first rep I had to hold for someone else, and expain all over again. I then received an email again asking for a current credit card to use. I replied to the email asking what more I could do I called their customer support during their appointed hours. The reply was that I could fax my request so I printed the email and faxed it. This weekend when I pulled in my email there was no voyager spam. I really like the DSL and as I type this at Mommy's I am again reminded of why.

Hopefull there will be pictures this weekend of Megan's birthday cake. I saw the perfect one on the Food TV show Sugar Rush and have been perfecting it in my mind for weeks. It will be so cool if it turns out right, almost better than the lamp. Look down there it is again.