DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY...

CELEBRATING SPECIAL PEOPLE POST

It has been a packed week with many, many

activities. First was our younger daughter's

graduation from the 8th grade. It was a

nice ceremony with a few songs by the

younger kids and an inspirational talk

given by the pastor.

Isn't technology great? Here are the scuzzies

(my daughter and 2 nieces) performing a

song during the graduation ceremony. My

brother is holding his iPhone and my mom

and niece are in WA state watching the

whole thing live--so cool!

Then on Thursday a friend that my husband went to

school with visited us from Poland. He works for

one of the cruise lines and this was one of the stops.

He was very sophisticated compared to us! He has

traveled the entire world on the cruise line, even

Antarctica! He showed us a map on his laptop

that has push pins of all the places he has visited

and the map was nearly full except for most

of Africa. He brought us a bottle of red wine

and I made Beef Bourginon with it.

I wonder what he thought after leaving here...

just look at the shirt my husband is wearing LOL

And then that same day it was our older daughter's

20th birthday! I was so slammed with orders that

I wasn't able to make a masterpiece for her, but

I did manage to make a red velvet with cream

cheese frosting that we all enjoyed very much.

Mostly because we got to have actual pieces of

cake, not just leftovers and scraps.

We surprised her with a ticket for her best

friend to come and visit her here while we

are gone in June. They will have so much

fun, play tourist and probably laugh way

too much.

In case you ever wondered what 100 gingerbread

men cookies looks like...

THIS WILL HELP

I received this information from a friend today about fixing the

budget problems the US is facing. It seems to me like all of the

"fixes" that are being proposed don't really make a drop in the

bucket as far as dollar amounts.

If the following ideas were enacted the dollar savings to the

American people would be staggering. I really don't understand

how this all got to the point it is at, but I have read what the original

Founding Fathers wanted for the leadership of America, and it most

definitely was not what we have now.

Congressional leaders were supposed to serve their term and then

someone else would be elected while that person went back to their

life. Somehow it has morphed into lifelong careers with more and

more benefits being voted in for themselves while they control the

entire structure of America.

Please read and if you agree, copy and paste into an email and send

it along.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only

3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it.

That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to

become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty

people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the

message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when

they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security

system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system,

and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay

will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the

same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.

Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in

Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned

citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home

and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take

three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. It is time.

WILL IT EVER GET DARK?

I woke up at 4:00am this morning and it

was bright light outside. Like, total daylight.

It can really mess with your mind! It seems

like time to get up, but unless you want to

be tired the rest of the day you have to

make your mind rest again and get back

to sleep. Some people put up dark

curtains, but that would make total

sense now, wouldn't it.

My husband just went ahead and got up.

He got a new iPhone, so 4:00 am is as

good a time as any to figure it out, right?

Some friends of my husband were heading

out to bear hunt for a week and called to

ask if he would take their gear out to the

remote cabin for them.

We have a drop bow boat that goes right up

to shore, so they took their boat and he

followed them with all the gear. They

anchored their boat in the bay and he was

able to go right to the shore with their

heavier stuff, which helps a lot.

Before he did that he went out early in the

morning and set a skate, then went back

and pulled it up after he dropped them off.

A skate is a long line that you lay along the

bottom of the ocean with 15-30 baited hooks

on it. The bottom fish smell the bait and grab

the hooks. This is a way to catch some

really big fish if you manage to pick the

right spots.

He must have picked the right spot because

there was treasure on the line when they

pulled it up:

These may be uber-ugly, but boy do they

taste good! They are Ling Cod and their

mouths are massive with very sharp teeth.

It is common to pull a full sized King Salmon

into the boat with one of these buggers

attached onto it.

We had fish and chips last night and I have to

say they are right up there with halibut as

far as taste--yum!

Ta da! The other skate he set had this nice

halibut on it. My husband realized that

the best way to deal with these guys onboard

is to hogtie them head to tail with rope into

a U shape. Just stunning them and sticking

them into a cooler is asking for disaster.

The reason being that they will act like they

are dead and then will come back to life when

you least expect it. Just picture a fish this

size onboard with you, flipping and swinging

that body around like a sheet of plywood!

People have had their legs broken, been

knocked overboard, and lost their gear

because of these buggers suddenly coming

back to life. No, tie them up like a sausage

and stick them in the back of the boat!

Sunday was my daughter's school picnic.

There are 6 students in the school, so their

families were invited and some members

of the church came along too. It was a

nice day, a little cool, so the fire felt really

good. If you click the picture you can see

the Alaska ferry arriving in the background.

Little boys and sticks...

Did any of you watch the Royal Wedding?

Remember the priest that married them?

After we ate the teacher sent the kids out on a

scavenger hunt. They picked a partner...

...and off they go! First prize was $10.00 to split. Now

that's worth running for.

Look at them out there searching for stuff...

The loot...

Kinda cool...seaweed stretched across the rocks and dried:

After the scavenger hunt the kids were given soakers

to, well, soak each other!

It was a fun day, nice and relaxing.

The latest in my older daughter's footwear.

?

WEDDING CAKE COMPETITION

This weekend was the Seafood Festival 2011

here in town. It is a huge celebration of the

biggest industry in southeast Alaska--

seafood!

There were 2 very well known chefs that

attended and prepared a 5 course gourmet

meal. The dinner was sold out and they

held a cake competition during the dinner.

Our theme was Ocean Dreams and the

cakes needed to be at least 2 tiers and

serve 40 people minimum.

The cakes were served as the dessert

course for everyone and the winner received

a $75.00 gift certificate to a store in town,

plus recognition and pictures in the paper.

Here is my cake that came in 2nd place:

I made the glass ball and bubbles out of

gelatin, as well as the seaweed. The sand

was sugar and the grass is buttercream. The

cake was 100% edible.

The winning cake:

It was fun, but lots and lots and lots of time!

The rest of the weekend was really busy with

fishing and a picnic that I will post about

tomorrow when I have a bit more time.

FOOD MATTERS

THE FLYING CAKE

You know that feeling of relief you get when

a looming project that has weighed heavily

on your mind is finally complete?

Well I feel that relief right this very moment.

The cake is gone, on it's way and out of my hands.

I haven't heard yet if it got there safe and sound,

but you can be sure if it hadn't I would have

definitely heard by now. The bride called me

already first thing early this morning and she

called me twice yesterday. Poor thing! It

must be torture not to be able to even see

what your cake looks like and to envision

it being moved around and loaded on the

plane by strangers, hoping that everyone

is being careful with it.

My husband came to my rescue yesterday and

built me a box out of thin plywood to enclose

the cake for transport.

I put the cake on white foam core and we then

adhered that down to a piece of plywood that

was cut to fit it. This gave a very sturdy base

so the cake wouldn't be bent or tweaked as

it was being moved. Other than tipping it,

I think tweaking the base is the worst thing

for a tiered cake because it causes the layers

to shift which can crack the icing and move the

decorations out of place.

I clearly marked on the box on all 4 sides

so anybody glancing at it would have a good

understanding about keeping everything

upright. I have no idea how many people

will have their hands on this thing at the

other end, so better to be safe than sorry.

Then my husband had the brilliant idea to

print a picture and tape it to the top of the

box so that anyone touching the box would

understand what is inside and know exactly

how fragile it is. Plus I put the ribbon for

the outside of the cake base in an envelope

for the bride to attach once the cake was

set up. I usually do that before delivering

the cake, but in this case it would have

had big holes in it from the screws in

the box.

The bride also ordered matching cupcakes, so

those went along in separate boxes...

...along with the decorated fish cookies on a

sealed platter for the groom:

Here is the official cake portrait right before being

sealed into the box:

All of the flowers were handmade and edible:

The flight was scheduled for a 10:30 departure, so after

an urgent phone call from me at 9:45 my husband came

home from the job site and quickly screwed the box to

the cake base:

and carried the heavy thing out to the car for me.

If you have never picked up a cake like this it

would probably surprise you how heavy all

of that butter and sugar can be!

Here we are at Harris Air with the goodies stacked

on a cart waiting to be loaded onto the plane:

The plane had just returned from a morning trip and

was still open on the runway:

A friend of ours was over at the airport, so he let us in

the secure area to check out the plane before they

reloaded it:

This is the front compartment where they told me

the cake would be sitting, but I don't think it was

going to fit. They had only 2 passengers scheduled

to fly, so they may have just put it in a regular seat,

I don't know, we didn't stick around to see.

Look at this beautiful plane! These planes don't look

this big when they fly by our window. They are very

busy now taking tourists all over the place for fishing,

hunting and flightseeing trips.

Another plane inside the hangar...

Fed Ex was coming in as we were standing there...

Coming back home over the bridge I saw there is a

cruise ship in town and we saw another one coming

on the horizon. The weather is very pretty and warm,

which always makes for a more pleasant visit.

Coming back by another harbor on the way home. I feel

very fortunate not to have to drive by concrete high

rises and strip malls to get home...

O.K., time to put my feet up for a couple

of minutes and take a refreshment break.

One more cake today and then I am finished!

FROM MY MOM

Click the picture to enlarge it

and read.

FRIDAY ALREADY?

We woke up to another gorgeous day! The temperature

fools you though because it looks warm but overnight

the neighbor's roof developed a bit of frost. It warms

up beautifully during the day and the part time

people are really pouring into town now.

It's funny because one of the ways you can tell

them apart is A) they are naturally tanned and

B) they are always in the grocery store lines

asking for something that isn't available.

Case in point: A tanned man in creased slacks

was holding up the entire line at the store by

insisting that there HAD to be at least one

piece of blah-blah-blah cheese in this

building. I say blah-blah-blah because

I have no idea what he was asking about.

It's not like we don't have cheese, we have a

lot of cheese. In fact, the deli case has some

pretty weird sounding cheese in it that did

not come from this country.

Plus I saw a man in the store last night

with a pomeranian under his arm.

Now that is one of my pet peeves, sorry.

I go into the grocery store for food and

the last thing I want are your dog's

cooties floating around my food. Blech.

Can't they sit in the car and wait for

you like all of the other canines?

Oh, and another tell-tale sign that you

are a visitor. Camo. Believe it or not,

head to toe camouflage is not what

people wear here everyday.

I saw a woman yesterday that had the

entire outfit, from her safari hat

to her hunting boots, all completely

covered in camo. And the reflector

sunglasses added the perfect touch.

I don't know if she was hiding from

someone or if she thought there was

going to be a grizzly walking downtown,

but she definitely caught my attention.

This morning:

Our older daughter worked all day and then went out

and split all the wood my brother gave us from the trees

in his yard. Our younger daughter went to school all

day and then went and worked with my husband at

his job site. I love ambitious kids, don't you?

Speaking of the job site, my husband was replacing windows

on a very old house. He pulled one of the original windows

out and there was a paper rolled up underneath it as

a shim. He unrolled it and it is an original newspaper

from Seattle in 1938. Look at the headline:

We are unrolling it slowly so it doesn't fall apart!

The beginning of the wedding order that is going by

plane out to a village; fish cookies for the groom:

Back down to the kitchen--Happy Friday!

HERE THEY COME...

First cruise ship of the year came this morning:

The good part is this means the stores in town will start

being open more hours now. The one and only craft-type

store we have has been closed all winter on Sunday and

Monday, so when I need ribbon and things it can get

frustrating that they are closed so much.

Well the weather is just as weird here as everywhere

else. One day it is warm and sunny, the next it drops

back down to 40 degrees. Yesterday it was warm

enough to stick my little dog out on the deck in

the sun and next thing I know he is crying out

there because he is getting hit by hail!

I have a very busy end of the week coming up

with a bit of a nerve-wracking twist to it. I am

making a 3 tiered wedding cake for one of

the outlying villages and I will be sending it

on a float plane to the wedding. Yes, I know,

it's madness. She also ordered 40 decorated

fish cookies for the groom and cupcakes.

She said it started off with them just going

to the justice of the peace to get married and

the word got out and now the entire town

is invited. Funny how that happens LOL

I have a plan in place to make the cake sturdy

enough to travel on the plane, I am just

hoping the weather is good so there isn't a

lot of bouncing around. The very last thing I

will do is pound a wooden dowel down through

the middle of the whole cake and that will

go down into the cake board and hold the

layers in place.

I'll be sure to post pictures of the process.

Now off to the kitchen for the day...