Double C-note Entry!!

Yup, 200th post. Should that mean anything? Make me reflective? Have me analyzing my progress over the past 3 1/2 years so I can coalesce the vapor of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension?

Probably...but it won't. And kudos to those of you who got the reference...

So here's how my weekend went...

It was mildly uneventful, with a few minor exceptions. The weather was just downright frickin' BEAUTIFUL! Saturday started with sleeping in just a tad, checking e-mail & Facebook, and some chores (laundry, dishes, etc.). It seemed like it was going to be a fairly boring weekend. About noon, my roommate, Paulie B., asked that I drive him to Ikea for some "knick-knacery" to deck out the digs in. I had never been to Ikea. I had heard over the years about the wonders of Ikea - the simple and functional design, the rediculously affordable wares, the fun and festive shoping environment - but never made the 1/2 hour trek to the nearest one in Canton. As I walk in the door, expecting some kind of Sam's Club-ish warehouse, I'm greeted to the smell of cinnamon rolls and offered a Sweedish meatball...and I was smitten. Any store that greets be with comforting smells, a friendly smile, AND meat is okay in my book!!

Paulie and I browsed for about 2 hours, finding all SORTS of great furniture, rugs, housewares, and odds-and-ends that would be PERFECT for the House of Pauls, meanwhile I was making my own mental shoppping list for when I eventually move back into my own house. Of course, as I'm dead broke , I simply bought a 6-pack of the cinnamon rolls that had seduce me upon entering, and 2 8-packs of wooden clothes hangers for $3.95 each to start replacing the bent and warped wire ones in my closet. A seemingly insignificant purchase, but for some reason, the quality and price had me squealing like a teeny-bopper at a Jonas Brother concert! My first Ikea purchase!!! It was like a rite of passage.

From there, we head back, I hang my fresh, clean laundry on my new hangers (yay!), and Val stops by in her new ride she bought exclusively for getting herself to California in a couple weeks. We pile the lawnmower into the back and head to her friend Pashka's place so I can mow her lawn. As Pashka was out of town and unavailable to visit, Val decides to head to the Salvation Army for some shopping during their 1/2 clothing sale while I tend to the yard work. I finish quickly and I cool off in the breezy evening and have a nice chat with a friend on the the phone while I wait for Val to pick me up. We then head to help out my ex-wife by mowing her front yard. After I'm done mowing and Aunt Val's done chatting up her niece, we pile back into the new ride and she drops me home to have a peaceful evening at home.

Sunday was productive and peaceful. I woke up and made scrambled eggs and thick-cut bacon for me and the roommate (the place STILL smells like bacon - yummmmmm). As the beautiful day wears on, I helped Paulie vacuum up the varitable RUG of dog hair underneath the washer & dryer, sweep the floors. I notice the neighbor next door edging his sidewalk. I had planned on this as one of my chores for the day, but as he has crept a good 3 feet onto our property with his edging, I couldn't put it off. As I'm slicing into the 1-foot-square patches of turf that had overgrown onto the cement over the past half-decade, my neighbor offers his garbage can for toting the remains to my compost pile. Then, the neighbor across the street offers his wheel barrow! As I finish, my next-door neighbor helps me shovel the dirt & grass and grabs his blower to clear my sidewalk! As I admire my clean and clear sidewalk, I'm suddenly struck with the notion that I have completely awesome neighbors and live in a great town.

After that was done, Paulie, as a gesture of gratitude, takes me out to see the new Transformers movie. I don my Autobot belt buckle and we head to the Star John R. Cineplex. It was fun. A decent enough movie, heavy on mind-blowing special effects and way cool action sequences, but painfully thin on plot or character development. The main character's parents were better developed than anyone else, and have the least screen time. A good popcorn-munching flick, but a bit of a disappointment and PAINFULLY long at nearly 2.5 hours. On the plus-side, it DID have Devastator, Soundwave, & Rampage (who was the only robot that looked even remotely like his original counterpart).

After that, I headed out to Caribou Coffee in Royal Oak for their Open Mic night. I had hoped to have my quartet sing there, but asking 2 days ahead of time was a bit too last-minute - especially for our newly employed bass, who had to work. I showed up with my ukulele a bit late, but James, a Caribou employee, friend, and Blockbuster customer, was glad to have someone else to fill some time, as the roster was kind of light that night. I sat with my sister and we chatted and played on our laptops while we waited for my name to be called. After listening to some good (and not-so-good) guitar players and some mediocre poetry by an octogenarian, I get up there. I hadn't planned ANYTHING, but decided to try Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" - and made a miserable mess of it. The crowd was very forgiving, and I played it up with good humor, gracefully leaving the stage with a witty quip. As the evening progressed, Valerie and I decided to try something together, so we ducked int the alley and tried "Lucky" by Jason Mraz & Cobie Caillet. It sounded decent, so we went up and tried it with the following pallet-cleansing results:


From there, I went home and hit the hay, satisfied with a weekend off great weather, some great fun, and some productivity. This week's packed to the gills with quartet rehearsal, chorus rehearsal, dinner with my baby girl (while my big boy is off at summer camp), work, and who-knows-what for the holiday weekend! As usual, I'll fly by the seat of my pants and make the best of it!

Bonding over Baked Goods…

Tonight is the Cub Scout’s Father-Son Cake Decorating contest. An excellent idea and a great way to get the dads out of their “manly Pinewood Derby” mode and into something a bit different. For me, of course, never having been into the “manly endeavors” in the first place, this was right up my alley.

Sonya and Jeremy were absolutely giddy about designing and making their Pinewood Derby cars, as well as helping Liam with his. I was totally and completely ambivalent. I was pretty busy at the time and didn’t have time to think of a decent design and have never been great with powertools. Oh, I can sculpt something pretty cool – given the time – but I knew I wouldn’t have the time to devote to a decent-performing and simultaneously cool-looking car that they did.

So I just sat back, let them spend the nights up until 4am polishing axel nails, sanding the body, researching graphite lubricants, arguing colors, and making a mess of the living room. I complimented Liam, Sonya and Jeremy on their designs and offered encouragement, but I just didn’t have time to make one myself. I lamented not being a part of it to a degree, but aside from being too busy, I just wasn’t interested in a project where performance was a key factor. I’m an artiste, not a grease (or in this case, graphite) monkey!

Then came the next contest: a father-son cake baking and decorating contest. It didn’t have to taste wonderful or go fast, just be edible and look cool. Now THAT I can do! I can turn almost anything into something cool looking with a bit of ingenuity and the right materials. Hell, even with the WRONG materials, I can make due!

We had almost forgotten about it until Friday night and had no real plan. Sonya, Liam and I have gone over a few concepts when we first heard about it. Extravagant, elaborate plans involving movable parts and such, but didn’t draw anything out. So on Saturday, before I left for work and the kids’ grandma came to pick them up for their semi-weekly overnight, we ran down some plans.

There are several categories to win in: tallest, outdoorsy, most colorful, Cub Scouty, etc., but none of them really sparked our imagination, so we decided to just make something unique and cool. I downloaded a few pictures of Optimus Prime, both the original Transformer and the newer movie version, and went that route.

Originally, we were planning on the new version, but with all of the contours, flaming paint job, and detail involved, I figured it would take forever and we didn’t have much time. After a bit of gentle coercion, I convinced Liam to go with the classic design. Simple in form, but cool and recognizable. I went to the store and got icing, cake mix, and other necessary accouterments. I went to work and the kids went to Grandma’s.

Sunday, Sonya and I went to the Coffee Beanery in Royal Oak for what is becoming a semi-regular gathering of Dondero alumni, all part of our general music geek clique. We had a nice time conversing with several folks we don’t get much chance to see, catching up, sharing stories about work, kids, life, etc., then left to meet up with the kids in Flint.

We arrive to the cakes all baked, waiting for me and Liam to work our aesthetic magic. I darted out to Meijer for a few more necessary supplies: icing dye, pretzel rods, graham crackers, etc. Upon my return, Liam and I get started.

I set my laptop on the table with the picture of Optimus Prime on the screen for us to work by. I started cutting the pieces into squares and rectangle to fit into the basic form and Liam mixes the colors into the icing, then we started spreading it. Now, I’m a whiz at sculpting in plastecine, as most who have known me for years will tell you, but a nice, moist cake is a whole different animal. Getting the icing to spread evenly without tearing the cake apart is time-consuming and requires more patience than Liam apparently had. After about 20 minutes, Liam got bored and frustrated and left to play video games, leaving me to do most of the work.

Eh, such is the mind of a 7-year-old. I was a bit disappointed, but more than happy to try my hand at it anyway. After assembling the pieces, frosting the basic form, applying the accessories like pretzel rod exhaust pipes, graham cracker windows, etc, I call Liam in to place the Oreo tires. By the end, we had a pretty damned convincing Mack truck!

I place the near finished cake in a box Sonya’s mom provided and gingerly carry it down the stairs from the condo, all the while picturing the scene from Sesame Street of the baker carrying “10 Banana Cream Pies!” and promptly falling down the stairs, splattering them all. I arrive successfully at the bottom, place the cake in the back of the station wagon, and we drive home VERY slowly and carefully. Once there, the kids are asleep and drag themselves to bed.

The cake looks good, as I carry it into the house and place it on the stovetop to give it one more admiring look, but it’s not quite Optimus Prime. It needs…something. I head to Kroger just before closing and get a few zip-loc bags. I head home and load some of the colored frosting into them and snip the corners of the bags to do some detail work. After about 20 minutes of filling in holes in the frosting, evening up some lop-sidedness, defining some edges, completing the paint job on the trailer, and painstakingly adding the Autobot logo, I step back and marvel at my own genius…

It may not win any specific category, but it’s by far the coolest damned cake I’ve ever seen, let alone made. Liam was a big help and we had a lot of fun doing some of it together. The phrase “No Courtney, you can’t help. This is a GUY project” gave me a chuckle, at least after Sonya promised Courtney they’d make a flower cake with no guys allowed to cheer her up.

Sonya helped Liam with the woodworking project for the Pinewood Derby and I helped him for the cake bake. Hell with stereotypes and gender roles! We had a blast and I’m real proud of what we ended up with!! Can’t wait to see what the pack thinks tonight!