The Wreckiest Night Ever

I got to meet Jen Yates on Monday night!

What? You don't know who she is?

Oh.

Well, I suppose I need to tell you about her.

Jen Yates is the Mastermind behind the funniest 'food' blog I've ever read. It's called Cake Wrecks and you should be ashamed of yourself if you've never read it. But, your personal mistakes aside, her blog makes my day. I literally "LOL" at each post.

When she mentioned she was writing a book, I knew it would be something I'd enjoy. To add icing to the, erm, cake, she announced a book tour with a stop in Atlanta.

And she mentioned there would be cake.

(A fra-reaking awesome cake!)

Um, Sign. Me. Up!

Now, as part of the book tour, each stop has a contest. Anyone attending is welcome to submit a cupcake replica of one of the cake disasters on her website.

I opted for 'I want sprinkles' cake. Here is the original cake posted on her blog.

Here's my cupcake replica. Mine actually had sprinkles. (I didn't win.)

It was to be me and Julia-Gulia. We invited Mama Mia to join us but, unfortunately, she had previous obligations and told us to have fun. We couldn't just leave her out of the evening though. What could we do to help Mama Mia experience the full wreckiness of our evening?

We made a cake.

The ugliest cake we could create.

(Julia-Gulia and I are torn: is it the back of Oscar the Grouch's head or a moldy football? We can't decide.)

And we had Jen autograph it.

She admitted this was the first time she'd ever been asked to autograph a cake.

I'm glad we could make her first experience so ...wrecky.

Twenty Buckaroos

Twenty Dollars: How would I spend $20? I'd go to one of my favorite stores and purchase some fish. Not the type to cook but the colorful living type to go in my fish tank. Did you know that I've had my fish tank running for a month with no fish? Of course not...I didn't blog that information.

I really enjoy watching fish. I could spend hours sitting in front of an aquarium and have spent entire lunch breaks at the fish shop just enjoying the colors and movements of my marine friends. I purchased two frogs and some fish after my move to Georgia and chronicled their deaths in earlier posts.

After taking a little break, I decided to try my hands at fish again. I bought a new filter, poured in gallons of purified water, and purchased gold fish to acclimate the tank. By the end of two weeks, I'd flushed each fish down the porcelain slide to their final destination.

I'm beginning to worry. It seems I kill everything I touch. And remember last years attempt at gardening? I harvested a total of three beans. Three beans! I think my green thumb is laced with cyanide. It's a good thing I don't have children.

Hey wait...today's post isn't supposed to be about me! I am to announce the winner of the random drawing. Drum roll please.....

I entered the range 1 - 31 for a random number. It spit out 12. So Mona, you are the lucky winner of a $20 giftcard. Email me at charlottalove (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your prize. Oh, and I noticed you wanted to spend the money at a book store. If you get a chance, look to see if they sell Keeping Pet Fish Alive for Dummies. I have a, uh, friend, who needs that book.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On

Today is a day to celebrate. Sure it's Friday but it's also my 200th post which means I accomplished one of my New Year Resolutions!

Truth be told, this post almost didn't happen. Shortly after my 1 year blogiversary I got bored with my blog. Writing wasn't fun and I felt no motivation to keep it going. I decided I would continue posting until the new year then call it quits. It was during this period that you, that's right, you made a difference. I saw that people were actually interesting in my random thoughts; more readers started commenting; the blog became a hobby again.

Thank you to each reader!

And now to celebrate...Although this blog is a collection of my random thoughts, I want to know more about you. I want to know where you would spend a $20.00 gift card. Oh, did I mention I was giving away 200 dimes to help celebrate? Well, I am ~ in the form of a gift card. Twenty dollars. It's like a stimulus check except it's not $300, I don't care if you filed your taxes last year, and you don't have to be a US citizen. Twenty dollars. That's almost 3 gallons of gas. That's a night at the movies for two. That's 20 items from McDonald's $1 menu. It's a pair of socks on clearance at Abercrombie.

Okay, so $20 isn't much anymore but I'm still curious where you would spend it. Leave your store of choice in the comments. (One entry per person). Next Friday I'll pick a winner using random.org. Lurkers, now is the time to shine...that means you Mama Mia.

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast

I have had a few friends call me, email me, or ask me in person about the caption contest.

"So Charlotte, who won? Did you forget to post the winner?"

No, actually. The truth is, I had the hardest time choosing. So many made me laugh. So many made Mama Mia laugh. This type of contest is fun seeing all the creative posts but so hard to pick a winner. I even printed out a list of all the submissions and carried it around with me these past few days. I thought that by glancing sporadically here and there at the list might help narrow it down. Didn't really work. I finally narrowed the list down to 6. One in 1st place and 5 that tied for second.

Brice ~ your "WHERE ARE THOSE PUPPIES!?" made me chuckle.
Dorky Dad ~ the dialog between Cruella and the Mad Hatter's half birthday made me laugh...a lot. I'm still laughing, actually.
Jocelyn, Jocelyn, Jocelyn ~ your tribunal comment made me laugh, shake my head, bite my lip, laugh some more, and wipe away a tear. Oh, your caption fought hard to the end.
Charles ~ I laughed at the mental image of puppies in the Mad Hatter's Hat.
Bec ~ Offspring from Cruella and the Mad Hatter? I don't want to think about that either.


Honorable Mention must go to Diesel who captioned the wrong photo. But boy did it make me laugh! And Craig D for making some pretty accurate comparisons.


Jim ~ I kept coming back to your caption. I loved it's simplicity. I liked it's double play on words using the title of yet another Disney movie. I like being called Beauty. ...you were referring to me, right? In the end, I really liked your caption. You are the winner of a $20 gift card to the store of your choice. Email me your info and I promise I'll send the card sometime before I start decorating for Christmas...which isn't until after Thanksgiving.

Thanks everyone for posting...and waiting...and calling to make sure I remembered to pick a winner. I'll be back Monday with a real post.

On This Day in History

Today is October 31st and we all know what that means: it's my first blogiversary!

Oh yeah, and it's Halloween, too. I really like Halloween...or more accurately, I really like dressing up and I have a difficult time avoiding candy. I figure any holiday that combines costumes and sugar has to be pretty cool. I've been a pumpkin, Little Red Riding Hood, a fairy, a ghost, and a hippy in years past. (You'll just have to trust me on those since I don't have scan-able evidence.)

Post high school - yes I still dress up...I believe 'growing up' is a conscious decision I haven't made yet - I've gone as...



A housewife. You would not believe how soft my face was when I washed off that mask!








*snort, a nerd














A 70's star











A band geek. Oh wait...that's from high school. How did that picture get in the costume pile?









A Gothic punk






Um, and someone with a boa













As I mentioned, today is my one year blogiversary. I could hope and wish each of you might send me a gift but that's highly unlikely. ...which is why I've decided to hold a contest and give one of you a prize. A $20 gift certificate to the store of your liking! $20 could buy the turkey for your thanksgiving dinner, the stamps for your Christmas letters, or one sock from Neiman Marcus. You just need to submit a caption for the following picture by next Tuesday evening.

"Caption Me!"

Presenting ... Cruella De'Vil. Seems I got a little mixed up with the wrong Disney movie this past weekend. Here I am at a tea party with the Mad Hatter. Put on your thinking cap, sorcerer hat, golf hat, baseball cap, or night cap and submit those creative captions. My favorite wins the $20, or all my left over candy...whichever they choose.