Week

It's going to be a whole week together. I spent the weekend at MyFella's house, and this week he has a seminar or something in town. So it will be 7 straight nights together.

Post Secret: Predictable and Becoming More Common

but funny just the same.

3 Day Cake

This cake recipe is taken from Noodle's mom. It's a 5 day coconut cake that is refridgerated and you continue to add the sour cream icing over a couple of days, absorbing the moisture and sugar. Phenom!

MyFella and I were going to make it together for a family reunion he has today, but our schedule didn't work out to be together this weekend. So he's made it. It's absorbed the icing on the side so it looks a little bare. Since you have to make the icing up a night in advance and leave in the fridge, there's not any more to cover it. But it's his first attempt to make the cake.

This cake is crazy good. Crazy. Good.


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Recipe below for those interested:

5 DAY COCONUT CAKE

ICING:

16 OZ SOUR CREAM

2 PKGS FROZEN COCONUT (THAWED)

2 CUPS SUGAR

DAY 1

MIX SOUR CREAM AND SUGAR. ADD THAWED COCONUT.

LET FROSTING SIT IN REFRIGERATOR OVERNIGHT BEFORE USING.

DAY 2

COOK 1 BOX OF DUNCAN HINES YELLOW CAKE MIX AS DIRECTED FOR

2 LAYERS. LET COOL COMPLETELY. SLICE THE 2 LAYERS IN HALF TO

CREATE 4 LAYERS. PUT CAKE TOGETHER, ICING TOP OF EACH LAYER,

PLACING CUT SIDE OF EACH LAYER UP TO ABSORB ICING. STORE IN AN

AIRTIGHT CONTAINER IN THE REFRIGERATOR. (NOTE: THE CAKE WILL NOT

LOOK VERY PRETTY RIGHT AFTER FROSTING.)

DAY 3

THE ICING WILL BE SUFFICENTLY ABSORBED TO ALLOW YOU TO DRESS

UP THE CAKE WITH A FROSTING KNIFE.SPREAD THE COCONUT EVENLY

OVER THE TOP AND SIDES OF THE CAKE.

SERVE ON DAY 5 OR 6

( I SAVE A LITTLE OF THE FROSTING TO DRESS UP BARE SPOTS )

Hard Working Eye Candy

First I had this blog posted and later realized that I had pictures of him with his face showing. That may be a bit rude. (Ya think?) I mean part of me says "You're working shirtless looking like that in Midtown? Surely you know some gay guy's going to drive by 3 times, right?" Then I decided to just redo the post with pictures of him from this angle, so his face isn't front-on shown. From every direction, it's pretty.
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This little piece of eye candy is working across the street in the lot this morning. I normally appreciate a much more beefy man. But from an aesthetic point of view, this is pleasant. And he is tanned, dirty and hard working.

P.S. Yes, it's just a little bit stalkerish of me to have taken a photo of him. Don't be so judgemental.

Cumberland Presbyterian

The building had set empty for a while, I didn't even realize it was empty. I thought it was a church, and after a while the huge "for sale" sign set in. Then it started in the papers that the offices of Cumberland Presbyterian had moved to the new "East" part of the city and the land had been sold to Chick Filet.

If I understand it correctly, the historical preservation society talked Chick Filet into leaving up the front most part of the building as a facade. It seemed a good idea at the time. Such a beautiful building. But now it's looking like the husk of a bug that you find on a tree. Just a pale, empty shell. No life. And what was once beautiful is ugly in empty comparison.

Peruvian Pepper of Death

Apparently if you're 11 and really only want cheese pizza, the tiniest bit of a supreme pizza can illicit the physical response of going to the bathroom to "wash my mouth out 7 times."

1.	Peruvian Death Pepper	51 up, 9 down
	A hellishly hot pepper that puts all other peppers to shame. Probably close to the 15 or 16million scoville units, if not more as it is mythical in nature. Can be seen in a Garfield Comic strip, as Jon and Garfield have a hot pepper eating contest with Garfield being unable to stomach the Peruvian Death Pepper. Heh, you think that tabasco sauce is hot? Try this PERUVIAN DEATH PEPPER!!!

Stereotypically Gay

This little piece of eye candy is working across the street in the lot this morning. I normally appreciate a much more beefy man. But from an aesthetic point of view, this is pleasant. And he is tanned, dirty and hard working.

P.S. Yes, it's just a little bit stalkerish of me to have taken a photo of him. Don't be so judgemental.

Star Trek

(spoiler alert, don't go any further if you have an interest in the new movie and have not yet seen it)

"Canon, in terms of a fictional universe, is any material that is considered to be "genuine", or can be directly referenced as material produced by the original author or creator of a series. Basically, something that is "canon" means that it is something that "actually happened" in that fictional universe. An example of something non-canon is a fan-fiction; a fan fiction about a particular story is not "canon", as the story in the fan fiction never actually happened in that fictional universe."

The more I think on it, the more I continue to have a problem with the movie's extreme deviation from canon, especially in the area of Spock.

In this movie, we are led to believe that Spock chooses to undergo kholinar, as he did in the original (now "prime") universe. Yet Spock chooses to have a romantic relationship with Nyota Uhura, who is a cadet while he appears to be a teacher or instructor of some sort.

Since the from-the-future-Romulan ship only came through some 20 or so years prior, and had contact with only one ship, it is extremely doubtful that it was able to undo generations of genetic coding leading the Vulcan people to Pon Farr, which is essentially "horny every 7 years." Yes, yes, Spock is half human. But we are led to believe that he underwent successfuly the kholinar ritual.

His planet has not had access to the ship from the future. The Vulcan genetic history was not rewritten. It's easy enough to say that the lack of lives on the destroyed Federation vessel could have affected his involvement in Star Fleet and he somehow ended up responsible for the no-win scenario. But to say it took out the success of Kholinar and the establishment of Pon Farr is a stretch.

In addition, the character flaw of having an affair with a cadet under his guidance totally changes the nature of who Spock is and was and will be.

The business person in me, the real person in 2010, understands that the objective of this movie was to secure new fans for new cash flow and "life" in the franchise. I applaud the writers for a fantastic story and the whole crew for a well done movie. But did we have to destroy the foundation of a character in doing so? Are we supposed to destroy the established foundations of entire species to get new action-movie fans? Toss out everything a trekkie ever loved about a Vulcan?

Come on. You went too far, and you know it.

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

tonight I kept the little ones. If you read Noodle's blog, it's Sass & Spyder. An 11 year old and his younger sister.

I suggested a brief craft project, nothing more than using permanent markers to decorate two plain coffee mugs, one for each parent.

Spyder decided to do the father's, and used some symbolism. The word "Dad" and the words "I hate work" and "I love coffee" started it off. Then he decided to add a few drawings of things that exemplify "his dadness." Such as boxer shorts and a striped tie.

His little sister offered up this tidbit: "sleeping, tooting, eating, that's what dad likes" and the son followed up with "He does like to sit on the couch. He's lazy."

You know I wrote that down so I could remember it later and put it in a handy-dandy blog.

No,

I haven't abandoned the blog. (For the 5 or so readers out there ~ lol ) I just tend to blog when I'm thinking about something. And I guess I'm not thinking so much lately.

My 40th birthday is coming up in a few months, so MyFella and I have decided that he is going to surprise me with a birthday party. It's going to be great fun. He's already picked out the restaurant and reserved the room (alas, for the type of party he wants, my favorite "Molly's" just won't do ~ they don't have a private room or the option to do a catered menu) and chosen the menu. It's going to be at a local bbq restaurant. And stealing the idea from a friend's birthday party, he is going to allow attendee's to read a poem honoring/roasting me. He'll be sending out a "save the date" soon (as soon as I get him email addresses) and asking for any photo the attendee's want to email for inclusion in a power point. It's going to be a super great time. I'm going to be utterly totally surprised.

We're having to take off this weekend, though we had plans to spend it together, I've ended up with several other things coming in and we decided it's easier to take off this weekend. For family obligations he's not able to come here.

I can't think of much else to say.

Star Trek

I am having trouble with my thoughts coalescing into one cohesive opinion.

Worth seeing? Absolutely.
Will I go to again? Maybe.
Will it take watching it again to wrap my head around it? Probably.
Did I love it? Emphatically yes! I think so?

O.K. Remember that with the exception of TOS, I watched Star Trek first hand, first run. And my youth wasn't so far removed from TOS really. I was in Jr. High for The Motion Picture and high school for The New Generation. I've seen canon first hand. Canon is important to me.

This movie is so far removed from canon that you can't even describe it. Further more, certain story line choices with Vulcan and Amanda bother me to no end. I do not like those decisions. Emphatically. Strongly.

Additionally, the concept that the universe is so changed due to Nero's i. . (wait, if you haven't watched the movie, stop reading. Right now. Seriously.) . . . due to Nero's interaction is predicated on his entry (re-entry?) into the time line at a certain point. However, visual effects would indicate that technology, etc. was vastly changed before (? ~ oh time discussions can be so difficult) Nero's reentry.

Changes in the Vulcan time line, hence Spock's time line, should not have been so drastic, either, as they were outside the established (canon) course of events. But anyway -

the movie could not have existed without Spock. Original Spock. And truly, the Kirk character esconsed in our minds with Shatner would not have been appropriate. Besides, Kirk's arch nemesis being the foil gets old plus Kirk died in that wretched power ribbon movie. Ugh.

Anyway. Nimoy did a fabulous job with Original Spock and made it all possible. And for that reason, it works.

The writing is excellent and the action scenes great. But I am still having trouble wrapping my mind around continuity questions.

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I think maybe I wish that instead of reimagining the universe of TOS, that they had taken the script and modified it to be an addition on the existing universe, i.e., a ship and crew after TNG, Voyager, DSN, etc. Pop it forward another 50 years and somehow write characters with the same depth and breadth, and give them a fresh start. With the new look of the technology and the excellent writers, it would not have been hard to do.

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You know, Battlestar Galactica reimagined themselves, but they were in a totally different situation. There had been no "real" or canon continuity since the original show. So you could and you should reimagine it and get it going. But Star Trek's not like that ~ fans have had an entire universe to build on since the early 80's, or at least since '87 when TNG came out.

I applaud the ability to capture a new audience. And genuinely I love the new movie. It just deviates so far from canon. Vulcan and Amanda just break my heart! I probably could have gotten over everything else but Vulcan and Amanda.

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Love, love, love Ben Cross. Always have. Since he reprised Barnabas so many years ago. He did a wonderful job as Sarek.

Love, love, love Wynona Rider as Amanda. I'm not sure her make up covered up her youth, hard as they tried. But still, I loved her. I dislike their choices with her. But that's that.

Uh, anyone who loves the new Kirk should take a good look at Nero. Total burly hottie.

And oh, way to downplay Karl Urban's total hottiness. Completely forgot that I want him as a possession.

And what the'ell did they say Uhura's first name is?

Best

Best t-shirt seen today? "Future trophy wife"

Best songs heard at the Malco? 80's favorites "Dancing in the Sheets" and "I wear my sunglasses at night."

You're doing it now, aren't you, humming in your head "so I can, so I can . . . " and then wondering what the'ell those next words are.

Star Trek

Gosh, I love that man of mine! This t-shirt was waiting for me in the mail today, courtesy Bad Fly T-shirt gurus.

MyFella sure knows how to sweet talk me.

Suntrust

Just for the record, I am so annoyed with the banking institution going by the name of Suntrust.

As mentioned in the previous post, MyFella and I opened up a joint account together. When we logged on later, we realized it was set up as the wrong type of account. i.e. checking versus savings, etc.

So on Monday, I emailed the banker and said, "I noticed the account is set up as an one, not the other. Go ahead and leave it that way, please."

You know what she does? She emails me back and tells me she has changed it to what I originally requested, and I'll have to call the toll free number if I want anything different.

Uh- hello? Yoo hooo?

So I called the toll free number, whose best suggestion was "You can open an account the other way if you want me to do that for you."

Uh - you can't get my money right in the first account and the option offered was for me to give them MORE money in a different account?

I hate them more and more as each minute passes. I'm in serious need of a Diet Coke.

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P.S. Sometime after lunch and a cold, carbonated diet beverage, I felt much better about the whole thing.

P.P.S. The following day when I got an email from the lady who messed up the account asking if I wanted to open another account, I clicked delete. And told MyFella I was so over his banker it's not even funny. The emotion has passed, but my tolerance for incompetence has not.

One step at a time. . .

MyFella and I opened a bank account together. We finished 3 years of dating in January (well, 3 years since the day we met) and I decided to push it. It didn't take but a nudge. He called the bank to see if someone would be there Saturday to open an account.

I've been wanting a little account for us to put money for our "together" things. We're talking about a couple of summer trips, we're looking at promise rings (wedding bands sansa ceremony), and sometimes when the mood is right, we talk about buying a square of land. (I have dreams of a white picket fence, but I'll take what I can get.)

So we're sitting in the bank and I realized that he was gossiping 90 to nothing with the lady, and I realized she was referring to checking accounts when I had clearly said savings. So during a break in his practically non stop litany I said in a real nice voice with a smile "Why don't you stop gossiping so she can work." When she left the room I said, "What I mean is I'm tired of being here, can you stop gossiping?"

Sure enough, we get home and she's messed the account up. He's admitted to having been nervous opening a joint account with some feller, and it's just about all funny by then.

So the biggest thing to know is he loves me enough to sit in his bank branch in his hometown and open an account with me. The next thing to know is, when doing banking with him, try to hit the drive-through. It'll be a lot faster.