Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Dragon Cake

I am not eating sugar, 
but I still made this cake for 4 year old Grandson’s birthday party...without tasting it...!


39 comments:

  1. That is an ASTOUNDING cake, listener!

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  2. It was a LOT easier than it looks!! Ha! It's made out of just 2 round layers.

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    1. The wings are made from metal straws and fruit rollups; the fire, feet and ears are cut from fruit rollups; the spikes are chocolate covered graham crackers, and the rest is frosting and M&Ms. He totally loved it!! And that's the truest test. But! I also got lots of compliments from the fam, including hearing that it was moist and delicious!
      Of course this would be the cake I don't get to eat, eh? LOL!

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    2. My mother always made a chocolate cake for me on my birthday... with Jell-O pudding filling. Nothing so fancy as your dragon, but I do miss it even after all these years.

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    3. YUM!! Wil's mom always made him blueberry cake, so I have continued that tradition. My mom always made a Mayonnaise Cake (using cocoa and mayonnaise), which tasted bitter and off, to me, and it's the main reason I prefer ice cream to cake. But it has been a healing thing to make great cake for my children and grandchildren over the years. I'm sparing them the cake I always got. Ha!

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    4. Mind you, I make my own mayonnaise, so I know it is mostly oil. But it also has mustard! Who would add mustard to a cake?!

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    5. Love that cake, listener! Ingenious use of materials and it looks great.

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    6. Thanks, Susan! I found the idea online and the wonderful woman who came up with it included a diagram of how to cut the cakes to make it work. Yay!

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  3. I finally had the nerve to read that Vanity Fair article about Trump trying to read a portion of the Constitution. The writer describes the English as arcane and stilted. Arcane? Granted that a couple of the spellings do not conform to 21st-Century orthography, but they are perfectly obvious. And "stilted?" Again I grant that the punctuation is old-fashioned and the sentences are long, but so what? It is perfectly modern Standard English! Where do they get these dummies? Or is s/he just pretending it is difficult as a courtesy to the President? (Who obviously has such severe difficulty with reading comprehension that he probably wouldn't be able to graduate from grammar school, except perhaps with the aid of Special Education.)

    Boy, that's something. And not something good, obviously.

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    1. OK, I tripped up on the tempo once while reading that section. Not perfect, but not bad, and I don't know when I last read it out loud, if ever. As memory serves me, we studied the Constitution in eighth grade--our teacher was Mrs. Logan. At the beginning of that year she instructed us henceforth to include the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, the law having changed. That would have been in 1960--sixty years ago.

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    2. Just read it myself, Alan. I have always wondered if he'd ever read it, if he'd had the slightest clue what he was promising when he took the oath. The last words of the article says it:

      "Before he got this job, he really should have read it."

      https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/01/donald-trump-disastrous-encounter-with-the-constitution-very-stable-genius

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    3. Of course that assumes that he could have profited from reading it, which in my mind is open to question.

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    4. trump is a man who never, ever keeps promises. That's how he ended up on his third wife. It wouldn't matter if he had read the Constitution because to him the oath is "just words", and words that he never intended to honor. He truly believes he is above *all* laws.

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    5. I've never read the Constitution aloud, but I have listened to my screen reader read it a few times. As Alan says, it is perfectly intelligible, standard modern English.

      Except, you know what? The sentences are more than three words long, and the words are for the most part more than two syllables. Not to mention, those sentences contain things like correlative clauses. You actually have to pay attention and follow a train of thought for more than two or three words. And, to be honest, my hunch is the president is not the only Twenty-first Century American who has difficulty with such things.

      My own sister, who considers herself quite well educated, tells me she can't read Dickens. His prose is much too difficult. I know she can't read Shakespeare. In junior high, when they were first introduced to the Bard, she asked for my help since, after all, I can read Middle English. To this day she refuses to accept the proposition that Shakespeare is modern English, albeit early modern English and perhaps a touch difficult for Eighth graders. I shudder to think of the results if I asked her to read even a short passage from the Constitution. And that's not even considering her acquired dyslexia, which makes it difficult for her to read fairly simple texts.

      In short, sadly, I doubt Trump is in any way remarkable in having difficulty reading the Constitution.

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  4. I left some notes on the last thread too.

    Still catching up after a really nice weekend with family. Best surprise was that third grandchild (age 10) came along with Daughter, the birthday grandson and his baby sister. They kept 10 year old grand's appearance a secret until they arrived!! Such a lovely thing! So VT*Grandd (12) stayed overnight too, so they could have time together. We had a blast!

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  5. I left some notes on the last thread as well. And now off to the Land of Nod; getting up a little earlier yet in the morning to get to school--the parking lots were overflowing last week. (Beginning Printing class starts at 8:30 AM.) Oh, and a heads-up; Naomi's art agency sent out a blast asking all the artists to make gnomes as fast as they could for Spring; the customers at the Atlanta show are crazy for them. So expect gnomes to be stylish--in case you have little ones to purchase accessories for.

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  6. Three Katyusha [“Katie”] rockets strike Baghdad Green Zone. [Click] An old weapon, but economical and dangerous; the Wehrmacht quickly learned to fear them. They are accurate enough to hit inside the Green Zone, and the launchers are gone before the enemy can strike back. The T-34 tank and the Katyusha rocket system (often mounted on Studebaker trucks, BTW) were arguably the most important Soviet weapons of WWII.

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  7. Clinton Slams Bernie Sanders In New Documentary [Click]

    Why Hillary Clinton hating on Bernie Sanders is great news for him [Click]

    Lots of [surprise—not!] impeachment trial news summarized atpoliticalwire.com/ [Click] this morning, plus a few oddments. They make a big deal of Warren falling a bit in the NH polls, but from the looks of it the New Hampshireites are even more undecided than the Iowans.

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    1. Naughty me--I unintentionally (?) first typed "New Hampsterites."

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    2. Wow! "Bitter, Party of One". I didn't vote for her and I'm not sorry. She is truly horrible in every way. Would she be as crazed as Cheetolini? No, but she'd be every bit as dangerous and we *would* be in a war because she was always trying to prove she was the toughest man in the room.

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    3. If Bernie is ahead in New Hampshire, prepare for negative mainstream media blitz.

      Today my mother gleefully informed me that *none* of his senate colleagues like him. She did somewhat lessen the impact of that salvo by going on to chortle that he is not warm and fuzzy. I shot back that warm and fuzzy is optional. I want someone who does his job. She did admit rather shamefacedly that I was right. I left post haste, before saying something regrettable. But, honestly! He's not running for bloody Miss Congeniality! If I want warm and fuzzy, I'll hug my cat!

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  8. I just called Senator McConnell's office and said that I am in Independent and I would like to hear witnesses, at very least John Bolton. Mind you, if you call his office you get a message that his phone is not taking messages. So I called the Capitol switchboard operator (202) 224-3121, explained about his phone and asked if there is a general Senate office I could leave a message with. She said there is not. I asked what she recommends and she said, "Try again." I explained that I have been trying to get through to his office for three weeks. Immediately, she patched me through and someone in his office picked up and kindly took my message, promising to pass it along.

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    1. PS: Between you and me, I thought the operator sounded African American and when I said I've been trying to get through for three weeks she said, softly, "I understand" and patched me through. Love that woman!

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  9. Schiff Caught Republicans Off Guard [Click] A mauling? I like it!

    “The innocent do not behave this way.”
    — House manager Adam Schiff, arguing for impeaching President Trump in the Senate.

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    1. Again? Who, pray tell, is he going to allow the privilege of traveling to our golden and blessed shores? Don't bother answering that. I'm not altogether sure I want to know.

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  11. Josh Marshall: "So far, I would say Chairman Schiff has done a good job at putting Senate Republicans on trial. As I’ve suggested previously, I don’t expect this will shift their views. But it will put their participation in this cover-up in stark relief. And that is a story for the November election."

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    1. I just called and thanked Sen Collins for cosponsoring the National Nurse Act and for just now saying she will likely vote to call witnesses!! That would really help!!

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    2. Do you reckon she maybe has her eye on her job? Not that I'm cynical or anything.

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  12. So, today I learned that I won't have my Mini back until at least midday Friday. =SIGH=

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  13. Rep Nadler is speaking (just past midnight) and he's speaking plainly, and exposing the lies the Republican lawyers have been spewing. If you can listen to his speech, do!

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  14. So far every dang vote is 53-47. I expect Collins and maybe one other will be allowed to defect on one or two votes to try to save their Senate seats, since the vote would still be 51-49, and it won't matter. Sigh.

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