House for rent

Karma decided to rear its ugly head and teach me a lesson about taking my many blessings for granted:

Six months earlier than we'd planned, our renters are moving out of our house in southern Nevada.

If you know of anyone looking to rent (or buy!!!), please pass on this web site. http://bouldercityhouseforsale.blogspot.com/

Thanks! Sigh.

Fool me twice, shame on me

Remember what happened the last time I baked? I am a slow learner and attempted baking again.

Todd loves German Chocolate Cake*, and my mom has an excellent recipe she has perfected. For Todd's birthday last year, my sister Kelsey, who is a baking princess, made the cake for him. I had never made this recipe. Until yesterday.

Making a cake from scratch is so much dang work. Most baked things are better from a box, except cookies and this recipe. Making it from scratch helped me see just why it's so fantastic. Whipped egg whites in the batter? No wonder the cake is as light as a cloud.

The cakes baked perfectly, and after I transferred them to the cooling rack there was very little carnage. Phew.

The final product.

It's not pretty (I don't do pretty--remember the orc cookies?!) but it tastes fantastic. Success!

*Greg and Nic: do Germans eat German Chocolate Cake? Or is this dessert a misnomer like Hawaiian Haystacks? True story: one evening in a meeting at church, everyone started randomly talking about Hawaiian Haystacks. They made fun of and couldn't understand the very concept (which is sad, because it's a super yum dish) and wondered where the dish got its name and why they'd been stuck as its origin. So "haystacks" having absolutely nothing, at all, ever, to do with Hawaiians. We shall have to call them Chicken Sundaes from now on.

Is German Chocolate Cake a misnomer? I've always wondered that.

The 100% accurate (but not at all scientific) baby gender test

My sister and brother-in-law have a fun baby gender test--you make a cake that is half pink, half blue, then cover the cake with frosting so you can't see the colored sides. The dad spins the cake while the mom closes her eyes. With her eyes still closed, the mom places the knife on the cake. She then gets to open her eyes so she doesn't cut off her fingers, and she has to cut where she placed the knife. Whatever color slice she gets is the baby's gender.

They did this when Lindsay was pregnant, and she cut a blue slice months before she delivered Daniel. I think Maren even had a friend cut a blue and pink slice, and she had twins. So yes--it's a fabulous non-scientific test that has been correct the half dozenish times Maren and Rikky have done/seen it.

Maren and Rikky made us a cake last Sunday and it justified my recent baby quilt fabric purchase: I got a pink slice. So now we wait a couple weeks to see if their test can remain 100% accurate. I'd hate to be the one to break the trend. Especially with all the cute pink fabric I just bought (I know, I know, I totally tempted the Karma gods).

Tempting fate

We all know I have issues about Karma gods and tempting fate. I'm totally weird about it. I don't comment on how smooth traffic was until I'm home. I didn't put my married name on anything until after the wedding. I always knock on wood. I'm nuts.

BUT, I'm slightly breaking with tradition because I'm excited and want to post about it. We and my sisters and their spouses are planning a trip to Los Angeles. There is a musical (because of Karma it will remain nameless but it looks like this)

we all want to see and we are planning to get tickets before it leaves LA. We were going to order the tickets through Ticketmaster.

(Quick aside--I despise Ticketmaster. The fees are excessive and it bothers me when you can only get tickets through this vendor. BUT, if you can only order tickets online, I think it's better to use Ticketmaster because it's a reliable vendor with relatively good customer service as a recourse for when things go to pot.)

Because I hate convenience charges, I was trying to find the direct number for the box office. Then I started lamenting how I don't know anyone who lives in Hollywood and could get the tickets for us. Then inspiration struck.

A friend who I play volleyball with is going to this show. On Friday. And she was wonderful enough to be willing to buy our tickets. At the box office. So we're going to save $12 a ticket. Which is pretty huge.

Yea for nice people.

Karma police

I am obsessive about putting my name on books and movies, because I don't want them to be borrowed and never returned. So every media I own is signed.

Since we've gotten engaged I've received or bought several movies and books, and on each I just wrote my name because after we're married (in 3 weeks and 1 day!!!) I'll just change it to include the last name (I know, tricksy and nerdy, but I'll explain).

I've learned I'm fairly superstitious about random things. Maybe superstitious isn't the right word, but I am all about karma. And I haven't written my new last name on anything because I'm not married yet and I don't want to irk the karma gods by using that name too soon.

You never cross karma. Never.

And so I now ask you: before you were married did you label things with your married name? Did you sign the return address on envelopes as your married couple name? Any other instance? (Because we all know we practiced our signatures with our new last names. And can I just say, my new last name is really hard to write in cursive and my signature looks lame. So it'll be a printed signature.)