Yes, I'm Back.

Ummmm had a really fun weekend with Christy in town and going to Disneyland on Friday. Also had fun going shopping at Ontario Mills yesterday and watching some movies/tv today. Hopefully next weekend Chris and I will be going to the San Diego Zoo and possibly doing some really cool things at the animal kingdom and THEN we will be coming to MO to visit! Yeeeeeessss the upcoming weeks are filled with some fun things. Fun is good.

OH for all the MO peeps, (hehehe) I am planning on trying to plan a party for SATURDAY, JULY 26TH!!!! So be there or be square. Details to come. (It was originally planned for Sunday the 20th but Erika suggested that Saturday might be better for all the people who have to work on Mondays ...)

And ... I ordered my FIRST EVER digital camera today. In fact, it's not only my first "digital" camera, it's my first camera PERIOD. Yes, for the past 24 years I've been using disposables. :P

Yipee.

Work sucked today ... and ... that is all I have to say about that.

The Hike of Death

Anna's visit was fun. Tuesday night after she got into town, we went out for Jamba Juice and just hung out, which was lovely. Wednesday Anna, Chris and I went for a 7 mile hike in the mountains which was a lot of fun. I've been wanting to go hiking for SUCH A LONG TIME! lol. The scenery was beautiful (you can see pictures on my facebook and myspace,) and no one died. :P Although, Chris and Anna nearly died at the end because of a HUGE uber steep and long hill that you have to walk back up at the end. (I didn't almost die ... hmmm must be the Billy Blanks.) :P After we returned home and all took showers, we went "dessert hopping." Actually, we went to In'N'Out for burgers first because we hadn't eaten much all day and were in need of some major refueling. Then we went to Chilis and ordered both the chocolate molten lava cake and the "white" chocolate molten lava cake. Delicious! Afterwards we were planning on hopping to a few more restaurants for dessert, but our hopping was cut short due to fullness. :P Instead we came home and all talked for several hours until I finally forced myself to go to bed at 12:30am because I had to get up at 6am for work. And now ... I'm tired. Very, very tired. :::zonk:::

Let the Good Times Roll

Chris graduated from the master's program. Woo woo!

My old college roomie Anna is coming to see me tonight, double woo woo! In fact, Chris is about to go pick her up from the airport right now! (I can't because I have my cake class at 6pm.) Thanks Chris! :)

I just bought an awsome book off of Amazon called 'Cakes to Dream On.' I'm soooo excited! :D I can't wait to start building big works of cake art. :P

Fun Times.

Attempt #1

This is a picture of my first attempt at working with fondant! :D It didn't turn out as horrible as I thought it would, but of course it's not as good as I would like it either. BUT for a first attempt it's okay. It's actually a chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling, iced with buttercream and covered in vanilla fondant. I really like working with fondant, it's super fun and it's almost like ... clay ... lol ... only ... tasty. And I'm also working on learning how to work with gumpaste and how to make fancy flowers. Weeee!

Back to the 80's

Guess what I'm eating/chewing right now? Razzles! You see, in the movie '13 Going on Thirty' the two main characters grew up in the early 80's and had this major thing for Razzles. And they are talking about them in the movie and how they can't find them anymore and well ... I frankly had never seen them before and didn't even know if they existed. (Besides in the movie of course.) Well the other day while waiting in line to checkout at Michael's I spied a single pack of Razzles on top of a shelf. There weren't any others ... and I didn't even see a space where they were supposed to be. It was ... fate. "First it's a candy ... then it's gum!"

Oooooh Tush.

Today, I thought I was going to go blind in my right eye. This morning I went running before work, as usual, and about 8 minutes into the run a bug flew directly into my right eye. Now, normally when something gets into your eye, it stings a bit and gets a wee bit irritated. This however, felt more like a needle poking into my eyeball. Not only that, but the pain was so bad that I had to stop running. My vision in that eye was blurred for about 2 hours, it watered for about 2 and 1/2 hours, and my entire eyeball was sore. (Not to mention UBER bloodshot.) This whole eye deal made my nose run for the tire day. In fact, my nose is STILL running and my eye is STILL a bit sore. Blasted bugs!!!!

I've made more cakes this week then I've made in several years combined. lol. And I'm still trying to figure out the mystery that is learning how much batter to put in and how long to bake two 10" round cake pans. (I'm currently on my second attempt of the evening.) :P

Oh BTW Missouri folk, I might try and plan a small B-day party (aka as an excuse to get a bunch of friends together) while I'm home. I'm thinking on a Sunday ... perhaps ... July 20th? Hmmm ...

In Other News ...

Just got back from the theatre where Chris and I saw 'Iron Man.' Good movie. And also 'Kung Fu Panda.' Good movie. It made me want a bowl of noodles.

So I finally started my at home course work to work my way towards becoming a certified professional bridal consultant. Woo woo!!! The current course I am working on is etiquette. (There's 5 different courses with 5 different tests, and then I have to take a final exam and also do a final project.) After that, I have to complete a certain amount of hours of training before I get certified. But I'm excited!

Also, I added another cake class, so now I have TWO cake classes that I'm taking per week! The second is 'fondant and gum paste.' So far I love it and I'm so excited to be learning how to make fancy cakes! For our final project in that class we have to do a 3-tiered cake, which will be cool. I would love to be able to make some wedding cakes here and there as part of my wedding business. Although, taking both classes at once will be a bit crazy and time-consuming. Let's just say that I have to make several cakes a week! :P

The new mint mocha chip frap from Starbucks is sooooo good. YUM.

My Place of Employment

This is the Starbucks that I work at. Woo hoo!

Baby Steps

Today I finally took three big important steps towards my career as a wedding planner! I paid for a one-year membership with the Association of Bridal Consultants, and also paid for a 5-course professional development program, which, when completed, will earn me the certification of professional bridal consultant! Total cost: $695. I also signed up at Michael's today to start taking cake decorating classes so I can eventually start learning how to make and decorate wedding cakes! Woooo hoo!!! Total cost: $48. I'm soooo excited! :D And yet, I'm sooooo much more broke. :P

Ghost Spiders

I just did something that I never, ever do. I ... just killed a spider. By myself!!!! I HATE spiders. :::shudders::: They totally freak me out and I can never get up the nerve to kill them. But just now as I was getting out of the shower and walking into the bedroom, I noticed a medium sized brownish colored spider walking across the ceiling. While the thought of having to kill it myself, (Chris isn't home,) was terrible, the thought of it ending up in our bed some how was even worse. So ... I stood up on my computer/piano bench and smashed it with my shoe. And ... it's guts are now smeared on the ceiling. I feel a strange sense of accomplishment ...

I really, really want to take a cake design class. I want to learn how to bake, assemble, and decorate fancy wedding cakes. Plus, since I'm going into wedding planning, it might actually be useful! Right now I'm looking at classes at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Pasadena. I'm sure it's very expensive for their diploma and degree programs, so I'm going to see if they offer any individual classes. We'll see ...

New episodes of Ghost Hunters tonight- Yeessss!!!! :D

Highlights for Pink Penguins

* Today at the E-Bar I only had "one" table and made just $5. This makes me annoyed.
* On the other hand, I got to go home early. This makes me glad.
* Chris and I bought our plane tickets last night to visit CoMo, and this makes me very happy.
* The weekend is finally here, and this makes me relieved.
* Currently the weather is cool, cloudy, and stormy, and this makes me content.
* There were two tornadoes here yesterday, and this makes me dumbfounded and slightly (who am I kidding,) "quite" excited.
* I bought Chris the 16gb iPhone last weekend, and this makes me broke. (Just kidding.) :P
* I am currently listening to one of the most relaxing cds ever, and this makes me relaxed.
* This post has nothing to do with pink penguins and therefore makes me feel rather spontaneous.
* Right now I'm thirsty, and this makes me feel dehydrated.

... therefore ... I am going to go get something to drink.

The 'House' Season Finale ...

Who cried? ...

Besides me. :P

Simply Delicioso

While Chris was gone all day today studying, I decided to stop by the Macaroni Grill after running some errands to pick up something yummy to-go. I picked out a "build your own" pasta which included fettucini in a creamy garlic butter sauce with grilled chicken and mushrooms. YUM. And of course, tiramisu for dessert. While I was waiting for my order, I sat at the bar and had a caramel macchiato martini. It was delicious. Today was delicious. Will tomorrow be equally delicious? ... Probably not.

Ugh.

Today was a verrrrry long day. I worked at Starbucks from 6am - 11:30am and then at the Elephant Bar from 12pm -5pm. It wouldn't have been so bad, (because I work both jobs like that during the majority of the week) but E-Bar today SUCKED more than a Dyson vacuum. Firstly, it was SO hot. The weather outside was hot, and my manager is so cheap that he refused to turn up the AC just so he could make a "profit." Plus our uniforms are all black pants, long aprons, and long-sleeves. Urgh. Secondly, I was supposed to go home early because I was put outside on the patio, (which of course NO ONE sat outside on the patio today because of the heat,) but ended up having to pointlessly stay forever while everyone else got to go home. (Although my manager said it was because I'm one of the "stronger" servers and so he wanted to cut all the "weak links," hehehe.) Thirdly, and most importantly, what customers I "did" have today tipped like total and utter crap. I got a measly $2 tip on a $50 bill. TWICE. Agh!!! I literally made HALF of what I should have made.

I'm sooooo so glad that it's the weekend!!!!

Summer Fun

Yesterday while Chris and I were out to dinner at Chili's I had this INSANELY delicious dessert. It was a white chocolate molten lava cake. White cake with melted white chocolate flowing out of the center, topped with vanilla ice cream, white chocolate shell, whipped cream, and a tiny bit of strawberry drizzle. OH damn. OHHHHHHH it was food-gasmic. I had a food-gasm while eating it.

Working Mother's Day at the Elephant Bar today can be summarized in one word: HELL.

I just talked to Mizzy and she said that she might be coming to visit me again at the end of the summer!! That prospect is VERY exciting. This means that I have something exciting to look forward to every month this summer! June: Hopefully seeing Christy and going to Disneyland AND seeing my former college roomie Anna, July: going home to visit for two weeks, and August: MIZZY hopefully coming to see me!!!! Yaaaaaaay!!!

And ... I'm already tired and looking forward to Friday. Considering it's only Sunday night, that's a bad sign. :::sigh:::

The Aftermath

After the bath ... Toasty was not pleased. No she was not. Instead ... she was soggy.

How ... Hilarious.

So today at the Elephant Bar as I was walking away from one of my tables, (after they had made the "Allis-on Wonderland" joke ... like every other customer ... in the world ...) they yelled after me, "Don't go chasing any rabbits!" :::sigh:::

Yesterday when I got home from work Toasty was ... well ... let's just say that if she were a human she would have had majorly poopy pants. Sooo Chris gave her a shower in the bath tub which was "quite" amusing. It was actually the first time I had witnessed Toasty getting a bath, and, like with most cats, she looked HI-larious when she was soaking wet. :P Awww, poor Toasty. But now she smells like Head and Shoulders shampoo! :P

It's such a tragedy that I have to work all day on Sunday because of bloody Mother's Day. BAH.

Tell Me On a Sunday

Okay, every chocolate lover needs to try this. Yesterday I made brownies (just regular store bought fudge ones,) and cooked them in the oven like normal. Then, when they were "almost" done, I took them out and let them cool. (Now for the yummy part.) THEN I smeared Nutella all over them and sprinkled a generous amount of Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips on top, and put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes to let it all melt. THEN you put in the fridge for about an hour. YUM. You can also add chopped hazelnuts as well but I didn't have any at the moment.

I received my $600 stimulus payment from the IRS the other day- WOO HOO! An extra $600 flowing into my bank account is ALWAYS welcome.

Today I think I will scrapbook some more ...

Broken Record

My name provides endless entertainment to customers at the Elephant Bar every day. I walk up to greet a table and start off by saying something like, "Hey guys, how are you? Blah blah. I'm 'Allison' and I'll be taking care of you ..." and it's almost always followed by the customer replying, "Oh! Allis-ON Wonderland! Hahahaha!" It never fails to amuse me at just how many people think that they've just come up with the most original thing in the world when I hear it MULTIPLE times daily. :::snickers:::