I kinda wish they had shown them making the wooden platform the cake was on, but oh well! They needed to make time for Kate + 8, I guess. ;-) We fast forwarded through that part. And how cool was it that that kid won Duff's cake and he was someone who really deserved it! Karma, indeed!

We had a few people over, including Matt who got it for me. Michele made moonpie's in honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. And the unfrozen piece of cake we had saved still tasted good!!! Whew!!!

All in all, it was pretty freakin' cool and a once in a lifetime experience!!! Btw, it's been pretty amusing explaining to co-workers/friends who do not know of Firefly that my shiny comment was not because the cake was shiny.....Noooo.....hehehe

As you know, my 40th bday cake has quite the story about it. Well, it definitely made it past the food network executives and my cake will be one of the cakes on the Season Premiere of Ace of Cakes on July 23! There is apparently a sneak peek on July 19, not sure if it's the whole episode or what. Anyway, set your TiVo's!

1. Yield - "When you see a YIELD sign, slow down and be prepared to stop. Let vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians pass before you enter the intersection or join another roadway. You must come to a complete stop if traffic conditions require it."

Translation: You do not have right of way when you have a yield sign.

2. Entering the highway (e.g. Mass Pike) - "As you approach and enter a highway travel lane, increase your speed to match that of vehicles already on the road."

Translation: If the onramp is long enough, use it to get up to the traffic speed on the highway. The Natick onramp to the Mass Pike is a good example. You have plenty of time to get up to the speed of traffic on that ramp. Please use it.

3. Driving on the highway - "Stay to the right and only use the left lane for passing. If you are traveling on an expressway with three or more lanes in your direction, treat the far right lane as a slower-speed through lane, the middle lane as a faster through lane, and the far left lane as the passing lane."

Translation: LEFT LANE FOR PASSING.

Thank you.

So, I read the following in an op-ed Gingrich wrote and I laughed:

"In the great tradition of political movements rising against arrogant, corrupt elites, there will soon be a party of people rooting out the party of government."

It's the stuff in bold that made me laugh. Newt, YOU ARE AN ARROGANT, CORRUPT ELITE. Are you kidding me? (Note: I am not saying that a Democrat can't be one. DUH.)

But, really, dude? Really?

I understand that over the past year you've been making yourself increasingly more relevant. The public has a short attention span and doesn't remember your fall from the House or your affair (oh, the irony that you castigated Clinton for this kind of behavior), etc. so everyone is listening to you and you're getting a lot of press. It won't surprise me if you throw your hat into the ring in the 2012 presidential race. Cause that seems the logical reason for you trying to become relevant again. And good for you. But, really?

We went to see ST:TFA again on Friday and this time in IMAX. We had dinner beforehand with friends and then headed over to the theatre. It was packed (naturally!) and we ended up in the second row.

I was very thankful I had already seen it on a smaller screen. While I appreciate the large, large screen, there were many times one had to move their eyes up to the left or right or down, etc. in order to appreciate all that was going on. When we went to the IMAX to see aliens vs. monsters, we sat in the back row, and I can say that I preferred that experience.

So, I'm warning my friends now: if we end up going to see films in IMAX, I'm not waiting to leave the restaurant thirty minutes before the film starts. I just can't risk sitting in the second row again!!!

Yeah. That. I loved it. Great reboot. James Bond, Batman, Star Trek reboots successful. Hopefully Terminator.

Now, when am I going to see it again......

Work is interesting. And painful. And chaotic.

I'm also going to get back on track with the college courses this summer. Whee.

But all in all, things are good.

Well, it's being discussed (yesterday and I think it continues today) by our supreme court justices and the discussion I've read that has occurred is appalling.

"Then there's Antonin Scalia bemusedly discovering that school kids sometimes sniff markers.

You also have a few uncomfortable minutes in which Stephen Breyer reflects on his boyhood locker-room days, to the uproarious laughter of Clarence Thomas."

Shouldn't there be SOME rights for students? And couldn't these old men have some respect for this girl and what happened to her (and any future kids who will have to deal with this?).

Apparently our cat Raj missed me Saturday (I was out of the house from 8a.m to midnight), as 6am Sunday he decided to jump on the bed, loudly MEOW in my ear, which woke me up, and then proceeded to walk all over me. I know he wasn't trying to get me to feed him as it's WELL established that nbh is the food provider. So, I think he missed me. Or, I could fall back on my usual reason for his behavior: bat shit crazy.

Short story: My friend matt bought a Charm City Cake of the spaceship Serenity for my 40th bday and a) it’s going to appear on a future episode of Ace of Cakes and b) they filmed my reaction and asked some questions of us, etc. Pics here.

Long story and the part I didn’t know about until afterwards: Last June my friend Matt came up with a brilliant idea of a surprise gift: a cake from Charm City Cakes in the shape of Serenity. He knows how much I adored Firefly (will not shake fist in sky in anger that it was canceled. well, maybe a little bit) and he wanted to do something nice for me as a thank you for my friendship. So off went an email asking for a quote. Well, next thing you know, deposit made and contracts signed, including one that says he fully understands that not every cake is filmed, etc. Things were going along great and then a week and a half before my birthday he gets an email. “We’d like to feature your cake on the show. We need to talk to the lawyers at Fox to get their permission to use the image of Serenity, but if we can, we want to do it.” Matt agreed to it. Then on Monday they called saying Fox lawyers said yes and it’d be nice if his friend could come down and they could film her reaction.” Thus the phone call.

The rest of the story from my perspective: After securing the day off, I eagerly awaited Thursday evening. While it was going to be a long day and a half, I was excited. What could this gift be and why the heck did I have to be there at the last minute? Chris and I left on the train after work to meet up with Matt in Newark (he was already in NYC on business) and drove to Elke’s to stay overnight. This cut down the seven hours to the location in half. I had finally guessed that it was a Charm City Cake mainly because of the distance and nobody had really asked me what I wanted for my cake. But what could the cake be of?

We got up at 4a.m. in Morristown and headed down to Baltimore. I asked Matt and Chris:“Is my cake cool enough to be filmed?” to which Matt replied, “I don’t know, do you want it to be cool enough to be filmed?” “On the one hand, I’m an attention whore, on the other, I know I look horrible on film. But hells yeah!”

Despite the heavy downpour and running into rush hour traffic, we made it down there fifteen minutes before our scheduled arrival time. We got buzzed in and immediately I saw the camera, boom mic and Mary Alice. She welcomed us in, turned to Matt and asked him what kind of car he drove, to which he answered an SUV and she said, “Good. because things got kind of….big.” I’m still wondering what it is and she then leads me to it and it was Serenity!!! OMG. I said, “Shiny!” and then hugged matt and Chris. The cake was fantastic. We started taking pictures, they were continuously filming, they asked us questions to which I hope I gave coherent answers. I don't remember everything I said, folks, I was in a daze.

Mary Alice is as awesome as you think she is and more. She took time out of her busy schedule for us and gave a tour of the entire place.

So the cake itself….well, it was beautiful. Katherine is the one who made it and she did a fantastic job. The base was a starfield. I didn’t notice at first the base, but did the third time I was examining it and I was tickled pink that Katherine had put that much care and thought into it. The ship really looked like it was flying in space!!! I wish I had noticed that detail when they asked me about my favorite part of the cake earlier, cause I would have answered that. The two engines on the side were made of rice krispy treats (they were so delicious!). The bottom part of the ship was all wood so that it supported the cake. We are very curious to see her assembling the cake on the show! In the pictures you can see the progression of the cake being eaten.....

My cake will be on an upcoming special one hour episode that will feature a cake for I think the Alaskan Tourism Board (cake is to be at a function in NYC). The three other cakes have aerospace/flight themes. There’s mine, the Hubble space telescope for the Yuri’s Night party at Goddard Space Center (same night as my bday) and “when pigs fly” for a couple who after fifteen years he finally proposed (when pigs fly...get it?). We got to see the two other cakes that were still being assembled while we were there. When the episode airs, of course I’ll let everyone know!!

Mary Alice’s tour of the place was fantastic. She gave us little stories and insights into their production. For example, they use vodka to cut the frosting when they airbrush a cake. They film all their hero shots down in the basement (you’ll see pics), so if you ever see her saying “Those guys” and pointing up you now know why, she’s in the basement and they are all upstairs.

After wrapping up my cake and putting it in drydock (including Styrofoam props for it to travel the seven hours – how freakin’ thoughtful!!!!), we decided it was time to leave. Hugs to everyone and they filmed us leaving. It was a long drive home in the pouring rain. But we got home an hour after my sister and bro-in-law arrived from L.A. and we were all able to head out to dinner and have a good time.

Saturday night friends went to dinner with us and then we went back to the house for cake and alcohol. Serenity tastes like chocolate. It was delicious and they even layered the cake with chocolate filling!!

Thank you to all my friends and family for making this an awesome 40th bday. And special thanks to Matt for the incredible birthday gift, which was totally worth the last minute drive and sleep deprivation. And finally, my Chris who organized everyone and made it seem like magic planned my bday.

“Tell you what. You buy this ship - treat her proper - she'll be with you for the rest of your life.” Or at least until she finishes digesting in your stomach.

Mess: "Okay, so I've got a question for you and it requires a yes or no. Can you take Friday off from work?"
Me: "Well, I've got training all day."
Mess: "Sounds like something you could skip."
Me: "Hmmm."
Mess: "See, here's what's going on. This is about your birthday and It involves a fourteen hour drive, seven hours each way. But it was only until today that it turned out to be good for you to go also. There were lawyers involved, so things weren't certain."
Me: "Lawyers? Does your wife know about this?"
Mess: "Yes, she's in on it, as is Heather, Dan, nbh, etc. We can't show up until at least 1p.m. on Friday."
Me: "Well, my sister and bro-in-law arrive early evening on Friday and I don't want to miss seeing them on Friday night. I miss my family!"
Mess: "I can probably move things up so we can be back in time for you to spend Friday evening with your family. Let me call and get back to you."
Me: "But if I say no then you'll have to make that drive all by yourself."
Mess: "You can say no, it's okay, I was already making the drive anyway. This new development necessitates you coming. Or at least, it'd be nice if you could come."
Me: "Hmm. Let me call you right back, I'm going to call nbh."

*cf calls nbh*
*nbh says he's gonna call mess and get back to me as he is in the know*
*nbh calls me back and says, "You should go and I'm coming too!"*

Logistics: someone has to get my sister and bro-in-law at the airport because we will not be back in time for that. Done. Can we stay at our friend Elke's on Thursday night in NJ? Done.

So, basically, we leave tomorrow late afternoon on a train (I have no idea why we can't drive our car to/from this location) to Newark. Mess picks us up in Newark and we drive to Elke's. Wake up butt ugly early Friday morning and arrive...somewhere. Then barrel back to Boston so we can have dinner with my family.

My co-workers guesses as to what this surprise is: exotic pet (prob. penguin), property, adopted child from Malawi.

Whee!!!