Should the cake or the mate come first?

My aunt is getting married for the first time this summer. My aunt and I have had our falling outs in the past (she is a very politically and socially conservative Christian) and I am a relatively liberal non-religious person whose spiritual beliefs lean more towards metaphysical studies than any sort of organized religion or "god" centered beliefs. However I also belive that to a point your family is very important and that even if your political, social and pretty much every other options don't match there are still events that you should attend for your family. Weddings are one of those.

My aunt also asked my to bake her wedding cake. We have a family recipe for a cake called a Chocolate Ice Box cake that has been passed down a few generations and I am the only one who really knows how to make it. Everyone else has the recipe but it is somewhat difficult to make and I am the only one who (a) has the desire to busy herself baking during the majority of the wedding events and (b) knows how to make the cake and actually make it taste and look good. I was bored today and instead of enjoying the warm weather I am sitting inside looking at wedding cake building tips. This was at the end of one recipe that I came across on the Food Network website for a wedding cake...

To Assemble: Without removing the cardboard rounds from underneath the cakes, place the 14 inch cake onto serving platter. Cut dowel rods into 5 sections the height of the 14 inch cake, and 5 sections the height of the 10 inch cake. Carefully insert 4 dowel rods around the middle perimeter of the 14-inch cake and 1 in the middle. Stack the 10-inch cake atop the 14-inch cake. Repeat dowel insertion process for the10-inch cake. Stack the 6-inch cake atop the 10-inch cake. Cover up cardboard by piping icing around perimeter base of each cake. Dust mini green grapes liberally with powdered sugar and adorn cakes with them. Further adorn cake with white ribbon. Find mate, wed, serve.

Does it strike you as odd that (a) the wedding cake recipe dictates that you "find a mate, wed, and serve"...since when did the Food Network start giving life advice and what if i have the desire to just bake the cake and eat it, does that mean the recipe isn't going to come out tasting right and (b) that it came at the end of the recipe? In my opinion finding a mate should probably come before baking the cake. It's understandable to have your wedding cake picked out before you meet the man of your dreams but I would imagine that the butter cream frosting isn't going to hold up for the duration of the relationship.

Public Service Announcement

Just a little public service announcement I came across earlier...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ&mode=related&search=

Possibly the best Budweiser commercial...

My vote for the best Budweiser commercial goes to...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiTarkl31Gw

(BTW you can tell it's in the middle of a sports season because they have beer commercials on at 10am)...

Are we faced with too many decisions?

Lately I've been thinking about decisions. In this day and age women of a certain age have what seems like endless choices, which means endless decisions. While antiquated practices like arranged marriages and raising families is long gone for most people, are we any better off now than we were then? Are we better off now that we have the choice to vote in political elections, choose where we want to live, with whom and even what color our hair is. We can even vote for who our next pop idol is going to be. We can choose what to go to school for, or even if we want to go to school. What car to drive, what coffee flavor to drink, what color to paint our walls. Everything in our lives, every choice that we are confronted with we are forced to make a decision. I just finished watching Grey's Anatomy and the last line of the show was 'the people who are miserable are those who haven't made a decision." I have struggled for the past year with what I want to do with my life. My career. I spend countless hours pondering if I should give it all up and follow my unrealistic dreams and risk having a life full of good food and passion or should I stay on the path I am now and risk turning into a powerful businesswomen. How do you choose what you want, what is going to be the best in the long run when you can see the benefits and the downfalls of each choice?

Another Life...

Have you ever had a moment where you get a glance into a life that will never be? I read this book a while back called "Einsteins Dreams", the just of the book is it all these small stories of events happening at the same 'time' in parallel realities. It really is a great book and a quick read. Anyways, ever since I read the book I find these moments where I swear those parallel realities are coming together for just a moment. I am fully aware this seems completely out there but I had one of these moments today.

Through work I know this guy. He is originally from England and has this sexy accent. For the first few months that I had knew him we talk all of the time; he would call to ask something work related and 45 minutes later we would get off the phone, I would drop something off at his office and I would stay there for a half hour chatting in the parking lot. Things always went so smoothly with him. Then one night I was bored and was searching Myspace and found his profile. His profile that said he was married and had a picture of him and his beautiful wife on their wedding day. Hmmm, so much for soul mates. Shortly thereafter he left the job he was at and I didn't hear from him for months.

He called my office today and we chatted for an hour. We caught up on our lives like we we were lost lovers reuniting after years and life had torn us apart. Ok, that was a little dramatic but it was an odd sensation to be talking to someone that you know is utterly unavailable but at the same time you feel like you are talking to someone I was spending my life with, like I was chatting with my husband about what was for dinner or what our weekend plans would be. Only he is still married to his beautiful wife. For a moment, a brief passing in time, there was a glimpse into a life with him. A happily married life with the cute geologist from England. There's no sadness that this is the life that I am living and that that is a life I will never have, just more that it is a life that I could of had given some different decisions.

Nope, still here. Shannon is my Internet chatting buddy but she is long asleep so I am going to chat to myself for a while until I can come down off my raging about work high.

Do you know I've dove with sharks and wrestled crocodiles? Ok, they were small sharks and I didn't technically 'wrestle' the crocodiles, but I did't tie their mouths shut and take blood samples...

I've been to 10 countries (some of them multiple times) and have swam in the ocean naked with bioluminescent plankton all around me...

I've watched baby sea turtles hatching, swam with dolphins in the wild and stood staring at Stonehenge.

I'm kind of a cool chick. Mind you I still don't know how to ride a bike but that is coming; everyone has to have some challeges lying in their future.

How the hell am I supposed to go to sleep now? I am all wound up and pissed and it is 12:30 am and I have to be up in 5 1/2 hours...can I quit my job and move to Mexico?

Maybe I will go back to school to become a chef, so I can open my open my own deli/bakery...I'd still have stress in my life but at least I would get to eat good food all day...