Chocolate cake in 5 minutes

For emergency purposes :
http://www.dizzy-dee.com/recipe/chocolate-cake-in-5-minutes

I'd use the quiche dish instead of a mug. And if you have a torch, you can probably make a creme brulee.

Some fancy awkwardness

We had our office dinner party tonight at a fancy restaurant to celebrate a good fiscal year. It started with two hours of appetizers and booze at the bar and then we were ushered into a private room with assigned seats. Menu consisted of bruschetta and bread, a choice of salad, a palate cleanser (mango sorbet+ vodka), your choice of veal, chicken, salmon or an eggplant entree and your choice of a dessert (tiramisu or creme brulee).

Waiters brought out our entree in individual silver domes and told us not to peek (I had "Be our guest" from Beauty and the Beast singing in my head), and they did a little drumroll and lifted the dome.

Throughout dinner and before dinner, everyone was buying shots for everyone else. And bottles of wine were passed around. And a magician showed us some tricks.

Other diners outside in the regular dining area were dancing the shag and a band was playing some beach music.

I was, as usual, a social handicap, and I've always felt awkward in social functions and having to mingle with people I don't really know because starting some small talk is not my forte. But I did make an effort to not be a wallflower.

I survived and I was sober because I might have told a little white lie.

Now, I am ready for the weekend!

These shoes are made for walking

Two crazy fools decided to go for a walk today. And walk they did in the hot afternoon sun. They started the route through a neighboring neighborhood, past Squirrel lake, across Highway 485, passed a busy intersection, sought refuge at a church and continued onwards towards some offices.
5.8 miles (9.3 km) later, they were rescued by the parents.
Click here for the full story.

Weekend in Sneads Ferry

Here are some photos from our July 4th weekend in Sneads Ferry at Ronald and Tammie's place.
Details of our trip is posted here.

The dock

Jason raking for clams

Ronald knee-boarding

Tammie on the tube

Tammie, Asia and Bernie

A mountain of yarn

Good grief. What was I thinking?? The stuff I ordered arrived yesterday. I now have 160 hanks of yarn in my room + 192 that was wrongly sent = 352. 352!!!!

Gotta love em corks

Omigod! Twice in a week? My laksa bowl trivet got selected to be in this treasury!

Treasury

Yayy!! My trivet was selected and featured in the Treasury section of Etsy!

They love our mailbox so much that...

It was a peaceful afternoon until I got a phone call from my neighbor across the street. She said "Oh good, you're working from home today! You better come outside now coz someone just ran over your mailbox!"

Again??!!! You gotta be kidding me!
This is the THIRD time someone decides to knock our mailbox down.

I go outside and I see our mailbox smashed on one side and the whole box laying lifeless on the ground and there was this truck who was trying to back out. I went up to the truck waving like a mad woman trying to stop him, at the same time trying to catch the name of the company of the truck.
The phone number was not visible.

So this big guy comes out of the truck and here's tiny me with both hands on my hips looking furious. (Don't mess with me when I am mad)
He apologized and told me he had already called his boss and that they were coming to replace it within 30 minutes.

I had doubts.

So I went online and got the phone number for this company and spoke to the manager. I did not want to give them a chance to deny so I asked "hey by any chance you have someone working in this neighborhood this afternoon?". He said "Yes" (probably thinking I was going to give him some business).
I said "Good, coz your guy just ran over my mailbox".

He said "Oh no"

I said "Oh yes he sure did"

He said "We will replace it"

I asked " When? My mailman comes in an hour. If we are not able to get our mail, that's not going to be nice"

He said he'll call me back and I got his name.

He did call me back and admitted that it was his guy who knocked the mailbox down (obviously his guy lied when he said he had already called his boss because his boss did not know of this incident before I called up)
He informed me that they had ordered a new one from the developer. He sounded nice and trustworthy enough.

In the meantime, Jason had called the police and they called me and said they were going to come by and ask some questions.
The police guy could not understand me over the phone and asked if I speak Spanish.
I told him No, I dont speak any Spanish but he brings a Spanish-speaking police officer over anyway.
They came over during lunch time and Jason was home. Good, coz I don't enjoy talking to people who have problems with my un-American accent. It gets frustrating.
So they asked questions, and called up the company who ran over the mailbox.

About 4 hours later, I saw a new mailbox sitting pretty outside.

Relieved.

All this hoohah over a mailbox! So very unnecessary, yet necessary.

I wonder if they'll allow us to build a concrete wall around our mailbox. Coz we know someone else is going to knock the mailbox down again... they just love our mailbox too much!