Starting a blog

write something intersting here about startng a blog
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He's still out there... Our contractor on T.V.

I'm posting this link to a story that the news ran in Jan at a local Shaws around the time of the salmonella scare in peanutbutter. The guy being interviewed here is the contractor who walked out on us and caused all the damage I posted earlier.

peanut scare


He's the guy who'd caused me headache after headache and tens of thousands of dollars trying to put my life and my condo back together. I can't believe this guy is still out on the street, probably doing the same thing to other people. Be warned. Don't let him in your house.

His name is Thomas Keohane, he lives in Saugus, MA. He was operating under Carpentry Works. His BBB rating is crap under that company name but he still holds a license in MA for Home Improvement, Construction Supervisor and Real Estate Broker. Unfortunately a loophole in the law protects his license. If I find he's operating under another name. I'll post it.

Hip to be square!

This cake was done last minute on the fly.
Baked, Frosted and Decorated in under 4 hours.
I totally forgot that Carol asked me to make and decorate a cake for her co-worker today. So last night I was in a bit of a tizzy to get it done. But between the both of us and a bottle of Nashoba Valley Blueberry Merlot we managed to crank out this square cake that looks like a present... We hope ;)

I've always wanted to make a square cake. It's really hard to frost around the corners. Getting the edged nice and square is a b***h. Round cakes are much more forgiving. You can't see in the picture, but I used a napkin to emboss some sea shells into the white frosting to make it look like wrapping paper. Very stylish if I might say so myself.

I've got to practice on the square cake. Next week I'm on vacation, so I hope to make a few of them. My goal for my next cakes are to start experimenting with recipes for both cake and frosting.

Enter the world of Cake Decorating...

Wednesday nights and my neighbor and I are bored to tears.
I work from home so in winter that means I'm practically hibernating. I don't know if she talked me into it, or I talked her into it... but here we are finishing our first Cake Decorating class. I'm going to use this blog to chronicle my progress into the world of cake decorating. I'm determined to make my own Wedding cake and I play to have fun learning. So far I've been using box cakes because I want to focus on the decorating aspect, but soon I'll take that on too.

Here is a pic of my first 2 cakes. Don't get too excited.


My first cake was all about the stars and dots. (I failed in the dots category)




And with this one, i learned how to do those neat little flowers.


Today I'm baking a 4 - tier. wish me luck.

Surprise....

I love Kinder Surprise Eggs.
I'm spending the week in Toronto. The number one thing I love about Canada is that they don't have silly laws about hiding toys inside of Candy like we do down in the lower 49.

Last night I bought a box of 3 just so I could assemble the toys.
Now... what to do with the chocolate????

Assembly Required

I've discovered that I really like assembling things and following instructions. 2 weeks ago I bought a bunch of stuff from you-do-it to solder circuits that light LEDs. This weekend I put together a closet organizer. I even modified the out of the box instructions and arranged the clothing bars in a new configuration.
Maybe its the unpackaging, the sorting and taking inventory of all the parts, seeing things come together or just the sense of accomplishment, but I find it very therapeutic and calming. I hope to assemble more things in the near future. I wish I could make a living out of it, or find some like minded individuals (no train enthusiasts though;).
Who makes those drawings anyway?

Coming together

Here are some pics of my staircase that was completed this week.
I figure it's time to start posting some good ones.
These guys did a phenomenal job. They got this done in 3 days and late hours. I can't thank them enough for the great job they've done so far.