Awkward Corporate Outings

Today, we were doing a little planning on our work holiday outing. It's different this year, and we were doing some brainstorming. We're thinking perhaps a cooking class would be fun.

In the past, I have planned some corporate events that have been a little cringeworthy. A few stand out in my mind.

Moroccan Restaurant. Well, we were at a training session with new Associates from all over the country. Thought it would be fun to go out for Moroccan food. Go to the restaurant, sit on the floor, eat with our fingers, have the rose water on our hands...except I didn't realize how AWKWARD it would be to have the belly dancers coming out and dancing all around. And then some of our people dancing with the belly dancers. Oopsie.

Stand Up Comedy Club. Oh, let's try something different while we are in New York, I thought, and let's take these new Associates out to a comedy club. Well. The language was pretty blue, and some of the situations a little awkward. In addition to that, one of our more sheltered Associates began to talk back to the comedian. Never, never do this, grasshoppers. Though it was several years ago I distinctly recall the comedian saying "and what's up with you, with that frickin' pale face and that frickin' nose...that nose is like a frickin' banana..."

So in retrospect, I would recommend that corporate outings be pre-screened for any possibilities of sexual harassment claims, and for any comic harrassment claims, and generally pretty much like a place you would take your nine year old just to make sure you avoid potential cringeworthy settings.

Glee: I Know Who Suzy Pepper Is

I knew I liked that Suzy Pepper. Suzy Pepper = Hannah from Everwood.

Happy Birthday Naomi!

Happy birthday to Naomi, who turned seventeen yesterday.

Oh, it seems like yesterday that she was complaining she didn't want Luke to be born, because she liked being the baby in the family.

And it seems like yesterday she was a baby.

But it is great to see her blossoming into such a bright, kind, funny, spirited woman.

We had a best-ever birthday cake for Naomi. Really incredible, and I am not a baker, but it was one of the best I've ever made. We tried baking red velvet from scratch once on a red velvet quest, but I think we found the trick yesterday.

Red Velvet Giant Birthday Cupcake

First, I used the handy-dandy Wilton Giant Cupcake pan or whatever it's called.

Then, I used one box of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Red Velvet cake mix. Prepare according to directions. Split the batter between the top and bottoms of the cake pan, more in the bottom than the top. Bake on 325 for 38 minutes and check for doneness.

Top with Joann's Awesome Cream Cheese Frosting. 1 block cream cheese, 1 stick butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 tsp vanilla, creamed together with a mixer.

Slice the cakes so they are flat on the top and bottom. Put a thin layer of cream cheese frosting between the layers to stick them together.

I used the handy dandy Wilton Cupcake Dessert Decorator to make the frosting all nicey on the top of it. Put the frosting in there and swirl from the middle to the edges.

Mski Combat

So apparently you can take the boy out of the ghetto, but you can't take the ghetto out of the boy.

But truthfully, we were not raised in the ghetto. But it was the next city over.

Anyway, I thought it would be sweet to sneak up behind Fr. Hubby and give him a hug while he was sorting clothes in our bedroom.

However, he did not know that I was going to come behind him and hug him, and threw me across the room onto the bed and would have punched me if he hadn't lost his footing and fallen onto the couch.

We laughed for a long time.

Hmm. Note to self. Announce your presence before surprising DH from behind.

Sick TV

So after taking care of a sick child for a few weeks, amazingly enough, I got sick. Fr. Hubby scored a lot of points towards good will by taking charge of the kids and taking them after church down to the family birthday party we needed to go to at Chuck E Cheese waaaay down in Orange County.

So I got to stay home and camp out on the couch, which was delicious. Jessica was also sick, and we had our blankies. First we watched the Gilmore Girls, and then watched some My Fair Wedding with David Tutera.

He's a likable one, this David Tutera, who takes a disastrous wedding plan and then turns it around in 3 weeks to make a beautiful, snazzy affair.

I still can't figure out who pays for the weddings, but I sure like what he does. The episode we saw was Mummer themed wedding. Which I had never heard of the Mummer parade, but all I know is that the groom only seemed to come alive when the Mummer stuff was going on, so it was probably a good theme for them.

Here are David's top 5 wedding tips:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

So yesterday, after all the hoo haa at the tournament, we went to Target to go and buy birthday presents for our nephew and also for Rich's OG goddaughter who is 20something.

And may I say we got her a super cute Sonia Kashuk smokey and sparkly eye makeup set and also a Sonia Kashuk brush set, that me, Jessica, and Naomi probably would have liked to snag and keep for ourselves, but we refrained.

I tried to buy a mystery for Luke, since he has to write a report on a mystery. But alas, we saw no mysteries and we ended up with one of the Wimpy Kid books.

For some reason, Luke eats these books up like candy. My girlfriend's son, who is a year older, the same thing. Both of them can laser focus on these books and read a good 50 pages at a time.

Originally they started out as part of the www.funbrain.com site. You can still get lots of Wimpy Kid for free there.

But the books are great to travel with, and actually read a real book with real pages. A great way to get the young boys to take a break from the video games.

Another interesting site I found from doing some of the wimpy kid research was www.readkiddoread.com, from author James Patterson, and www.guysread.com, which you can only imagine what that site is about.

So. There you are. Need to get an elementary school aged boy to read? Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Tae Kwon Do Tournament

Here is Dad and his daughters. Although it sure is hard to get a picture where everyone is looking good, at the camera, and not being crazy.

Luke got a gold in forms and a gold in sparring today - Yay Lukie!

Note to self, buy a seat cushion to sit on hard bleachers for so long.