Conference Memories

In honor of tomorrow's virtual SEC, I figured I would reminisce over conferences of the past. So many great memories and so many pictures to choose from, I narrowed down to some of my favs in the past 4 years.




Meeting Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and being heckled by Gilbert Godfrey is somewhere near the top of the list. I really did like him in Aladdin!






There has always been an ongoing Star Wars theme for us geeks! I am surprised we haven't had a full cos-play event at one of these things yet!






Swing dancing was probably my favorite of the interactive, not that it ever stopped me from dancing at any of the parties. I generally had to warm up the dance floor for a good hour or two at any event before I could convince others to join me (or maybe they just needed that time to have some liquid courage)

I fear (and yet would probably still be very amused) should Jim ever decide to create a video montage of my dancing antics.








Go kart racing was a blast in Fort Wayne, even tho my car got buried in the snow... And who could forget snow doughnuts? Gotta love those vendors!








While most everyone loved their cardiac arrest in the bun in Philly - I really could have gone my whole life without a cheesesteak, but what a great photo op for the Symi-Mafia!







And who could forget the infamous recreation of Milli Vanilli's blame it on the rain in San Diego? That evening set an all new standard for male chest bumping in water!










Or what about JBF's inappropriate care bears in San Antonio?








Or the trip to Sun Studios in Memphis? That's where I officially became a published recording artist with "pretty hair" sang with Elvis's mic and got to play Johnny Cash's guitar!






And the countless karaoke songs sung - I think I covered all of the Madonna "Like A" songs over the years... Virgin, prayer, etc...






Or creepy drunk Santa who wasn't really all that creepy or drunk after all?







And dodgeball!!! Oh how I miss playing dodge ball this time of year!






While I am sad to not be on the tennis courts today, I am looking forward to the next two days and virtually networking with my people. I heart my Symi friends!!! I wonder if we'll crash the chat servers or if there will be a side FB conversation? I'll be playing virtual dodgeball tonight for old times sake and hoping to make new, yet I am thinking somewhat less photogenic memories this year!

Warped Birthday Cakes

Today is the birthday party for a dear friend with a rather warped sense of humor. I couldn't decide between a zombie baby or a cat litter cake, so I made both for tonight's party at the Saucer.


Zombie Baby cake was inspired from the time Josh etched RIP into a cake at work because e thought it was a tombstone cake, come to find out it was a cradle cake for a baby shower at his office.

The cake is a blood red inside with gummy worms that will fall out when he cuts into it.





Cat litter cake is an old Halloween standby of mine. It's german chocolate with chocolate frosting covered in crushed white oreos colored green and blue like cat litter. The cat turds are made from large tootsie rolls with pinched ends and it's a delicious creation that most people never taste because they can't get over what it looks like.

It's served in a new cat litter box with a new cat litter scoop. I promise both were washed and sterilized and it's completely edible and delicious :) I will say this is the first time I have ever spelt out someone's name in fake poop.

cake

Not so little known factoid about me...
My prior career was in the event/wedding planning industry. I used to bake wedding cakes, sew wedding dresses, create floral arrangements, and cater parties. At some point in the late nineties I gave it all up for coding and haven't really looked back since. Dealing with a computer is way easier than putting up with a BrideZilla.

Nonetheless, I get cravings to get back to my creative culinary roots, especially the sugar iced kind. Lucky for me it's birthday/cake party season right now and I have 3 cakes in 1 week.


Cake #1 is for my friend Jen's 30th. We held the party at a sushi restaurant and so what better to theme the cake with than.... SUSHI!

The cake was yellow pound with a fudge filling, butter cream frosting and light almond fondant

I decorated the borders with hand painted fondant bamboo and metallic centered sugar blossoms






The top was sushi created from twinkies and ho-hos wrapped and iced to look like dinner complete with hand sculpted soy dish full of "gel"-soy and fondant sculpted ginger and wasabi. Coconut rice and jelly belly Ikura and all.


I will post cakes 2&3 later this week :) Full pics of the cake construction are on FaceBook