Vikings Cakes Make Cake Wrecks!

Cake Wrecks is a blog that I follow regularly that shares professionally made cakes that look particularly unprofessional. This week they featured two Minnesota Vikings Cakes that were certainly wrecks.

JDRF

Well, that time of the year has come around again. It's time to help Rob with his role as leader of their JDRF fundraising team at work.

Last week we kicked off with a simple "guess how many" game. We filled up two giant containers with M&Ms and Strawberry Whoppers (because apparently they are very popular at Equitrust).

We really lucked out and managed to guess exactly how much candy to buy to fill our containers--two of the biggest bags of M&Ms that Costco sells and 8 cartons of Strawberry Whoppers. We decided on such large quantities because one of the reasons that folks claimed that they wouldn't buy guesses in past years is because they weren't winning enough candy (the guesses cost a dollar). Not a complaint this year :). The containers held 3,715 M&Ms and 704 Whoppers. Of course the real fun of this fundraiser was counting them all...wearing gloves (M&Ms are slippery little suckers). Apparently the fellow that won the M&Ms went so far as figuring out which container we bought and weighing it and filling it with water to measure volume, etc... It's fun that he was getting so involved in it. Rob said he was also more than happy to share his winnings :).

Rob has had a really good group working with him this year. They are all more than willing to make calls and try to get good prices on their supplies etc... One of his group members learned that Krispy Kreme will sell donuts to them at a discounted price since they are selling them for a charity. So...this week they had a donut morning where they sold donuts for a dollar a piece and made more than twice what they spent on the donuts!

Last night we made barbecues again. Last year we cooked up 22 pounds of barbecues. We had quite a bit leftover and there were fewer pre-orders this year for lunch tickets, so we only made 12 pounds of barbecues. It took us about an hour and a half and 3 batches to get a big bowl (42 cup capacity) full. It took almost an entire 7 lb container of ketchup to make these barbecues. All in all the experience was much more pleasant than last year--partly because we knew what we were doing and partly because we were only making about half as much.

Rob tells me that people at work were very excited to hear that we were making homemade barbecues again. So I hope they enjoy their lunch and that they make a good bit of money off of it (the hamburger was all donated this year so that should help).

Happy Holidays!

We had an unusual Christmas this year. We still managed to get to Miller and Estelline, but our stay in Miller was cut a bit short because of an impending storm of doom. So, we headed over to Estelline on Tuesday afternoon to avoid nasty driving. The storm stalled out a bit and didn't really hit until Christmas Eve, but it was foggy and drizzley on the 23rd so we were glad we were in Estelline and didn't have to worry about driving. Stephanie managed to get out of work on the 23rd so she could leave early to get to Estelline. Kristopher and Marie did not make it home because they wouldn't have been able to leave until Christmas Eve. Once the snow started...it snowed steadily for 3 days. They cancelled church on Christmas Eve and closed the interstates for 2 days. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time playing board games and we even managed to watch a couple of movies.

I am glad that we didn't have to try to get on the road until Sunday. I-29 in South Dakota was still quite slippery...but once we made it to Sioux City, the roads were much better and we arrived home safely last night.

Despite the nasty weather, we did have a lovely Christmas. I got some great gifts. Rob spoiled me a bit this year and got me both a new DS and an Ipod Touch (he did promise me that he got great deals on both of them though :). Rob also gave me a Royal Blue Snuggie. It was mostly for the laugh, but I tried it out last night and am a bit ashamed to admit that it's dang cozy.

Photos from this Christmas:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157623087276698/

Bacon!

Snow!

When all was said and done, we ended up with about 16 inches of snow. It fell steadily over a 36 hour time period and was accompanied by strong winds (regularly gusting around 40 mph). DMACC let out early on Tuesday, cancelled all classes on Wednesday, and started late on Thursday. Because of my end of the semester schedule, I ended up home for all three days.

Today I am doing laundry and wrapping Christmas presents. Yesterday I made some Christmas cookies. Rob ventured in to work and found himself one of 11 employees who managed to make it in. The numbers grew slightly as the day went on, but management decided to let everyone go at 1pm. They even went to the nearby HyVee and picked up lasagna for everyone who made it in. Rob said that the roads were the worst he’s seen in town since we’ve moved here.

Our entryway/parking lot/ roadway here at the apartments is still full of snow. They’ve carved out passage ways, but many of the cars are still buried in drifts which make it difficult to get in and out of parking spots.

Today we started out very cold. It got down to about -10 last night. But the sun is out so we have warmed up to about 10 above zero. I bundled up and took the trash out and took the Christmas cards (which have been sitting ready to go since it started snowing) out to the central mailbox. I couldn’t stop smiling. Perhaps it was all of the fluffy white snow, or the strange feeling of being comfortable—at home—in this cold snow-packed weather. I’m sure that will wear off as soon as I have to drive in it. But for now, my car is still entrenched in a large snow bank. I cleared off all of the windows of snow to let sun do its work, but I still have an awful lot of snow moving to do to get my car free tomorrow.

Photos of the snow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157622845734983/

Blizzard

It's snowing steadily and supposed to intensify this afternoon and evening--and then the wind is supposed to pick up. All told they are forecasting about a foot of snow here in the Des Moines Metro.

Fortunately I have a working day scheduled for my students today, so I didn't have to agonize over my commute. Which is good, because DMACC isn't closing until 2:30, and the roads are really nasty right now and only getting worse.

Because I am home today, I am taking the opportunity to get caught up on my gradebook and do laundry. I am even baking some pumpkin bread. Later I hope to get started on present wrapping.

We got a little bit of snow on Sunday night, here is a photo from our balcony on Monday (12/7) Morning:

Here are some photos from noon today (12/8):

Thanksgiving, Black Friday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Rob and I had a quiet day at home. We cooked a turkey breast, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, some sweet corn that I froze from this summer, green jello salad, and jellied cranberry sauce. It was a delightful meal...and we'll be eating the leftovers the rest of the weekend :). After our afternoon dinner, we watched Angels and Demons...which was an entertaining movie.

This morning we woke up at 6am and pulled on some clothes and combed our hair and went to Target. We were actually surprised that everything we had noticed in the ad that we were interested in was still there (the store opened at 5 and we didn't get there until about 6:20). Rob got his XBox360 that he had been wanting. They had the bundle that the other stores had (with two free games), but it also came with a 50 dollar gift card. Not to mention that they were giving 10 dollar gift cards to anyone who spent over a hundred dollars this morning...AND I had a 10% off day card from my Target credit card....so it ended up being a very good deal. We got a few dvds and an Xbox game and a couple of Christmas gifts for family...so it was a good trip, until we got to the line to check out...which wrapped around the store. We were in line about 45 minutes. After Target, we were pretty spent, but we decided to check out Best Buy and Walmart. We made quick trips at both stores and were home with a couple of Egg McMuffins before 9am. The only painful part about the whole morning was the wait at Target...which wasn't all that bad since we were jazzed about finding the things that we wanted and there were two of us, so we would each take breaks by running to look at something while the other waited in line.

After our shopping today, Rob crossed the 50,000 word mark on his novel. He has officially become a NaNoWriMo "winner"! I'm very proud of what he's accomplished this month, and I look forward to reading his novel.

Once we go back to school on Monday, I'm down to just two weeks left. I have a giant stack of essays to grade this week...and then the final portfolios start coming in the next week. It's been a rollercoaster of a semester. I look forward to only teaching two classes this spring.

Restaurant Review: Smashburger

Tonight Rob and I went to Smashburger which recently opened nearby. They have a selection of burgers and chicken sandwiches along with a few salads. This restaurant seems to be joining the growing numbers of cafeteria-style places where you pay as much (or nearly as much) as you would for the food a sit down restaurant but you don't get waiters or plates or real silverware (think Chipotle, Panera, etc...). The burgers were certainly above average. We both had the "smashfries" which are fries with herbs and garlic on them. They were pretty good--they only cost 30 cents more than their regular fries--so worth it for a change of pace.

Verdict: Good, but a bit expensive for what you get. We will probably go back to try more of their menu.

Update.

Goodness, it's been too long since I've posted. October was dreary and cold. The leaves fell off the trees more quickly this year than any year since I've moved to Iowa. The trees are mostly bare, but the weather this first week of November has been warmer and sunnier...so things are looking up.

There's about 5 and a half weeks of the semester left. It has gone by VERY quickly. I am currently grading essay 3 (of 4). Next semester is going to be much less hectic. I am back to teaching my usual two courses and I will only be on campus on MWF.

Rob is participating in NaNoWriMo this year for the first time. He is trying to write an entire novel (50,000 words) in one month. Tonight he is at a "write-in" with other participants at the local mall. He has been on pace or slightly above pace all week, and he seems to be enjoying himself. It feels a little backwards for him to be going to creative writing meetings and not me. :)

They started remodeling our hallways last month and they finally finished painting (well mostly, they still need to come back and put the switch plates back on and what not). It took them about a month from start to finish, but we now have freshly painted tan walls and green doors. This week they added new stainless steel kick plates and new door numbers. Since they made no attempt to cover the carpet, I'm assuming that's in the works too.

Here's a photo photo that I took the day before they put on the new numbers and the kick plate.
More photos of the remodel can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157622571469706/