Carol's Birthday

Ha! A NON-OVERDUE post!  How crazy is this, timely posting.  So this past Thursday was Carol's Birthday.  On Thursday evening, some of us went to the Olive Garden for dinner to celebrate.  It was a nice dinner with a FABULOUS waiter.  I don't know what the standard is for tipping anymore, but I tipped him 26%, he was that good.  Mind you, this is not just good compared to the previous waitress who was awful.

Anyway, we have a lovely time and then came back to the house to watch the season premier of Survivor, because Carol loves Survivor.  Then on FRIDAY, I had LONG planned to have a surprise party for her at the house.  I was going to make a cake and everything.  As it coincided with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, I decided to make an Olympic Rings cake.  Making the cake was a huge project.  It took 3 days and many hours.  The cakes were all cooked in a 9in round pan.  We bought a GIANT can of pudding because the diameter of the can was the right size.  We use the pudding to make dirt and then I used the can as an inner wall for the cake pan.  All in all, I think it turned out quite well.  I have no plans to quit my job, and am certainly not as crafty as my sister (ask her about her amazing cakes) but I'm quite happy with it.

Well, a week before the party, Carol decided to invite people out to Cafe 210 for the night on Friday night... GAHH!!!  Through much trickery and planning, I was able to get everybody to leave Cafe with a 'reasonable' excuse around 8pm and head back to the house.  Carol was less than happy, as could be imagined.  Eventually I was able to drive her back to my house (while giving EXCELLENT answers to every question she posed as to what was going on) and not tip her off.  I got her upstairs and everybody jumped out to yell "SURPRISE!" and she was very very happy with everything, all of the frustration of everybody leaving was worth it I think.

We wound up eating delicious delicious cake and watching parts of the opening ceremonies for a while.  More pictures here.  More pictures will follow when I steal Carol's camera and upload the rest onto my computer and the web.

Help me Wilford Brimley, you're my only hope...

Yet another overdue post! Almost every weekend we make pancakes for breakfast on either Saturday or Sunday (or sometimes both). Typically Justin would make them and then get everybody else up with the delicious promise of pancakes. At the beginning of this year, I started doing the making because I was up first most often. I started always doing chocolate chip pancakes, because they are AWESOME. Nothing too special, just throw some chips into the batter when they are cooking and you get you delicious chocolate chip pancakes.

A couple of weeks ago while eating pancakes, we had the idea of making chocolate pancakes instead.  Just make the batter with some coco powder and extra sugar; should be delicious, right?  Well, that night over dinner we came back to the idea of chocolate pancakes.

 But we kept adding on.  First we said to add chocolate chips, too!  Then it was lets have hot cocoa while eating our pancakes.  Then the pinacle.... lets use Hershey's Chocolate Syrup instead of normal pancake syrup!

It was here that we coined the term, "Diabetuscakes."  Yes, I know the spelling is wrong (if there is a correct spelling of that).  It is made to be pronounced like Wilford Brimley, 'diabetus.'  On the morning of the Diabetuscakes, we invited Mihir over, as we KNOW he has a sweet tooth.

The few pictures here show the cooking process.  Conor, Mihir, and I all felt a crazy sugar high almost immediately after consuming the glorious-glorious diabetuscakes.  Justin, however, did not get hit until 10 hours later.  And then he couldn't stop shakin/moving.  It was a wonderful day, but one that does not need to be repeated any time soon.  More pics here.