He'll be 10 by the time his paperwork is done

As you can probably tell, this whole adoption crap is like climbing up a steep hill covered in honey while wearing weighted boots. I mean it's slow. Like me. I keed, I keed. Anyway, just to give you an idea of the glory behind the vast wasteland known as the US Immigration Department, here's what they require. We recently had to fill out a form, one of a billion we have already filled out mind you, and submit it to them along with a big fat check to cover the massive cost of someone hauling their ass off their chair to file said form. This form, however, is only a preliminary form that we had to get approved so that we could get yet ANOTHER set of fingerprints taken so that a second form could be filed and processed. The second form is a preliminary form for YET ANOTHER form that will be filed when we finally get little Kimchi home. WTF?! Honestly, I have no clue as to what any of these forms really do. I just fill them out and take them where they tell me to. I may have just bought a goldmine, I don't know. Anyway, the moral of this story is that they said it would take 7 days for us to get our fingerprint summons, which we finally got, 16 days after we filed. Clearly there is no difference between 7 and 16 days in the world of our government. We get our prints taken next week. They said it could take up to 90 days to get them processed. Seriously. I don't even want to know what they do with them that takes 90 days. THIS, people, is why this stuff takes so long.

Breaking News from Kimchi Headquarters

Whoa. I've got some majorly big news. I just got my first actual FULL TIME design job. Here's the thing. It's not graphic design, it's interior design. I began my schooling in interior design and two classes shy of graduation, I made the move to graphics. Weird how things work out, isn't it? Anyway, I'm going to be working in restaurant design, mostly overseas, and I'm really excited and scared shitless because it's a new division in an already established company and the people are really nice and the package is awesome and I really can't complain other than to say it isn't cakes but that'll come in due time.

Go me.

Donut 54

LM's birthday was a few weeks ago and unfortunately, she had to attend an out of town funeral on her birthday so we celebrated a bit late. I, of course, planned to make her a cake. I hemmed and hawed for days as to what kind of cake to make because I am a horrible gift giver and I suck at finding those perfect gifts for people and then I feel all guilty and then 6 months later I'll be like "DANGIT, I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THAT FOR SO-AND-SO'S BIRTHDAY" but then the same thing happens again the next year and so on. Anyway, the light finally went off in my brain and I decided that LM was getting a giant donut cake. LM and I have a long history of loving donuts. We spent many a night sitting in the DelTaco parking lot after the bars closed, bemoaning the lack of late night donut options. We decided that there needed to be a bar that served not only beer but donuts as well. And to top that, they would be delivered to you by girls on roller skates. This all seemed like a really good idea after 8 martinis and a bean burrito. We were even going to name it Donut 54, in honor of our love of the disco (that name is OURS so hands off suckers). 11 years later and the donut is still our muse.

Here's how it looked as I was carving it out. Oh yeah, I carved it. No bundt pans here fo real.

It was a delicious vanilla butter cake with a mocha buttercream icing.

Coffee and a donut, GET IT?

This is a big week for cakes here. I've got two for Friday and one for Sunday. Pictures to come.

I don't want no remnants of nonsense*

(CONTENT REMOVED BY ME. YOU ARE NOT DREAMING. THERE WAS MORE TO THIS POST BUT NOW IT'S GONE. HOPE YOU READ IT WHEN YOU GOT THE CHANCE)

Pisces

You are on a journey. It will take you from here to September. Along the way, it will bring you much drama and much magic. It begins pretty much now with the decision that you are in the process of making. Inwardly, you already know what must be right. Trust what you feel and try not to be distracted by the various doubts and uncertainties which keep bubbling up in your mind. Most are cropping up to confuse you, not to enlighten you. Give them one quick chance to prove their validity and if they can't, dismiss them.

Um yeah, aren't these stupid things supposed to HELP you, not confuse you so you don't know what to do? Inwardly, I don't know what's right so why can't you just tell me. BLIMEY! Just so you don't think I'm totally crackers, I don't ACTUALLY live my life by this stuff but I'll be damned if it isn't SPOOKILY ACCURATE, which is what they say on their website. Truth in advertising, people.

* This was from a quote from one of the contestants on Project Runway last night. It was freaking hilarious when he said it because he's super fabulously gay and said it about his model, who was in charge of buying his fabric. Imagine it being said with a combination of fabulousness and disdain. It has nothing to do with anything and it's probably a misquote anyway but there it is.

Dream weaver

I had a dream last night that I was in college and my roommate was Will Smith. I spent most of the time trying to find a Coke machine, which seemed to be everywhere, but every time I put my money in, all these tokens from Worlds of Fun would come out. Then Mona from "Who's the Boss" was there and she was trying to get the school to extend it's hours to year round.

Then I woke up.

Then I fell back asleep and had a dream I was in a park and I was trying to get to my car. I had to run through these trees with all these low-hanging dead branches that kept scratching me and getting caught in my hair. When I got to my car, the driver's window was open and I was on the other side and two guys came up and took my purse and some other bag out of the front seat. I tried to get it back from them but they just laughed at me. I told one of the guys I was going to stab him in the nuts and he just rolled his eyes and threw it back at me.

Then I woke up again. Alarm. Hit snooze.

Fell back asleep again and this time I was in my childhood bedroom. I was terrified for some reason but no one was in the room with me but all of a sudden a pillow would appear like someone was trying to smother me. I would dodge it but no one was there holding it. Then I looked out the doorway and a big ugly cabinet thing went flying down the hallway and I was like "OH MY GOD, there's a ghost in here!"

Then I woke up.

I have the most messed up dreams and the worst part is that I REMEMBER THEM like I'm watching a movie. My brain is so weird. I can't remember math or birthdays but I remember hanging with the Fresh Prince trying to buy a Coke with amusement park tokens. Whatever.

He's just too funky for me

So last week I went to Chicago to see the ledendary George Michael in concert. I say legendary because HE IS. I went with LM and my friends Mike & Brian, although LM and I drove separately. We spent the majority of the 4 1/2 hr ride car dancing, which is second only to bed dancing, which Jeff will tell you I do when i leave the 80's station on while I'm falling asleep and it's not dirty so get your mind out of the gutter. Anyway, we stayed with some friends of the boys and while I had no expectations (okay I did but I only expected it to be fabulous) they outdid themselves as wonderful hosts. They have an amazing condo in Little Italy and it's totally charming like from a movie or something. We asked one of the guys if they had a nice view of downtown and he was all "meh, it's not too bad" but we decided to venture to the rooftop deck to see for ourselves. Not too bad, huh? Well, this was the freaking view:

Strike a pose ladies! Anyway, we had some cocktails and a delicious pre-show dinner at a little eye-talian place nearby. Imagine, Italian in Little Italy! Who knew? We were all really excited and our seats rocked (thanks Mike) because we had the first row of the balcony. OH YEAH! The stage was this big light thing that came down and projected all these videos and stuff and it was awesome. Georgie began by singing off stage and getting us all amped up and then he appeared looking trim and not bloated like I thought he would. The show was pretty much non-stop awesomeness. He played mostly everything I wanted to hear except for "I Want Your Sex" and "Killer," which is kind of a lesser known track but one of my favs nonetheless. There was A LOT of dancing ( I mean A LOT) and a lot of audience singing along and overall he did not disappoint. He played for 2 1/2 hours, included several Wham songs and gave two encores, closing with "Freedom." I felt good for him because he's out and proud of his life and it made me proud to be there with my friends. Sadly I deal with homophobia from people I know and to be in a place this packed and have everyone just happy to be whatever they want to be was a very touching experience. When we got home, we went back up to the roof to enjoy some cocktails and this was our view:

Ahhh...just lovely. Jeff and I threaten to move to Chicago on a regular basis and maybe one day we will. It's hard not to want to when you're enjoying this. Granted, we could only afford to sleep on the stoop of the building, not actually in it but let me have my moment.

TEXAS JUSTICE!

So I made a cake for an impromptu wedding this weekend. It was for a couple from Texas, so the cake was to be Texas-themed. It was also a bit short notice, so I went for simple instead of crazy. I think it was super cute and the lettering was nerve-wracking but I'm learning and that's how you improve. And much like the state itself, it was just too big to contain on one board.

And lest you think that little Keebler elves come out and make these cakes for me, I've also decided to show the cake in it's various states of development. Here it is after carving but pre-iced:

Here it is with the under coat of strawberry buttercream, which I thought was mucho delicioso:

Right now we are really focused on recipe development. We've found a few recipes we really like, but each one comes with its own issues. For instance, this particular cake tastes great (my opinion, of course) but it's very dense, which since most people are accustomed to the spongy crap they get from the Betty Crocker box, isn't always as well liked. I love dense cakes so I'm trying to fiddle with this recipe to make it taste good and be just slightly lighter without making it too light to do anything fun with.

Anyway, I hope to hear some feedback (please let it be good) later today so I'll update the carnage as it comes.