A Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Did you have a good Memorial Day weekend? Mine was wonderful! On Friday Anna Banana II and I went down to the lake to hear a Cajun band play, and a group of folk dancers were doing the two-step and the waltz to their music. It was a gorgeous evening. Then Rich and I went to the new Star Trek movie at midnight, and I knew it would throw my schedule off a little, but I didn't expect to sleep until dinnertime on Saturday! All I got accomplished that day was making the fondant for a frog cake for Cecil Markovitch using the recipe my coworker gave me for marshmallow fondant. My results were not nearly as professional-looking as hers, but Cecil seemed pleased anyhow. If you look closely, you should see not only two frogs (and a third being eaten by a snake) and two lily pads with flowers, but also a pineapple, a crab, and a penny sitting on a lily pad. The penny is in honor of Richard Bonomo and the penny birthday cake I made him earlier this year. The pineapple is a joke, because Cecil Markovitch HATES pineapples! (One of the B-Boys actually gave him a REAL pineapple!) Then I had some leftover brown fondant, so I made the little crab in honor of my OTHER choir director, who was hosting the birthday party, and also one of the B-Boys, the newlywed one, because their birthdays are at the end of next month, a day apart. (So they're Cancer the Crab, see.) Anyway, it seemed like something relevant to add to Frogs' Night Out, and what else was I going to do with some leftover brown fondant? These photos were all taken on Kathbert's cell phone.

Figure 1: Frog's Night Out (top view)



Figure 2: Frogs' Night Out (view of snake eating frog)
This theme was suggested by my OTHER choir director,
who saw a snake swallowing a frog on a TV show.


Figure 3: Frogs' Night Out (another view of snake eating frog)

Sunday after Mass a bunch of us went to brunch to celebrate the birthday of my Archirritant's ex-husband, then I went home and baked a Black Magic cake to put my fondant creations on. Cecil Markovitch's birthday party was on my OTHER choir director's pier; in attendance were Rich, Kathbert, Antoshka, both B-Boys (but not Mo-Girl, who was having a Girls' Night In), A-Fooze and El Fiance, Anna Banana II, and of course the host, the guest of honor, and me. We ordered pizza, and Cecil brought spinach salad, Anna Banana II brought hummus and veggies, the B-Boy who just returned from his Hawaiian honeymoon brought some kind of Hawaiian treats made of macadamia nuts and sesame seeds, and A-Fooze made Hungarian crepes that she calls "polichenta." (I have no idea how to spell that.) She made some filled with apricots and others filled with lingonberry jam in honor of the host. (Like me, she is from temperate climes but feels tropical at heart, loving bright colors and warm weather and Latin music.) Frogs' Night Out was a big hit, but most people didn't care for the fondant, which tastes like Peeps. Cecil did eat the little fondant pineapple and declared it was the best pineapple he had ever eaten. The rest of us demolished the real pineapple the B-Boy had given him for a joke.

Then yesterday I met T at her sister's lake house. T's niece's alter ego, the Evil Cherry Mouse, calls her Tiffy, so I said I was going to call her that on my blog from now on, and she said that was fine. We played games in the yard with her nieces and their friends, then her brother-in-law took us for a ride in the speedboat; Tiffy's nieces and their friend Little Mighty went tubing while the youngest girls sat watching them and Tiffy and I sat up front. Then we all colored cardboard fashion dolls and gave them names like Topaz Tanzanite, Paris France, Delaney Downhillski, Chloe Madskillz, and Kilarney Kilbride. (Tiffy's older niece was almost named Kilarney because her parents went to Ireland when they were expecting her.) After dinner Evil Cherry Mouse's alter ego, Tiffy's mild-mannered niece, and her friend Little Mighty wanted to go canoeing but they had to have an "adult" in the canoe with them so I agreed to go. I felt like Cleopatra in her barge as they paddled me along! We saw lots of carp, baby ducklings, a heron, and a tree with roots that looked like a skull. Then it started to rain so Tiffy's older niece hollered for us to come back in for do-it-yourself sundaes. Mmm!

This morning when my alarm went off, I could barely get up. In fact, I fell asleep briefly and dreamed I lived at Our Lady of Perpetual Sobriety and that they were having Mass at 6:30 am to accommodate some girls who wanted to attend a movie at 5:15 pm, when they usually have daily Mass. The celebrant was a priest we used to have who returned to Nigeria years ago. Then I woke up and wondered what that was about!

Famous Hat