Wordless Wednesday

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

I've officially had my beta fish for two years as of today!  Yes, I realize that no one but me cares about that but it's my blog so I'm gonna post about it anyways!

Source:  bing

I wasn't even gonna try and get a picture of my fishy, he's an active guy at times and somehow, I just don't think he'd be very cooperative.  Shortly after I got him, his long, flowing tail came off.  I'm not sure what happened; it was there one day and gone the next!  Totally freaked me out but it didn't seem to phase him  and it eventually grew back.

I'd had another blue fish before him named Midnight and somehow, I'd forgotten his name the last six or so months of his life.  I didn't remember it again until he passed.  So...  I eventually got another fish after probably nine months or so and to avoid the same situation happening again, I called him Red.  Because he's red.  Yes, I am oh so original! 

My other beta's have never lived much past 2 to 2 1/2 years so I suspect that Red won't be around for too much longer.  I just wanted to take some time today to pay tribute to his special "gotcha" day.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

Saturday I went on the annual Garden Tour.  I haven't been able to go for the last several years for one reason or another so I was excited that it worked out this year!  I scrounged up the change in my couch cushions (ok, not really but close!), managed to cough up the $5 fee and away we went!

I am shocked and amazed my friend actually showed up on time!  She's easily distracted by shiny things so she's not always the most punctual.  I was so proud of her too, she stayed on track for almost the whole day!  Last time we went on the tour, she wanted to stop at all of the yard sales along the way.  This time, she just drove right by them!

There were a total of 9 gardens this year.  It seems like there were more this time than in the past, I think there's usually an average of about 6.  The first place we went to even gave away potted plants!  I took one called a "cone flower."  I had no clue what they'd look like once they bloomed so I checked online and came up with these images.  They appear to come in a variety of different colors but most of the ones pictured were pink and purple.

Source:  bing

My favorite garden was one I could've spent literally hours and hours in!  There was so much to look at and if you looked one way, you'd miss everything on the other side.  There were 13 fountains, a pond with fish, waterfalls, grottos, cottages, statues, plants and flowers of every kind imaginable - all under a canopy of large shade trees!  I've been to this home a few times before on the tour and each time they seem to add more and more to it.  It's absolutely beautiful and so easy to get lost in.  Not lost physically but lost in your thoughts.  I imagine they spend many peaceful summer nights out there!  It's beautiful but I just can't even begin to fathom all the hard work and long hours that must go into it.  They used to have a hot tub too but I don't remember seeing it this time around. 

Afterwards, we went to the social to celebrate the fun day.  They had a silent auction and raffled off a few prizes.  Normally I don't have much luck winning giveaways but I won a plant!  My number was called almost at the very end.  I wasn't even really listening anymore and my friend had to tell me what I'd won.  I don't know what kind of plant it is, I only know that some kids planted it.  My friend won a 10 day pass for the local swimming pool.  She didn't seem very excited by it so I'm wondering if maybe she doesn't swim.

The very best part of the day has to be that my hip didn't bother me at all until the very end!  My hip was never fully formed in utero apparently and I was supposed to go back for an MRI for further studies but the insurance at my last job wouldn't pay for it.  (Shitty insurance from a shitty job.  Reason #1,379 that I'm glad I don't work there anymore!)  It didn't really bother me at all and I wasn't even aware of it until about the last 5 years or so and since then, I have to be careful how far and how long I walk.  Some days it's worse than others but Saturday it was feeling great and I didn't have to take any pain pills!

I brought my camera with me and tried to take pictures at several of the gardens to share with you. I feel like such an idiot though! I couldn't figure out why in the heck it wasn't taking any pictures and cussed at it several times. I got home and realized that I never cleared the old pictures out so there was no room for new ones. Grrrrrr!!! It didn't occur to me until I got home and changed the battery, thinking maybe that was the problem. That's when it finally hit me!  My friend got some though and said she'd send them to me, hopefully she'll remember.

I can't share any of the beautiful gardens with you that I saw on Saturday but I found some that are every bit as pretty and of similar styles.

Source:  bing

My little town really surprises me.  There's some gorgeous homes and then there's the slums!  And they aren't all that far apart from each other either.  The street I live on starts out with the el cheapo, welfare type houses and waaaaaay down at the other end are the gorgeous homes where people who make the BIG money live. 

The rest of the weekend was relatively quiet.  Well, except for Sunshine!  She likes to sing along to the radio.  Sometimes I hear her chirping early in the morning too, before I've gotten up.  My chi's are awfully curious about her.  They can't reach her cage but they like to stand on their hind legs, get as close as they can to her (which isn't very close at all!) and sniff 'til their noses about fall off.  She just ignores them and goes about her business.  My little boys get so jealous anytime they see her getting any extra attention, even if it's just  to change her water!

I hope everyone had as nice of a weekend as I did!

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

Yet another week has passed me by.  This has been a pretty uneventful week for the most part.  After being so busy the prior 2 weeks, I'm actually quite happy about that!

In keeping with that theme, it's Half Full Friday!  If you want to play along, go to Eyegirl's and spend some quality time with Mr. Linky.

I'm happy that my community project is over with until next year!

I'm happy I've already been accepted back to the project for next year!

I'm happy that my leg and hip are starting to feel better!  They've really been bothering me a lot for the last couple of days and I'm not sure why.

I'm happy that I have my mom's parakeet, Sunshine, for a few days!  She's a lot of fun, even if she is a bit messy! 

I'm happy I followed up on my schooling and found out things will be a little easier than I expected!

I'm happy that Chico hasn't been as bad about "marking" things lately as he has been in the past.

My mom and dad have gone camping for a few days so I'm caring for their beta fish and parakeet.  I tried to get a picture of Sunshine but so far haven't had much luck.  The bars on her cage are fairly close together and the quality of my camera isn't wonderful so any pictures that I've managed to get of her haven't turned out very well.  I still need the practice though so I'll keep trying.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll have her.

Once my leg and hip are fully up to par, I want to take my boys out walking on a trail near my house and try to get some pictures there.  It's a beautiful trail and will be a good place to practice my camera skills.  I hate that I can't look through the viewfinder and have what I see be what I'm taking a picture of!  Grrrrrr!!!

I'm all registered for school and wondered why I haven't heard anything back from them so I called them on Monday.  Turns out they're still waiting on my high school transcripts.  I asked that they be sent weeks ago so this really shocked me!  They told me I could get around this by taking their Compass tests which I'm going to have to take anyways.  I guess they're like placement tests kind of, which is how they were described to me, just to show that I have an understanding of the work and can actually do it.  I'll have to do them for writing, reading and math.  I'm not concerned about the reading and writing but totally freaked out about the math.  Yes, my career is in banking but the vast majority of the work is all done completely on computers so I never needed to worry about it.  But ~ I found a website that teaches you all about math from the very basics on up so I've been practicing with that.  I'm still nervous about it but it can only help.

Also, I found this phone number for help with studying for GED's.  I called it and explained that I've graduated from high school already and asked if they could help me study for the Compass test and they said yes!  So between the two, hopefully I can pass that test and the basic math class I'll have to take to graduate from the school.

I'm not sure how I found this particular Blog of the Week.  It reminds me of PostSecret only it's not quite as creative in that there aren't any decorated postcards to go with it.

Secret Regrets

The premise of this website is basically the same as PostSecret, posting a secret regret anonymously.  Should you choose to do so, you only include your age and gender but not your name.  You're encouraged to check back daily to see if your regret was posted.  This site also allows comments which PostSecret does not and was originated in 2007.

The two sites are difficult not to compare.  Honestly, I'm not sure which one I prefer.  I kind of like PostSecret a little more because of the postcards.  It's only updated once a week but it's updated with 20 postcards and more often than that on twitter.  This particular site is updated on a daily basis with only one secret regret.  With that said, it allows the person enough room to say exactly what they want to say and not have to worry about whether it'll all fit on a postcard.  Plus they can clarify something if needed in the comment section or respond to a question should they choose to do so.  I don't check the site daily but when I do check it, there is always at least one regret (and usually more) that I can relate to.

You can become a follower on facebook and twitter and even buy the book.  The book is currently in the works containing favorites from the site and never before featured entries.  I'm not sure when it'll be published.    

There's links in the sidebar to a couple of places to help anyone who might be having issues dealing with their regrets.  I haven't checked out the links so I don't know how helpful they are but I like that they're there.  Plus, even if I may didn't find it helpful, that doesn't mean that someone else might not!

Wordless Wednesday

Monday Musings

My project has come to a close for the year and I must say I have mixed feelings about it.  It's a relief to have a break from it for awhile but it was also nice to have something to else to focus on besides the lack of a job/interviews. 

Overall it went well, I think.  I was a little pissed because the music for my ceremony from beginning to end was totally screwed up.  They didn't play the correct songs where they were supposed to and missed a couple of songs completely.  I got virtually no feedback from anyone on what they thought of it but hopefully everyone else liked it.  And if they didn't, oh well...too late now!

I brought my camera with me to take pictures but seemed to have forgotten all about it.  Can you believe I did not get a single picture?!  I can actually, because that's what usually happens.

After the ceremony, one of my friend helped me put together some of the prizes.  The ones we worked on were all food related.  Once we got done, there were always a couple of leftovers which my friend quickly asked if she could have.  I just wanted to say, "You do realize this is all for charity, right?  And that charity is NOT you?"  But I didn't, I kept my mouth shut!

Last week, the lovely Zuzana did a meme that she was tagged for.  I liked it so I snagged it.  But it's ok, she said that if anyone wanted to play along, they could.  So I didn't totally steal it from her.  Feel free to play along if you'd like to!

1)  What is your philosophy?
At an old job I had, there was a saying posted to the training door that I think is pretty true.  "Life is a journey, not a destination."  Life truly is what you make of it.

2)  If you could be any age again for one week, what age would you be?

Honestly, this is a difficult one to answer.  Life has always seemed to be a struggle for me.  Maybe the week I decided to go to beauty school.  I would change that into going to college instead and maybe make a more lucrative life for myself.  I was probably 17 then.

3)  Who is your fashion icon?
Don't have one.  I've never been very fashionable.  I would've liked to have been in high school because I thought maybe I'd fit in a little more but my family didn't have an endless supply of disposable income so I had to make due with what I had.  Then, when I got to be an adult, I realized that how you look doesn't matter so much.

4)  What was the best moment of your life?

Probably when I bought my current car.  I'd never had a brand new car before and never thought I'd be able to afford one.  While the credit I did have was good, I had very little of it so I had a hard time finding a lender initially and got a higher than normal interest rate on the loan which I was able to refinance down at a later date.  I remember driving it to work and showing it off and being so proud of my new car!  And because I'd bought the car and built up more credit history, I was later able to buy a house.  Somehow, though, buying the car seemed to be a little more of a highlight.

5)  Do you enjoy spending hours shopping or do you try to get over with it as fast as possible?

When I had a job, I LLLOOOVVVEEEDDD to go shopping!!!  I would take a portion of my tax refund and spend it foolishly on a day at the mall.  I'd buy things that I didn't need but wanted because it was pretty or smelled nice.  I'd literally spend hours there and if I didn't spend all my $ there, I'd go shop elsewhere and make the day last a little longer. 

These days, I shop very quickly and try not to look at anything beyond whatever is on my shopping list because otherwise I'll become very depressed that I can barely afford the bare essentials.

6)  Something you can't get to throw out of your wardrobe is...

Shoes!!!  I have over 50 pairs.  Some of them I never wear and some of them are incredibly uncomfortable.  And yet...  I love them all and can't bring myself to get rid of them.

7)  What is your least favorite household chore?

I really hate dusting and cleaning the bathroom about the same amount.  I will scrub toilets before dusting though which is strange, considering I hate them equally.  I did some heavy dusting last week as part of my spring cleaning so I won't have to worry about that for awhile. 

8)  A movie that you could never forget.

There are so many but I'm going to go with St. Elmo's Fire.  I didn't really understand it to the full extent the first time I watched it but then again, I was still in high school so struggling with adulthood wouldn't have been something I'd have any experience with yet.  It's still one of my favorite movies, even to this day.

9)  One person who influenced your life.

I had an old boss at a job that I just hated.  She and I were friendly but never really talked much beyond the boss/employee realm.  One day I told her I was thinking of applying to another department within the same company.  She made a few phone calls, got some information on the position and what kind of experience they were looking for and tried to work with me to figure out a way to get that experience.  I got the job with her help.  On one of my last few days there in her department, I asked her why she did all that for me.  She told me it was because she always wanted me to know that I could do better.  She didn't want me to think that working in a call center was the best job I could hope for.  I found out later that she did this for many other employees too.  It influenced me because I realized that if someone else believed in me, it was ok to believe in myself.

10)  What is your favorite part of a day?

I don't currently have one, every part of each day is exactly the same.  When I was working though, my favorite part of the day was right when I first got home from work.  It was "my" time and I had the whole evening before me to spend it doing whatever I liked!

-Optional-  Which cartoon character do you resemble?

Hmm...  I'd like to think that I look like Snow White but in reality, I'm probably more like Barney Rubble.  LOL

***Edit:  The spacing for this post was normal when I typed it out but was all funky when it posted.  I tried to fix it and fought with blogger but for some unknown reason, it wants to stay as is. 

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

It's been a busy week and today will be even busier from about 3:30 PM this afternoon until about 9:30 AM tomorrow morning.  It'll be fun but exhausting and then it'll be all over until next year.  Whew!

Thankfully, I still have time for Half Full Friday!  Yay!  If you want to join, head over to Eyegirl's and spend some time getting intimate with Mr. Linky.

I'm happy I got a free cappuccino this past weekend!

I'm happy we've had beautiful weather for most of the week!

I'm happy I got some new followers this week!  Welcome!

I'm happy my mom mowed my lawn for me this week!  She got a new lawnmower and wanted to try it out.

I'm happy I packed most of the stuff I'll need today well in advance!

I'm happy I'm going to get to enjoy smore's tonight! 

I haven't had a lot of free time to look for new blogs or do research on ones I've already found this week.  But I didn't want to disappoint so I do still have a Blog of the Week for you!  It's not a full review so I reserve the right to reuse this particular blog again sometime if I decide to do so.

I first became aware of MaxMom from a post by Cocorue when she asked for prayers for sweet Max, a beautiful golden retreiver who was very, very ill.  She linked to his blog so I clicked over to it to leave a few well wishes.  It could have easily have ended there but I kept thinking about Max throughout the day and kept going back for more news.  Sadly, Max passed away earlier this year and I dedicated a Wordless Wednesday to him.  It just seemed to be the right thing to do.

Living Life To The Max

This is MaxMom's personal blog.  It was called Bric-A-Brac and she renamed it after her dog.  The reason I'm recommending this particular blog as the Blog of the Week is simply because of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Now, I'm not into soccer or any other sport.  I don't understand the majority of sports and don't really care to.  However, MaxMom lives in South Africa and has shared her excitement for the games in a unique way.  She doesn't watch the game and post the winning scores while giving commentary about what happened.  Nope, she's done something very different!  She calls it Unity in Diversity.

She asked for volunteers to type up a post about a team that happens to be playing that day.  It doesn't have to necessarily be a post about soccer, although it can be.  It can simply just be about the country itself or even a recipe that originated there.  She links back to those posts and keeps the links in her sidebar so that you can go back and check them out later if you've missed them.  I haven't been able to read them all but have found some wonderful blogs from this!

She's also posted various recipes she's found in the newspaper and around from all the various countries participating in the SWC.

I'm excited that she's done this.  We may be different in race, culture, religion, political beliefs, cuisine, etc.  But Unity in Diversity is a celebration of these differences!  As much as my ego may want everyone to feel the same way I do on certain issues, the world would be a very different and very boring place if we were all  the same. 

She didn't think she'd get to attend any of the games and was very disappointed.  Her husband, however, was able to score some tickets at the last minute and surprised her.  She had a wonderful time!   

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Chico

Shiver and Chico

I've come to the conclusion that close-ups are just not gonna happen.  The quality of the camera doesn't allow for it.  Boo!

Inspirational Monday

My community project has almost come to a close.  I'm kind of glad about it as it's become very time consuming but at the same time, I'm going to miss it!  I'm probably going to do it again next year though so I'll have something to look forward to, at least.

This is going to be one very busy week!  The final culmination of the project will be this coming Friday night and early Saturday morning.  I won't be around the blogging world much if at all on those days so I won't be commenting as much as usual.

Part of my job with this big project is to come up with inspirational images I could use as decorations.  I've scoured the 'net the last several weeks and found  a few that I wanted to share with you.  These are all via bing, although this isn't the only site I searched.  I didn't end up using any of these but liked them and hope you do too!

I played with my camera a little more last night after I got home and this is the closest I've come to getting a picture of either of my boys.  Hey, I'm getting closer at least!  I've discovered from the few pictures I've managed to capture that they aren't of the highest quality.  Oh well, I guess that's what I get for buying a $10 camera! 

This is Shiver.  Kind of...

I'll keep working on it.

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

It's been a busy week and next week will probably be even busier.  But it's the end of the week which means it's time for Half Full Friday!  As always, if you want to join the fun, head over to Eyegirl's and spend some quality time with Mr. Linky!

I'm happy my roses are blooming!

I'm happy my violet is blooming!

I'm happy I finally got done painting my room a pretty lavender color!

I'm happy the sconces my friend bought me look so nice in my bedroom!

I'm happy I'm almost done with my spring cleaning!

I'm happy we actually got a few days of sun this week!

I'm happy my friend moved because the old house she was renting is now in foreclosure!

Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions on my camera.  I decided I was bound and determined that I was going to figure it out all on my own and I did!  I was so proud of myself!  Until I looked at the pictures...  On my regular camera, whatever I see through the viewfinder is what the picture will be of.  Um, well, that's not the case with my new digital camera.  I thought I was taking a close up picture of Shiver's face, only I got his chest instead.  Chico's picture wasn't any better.  I took some pictures of him laying on my bed and the pictures I got were all of the bedspread.  It's going to take some time to figure it out. 

This week was busy with finishing up painting the first part of the week.  My walls looked so nice that I decided the rest of the house could use some freshening up too so I've been running around like a mad woman trying to get it all done.  Today's task is dusting, bathrooms and wiping down the baseboards.  I saved the chores I hate the most for last.  And once the inside is done, it'll be time to work on the outside. Ugh!

With all the painting and cleaning, I almost feel like I'm moving or something.  I had to move stuff in my bedroom so I could paint behind/around it.  Then I had to move stuff in the living room to vacuum, clean the carpet and vacuum again.  (I don't know why but I always vacuum before and after cleaning it.)  When I was done with that and the carpet had dried, I had to move everything back and move stuff out of the kitchen to mop and back again.  No wonder I'm a little sore! 

And all the while, I'm wondering if I'm doing all this hard work for someone else to enjoy.  I hope I find a job soon because I really don't want to lose my house!

Today's Blog of the Week is one that I just found last week.  I should've saved the link to the article that I found it from but I didn't.  Sorry!

A Bad Case of the Dates

I'm pretty sure that anyone who has been on more than a few dates can identify with this website.  It was started in September 2009 and as the name suggests, it's all about bad first dates.  They seem to be pretty evenly written by women and men.  It's updated daily with one to two dating horror stories. 

The stories only include first names and doesn't indicate what city/state they took place in.  I kind of like that. 

Some of the stories are funny, some are stupid, some are a little shocking but all are entertaining to read.  What was your worst first date?  I had two.  One guy spent more time at the snack bar than he did actually watching the movie.  Looking back, we were both in high school and I'm pretty sure he'd never dated anyone else before so he was probably nervous and getting up to go to the snack bar was his way of relieving the stress he felt.  The other one was also a movie date.  The date itself went fine, I thought.  Apparently he didn't think so as he was a jerk to me after that.

Wordless Wednesday

Source: bing

Just So You Know, I'm VERY Annoyed!!!

A friend called me early Saturday morning and asked if I wanted to go with her to a hair appointment in another town.  Tired of being holed up in the house day after day, I agreed to go.  True to form, she was almost a half hour late in picking me up.  Somehow, we still managed to make it to the appointment on time. 

Afterwards, she wanted to go to the mall.  When we first walked in, I saw some pretty sconces.  She asked why I didn't buy them.  I looked at her and asked her with what, I don't have a job so it's not like I can afford such luxuries.  She asked if I wanted her to buy them for me and I could consider it a very early birthday present.  I thanked her and told her no.  We walked around the rest of the mall and I had pretty much forgotten about the sconces. 

We were getting ready to leave the same way we came in and she noticed something she liked over by the sconces and decided to buy it.  I told her I needed to rest my hip as it was really starting to bother me and that I was going to sit on a bench and wait for her. 

She got done so we left the mall and had a nice lunch at Applebee's.  I'd had a gift certificate from my old employer so we didn't have to pay for our meal, just the tip.

Afterwards, she wanted to stop at a department store.  We looked around for awhile and I found the most adorable little candles shaped like miniature cupcakes!  They were on sale and I know I didn't need them but it's been awhile since I've bought myself anything beyond just the bare essentials so I opted to get them.    I was quite happy with my purchase and couldn't stop smiling at how cute they were!  Plus, they were cheaper than the sconces I'd admired earlier!

We left there and right next door was a store I had never been to.  My friend wanted to stop in and even though my hip was really bothering me quite a bit, I'd always wanted to go so I followed her in.  She was busy looking at full length mirrors for awhile so I wandered off around the corner.  And there, before my eyes, was a $10 digital camera!  It was $9.99, marked down from $19.99.  I hesitated briefly before realizing that I will likely never find another one for so little!  I kept going back and forth thinking of how I'd just bought the candles that I really couldn't afford and now here I am thinking of getting a digital camera!  But I took the plunge and purchased it. 

We went home after that and as my friend was dropping me off at the house, she told me that I left something in her car the last time I was with her.  I couldn't imagine what it was and told her I didn't think that was correct.  She was all, "Oh yeah you did!"  I took my time getting out of the front seat and in the mean time she had rushed around to the back seat.  She was fiddling around back there and I wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing.  She handed me a bag from a store we hadn't stopped at so I didn't even think anything of it.  I went inside and relaxed for a bit, waiting for my pain pill to kick in.  Later on, I went into the kitchen to unpack my goodies and discovered that my friend had purchased the sconces for me! 

I called her and said, "So I left the sconces behind the last time I was with you, huh?"  She just laughed and said, "Yeah, don't you remember?"  I thanked her and she said she just wanted to do something nice for me.

I took a bunch pictures of my sweet little chi's and my cute little cupcakes with my new camera, excited about how I could finally post close ups of my boys.  Yeah, well...  Here's why I'm so VERY annoyed!

I've never had a digital camera before and I'm not exactly computer savvy.  I thought it couldn't be too terribly difficult to figure out how to take the pictures and hook it up to the computer.  And apparently I was wrong!  Very wrong!!!  I downloaded the CD and all was good.  The next step was to restart the computer.  Ok, easy enough!  Then it says to go to "My Computer" and select the "D" drive.  Umm, yeah...  That's where the trouble lies.  The "D" drive is my recovery backup.  It gave me a message that I was not to make any changes or deletions to it as it could adversely affect the performance of my computer.  So now what?! 

I have no clue what I'm doing and no clue as to when I can download my fab pictures.  I gotta see if I can have someone help me.  In the mean time, here's a pretty picture of a hummingbird.  Just because...

Source: bing

Half Full Friday and Blog of the Week

This week has been extremely uneventful.  Pretty much NOTHING has happened.  In keeping with the Half Full Friday theme, I guess I should be happy that at least nothing bad happened!

As always, if you want to join in the fun, head over to Eyegirl's and hang with my man, Mr. Linky.

I'm happy I got some peanut butter Oreos this week!  Yummy!

I'm happy some of my roses are beginning to bloom!

I'm happy I got to talk to a couple of old friends this week!

I'm happy I got started with painting my bedroom a pretty lavender color!

I'm happy I got to watch a cute landscaping guy working a few days ago!  Too bad he wasn't working on my yard, I could've watched him up close rather than spy from afar.

I'm happy I got to participate in the CDAN Q&A on Facebook yesterday!

I'm happy the ceremony I'm working on seems to be coming together the way I want it to!  I hope I didn't just jinx myself now by saying that.

I'm happy our tornado warning earlier today was cancelled!

This week's Blog of the Week is a fun one!  I found it from a post someone else did on their blog about it and have been reading ever since. 

Cake Wrecks

What is a cake wreck?  The blog originator, Jen, defines it as:

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it.  A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons.  Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators:  Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

This blog was started in April 2008.  Jen writes most of the posts herself, with her husband a few friends helping out here and there.  All of the cakes are professionally made, meaning they're either for sale or someone has paid for them. 

Now, I've never taken any professional cake decorating classes but I have absolutely no doubt that I could do a better job of creating a masterpiece than some of these "professionals."  There's a wide variety of cakes pictured here ~ some are bizarre, some are weird, some are creepy, some are ugly and gross and some are kinda cool!  My favorites though, are the ones with the creative grammar and misspellings.

Whenever I go to the bakery section of any grocery store, I always make a point to check out the cakes and see if there might be one that would be appropriate for this blog.  So far I haven't found any.  Once, at a job I held long ago, a co-worker brought in a birthday cake for me where my name was misspelled.  I'm EXTREMELY picky about having my name spelled correctly, probably because it rarely is unless I specifically make a point to ensure whoever I'm talking to spells it right and even then, it's still often incorrect.  My co-worker said he made a point to let the bakery know how to spell it when he ordered it but it was still wrong.  That's the closest I've come to finding a cake for the blog and even then, it still wasn't as awful as some of these.

The blog is updated almost daily but for some reason I don't read it that often.  I seem to forget about it and only catch up about once a month or so.

If you decide you really enjoy the blog, you can also order the book from Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Borders and IndieBound.  I haven't read it so I'm not sure if it's all new material or not.

Pretty in Pink

Source:  CDAN

I totally want this couch!!!  In the regular sized version, of course!  And without those ladies sitting on it.

Wordless Wednesday - Nailed It