Time To Take A Stand

OK. Seriously. Someone has to say something and if no one else does, I sure am going to. I need to take a personal stand against "those" emails…..you know the ones….you get them two or three times a day. The “here-is-a-ridiculously-sappy-email-with-flowers-or-cute-puppies-or-angels-or-roses-that-says-you-need-to-forward-to-10-friends-and-your-wish-will-come-true-at-11:37-and-besides-you-must-hate-me-if-I-don’t-get-this-back” emails.

Just recently, I was sent an email from a good friend and the subject headline read:

“Let’s see if you reply….if ya don’t it says a lot!!”

Wow! That is harsh!

My immediate reaction is, “Why would so-and-so send me an e-mail with that as the header??” I guess I better read it! I open it up to find a series of roses for love and friendship, blah…blah…blah. I am supposed to send it on to 10 friends including her, the sender. If I don’t, I must be some kind of stone-hearted person with ice water running through my veins.

My email reply to her was:

“Dear friend,

“Know that I get all of your emails like this
one but I just don't reply or forward out of respect for my
fellow cyber-friends. If I sent and received all of these "Send to 10
friends and see who replies" emails with wishes being granted I would never get
anything done. In fact, my Inbox is generally where those kinds of emails
go to die. BUT I will reply to this one so you DO
know...

“I appreciate your friendship.....here is a virtual
rose.

“Just because I don't reply doesn't mean I don't care.
Hope all is well with you and your family!

1SweetMama”

I absolutely adore the gal who sent this to me…..but I cannot stand receiving these emails. I don’t mean to be a cynic but these are the cyber equivalent to credit card offers that litter my mailbox or solicitations for donations for The Boys and Girls Home or the ASPCA with photos of starving dogs and cats on the envelopes. I can’t stand these things! I am riddled with guilt when I toss them into the shredder. I know I should respond but I never have enough money to spread around for these kinds of things. I want to give but I just can’t.

And because my money is like my time, I must carefully budget it and spending time to respond and forward thousands of “here-is-a-ridiculously-sappy-email-with-flowers-or-cute-puppies-or-angels-or-roses-that-says-you-need-to-forward-to-10-friends-and-your-wish-will-come-true-at-11:37-and-besides-you-must-hate-me-if-I-don’t-get-this-back” emails is not very prudent. Again: I want to give but I just can’t.

So….here is YOUR virtual rose, your angel, your kitty, puppy, dancing hippopotamus, shout out to the classy ladies for “Today Is Classy Lady Day” (which, according to the number of times I receive this in a year….it must occur 47 times annually). I love you all but I don’t need to forward or respond to emails threatening me to do so. My promise to YOU is that you will never get one of those emails from me, either. You might, however, get a personal email telling you how much I love you. I hope that is okay.

Send this on to 10 friends or not. I really don’t care.

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

Duff and Geoff - The Dynamic Duo

Welcome back, sweet readers…. So you want to hear more about the cake superhero, Chef Duff Goldman, and his merry minion, Geoff Manthorne?? Well, you have come to the right place.

This past Tuesday was such an incredible experience to be able to celebrate with one of our customers, A&P, along with 50 contest winners and their guests, and – of course – Chef Duff Goldman and Geoff Manthorne (of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland) at the A&P 150th Birthday Party, hosted by Blue Bunny® Ice Cream.

The night before (Monday night), we were informed by one of Duff’s staff (his brother, to be exact) that the cake was to be finished around midnight and that one of the bakery employees would hit the road, cake loaded in the van, bound for New York City. His arrival time? 2:30 a.m. Meanwhile, Duff and Geoff would board a train Tuesday morning, arriving in NYC at approximately 8:50 a.m. We later were informed by Duff that because of our project, a new rule has been established at Charm City Cakes:

“No more cake orders for delivery on a Tuesday.”

By 9:30 a.m., we began to grow anxious at the word of Duff’s arrival. The report finally came around 9:45 a.m. – “Duff is in the Park!”….meaning, Chef Duff Goldman – The Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” – had called to say that they were driving around Central Park in an attempt to find the Boathouse and that he feared his driver was a little lost.

Moments later, the Charm City Cakes van appeared, followed by Chef Duff, himself, and Geoff, along with Mark the road-weary cake transporter. The three of them carefully carried the main cake in – a vintage ice cream delivery truck. Then, armloads of cardboard flats containing each piece of the cake, molded from fondant icing and gum paste. Once everything was settled inside, the real work began.

The three of them set to work to finish the cake, carefully placing each piece, wiring the cake for lights and sound, smoothing out edges, shaping, molding, fussing. It was like watching a fine sculptor as he worked his medium. Two hours later, we were posing with each other next to the finished cake and Duff proudly displaying the mechanics of the dry ice smoke mist and the working horn: “Aah-ooooo-ga! Aah-ooooo-ga!” It was priceless. He was so proud of himself and we were speechless.

Duff and Geoff graciously interacted and posed with corporate executives and laughed and joked with everyone. They posed, unflapping-ly, for nearly 200 photos with our party guests (everyone got a personal photo of themselves with Duff, Geoff, and the cake). They signed autographs, listened to stories and humbly reacted to swooning fans.

The thing that amazed me the most was the number of young people who are impacted by Chef Duff and the work that he does with Charm City Cakes. Young children, fans of the show, tried to contain their excitement as they met the dynamic duo and told them how much they love the show and how much they want to grow up to be a pastry chef, too. I am also wildly aware of the impact Duff has on these kids because I see it in my own home. My own two boys and I love to watch the show. Both of my sons ask questions about culinary schools and how did Duff get his start? The thing about Duff is that he is a great role model…..he is edgy, cool, a talented artist. In fact, he makes art cool. He inspires our youth to think about career options that are not necessarily the standard doctor-lawyer-engineer-stockbroker (not there is one single thing wrong with these careers!) types but to also consider careers in art, culinary skills, music, and the like.

He wears a backwards baseball cap and an assortment of sports jerseys, baggy jeans, and steel toed shoes. He looks more like a character off of the Discovery Channel’s “Orange County Choppers” or “Ink” than a cake-decorator. One of my co-workers commented that Duff just seems like “your favorite drinking buddy”.

Geoff is an artist-type. Quiet. Un-assuming. Quirkily dressed. Humble. Thoughtful. Sincere. I would liken him to that quiet friend you can always count on to be there for you.

This pair definitely puts the “charm” in Charm City Cakes and we were honored to have them involved with our program. We look forward to working with them again and there is some talk of future meetings and grand ideas…so stay tuned. You never know when these guys might show up again in a future blog post.

Keep reading “The Sweet Life”…..next week’s posts include a funny take on “those kinds of emails” (you know the ones!) and another birthday……but we are just three posts away from a really fun blog entry……you won’t believe it until you read it.

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

Having My Cake And Eating It, Too!

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!

Oh, wait….it isn’t my birthday! But no birthday of mine in recent history (okay, my 16th birthday and the cheese-ball and Jello® Jiggler food-fight that ensued during the party is probably my best birthday memory EVER) can top a day like the one I had yesterday.

Cheese-balls and Jello Jigglers aside, Tuesday was spent celebrating many birthdays other than mine. We celebrated one of our retail customers, A&P’s, 150th birthday, along with 50 winning birthday memories submitted by contestants to the Blue Bunny® and A&P Best Birthday Contest promotion. Contest entrants had to submit their favorite birthday memory and the top 50 were chosen (from over 800 contest entries!) and those winners were invited to our Birthday Party, celebrated YESTERDAY (coincidentally, on National Ice Cream Cone Day, in honor of the birthday of the ice cream cone!!) at the Central Park Boathouse in Central Park, New York City. These fabulous people with stories as great as they were joined us as we carved into the incredible birthday cake, designed and sculpted by The Food Network’s Ace of Cakes, Chef “Duff” Goldman.

There was speechmaking and gift-giving, the ceremonial singing of the “Happy Birthday” song, cake and ice cream….a real “festivus” for all involved. And Duff and Geoff?? They were the (dare I say it??) “icing on the cake”! More on these two in FRIDAY’S blog entry…tune in to “The Sweet Life” on Friday for more!!!

The cake, itself, was, in a word...awe-inspiring. The cake, created to honor the 150th birthday anniversary of A&P Stores was a one-of-a-kind creation by the Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes”, Chef Duff Goldman, and was commissioned by Wells’ Dairy, Inc., makers of Blue Bunny® branded frozen ice cream and novelties, in honor of partner retailer, A&P’s (Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company) 150th birthday celebration. The cake was designed by Chef Duff Goldman (while we watched over his shoulder…see my blog entries dated August 11 and 14, 2009) and was created by him, along with the talented artists of Charm City Cakes, Baltimore, Maryland. The cake size was 3.5’ long and served 200 people.

As the photo shows, the cake featured a sculpted vintage A&P delivery truck placed within a cobblestone street scene; a background created with fondant icing of the first A&P store in operation, located on Vesey Street in New York City, served as the backdrop to the truck. The delivery truck was wired for electricity, sound (the horn on the truck actually honked!), and dry ice “smoke” which misted out of the back of the truck, where stacks Blue Bunny product were loaded for delivery to the store. The cake also featured a modeled newspaper vendor (“selling” the Le Mars Sentinel (our local paper)) and a Blue Bunny delivery man, created in the likeness of Blue Bunny Senior Vice President of Marketing and Research & Development, Jim Reynolds.

To sweeten the cake offering, we served each piece of chocolate and yellow marbled cake with 20 containers of Blue Bunny ice cream (1-2 scoops per piece!). Flavors? Blue Bunny® Bunny Tracks and Premium All Natural Vanilla.

After the party, my colleagues and I boarded our jet plane bound for home in “The Ice Cream Capital of the World®”.

So…after 24 hours of suspending my South Beach Diet regimen and replacing low-fat and high protein meal choices with great New York food and Chef Duff-made cake and Blue Bunny Ice Cream, I am exhausted and a little bloated but oh, so very happy to have been involved with such a great project and so many wonderful and remarkable people. Remember to come back and check in to “The Sweet Life” on FRIDAY for more on Chef Duff Goldman and his incredible side-kick, Geoff – who loves eating Blue Bunny ice cream! Who knew??

Until next Friday, I remain on Cloud Nine and….1SweetMama

RATED PG-13: How Birthday Cake Taught Me About The Male Anatomy

This is your final warning that this blog entry is rated PG-13…..(according to the Motion Picture Association of America, a PG-13 rating is one that strongly cautions parents as some material may not be suited for anyone under the age of 13 – either physically or mentally…okay, so I added that last part! But don’t say I didn’t warn ya!)

Growing up, some of my most vivid memories are of my coming home from school or work and finding my mother toiling over a cake. She ran a home-business as a cake decorator and she would make, on average, about 4-6 cakes each week.

She was very good at it…..and her buttercream icing was to die for!!

I learned a lot of things from my mother and her cake business. How to make a flower out of icing…how to put a scalloped edge on a cake, how important the mixing time is for both the cake batter AND the icing……and that it isn’t just a Ho-Ho that plays an important role in a “naked man” cake.

Yes, my dear, sweet, non-assuming mother was a highly-sought-after decorator of “naughty cakes” suitable for bachelor/bachelorette parties….milestone birthday parties….whatever occasion called for a naughty cake. Now, Mom had a collection of beautiful and socially appropriate cakes that she created, as well. Wedding cakes, baby showers, Christenings….you name it. But the naughty cakes took the…..well, you know.

I distinctly remember walking in the door after school one afternoon, the house smelling of cake batter, sugar, and Crisco and found my mother in the “sculpting process” of one of her naughty cakes. Now, I had seen the multitude of female versions of the “naughty cake” in various states of undress and, because I was already familiar with the “parts manual” of the female anatomy, I was, mostly, un-phased. Grossed out…but un-phased. Bear in mind that I was probably 14 or 15 at the time.

Old enough to know but not old enough to fully understand, I rounded the corner that fateful afternoon and was confronted with the male naughty cake assembly, in process. I noted a top and bottom layer of cake, secured with a layer of buttercream frosting between them and carved into the shape of a man’s torso, from the chest area to the upper thigh. In the groin area, was a Ho-Ho (the usual suspect) and…what’s this???? Two marshmallows?? What they heck are they doing there? Isn’t the Ho-Ho all that belongs there? But a Ho-Ho and two marshmallows? …and….why is it all slanted to the left? This simply did not compute in my middle-school adolescent brain.

A ten minute conversation and clarification from my mother, probably followed by an “Ewww!” from me, and I was set straight on the male anatomy. Just like that. Apparently I never really paid much attention in Health Class but a man carved out of baked cake batter and decorated in frosting? Well, now THAT was the kind of “body language” I understood.

Obviously, the “Lesson Of The Naughty Cake” certainly made an impact.

From that day on, I was no longer shocked when I rounded the kitchen corner….but I never could look at marshmallows the same way again. Or Ho-Ho’s, for that matter.

And speaking of cake, dear readers, my NEXT blog post will be the “Day of Duff” – Chef Duff, that is! Bear in mind that it may not get posted until late, late on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning so keep checking back for the full SCOOP on every SWEET detail of the birthday cake and Blue Bunny® ice cream party occurring just four days from today.

Talk to you on Tuesday!

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

The Birth Of The Ice Cream Cone

Photo: Blue Bunny® Ice Cream wwww.flickr.com. Find it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluebunnyicecream/3179408525/in/set-72157612280082067

Speaking of birthdays and birth days…Who REALLY “birthed” the ice cream cone?


There are so many stories surrounding the birth of the ice cream cone and, in my attempt to create a slow build of excitement to the Blue Bunny®/A&P® Birthday party with Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes”, Chef Duff Goldman, one week from today (let me hear ya say “Woo-hoo!”), I happened to realize that the actual DAY of our party to celebrate A&P’s 150th Anniversary is also the nationally celebrated birthday of the ice cream cone!

Most histories of ice cream will tell you that that the ice cream cone was invented in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair, a fact that 1SweetMama, a native St. Louisan, is VERY proud to proclaim. Syrian immigrant, Ernest A. Hamwi gave some of his “zalabia” (a waffle-like pastry) from his pastry cart to neighboring vendor, Arnold Fornachou, who had run out of paper dishes to serve his ice cream in at his adjoining ice cream cart at the fair. Another version has Hamwi teaming up with a different ice cream vendor named Charles Menches, who also ran out of dishes. Who knows for sure….perhaps a little case of “cone envy”??

There are about a hundred other stories that sound much the same but involve different ice cream and waffle vendors….and there were, likely, a hundred ice cream and waffle vendors at the St. Louis Fair (or the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition). Whatever the story, whatever the claim…..whoever the vendor….. certainly, the one singular GIVEN is that the ice cream cone became universally popular after this date. Despite the number of claimants, most ice cream experts and associations DO give the credit to Hamwi. Way to go, Ernie!

But, for the sake of humoring me with the “September 22 in New York City” tie in - let us also consider Italo Marciony – who claimed he created the ice cream cone on September 22, 1896! He sold his cones from a pushcart in New York City, and his claim may be the best, since he had a patent for a waffle mold, granted in December, 1903, eight months before the St. Louis Fair!
So…. Seven days before my Blue Bunny colleagues and I trek off to New York City to celebrate cake and ice cream with Chef Duff and A&P, I must pay homage to the ones who gave us the foundation to do so. Cones and ice cream; cake and ice cream. No matter how you scoop it, I still find myself all giddy as a school girl. September 22 is growing ever-closer!

And, speaking of cake and ice cream…..tune in next FRIDAY as I tell you about how I learned about the male anatomy from birthday cake. You KNOW you will want to read that one!

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

Aunt 1SweetMama Will Always have Gum!

I told you previously that there is a slight difference between birthdays and birth days and here is that subtle nuance.

Early Thursday morning, just 3 and one-half hours past the “lucky” 09-09-09 date, my sister, “Little A” gave birth to my VERY first nephew. For now, I will call him “Squeaker”, because that is what he mostly does. I only met him for the first time for just 45 minutes yesterday and he squeaked and squawked the whole while, melting his “Auntie’s” heart. His fingers and toes are long and purplish but soft to the touch and oh, so dainty. His poor little head is misshapen and bruised from hours of stress and pressure of a long and painful labor and birth.

I must tell you that, while many cultures boast the good omens of the 09-09-09 date, the best omen for our family was to finally meet this little guy. My sister, a petite (but strong marathon runner) suffered 20 hours of labor, including 4 and a half hours of “pushing” before her doctor must have finally “done the math” and realized that a 5’1” girl may not be able to successfully push out a 7 and a half pound baby. Near total exhaustion, she finally underwent a C-Section and….

Welcome “Squeaker”!

He was born on 9-10-09…maybe not the lucky date that everyone talked about on Wednesday but the luckiest date for Little A and her hubby, “Banan-er” (pronounced like “banana with an “er” at the end). He is their first-born and a definite keeper.

This little angel joins the ranks of my two nieces (from my brother and his wife) as holding a very special place in 1SweetMama’s heart. These are the people who I hope will always know that they may come to their “Auntie” for advice and, most importantly, GUM.

That is right. Let it be known that if they ever have want for gum and I am in gum-giving proximity…..I will be ready to hand it over for their pure chewing enjoyment. Advice will also be dolled out in the same fashion, should they ever decide they need it.

I know that aunts play important roles in nieces’ and nephews’ lives and I hope that I will be able to fulfill this duty with courage, dignity, humor, sweetness…..and a piece or two of Juicy Fruit gum.

So, you see there IS a slight difference between birthdays and birth days and in this instance, this particular birth day is a wonderful moment in 1SweetMama’s life.

…..and, while I am at it, how about a “shout out” to all those who I love who also celebrate September birthdays….

Corey, Maggie, Jayne, Evie, and Peanut. Congrats on another beautiful year!!

Tune in next Tuesday when we will start the countdown to Chef Duff Goldman and my “Ace of Cakes” encounter in New York City!

Until then, I remain….”Auntie”1SweetMama

Peanut And His Tenth Trip Around The Sun

(Peanut in 2006....I love this picture...it is about the only moment when he wasn't talking...we call this photo "Peanut, at rest")

He was supposed to have been born on 9-9-99 but he just couldn’t wait. Peanut was born, instead, on September 8, 1999, and I watched, from my hospital bed, all the other mothers being interviewed on television because they had had their babies on September 9. Peanut was anxious to get started with life a day early and he has never looked back.

I also remember that he latched on to a “binky” and a stuffed animal from just days old. Peanut still cannot go anywhere without that stuffed animal, which was – we believe – a beanie-baby hamster but we began to call it “Mole” or more endearingly, “Moley”. I don’t even want to get into the whole… “But the animal has eyes so how can it be a mole?” thing….it is just what we called it and the name stuck. Today, Moley is just a stump with an eye (and no arms and legs) that Grandma Jane has to continue to perform surgery on in order to hold him together. Peanut doesn’t care.

The binky was a near permanent fixture for Peanut. When we began to grow concerned because his speech and language development was slow, the doctor simply told us to “pull the plug” on the binky and, upon its removal, the words began to pour out of his mouth like never before. He still talks non-stop and sometimes we joke with him, asking him if he ever even stops to take a breath. It is a common belief that he is making up for lost time from the binky and his “no-talking” days.

He has the wildest imagination and wants so much to be like his big brother. He says the funniest things without even realizing they are funny…which makes it even funnier.

He tells me that he likes to take showers because it is his “imagination place”, which, at first, terrified me when he said it. When I asked what he meant by that, Peanut said, “Well, I like to go in there and just think about things that are interesting.” Wow. That is deep.

Now in the 4th grade, he loves football (see my 8/28/09 entry), video games, the Nickelodeon Channel, collecting stuffed animals, and wanted nothing more for his birthday than an overly priced Nerf gun and a chocolate ice cream cake.

(Photo, middle, right, is of Peanut at his party....he held up the cake so we could take his picture and it slid off....his expression is priceless!)

His birthday was a huge hit.

Not only was there chocolate ice cream cake, Peanut received TWO Nerf guns (because what’s the point in having just one gun when you can have two and choose your opponent?), a giant slab of beef jerky (that’s his favorite), some little “fun” gifts, and the meal of his choice, which ended up being country-style BBQ ribs, Iowa sweet corn, and Grandma Jane’s applesauce.

Peanut is wildly proud of the fact that he is now a double-digit number. 10 passes around the sun and a personality that is just as bright.

Happy birthday, Peanut. We love you!

Labor Day!

Today is the last day of a crazy work week and I must confess that the minutes are ticking by ever so slowly….I know that, since it must be 5 o’clock somewhere, we all should be allowed to get out of here and go home and begin our “relaxing” weekend that is meant to congratulate workers across the globe for a job well done with a well-earned long weekend.

In case you were wondering (and this comes straight from Wikipedia. Read the full story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day ) …..

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September (September 7 in 2009).

The holiday originated in Canada out of labor disputes ("Nine-Hour Movement") first in Hamilton, then in Toronto, Ontario in the 1870s, which resulted in a Trade Union Act which legalized and protected union activity in 1872. The parades held in support of the Nine-Hour Movement and the printers' strike led to an annual celebration in Canada.

In 1882, American labor leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed one of these labor festivals in Toronto. Inspired, he returned to New York and organized the first American "labor day" on September 5 of the same year.

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City. In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. Cleveland was also concerned that aligning a US labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair. All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday: A street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations.

Or……simply host a bar-b-que! Go camping. Have a party. Go fishing. Eat ice cream.

This is supposed to be a workers’ holiday….a time to celebrate and rest from work.

Hmmmmm…..rest from work?

Do we ever really rest? In the age of cell phones and email and smart phones and mp3 players, and Facebook, do we ever truly “turn it off” and spend some quality time just (figuratively speaking, here) sitting on the front porch and wile away the hours….resting?

If given a chance, would we?

Maybe our mission this weekend is to find a hammock or chaise lounge and put our feet up for a while and just do nothing…..or…..if you must do something productive….take a nap.

Or eat ice cream.

I have heard that you never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

That moment arrived, for me, about 4 days ago.

I hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend and PLEASE take some time for yourself and/or your family. Shut the phone off. In fact, shut it ALL off and just “be”. The time that you spend with those that are important to you is truly the remedy for the stress and strain of the work-a-day world.

There is no better way to celebrate than to do it with family and friends…..and eat some ice cream.

Have a glorious weekend and we’ll chat on Tuesday.

Until then, I remain….1SweetMama

What The Hell Is That Thing??

We have all seen them. I know I see them as I am sitting, taking care of business, in the women’s restroom. I know! I know! What am I doing looking around when I should be quickly and efficiently “conducting my business”? I can’t help it. I look up and there it is…

What the hell is that thing??

Smoke detector? Motion detector? Both? Neither? “Big Brother” watching? Aliens? There are no signs identifying it. It just hangs there – a constant sentinel standing watch over the ladies’ restroom. There are actually two of them in there. They don’t do anything but blink…that is – a little green light alternately blinks on and off in a random blinking pattern. I am almost convinced that the blinking is in response to movement but I can’t be sure. There are also these two “eyes” that don’t do anything at all, except perhaps to watch me. They NEVER blink. Ever. Disturbing.

To test it, I sit “there”, VERY still and it doesn’t blink. After what I feel is an appropriate amount of time, I move my hand….and it blinks!! Or maybe it isn’t random at all and I am just impatient for shorter amounts of time than I think I am.

I AM aware that the lights in the bathroom are motion activated. There are times when I have walked into the bathroom and when I open the door, the lights turn on. If there is enough traffic through the bathroom, the lights stay on all day. If there is a lull in activity in there, the lights shut off.

But no one really knows what the “timer” is set at. Is that what that "thing" is for?

I don’t know!! There is no sign.

It just simply begs the question, “What the hell is that thing?”

There has been a lot of discussion in the office. We see this thing all over the corporate office and I have seen similar things in restaurants and shopping areas but it is very unsettling that a semi-intelligent woman, such as myself, cannot identify this "thing".

I know you are thinking that I am crazy for obsessing about it. Perhaps I am….or is it the aliens that are watching in me in the bathroom that make me think this way?

The mystery remains as we stare each other down in the ladies’ restroom.

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

P.S. If I might brag….before I leave you today, I want to tell you to strap on your “sweet-belts” because the next “bakers’ dozen” (13, for those of you who don’t like pastries) of blog posts will be the BEST ever. My posts will feature LOTS of birthdays, birth days (yes, there is a slight, but related, difference!), more Chef Duff encounters, stories about cakes and male anatomies…yes, they are related…., and ONE BIG, GI-NORMOUS SURPRISE!!! But, you’ll never know if you don’t read and tune in twice (Tuesdays and Fridays) each and every week to “The Sweet Life”.

Tell your friends. Grab your laptops and wi-fi hot spots and hang on. It is going to be one SWEET ride!