Basketweave birthday cake

I've been making monthly birthday cakes for the Computer Science Department at MSU for several months now. This was the cake for March. Since the only person with a birthday for then month was a lady, I took the opportunity to make it a little more feminine than usual. Basket weave and springtime flowers seemed like a good choice :-)

Menu Plan Monday April 12-18

I've still been doing menu plans, just haven't been posting any. Trying to get back into the habit of posting regularly, so here's this week's.

Lunches will be leftovers or sandwiches.
Suppers:
Monday - Pizza at Game Night
Tuesday - Chicken Caesar Salad
Wednesday - Santa Fe Soup
Thursday - Chicken Spaghetti and bread machine rolls
Friday - Cheeseburgers and fries (on bread machine rolls)
Saturday - Lasagna (from freezer - made extra last time)
Sunday - Southwest quiche

Thomas the Tank Engine cake

It seems like all little boys goes through a phase when they like trains, and it seems like a lot of them love Thomas the Tank Engine. Our friends' little boy is one of those kids, and his birthday party this year was Thomas themed. (He's the same one who had the Little Einsteins cake last year.) I've done a few Thomas cakes before, and thankfully they get easier each time :-)



I wish I had remembered to take my camera (or iPhone) to the party, it was at one of those indoor inflatables places, and I think the adults had as much fun playing on those things as the kids did.

Gamer girl costume

A month or so ago, our friend needed a costume for a costume party her fraternity (Theta Tau) was having. Apparently engineering fraternities are full of geeks, because the theme was "dress as a video game character." So, I told her I would help her make a costume. I didn't quite realize how much work it would be when I volunteered, but I'm glad I did it, it was a lot of fun making something other than aprons and such. I don't know the name of the character, but this is the costume she showed me, and said something like that would be great. So this is what I had to go by.



Of course, I didn't have a pattern, so I had to take measurements and make my own pattern pieces for the costume. I knew I could do it, but I didn't want to tape pieces of paper together to draw the pattern on, because I have done that before and it's a pain in the ass. Then I had a brainstorm (which I'm sure many others before me have had) that I could use the back side of some of that leftover Christmas wrapping paper I had in the closet. It worked great. So I took measurements, drew out the pattern pieces, and spend two days sewing. Here are the results.

Skirt:


Sleeveless top:


Vest over the shirt:


Arm band/sleeves:

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of her wearing it, but she loved it, and I think it turned out pretty well.

Congratulations Mr. McHacker

My dear, sweet, very smart husband received some awards from the MSU Student Association recently. They let him know that he was going to receive the award for the Most Outstanding Student in the College of Engineering, which was pretty cool. Then at the reception, they announced that he was also the winner of the Most Outstanding Student of the Year at Mississippi State University. He wasn't expecting this, and it was really cool for him to win it. I'm glad that he's being recognized for all of the hard work he's done as a PhD student, he deserves it. He said it was okay to post the picture, so here you go. Sorry about the red eyes, but I'm not taking the time to fix it. (Although it is tempting to photoshop out my double chin and fat arms).


Also, Mr. McHacker also started a new job at MSU with the National Forensics Training Center. You can read about it over at his blog if you want to know more. So now, he's working full time, and working on his PhD dissertation too. Busy guy.