A couple weeks ago I heard about a local flea market called Park and Flea in downtown Salisbury, MD where all kinds of vendors and yard-salers alike can sell their items in a group setting. There are large and small spots to set up. We aren’t exactly sure on the details of the large spots other then they are $10 on Saturday and $5 on Sunday. We, however, used one of the small spots they had available. For $5 on Saturday or Sunday, a 3 car width space is available to pull up your vehicle and unload the items you want to sell in any matter you wish - blanket, tables, off a trailer, or right out of the back of your vehicle. It starts at 7am on Saturday and 9am on Sunday and goes until whenever you wish - you can stay a couple of hours or stay until everyone is gone.

For the last couple weekends, it has rained, so I was happy that we finally got a chance to check it out this weekend. We ventured out and were really excited to see so many people selling items. For the first hour, we sold some small items and worked on assembling the futon couch we wanted to sell. Along with some video games that brought in some money, we had the delight of finally selling our futon couch. It was sold for a little less than we would have liked but a man with money and a big truck showed up before we had to take it home, so it was a deal we couldn’t pass up since we REALLY didn’t want to take it back apart, load it up, and take it home.

Since we did well, I know we are going back again to sell the other futon, some bookcases, and more small items. With the space we get to sell at the Park and Flea, we are thinking of loading both vehicles with stuff and trying to sell as much as possible in one trip.

In preparation for the Flea Market, we bought a wonderful folding table by Lifetime from Sam’s Club that is 4′ long and the height varies for lots of uses. It even folds up so that it is 2′ x 2′ and only a couple inches high which is great for storage.

The table worked out great in conjunction with some crates we carried the items in to the flea market. If we do well, maybe we will get another table for more space to sell things or for events later. I am really looking forward to selling more items so that the kitchen can finally be freed up of all of the items we have wanted to sell for the last year. Yea! The stuff is finally moving!

So, here it is… the cake that I thought was going to be a disaster that actually worked out quite well…

Our objectives were: (1) to make any type of cake we wanted, then (2) make a batch of cake icing and ice the cake, then (3) make a batch of stiff icing that 1/3 would be used to practice techniques with and the other 2/3 would become medium icing and be decoration for the cake, and then (4) bring it all into class where we would work on the sunflower pattern along with other techniques.

I figured if I was going to learn all I could, I might as well do some experimenting with the cake too.  You can’t see it with it decorated, but in the pictures below it is visible that the cake is chocolate. I knew if I was going to make a cake and if there was any chance of it being eaten, it would have to be chocolate. The cake is an all natural, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, chocolate cake by Cherrybrook Kitchen. Instead of the 1/2 cup of vegetable oil they said to use in the baking of the cake, I did a little research and substituted 1/4 cup applesauce and 1 Tbsp of Canola oil in place of it. I also separated the batter into two 9″ round pans to make the cake last for 2 classes and when I did that, I reduced the time in the oven from 25 minutes to 15 minutes (the lowest recommended baking time for cupcakes) and it all worked out absolutely beautifully. It baked up nicely and tastes wonderful.

Below are some pictures I want to share some of the process of the making the icing to the icing of the cake.

And finally, it was put into its carrier for safe transport - the cake made it to and from class with no harm.

Below is just a little something extra from the class. One of our exercises was to learn to write with icing with various tips. Even though it was tracing, it was still really difficult, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn’t too bad.

Can’t wait until this tuesday, next is flowers. Not so sure about this part, but it will be fun to see everyone’s creations.

So, after waiting and waiting for the new update of Davis (Bikes) for Burnout Paradise, it was released today. We tried and tried to download it, restarting the Xbox360 I don’t know how many times.. and nothing! We figured the download just wasn’t working for some reason, so we went to the Xbox360 Marketplace and found where to download the new update. When we clicked on it, it told us that since we only have a Silver Membership that we have to wait to download it. What is that crap about?! We paid for the Xbox360, we paid for the Burnout Paradise game, and Criterion (the maker of Burnout Paradise, just in case you didn’t know) released this very cool new update for FREE. So, Microsoft has to be the jerk in all of this and force people to pay for a Gold Membership. I, for one, will not help Microsoft rake in the cash with this sad attempt to cause Silver Membership people grief. I can either wait indefinitely while Microsoft decides they have make enough extra money or we could finally set up my husband’s dad with an Xbox Live membership which comes with a Gold Membership for free for a month. We will just see if the Davis (Bikes) update is available tomorrow… Microsoft shame on you! Criterion keep up the good work!

I finally got around to fixing all of my pictures. They all go to their corresponding pictures now. I can get back to uploading all of my before and after pictures of all of the rooms in our house that I have painted and fixed up. Yea!

We have figured out a fix for getting my pictures to work when they are on the same line. The problem is not with Flicker but with Wordpress’ text editor. Why this didn’t show up when I was using Wordpress’ “Add an Image” feature is beyond me. My only thought is that Wordpress probably built in a fix for it. So, the problem was that the all the links to the pictures on a line would go to the link of the last picture on the line - the last picture would overwrite all the links of pictures to its left. Luckily, Matt has taught me a few things about the HTML page of the text editor and he showed me how to fix this too. I upload the pictures from Flickr (with each of them on a separate line) and then go into the HTML page of the text editor and remove the spaces between the images.  This way all of the picture links stay intact and are on the same line (to conserve vertical space).  I have modified some of the pictures in this fashion, but I have not converted them all - hopefully by the end of today or tomorrow they will all be fixed.  Flickr is really cool, so I am happy it wasn’t a problem with Flickr.

If you have clicked on any of my pictures on my blog recently, you probably noticed that half the time you don’t get the picture you thought you would.  I switched to Flicker for my images and the editing is a little buggy.  I can’t put more than one picture on a line without the last image dominating all of the picture links.  My husband and I will be looking into how to fix it and hopefully the pictures will be back and working correctly again soon.  Somehow I just love to push certain technology a little out of its comfort zone and these kind of things happen. In the mean time, if you click on a picture and you don’t get the one you were expecting, click on the photostream link to the right of the incorrect photo and then you can view all my pictures.

Today, I sold my Kingdom Hearts II video game for the Playstation 2. My trend recently is to get a video game, play it, beat it, and then sell it. I looked into trading in, but you usually get so much more for the games when you sell them on Amazon. This one was an accomplishment.  I tried to get 100% completion, but missed by only 4%.  I heard that the ending was different if you achieved 100%, but I didn’t get to see that version if there was one. There were a couple activities in the game that I was just not willing to spend hours on: defeating Sephiroth and some of the mini games. I know when to call it quits and 96% was my limit. I even took some screen shots with my camera.

The game was quite good.  I hope they have a 3rd one.  I have read on GameSpot that one is in talks. Other than some boss fights that are a little ridiculous and some major button mashing in certain fights, I really enjoyed it.  If you want to keep it simple and play through the story sequence and not do any extra stuff you can get away with just that; however, if you want to submerge yourself into Kingdom Hearts - minigames, gummi upgrades, and Jiminy challenges - you can do that too. It all depends on how many hours you want to play the game.

I joined my first social site today - Facebook. I don’t want it to take too much of my time. I just want to be able to stay in contact with distant friends - we will see how this goes.

Choosing a club to join is much like choosing friend. Personality, goals, and things in common all come into play.

If I could offer some advice to those looking to join clubs in general… before officially joining, go to a few meetings, get to know the people a little and see if your personality meshes well with those around you. See if you have common goals dependent and independent of the club you are thinking about joining. You will be happier with the club you join in the long run if you do a little research before you join.

I offer this advice because I was first introduced to an organization called Toastmasters a couple years ago.

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Toastmasters is a International organization that teaches you communication and leadership though a hands-on experience. The meetings have a structured meeting format, however, instead of sitting and listening to someone else talk all of the time, you get to do speeches in front of the group too and inform, educate, and/or entertain those who are watching you. The environment is friendly and encouraging and all are welcome. There is a yearly membership fee for the local and international levels. Many places of employment will reimburse partial or full fees since communication and leadership are vital to your employment, so check with the company you work for to see if they will help with your fees. Your experiences in Toastmasters will make you a better worker and leader in your work place, so your employer should be able to see their investment in you grow.

The feedback loop in Toastmasters is an award based one. Awards are earned when you work toward and complete achievements. There are awards for Communication and Leadership achievements. It is up to you which path(s) you choose. If you want to earn the highest award you will have to follow and complete both paths - one for Leadership and one for Communication. There is a wonderful Educational Program description and diagram on the Toastmasters website.

I am currently not part of any Toastmasters club at the moment, however in the past, during my 2 1/2 years with Toastmasters, I accomplished and learned many things. I was a member of 2 (almost 3) clubs - Debedeavon Toastmasters and Delmarva Toastmasters. I officially served as a President, a VP of Education, and a Mentor - sometimes some of them at the same time. I have unofficially served as a VP of Membership, VP of Public Relations, Secretary, Treasurer, and Sergeant-at-Arms. During my time in Toastmasters, I earned many awards. In the communication track, I achieved my Competent Toastmaster award in 2006, the new Competent Communicator award, and completed a few of the Advanced Communicator speeches. In the leadership track, I earned my Competent Leadership Award, my Advanced Leader Bronze award, and was working toward my Advanced Leader Silver award. All of these awards are explained in the Educational Program portion of the Toastmasters website mentioned above.

Please go to the Toastmasters site and find a club near you. You will find a lot of information on the Toastmasters site, so happy reading!

I was reading Christie’s blog, Carla’s friend, and noticed one post about a group called MOPS.  She didn’t describe them other than she liked the group and ended up joining, but I thought it probably had something to do with supporting moms.  So, I wanted to do some research and see what I could find.

MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers.  It is an international organization with meeting groups all over the United States and many other countries.  It is a Christian faith-based organization.  The group has a small yearly international membership fee, but it is not unreasonable and you get goodies with your membership.  Local chapters may have a small fee too, but it all depends on the group.

If you want to check it out, go to the MOPS website and find a MOPS Group in your area.

The Code Project is a wonderful site for programmers of all levels. There is much to read and learn there Please check it out. Here are a few of my recommended articles:

.NET Framework
LINQ Challenges and SQL Server Compact Edition

Web Security
Switching Between HTTP and HTTPS Automatically: Version 2

Always give credit where credit is due.

Here are all of those that had a part in my blog design:

Main Design
Coyote Moon by Theme Burrito
(more WordPress themes from Theme Burrito)

Header Picture
Fog by miloIIIIVII
(more WordPress themes from miloIIIIVII)

Code and Design Modifications
by Axiom Forge

I have officially started a blog.

This is officially the first entry of my blog.  There may be posts that predate this one but it is only because I modified the date. Date modification is necessary so past information on the blog becomes time relevant.

It is difficult to figure out what to write in a blog.  Some people write a blog to help others by sharing the knowledge of what they have learned like Tech  talk.  Others share their lives though pictures and stories so that distant and close friends and family can keep up with what is going on with them.

I personally don’t know where to start or what to write about. I feel the need to keep much of my life private, but want my friends and family to know how I am doing and what I am up to.  I want to share what I know with the world so others can learn from my findings and mistakes, but I don’t know when too much information is too much.

I will be learning about the process as I am a part of it and we will see how my blog develops.

Happy Reading!