ScrumMaster Certification

Adventure 20100514
I was recently lucky enough to be able to attend a two day ScrumMaster certification training session led by Michele Sliger and gain my certification from the Scrum Alliance.  Michelle did a great job of making the information interesting and understandable.

Sam and Greg's Birthday

Experiment: 20100507
Greg and I decided to share a birthday celebration this year.  I asked Kathy to make me a huge peanut-butter chip cookie and I made Greg a very colorful Red Velvet Cake.  Considering this is actually the first real cake I've made this year I was a little disappointed, but I suppose I've just gotten out of practice.

Carrie's Candy Sushi Birthday

Experiment: 20100226
Continuing the pattern of my friends attempting to expand the whole concept of "Sam likes baking cakes for everyone's birthdays" my friend Carrie choose "Sushi" as her theme this year....  After extended consideration I discarded the idea of wrapping several pounds of tuna in fondant and instead went for a candy sushi platter theme.

Hank's Birthday Ghetto Croquembouche

Experiment: 20100115

When I asked my friend Hank if he wanted a cake for his birthday this year he said "HELL YES I WANT A CAKE! As to the kind I am thinking about a chocolate and caramel croquembouche."  ....  Apparently my friends are trying to get me to expand my Cake-Artistry skills....  However, when I advised this was going to take at least five hours to make, he was going to have to pick a Saturday starting no earlier than 3:00 PM for when we would get together, and that I would not be able to be the Dungeon Master for gaming that day, he started back-pedaling pretty fast.  Unfortunately for Hank, the comments from my other friends about his request started giving me ideas.  Evil, evil time-saving ideas.  And thus, from an unholy collection of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Holes, Zingers, Twinkies, and several boxes of Hostess 100 Calorie Packs of Chocolate Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes, and Twinkie Bites was born the dreaded Ghetto Croquembouche.

2009 Year End Update

Well, 2009 is almost at an end, and I can't say that I'm too sorry to see it go.  The second half of the year has been particularly rough, but new adventures await just around the corner.  Since I haven't been horribly active over the last few months I thought I'd finish up the year with a mini-update and a few of the pictures I did manage to take.

Here's a quick snapshot of the Birthday Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting I made for my friend Swain in mid-November.  Nothing fancy, but I think the colored coconut is a nice touch.

Next we have a snapshot of the massive feast that Kathy, my Mom, Step-Dad, and I had for Thanksgiving this year.  0_0  Might need a bigger table next year....

 This is a set of before-and-after Xmas Loot pictures.  As always Kathy managed to find me some really nifty toys to unwrap even on our pretty tight budget.  I particularly like the MP3 player upgrade to an 8GB Sansa Clip.  I've really gotten addicted to audio books over the last half-year.

And finally, for an extra dose of uber-cute we have a picture of our pet ferrets Floozie and Mozilla.

Happy Holidays Everyone!