so last night, in preparation for my trip to Milwaukee I made my hosts a cake, the exact same cake I made Stacey for her birthday, as a thank you present for letting me stay with them this weekend. I discovered it's infinitely much easier to make a cake when you're not half-dead and quaking from a hangover, but I messed up the icing at first because I didn't let it thicken enough during the melt-down stage. this involves constantly stirring an entire bag of chocolate chips with 4 cups of heavy cream. anyway, at 12:30pm, after chilling for 3 hours, the icing still wasn't thick enough to spread. so I had to re-cook it for 15 minutes until it thickened and then chill it for another hour and a half. long story short, between packing and doing laundry and making that cake I was up till 2:30am last night and am now operating on 4 hours sleep.

yesterday I went to a really good bakery on my street to try to get a cake box for the cake since I knew I'd have to schlep it down here and then take it on the train to Wisconsin, but I felt guilty just asking for a cake box so I bought 3 �clairs. one for me, one for Amy, and one for Sara to eat this morning. turns out they didn't have any cake boxes, but whatever.

so anyway, this morning I came in and I was seesawing back and forth on whether to keep the third �clair for myself or to give it to robot but then I decided fuck it, I got 4 hours of sleep and I'm going to eat that damned �clair because it looked really good. and it was. and then after that I went down to the cafeteria and got a cup of coffee (tired) and coaxed the man behind the grill to let me take some of the last bits of lukewarm bacon even though the grill had just closed. so, to sum, today I started my day off right with a huge �clair (with actual solid chocolate on the top), a little lukewarm bacon, and a cup of coffee. for lunch Amy and Sara and I are going to that evil fast food corporation that involves gold and arches and a clown. a place I haven't patronized in years but oh well. it sounded like a good idea. also it's because I want to know what it's like to eat like a truck driver all day long. although tonight in Milwaukee we're getting sushi for dinner, so that won't quite satisfy the truck driver diet. but still. I'm dying for sushi.

other than that, work is super-busy but I did get my bonus check today, so that's good. it's not as much as it should be, which means I will be taking robot and pink lady to task (they like to reserve some bonus monies for spot bonuses later in the year, which = double taxes bullshit) but it's a healthy amount of money so I am content. this weekend should be fun, I'll get to play with a bulldog and a bloodhound (a recent acquisition), and that's never bad. also, beer and food.