Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Stuff and whatnot 2? I really need a better title for the posts of no import.

So we all have someone in our life for whom e-mail is apparently still a novel phenomenon and from whom we can therefore expect no fewer than 18 pointless e-mail forwards a week, right? What's that? No? It's not 1998, and you have somehow managed to put an end to that nonsense? How, pray tell... HOW??

Actually, I suppose I don't have nearly the string of offenders for this that I used to, but I still find myself somewhat routinely visiting Snopes.com to dispel some myth or absurdity that my mother received and thereafter forwarded to everyone in her address book. Yes, that's right, I said my mother. And in case you are wondering, no, she does not read my blog. At least, not that I know of. Um, hi Mom?

I bring up my mother and her forwards not because I want to talk about the ridiculous message she forwarded implying that my choice for our next president attempted to assume the highest office in our land with only 143 days of experience under his belt, nor to ponder the egregious pandering to the right wing in the absurd "let's blame Obama for botched late-term abortions" YouTube video she sent recently. No, the e-mail I'm referring to was decidedly less controversial but no less questionable. It was a message titled "The most dangerous chocolate cake in the world," and it claimed that one could, in fact, bake a legitimately tasty single-serving cake in the microwave in three minutes flat from ingredients I might actually have in my kitchen right now.

People, I was skeptical. I thought this would be a fun experiment, my own Snopes.com-esque research task. I expected to report back on the disastrous results and confidently steer you away from absurd three-minute e-mail cake. But you know what? It was delicious. Granted, I have had three glasses of wine tonight, for no better reason than it sounded like a tasty accompaniment to my dinner salad, and perhaps my currently a wee bit tipsy state might make any chocolate cake taste divine, but I'm pretty sure that's not fully the case. One can make chocolate cake in three minutes by stirring up a few tablespoons of ingredients in a coffee cup. Who knew?

Speaking of food (nice segue, Stef), you know how some of us occasionally introduce some new link by saying, "A friend of mine just started a blog, and you should check it out"? Yeah, I haven't done a whole lot of that here, mainly because none of my real-life friends have blogs, and now that one of them does, I feel compelled to tell you about it, even though it is a blog with a decidedly specific niche, and it's a niche that I can only imagine isn't necessarily useful or compelling to those of you outside the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area. (By my unscientific calculation, I'd say that's, oh, roughly 95% of you. Oh well.) In any case, my friend Carrie (she of the highbrow guilty pleasures and my partner in crime for infiltrating the RNC) is exercising her writing muscles by reporting on her dining experiences around the city, and if that sounds interesting to you (and why wouldn't it?), you should check it out. (Um, hi, Carrie. Should I have waited until you had more than three posts up before I linked to you? Perhaps. I guess this just means you have to go out to dinner with me to gather up some more new material. Deal?)

Next? Let's see. What old business did I have to attend to? Well, there is the fact that I had dinner with -R- last night, and although I did not bring a camera to document it, I can confidently assure the Internet that our pal -R- is, in fact, pregnant, and not merely telling "pregnancy card" stories just for fun. Mind you, the pregnancy card is not necessary. -R- was just as cheery and delightful as usual (well, cheery and delightful with the twinge of deviance and subdued rage that I so appreciate in her), and she looked just as adorable as you'd expect an eight-months-pregnant -R- to be. (Again, I can provide no photographic evidence, but you'll just have to take my word on this.)

Oh. Also, I neglected to comment back to comments on that last post, so to sum up and fill you in, 1. No, I have not gone on my second date with the yet-to-be-Internet-aliased prospect yet, but I will keep you updated once I do; 2. Sauntering Soul, yes, your next house should have a garage, but you should make sure it has no-maintenance siding; and 3. the Little House musical was good but not phenomenal; had the series and books not held a fond place in my heart, I can't say Melissa Gilbert's performance would have moved me much nor that more than two of the songs in the score would be anything more than forgettable. As Little House does hold a fond place in my heart, however, I fully enjoyed the experience anyway. Do with that conflicting review what you will.

Hmm. I also had a Facebook story I was going to share with you, but first of all it is past my bed time yet again and secondly I fear mentioning Facebook in three out of five consecutive posts is overstating its importance in an unsettling way. So we'll table that one for later, shall we? I promise you, however, it is absurd, and it proves I am not the only one among my blood relatives for whom a sitcom titled [insert name here]'s awkward life could be in the works. Really.

17 comments:

metalia said...

I need to know more about this cake, yo.

3carnations said...

Wow. That post had a lot to it.

I would like that cake recipe. Sometimes I want cake at night, and there is no cake to be had. This could change things.

I've got one new-ish friend who sends lots of forwards. Always those "pass this along to people you care about and send it back to me" ones. I am apparently uncaring, because I don't do it.

We recently had 10 inches of rain, and between hubby and myself, we received the same email with pictures of local flooded venues 3 times, from people who we don't believe have any connection to one another. Whoever started that forward got it well circulated in SW Michigan!

The Dutchess of Kickball said...

Is it wrong that I really want the recipe for this weird 3 minute microwave cake?

shelleycoughlin said...

Three minute cake! I need that recipe, pronto. And also: I am jealous you got to hang out with -R-. I guess I get to hang out with Noelle though, so I'll call it a draw.

Anonymous said...

What a tease! If you are going to tell us the micro cake experiment was successful, I would think you would spread the love.
Mmmmm cake AND in 3 minutes? Sweet. Glad to hear SOME good comes out of those email forwards.
I continuously beat my head against my desk when the person in my life actually refuses to believe the snopes information that the forwarded email is mistaken in its accusations.

Jess said...

One summer during college, my roommate and I both "auditioned" to become SAT tutors with Princeton Review. She did her audition on how to bake a cake in the microwave. I did mine on how to politely refuse a marriage proposal from a Senegalese man you've never met before. We both got the job.

Mickey said...

Wow, this was random. But no specifics on that chocolate cake? How cruel.

lizgwiz said...

You are definitely a chocolate cake tease! (Blame the wine?)

I love reading writing about food/restaurants. Even for cities I've never been to. I like seeing to what depths of the thesaurus they have to plumb to keep coming up with different ways to say something tastes good. There's a local reviewer who defaults to "tasty" way too much for my liking. And "flavorful." Everything is "tasty and flavorful." Maybe I should send her a thesaurus.

Noelle said...

This is yet another circumstance where NPW got to comment before me and said pretty much exactly what I was going to say.

So I'll just go ahead and forward you the email from Birmingham's mother about how there are rapists EVERYWHERE, and it's probably Obama's fault.

Anonymous said...

Can that be my new tagline: Cheery and delightful with a tinge of deviance and subdued rage? That cracks me up.

An e-mail forward was actually true and helpful! Shocking!

Alice said...

um, a 3 minute delicious chocolate cake that you DO NOT SHARE WITH US? wrong. so very, very wrong.

:-)

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe you mentioned this cake thing and didn't share the recipe. (Obviously from all the other posts here, I am not alone.)

Courtney said...

I'm posting this comment after you put up the recipe, so I can't admonish you for leaving us in the dark. You have done your duty.

I'm jealous of your bloggy meetup. I never get to hang out with bloggers other than the one I live with, although he is delightful.

Stefanie said...

Metalia--I'm on it, yo.

3Cs--I am uncaring, too, because I ignore those as well. Also, when did you become Woodstock?? I should really probably get myself an avatar one of these days...

Dutchess--Not wrong at all. I'm sorry I held out on that.

NPW--Indeed. That does make it a tie, I guess. (I am still jealous of you and Noelle, however.)

Badger Reader--I know! I know! Situation remedied, of course.

Jess--I'm sort of thinking refusing a marriage proposal from someone I've never met would be pretty dang easy. But then, I've never been proposed to by a Senegalese man. Maybe it's trickier than I think.

Mickey--Remedied. Sorry.

Liz--Blame the wine indeed. (What else can I blame wine for? Whee!)

Noelle--Definitely. I hear Obama kills puppies, too. Also, he will probably turn your children gay.

R--I don't know if it's your new tagline, but it's definitely true, anyway. :-)

Alice--A thousand apologies. (Well, five of them, anyway.)

Lara--See above. (And above and above and above.)

Courtney--I thought you had blogger meetups in Knoxville! Oh well. At least you and Mickey have a blogger meetup every day.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Stef! I have four posts now, so I'm catching up. You have a deal, and I think we should start by going to Crescent Moon.

Aaron said...

Never assume that your mom does not read your blog. Is all.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

I'm so happy for your sake that you didn't simply assume that chocolate cake e-mail was crying wolf. And btw, I've even specifically asked my aunt to stop with the forwards, especially the Christian ones, and yet it continues. The only thing I can figure is that she thinks it's worth pissing me off just on the off-chance that I might be saved.