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Obama Cake

haven’t seen President Obama’s inauguration speech yet. We couldn’t watch it at work and I wasn’t going to secretly stream it. I do think, however, that it would have been cool to take 17 minutes around lunchtime and watch it. Instead, I watched a big part of the Inauguration ball in Chicago that night and I thought it was pretty cool. I was really moved when they showed Beyonce backstage, she was adorable - so emotional. In this line of thought ,Chef Benny and Chef Marc from Diverse Desserts have created a couple of amazing Obama cakes.

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Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the other one.

On Thursday, I went to see Benny, who was making a camouflage cake, and was able to help him a little. I always cherish these moments because I get to see him creating something absolutely fascinating, in the shape of a cake, and we get to catch up on stories. He always finds a way to include me in the work, by giving me a small project, and makes me feel helpful and productive.

Some of you know that I graduated from a Culinary Technical School in Bulgaria and my specialty was Confectionary Art with a second major in Culinary Art. I used to cook for living for a few years. I’m very glad that restaurants are no longer my field of work because I love accounting but I still cook a lot and always experience the thrill when entering Diverse Desserts’ baking studio. I sometimes stop to simply say hello, but I always wash my hands thoroughly, just in case I’m asked to pass something along or just be in the environment of food. If I’m there for a longer period of time I ware a white chef’s apron,.

Like the $14 Coincidence

It seems unimportant, but I have two fluorescent light bulbs illuminating my kitchen and they both died at the very same moment. Strange I would say. I simply turned the light on and it was flickering at 20% capacity, no warning or any foreshadowing signs.

As a good consumer, after taking one down and examining it for length and wattage, I went on the internet to get some general pricing. Thus prepared I picket up a pair of “warm – Kitchen and Bath” GE (brings good things to life) bulbs. Now my meals look even better and if I look at the mirror, I look less pale.

Credit Report & New Year’s Resolutions

We all like to feel like we start afresh in the beginning of each year. We have our new year’s resolutions set and hopefully they are reasonable and not abandoned in a month’s time. The three major things I would like to achieve this year are:

1. Pay off this debt that I’ve been dragging for a few years now.
2. File my Citizenship paperwork.
3. Learn basic Spanish.

In the dawn of the year, I also remembered to start acquiring my credit reports. As advised by Joan last year I’m spreading the three bureau approximately 4 months apart. I’ll do this through Annual Credit Report.com where I’ll obtain a truly free credit report. By not getting all 3 reports at once I’m going to be monitoring my credit history all through out the year. I recommend you do it too.

New Year, New Luck

Not to sound Greek but as we say in Bulgaria - “Za mnogo godini!”

I’m not sure if it’s a common thing, but a few of my friends, who I know had a good 2008, complained at the very end of the old 2008 and were hoping for a better new 2009. I on the other hand, am grateful for an awesome and successful 2008. I’d say that my biggest achievement was going through the Becker CPA review course and sitting for all 4 parts of the CPA exam (yes, technically I sat for REG on 01/09/09 but this is only because you cannot sit in December and besides I did all of my studying in 2008).

I also had an incredible New Year’s celebration. My two best friends - Zakki and Mary - came from Bulgaria. They arrived on Dec 24 and stayed with me until Jan 7. We got to spend a lot of time together and did many fun things. Zakki has been in NY, gosh, I even lost count so many times, before but it was Mary’s first visit. She seemed very comfortable with NY, as if she’d been here prior to this. It was really cool that Zakki loves the city and knows it pretty damn well so while I was at work the first couple of days he him and Mary did the majority of the sightseeing in Manhattan.

We received the New Year at a friend’s house with some of my best friends from NY - Paul & Raul, Chef Marc & Chef Benny from Diverse Desserts. A Brazilian friend of the hosts’ was in charge of the food. He had done an incredible job and in the Brazilian tradition for New Year’s the dress code was white shirt. Prior to the party, we met at Raul’s apartment and went to Elmo for a drink of campaign – I have to say a fabulous experience.

Next day was the Roseland and Victor Calderon experience – what a party!

We also went to the movies and saw, in my opinion, two of the greatest movies of 2008 – MILK (Sean Penn, kudos) and Slumdog Millionaire (what a story; Latika - Freida Pinto, beyond gorgeous).

Last week was the craziest. Zakki and Mary were still here, my exam was scheduled for Friday, I had to be in NJ for training all day on Tuesday, spend last moments with my friends and drop them off at the airport on Wednesday, and work on Thursday.

After training on Tuesday, I met Mary & Zakki in the city and we went up the Empire state Building to get a bird’s eye view of Manhattan; it was my first time too and I definitely recommend it. After descending the Empire State, we went to get our Broadway fix with Patty Lupone in Gypsy. Following such an unbelievable performance, we were starving and satisfied our hunger at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Mary and I ended up talking till 6:00 am so that made for a full 24 hours of fun for me.