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The Boss wakes me up the other day and announces that it's "My Special Day".....so get up and get dressed because he is taking me out for a sumptuous lunch and a day of shopping!!! That sounded good to me....I hadn't been treated to a day of shopping in a long time....This would be fun! Come along and live vicariously through me.... Our first stop......Chick-fil-A.......not my idea of a fancy lunch but it is good for fast food.....They did let me take this adorable clock home.....So I knew the rest of the day was going to go well.....Let the Shopping Begin!!!! Here's the Boss all dressed up with a belly full of fries gearing up to spend some money on me... Wait a minute??? This doesn't look like someplace I would shop.....I didn't get up before noon for this!! Where's Lord and Taylor??? Where's Ralph Lauren?? What about Brooks Brothers...?? These look like motorcycles to me.....Hey wait, you have two of these at home..... Where is stuff for me........

I Love cake!! there I admit it...I especially like carrot cake with that wonderful cream cheese icing...I think it may just be the combo of butter and cream cheese but either way I can eat the icing with a spoon....I love to bake, but cakes is not my forte'....they always seem too heavy and I'm just never happy with the outcome. So when I do bake a cake I go the Sandra Lee route... Today we celebrated Mrs. Duval's birthday....I brought the food, Miss Necie did the driving. Mr. D had just gotten out of the hospital after having surgery and we were happy that he was feeling well enough to join us....Infact he hedged a bit when he was offered a slice of cake saying he would have a taste then save the rest for later...I think I saw him minutes later licking the plate....... We feasted on Ina's chicken salad on croissants, bow tie pesto pasta salad with red peppers, plum tomatoes and black olives and for desert the above carrot cake.....I had never made the chicken salad o...

Back in 1991 I found myself with a career changing decision....My company was downsizing and my position was being done away with.....It was right at the holidays but always being optimistic I jumped at the chance for some career counseling.....The company was going to foot the bill to help find me a new, hopefully fun career, so I was prepared to try anything....Below are just some of the new professions that the Career Counselors suggested I try....... My first try at a new career.....appliance repair person.....What women wouldn't want another women fixing their clothes dryer.....but there was that whole electrical shock issue....plus I never looked good in uniforms.... Tiffany's hired me to model their diamonds....but customers complained of too much cleavage....they asked...."Who does she think she is Giada ?" Knowing I love animals, especially chimps, they suggested animal wrangling......this didn't work out when they realized the enormous liability if the...

taken somewhere driving around Ithaca, New York......1999.

Today's shopping tour is of the Viking Cooking School and Shop in downtown Atlanta on Peachtree Street...This is Maria, the Store Director and general "nice person"........Maria let me and Necie go crazy and take pictures all over this fabulous cooking school/store.... Well, I went crazy, Necie is a Southern Lady, she doesn't ever go crazy............Everyone has heard of Viking appliances but unless your lucky enough to live by one of their wonderful shops you might not know that they also carry a large selection of cooking tools and they have a cooking school.....Here are some great shots from inside the store...I hope you enjoy the tour! This is the cooking "arena" where they have demonstrations.....They often have famous chefs and t.v. personalities.....We saw Rachel Ray give a demonstration and cookbook signing a few years back and it was alot of fun.....She is super cute and tiny in person. She had just gotten engaged the week before to her now husban...

Tanya over at The Sunday Baker had a challenge recently about pantries.....I thought I would share my petite, yet over filled pantry with you today even though it is more china closet then a true pantry......Atleast it got organized for the photo shoot....It started as a closet, a kitchen should not have closets....so we took off the ugly door and replaced it with a French 10 light door....Once you can see inside any kind of kitchen storage area your forced to keep it neat...... so instead of food stuff I dressed it up with my vast collection of diner china....Yes, those big heavy white plates, sometimes with names on them, that you find in diners of the 1940's....I love this stuff and have enough plates, bowls and coffee cups to feed an army.......It's really very fitting since I'm from Jersey and everyone knows that Jersey is the "Diner Capital of the World"......I have been buying pieces at flea markets for years and just recently picked up a big haul over at t...

Thanks to Deb at Driven 55 I've been tagged with the meme that is making the rounds......The Six Random Things Meme. Here are the rules: 1. Link to the person who tagged you, that would be me... 2. Post the rules on your blog 3. Write six random things about yourself 4.Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them....(notice I was not able to do this, both Deb and Alice and daughter have tried to explain to me how to do this link thing....I'm totally unable to follow simple instructions....have pity on me...it brings back memories of the first time I tried to load the old fashion 35mm cameras......the directions simply said....."load film"..I was thrown for a month! 5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.. 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up..... Sorry I always have the need to post some kind of picture...the above one goes with the first random thing and that is how I got my name "Suzanne"......It ...