The Cake

Here's the baseball cake...still haven't found the decorator bag. :(

The Case of the Missing Decorator Bag

For those of you who are relatively new readers of my blog, I sell cakes as a (very) small side business. I have a cake that is due tomorrow (a baseball cake - it turned out really great. I'll post pictures tomorrow once I find the battery charger for my digital camera!) so I spent tonight decorating it. Once I was finished and the cake was safely in its box, I started cleaning up. I only used 2 colors on this one, so luckily only had to use 2 bags. I squeezed the big chunks of icing out of the decorator bags into the trash can and then started washing them out with hot water in the sink like I always do. I finished washing out the blue bag and turned to pick up the red bag....and it was gone. I honestly have no clue where it went. Its a decorator bag, for goodness sakes! It can't just get up and walk off! So I think, I'll just clean up the rest of the kitchen and it will turn up. My kitchen is now spotless, and there is still no red bag. I checked the trashcan to make sure I didn't throw it away (I don't care about the bag so much as the tip that was on it!) and it isn't there. I searched in my pantry, checked my refrigerator and freezer, looked in all the cabinets, walked through my apartment which I should mention, is CLEAN right now, even though I never left the kitchen with the bag. I can't find it anywhere. I have finally given up looking. But the best part is, I know that somewhere in my apartment is a decorator bag with a little bit of red icing just sitting somewhere, waiting to be found. It may be found tomorrow, or next week, or even as far away as when I move again. And the longer it goes, the more disgusting that butter-based icing will get. I think I need to call in Nancy Drew before it really starts to rot!

Interesting Experiment

I was talking to my friend John yesterday before he left for his parents' house in Detroit, Michigan. He is connecting through Chicago first because although he can get a direct flight to Detroit from DFW, his sister who lives in Austin can't. So they are connecting together. This is when my mind starts formulating a hypothesis: people who live in major hub cities are at a disadvantage because of the prices of direct flights.

To test my theory, I began looking at fares on American Airlines. I set the date to depart on Dec. 27th and return on Dec. 29th. Here are 3 flights that I looked at:

DFW to Chicago (direct flight): $743

DFW to Detroit connecting in Chicago: $547

DFW to Milwaukee connecting in Chicago: $318

And the now for the REALLY amusing part - the "connecting flight" to chicago is the exact same flight that I chose for the "direct flight."

Moral of the story: If you're flying into a Chicago, save yourself $400 and buy a ticket to Milwaukee and just never get on your connecting flight. Show back up at the airport when your 2nd "connecting flight" is supposed to land. Of course, this would only work if you aren't checking luggage because they tend to check luggage all the way through to your final desination now....

Happy Traveling!

Interview Season has officially begun!

Today I got my first interview for a summer internship. It is with a company that I have been looking at since I was in high school - Alcon. I am really excited to be interviewing with a company that consistently makes Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For (this year it is #42) and that is in my hometown so I wouldn't have to think about relocation. My interview is Monday, so as soon as I finish with IP on Wednesday, I get to start studying for my interview! I only thought I was going to get a break this weekend!

Snow Days

My Situation:

1. As I have mentioned before, most of my friends here are from the midwest or northeast - Chicago, Boston, Gettysburg, Omaha, Detroit, etc.
2. Starting on Thursday afternoon, we had a sleet/ice storm here in DFW. This caused the usual panic....cars flipping on bridges, semis jacknifing on the highway, schools cancelled, everyone urged to lock themselves inside because of the impending doom.
3. All of my friends decide to go on and on and on....and on and on and on...about how stupid Texans are and how "if they shut everything down for weather like this where I'm from, nothing would be open for 2 months" (imagine me saying this in a mocking voice)

My Response:

1. True, everything would have to be shut down for 2 months. I realize that. But just because you don't close things doesn't mean you shouldn't close things. It is just they don't have the luxury of closing down because of the number of days that they have bad weather. Here in Texas, we get maybe 3 or 4 days a year when roads are bad, and schools have snow days built in, so why not close down and be safe rather than sorry?
2. You're in my state now! Nobody forced you to come here. If you think its all so stupid, then go back to your stupid snowy state and leave me and my state's paranoia alone!

And last but not least:

1. I appreciate my friend Bill - AKA Boston Bill. Here is the conversation we had last night over google talk:
2. Bill: hey you didnt tell me it gets this bad out!
   Emily: you wouldn't have believed me
   Bill: it is like a suicide mission right now if you try to drive
   Emily: yep
   people from midwest and north think that we don't know how to drive in snow
   what you don't realize is we don't get snow....we just get pure ice
   you can't use chains in ice
   Bill: yeah and you have nothing to treat it
   i saw 4 cars get stuck on my hill at the end of mccart

Hope everyone stayed safe and warm during our snowy days! I got to battle the weather and come to campus to work on our big project, but on Wednesday, my 1st semester of MBA school will be done! I will be MIA for about a week while I work on this beast 24/7. Have a great week!

Blogger Woes

So, today I read another installment of Trey's Twelve Blogs of Christmas series and was very pleased yet again. Until I tried to comment. I was faced with the necessary evil of word verification asking me to type in the letters "seminex" so I did. It told me I was wrong, which has happened before, but usually it gives a new word to type. This time it had the exact same word. I typed it again, it told me I was wrong again and gave me the same word. So, not that anyone cares, but here is my comment for today's post in the Twelve Blogs of Christmas:

"I was one of the Cabbage Patch lovers and it was my poor grandmother that had to battle people to get me and Allyson each one. I guess it wasn't really my grandmother that we felt sorry for - more like any of those other people who tried to get in her way! She was a feisty one!

Ben has an XBOX 360 that he spent the night outside of Target for. He tried to sell it on Ebay right when he got home and his was one of the few that didn't sell, so he decided to keep it. I think he should try again now that they are sold out.

Yet another solid post. Keep em coming!"

Has anyone else had problems with word verification?

Things I've Learned

I've learned a few very important things this semester in my MBA program. I thought I'd share them with you today.

1. To fit the greatest amount of information on a page (i.e. a 2 page cheat sheet) , expand all margins to .5 pts, make it 2 columns, and change the font to 8 pt. Arial Narrow. This allows for the most information in a readable font.
2. There is no value added in coming to a class that is mathematically/analytically focused (eg. Accounting or Finance). The professors should just hand you a list of subjects you need to know, give you the book, and be available to answer questions in their office hours. All you do in class is zone out and then teach it to yourself before the test anyways, why not put that 3 hours each week into something more useful?
3. You should never even contemplate missing a case class. In direct contrast with analytical classes, there is very little that can be done outside of class in studying for case class tests (short of forming the perfect cheat sheet. See #1). I missed one class this semester in our major case class and when it came time to evaluate the transformational leadership of Iacocca on our test, I was so far behind because I didn't get to discuss the merits of his case in class.
4. There is no point in being in an MBA program in your home city. Don't even entertain the fact that you will get to hang out with your friends that live here. I think Lindsey has spent more time with Katie and Stephen than I have this semester. She lives 2 hours away and I live about 10 minutes away, if that! Ridiculous!
5. Regardless of all of this, I am really enjoying myself and I know, despite the stress now, I am going to be sad when these 2 years are over.

Have a great weekend!

Emily