Happiness in June is... THE WILTON TENT SALE!

I have a vast assortment of really cool kitchen gizmos that I will probably never use. These include (but are in no way limited to) muffin tins shaped like shells, hearts, snowmen, and Scooby Doo too; cake pans in the form of snowflakes, presents and odd geometric designs; stoneware shaped like eggs, bunny heads, and hearts; enough cake decorating do-dads to open my own bakery; gizmos large and small - a food mill, cookie press, roughly 400 whisks of assorted sizes, lots of tongs, wooden utensils, cookie cutters in an astonishing range of shapes and sizes, popsicle makers; miniature bakeware - tiny tart pans, little metal donut looking things for baby angel food cakes, small loaf and round cake pans; and so on.

That doesn't include all the toys that I've actually used - cookie sheets; baking pans; sparking sugars; cupcake liners; pots; bowls; measuring do-dads; the best tasting spoons ever; thermometers for candy, meat, the oven; my teapot; a colander or two; cutting boards; knives; the garlic squasher; salt and pepper mills; lettuce knife; salad spinner; cookbook holder; coffee carafe; spoon straws; graters; 3D bunny cake pan; tea ball; tea bag squeezer; percolator; a collection of picture frames; candy molds; pitchers; slicers and dicers; and so on.

Where did I get all this cool kitchen swag? The Wilton tent sale, of course. I am fortunate (although my checkbook doesn't always agree) to live not far from the worldwide headquarters of Wilton, renowned for cake decorating. Every year in June, they erect a monster tent in their parking lot, mark everything in it down 30 - 70% and then they stand back and wait for the people. Every year, the people arrive to fill shopping carts full of overstock/discontinued/just on sale stuff. And every year, I'm right there with the rest of the people. This is my third year, and given that I'm job searching, it may be my last. *sob* At this point, I have to schedule things carefully 'cause I have friends coming in for every weekend so they can load up on random fun toys as well.

This year, the sale ends on the 20th. I've already been twice. I'll be going at least once more - more friends coming into town. Every year I find another 'the coolest thing ever!' and this year, it's a 3 in 1 cake saver. I love this thing!! It holds a 9x13 cake pan, which is cool, but the best part is the removable tray. The tray holds 12 cupcakes or, if you flip it over, 24 mini-cupcakes. How cool is that?!? And it has a handle to carry it for travel! I love this thing!! Okay. Better now. It'll have to be a really cool something to beat that.

Now, I just have to find room for all the new stuff. I need more cabinet space!!

Arguing with Myself

If you haven't seen Jeff Dunham's DVD, you need to. The guy is a genius. The group watching it was in tears from laughing so hard - both times we watched it last weekend.

Jeff is a ventriloquist, and you've probably seen him on Leno, Letterman, or on comedy central. His act starts with Walter, a salty old codger. The two middle puppets are obviously newer, although still funny - Sweet Daddy D, and Bubba Junior. The funniest, in my opinion, is Peanut. I'm not sure what, exactly, Peanut is - kind of a chimp-like purple thing with fraggle rock hair - but he's hilarious. Pity those around me - they haven't seen the DVD (yet - my copy will be arriving this week, and everyone I know will have seen it shortly thereafter) but they have gotten to listen to my nonsensical quotations. (We're in HELL, and these are our hellmates! She got out of bed, jumped on her menstrual cycle and RAN MY ASS OVER! And so on...)

Make sure you watch the bloopers, with commentary at the end. The commentary explains so much.

If you have little ones, there is a bleeped track for them, but watch it again after they've gone to bed. Just make sure you're a ways away - your laughter will wake them up otherwise.