My husband and I are a couple of enablers. One of us will come up with a crazy idea – one of those ideas where neither one of us is sure if we’re joking or not. Rather than being a mature adult and talking the other out of said crazy idea… the other will expand on it in some bizarre direction, back and forth… and then we both decide that it must be DONE.

Rather than shelve the idea as “some day, maybe”… we tend to drop everything and DO IT.

Such was the case leading up to last night, and the premiere of “The Hobbit”.

A group of local geeks were planning to dress up and attend the premiere en masse, and we thought it would be fun to participate. What with Gandalf being awesome and all, the general direction of our costume was a given – of COURSE we had to dress Porter up as Gandalf. But, which? Grey would make more sense for this particular movie, but we’ve never really felt super restricted by stuff like that. White was more badass, but I hate embroidery.. So, I posed the question on the Celebration Generation Facebook Page.

Yay, hivemind! Different points were made. White is harder to keep clean. Grey has a hat. Blue would be different and cool, and match his hair. He should go as Magneto instead.

Then, through messaging, we received the game changing suggestion. Brittany, my very last cake client, produced this bit of genius:

“Gandalf the RAINBOW DISCO SEQUINED”

YES. We had a plan… and I decided that Gandalf’s beard would be dip dyed. One thing was certain – no one else would be wearing the same costume!

We found the perfect fabric, and I made his robe, hat, and cloak from it:

I fashioned a leaf pin out of glittery blue polymer clay, and detailed it with a silver leafing marker:

As the fabric part of the costume came together easily, one detailed had yet to be finalized – the staff. Did we want to do something vaguely tree-like, like Gandalf the Grey… or go more refined and elegant, like Gandalf the White? Or, you know, we could get weird with it, and involve a mirror ball..

It took like 3 seconds to decide on the mirror ball.

As soon as we had the mirror ball in our hands, ready to work on the staff… we started bastardizing our own plans. This is basically how it went down:

Me: “How do we want to actually affix the ball to the PVC pipe? I think we could (boring talk of creating the setting)..”

Porter: “You know, we could put some LEDs in the fixture to light it up…”

Me: “…..!!!!!”

Porter: “We could build the wires into the prong setting, and then drop them down into the pipe, to a concealed battery pack”

Me: “You know what would be awesome? Sticking a little motor in there, too. Have the thing lit AND rotating!”

Porter: “That’s getting a bit complex”

Me: “But… it would mean a trip to Ax-Man..”

Porter: “LET’S DO IT!”

… half an hour later, we were ringing up out purchase of LED lights, wiring, a motor, diodes, resistors, a battery pack, a switch, etc. Yep, it had gotten crazy, FAST.

Turbo decided to help:

Porter wired up the LEDs, drilled holes into the sides of copper piping, and I sculpted polymer clay around each finger of the prong setting.

We built a base around a larger diameter of copper piping, Porter custom drilled an opening for his motor to fit in, and I connected all of the prong pieces together in the outer framework of the design. Wasn’t overly happy with hour lumpy it all looked, but hey.. it was a first time thing for me.

After lots of fussing, it was ready to bake:

Meanwhile, Porter worked on the motorized aspects of the staff:

We painted it with “granite” texture spray paint, thinking that a stone look would more or less camouflage my shoddy sculpting, and assembled it:

Not much time to spare, either – final assembly happened less than 24 hours prior to the movie premiere! Of course, we had to get Porter all dressed up and take a picture of the whole thing:

SO happy with how it all turned out. The beard is actually gradient “dip dyed” with two different colors: The white turns into a pale teal, which transitions into the fuchsia, with a bit of a purpley mid ground color. Beautiful – but it was our second attempt. I had painstakingly brush-dyed the beard and wig with 3 colors of my Manic Panic.. only to find that it doesn’t actually stain/dye cheap synthetic wigs. Crap!

Ended up using a solution of rubbing alcohol and acrylic ink. Worked wonderfully!

We had a great time at the premiere:

… And we were sure to get a picture with our friend Bill, who was Gandalf the Grey. (He immediately dubbed Porter “Glamdalf”… love it!):

It was a bit swarm of Hobbitses, a couple Gandalfs, a handful of elves, and I THINK a Dwarf:

The movie was great. Where I’m far too ADD for the original trilogy, I found this one far more interesting, and at a better pace. Anyway.

We took some shots outside this afternoon:

It was, as expected, a ton of fun. This was the first real time we’ve actually worked on a costume together (rather than me just sewing something for him, or him working on a component for something by himself). It was great to plot the whole thing out, swap ideas, and problem solve together – and hey, our crazy enabling turned out something pretty cool, IMHO.

Aside from the hilarity we experienced in creating it, it was fun to see kids’ eyes light up, as they excitedly pointed Porter out to their parents. Well, kinda like they do when they see our blue hair, but more so – I guess a lit up, rotating disco ball is cooler than dyed hair

Check out more photos from this project on Facebook, here. Also, thanks again for the inspiration, Brittany! You’re Awesome!

For Part 1 of this entry, click here

Thursday morning, we were all DYING to see what happened with the gown delivery. Heidi had arranged for one of her co workers to videotape the box opening, AND it happened to be a day when Abby was off school early… so we knew we were all in for a treat. USPS had guaranteed “before 12pm”, and a large group of us were glued to our screens, waiting for any hint that the package had arrived. Well, “Waiting” may be a bit generous – I lost count of how many times “Is it THERE YET!?” was posted to the Facebook group wall! At one point, she posted an update that Laura’s gloves had arrived. Apparently her mail comes in waves, and we weren’t supposed to freak out at all at the lack of gown news. As noon approached – and passed – we all got more anxious. I looked up the tracking number, and was greeted with a comment that no one had been available to sign it, and a notification had been left. UGH. I just about lost it!

Abby tries on her new gloves

At 1:18 pm, Heidi posted the following update:

STATUS UPDATE: I just called the mail room AGAIN, because they are usually here before two. I don’t know what the holdup was, but they are just NOW leaving the building. I asked them how many stops they had to make before they got to me, and when they repeated the question to my particular carrier, he started laughing and said, “Tell her I’ll come to her first”. So IT SHOULD BE IN OUR HANDS WITHIN 15 MINUTES!!!! Then we will post videos & photos!

A short while later, Heidi posted a photo of a delivery guy holding a box that looked NOTHING like the one I’d shipped. I thought she was teasing us, but it turned out to simply be a really weird angle – the gown had arrived, and we all completely lost it.

It seemed like FOREVER, but Heidi finally posted a cell phone video of the event. We’d all seen photos of Abby before this point, but this was the first video of her. She seemed like such a sweetie, and TOTALLY unprepared for all of the attention. It was sort of fun to watch the Aspie kid / neurotypical mom dynamic – Heidi is SUPER touchy and affectionate, and Abby… not so much. Poor kid! She took it like a champ, though.

Again, lots of happy tears all around – across the country, and beyond! To see the video yourself, click here.

Abby, not used to this kind of attention!

Personally, I was SO ecstatic to hear the words “exact fit” several times. I was so super nervous about no fitting / Heidi not having experience with measurements, this was music to my ears! The group just erupted. A few of the comments: WHY CAN I ONLY LIKE THIS ONCE?????? And who is cutting onion in my office? My eyes keep tearing up . . . – Heather I give up. Why am I even still pretending that I’m working? – Laura I can cry–I’m in my home office. )) – Stacey Oh, fuck, who has the tissues?? Poor thing looks overwhelmed by the attention, but that dress is GORGEOUS!! She is going to be STUNNING! – Shana Total snaps to Abby for the practical concerns about sweating and not wanting to mess the dress up!!! (and my sincere thanks for letting her mom put it on her so we got a preview!!!!) – Desiree

I thought Pandora would pause when I went to play this video, but it didn’t, so “What a Wonderful World” played under the whole thing. Perfect! – Angie

That’s beautiful! The whole thing – the dress, the daughter, the mother, and the thought and talent and effort behind it all. Thank you so much for sharing this! – Katrina

Wow, I’ve got shivers. – Karen

Darned onions here, as well….. And, Abby, we love you, too! – Pamela

Angie, that’s the song they played as the background for the powerpoint photo slideshow on the day of her preschool graduation – from a school for children with autism! – Heidi

So I live very close to a large Casino. Just as I found and starting playing the video, they started doing fireworks. So I a sitting at my dining room table, watching the video, listening to fireworks going, and the crescendo was right when she slipped the dress on. Seemed appropriate. Well done, Ladies. – Lisa

Lisa, I would have bawled if that had happened when I watched! – Me

Marie, I am sitting here with mascara dripping off my chin. Don’t kid yourself. I just felt like the universe was applauding her happiness. – Lisa

Heidi, you are going to, OK are, making me cry again. I LOVE how supportive you are of Abby and the fact that she is an Aspie. It is a totally different thing, but I would have given anything to have know when I was a kid that I a) had a learning disability b) that it was OK and didn’t make me defective exactly, it just meant I was different and had to do things differently from people around me 3) that there were other high IQ LD people out there, etc. etc. Even more would have been to have support from my parents, Dad just said I was lazy and/or stupid because I couldn’t do some things well. You Rock. So does Marie, but we already know that too – JM

… So much love!

The photos continued into the evening, including this one of Frank – Heidi’s husband – seeing the dress for the first time. I know I wasn’t alone in sighing with happiness at the image:

The shoes!

Friday night, Heidi and Abby finished up their shopping for the event, keeping us all up to date on the proceedings. Sparkly turquoise heels were acquired! Saturday, we were all dying to see photos. Comments weren’t contained to the Facebook group or its members, other people had been observing and getting excited, and were now expressing their own impatience for photos on Heidi’s wall, my wall… it was nuts! Dear Heidi – we are stalking your page. Where is the dress? – Leah WHERE’S THE PICS!!! lol. I can’t wait to see the princess! – Melissa We want pics, we want pics, we want pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Cindy

One of our group members is a photographer in Heidi’s area, and graciously donated her time and talents to do a portrait session with Abby, right before the dance. We were treated to a few photos as they happened, and throughout the evening. Here are a few of my favorites (Following block of photos are all courtesy Kelley Photography):

At the end of the evening, Heidi posted the update:

Just got home. She had a WONDERFUL time. Several girls and a few boys (!) told her they liked her dress. A group of girls asked her to dance with them, so she did. A couple of boys came over and started dancing with her at different times, but she said she danced away from them. She said that at first she sat by herself and texted her middle school friends, saying, “help, I’m in a social situation and don’t know what to do!” They told her to be herself. She did not win the homecoming title, but I don’t think it mattered a whit to her. She FELT beautiful, and everyone knew who she was!

Some fun facts: - The black tulle underskirt was made of 35 yards of fabric. - The gown had 500 crystals individually set on it. - There were 24 Fairy Godmothers, total - As a result of this, Lauren made a really great business connection for her jewelry! Karma! - I STILL honestly have no idea what Homecoming is all about, it’s not something we did back in my hometown. Who is coming home, from where? It doesn’t sound like a school reunion thing…? - I’m still not a fan of people in general, but this DEFINITELY warmed me up a bit. I’m still blown away at what it turned into, from such a tiny beginning. I’m amazed at how many people got on board to do something nice for a kid they’d never met, and how emotionally INVESTED everyone was. This was a truly amazing experience!

A final word from the parents…

“As parents, we suffer when our children suffer. As parents of children on the autism spectrum, we would give anything to help them be understood and accepted by their peers. What Marie did, what the Fairy Godmothers gifted us, was Abby’s recognition of her own worth. For the first time in her life, she felt beautiful, and she felt liked by her peers. This is worth more than all the diamonds in the world.

… A fairy tale dress made by a magical dressmaker made possible by fairy godmothers from across the country. A special thanks to the magical dressmaker. Not only are you a maker of incredibly beautiful dresses but also the maker of one young ladies dreams.”

Want to see the TONS of photos from this whole project? Visit our Facebook Page for an album of progress photos, HERE

I haven’t posted since September 27th, but I have a great reason for that… and I’d like to share. Something really amazing happened, and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it. I’m digging through a MOUNTAIN of photos and information for this, so be forewarned – this will be a long entry. Well, two actually…

It’ll be worth it though, I swear.

On that afternoon, I was looking for something to do, to procrastinate from what I was supposed to be doing – working on my next cookbook. I just wasn’t “feeling it” that afternoon, and I really do work better when I can get away from a project for a bit.

As luck would have it, that opportunity presented itself in a timely manner. As I was messing around on Facebook, my friend Heidi posted the following to a group of Gen X Mensa Women:

“Weepy Mom Moment: My almost 15 yo Aspie, who was picked on in elementary school and used to come home crying because she had no friends, and who, according to one teacher, used to play with a tree at recess, is in the final voting round to be homecoming Princess for her grade!

The final vote was today, and all the kids in two of her classes told her that they voted for her. They find out the results at the homecoming dance on Oct. 6. She was beaming as she told me – guess I’ll be scraping up the $75 for that ticket after all… “

A few comments of congratulations and support followed, and then Heidi had this to say:

“She wanted to know if I could sew her a gown like one of her video game characters. I almost fainted. I finally convinced her that we’d have to buy one. “

My ears (eyes?) Perked up at this point. A CHALLENGE! I could HELP. She thought something was impossible, and I could prove her wrong! Sounded right up my alley, so I probed for some more details on the dress – which was a Neopets gown (Click here to view the inspiration dress, from a post on the Neopets website) – saw that it was something I was perfectly capable of making, and gave Heidi a call.

Now, Heidi and I have had a … complicated… relationship over the short time I’ve known her – and I’ve only ever known her online. We don’t see eye to eye on pretty much anything with regards to politics or religion, and that has led to things like arguments, de-friendings on Facebook … I had her blocked for a while… Yeah.

BUT I have always respected her for how she has made such efforts to understand and accommodate her daughter. Her daughter and I both have Aspergers, and I’ve got to say – having come from a really horrible upbringing… it always warms my heart to see a fellow Aspie being treated so well by a parent. It’s bittersweet, for me… makes me a bit envious, makes me a bit sad for what could have been… but also restores a bit of faith in humanity for me. (I don’t have a lot of it!)

I could do something nice for both of them!

So, I called Heidi up. Given our somewhat tumultuous history, I’m still surprised that she replied to my opening: “Heidi, how much do you trust me?” in such a positive way. When she affirmed that yes, she trusts me completely.. I told her that I could absolutely make that gown, even on the ridiculous timeline we were looking at. It was a Thursday evening, and her event was the following Saturday. In Florida…. and I had 2 days in between where I was solidly booked and had no time for sewing!

So we agreed – she would pay for the fabrics, I would make the gown as fast as I could, ship it overnight, and they would get any needed alterations on their end. That evening, I instructed her on how to take the measurements I would need, over the phone. It was amusing to hear it all go down – us Aspies aren’t necessarily the best about being touched, and I could hear that Abby was feeling pretty awkward about the measurements. I immediately set about my business – there was a lot to be done in a short amount of time. Also, I had not made a gown in years, AND I’d be doing it without opportunity for a fitting. Heidi had never taken measurements before, AND there was some confusion as to the accuracy of two of the measurements… oh, adventure! As I was plotting the logistics, Heidi was overwhelmed with emotion at the whole thing.

My preliminary sketch

“Note to self: buy waterproof mascara before posting awesome kiddo moments. Let me tell you, when she was 3 1/2 and banging her head against the wall, and the doctor said, and I quote, “Your child will never be normal”, I did not know what her future would look like. All I knew was that the dreams for my beautiful daughter were crushed.”

She told us of how Abby had struggled to make friends in school, and how it had broken Heidi’s heart when, at a friend’s birthday party, Abby ran to their bedroom, threw herself down on the bed sobbing, and said, “Everybody treats me like a stray dog”.

When Heidi explained how cool people like Einstein and Mozart probably had Asperger’s, too, and it was part of why she was so smart, Abby cried “I wish I had friends instead of being smart”.

That broke MY heart. I could relate to all of it.

Oh, how on earth do I compile everything that happened into one blog entry, and in a coherent manner?

What happened – starting almost immediately after Heidi’s initial post – is something that this group of friends has come to refer to as a “LadyNerd Tsunami”.

A few people wanted to chip in to the fabric fund, asking for my Paypal. Heidi and I agreed, they’d send to me, and I’d deduct it from the total that Heidi would reimburse.

… except the entire ~$200 fabric bill was completely paid for within 24 hours. … and then, the shipping was covered very shortly after announcing that the fabric was covered. … and then more money was sent to Heidi, completely covering the cost for a huge crinoline, shoes, and earrings. My friend Sarah, of Sarah Elizabeth Artistry loaned me a dressform to use, as I had long ago sold mine. My friend Lauren, of Style in Abundance custom made a gorgeous filigree pendant for the dress, sending it along with a note that made all of us cry. My friend Laura shipped the black satin opera gloves that she had worn to her own prom, as a gift.

Lauren’s pendant

As I’d never shipped a gown before, I called up my friend Felicia at The Chapel of Love in the Mall of America, asking for advice on boxes, packing, etc. She generously offered to box it for me, free of charge – she wouldn’t even take reimbursement for materials. THEN, she was so excited at the whole story of what was happening, she donated a gorgeous sparkly crystal headband for Abby!

All told, Abby had 24 Fairy Godmothers contributing – from as far away as Finland – and most of them were on board before I’d even purchased the fabric!

Shortly before I purchased the fabric, Heidi posted a comment that had me giggling long after the fact:

“OMG, Marie, she just came in and asked if I had sent you the email on colors yet. I said yes. She said, ‘oh, I was just going to say that if she wanted to add a small amount of sequins or something, you know, like just along the edges, just to make it look nice, she could.’ YOU ARE THE ASPERGER’S WHISPERER!! THIS IS THE FIRST SPARKLY THING SHE HAS EVER ALLOWED!!!!” Energized by what was going on, I went and picked up the fabric – blue, green, and black, per Abby’s request. I went home, flipped on Pandora radio, and was pleasantly greeted by 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This”… what a great way to kick off drafting my first gown pattern in the better part of a decade! I had only 4 days available to make the gown, so progress went quickly. Every time I finished a major step, I took a short break to post an update photo to Facebook. On her end, Heidi would post comments and photos about how excited her daughter Abby was.

Abby, on seeing the gown sketch for the first time

A lot of us were living vicariously through what was going on, with several commenting on how they hadn’t gone to prom, etc. We were all able to see a little bit of ourselves in Abby, and there were SO many tears of happiness along the way!

Heidi with the donated crinoline

Heidi kept updating her Facebook profile photo to reflect current updates – a new step in the dress, the photo Lauren had sent of the pendant, the arrival of the crinoline – and had set her “cover” photo to the picture of the fabric / sketch of the dress that I had sent from the fabric store. It was SO much fun to see how excited she was over the whole thing! I kept all of the updates positive, even though I was experiencing some MAJOR drama during the making of this dress. This post will be the first that anyone hears of what was going on, hahah! First off, there was serger drama. Our needle plate is broken, with a snapped off piece being held on by a quickie epoxy job. Any weird noise – click, crunch, whatever – had my heart stop. The replacement piece should have been here in tons of time for this, but during the course of sewing, we found that it had been discontinued. I was holding my breath the entire time, hoping that my Macguyvered machine would hold up.

Then, the timing went off on my sewing machine. Awesome. I was so dreading the possibility of having to post an emergency Facebook status, looking for a loaner machine ASAP. In the end, though, it all held up! While the strength/endurance of my sewing machines were questionable, the same couldn’t be said for my ego. The comments that were flying – literally, HUNDREDS – basically had me convinced that I’m the Tony Stark of fabric. So many wonderful things being said, I spent a good portion of the past week blushing like mad. Much peer pressure to get on Project Runway, even though I really hate sewing, and have NO desire to ever do so for a living – EVER! – again! Oh, and according to one of my former cake clients, I am a “Goddess of Creation”! Sounds like a bit of an upgrade from “Evil Cake Overlord”, eh? Awesome! I had NO idea that my little offer would turn into such a big thing, but I am seriously thankful for all of the kind words!

The Finished Gown

Felicia <3!

ANYWAY. The gown was finished on time, Wednesday before noon. My husband came home from work to take some professional photos, and then I was off to the Mall of America to have the gown boxed. I just want to say, I absolutely adore Felicia Glass-Wilcox of The Chapel of Love. Definitely one of my favorite people in the wedding industry – super friendly, nice, and easy to work with. I loved seeing how excited she was to get involved, and really appreciated her expertise in boxing my gown. I had a fun time! Felicia then looked up shipping rates at UPS and FedEx, and advised me that – in her experience – USPS would be cheaper… so she looked THAT up for me, too. Yep – about half the price. Score! The box was shipped, and dozens of us waited impatiently for the results…

(Click here for Part 2! Also, visit our Facebook Page for an album of progress photos from the whole project, HERE)

Hi! Not sure if you remember me or not, but you may remember this photo of Nathan Fillion holding Twine. I Photoshopped this up for you… oh, forever ago. Truth be told, I kinda forgot about it, till I saw what happened this afternoon. That… kinda sucked. I feel your pain!

You see, you and I? We have a lot in common! Like many of your fans, I discovered you through Beyonce… because no less than a dozen of my friends emailed/tweeted/messaged the link to me, saying that it sounds like something my husband and I would do. They were right! (I should probably blog about our epic passive aggressive toilet paper war sometime…)

Like you, I’m a blogger. (I say, from my blog. Genius, I am!). I have a much smaller following than you, but I feel like we reach the same sort of ridiculously cool people, who can appreciate our weirdness. My readers are AWESOME.

Somehow, I’ve managed to get on a list, and receive some… err, interesting PR pitches, myself. No offers of celebrity photos yet, but I HAVE been in the position to respond to a pitch with “Is that a typo, or is this cookbook ACTUALLY going to teach me how to make whale vomit?” Oh, the pitches…!

Like you, I have an awesome photo of Wil Wheaton -> Wil Wheaton… with a TARDIS cake. Not just any TARDIS cake, but my own TARDIS cake! (I liked the photo so much, I put it in the 2nd edition of Evil Cake Overlord, one of my cookbooks… with his permission, of course!) Crap. He’s wearing a REDDIT shirt. Sorry about that… I swear I’ll make it up to you before this post is finished!. Oh, and there was this time that I thought it would be awesome to make William Shatner a cake, when he came to town. My own fans got right on it, tweeting… someone started up a Facebook page to campaign… and then I got slapped down by a really rude tour PR dude. Man, he needed to get over himself, but hey… I can relate. Anyway, enough about me …

You sound like you are having a pretty crappy week. I can relate (See? KINDRED SOULS, I tell you!)… so let’s cheer each other up. I have a request for you!

I would love a photo of you, holding one of my cakes. I can even make it easy on you – I’d love to MAKE you a cake*, when you come to visit Minneapolis next week! Forget twine, you could have your very own cake by an honest-to-God OVERLORD** of cake… and the current reigning Czar of Cakes.

I mean really, how many times are you going to get THAT kind of offer in your lifetime?

If you’re up for it, have your people call my people. Or, you know, shoot me an email, or tweet me.

Either way, chin up! You’re headed to TORONTO! I am kinda jealous. Did you know they have the best mustard in the WORLD in Toronto? No? Well, now you do! (I miss it!)

* Just FYI: I don’t even make cake anymore, so I’d be making a huge exception… but hey, I like you!)

** Seriously, it’s my official professional designation, and even get industry mail addressed to me as such! Muahahaha!

Oh crap, that’s right – Pi day is less than a week away! (March 14 – 3/14!)

Luckily, I have a few extra days to prepare. With Pi Day falling on a Wednesday this year, we’ll actually be celebrating “St Pi-trick’s Day” next Saturday. It’ll be an interesting mix of math and Irish decor, pies, Pi-napple punch, and … corned beef.

Given the INSANE response to our Pi backsplash – Thinkgeek tweeting and blogging it (2x on the blog), thousands of “likes” / hundreds of shares on Facebook, “Make” Magazine and PC World blogging about it, just shy of 10,000 hits our blog tutorial for it in ONE MONTH… I’m thinking it’s about time for Pi Day to become more of a “thing”. Let’s make it more mainstream!

Pi day is a lot of fun, and there are SO many different things you can do to celebrate. No worries, the following suggestions are all far less expensive and labor-intensive than the pi backsplash!:

First off, to not re-invent the wheel, check out our 2010 Pi Day Primer for a good foundation. Pi-kus, toasts to Einstein, Pie Potluck, trivia… there’s a LOT there! While tornado repairs have left us with neither the time nor space to do it this year, consider the traditional “pi-nata” – we posted a Pi Day Pinata Tutorial

I really don’t have much to add to that entry – I think it was pretty comprehensive! So… let’s talk food.

For Pi Day, pie is an obvious choice… but don’t stop there! Pizza (pi-zza!) is also great, not only for the name, but the fact that it’s round. You just really can’t go wrong with round foods and pi day. Pizza, pies, tarts, cookies… it’s all good. Also, bonus points for incorporating spherical foods – truffles and sauerkraut balls are excellent additions to the menu!

Here are a few links to recipes that would work well for Pi day:

Gluten Free Tourtiere

Perogie Pizza

Pesto Shrimp Pizza

Sauerkraut Balls

Truffles (various!)

Dessert Pizza

Blueberry Amaretto Pie

Southern Comfort Peach Pie

Butter Tarts (Gluten Free version)

Chewy Black Forest Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies

Pecan Pie Cookies

Pistachio Macarons

Peppermint Patties

Hop Flavored Lollipops – Lollihops

So… will you be celebrating Pi Day this year? If so, I’d love to hear about your plans!

Also, be sure to take photos! We’d love to see them!

So, I know it’s not EXACTLY food related… but tiling an awesome back splash is KITCHEN related, and tutorials are *almost* recipes, right? I swear this is actually a food blog…!

Remember back when I debuted the photos of our finished bathroom renovation, with Fibonacci sequence tiled into the main wall, and a few digits of pi tiled behind the toilet? It was a last minute design idea, and it was to be a subtle, small nod to our nerdiness.

Well, one thing led to another… and now we have 159 digits of pi tiled into our kitchen backsplash. If you follow me on Twitter, you’re probably sick of hearing about it by now… but I not only have the final photos, I have a tutorial on how to do it yourself! Now, I know we went sort of nuts with the pi day celebrations last year… but this really takes it to a whole new level. We’re happy to have this in place in time for this year’s party, but… damn. No idea how we’ll top this for Pi day 2013. Or, you know, 2015, when we should really go all out! (3/14/15!)

I guess the one good thing about getting your house destroyed by a tornado is that it forces you to get off your butt, make a bunch of design decisions and actually DO renovations on the house, rather than just talk about “someday, it would be cool if…”.

We still have quite a ways to go, but the house really is looking great. We won’t have cabinet faces and doors for a WHILE – still waiting for the lumber we had milled to be properly dried, so we can build all that. Oh well. I think the fact that the black walnut that destroyed our kitchen is being used to rebuild it is badass enough to be worth the wait! Anyway…

Now, I realize that the odds of anyone else tiling pi into their kitchen is fairly slim… but this tutorial is also good for anyone who wants to put in a new backsplash, but with a personal twist. The photos and specifics here are for pi, but the principles can apply to any design you can think up, with 2″ x 2″ tiles.

For instance..

- Using two favorite colors to create a custom checkerboard design, should you not be happy with the small amount of pre-fab options out there.

- If you look at the tiles as “pixels”, you can do pretty much anything you can come up with that is 9-10 squares tall, by however long you want.

- Tetris!

- Music fans or musicians could make an amazing “equalizer” type design!

I can’t tell you how rewarding it is to look at a finished, completely custom backsplash, and know that it is YOURS… and it wasn’t the difficult! On to the tutorial….

Decide on your design and color scheme. For us, we wanted to tile as many digits of pi as would fit around the areas requiring backsplash. The counters were a green granite, so we wanted the matching green granite 2″ tiles to extend upward from the counter, each vertical bar representing a digit of pi. The void space above each digits bar would be a contrasting color tile – we finally settled on a sand colored travertine tile.

Measure the area of your backsplash, both the total length, and the approximate height. Use this information to calculate how many tiles you will need. Buy em. Try not to have a heart attack at the price.

Cut one of the pieces of tile mesh – usually 6 tiles by 6 tiles, glued to a mesh backer – and use it to measure out where everything will be going. Start at the edge of wall you want your design to begin, make a tck on the wall between each tile. When you come to the end of one row, make a tick at the edge of the final tile, and reposition the strip to allow for the appropriate space in between – 1/8″, in this case.

When you come to corners, figure out how you want the tile to lay, and account for that when making your ticks.

Due to the nature of our design, I numbered each tile space, so I’d know which digits of pi went where. (Not the digits themselves, just the digit position.).

Write those down! For instance, the wall to the left of our stove would be 1-27 digits of pi, the center back wall would be digits 28-47, and so on.

I transferred the digist positions – as well as the actual digits that will be represented – into a table, along with any notes I felt I needed about the locations.

I created another document where I not only listed the digits that would be on each wall, in order – I counted the number of times each digit showed up in that wall area, and created a chart.

For our purposes, our main design was 9 blocks tall. 1 green tile = “1″, two tiles = “2″, and so on. No greens = “0″. Once I inputted the needs for green tiles, I figured out how many beige tiles I would need to complement. If I had five “Ones” in green, I would need five “Eights” in beige, etc.

Using the chart above, I cut and prepared strips of tiles. Be sure to cut the extra mesh from either side of the tiles, as leaving it there can lead to thicker grout lines. (Tiles for the long counter – 3rd large block of pi – are what’s pictured… NOT the “behind the stove” beginning digits mentioned in the above charts!)

Paper off your work area to protect your counter top.

If your walls are smooth (ours were freshly painted, brand new walls!), scuff them up with a sander, so that the tile adhesive will actually stick to it.

Before mixing up your adhesive (or opening your tub of pre-made!), lay out your tools. We used tiles, tile spacers, a level, and paper towels.

Use a 1/4″ notched trowel to apply tile adhesive to your work surface. Apply it to cover your work space top to bottom, but only a few feet at a time, across the horizontal. You’ll be adding your columns one at a time.

Starting at one side of your work area, apply your first “digit” of pi, with it’s complementing strip of lighter tiles above it. Use tile spacers between the two strips – any tiles that are attached to a strip should remain spaced out automatically.

Use a level to check that your strip is perfectly upright, then lay the next column. You can use spacers between your vertical columns – we mostly eyeballed that.

Continue working along your adhesive-prepared workspace, adding more mortar as needed.

Carefully lay your tiles around any outlets that may be present. We removed all face plates before getting started, and loosened the screwed enough to be able to slip tiles behind each tab. We were lucky that we didn’t have to do much in the way of cutting – but a wet tile saw makes quick work of any cuts that need to be done.

Allow backsplash to dry for 24 hours, leaving all tile spacers in place.

Remove all tile spacers. If there are any globs of mortar sticking out anywhere, use a chisel to carefully remove them.

Wash backsplash, allow to dry. If using granite or another natural stone (rather than glass), apply sealer, following manufacturer’s directions. Allow to dry for 24 hours.

Grout the backsplash.

Sit back and enjoy your work, nerd!

Still without an at-all functional kitchen (not so much as a sink hooked up, at this point!), let’s go for something completely different today!

This weekend marked a first for me – attending a baby shower. I tend to meet friends after they’ve finished spawning, and my younger friends tend to be happily childfree. The opportunity to attend such a shindig just hasn’t come around.

Not that I really minded, btw. From what I’ve heard (Games involving melting chocolate bars into diapers and “identifying the poopie”, for instance)… they sound sort of horrible. I’m not a huge fan of anklebiters in general (though I’m sure yours are awesome, dear readers!), and I’m not the type whose uterus shudders with delight at the idea of teeny tiny socks.

Yep, sometimes I just fail at being a girl! Haha!

Jenni, however, is awesome. Awesome person (I mean, she’s a librarian… I’ve yet to meet a less-than-awesome one of THOSE), total geek… one of the very first friends I met through Convergence. Love her!

Still, I was super stressed out about attending. After looking up her registry, the idea of shopping at “Babies R Us” terrified me. I don’t know what ANY of that stuff was for, but it mostly looked… tremendously unsettling. LOL. Yep, I was gonna have to wing it, and make something. Besides, making something meant no risk of duplication of gifts, right?

In honor of the geeked-out beginning of our friendship (and the guest list for the shower!), I decided that I would crochet some baby hats based on “random fandom” – 4 hats in total. This one – for a Super Mario Brothers inspired baby beret – was my favorite of the lot. I’d like to show you how I made it! Now, a bit of a caveat: I learned to crochet when I was a little kid, and I crochet like I cook. I decide what I want to make, pick up a needle, and just… do it. I’m not a recipe/pattern kind of person. I don’t know what “guage” I used, I just did it.

Not only do I not USE crochet patterns/instructions, I’ve never written them out for anyone else, in my LIFE. First time, babay! SO… I hope this set of instructions is ok. I’m sure it doesn’t really follow proper formating or whatever, but hopefully it’s easy enough to understand for those who already crochet! It’s about the right size for a newborn, but feel free to play with needle size / number of stitches or rows to make it bigger or smaller as needed.

Also, if you DO make one of these… be sure to send me a picture! Either email or post to the Celebration Generation Facebook page – I’d love to see it!

By the way – True to form, Jenni’s shower was nothing like the nightmare events I’d heard of, and everyone had a good time. It was really touching to be there as the gender of her baby was revealed, by cutting into a specially made cake. When she found out – along with the rest of us – that she was having a girl, Jenni cried tears of happiness!

“1 Up” Mushroom Baby Beret – Free crochet pattern

Emerald green colored yarn
Light tan colored yarn
White colored yarn
Black yarn

Size G crochet hook

Hat

This works its way down from the top of the hat

Using green yarn, chain 2.

Round 1: 15 Double Crochet (dc) into the second chain from the hook. Join final dc with a slip stitch (sl st) into the top of the first dc.

Round 2: Chain (ch) 2, 2 dc in the next stitch, 1 dc in the following. Work around the entire round that way – 2 dc in one stitch, 1 dc in the next. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Round 3:. Ch 2, 2 dc in next stitch, 1 dc in each of the next 2 stitches. Work around the entire round that way – 2 dc in one stitch, 1 dc in each of the next two. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Round 4: Ch 2, 2 dc in next stitch, 1 dc in each of the next 3 stitches. Work around the entire round that way – 2 dc in one stitch, 1 dc in each of the next three. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Round 5 and 6: Repeat Round 4

Round 7: Ch 2, 1 dc in each of the next two stitches. Use a decrease dc stitch for the next two stitches (to make one stitch of the two). Work around the entire round that way – 1 dc in each of three stitches, then join the next two stitches into a single, decreased dc. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Round 8: Repeat Round 7

Round 9: Ch 2, 1 dc in each stitch the whole way around. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Round 10: Switch to light tan colored yarn. Ch 2, 1 dc in each stitch the whole way around. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Rounds 11 and 12: Repeat round 10, continuing to use the tan colored yarn.

Round 13: 1 Single crochet (sc) in each stitle the whole way around. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st, tie off.

Use a yarn needle to finish off all hanging ends of yarn.

Eyes (Make 2):

Using black yarn, ch 6. Work 1 sc into each chain. Tie off.

Large dots (Make 3):

Using white yarn, chain 2.

Round 1: 15 Double Crochet (dc) into the second chain from the hook. Join final dc with a slip stitch (sl st) into the top of the first dc.

Round 2: Chain (ch) 2, 2 dc in the next stitch, 1 dc in the following. Work around the entire round that way – 2 dc in one stitch, 1 dc in the next. Join final stitch to top of beginning chain with a sl st.

Small Dots (Make 3)

Using white yarn, chain 2.

Round 1: 15 Double Crochet (dc) into the second chain from the hook. Join final dc with a slip stitch (sl st) into the top of the first dc.

Use a yarn needle and matching yarn to sew each dot and “eye” into place.

How did I do for writing down a crochet “pattern”?

I had fully intended to write this blog yesterday, but I was a complete zombie. I’m *mostly* recovered now, so let’s see if I can do this thing justice!

Back in the beginning of March, I received an email from one of my tweeps. She excitedly told me that w00tstock was coming to Minneapolis, and “I don’t know about you, but I think w00tstock would be better with cake!”

Well, I had to agree, so I got a hold of Paul and Storm, the geeked out musical comedians in charge. Offered up some cake, they were interested, mentioned I’d have my husband – a photographer along with me to take pics… they asked if he’d be willing to be the official backstage photographer (Willing? Hell YES he was!)…
and we were on track for an adventure in epic geekery!

The plan was to make a surprise “Tardis” cake for Adam Savage & Wil Wheaton. Hubby would photograph the goings on, while I doled out samples of our caffeinated brownies and blondies (from our line of baking mixes. Cake would be served, geeking out would occur, and it would be an awesome night.

Monday was the day, finally! It had been difficult to not blab the details of the cake design itself, while I had been free to tweet that I would be DOING a cake. Everyone wants to know what it’ll look like, especially when it’s a.) Geeky, and b.) Intended for geek royalty! This blog entry is gonna get long and image-heavy, so click through to read & gawk!

The day got off to a bad start. Due to some dropped communication between the various parties involved, we ended up cakeblocked at the last minute. The Guthrie decided – between the time we left, and arriving at the loading dock – that 1″ samples would be too much competition for their concession stand, and we were left with 600 samples we could not serve. Damn!! Woulda been good to be told that – we briefly considered a tweetup sampling out of the back of our truck. LOL.

We loaded up the dolly with everything else, and set about to get the cake discreetly delivered to a room where Wil Wheaton wouldn’t see it. Of course, he was one of the very first people we came across. While a few people tried to guide him away from where we were, there were a few tense moments as we tried out best to stand in front of / conceal out delivery. My minion of the evening – Rachel – and I set about setting up our merch booth, while my husband went on the photography gig he’d been looking forward to awhile.

At that point, the rest of the evening kinda became a flurry of activity, so let me just point-form our highlights. This probably won’t be accurately chronological in any way!

- It was great to meet SO many of my tweeps! Thank you all for coming by the booth and identifying yourself as such! Kaji, TheGreenAvenger, PerpetualMind, NorthernGypsy, off the top of my head… hi!

- At one point, Wil Wheaton warned my husband (as the photographer, not knowing he was in any way related to me or the brownies backstage) that the brownies may taste really good, but watch out – they’re REALLY caffeinated!. Wil later told the story to me as well, saying that a little bit of one had him feeling like.. damn, I can’t remember how he put it. Like a hyper chipmunk or something. He was talking very fast

- Minutes before the big unveiling, I was told in no uncertain terms that Wil would “lose his shit when he sees the cake”. He did. It was great! Here are some pics:

(What happens when you present a geeky cake to a room full of geeks!)

For more pics of the cake & backstage presentation, check out our Facebook page – fan us while you’re at it!

- I took a really crappy cell phone pic of Wil on the floor, photographing his cake. Cake Wrecks retweeted it… Wil tweeted pics.. both (with a total combined follower number of 2,889,949!) including my username… and my twitter feed went apeshit. Here’s a more pro version of the Pic I tweeted:

(Being married to a photographer is handy!)

The cake, if you don’t recognize it, it the TARDIS from Dr Who. What made this cake really cool – and a stand out for my husband – is that the light on top was not only functional, it blinked. That meant a trip to Ax-Man – his favorite store in the world – as well as ripping apart a few different lights/components, and making custom electronics for it. He was in his glory We let Wil keep the blinky light!

Another interesting thing about the cake was the inside joke we piped on the back. If you follow either Wil Wheaton or Paul and Storm, you know what that’s all about I’m not describing here, as I don’t want to attract certain types of spam comment bots!

- Being approached by a friend of mine who’d seen Twitter just blow up over the cake – and all of the high-profilers tweeting about it – and the first thing she said to me was a rough quote of a local “bigshot” (in her mind) planner who told a friend of mine that I have no idea what I’m doing, that by catering to geeks and doing stuff like having Klingons as escorts at an Awards Night (see Here and Here, and Here), I was – quote – “throwing my business down the toilet”. Ah, sweet, sweet vindication. I’d actually forgotten all about that until the friend brought it up. I was very smug after that reminder, LOL.

- While he wouldn’t OFFICIALLY “bust the myth” of fondant tasting bad, (oh, how I was hoping for video of that!)… I was told that Adam Savage liked my fondant, and was totally unaware that fondant has a bad rep.

- We met two of the guys from Thaco! While hubby was photographing Wil with his cake, I went over to inform him that I noticed Bill Stiteler in the corner. You should have seen his grin! He loved that movie.. and had the “claim to fame” of being Thaco’s first review on Amazon. As Bill pointed out, that’s their ONLY review… so if you’ve seen it and loved it, go review it already! (That’s a totally unsolicited request/recommendation, by the way!)

Actually, I should be more accurate. Hubby met one of the Thaco guys, I met two – Duck came up to my booth. I have NO idea if he wanted info or anything, cause I immediately asked “Are you the guy in Thaco?”, and when he confirmed, I may have sort of screeched excitedly about my husband being a big fan, and asked for a photo with which I’d torment him. He graciously allowed it Hubby WAS jealous, just as I called it.

- Hubby had a GREAT time photographing the whole thing. His highlights included getting shoved on stage a few times to take pics, looking out on the audience and seeing a bunch of people he KNEW. That had to be pretty cool… we really did end up knowing a TON of people in attendance, too!

- You see this couple? They got engaged at W00tstock! On stage. I didn’t get to see it personally (was at my booth!), but I hear it was a geeked out moment of beauty! They later told me, at my booth, that my cakes were one of the first things they thought about after getting engaged. What a compliment! It was also cool for my husband, who was “shoved out on stage” to capture the moment. I think it’s the first engagement moment he’s been a part of, aside from his own!

- Speaking of couples getting married, guess who stopped by my booth? Check this out:

That’s a crappy cell phone pic I took of one of my favorite couples ever! They were actually anonymously “famous” that night, and have been for awhile – they’re Cory and Tori, the couple who ordered the Super Mario Brothers wedding cake for their wedding a year and a half ago! You know, the one on the front page of my site, and on most of my advertising… the one that something like 90% of the attendees at W00tstock geeked out over? Them! Awesome to see them again – and doubly awesome that he was wearing a Super Mario Bros shirt for the pic!

- We got a hell of a shoutout on stage from Paul and Storm. I’m used to very dry “we’d like to thank our sponsors” kinda mentions… this was nothing like that. I knew they were excited about the cake and enjoyed it, I didn’t expect it would come through SO much on stage. I was very honored.. and luckily, quick enough to capture most of it on video:

I CANNOT tell you how electrifying an experience it was when they crowd went SO nuts over the pics of the cake. I have goosebumps just typing about it. Thank you SO much, all of you. You made my night!!

- On the subject of unexpected ego boosts, holy crap – I read the comments on the cake pic Wil tweeted. Awesome, check it out!

- Being surrounded by not only almost every geek and nerd we know – which is ALWAYS a good time, we were surrounded by geek royalty, which was really cool. Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, Paul and Storm, as mentioned.. but also several “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ guys there: Trace Beaulieu, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy… authors John Scalzi, and James Kakalios – who I’m told COMPLETELY brought the house down with his Physics talk. (Twitter sure went nuts!), and more!

- I got to meet Neil Gaiman! I had gone back to the green room to look for my husband, poked my head in to ask for him.. where Neil was the one to answer. Neil thought that he knew where he was, and very kindly led me back. Very gentlemanly… and he actually contributed to my most surreal moment of the night. He stopped, turned around and extended a hand, and said “I’m Neil Gaiman”. Like I had NO idea who he was! Kinda caught me off guard.

I’ve met and/or worked with many celebrities over the years, and I’m pretty sure he’s the first to ever introduce himself. Many/most just expect it’s a given that I know who they are, even when that’s NOT the case – sports stars are particularly guilty of this. (Ironically, I’m usually quite guilty of not having a clue WHO they are!). I follow him on Twitter, as a result of SO many of my friends talking him up.. even though I’ve not had time to read fiction in.. wow, maybe a decade? He was just such a down to earth and nice guy! I think I’m gonna have to seek out one of his books and give it a go, as soon as I have a minute to breathe! (so probably end of July, by the current looks of things!). Any recommendations?

- As part of the show, artist Len Peralta (of the Geek A Week project) was on stage, seated at his computer… designing the official W00tstock poster. They set it up so that the audience could tweet suggestions as to what all should be on this poster… and yes, my Tardis cake ended up on it! How sweet is THAT? Thanks Len! You rock.

Wow, this entry is long and crazy. Trying to think if there was anything else?

Oh! At the end of the night, when the Geek Royalty was lined up at a table across the room, signing autographs.. 4 or 5 people came by my booth with their autographed poster.. and asked for MINE! Signed em and did a quick “Tardis cake” sketch. Fun!

All in all, a crazy awesome night!! What were your favorite memories of #w00tstock ?

Anyway. Lately, the subject of nerd vs geek has come up often. Often, it’s because I get called a geek, and have to gently correct people – I’m not, in fact, a geek. I’m an out-and-proud nerd! That of course raises the question: “What’s the difference?”. Well, there’s a huge difference. Actually, there’s also a huge difference in what is considered the difference, but I’d like to lay out my views on the whole issue.

Nerds are “Literal”. Geeks are more “Fantastical”. I think that sums it up nicely. To elaborate, however..

A nerd is someone who is into information, learning. Curious about the world around them, in a literal sense. We don’t really care too much about Sci Fi (although it can be a fun diversion to watch a movie or whatever), and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. More on this later.

A geek is someone who is into.. well, geekdom. Media. Gadgets. They’re the ones who REALLY get into certain movies / comic books / etc. Someone that can quote entire series, recall a certain issue of a comic, whatever.

Is one “better” than the other? No. Did one “spawn” the other? While nerds were definitely here a long time before geeks… no. I think they’re completely different species! Actually, that’s not completely accurate, as I do believe that there are nerd-geek crossovers. Maybe we’ll refer to these people as “Mules”. Well.. except that nerd-geek crossovers aren’t necessarily infertile. Hrm. Maybe a bad label. Whatever, I digress.

Where was I? Oh yes. Further elaboration!

Nerds have been around *forever*. We get to claim people like Pasteur, Van Leeuwenhoek (my two personal favs), Edison, Galileo, etc. Every old school, bad ass scientist? They’re ours.

Geeks are a fairly new group. I’m guessing they really got their start with the original Star Trek series, but I could be wrong. You see, my status as a nerd kinda inhibits my knowledge of the matter!

When it comes to media, nerds and geeks really verge off in different directions.

Geeks are the ones that are into sci fi and fantasy. As I mentioned earlier, “The Fantastical”. They’re the ones into Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars, and/or anything Joss Whedon’s done, etc. They’re into video and computer games, RPG, and the more fantastical board games.

Nerds… we’ll watch movies, of course. We’ll even be entertained by some of the above mentioned ones. We’re just not THAT into it. We may be more into things like CSI (though we do tend to cringe and mock the horrible “science” involved!), or more realistic shows. We’re far more likely to be reading, and when we read, it’s usually non fiction. When we play board games, we definitely prefer general trivia, or straight-out strategy or thinking games. (Risk). Spare us the trolls and wizards, please!

Growing up, I preferred volunteering in my grade school’s library at lunches and recess, to doing anything social. Even though the books were kinda stupid and way below my reading level at the time (sorry!), I loved it. I loved sorting, I loved the Dewey decimal system.. loved it. Spent my summers at the big public library, reading microbiology textbooks. I knew more about microbiology at age 12 than most university students. Loved it!

As an adult, I’m a learning/linguistics/logistics/culture/science/experimentation nerd. You know why I have so many cake flavors? Because NOT developing new ones is stagnant and boring! I’m always having ideas that need to be tested. This is a huge reason for my upcoming cookbooks – gives me a good outlet for learning, experimenting. It’s cathartic. I need it.

I don’t read fiction at all anymore – mostly because I don’t have time. When I DO read fiction, it’s either a mystery or biology/microbiology related thriller (Love Robin Cook!). I don’t do fairies, spells, trolls, aliens, etc. If I play a computer game, it’s Mah Jongg (although I need to stay away from it, I can easily lose entire days to it. Is there a 12 step program for Mah Jongg?)

Anyway.

The thing is, it’s become “cool” to be a geek – while geek used to be a derogatory term, the geeks have really managed to reclaim it. Kudos to them! There are geeks *everywhere* – Almost everyone I know / consider to be a friend is a geek! My husband is a geek with nerd tendencies, even. I love hanging with geeks, because not only are they fun – I’m always learning something new from them! Where nerds can be more generic, a lot of geeks are almost like .. specialists. If I need a movie recommendation, I know which geek friend to contact (Melissa!). When I needed any info on anything Star Trek related (for our Klingon Cake adventures) – wow, did I EVER have a stable of knowledge to turn to! Music, a new game, whatever. Very specialized pockets of knowledge! Awesome.

“Nerd” is still seen as a derogatory thing, and I think a lot of people tend to be closeted nerds. You just don’t see the proud declarations of nerditude that you do from the geek crowd. (How many people on Twitter declare themselves a nerd on their profile? Not nearly as many as geeks!). Are we more rare? Is it a shame issue? Is it a not-caring thing? Is it because the terms are popularly used as interchangeable for some bizarre reason? I have no idea.

I just know that there is a big difference.. and I’m squarely on the “nerd” side of the fence! Nerd Pride!

Bah.

Well, early this morning I was filling out another such questionnaire, and was pleasantly surprised by a question I’d never been asked before: “Is there a book, person, or story that comes to mind which has had a strong impact on your career?”. Wow! I like it!

I’m sure that there are “proper” answers to that question… something by Preston Bailey, or Martha Stewart… maybe a business book… who knows. My answer came to mind immediately, and immersed me in a sense of not only nostalgia, but confidence and happiness. It definitely inspired me to write a blog entry, so indulge me while I share!

My answer is a fairly obscure children’s book from the 70′s, from the Value Tales series: The Value of Believing in Yourself : The Story of Louis Pasteur. I owned it when I was 4, maybe 5 years old. Weird as it may be, silly as it may sound.. it really has had more impact on any book I’ve read since! I can still visualize the illustrations in my mind!

It was the story of how Pasteur, one of the fathers of microbiology, developed germ theory and created the vaccine for rabies. I’ll spare you all of the nerdy details. I knew from the age of about 5 that I wanted to be a scientist, that I wanted to work with diseases, and that I really looked up to Louis Pasteur as a role model.

Yes. While other kids would name athletes, musicians, or movie stars as role models.. I looked up to Louis Pasteur. I was a weird kid, but I maintain to this DAY that he is a much better role model! (I’m looking at you, Tiger Woods!). Anyway, I digress. The book was inspiring on many levels.

For one, it formed the basis for my early love of science, and experimentation. While I did end up very off track from my original life goal of a career in virology, I’ve never stopped enjoying experimentation. I think that comes out in my flavors list nicely, in some of the design techniques I’ve developed, as well as in my upcoming cook books. While none of that is ever going to get my name immortalized in any science textbook… that book was foundational to my lifelong love of learning.

On another level, I really do think that the book accomplished it’s main goal – I do think I learned “The value of believing in myself” from it. In the early days of microbiology, a lot of germ theory seemed VERY off the wall.. and a lot of people thought that Pasteur was kind of off his rocker. He had ideas that could be regarded as weird or crazy, and believed in himself enough to develop them, see them through. We now vaccines, a much better knowledge of immunology, and pasteurization, all of a result of his “crazy” ideas.

While my “crazy” ideas are never as history-impacting as his were, I do believe that the book had formative impact on my desire and ability to not only think outside the box, but to just go for it, and really see crazy ideas through to fruition. I think THAT has really gone a long way to making work – and life – fun!

“The Value of Believing in Yourself” was from a series of about 40 formulaic books. Each told a fictionalized story of a historical figure, illustrating a certain “Value”. There were titles for values such as Adventure (Sacagawea), Leadership (Winston Churchill), Determination (Helen Keller), and so forth. “Believing in Yourself” was the only one I owned, unfortunately

The books have sadly been out of print for a long time, and it’s really unfortunate. If the rest of the books were anywhere near as good as the one I owned, I truly don’t think that any household with kids should be without the entire set. A bold statement to be sure… but damn, being impacted by that book almost 3 decades later? To have it be the first thing to come to mind when asked that question? Even after giving hard thought to whether or not there were any other books that have affected me so, I draw a complete blank. THAT is a powerful book!