Little Red School Desk

At the beginning of the summer, I went to Desert Industries. I used to hate D.I., but now I've become my mother and I like looking around. Who knows what treasures lurk amongst the junk? This particular day I found a cute, antique school desk very similar to this one (I never got a "before" picture of mine):

It was rusty and dusty and had spider webs under the legs. I loved it! The seat swivels and the desk top opens. Best of all it was only $8.00, and I knew at the very least I could sell it online for way more than that. My plan was to strip the finish and repaint the metal. No, I'd never done anything like that before, but I figured I had the entire summer to figure it out. If not this summer, then the next one or the next; you know how these things go. Fortunately, the very next day my mom and dad came to visit. My dad looked at the desk and asked if he could take it and refinish it for me. Yeah! I was secretly hoping he would want to take it on as a project. He loaded it into his truck and a few months later it came back looking like this:

Beautiful! He took everything apart, refinished the wood, sanded the metal (it was way more rusty than I thought) and repainted. He also did a few other repairs that I hadn't noticed needed to be done. Someday, when various children move out of my house, I will have room for an office, and my future grandbabies will have a place to write and draw. Meanwhile, it looks cute downstairs by the playroom. Thanks Dad!

Hoboken Baby!

We are Carlos Bake Shop fans. Cake Boss has been one of the girls' favorite shows. When they heard we were going to New York, Erin immediately shouted, "We can go to Cake Boss!" Much joyous jumping and screaming then ensued. I tried to remind them that the true purpose of the entire trip was to see the Sacred Grove, but it was lost in the moment.

Here we are in the van driving to Hoboken.

Finally, Carlo's Bake Shop is in sight.
When we got there, we were thrilled to see a relatively short line in front of the bakery. Had we come early enough to avoid a long wait? Did we hit the lucky day? No and no. As we approached the people at the end of the short line to ask if it truly was the end, we were told that the long line we'd noticed across the street, the one we'd been hopefully ignoring, was actually the end of the line. No cutting was possible (not that I or the girls would do that, but Curt and Kevin sure would). The long line was where numbers were given out, and without a number, no entrance to the bakery was possible. At least they were organized and the system was fair to everyone. The people at the head of the line had gotten up early to wait before the bakery opened and ended up waiting about 3 hours anyway. No matter what, you get to wait. Luckily, the line is along a Walgreens store (I'm sure that's increased their business) with an overhang that provided shade. There were also a few enterprising street cart vendors selling lunch.

The three younger girls were thrilled to see Buddy's mom enter Walgreens. They followed her inside and peeked around the corners of the aisles at her. Not wanting to be too stalkerish, they then came outside and waited. When she appeared, they stood there with puppy dog eyes and eager faces while she took pictures with a few people. Then she motioned them over for their own picture. She was happy and upbeat and seemed really nice.

Finally after about 2 hours we were ushered across the street and almost inside the store. We were making progress!

After another 30 minutes our number was called and in we went. Buddy's sister, Lisa, was working the counter and graciously thanking people for coming. She was nice to pose for a picture with the girls.
Once inside the crowded store, you can take as long as you want to choose your items. However, there are no price tags on anything, so we just assumed that it was probably double or triple the prices we'd pay at home. I think we were right. We told the kids that we would buy a cake and get everyone a cannoli and they each could choose one other thing. Everything looked so good that it was hard to decide.

The store has family pictures along the walls and a cute mom and pop feel to it.

Four boxes, all tied with red and white string, and $56 later we were out the door.

Cannolis! We had never tried them and were anxious to see if they were as good they looked. They were so delicious! With a creamy, not too sweet middle, and crunchy slightly cinnamon tasting crust that didn't fall apart when bitten, these were worth the wait in line. We regretted not getting more. We ordered the small ones, but should have gotten the LARGE! Kneaders sells them here in Salt Lake, so we need to go and do a little comparison tasting. My mouth drools just looking at the picture! Oh, Cannoli, we love you.

You can't visit Cake Boss without buying a cake. This oreo cake was good (maybe not 3 hours wait in line good, but still good). We saved it for our Sunday dinner in Palmyra; it was gone about 3 minutes after we cut into it.

Piranhas at the feast.

In spite of the three hour wait, we thought the visit was worth it. We had a good time and treats to eat on our long drive to the Susquehanna River.