Murphy's Law and Tacky Cakes.

Status: Shoulder is getting better, thanks for the well wishes.

Murphy's Law of the Day: When you don't need something, it's everywhere. As soon as you need it, it's sold out, taken or unavailable.

Yeah, I got bitten in the a** by that law, yesterday. But before I launch into my story, I just came from the book fair at my kids' school. (It opened up at 7:30 and we were there bright and early.) I can't stress enough the awesomeness of school book fairs! This time it was BOGO, and so we got NINE books for under $25. How studly is that? My avid little readers are very happy, and so am I. (Of course one of the books was a SpongeBob Squarepants joke book, but oh well). Thing Two likes his jokes.

So yesterday morning, Hubby texts me and asks if I will pick up a half-sheet cake for one of his colleagues, who is leaving. He needed "Best of Luck" written on it.

So, like a complete Moron, I take my sweet time. I know they have tons of half-sheet cakes everywhere, so why am I worried? I had just gotten home from the dentist, was numb to the gills, and frankly, didn 't feel like going anywhere until it wore off.

So, around 1pm, I fed Thing Four, and we went "Bye-bye" (he LOVES to go bye-bye) and I went to the local supermarket.

Nothing. All they had were these little frozen kids cakes and cupcakes. I was annoyed, but I had a few more places I could check.

Next store: Nothing.

Next store: Already had "Happy Birthday" written on every single cake.

Next store: Only had tacky cakes.

(at this point I was thinking WHAT THE HECK??? These places usually have tons of cakes on a normal day!)

So, FINALLY I arrived at my neighborhood Sendik's (gosh I love that place!). They have a To-Die-For Bakery. I get there, absolutely CERTAIN that they will have a half-sheet cake. A little more money than I want to pay, but they'll deliver.

ZERO. ZILCH. NADA. I start to panic. Sam's Club is so far away, and the baby is getting fussy for a nap. So I finally decide I'm going to get TWO quarter-sheet cakes and call it a day. Besides, I can get more variety that way.

So I start looking for a blank cake. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday. Congratulations Graduate. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday...

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE CAKES HAS WRITING ON IT!!! Then I cheer--one of the cakes at the very back is blank. I pull it out...and wince. It's this white cake with pink frosting decorations with these tacky-flowers with smiley faces on them.

I finally think to hell with it and I take the cake up to the counter, and ask the (very nice) lady if she has any more blank cakes in storage. She goes back to look, and comes out shaking her head. So, being the resourceful person I am, I ask her if she can scrape the "Happy Birthday" off one of the cakes so I will have two of them. She says she absolutely can. She goes to help me pick out another cake, and we find one just as tacky as the flowers, but with butterflies. At this point I'm getting the giggles, at the sheer absurdity of my situation.

I've had it. It will just have to do. The baby is beyond tired at this point, and has begun whimpering, very loudly. So she disappeared behind the counter for a few minutes (I wandered over and bought some sushi for dinner, and the baby and I gawked at the 3000 POUND CHEESE they had at the front of the store, they gave us a sample) and she brought out the cakes, and I thanked her profusely. She even offered a cookie to the baby, who immediately shouted "COOKIE!" and got all excited. Bless her.

DONE. And that night, I told Hubby not ONE WORD about the tacky cakes. He just sort of looked at them for a moment, smiled and thanked me. Smart Hubby. He knows when not to mess with me. :-)

Tomorrow is my birthday. Hubby will be BAKING me a cake. Lemon. My favorite. Mmmmm.