Hobbies, interests, pastimes...

Well if my piping skills don't improve...

I pulled out my practice board this morning...
(It's a board used to practice drawing using chocolate tinted piping gel)

So far it isn't going so well...I'm sooooo rusty. Matcheads and hairs trailing from my straight lines everywhere.

I definitely need loads of practice. My hands shake wayyyy too much.

But that's the good thing about practice...it's practice. No cake to mess up...just a plastic sheet protector to scrape and wipe down and start again.

So is there anything cheaper than piping gel you can use for practice?

Or... What happens to the practice board? Who gets to lick it off?

It isn't expensive to use piping gel. It's just gelatin, kayro syrup and water...then I just mix in some chocolate and it's good to go.
And it's reusable.
I scrape it off and use it again and again.
I'm so shakey...can't seem to hold steady.

Gonna keep after it though.

Maybe you could hire an icer?

Cake decorator sounds good to me Icer is from crossword puzzles supposedly
meaning the same thing... though there is no dictionary definition for it

Not @ dictionary.com, anyways. There is here (<= link )

It's been a subject of discussion.
Eventually I'll have to get out of the saddle and float everywhere to just observe and manage.
I enjoy cooking...but it doesn't mean that I have to do everything.
I have to teach the next generation how to do it. My wife and business partner keep stressing that I need an apprentice who will become me.

They don't grow on trees.
Maybe we will find one Eventually...I hope so.

I'm 44 so don't look at me to learn new delicate manual labor skills. If I did learn them I wouldn't have much longer to use them.

I'm already past the point of playing some video games that require faster reflexes. Fortunately those games usually don't have good stories, so no great loss.

It's not learning a new skill...it's trying to recover the ones I had.
Once upon a time I was the best in my school...
My instructor couldn't help himself bragging on me and disparaging the rest...as if he was the one. (He wasn't exactly gracious or kind in it all either )
At first I didn't believe it. But then I looked at my competitors.

And yeah...I WAS the best...not now. I'm beginning to think Helen Keller can do better than me at the moment. That's why it's so unnerving. Can't get my hands to stop shaking. Wife says it was that hard 3 days we spent getting the oven and stuff. (It was a physically demanding trip)

Gonna keep after it though...I gotta. Too much at stake to not get it right.

Pulled a few muscles, did you? Found a few muscles you didn't know you had until they got sore?

Well it's done though. Maybe take a couple days and just rest a bit.

That's pretty dark humor LOL Nope, did not enter my mind you were alluding to murder

Ad: Icer wanted. Respondents: how many people do you want iced?

So true, I think our reflexes start to fade with age. We probably both grewup on video games. Ever play the first person shooters against other human players online?

Nope. I've always been more for a good story than honing my leet skillz against other players. Horizon: Zero Dawn and Prey were like a breath of fresh air for me. Halo left me cold and uncaring.

I know Prey well. I played the demo(s). It was a cool 'free environment'.

For story and fun I really liked the original Call of Duty (COD), was the WWII campaigns following real history battles, guns equipment.

I went on to play COD4, enjoyed playing the simple team-vs-team against human players online. There's some players that are superfast and accurate shooters. Not being as fast as they just have to try to outsmart them.

Rest is for the righteous dead...and until that time I'm wicked and working.

Got a line on a proofbox...got coffee roasting videos to watch. Got menus to finalize. Scheduling of labor hours to make. Recipes to base out for production schedules. I still need to locate mixers and tables and shelving and a walk in cooler and freezer. I have no clue yet on what to get for the front except some espresso makers, display cases. Undercounter refrigeration and etc.

During the Summer I'm off of work for a couple of months. During that time I fly and work on my R/C Airplanes. One of them has a 6 foot wingspan.

I crashed two of them after spending thousands of hours building them...
I decided that this just isn't the sport for me...but I did enjoy it while doing it...still might like to crash a few more.

If at first you don't succeed... NEVER try Mosquito helicopters!

I almost never crash. Sometimes I mess up a landing, which results in a bent landing gear. Or I might need to repair a cowling. But that is about it for me.