News from the Great Beyond: On Cakes and Such

Tonight I'll be over at my brother and sister-in-law's house baking a cake to bring in to work.

I have mentioned my penchant for baking cakes before on this blog - a few months back I had this desire to experiment with boxed cake mixes and alcoholic beverages and such... It worked well and snowballed from there. My most popular creation to date has been the key lime cake I made for my birthday, which used vanilla cake mix (not white cake) and key lime juice, KeKe Beach key lime liqueur, a lemon-pear marmalade between the layers, and a glaze made of white chocolate and key lime juice and key lime liqueur. I've usually made the cakes for a singles event or some such thing, and brought the leftovers in to work. They are a big hit with the HardHatGuys and the electricians especially, and word has spread about them until they are legendary on this job site. I owe the electricians a cake of their own after all the help they've given my on my personal situation, but they'll be happy to share a 3-layer cake with the rest of the crew, I'm sure.

I will admit, I go all-out in making them, except for using boxed cake mix. I always try to find some sort of melty candy to toss into the layers before they are baked, and I replace at least half the water in the cake mix recipe with whatever the liqueur of choice is.

I made one for Hubby-head's office Christmas party on Friday, a devil's food chocolate cake with peppermint schnapps and York peppermint bites baked in, homemade rich chocolate frosting between the layers, and two glazes: a white chocolate and a semi-sweet chocolate one with more peppermint schnapps. And crushed starlight mints on top. It was triumphant. At least two or three of his coworkers told me I should make them special-order for sale, and his boss offered to be a partial investor if I should decide to open my own bakery. (!!) I doubt I'll be opening a bakery any time soon, but it's good to know that I have career options, right?

It's especially good right now, because there is some uncertainty in the construction business, particularly in our little wing of it. You see, a few years back the State of Arizona passed a law changes how governmental bodies are allowed to handle construction projects. The way we've specialized in managing them is slowly becoming less popular, and the way most governmental entities are doing it now, we're not completely set up to handle.

Long story short, when this project is over, there may not be anything new in the pipeline to assign me to work on. At that point I will have 2 options: get laid off, or "temporarily" go back to working clerical duty until there's something else I can do as a Project Engineer. I've been with CM#1 for six years plus at this point, and have had very good reviews. I appreciate the fact that they would consider laying off a newer hire to allow me to keep working at a lower level position instead of being laid off.

Frankly, I think I'd rather be laid off. But it depends on a few things, none of which I know at this point.

First, it depends on how long I'm going to be out here working on this current project. Our contract is supposed to be up in about a month, but the HardHatGuys are running 2 to 4 months behind, depending on what the definition of "complete" is (thank you, Bill Clinton) and who's doing the figuring. BossMan wants us to stay until it's really and truly done and finish up the job we signed up for - and the CityOfWhatever expects us to do that. BossMan's boss, however, is not so keen on eating into our profits if they won't give us a contract extension, and may just pull us off the job. And while I hate my 40-ish mile each way drive with a passion, if we stay until it's final, that puts me within 3 or 4 months of my 7-year anniversary with the company and being fully vested in the profit sharing plan, which will be a very sweet deal indeed.

I would be willing to do whatever for 2 or 3 months for that extra incentive... but keep in mind how absolutely miserable I was before my abrupt promotion this year. I don't think I'd be willing to go back to that misery for more than 3 - maybe 4 - months. If we're pulled off this job in January, I cannot see another 6 months of filing, typing memos, being the receptionist, doing meeting notes, scheduling meetings and being "the admin person".

Second, it also depends on whether we have any good leads at the time that would give me hope that my "temporary" quasi-demotion would be remedied fairly quickly.

Third, it depends on my budget situation when this comes down the pike. Hubby-head and I are trying to get our electricity fixed post haste, and then will be rushing to get the improvements done to our condo - new flooring and paint, and some minor plumbing and handyman type repairs - as quickly as possible so we can sell the place and buy a larger home. Since our home is now worth over $30,000 more than what we owe on it (maybe closer to $40k), we should be able to get out of debt completely and still have a reasonable down payment. If we can get that all done before my job goes away, so much the better.

If the budget won't allow me to take some time off from working full-time, I'll see if I can work part-time somewhere - perhaps I'll follow through with my threat to work at Starbuck's for a while and learn how to make the snazzy coffee drinks, use my employee discount to get a Barista machine and stock up on the syrups and stuff, etc. Or maybe go back into radio, which my degree was in. Perhaps I'll take orders and make some of these cakes for folks after all.

If the budget really won't handle me not working full-time, then I'll have other decisions to make. But for now, it's all in God's hands.