How debit cards work (or don't work)

My debit card is weird.

I accidentally washed it after I left it in my jeans once.  It went into the washer/dryer in perfect condition and came out looking pretty worn.  Oh well, no biggie.  I'll just get a new one, right?

Well, this happened in September.  I tried using my card at Wal*Mart and found out my debit card still worked.  So hey, maybe I don't need to get a new one after all.

About 99% of the time, my card works.  Except at the bank.

I was in Dallas for the State Fair when I tried (for the first time) to use an ATM machine at one of the branches.  It.would.not.work.  I must have made poor J stand there and wait for me for like 10 minutes before I gave up and walked away.  I kept standing there, swiping my card again and again... saying "one more, let me try one more time."  You know how that goes, right?  Guess what, the card finally worked on my very last attempt (my "for real" last attempt).  Whew!

Since then, I never had any problems with my card.  Until I needed to use my bank's ATM again to deposit some checks.  Then it wouldn't work at all.

So after about nearly 3 months of using my washed out card, I finally hauled butt into a branch to get a new one.  Yeah, I know - getting a replacement card online is as easy as 1-2-3, right?  Guess I'm just lazy.

Just thought I would tell the world that my card works funny...

Desserts, Friends - and oh, Christmas Too

Christmas was quiet for me this year.  Quiet is good.  Until I start to get bored.

But you didn't come here to hear about how bored I am, right?  You came here to find out about that pretty little cake I've been raving about this past week on Facebook!

Well - here's how it turned out....

See this adorable puppy?  Just looking at her makes you feel like you wanna squeeze her tight, scratch her ears and bathe in her wet licks, right?  Right!  Well, this adorable little ball of fur managed to ruin my cake. Go ahead and laugh.  There, don't you feel better now?  I know it felt good after I was able to laugh about it.

Thanks to my "lack of thinking ahead" as J would put it, Midnight (aka 12am) had a blast with my cake.  She brought a whole new meaning to "finger lickin' good"  After I had put the initial frosting on, I left the cake on the counter a bit too close to the edge and went upstairs to take a shower.

J came home while I was getting ready and casually asked me if my cake was done.  I was a bit preoccupied so I told him "yeah, sure, the frosting's done but I need to add something else on it."  He gave me a weird look so that got me thinking that he was the weird one.  Um yeah, the frosting's on, can't you see that?

I came downstairs, took one look at my cake and well - internally, I lost it.  12am had licked the frosting off half the cake!

As a result, I had to cut my cake in half and brought the good half to a friend's house.

At least we all got a laugh out of it....

I tried to salvage the cake the best I could and tried (and pitifully, might I add) to add trees on it like I saw in the picture.  I gave up, gave the frosting to J and told him "have fun with it."  He went ahead and randomly dropped green frosting on top of my cake.

Final outcome:  The cake looked funny, but at least I got the ornament part right.  And the cake was still delicious.  The homemade buttercream frosting was the best part.