These are few of my favorite things...

I always suspected that eventually, some of my hobbies may turn into big-time, professional-type, money-making businesses. Two of these seem to have now done so, except for the "big-time", "professional", and "money-making" parts. I never expected that it would take having children to do this.

The first hobby is juggling. My friend Mark turned me on to it, or maybe I turned him on to it. I can't remember. What I do remember is working at Bob's Big Boy and spending my lunch hour in the walk-in refrigerator with three lemons. After months and months(and lots of bruised lemons) I finally got the hang of basic juggling and started on tricks. (Maybe Mark did catch the bug from me, because I distinctly remember the jealousy I felt (and still feel) when he quickly outclassed me.) I always imagined we'd hit the stage as a comedy juggling duo. Well, there's still time. Maybe after retirement. We can do a senile act. "Mark, what are we doing here in front of all these people with these clubs?" "Hell if I know. Seen my antacid?"

Anyway, I ended up getting a gig as a juggler. Unpaid. At my daughter's school. For the spring fair. And more than juggling, I'll be teaching it. Someone is bringing a boatload of yarn balls for me to use to teach kids how to juggle. Well, it's a start.

Another hobby of mine is decorating cakes, which until recently I thought I could actually make money from. I say recently, because I've just tuned into a cable show on the Food Network called "Ace of Cakes", and whereas I once thought I was getting pretty good, I now realize that in the grand scheme of things, I'm still only fooling around.

Anyway, I'm making a wedding cake. Sounds auspicious, until you hear who it's for. It's for Q and U.

No, that's not the initials of the bride and groom. Those are their names. Q and U.

My son is finishing up kindergarten. They have "Letter People", like Mr. M who has a munchy mouth, and Mrs. T who has big teeth. Well, the last two Letter People they are covering this year are Q and U. And next week, Q and U are getting married. The kindergarten is having a party, and needs people to bring cups and plates and juice and snacks. And cake.

I really don't think the teacher is expecting an actual wedding cake, but hell, why not? It's good practice, and I've never done a tiered cake before. It's a good way to try it. If it works, great, and if it doesn't, not a big deal. I won't have ruined someone's wedding.

Although I'm going to have to work a little bit to find an appropriate cake topper. A matched figurine set of a quail and a unicorn might be hard to come by.