Pirates and Pool Cake

June 2nd, Saturday-What is it about the third movie in a trilogy? Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End was about as long as it's title and made less sense. It did have some lovely special effects, what with people/sea creatures moving about and crabs carrying a ship. After watching for a bit, I decided not to try and make sense of the story as it was and just go with the flow. Keith Richards was just the right casting for Capt. Jack Sparrow's father and the thing with the shrunken head was funny. But it's a tiny part of the movie. I expected more from all the talk about Calypso and the result was a disappointing. This is what they're all afraid of? A 50 ft tall woman? They are so not liberated. I also didn't understand why Elizabeth got to be the King of the Pirates, but I decided to ignore that and just watch how sad it was to see Gov. Swann go and to see Norrington have a lovely redemptive ending. Boy, the men do drop like flies around Elizabeth. Really. Maybe her pirate name should be The Black Widow. There's a beautiful scene near the end where Lord Beckett, the villain of the piece, walks down the steps of his ship while it's being blown apart around him. His inability to command when he really needed to shows on his face and is a huge and somewhat sympathy-evoking. Great for a villain. And the monkey! The monkey was great. Kudos to the animal handler there because that monkey moved the plot along faster than anyone else in the movie. And I loved that Barbossa was back. He really was a great villain. Poor Davy Jones doesn't get much screen time as compared to last time, but he does have a sad little scene where you finally see him without the tentacles. This move has such a wealth of talented British actors, it makes you wonder why aren't more American's being cast. I think Johnny Depp, by way of France, and Lee Arenberg are the only ones I can think of at the moment. The love story wasn't much and frankly I didn't care, I'm much more interested in what Captain Jack is up to, which isn't much until halfway through the movie. He has a grand time ordering himself about, after which I discovered, one Captain Jack is more than enough. They left room for another installment so maybe we'll be back in the water in a few years.

June 5th, Tuesday-Here it is! This is the cake that I stayed up til 3a to make. I yelled at Daryl to frost correctly. And then I went to sleep for a few hours and now look at it. The balls and cue are made from marzipan and the interior frosting is chocolate buttercream. This is my first time working with fondant, but I was pleased to see how well it took to being colored. The bumpers and the holes were the hardest things to manage, but luckily Daryl was around to help me. Even through all the yelling. He really is very nice to not be mad at me. Yay, cake!

And here is the team photo.