Friends, farewells and Devil Ducks

A wonderful WyzWmn commented on my most recent cake adventure and I was reminded of two adventures that she inspired long before I started chronicling my forays into cake decorating. The first one made a brief appearance on a post about piping gel transfers, but it rates a second visit as thank you to a very special woman.

Back in the day, she was my team lead at a call centre for a large American cell phone company. Our team had recently lost a contest due to a weird twist in the rules. We were all feeling pretty frustrated by the situation because the whole team had worked so hard and felt our defeat was unfair. Being the WyzWmn that she is, our team lead decided we needed to celebrate what we had accomplished even though we didn't win the prize. She bought us pizza and I made a cake featuring our team's mascot that another member had drawn. We'd all still tell you the same thing the cake said that day ... Devil Ducks Rock!

Much to our sadness, eventually our fearless leader announced that she would be leaving for a new job. We debated a cake with a picture of the Pickle (her green three-wheeled motorcycle) but back then I couldn't find anyone local to print on edible paper. So, instead, we collected a list of our favourite WyzWmn sayings, and I wrote them all over the cake.

While the words on that cake might not mean anything special to someone who wasn't a Devil Duck; for us, they are reminders of so many moments that made us laugh in the midst of a crazy job.

The call centre is long since closed and we've all moved on to new places and jobs, but I'm certain I'm not the only one who still has their devil duck sitting where it's a constant reminder of what we learned from a very WyzWmn.

Thanks my friend. I want to be just like you when I grow up.