Coldstone Ice Cream Cake

Summer is on the way.  The appearance of an ice cream cake is usually a harbinger thereof.  We've gone the Carvel and Ben and Jerry's route but this was the first Coldstone Creamery Ice Cream Cake.  The volunteer decided it would be a nice treat given the recent hot weather.  It actually was also the second appearance in less than a month of the red velvet cake!  Instead of being only ice cream, this cake consisted of a two layers of red velvet cake interspersed with strawberry cheesecake ice cream. (Why anyone needs cheesecake mixed in with their ice cream is beyond us.)

But that being said it was good and certainly refreshing. In addition to the cake and ice cream mix, it had some strawberries and was decorated with what were described as chocolate curls. They managed to get some interesting colors into those curls because they don't look very chocolatey.

Providence real estate and Providence traffic were discussed. Apparently judging by a tax bill of over $5000 on a condo assessed for about $289,000, Providence has pretty high property taxes. That's worse than Boston. Add to this a condo fee and you can understand why so many newly built condos are sitting empty here in the Renaissance City with its Venetian-style canals. (The National Trust for Historic Preservation actually wrote that but Venice has nothing to worry about.)

Providence's "Little Dig", also known as the Iway, came up as having caused a real issue of traffic in the downtown.  Ramps onto I-195 and I-95 were eliminated forcing everyone to use the same route to get onto the highways. Where there was modest traffic there is now a routine traffic jam and a two mile trip to the east side can take 40 minutes. Progress!  Our favorite modification is the new light replacing the South Main Street exit from I-195.  There are tandem lights not in synch that are about 30 feet apart.  There is about enough room for three cars to get through one before they have to stop at the next light. Throw in a left turn signal and you're guaranteed that traffic is barely moving around this  "improvement".   Here's to commuting with the train!