I am battling the weather with (vegetarian) shepherds pie. Yum!

Oh! Dumb-ass baking question: I've never baked/assembled a layer cake before, but I'm making one tomorrow. You know how round cakes tend to bake up into a dome shape? What's the best way to slice off the dome so the cake is flat enough to frost/stack, without destroying the cake in the process of slicing off the dome?

I should amend that: what's the best way to slice off the dome that doesn't require special tools, because I have none and am not going out to buy a cake dome-slicing tool. So it has to be using normal kitchen tools (knife, etc.).

I'm such a pessimist that I'm just braced for the grand jury decision in Ferguson.

Ugh. You have a point. The course I'm taking on the Civil War and Reconstruction is not helping my outlook on America's deeply entrenched racism. To put it mildly.

Keystone pipeline comes down to one no, by Independent Angus King, who kind of sounds like the kind of cranky pain-in-the-butt I could learn to really like.(Of course, in my head right now, he's totally a cartoon of a New Englander, because I've never really seen him)

What's the best way to slice off the dome so the cake is flat enough to frost/stack,

You don't slice off the dome, you use it for more frosting square footage. And you use frosting to fill in the gap between the layers. Like mortar.

I should amend that: what's the best way to slice off the dome that doesn't require special tools, because I have none and am not going out to buy a cake dome-slicing tool. So it has to be using normal kitchen tools (knife, etc.).

I hear good things about dental floss. I haven't actually tried it, I've just done it like Connie said above - NOTE: for a checkerboard cake, the domes really do screw up your presentation. Next time I try for the checkerboard I will plan on using the dental floss.

I found the weight of the upper layer squished away the dome.

It is even cold here! 58F right now and it is forecast for 54F overnight!! I went to work this morning in shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt. Ooops. Twas chilly when I left.

I've got winter pants on right now...that was fast.

Go, Dillo!

The funniest thing just happened to me: I said something about being a man-hater on Facebook to someone I haven't seen since 8th grade, and he messaged me all embarrassed asking if I'm gay.

I haven't used dental floss on cakes. Lots of other things, but not cakes. Seems like that would be tricky.

Bread knife does the trick. The nice thing about trimming off bits of cake to make it all level and even is you get to eat the trimmings before anyone else gets cake.