Diary of a Day

With the wife out of town this weekend, I'm finding it quite easy to fill up the time.

Last night had a good time for a birthday dinner, for which the kids came along and ate an ungodly amount of garlic rolls and spaghetti.

Today was a different day. Here goes:

8:30: Wake up.
8:31: Trudge downstairs, half-asleep, to make breakfast.
9:10: Begin getting everybody showered and dressed to go to ballet class.
9:40: Realize that every pair of stocking for Sammie's ballet class has run away.
9:41: Scramble to find other clothes for Sammie.
9:42: Leave for Target.
9:44: Arrive.
10:05: Leave Target with stocking after waiting for morons to clear out in front of me
10:12: Arrive for the 10:15 ballet class and get Sammie dressed in ballet clothes juuuuuust in time.
11:15: Make the unilateral decision to go to Krystal. To hell with cooking lunch.
12:30: After corn dogs and burgers, head to Kroger to get materials to cook later tonight. Yes, there is a plan.
1:00: Home. Laundry. Dishes. Let kids chill for a little while.
2:30: Pack up everybody in the car to go downtown for a Tea Party Protest, which I was going to write about and take pictures of to write up.
3:20: Arrive downtown, and see that no streets are closed. Last year, on April 15, 10,000 people were in front of the Capitol. This year, no streets closed, all folks on the sidewalk, less than 400 people. Make the decision to not cover it and not park. Kids are also wondering where the hell everybody is.
4:30: Back in the neighborhood, head to Laurel Park with the kids to get their energies out at the playground instead.
5:30: Walk to the pond to feed geese and ducks.
5:31: Hey, look, a dozen ducks want to nibble from Sammie's hand. Sammie does not like that.
6:00: I still don't feel like cooking a meal, since I'm making a dessert later. Time for pizza.
7:00: Time to start making the cake. We make the frosting, then put on Snow White, then assemble the cake afterwards.

Recipe:

• Combine 2 oz cream cheese and 3 tbsp confectionary sugar with mixer.
• Watch kids laugh as sugar sprays from bowl onto their clothes.
• Decide to mix with a fork.
• Add 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and 1 cup heavy whipping cream.
• Whip and mix.
• Allow kids to use mixer.
• Cower in fear.
• Thank the maker, nothing broke or spilled!
• Place icing in fridge.
• Place bag of popcorn in microwave.
• Pull everyone onto the couch for movie cuddle time.
• After the movie, take poundcake (not made from scratch, I have my limits) and slice horizontally twice to make three layers.
• Bottom layer: spread out 1/4 cup lemon curd, cover with 1/2 cup raspberries.
• Middle layer: slather with 1/4 cup raspberry jam, place down on top of previous layer.
• Middle layer: spread out 1/4 cup lemon curd, cover with 1/2 cup raspberries.
• Top layer: slather with 1/4 cup raspberry jam, place down on top of previous layer.
• Hand spatulas to kids.
• Begin slathering icing on cake.
• Remember that I should have put something down to take care of any drippings that come from a three-year old icing a cake.
• Ah, fuck it. Keep slathering. I'll clean it up later.
• Hey, she has some coordination and isn't dripping very much. Really. The proof is here.
• Alex got bored, though, so he isn't in the picture.
• Put cake in the fridge to chill overnight. It tastes delicious.

Put kids in bed at 10:00.

Hey, this wasn't a very hard day. Granted, I didn't cook any meals, just a dessert, but it wasn't too rough a day.

Nothing is going on until 5 PM tomorrow, when we shall bring said cake to a cooking club. So, hooray, we can sleep late!

G'night.