I’m dying from elbows in my head

Today has been such a beautiful, lovely day.

I got up early. Well, early for a Sunday. Straight away, I started putting the lamingtons together. I had left the square of plain cake sit out overnight so it was nice and firm. Sliced it in quarters, and the sliced each quarter so that I could turn it into a sandwich-type thing with some strawberry jam in the middle (next time – raspberry!) After all that was done, I demanded Jake come and help me. I made a chocolate icing type thing while Jake pulsed the coconut in the food processor so it was smaller and better for a coating. And then we formed a little assembly line, with me coating each finger of cake in the chocolate while Jake covers a previously-chocolated piece in the coconut. It was fun, and messy, and just nice to not have to do myself. However, because I hadn’t consumed anything yet, the smell and just the thought of these lamingtons was making me feel so sick.

It was SO VERY COLD inside today. By about quarter to 1 I was desperate for some sun, so Jake and I went out and sat at one of the tables in the backyard. So lovely in the sun, nice and warm. There was a cold breeze, but the sun made up for that. Matt and Lisa showed up at about 1, and we all just sat outside until we left for Kristen’s apartment 2-3 hours later. Lovely and warm, good company… even if that was all we did today, that would have been a perfectly lovely day. I almost fell asleep in the sunshine, but thankfully I wasn’t the only one. Ah, sun. At some point we did go to the grocery store right next door and wander each aisle slowly. The same thing we did when Mum was here. For some reason, people like to explore that store. It is cute and has interesting things… like Darrell Lea licorice. Here. Right next door to where an Australian lives. So very coincidental and delicious.

Eventually we went over to Kristen’s apartment. Big family dinner gathering. Also so very nice. I supplied dessert, clearly. Next time I make lammies I will make some without coconut – I knew Lisa didn’t like it but now I also know that Kristen’s boyfriend Matt doesn’t like it too. But to balance that out, Nick and Kristen’s dad Matt love it. I need to remember these things for future reference.

So there was baked ziti and chicken and salad. I don’t know if it was as fantastic as I thought, but man it was amazing food. It was the first thing I had eaten that day though, so I could have just been in the "omg bowl of peanuts?! YUM! I’m gonna eat a handful!" stage of hunger where everything is delicious. Because the ziti had ricotta, which is one of my most hated ingredients and I can usualy pick it out no matter how hidden. But I didn’t notice it. So I think I was just that hungry. But that was a good thing, because it meant I ate lots and I know I enjoy when people eat when I make so I’m sure it made Stacy happy that everyone was eating the yummy ziti she made.

Much laughter around the family table, and somehow just about every kid revealed a story of something that they had been keeping from Lisa. Which all started from Nick and Jake’s story of the time they were in Pennsylvania and the car broke down and then their Dad had no money and had to go to the ATM so he left the boys as collateral at the mechanics. For the rest of the night, and probably for much longer, when something bad came up the response was "hey, at least I didn’t leave my kids as collateral!" …I couldn’t really contribute to anything, but I do enjoy listening and laughing at stuff.

Now we are home, Jake is watching the Bears game and I am listening to music because I have had Christina Aguilera’s "dirty" in my head ever since I woke up and it has been driving me nuts. I haven’t had a chance to listen to music to get it out of my head until now. Throwing elbows… so repetitive after an hour. Many hours? Oh, yargh.

Yesterday was a day. As well as finding out that my darling kitty died, we also heard that Jake’s uncle (who I never got the chance to meet) died in a car accident. So that is sucky.

When we were putting out groceries in the car yesterday, I noticed someone standing behind us, whistling along to the clock tower’s tune. This mysterious man came over to us and started talking about how he was a windshield repair man and he was waiting for someone in a Jeep who had called him over to this parking lot and did we have a chip or crack in our windshield that we needed fixed, it will only take 5 minutes? It seemed suspicious, but I am naturally paranoid, but I said yes because we did have a chip that I had noticed a few weeks ago and had been meaning to get someone to fix it at some point. He started fixing it while I was on the phone to my car insurance company to see if I have coverage and if they will work with the company this guy (I should call him Ralph, as that is his name) works for. Turns out I’m not actually covered for such work, but we didn’t find out until we had been home for a half hour. Which means we got the windshield fixed for free. Which makes me feel bad, because Ralph was a lovely friendly guy, happy to help us even when he didn’t know if he was going to get paid or not. But we did tell him – he is now our glass guy for life. And I would totally recommend him to anyone in the area that needed car-glass fixing. The entire time he was working, Jake and I were looking at each other in disbelief and laughing. It is so great when the universe works out like that.

Oh, if you can’t tell, that last picture if of pizza dough. I made an awesome pizza for dinner. I LOVE being able to buy pizza dough from the store. It’s so convenient, and massively better than getting a premade base because I like thick-ish crust. Mmm… pizza.