Sunday, March 28, 2010

Sunny Sunday

Current mental soundtrack: Star Trek theme (kids were watching one of the movies earlier tonight)

Today's accomplishments:
  • Laundry: First six loads washed, dried, and folded. Last load in the dryer right now.
  • Garden: Didn't do much today, but did some weeding and picked up several buckets of yard waste.
  • Baking: B saw our four overripe bananas and requested banana bread, so 1.5 loaves are now sitting on the counter (they don't last long around here)
  • Treats: Matzo brittle made for S&P rehearsal tomorrow night. It was a successful experiment--I saw the recipe in the newspaper earlier this week and thought it sounded interesting. Four thumbs up from the family. Still need to pick up some hummus, as our Safeway was sold out today. 
  • March Madness:  After seven years of entering a friend's pool, I actually won this year! Yes, I know the tournament isn't over yet, but our friend has calculated that no one else has enough potential points left to catch me. Woohoo!
Happy Sunday!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Growing Teenager

Current mental soundtrack: "The Brain is Wider Than the Sky" from An Emily Dickinson Mosaic, by Daniel Pinkham

Took M to Tarzhay this afternoon for a new wardrobe, since he's outgrown almost everything he owns. The final tally for the afternoon: four men's T-shirts, one nice shirt, two pairs of shorts, a Personal Pan Pizza, and a box of cookies. He consumed the pizza and several of the cookies on the way home, and declared he was still hungry.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Spring is Here

A nice, relaxing weekend, with nothing on the calendar for next weekend, either. Yesterday we planted some new flowers (to replace the ones that didn't make it through the winter), and I did a bunch of badly needed weeding. Today, I got up and found that DH had made us pancakes for breakfast. B heated up my lunch for me (we split a frozen pizza), and I'm cooking ham, asparagus, and scalloped potatoes for dinner.

Oh, and I correctly picked Cornell to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, along with St. Mary's, so I'm doing pretty well in the pool :-)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Dessert Tower

For today's Voci fundraiser, I bought a "dessert tower" to display the mini cupcakes I baked:



Closeup of cupcakes:

(Chocolate and white cakes, filled with raspberry filling, and topped with chocolate and white-chocolate ganaches.)

Friday, March 12, 2010

Spring Forward is Coming

I need to keep better track of when Daylight Savings Time begins. Silly me, I said "yes" to subbing at a church service this Sunday, not realizing that being there by 8:55 am means 7:55 am body time, or roughly when I get out of bed on a weekday.

It's going to be a busy weekend here (nothing new, I suppose, to readers of this blog!) Saturday, DH has a work event in the morning, so I will be out from 10:00-2:00 delivering kids to and from their activities, and fitting some shopping in during the down time. (The snake needs to be fed, B needs some craft supplies, and we always need stuff at Costco.) At 5:00, DH has another work event, but this one is happening at our house, so from 2:00-5:00 we will be frantically cleaning and organizing. While DH is having his meeting, I will be baking goodies for the next day.

Sunday morning is the aforementioned church service, then Sunday afternoon is the Voci fundraiser. DH is on setup/cleanup crew, I am providing desserts (mini cupcakes this year), and singing and conducting. Fortunately for us, M decided earlier this week that he wants to make dinner for us--he has been making croque madame sandwiches for himself, and wants to share. I suggested that Sunday would be a GREAT day for him to make dinner, and he agreed!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Manic and Not-So-Merry Month of March

March is supposed to be a relaxed month, unlike the frenetic months of December and May, when everything happens. So why is this year so crazy? I haven't had any time to work in the garden (I usually start pulling weeds in the yard during February), and my taxes still aren't done. Two concerts last weekend and one fundraiser concert this weekend, which does explain a lot of the craziness. Plus I'm spending more time on B's musical this year than I have in past years--still trying to get the various scores pasted together in semi-final form.

We received some sad news at rehearsal tonight--one of our founding members is leaving the group, because her ovarian cancer has metastasized, and the prognosis is not good. And, since that's clearly not enough bad news for one family, her husband has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She's coming to the concert this weekend, and like the trouper she's always been, she's still bringing the food she promised for the reception. :-(

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Update to a Busy, Busy, Expensive Week

Last night I came home from rehearsal around 10:45, and tried to check my e-mail. No Internet. Sometime yesterday evening, our router died, so we'll add that to the list of things to replace.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

A Busy, Busy, Expensive Week

Yesterday evening, DH took B to her ballet class, while I went to a meeting at her school about fifth-grade camp. Our rule is that whoever has the kids gets the minivan, so I got to drive the Saturn. On the way to school I noticed that it was even harder to steer than usual: when I got home, both front tires were noticeably low on air. We've known for several months that the car needs new tires, but haven't gotten around to taking care of it. This morning DH went out to look at it, and the left front tire is entirely flat.

So, the schedule for today ended up starting with driving DH to work. Normally we carpool, but I was already planning to work at home because of some other things on the schedule. He would have taken the car in for new tires today, but he had an appointment with the optometrist. (Yes, he needs new glasses, and so do I--my appointment was yesterday.) Tires are on the schedule for tomorrow morning.

First planned stop of the day: B got her braces off this morning, and her upper teeth look beautiful . But, the orthodontist has referred her to an oral surgeon to have four ankylosed baby teeth removed a.s.a.p.


Next scheduled stop: Poppy gets to go to school this afternoon. M's science class is having Dog Day, when students bring in their dogs. (They're studying genetics right now.) At least this one isn't going to cost us anything, other than a $3.99 bag of doggie treats.

Then, a quickie house cleaning before the piano teacher arrives. Dinner will be a frozen lasagna (B requested homemade, but I told her it wasn't going to happen this week.)

I've spent almost all of my spare time this week balancing the checkbook. Every year we swear we won't wait twelve months to do it, and every year we end up doing it all in February and March. I do have to balance the checkbook before I can do our taxes, because of the myriad of work expenses and reimbursements and honoraria that DH accumulates every year.

S&P dress rehearsal tonight from 7:00-10:00. Come hear us this weekend!