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same_skyI have a sad story to tell, but I'll put it off for a few minutes while I write about the rest of the day. I'm so completely exhausted tonight that I can barely stay in my chair. Can't go to bed because the sheets are still in the dryer, so I might as well ramble on about things.
Today was my niece's birthday party. Her actual birthday was Wednesday.. I don't think I actually mentioned that but we went out to dinner with her and my parents and aunt. My parents asked me last night when we went up to the house--crap, I didn't mention that either. There was a tornado last night somewhere. I don't think it actually turned out to be all that much or that interesting or anything like that, but the weather channel said it was expected to be at Haldeman at 6:45, so we said "Hey, let's get the heck out of this pile of metal and go hang out in a brick building!" Haldeman is approximately five minutes from here. :) We played Rook while we were there, of course, and the storm had really already passed before we even got up there, but we had fun anyway. (My dad took the bid at 135. It was bidder's game. We made 155, leaving them with a paltry 25 points. Not that this makes sense if you don't play the game, or maybe not even if you play by the official rules. Anyway, my poor dad ended up under the table on that one. Literally.)
Anyway, while we weren't beating the socks off my parents, they asked me if I would bake the cake for the party. Dad dropped off a box of cake mix and a couple of cans of frosting this morning--yeah, yeah, I'm not Martha. I guess at this point, that's a good thing.. no pun intended. I actually have an interest in cake baking and decorating but not the patience, or equipment, or something, and I was on a deadline. Not that I need to rationalize my cake mix to any of you in any case, now that I think about it.
First, it fell apart in the middle, so I had to kind of stick it back together and pat it all down in place to form a vaguely cake-shaped item. I watch FoodTV a lot, though, so I covered it all with a thin layer of icing and stuck it in the fridge for an hour, which forms a bit of a crust that can be frosted without crumbs all over the place. I couldn't have done it otherwise.
It was just a pile of crumbs on the bottom, and the corners were suspiciously missing. I did a lot of filling in with icing, let me tell you. It turned out kind of cute, though, with green sugar crystals making a shamrock. I did write on it with purple icing, but I'm smart enough to take pictures before I screwed it up. Whitley assured me that it looked fine, though. That's the most sensitive child I've ever met. Anyway, the purple icing turned into a major mess, what with it exploding out of the top of the bag (I have no clue how that happened--I had it folded just so!) and my hands being covered with purple.
Meanwhile, M walks in and notices that the fish tank is suspiciously low on water. We had just refilled it last night, so it was a sudden drop, but almost a third of the tank was gone. (Larry and Blackie were none too pleased over this turn of events.) The kitchen sink is in a counter that separates the kitchen from the living room, and there's a snack bar on the other side. There's also cabinets at the top, so you can see through to the kitchen but just in a small area. We have the fishtank over by the wall on the living room side. M walks around and steps solidly in a pool of water--great, so we know where the water came from. So he started with the fish tank, finding the source of the leak (apparently the filter--maybe, as it turns out) and generally trying to dry the corner out. I finish with the cake and have to wrap presents, because of course I've put that off until the last minute. Apparently there was an open window so there's still the possibility that it wasn't the fish tank at all. Seems unlikely, though, so I'm pretty upset over having fishy water on our new carpet. We're drying it out with a fan now and will have to get into the cleaning tomorrow. The living room looked like the tornado from yesterday had gone through it when we left, and did I mention that we were supposed to be cleaning today for potential guests tomorrow? Anyway. I'm procrastinating again. We were fifteen minutes late for the party, and there were entirely too many people there, but nothing all that special to write about.
I guess it's time to get back to the sad part. Whitley was playing with her new toys, all of her guests (including her new boyfriend, with whom she is going to the sock hop dance with--who knows what her other boyfriend, who told her that he loves her yesterday, will think) having just departed. Her mother had said that she should call her after it was over, so Whitley called and talked for a few minutes, and this is when the bad part came--her great-grandfather had died today, and no one was telling her until after the party. (Whitley's mom's grandfather, so not our family, although it is still sad, of course--just pointing it out for clarification.) She was chattering happily, and then she just stopped twirling around the kitchen and said "He did?" My mom and aunt and I just looked at each other helplessly. Whitley sort of stumbled into the bedroom and started crying her little heart out. It was so sad, and I could hear her saying "But I love him!" over and over. I can't get it out of my head--it's a record that's played over and over since we left. It's so heartbreaking when you have to watch someone's life change like that. We knew all day long that it had happened, but Whitley was perfectly happy in her ignorance until she made that phone call. I know she had to learn sooner or later, but it's just so hard to accept when someone close to you dies, and damn it all, Whitley's already lost more in her nine years than she should have. It's not fair and it's not right.
Anyway, this has turned into a novella, so I'll stop now and read for a while before bedtime. New books are always good. :)
Today was my niece's birthday party. Her actual birthday was Wednesday.. I don't think I actually mentioned that but we went out to dinner with her and my parents and aunt. My parents asked me last night when we went up to the house--crap, I didn't mention that either. There was a tornado last night somewhere. I don't think it actually turned out to be all that much or that interesting or anything like that, but the weather channel said it was expected to be at Haldeman at 6:45, so we said "Hey, let's get the heck out of this pile of metal and go hang out in a brick building!" Haldeman is approximately five minutes from here. :) We played Rook while we were there, of course, and the storm had really already passed before we even got up there, but we had fun anyway. (My dad took the bid at 135. It was bidder's game. We made 155, leaving them with a paltry 25 points. Not that this makes sense if you don't play the game, or maybe not even if you play by the official rules. Anyway, my poor dad ended up under the table on that one. Literally.)
Anyway, while we weren't beating the socks off my parents, they asked me if I would bake the cake for the party. Dad dropped off a box of cake mix and a couple of cans of frosting this morning--yeah, yeah, I'm not Martha. I guess at this point, that's a good thing.. no pun intended. I actually have an interest in cake baking and decorating but not the patience, or equipment, or something, and I was on a deadline. Not that I need to rationalize my cake mix to any of you in any case, now that I think about it.
First, it fell apart in the middle, so I had to kind of stick it back together and pat it all down in place to form a vaguely cake-shaped item. I watch FoodTV a lot, though, so I covered it all with a thin layer of icing and stuck it in the fridge for an hour, which forms a bit of a crust that can be frosted without crumbs all over the place. I couldn't have done it otherwise.
It was just a pile of crumbs on the bottom, and the corners were suspiciously missing. I did a lot of filling in with icing, let me tell you. It turned out kind of cute, though, with green sugar crystals making a shamrock. I did write on it with purple icing, but I'm smart enough to take pictures before I screwed it up. Whitley assured me that it looked fine, though. That's the most sensitive child I've ever met. Anyway, the purple icing turned into a major mess, what with it exploding out of the top of the bag (I have no clue how that happened--I had it folded just so!) and my hands being covered with purple. Meanwhile, M walks in and notices that the fish tank is suspiciously low on water. We had just refilled it last night, so it was a sudden drop, but almost a third of the tank was gone. (Larry and Blackie were none too pleased over this turn of events.) The kitchen sink is in a counter that separates the kitchen from the living room, and there's a snack bar on the other side. There's also cabinets at the top, so you can see through to the kitchen but just in a small area. We have the fishtank over by the wall on the living room side. M walks around and steps solidly in a pool of water--great, so we know where the water came from. So he started with the fish tank, finding the source of the leak (apparently the filter--maybe, as it turns out) and generally trying to dry the corner out. I finish with the cake and have to wrap presents, because of course I've put that off until the last minute. Apparently there was an open window so there's still the possibility that it wasn't the fish tank at all. Seems unlikely, though, so I'm pretty upset over having fishy water on our new carpet. We're drying it out with a fan now and will have to get into the cleaning tomorrow. The living room looked like the tornado from yesterday had gone through it when we left, and did I mention that we were supposed to be cleaning today for potential guests tomorrow? Anyway. I'm procrastinating again. We were fifteen minutes late for the party, and there were entirely too many people there, but nothing all that special to write about.
I guess it's time to get back to the sad part. Whitley was playing with her new toys, all of her guests (including her new boyfriend, with whom she is going to the sock hop dance with--who knows what her other boyfriend, who told her that he loves her yesterday, will think) having just departed. Her mother had said that she should call her after it was over, so Whitley called and talked for a few minutes, and this is when the bad part came--her great-grandfather had died today, and no one was telling her until after the party. (Whitley's mom's grandfather, so not our family, although it is still sad, of course--just pointing it out for clarification.) She was chattering happily, and then she just stopped twirling around the kitchen and said "He did?" My mom and aunt and I just looked at each other helplessly. Whitley sort of stumbled into the bedroom and started crying her little heart out. It was so sad, and I could hear her saying "But I love him!" over and over. I can't get it out of my head--it's a record that's played over and over since we left. It's so heartbreaking when you have to watch someone's life change like that. We knew all day long that it had happened, but Whitley was perfectly happy in her ignorance until she made that phone call. I know she had to learn sooner or later, but it's just so hard to accept when someone close to you dies, and damn it all, Whitley's already lost more in her nine years than she should have. It's not fair and it's not right.
Anyway, this has turned into a novella, so I'll stop now and read for a while before bedtime. New books are always good. :)
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-21 02:00 pm (UTC)