liralen | Pancake Tuesday... (Reply)

We had a pretty busy day today, it started with my actually waking up before 8, getting up when the alarm went off at 7, and the boys and I went to our local IHOP for the free buttermilk pancakes. And when Jet found out that the pancakes were actually a fund-raiser for the local children's hospitals, he took a dollar and a half out of his piggy bank and put them into the donations box himself! I was really proud of him for just thinking of it and doing it on his own.

They were pretty packed, especially for having lost a cook for the morning, and at least one of their serving crew. But the pancakes appeared really quickly, and Jet finished off his short stack in short order, and we were in plenty of time to get him to the bus stop on time. Then I started off on my crazy morning.

I went to Jet's school to help volunteer with all the kids on math for an hour and a half. I got through nearly twice as many kids as I thought I was going to, which was very useful for the teacher, but also got me out of there a little later than I'd thought.

I barely had time to pick up a latte at the Brewing Company before going to her house. The Big Bonus was finding the little shaker of ground cardamom next to the cinnamon and nutmeg at the espresso place. That was really nice.

At 11, I did my first computer consultant job in... uhm... a dozen years or so? It was a lady from church who has been a lifetime artist and art therapist, but she doesn't like computers, at all, and is having trouble finding her files because she put 100's of files all in one directory. Oops. So she wanted help to figure out how to organize her files so that she could find them and use them.

I sat down with her for an hour and a half, taught her a bit about the capacity of her hard disk, what it was she was actually doing, and how to get where she needed to go in order to see all the folders in her new organization. It was easy work as she was eager to learn and really wanted to make things better, so it was a pleasure. The nice thing is that having her pay me motivated me to go again, and motivated her to have her ducks in a row the next time I showed up so that she could use our time to her best advantage.

It wasn't much, but it was fun to make a little money, and cover my latte and a few mechanical pencils I've been obsessing about.

By the time I was done with that it was nearly 1, so I zoomed back home, shaped the King Cake with the almond filling, and let it rise while I tried to find gold, green, and purple sugar. There was none to be found, only red and green, so I went home and made my own by dripping a bit of food coloring on turbinado sugar while mixing it pretty fast. Then I mixed the vanilla glaze. I ate a burrito for lunch. When the cake was risen and the oven hot, it was nearly 2. At 3, we had to go to Jet's doctor's appointment, and while the cake had only had ten minutes to cool, the pan was cool enough to handle, just. So I packed up the icing and sugars with all of John's other things, as they'd just melt if I put them on then.

Jet's yearly checkup went really well. He's actually gone up the percentile scales! For the first time he's over 20th percentile on height and weight! There were other issues that we'd brought up previous years, that are pretty much all gone, now. Whew. He brought up his own little issue, which was a bump on one of his toes that sometimes hurts. I was really glad he could bring up his own issues, it's a good way for him to get used to doing it for himself later on, too. And it was really cool to know that he was confident enough to do that himself, and the doctor really listened to him well.

Right after that, we went to the church, where I helped them unload everything, and then John unloaded my bike, pack, helmet, and gloves, and away I went.

Yeah, I didn't stay for the Shrove Tuesday pancake feast. I wasn't really into doing Yet Another Church thing after so many days of it and knowing that I'm going to spend all of next week with folks, I felt no guilt at skipping out. Instead, I rode my bike to the Post Office to pick up a package from Thailand. I really love LJ. *laughs* And then I rode home from there, through rush hour traffic, and into a strong Western headwind that had picked up since the dead calm of the morning. It had been 76 when I was consulting, so warm it felt like summer, nearly. But the wind brought the temps down, and it felt good as I did the four miles to get home.

I tried to write. For two hours, I really tried, and got nearly no where. Finally, I gave up and went to take a shower, and, of course, in the middle of the shower, I finally got an idea for a 200 word drabble that I'll post next, as it's good for today.

I was hungry, too. And, for my own little Shrove Tuesday ritual, I made myself a few British-style thin pancakes and ate them with just a bit of turbinado sugar. It was plenty for me, and a good way for me to feel like I'd participated.

Then I wrote my drabble, and then tried writing a birthday fic for

mysocalledhell and got nearly no where past the point I'd gotten earlier. She said it was okay, though, for it to be late, and even I have to admit that I was pretty pressed today. *sigh*

Tomorrow John's parents arrive, they'll be here a few days before we leave on Sunday, so they can get acquainted with everything again before we leave. I'm probably going to stay home and cook dinner once they've been gotten, so that everyone can just eat when they get to the house. It's been an interesting week already...