sunday morning

 

Ella decorated the cupcakes and a fine job she did! She would sprinkle a few on, then ask my advice, then sprinkle some more. We had crayon candles for Elliot. He loves crayons.

Evelyn, Ella, Alex, and Elliot at the little table. I'm pretty sure Alex is saying cheese.

I don't know they ended up on the kitchen floor but at least it was clean. Ha!

Elliot was tired here and not so much interested in birthday cake or candles or singing.

Alex was a real trooper. He had a birthday party last week so he knew the deal with presents. He cried when he realized these were not for him but he recovered quickly and then took the job of toting presents to Elliot. He waited patiently while Elliot opened it, then went for another one.

By popular demand, I brought back the dreaded cheesy potatoes for dinner last night. This is the hash brown stuff you throw in a crock pot with a couple cans of nasty faux yellow cheese soup. I like to doctor them up a little but they are still unpalatable, as far as I'm concerned. Oh, well, I don't have to eat it.

I woke up early and cleaned up the party mess before we went to Mankato to buy groceries. We used paper plates and plastic forks so the clean-up was pretty easy. There were a few wine glasses because I won't serve wine in plastic cups. I am a wine glass snob. I admit it. Boy, I'm admitting a lot of bad shit today.

What the hell is up with the redesign of the HyVee? Oh, my God! Was this a complete random, throw a dart at the wall to decide where to put stuff job? We found men's deodorant in the baby section, kleenex in the cracker and cookie aisle, candy in the plastic bag section, cheese sticks by the grapes...you get the drift. Then the nice girl checking us out asked if found everything alright. We did the Estle eye-brow raise and laughed. She gave us a map which doesn't look nearly as insane as it really is. At least they haven't moved the meat department.

Maybe we're just getting old and cranky. I groused about the loud music by the gas pumps at Kwiktrip when we stopped to get the ice we couldn't find at the HyVee. It was probably with the vinegar. Just what you would expect. The proliferation of nasty processed food is another disturbing trend in grocery stores but that's a rant for another day.

I hate house plants. We don't have enough light in the winter and they look like hell most for most of the winter, then they die. I had a lavender plant I was trying to nurse through the winter...well, my version of nursing a plant is to stick it in the corner and forget about it for months. It kicked the bucket sort of suddenly so I watered it and cut it back and now it's just a dead thing in a pot. I did manage to keep Howard's rosemary alive, at least for now.

We're getting our weekend chores done this morning...laundry, bills, dishes, cooking for the week...and then we're going to have a fun afternoon. I'm not sure what that entails, but for sure we won't be cleaning the basement or anything like that.

Here's what I'm cooking this week:

• Carne asada fajitas with grilled peppers and onions
• Meatballs and marinara
• Spinach salad
• Chicken parmesan
• Cheesy egg bake

My task right now is to redesign my grocery shopping template to be a better fit with the new, crazy layout of the store.