Cake for my Cutie

This is what it looked like outside today-pretty much matched my mood. Neither one of us slept last night, so we played Parcheesi. No, not really. We watch HGTV and Food Network until he had to get up to leave at 5:30. We watched an episode of House Hunters International with a couple from here in Minnesota. The host lady-cracked me up. This couple lives in a very nice house on Lake Minnetonka. Here in MN we pronounce it "Min-a-tonka" (where Tonka trucks used to be made-cool factory). She pronounced it "Miny-tawnka". But in her defense, if you don't live here, you probably can't correctly pronounce Shakopee, Sogn Valley or Winona either. Two people looking for a 4 to 6 bedroom house with 3 or more bathrooms and deep water access. They ended up with a 10,000 square foot house-FOR TWO PEOPLE on an island by Honduras. So, maybe I'm a little jealous. So we bought lottery tickets for Wednesday! And some tulips to dull the rainy/snow mix we got today.

While shopping the other morning after work, I asked the Dude to maybe give me some ideas of what he wants to eat. If he tells me "I would like _______" I would totally make it for him. No, I'm not a Valley Girl, but yes, I have used the word 'totally' since 1981 and won't apologize for it-or stop using it since it is ingrained in me. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, whatever he would ask for, I would gladly make. There wasn't much on the list-mainly dairy and veggies, but he headed to the baking aisle and said "I want cake". Meaning, he wants German Chocolate with Coconut Pecan frosting. Nope, nothing from scratch-he likes the box. Since I wanted him to have a treat after his surgery, I gladly put the mix in the cart and continued on our merry way.

I just followed the directions on the box

made the cake

and frosted it

It will go to work with us tomorrow.

I made dinner while he took Drama Queen driving. I'm in such a fog today that I took picture of me making the turkey meatballs-and nothing else. I uploaded my pictures and saw that I had no finished shots with the spaghetti sauce, noodles, garlic bread. Nothing. I wasn't sure how it would go over with turkey meatballs instead of beef, but I spiced them up really well and the Dude and I thought they were great. The girls opted for noodles and a little sauce. Now I have heartburn that is practically coming out of my ears, and am off to search for my Gas-X. Our cart at Target last night looked like we were 90. Gas-X, Icy Hot gel, an ice/heat pack, a pair of arch supports for Dude's work boots and, well, we won't even talk about the last thing :)

I just want to publicly thank everyone for your kind words about my Dude. All the sweet and kind things you said really made me feel better. I know it will be torture waiting for these next two weeks to pass before he can see the next doctor, but fretting about it won't make it come any sooner or change whatever the results are going to be. We are getting together with our best friends this weekend who have been going through hell for the last year. The man of the couple was in an accident and a person died-it has been a life changing year for them and not for the good, except that it made their marriage stronger. We are going to grill out, despite what the weather will be, drink beer, play cards, listen to music and hopefully laugh all night. It has been way too long and I think it will do all four of us good. I'll bring my camera and get pics of food. I'm bringing the Poppin Bacon bread, my 2 Corn Casserole (which I will post) and a dessert that I found that is full of chocolate-y goodness (also which I will post).

I really do appreciate all of you who take time out of your day to stop by and have a look and leave a comment-it brightens my day every time. Thank you so very much.

Peace,

Tami