Sunday, March 28, 2021

decorations of an insane monkey

 It’s a crazy start to the day when you have to chill on the sofa to ride out a rather uncomfortable sugar high… yes, burnt sugar cake for breakfast accompanied with a shot of ‘buttertart’ liquor. OMG! So good yet so very bad. But it was all for a good cause! It was Carm’s birthday and I planned to make every minute a celebration.



A trip outside with Adia revealed Trudie tying bunches of balloons onto trees and hanging a gift bag on a sturdy branch. I tricked Carm into going outside - he had a wide smile at the surprise.


In between phone calls we worked on our hats. It was Olaf’s idea to have a theme for our family zoom visit and hats seemed like something everyone could do. Carm formed tinfoil into a halo of horns and crosses - I think he had Monty Python and Black Adder in his head. I took a ream of packing paper and stapled it into a sort of beehive with shiny bits of foil and draped with toilet tissue. I was thinking of Mary Poppins.


Crafting is not something that we do so I count it a huge win!



For supper we had Prime Rib roast with yorkshire pudding, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. I screwed up the cooking of the beast as I forgot to reduce the temp from 550 down to 350. When it started smelling so good early in the cooking process I realized my mistake. In the end the roast was a bit overcooked but OMG - the crust. I nearly swooned as I gnawed at the bone. A murmured ‘Oh my God’, reminiscent of Stanley Tucci as he eats so many wonders, passed my salty lips.


(note to self for next time: I heavily salted each side, sprinkling with a good amount of Italian herbs before flipping. A clove of garlic was slivered and jabbed into the meat. It couldn’t stand up so lay on it’s side, a meat thermometer in it’s center.)


Once I was done with the bone (the best part of the meal), I passed it over to Grace.



After supper we digested for a while and then signed into Zoom for a family ‘get-together’, complete with hats. Everyone had done such a good job - Shawn had an impressive ‘Mad Hatter’, Kirsten had something cute made from tinfoil. Olaf, Stephanie, and Freya had foil covered paper hats, while Mom, Dad, and Graham had hats from around the house.



I’m not going to lie… today was 100% lazy, perhaps from the late night, or maybe it was the rain that drained my energy. Not in a bad way, but let’s just say I wasn’t jumping around much! And it took a herculean effort to make the bed after washing the sheets (maybe I was only 90% lazy, we did get the laundry done). 


Spike hasn’t been on the futon for several days now. I’ve put a little bed beside my spot on the sofa and that’s where he’s been sleeping when he wants to be around us. Otherwise he sleeps in Adia’s comfy crate. He’s in bad need of a haircut...




“It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in 'em," said Captain Jim. "When I ponder on them seeds I don't find it nowise hard to believe that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You couldn't hardly believe there was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust, let alone colour and scent, if you hadn't seen the miracle, could you?”

~L.M. Montgomery


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