Saturday, January 31, 2004

5:50am - wake up time! Walked Annie in the bitter cold and dark.

6:00am - first cup of coffee for the day. Loaded and started dishwasher. Transferred soaked French toast bread to buttered casserole for baking later.

6:30am - gather Bible and lesson for another review before small group arrives.

7:30am - shower and dress.

8:50am - put casserole in the oven to bake. Wait for arrival of small group girls.

9:10am - phone rings - one girl just woke up. “Go back to bed,” I told her. I knew 2 others weren’t coming because of conflicts. The 4th was a probable no show as well. I decided to give her until 9:30am.

9:20am - call Mom. “I’ve got baked French toast coming out of the oven and no small group to eat it. Want me to bring it over?”

9:30am - Hop in car, head to parents’. Must stop for gas as gauge is on “E.”

9:50am - arrive at parents’. Pass Dad as he’s heading out to run errands. Three tries to get up the driveway on the ice. Mom and I enjoyed the French toast (that’s a very good recipe and easy to do).

10:30am - Dad arrives home as I was getting ready to leave. He asks if I’d help him chisel the ice on the driveway (we have a gathering tomorrow for the Super Bowl). We were armed with a sledge hammer and a shovel. Alternating with both, we managed to hack through about half an inch of ice to bare pavement on about half of the driveway. We cleared enough for four cars to park safely and for people to walk through the garage into the house.

12:30pm - I hit the road for my own errands. First stop the rental office for the lease renewal paperwork - good news is that they do 6-month leases. Woo! Second stop the grocery store to buy the ingredients for the desserts I’m taking to the Super Bowl gathering tomorrow. Ended up with three boxes of vanilla pudding when I needed 2 boxes of vanilla and 1 box of banana cream. No plans to go back out.

1:30pm - have unloaded the stuff from the car and logged on to internet. I’ve been sitting here for about 30 minutes now and as time is passing I’m getting more tired from the chisel-work on the driveway. Pondering nap before baking Boston Cream Cupcakes and preparing Banana Pudding.

All that and it’s only 2pm.