A's four day birthday celebration - Friday and Saturday
I'm going to talk about Friday and Saturday together, because both were overshadowed by a major event: the car battery died when I set out for the supermarket on Friday morning. I think it must have died immediately, but as our road is a slope, I was able to coast downhill until a red light. When I then tried to turn right, the car definitely died and I was stuck. After a while a police car came by, and they were able to push me to a side street so I no longer blocked the road, but they couldn't jump start the car "because of the electronics in their own one." In additional to my general freaking out at what had happened, I was really flabbergasted by that - if the police can't jump start you, who will?! Anyway, after calming down a bit, and a few unsuccessful phone calls to friends and acquaintances (everyone was at work), I realised that I could hear a lawn mower. I walked towards the sound and very luckily, the gardener was kind enough to jump start me and I managed to make my way home. I then sent the boys out to buy milk and eggs - we had just enough fruit and vegetables to keep us through to Sunday, when we could go to the farmer's market.
All this happened while ADC, who is in charge of the car, was away, with his own problems - both his flight to Kansas and the flight back were delayed due to Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Bill (a strangely innocuous name for such a disruptive piece of weather). I was too flustered at the time to understand when he told me that I just needed someone to come and change the car battery. I only worked this out at around midnight, at which point I e-mailed three companies. Only one responded overnight, I called them in the morning and at 10:30 on Saturday I had a functioning car again. It turned out that not only was the battery 3 years old and thus due to be replaced, but we had been doing everything possible to drain it passively: short infrequent trips, leaving outside in the cold and the heat ... All's well that ends well, and it didn't cost too much (at 4 p.m. on Saturday I got a quote from another of the companies that was $50 more).
On returning from the supermarket, I embarked on more baking: ADC was going to arrive home much later than planned, so I baked A's birthday cake. I have never baked so much in my life: cupcakes on Thursday, corn bread on Friday night (instead of challah, as I am not up to coping with yeast), and now a chocolate cake. ADC insisted on icing it when he returned home, and A was very pleased. His second birthday meal was aglio-olio pasta with chopped zucchini flowers (we will not be here for the fruit) and birthday cake. At that time he also got his main birthday present: a fancy hiking backpack, with integral water bag and air-flow back.
All this happened while ADC, who is in charge of the car, was away, with his own problems - both his flight to Kansas and the flight back were delayed due to Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Bill (a strangely innocuous name for such a disruptive piece of weather). I was too flustered at the time to understand when he told me that I just needed someone to come and change the car battery. I only worked this out at around midnight, at which point I e-mailed three companies. Only one responded overnight, I called them in the morning and at 10:30 on Saturday I had a functioning car again. It turned out that not only was the battery 3 years old and thus due to be replaced, but we had been doing everything possible to drain it passively: short infrequent trips, leaving outside in the cold and the heat ... All's well that ends well, and it didn't cost too much (at 4 p.m. on Saturday I got a quote from another of the companies that was $50 more).
On returning from the supermarket, I embarked on more baking: ADC was going to arrive home much later than planned, so I baked A's birthday cake. I have never baked so much in my life: cupcakes on Thursday, corn bread on Friday night (instead of challah, as I am not up to coping with yeast), and now a chocolate cake. ADC insisted on icing it when he returned home, and A was very pleased. His second birthday meal was aglio-olio pasta with chopped zucchini flowers (we will not be here for the fruit) and birthday cake. At that time he also got his main birthday present: a fancy hiking backpack, with integral water bag and air-flow back.