Sweetness and Hate! Now! in one very Convenient Package!

Saturday night i had a meetup, the plan of attack was to meet in front of a local cupcake store in downtown Tempe, choose our treats and walk to Starbucks and buy liquids and sit and eat and visit.  Six people, including myself were on tap to come.

Well, one of the meetup members, Trica is celiac like me, however she isnt the least bit careful and does cheat a goodly bit.  And she is also allergic to soy.  The cupcake place does offer GF cupcakes, but they say their could be cross contact due to them being made within the same kitchen.  However, their good works dont help me as they use dairy and eggs, so none for me.  The store only used to offer the GF cakes once a week, but they must have expanded their GF offerings as they had two flavors that night.

Not knowing if there would be any treats for her, she was excited that i was going to make cupcakes for the two of us.  When i grocery shopped I made sure to by soy free vegan butter, and to read the cake mix to be sure its soy free.

  ok!  all set! 
 

Saturday came, i heated up mr. oven and set to work!  Just as i shut the oven with the cakes nestled within their paper liners, I said a very filthy word, I had used soy milk. 

 

 blast and damnation!

Quick quick I ran into the living room fired up the computer, and started looking for a cup cake recipe that i had all the ingredients for.  Oh this one sounded good, and I had all the ingredients!  As i blended the flour the thought hit me, i only have soy milk!   I need to go to the store after all!

Oh!

Wait!

Last week I accidentally purchased chocolate almond milk instead of soy, and it was NASTY to drink.  Totally the wrong texture, way to thin and odd tasting.  But what the hell, it will be entombed within a cupcake, so no worries!  Added that in, slipped them into the oven and hoped.

My timer on my phone jingled jangled and sure enough, they were done!  Whoopie!

After they were cool enough to taste, I bravely took a bite and

OH MY HEAVENS!   

these were the best cupcakes ever!!!  like seriously ever!

While they were cooling awaiting their crowning glory of frosting, and no, I dont go in for miles high frosting, just an old fashioned amount, thank you very much!  I left a comment on her blog telling her how much i adored the cupcakes.  Thanked her a zillion times.  Trica liked the cupcakes, heck so did everyone else that tried them.  She bought one even though they couldnt promise there wasnt soy in them???  Yeah I dont get Trica at all. 

Yesterday while doing my once around the web, I thought I'd go back and see if she left a comment to me.  And you know what?  She deleted my comment! 

gone!  

nada!

el disappear-e-o!

Then I looked at her profile, god and jebus is mentioned a zillion times.  Ahhh so she was offended that a transman liked her treats.  Wow, how christian is that of her?

Oh well, I suppose not everyone can live according to that big book they admire.

 FACE PALM!! 

oh my!  Thats just what she was doing, yeah?  Learned her hate from that book quite well i'd say.

Is it just me?

I'm an addict of Bigfish games.  Why?  They are fun and non-violent, puzzles to solve and quite often well crafted story lines, coupled with fantastic graphics.  So, yesterday I'm playing along and a puzzle opens up, but all I can see is something large and hard in his pants.  Or is it just me?

Howdy!

Well, 'tis been quite the while yeah?  A month, at least it wasn't a month of Sunday's, yeah?  So, what have I been up to in that month? 

Last year when TH's medical odyssey began he told them he had pains running down his legs, and that his foot at times would go numb.  However, his neck was in such a shape, the docs all ignored the leg issue and went to work on his neck.  Now that his neck is AOK, he's feeling the pain in his legs quite a bit more.  A trip to the doctor, an MRI later and yup, he has the same issue in his lower back that he did in his neck, only thankfully not as extreme.  And so he will be back in Arizona with me this winter, around November-ish for a new pony ride on the surgery circuit.

Which brought up the whole retirement discussion.  He retired once already and he was a very unhappy fella, which made the rest of us very unhappy as well.  TH turned walking into a job, if he didnt get out of the house right on the dot of 9 am he would shout at who ever made him late.  Thats when 2nd son and I sat him down and gave him a choice of getting a job or swimming with the fishes.  He got a job.  But now its 7 years later, and hes wondering if he could retire again and this time be happy.

Because we are still paying off the previous two surgeries we decided to pack everything we want into a storage unit, junk off the rest and not renew the lease and be out by December 1st.  We got rid of an entire truck full of stuff, and really should have weeded better, but after a while it becomes overwhelming to go thru all of ones belongings and decide "keep, donate or trash?" And just have the apartment in Arizona while he heals.  If he decides to return to work, he'll get a new apartment then.  This will save us an enormous amount of money.  Hopefully with the cheap living expenses down here, we can get the old surgeries and the new paid off.  And????  Because one of the surgeries was in this calendar year, most of this one should be paid for by the insurance!  w00t!!!!

Third son and his wife had a beautiful baby boy this summer.  What does he look like?  Think Gerber baby with coal black hair and blue eyes.  Hes a perfect blend of both mommy and daddy, they are the prettiest couple ever.  Yes, I am a mite on biased side.  Three days before I was supposed to fly back to Arizona, my phone rang and it was the son and his wife.  She was going back after being off for maternity leave and her babysitter was in the hospital.  This poor girl managed to slam her thumb in the car door, and within 3 days the thumb had gone septic!  After an involved surgery, getting a dose of MRSA, and a week in the hospital she was ready to come home, whew!  But her poor hand wasnt up to the task of caring for a 10 lbs infant, so I took up the slack and stayed on for another week to help out.

Oh my!  It was wonderful to get to know this new wee soul!  He is sure a treasure, and that week was worth all the gold, ever mined!  But, it did make us sad.  TH and I are welcomed into his life, whereas we werent really welcomed into our granddaughters life.  It honestly feels like this is our first grandchild.

And speaking of eldest, somehow he slipped up and they are expecting again, sigh.  And even worse?  She wants a divorce ASAP and is making son's life a living hell.  What bothers me however is what it is doing to their daughter.  She was a bubbling wee slip of a girl, but is very subdued now.  Son is super unhappy, so much so that his walk is unhappy sounding, rather a plod than a walk.  He's afraid the courts will side with her and he'll never get to see her again.  I dont believe it, anyone who knows them, knows that Son does most of the caring for his daughter ever since her birth. 

I came back to Arizona early this year because TH is planning on spending all of his weekends out hunting and camping.  Leaving me alone, and very lonely.  As it is during his work week, I see him at the most 1.5 hours a day, thats when he's slept well, on a bad day, its 40 minutes.  So, why stick around for 4 hours?  He can call me from hunting camp like usual, the only difference is I'm not in Alaska.

Monday I start back with Table Talk and on Wednesday at the library proper doing pull holds and discharging materials.  My calendar is already filling up with lunches and outings and dinners with friends, it feels nice to be missed!

Oh!  And while wandering around the Seattle airport I came across this sign, and it is a sign of the times!