I just took Excedrin PM in an attempt to defeat this sinus headache that has been plaguing me all weekend, so I have about half an hour until I can no longer keep my eyes open. I’ll try to type fast. It’s always the sinuses on the right side of my face that give me trouble. The left ones are very well behaved, but the right ones have a serious attitude problem. I’ve had about enough of their nonsense, let me tell you.

Anyway, I went grocery shopping this afternoon. First I went to the organic market, which was strangely crowded, short staffed and out of some stuff I wanted like peppers and blueberries. So then I went to the regular grocery store, which was also really busy, although better staffed. Not only was there just one register open at the organic market (although to her credit, the poor cashier kept paging other people to come up to the front of the store, and they kept ignoring her) but the guy in front of me in line said his wife had his wallet, but she was in the bathroom. Then she finally came out of the bathroom, and she didn’t have his wallet. And she didn’t have her wallet, so they sent one of the kids out to the car. Luckily for me, at that point the cashier suspended their sale and rang me up. I was trying to be gracious and patient, but what I wanted to say was “get your shit together, losers!” Part of me wondered if it was some sort of scam, but I think maybe I’ve just watched too many episodes of Hustle.

Now, at the organic market I have reusable bags to use, and they give me a 10 cent credit per bag. The Giant and Whole Foods also encourage you to get the reusable grocery bags, and I think they’ll give you a credit too. My question is, is it rude or somehow bad form to use a reusable bag from another grocery store? I can’t help but wonder if the Giant people would give me the evil eye for using a Whole Foods bag. If they truly care about the environment, that would be one thing, but I think they really just want to sell me their reusable bags. Would you use one store’s bag at another store? Discuss in the comments, please!

I’ve been busy. Busy and tired, which does not lend itself to good blog writing. But now here I am, back and ready to rock.

Let’s see…

The great ant invasion of 2008 seems to have abated. John discovered there was a lot of activity under the sink, so we concentrated our efforts there, which made a difference. Let’s hope our many-legged friends stay away.

Also, my poison ivy/insane bug bites/itchy arm plague finally went away. My left arm is now a little dry and scaly, but on the road to recovery.

Last week’s kickboxing class was taught by a sub. A sub who almost killed Becky and me. My legs were so sore that I practically fell over when I got out of bed on Friday morning. Tonight’s kickboxing class was taught by the usual guy, and it was so much fun! It was still a workout, but neither one of us felt ready to keel over at the end. I was sure the guy totally hated me at first, but he turned out to be really nice. We kicked, we jabbed, we punched, we stomped. I’m kind of a girly puncher, but a pretty darn good kicker. I also got confused about which hand I should be punching with when, but I’m hopeful I’ll catch on with practice.

In other news, I made a wedding cake. My friend Jules got married last December. Now she and her husband are having a party for her family, and she asked me if I would make the cake. I’m a good baker, but a wedding cake is a whole different story. My cakes are usually delicious, but decorating is not my strong suit. Plus, wedding cakes are BIG. So last weekend I baked a practice cake. I didn’t make the entire cake, but I made two tiers. Check out the before photo with the huge pile of pre-baking ingredients.

It took me all weekend to bake, no exaggeration. By the end of the weekend I totally exhausted and passed out on couch at 9 p.m, right in the middle of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is a high-energy show. At times I was convinced the cake would be a complete disaster, but it came out ok in the end. The cake was delicious, and not too ugly. I do now know that my wedding cake was worth every single penny I paid for it, and perhaps more. Jules’s cake will be a 3 tier strawberry vanilla buttercream cake, which is the top tier of the cake you see here on my practice cake.

The bottom layer was a lemon cake with raspberry filling, but the strawberry was everyone's favorite. So it will be a very tall, white on white cake with strawberries inside. Hopefully it will make it to Boston in one piece for the party.

I also seem to have inadvertently started a rumor at work that I have a wedding cake business on the side, because I put the leftover cake out for my co-workers to eat. I suppose the baking gets easier with more experience, but there's no way I could do this as a sideline. I like having a weekend!