Friday I used some newly purchased cake-making supplies (an angled spatula and two round cake pans) to bake a chocolate cake from scratch so we could celebrate E’s birthday. It came out pretty decent even though I didn’t particularly like how it looked when I was done frosting it.
It was quite time-consuming to bake the cakes and create the frosting, and to me the cake itself wasn’t so good that I feel the need to make it from scratch again. I’ll probably use a box mix in the future and add some espresso powder and/or chocolate pudding to enhance the flavor. As for the frosting, I’d probably make that from scratch since it was really delicious.
The frosting between layers is the best!
Friday evening we went to E’s school since he was performing in a band event. Since it was warm out, I decided to wear my new dress. I found a light sweater to go over it and some knee-high boots I purchased years ago which I rarely wear (and I should wear more often as they are super comfy, not to mention sexy). Joe couldn’t stop complimenting my look which was very flattering. Not that he doesn’t compliment me often, but I was nervous wearing a dress since it’s such a rare event for me.
Saturday morning Joe put together the new cage I ordered for Doug & Steve. It’s clear his coworker never intended to really take them (which is annoying because he kept insisting he wanted them and then pushing back the date several times) and I felt guilty that they didn’t have a ton of space to run around since I don’t take them out every day.
I think they are pretty happy in their new space. Oh, and I moved Marshmallow into their old cage so everyone has more space which makes me feel better since they spend so much time caged.
Saturday we took E out to pick out birthday presents. We thought he’d want to pick out a portable keyboard since he had borrowed my old one (from my childhood that I still own and which still works) but he wasn’t interested (good thing we didn’t just buy him one like we had been contemplating). He ended up finding some CDs he wanted, but after checking Amazon we realized he could get more if we ordered them online, so he got a Captain America Funko Pop figure at Gamestop since it was actually cheaper there, and I placed an Amazon order for him later that evening. Since we have Amazon Prime, he’ll be receiving his presents today, tomorrow, and Wednesday due to multiple shipments.
When we were at f.y.e I spotted these fingerless gloves in their clearance section so I got them for work. I plan to keep them in my desk for those days where it feels like my hands are ice.
Sunday we ran some errands instead of going to the arboretum like I wanted because rain was expected. Of course, it didn’t start raining until several hours later which sucks, but what can you do? One of our stops was Costco. We thought it would be wise to get there when they first opened. Turns out if you want free samples you should wait until about an hour after opening since it takes them awhile to get set up. We picked up a second Chromecast for upstairs (it’s a pain to move it between tvs since the HDMI ports are difficult to reach) since we got rid of the DVR to save the $10 monthly rental fee.
This morning the TV in the bedroom started making strange crackling sounds so I unplugged it. The broken TV started doing that before it completely stopped working so this is a bad sign. And since both TVs are made by Polaroid, I’m not sure whether they just make really bad TVs or if there’s something wrong with the electrical outlets they were plugged into. Joe is going to replace two outlets in the bedroom tonight and I ordered a new power strip from Amazon to eliminate any possibility they are to blame. I fear we’re going to have to buy a new TV soon. I’m not ready to replace the one downstairs and spend $1000-$2000 so we might just get a 32″ Samsung for the bedroom. If we do, it’ll likely be a smart tv which means the Chromecast purchase will have been a waste. Boo!