random thoughts – Day 2,100 (Tuesday) – noise and baking and balance

The morning began at 4:50 with a nagging and familiar beeping sound outside the bedroom indicating the battery needed changing in one of the smoke detectors. At 6:45, when I couldn’t take it any longer, I got up and rifled through the inventory of batteries. There were AA , AAA, and button cell batteries, but no 9 volt square ones. Kiki, meanwhile, was huddled under the cedar chest as if trying to hide from the annoying noise.

Aubuchon Hardware opened at 7:30 which was good news. Relief was in sight. New batteries were bought. When the chirping continued after installation, the almighty internet was consulted and  sanity was restored thanks to a YouTube video. I would never in a million years have guessed to press the test button after the battery was removed to clear the residual something or other, then install the fresh battery, but that was the magic trick that was required. Bless you dear helpful YouTube video people.

Holiday sweets production resumed today with two batches of the fan favorite Christmas Crack cranked out. There was a slight blip this morning after the pans were lined with foil and the saltines and other ingredients were pulled from the pantry. After weeks of ignoring the sales on chocolate baking morsels because I thought there were several bags in the pantry, it was learned that I did not have several bags, and in reality I had no bags. There were bags of butterscotch and white chocolate chips, a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate, a block of  white melting chocolate, and bags of sliced almonds, slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, and chopped pecans, but no bags of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Another trip out was needed. 

Semi-sweet and milk
chocolate Christmas Crack.

WalMart was visited as the winner of closest store and lowest baking chip prices found online. Of course the shopping extended beyond a few bags of chocolate baking chips and I left the place loaded with more crackers, more butterscotch chips and two cans of chow mein noodles for haystacks, pretzel rods which may or may not be dipped in various things, and pecan halves, and $30 lighter in the bank account.

While punk rock Christmas played from the laptop, two sheets of cracker based candy were prepared, one with saltines, the other using cinnamon sugar graham crackers (experimental!). Somehow, despite me constantly running to the laptop to see if my guesses about the groups singing the songs were correct, nothing was burned and the magical correct amount of time elapsed between removal from the oven and scoring the stuff with the pizza cutter. When it was time to break it all up and store it in containers, it was a breeze. The cookie pans are cleaned and ready for the next project. Pecan turtle cookies? Mexican mocha balls? Another wild card entry? It's anyone’s guess. The recipe wheel of fortune will decide.

Tonight was the last dance class of the year and now it’s free time on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings until January. The 25 yard skirt and the veil can be hung up for a couple weeks. It was a good year for dance with the two dance groups and several more performances than in recent years. The fun and sparkly times definitely offset the dull and less fun times. It’s all about balance, kiddos. Sometimes literally.

Somehow the calendar in my head has gone a bit sideways and I keep thinking there is another week before Christmas arrives instead of it being next week. Oy. Time to kick this holiday spirit thing into high gear. But first, there is a dental appointment Wednesday morning and an MRI Thursday morning. Then I can get super duper festive and stuff. You know, balance and stuff.