The Boys! The Cake! School! Beer!

I had a lovely time with theSon and his Best Man. Like most young people, they are adorable: they are both excellent people.

My son left to go to the store to buy some stuff for putting the ceiling fan up, and 20 minutes later he came back in the house.

I said, "that was fast!" 

"Haven't left yet," he grinned. "We spent this time getting the lid off and the back seat in."

Translation: they took the top down on the Jeep.

So I walked them back out to the Wrangler. They were happy as clams in muck driving out of the garage with the sun shining on 'em.

~~~

Black Magic Cake!

The cake turned out wonderful!

I think the cake WITHOUT ICING would be even better - maybe just with a doily cloth pattern of powdered sugar on it.  By all means, make this cake. It's worth it. Next time, I'll do stronger coffee in it.
el yummo!

The icing didn't 'set up' the way it's supposed to when it's put in the refrigerator.

The reason, I surmise in a stuffy professorial way, is because I didn't really follow the recipe. I thought that, since the cake had coffee in it, the icing should too! I replaced the milk with coffee - it tasted good, but just didn't set up.

Mama's Slabby Icing 

(As Mom says, this isn't HER recipe - just a regular recipe that she discovered would set up if put in the refrigerator; also, the icing recipe included with the cake recipe above is similar, but uses margarine.

YUCK! DON'T USE MARGARINE! Bad! BAD!).

Melt together 1 stick butter & 4 unsweetened chocolate squares, 
all chopped up. 

Cool the mixture for 5 minutes.

Add 2 tsps Vanilla.

Alternately mix in:

One box (about 4 cups) icing sugar & 1/2 cup milk - ending with sugar.

It should be a bit stiff, but spreadable (with coffee - it was liquidy).

As you can see, this is just enough for an oblong pan cake.

~~~

On Thursday, I was in my seat at the front of the class, sneezing, hacking, coughing, snotting all over, semi-sleeping, etc. because I had summer cold.

(You all may not know this, but I had taken the previous Thursday OFF from  school [yes, I skipped school] because I couldn't stand the thought of listening to him read the text to us for three hours.
As Brian said, "Karma's a bitch," since I couldn't take off the day I was ACTUALLY sick, having wasted my allowed day already.)

Sigh....

We were supposed to have a test this last Thursday, but he ended up giving it to us for Take Home. I hope my sneezing, hacking, coughing, snotting all over, semi-sleeping, etc. self helped him make that decision!

Today, a week later, I learned that the school is closed due to flooding! No school today!

Woot! 

~~~

Brian & Eliza went to the first Baltimore Grand Prix while I had the boys. Eliza sent me a pic of their first beer at the race - they had a great time.

Beer at the First Baltimore Grand Prix! at NOON!

Funny, isn't it? Him with theGurl and me with theBoy(s). Backwards, but fun.There's something wonderful about being with one's child of the opposite sex, cuz there are ways in which you can NEVER know them. "You just look at them and sigh, and know they love you."

mj