And make way for my smooth operation

Over the weekend I finished touching up the drywall, vacuumed the room, and took out the temporary floor. I also broke out the belt sander and started to sand the floor.

This is an actual conversation that I had with my wife this morning:

Me: Why didn’t you take that yogurt to work? With the granola? I bought it for you since you’ve been looking for healthy snacks to take to work.
Wifey: I don’t like granola.
Me: At that breakfast two weeks ago you said that yogurt with granola was the best thing you ever ate!
Wifey: I know, it was really good. I still had some left over and I ate it yesterday.
Me: So you like granola?
Wifey: But I don’t know how healthy it is to eat too much granola.
Me: Are you kidding?
Wifey: And I don’t really like mango yogurt.
Me: Have you ever tried mango yogurt?
Wifey: No but I don’t really like the idea of mango-flavored things.
Me: Fine, I’ll take the yogurt.
Wifey: No, now I kind of want it.

Sanding the floor will take a long time with both the belt sander and the palm sander. But sometimes it’s nice to have a time-consuming task planned for the weekend that makes it impossible to hear anyone else.

Filibuster vigilantly

Early in September, I somehow volunteered to make my brother’s wedding cake. This seemed like a good idea until I realized that I didn’t know how to make a wedding cake.

On September 10 and September 11, I spent the weekend trying out various angel food cake recipes and cake pans. I settled on one recipe and made a 12x18 sheet cake that I brought to my grandmother’s house. Conveniently, it was her birthday. I wrote “Happy 9/11” on the cake but she didn’t notice. It was, after all, written in delicious buttercream. She loved the cake.

Then on September 14-15 I made a round cake with raspberry mousse inside and practiced with fondant. My wife took it to her book club. They didn’t really care for the mousse but they loved the buttercream. Everyone loves buttercream.

So on September 17 I presented my brother and sister-in-law with a giant white cake with blue details, including their wedding logo. It was a four-layer angel food cake with strawberry filling and buttercream all over. It came out great, but it took so long that I actually forgot about the room renovation.

On September 24 and 25 I just got drunk in my cousin’s driveway. It was as glamorous as it sounds.

But alas, on October 1 and 2 wifey and I got back to work! We sanded, added a third coat of taping compound, and sanded again. Now I just need to touch up a few spots and I can work on the floors! Unless you know someone who needs a wedding cake, because I really don’t want to sand those floors.