I Should Have Known Better

I was so tired last night, I slept until 10:30. It was 11:30 before I finally got started making Pear-Cinnamon Pancakes for breakfast. Today's Brunch With the Beatles theme was "Songs That Came Out In the Fall and Holiday Season." Beatles songs from the tail end of the year include "Come Together," "I Am the Walrus," "Penny Lane," and "Strawberry Fields Forever." I tried calling Mom, but got the answering machine. She probably went out to run errands before the Eagles game. I'd call her back tomorrow.

Everything went downhill from there. After the show ended, I tried to make a caramel icing for the Caramel Apple Cake I made last night. I used a recipe for caramel frosting from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  Melting the butter went fine, but it was almost 12:30 at that point. I guess I should have let the butter cool more before I put the brown sugar in. No amount of stirring could turn the brown sugar into icing instead of candy. Putting in powdered sugar just made things worse. When I tried to solve the problem by chopping up the brown sugar bits in the food processor, I just jammed the food processor instead. Removing the blade to fix the problem just made a mess. I finally turned it into Caramel Apple Poke Cake with Brown Sugar Candy Bits and just brought it to Dad's football party anyway.

Of course, there was no party. It was just Dad, Jodie, our cousin Mark, and an old friend of Uncle Ken's, Al, and a salad and meatball or sausage sandwiches. Everyone else was busy with Halloween festivals or other parties going on this weekend. Rose and Craig dropped Khai off right before I left, but they couldn't stay. This is Restaurant Week, and Anthony's was very busy. The game wasn't going well, either. Michael Vick, the Eagles' quarterback, left early on, complaining about his hamstring bothering him again. The Giants got three field goals during the first half; at least the Eagles held them to not much more than that. The Giants finally won, 15-7.

I left my lunch box and cell phone at Dad's and had to go back for it, which meant I was almost late for work. I wish I'd never set foot in that store. Work was not only busy for most of the evening, it was a pain. People were obnoxious, cranky, and rude. One older woman kicked up a fuss about the Acme being out of the kosher turkeys for that free turkey coupon and not being able to use the coupon on a later order. (You have to use the coupon with your 100 dollar order, or no dice...and no saving gradually, either.) Another person put back a quarter of their order and held up a very long line. A third went on and on about how horrible the store was because she had to buy three items to get a certain sale, instead of the one she wanted. Several people gave me a hard time about bagging. It didn't help that I was still feeling bad about how the icing disaster and the party. My stomach is still in knots, even after eating a grapefruit and taking a shower when I got home.