Began the morning with breakfast and the 2018 Muppet Babies. "It's a Wonderful Elf-Bot," which Bunsen and Beaker invent to help the Muppets make a wreath for Statler and Waldorf. They're supposed to put art supplies in and get a present, but end up creating presents for themselves. They learn a lesson in giving when the Elf-Bot overloads, and they're out of art supplies to make a wreath. "A Merry Litter Christmas" has Bunsen learning a lesson about littering when he throws his shrimp-flavored milk into outer space to get rid of it, only to find the boxes are raining down on Gonzo's home planet of Gonzonia and blocking the shipping lanes.
Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon making more cookies. Did the two from-scratch batches today. The oatmeal chocolate chip recipe came from Prevention Magazine when Linda Young gave me that subscription in 2010. I got a lot of great recipes from Prevention that year, but that one is my favorite. The cookies are made with egg whites, and they come out moist and chewy every time. The ginger molasses recipe comes from the Cookie Classics Made Easy cookbook Lauren sent me a decade ago. I've never done a bad cookie from that book, and these are no exception. I didn't even burn anything this time. The ginger molasses spread slightly more than I would have liked, but they tasted great and smelled amazing in the oven. The oatmeal chocolate chip came out perfectly.
It was so late when I finally ate lunch and got everything cleaned up, I called Uber to get to work. Or tried to, anyway. I must not have pushed the prong for the charger all the way in. It was down to 1 when I picked it up. I had to wait for it to get up to 4 to use it. (At least there's places in the cafeteria where you can charge your phone!) When I did finally call them, they took 13 minutes to arrive. Thankfully, there was no traffic anywhere once they did get there, but that did mean I was 5 minutes late to work.
Which was not a good thing. We were crazy today. We had at least 22 pre-school/kindergarten kids and 20 older kids, and it's still too cold and messy for them to play outside. Ironically, we did end up outside anyway at one point. The head teacher (who's watching the older kids this week) called a practice fire drill about mid-way through the session. Everyone trooped outside...and then all the kids complained because there was no time to bring their jackets, and it was sunny but still pretty cold. I told one of the shivering girls they could lean on me for body heat.
They were still pretty rowdy even inside. They were crazy in the bathrooms, and crazy in the cafeteria...and once again, the library was being used, and we couldn't separate the two groups. Things settled down slightly once one of the teachers pulled out the Duplos and magnetic tiles along with coloring. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening coloring with the kids. I did two scenes from The WENN Nutcracker Suite, Betty trying to convince Queen Gloria to let Christmas go on despite what the Mouse King told her, and Scott changing back into a human. I was about to start a grove of Christmas trees when there was few enough kids to let me go. The parents of one of the little boys even gave me a $20 WaWa gift card and a lovely Christmas card for doing such a good job watching their son.
Called Uber again after work...and once again had to wait 14 minutes for a driver. At least I spotted them fast when they did arrive. There was a little traffic around Collings and the White Horse Pike, but not enough to make it more than a five-minute ride home.
Did a few quick chores before Jessa picked me up a little after 6. We had dinner at Ponzio's Diner in Cherry Hill. Jessa has never been to this long-standing Cherry Hill institution, and I've only been there twice. (Once was with Dad when he took me to the near-by bike shop in March 2018.) Jessa had salmon cakes, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and a cup of chicken orzo soup. I had a shrimp salad sandwich on rye toast that was absolutely delicious, tasty hot fries, and a tiny cup of soupy Cole slaw. Jess had a gigantic black and white cookie for dessert. I had a massive slice of German chocolate cake that was slightly dry, but made up for it with its rich flavor and wonderfully thick chocolate and coconut-pecan icing. We talked about Dad, video games we liked, and childhood memories.
Finished the night watching Christmas On the Square at Netflix. I go further into this melodramatic Dolly Pardon TV musical that won an Emmy for Best TV movie in 2021 at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
(Oh, and Rose texted me earlier in the day. Yes, she and her family are not going away for Christmas this year. Did I want to come over and do a big appetizer spread, like I did at Thanksgiving? Sure! I have presents to give them all anyway.)
No comments:
Post a Comment