Rhubarb-velvet apricot tart!

This.was.unreal!

Monday, Monday

Ol and I slept in the basement last night, and he stayed home from school today. I think it's one of his fever spells, and I felt badly for him because he was truly disappointed to miss a day of school. Nonetheless, we had a ball, except for the moment at which Nutmeg hurled and before I could clean it all up, Percy ran over and starting eating. REPULSIVE. Anyway, Ol watched The Phantom Menace for about the 49th time, I made a chocolate-almond cake (which I then froze) and some granola, we took a walk, dropped my car at the shop to have the rear brakes replaced, played Angry Birds together, finished and mounted the "family shield" we've all been working on, and played a very intense game of Star Wars after he rebuilt and upgraded this belt o' Zoobs he created yesterday. It is full of "arms and light sabers." I do not totally understand the arms bit but I believe it has something to do with being able to hold many more sabers than he otherwise could.

He would walk circles around the house, intoning, each time he passed me, "My master has ordered me to watch out for you" or the like. At one point, convinced I was a Sith, he tried to behead me with a light saber but fortunately I convinced him -just in time- that the Sith had mind-controlled his belt and were tricking him in the hopes that he'd then kill Jedi for them. You can see that he can adopt a very threatening look! Personally, I like how his chin dimple seems amplified in presence when he does this.

His performance on the family shield wasn't as strong however. In fact, it pales in comparison and looks rather like a wan spread of average food. The log is an eclair, the orange donut thing is a Honey Nut O, and honestly, the other round thing could be a donut or an O for Oliver; it's probably the latter since it's done in his two favorite colors. Jack really went full speed ahead in his quadrant, and Tom did a nice, if faded-effect, job in his; that giant chef's knife is because he loves and takes pride in his cutting/chopping skills, people, nothing sinister.

I fancy my space, though why the gumbo pot is larger than Nutmeg and my garden is beyond me. Hell, that piece of cake isn't small either.

Speaking of cake, I have been on some kind of dessert tear lately. It appears I've morphed into an insatiable hog with a tapeworm, as if the latter is necessary if one is already an insatiable hog. In any case, I've just been going with it and am totally pleased with my absolute laissez-faire attitude. In fact, I've got a good mind to go make a rhubarb-apricot tart right now, just cuz.

T is at a Lady Gaga concert. Despite how unlikely that sounds, it happens to be true. A friend had an extra ticket so he said yes. Frankly, I'm very proud of his work-night spontaneity, and at the least, it'll certainly be an experience.

I am so happy I did not get invited to a Gaga concert. Ol and I have bunked together two nights in a row, and I'm happy on my couch next to snoring Percy. My thighs are weeping quietly over the run I took earlier, and I'm sure to pay with stiffness tomorrow, but it sure felt good to pound along in the sunshine earlier. And hey, more room for dessert. ;)

Aah...

What a lovely day! I was up with Ol last night, from about 3:30-4:30 because he was slightly feverish and thought he might "fro up." He didn't and we had such a sweet time together (including the marvelous recollection that I had frozen cinnamon rolls in the chest freezer in our garage; after tucking him in for the last time, I went and got those rolls and let them thaw on the counter from there on out). That said, I felt lucky my men let me then sleep in the basement until 9:30 when they brought me a latte with a heart-shaped frothed milk design and a plate of those cinnamon rolls, now warm and gooey and fragrant and fabulous.

The recipe for these  beauties is one of the treasures I've gotten from Molly Wizenberg. In fact, when I briefly met her last night, I mentioned how much my boys loved these and how they were our "special breakfast" tradition 90% of the time. Part of her inscription to me wishes for more cinnamon rolls in my future, and as such, this morning's three (and this evening's two) were even better than usual.

After feasting, we hung out and then realized that game 1 of Jack's double header was in the fairly immediate future. To the ballpark! It was a spectacular day, and the boys played winningly. Literally, they won both games. In the meantime, the moms lined up in folding chairs on the sidelines while the dads offered us gatorade or soda and we secretly (so as not to share) passed a tub of chocolate-caramel pretzels back and forth. I left after the first game, went to the market and then Delancey and I made a beeline for my birthday chaise. Incroyable!

I bathed my filthy darlings until the water ran gray and their arms gleamed clean once again, fed Jack forty dinners and T and I tucked them in. Then it was happily to the kitch together. He made a batch of my Super-Duper steak rub and prepped the filets while I made another batch of last night's cumin carrots and fennel with ricotta. He shucked corn, I cooked it. I set the table on the deck, he poured some good Zin. As the sun set and we supped, I felt deeply happy. Hope you all had a splendid day.

I love how olive oil pools in yogurt or, in this case, loose ricotta. Lovely isn't it.