My Plan Is Working

She says as she grins mischievously and twists the sides of her handlebar mustache. Wait, I bought one of those Smooth Away thingies, leaving me virtually free of all unwanted hair. Ahem. Scratch the mustache twiddling image you now have in your head, if you will.

Now, what was I saying? Oh yes, my quest for total world domination complete silence has been achieved. With minimal effort and a few cash dollars, I might add. Caroline has been happily attending a day camp provided by the parks department this week. We originally signed up for just one week to break up the monotony this summer. You know, add a little excitement and variety to our usual summer day of whining, eating all my snacks and going to the pool. As luck wouldn't have it, the two girls Caroline plays with most frequently will be out of town NEXT week. If I only knew, I would have switched weeks; now she'll be without playmates next week. And, as you know, that is completely unacceptable to Ms. Social Butterfly. This afternoon I suggested we sign her up for another week and she happily agreed.
This is a big relief. Mostly because I enjoy the quiet, but also because nobody likes it when Caroline is bored. She makes sure of that. My helpful suggestions to clean her room or read a book are usually met with ugly looks which amuses me but makes Caroline a little testy.

So my problem is solved. For the low low price of $98 (TOTALLY worth it, by the way) Caroline will be enjoying another week at camp. This week is all about travel; next week is a pirate theme. Aaaargh!

In other news, I had a baking disaster this evening. My chocolate chip pound cake was doomed from the start, so I'm not surprised it fell apart upon removal from the pan. Somedays things just don't work as well as you'd like. The streusel sunk beneath the surface and the outside got too brown. I was only trying to use up some extra buttermilk and in the process mutiltated a harmless loaf of pound cake. On the flip side, I made some outrageous butterscotch cashew bars that I'm pretty sure I'd marry if it were deemed socially acceptable to wed a baked good. I'm not kidding; they're THAT good. Sweet and salty with a caramel-ly shortbread crust.
I have some pretty strong feelings regarding nuts in baked goods, meaning, for the love of all that is holy and pure, please do not defile baked goods by putting nuts in brownies. Or cookies. Or banana bread. Contrary to my previous statement, these sweet bars, loaded with salty cashews are awesome. And totally not defiled by the presence of nuts. In fact, they probably wouldn't be any good without the cashews. I'm a big fan of the sweet/salty combo.

I'm some what annoyed with myself for my pound cake snafu, but on the bright side, I did make some successful butterscotch bars. I wanted to leave Craig's work peeps with a memorable dish because they won't be receiving any tasty treats for the next two weeks. Craig will be on leave for a few weeks, taking a trip to see his mom and then we're headed to Hershey, PA after that for some chocolate themed vacation fun.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to find some Hershey's Cinnamon baking chips when we're in Hershey. I love those things, especially in oatmeal cookies, but cannot find them anywhere around here. I bought them quite regularly when we lived in Arizona, but since then, I've had no luck.

And so this concludes my post of absolute random nonsense. Hey, at least it occupied me for half of the Obamacare press conference. I'm a self described political junkie, but I think I've heard all I can stomach for now.

Or maybe my stomach is churning because I ate so many bites of the butterscotch cashew bars as I cut them up.

Nah, it's the press conference.

If you must know, I just screamed at the television, uttered a few bad words and then hit the off button with some authority. I figured that would be better than throwing my shoes (ha, I just typed throwing up) at the tv.

Flip flops don't do much damage, but I'd hate for the neighbor girls to see me having a hissy fit.

I'm way too mature for that!