This is what you get when the perfect storm intersects with the absence of Heather, the closure of DC Public Schools and the Federal Government, and cancellation of Grandma Carol's pre-planned Monday flight to help out:
After dropping off Heather at the airport for sunny San Francisco (where Heather experienced the Giants win the World Series), Lily demanded that we bake a cake with orange frosting for Grandma Carol. 30 minutes after Heather's plane departed DC, the cake & frosting (both from scratch) were done and decorated with various scary items from around the house. Lily advised Dad & Amalia no one was to touch the cake until Grandma arrived.
Once Lily learned Grandma Carol was not coming to DC, due to the cancellation of all Monday & Tuesday flights into DC, She demanded a call to Grandma to ask just when she planned to visit us. When the answer was Thanksgiving or Christmas, Lily was crushed and needed Amalia to help her come back from the doldrums. Thus, a previously unopened 60-piece puzzle was opened and completed without assistance from Dad. Despite her "spirit," Amalia really is a very caring little girl who senses when someone is truly grieving, which is when we really get to see her very big heart shine through.
Another puzzle.
And a few more candid photos taken by the girls. The roll had 50+ photos. They were busy.
Me "relaxing" by doing the dishes.
Grandma Carol's cake in the trash after we tried it when we knew Grandma wasn't coming. Turns out frosting with granulated sugar tastes like a bunch of sugar. Go figure. And, no, we didn't throw the cake in the trash just because we were going through the grieving process and happened upon the "anger" stage...
Looks Like Lily's foot. She was wearing her charcoal skeggings (skirt with leggings built in).
Amalia shot this one. I do believe that is me AFTER I got a haircut Sunday.
Lily asked me if the camera's viewfinder was centered on her face. I said yes, if her face was her eyes & nose.
And then today, Monday, everything was closed, except the Pierce Bakery. It turned out that Six Flags America (45 minutes away) closed without much notice on Sunday (last day of the 2012 season), and we drove all the way out there to partake of the Frightfest for the first time. Bummer. But we hit Target and got some pumpkin pie makings. So come Monday, Gabe offers up a play date at his place, and I am left with a despondent Amalia who angrily states, "I never get to go to Gabe's!" Myself being a master of the art of distraction, and knowing Amalia loves to cook -- she is an avid TV cooking show watcher, even over cartoons, really -- I offer up making a pumpkin pie. Enter our neighbors Baracka and Zahra and the four of us had a great time baking.
Many trips back & forth between our two houses, since apparently one hour to bake and two hours to cool before eating is waaaaaay toooooo long, Lily had returned and we all sat down and enjoyed a slice of heaven 30 seconds after the timer went off. Pie doesn't get much fresher. And, yes, Lily was very upset she missed out on the pumpkin pie making.
Not to worry. I bought enough for two pies. I'm no fool. Stay tuned for Tuesday. Everything is closed again. Mom is still in SF. Grandma Carol is still not here.
It is now just past Midnight, and amazingly, the worst of the storm -- dubbed Frankenstorm, due to its proximity to Halloween (on which it actually snowed last year) -- has apparently passed and we never lost power. I thought I would have to rush the blog posting before we went dark for a few days. Kudos to Pepco, who (seriously) averages an outage every other month.
Did I mention we got solar panels installed on our roof, but cannot use the sun's power when Pepco has an outage? Apparently, a "back-flow valve" was invented only for water pipes and no one thought to do the same for those of us who invest tens of thousands of dollars in solar panels, only to be without power with the rest of the non-solar customers.
Yes, this is what our blog would be like if Andy was in charge. Be grateful for Heather's wit and brevity.
