The Definite Article

I brought four full bags of luggage over to Scotland, emptied three of them into my flat on Fettes Row and then put them, empty inside one another for the return trip.

Somehow, all of the things that were unimportant three weeks ago are vital now and I've packed a full extra bag of luggage as well as filling the previously empty bags.

Anyway, yesterday was a baking day: Carol baked bread and cookies, I baked a chocolate cake (frosted with a lovely cream frosting, so simple: put 8oz cream cheese, 1.25 cups powdered sugar, a lid of vanilla, a lid of orange extract, 1.5 cups heavy cream and whip until stiff - magnifique).

Unfortunately, due to poor planning, I baked a huge cake, three layers, and there was no one around to enjoy it: Chris was in Puerto Rico, Karl was in Florida with Danielle, Paul and Ange were out in Harrisonburg and it was too late to really call up Rachael and Eric.

Since we'd baked all day, there wasn't any real food to be had, so Carol and I had to eat cake. We ate about half of the cake. Carol and I became Jack Sprat and his wife - I ate the cake part, Carol ate the frosting; between the two of us, we licked the platter clean.

Then we tried to get some sleep. Carol succeeded. She also managed to get her feet warm and me cold - at the same time! I'll leave the manner and type of this thermodynamic exchange as an exercise for the reader. Sufficeth to say that I didn't sleep as readily and instead spent about an hour trying to get my Red Hat 9 laptop to recognize my Linksys WUSB11 2.5 wireless USB adapter, followed by about an hour killing Lich Lords off of Hebian-To to vent frustration at failing to configure my laptop. I swear, one day I will get Kismet to work!

Now we're all packed and will leave in about half an hour. I always feel like I've forgotten something. I'm usually right.

Cheers!
- Nathan