2001-12-06 - 8:37 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Give My Regards to Broadway"

At my 14-person office, for every birthday, we buy a cake and everybody gets together to eat it in the afternoon. I'm sick of store-bought cakes, and I work with a bunch of chocolate freaks, so I decided to bake my own cake this year.

So on Tuesday I tried to make my mom's Devil's Food Cake. It's a dark (but not bitter), dense chocolate cake -- the opposite of Angel Food Cake, basically. The cake calls for a 9" square pan, and I only had an 8", so I made an 8" cake plus six overgrown cupcakes. Yummy. Not bad. It's too fluffy, for some reason, but Poindexter says he can't tell the difference taste-wise from my mom's. Hooray!

Today I was talking to Kevin about PDAs and why they don't work for me. My company gave me a palm pilot a few years ago, and I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I got too frustrated with how slow it was. I can type as fast as I can think, so the Palm was a big step down. If anybody comes up with a full keyboard that folds itself up into a compact size, that is when I'll consider buying a PDA.

Not only that, but one of the things it's good for -- to-do lists -- is not fun enough to do on the PDA.

One day, my mother happened upon one of my to-do lists that I keep for work. She laughed 'til she had tears in her eyes because of how I do it: I write down the item, then make a little checkbox, and when I finish something, I make a neat check in the box.

I get an immense feeling of satisfaction from doing this. Tapping the box on the Palm Pilot was nowhere near as satisfying.

There's a hint of obsessive/compulsive to this, I think. I *have* to make the checkboxes (or at least put a dash to visually separate distinct items). And I have to use a check. My husband told me to make a "Wifey's Wish List" of stuff I'd like him to do when he had the time, since he's a househusband right now, so I did and I made checkboxes. He crossed them off with a big messy X that was bigger than the box. I didn't like that.

Me and my checkboxes is now a big family joke. My mom got me a card this year that had a series of checkbox items on the inside, the last of which was "Happy 30th Birthday". She got it just because of the checkboxes. I opened it while we were on speakerphone with them, so they got to hear me laugh at the card.

Before I've completely forgotten, Stacey, Brent, Kelsey and Lee were all here this weekend. It was a blast, as usual. Kelsey is almost seven and Lee is almost 7 months old now.

On Saturday morning, I went downstairs at 8am and told Stacey to go back to bed. Then I played games with Kelsey while Lee napped, and then when he woke up, put him in his exersaucer next to us on the floor so he could watch while we played cards. Everybody (including Poindexter!) slept until 11am, but Stacey and Brent seemed to appreciate the extra sleep.

Stacey and I took Kelsey to the playground on Saturday evening. I went running around on the equipment with her. This is quite a workout. I have very spindly arms and can't do the monkey bars worth shit.

At one point, we were playing on a contraption that had cutouts something like windows, so Kelsey decided we should play McDonald's Drive Thru. We took a turn each playing the customer and the waiter. Then Kelsey wanted to take more turns, and she ordered the same thing, and then I was the customer, and then she said, "Let's do it again."

By this time my eyes were ready to roll back in my head from sheer boredom. I know that kids like to do repetitive stuff (such as watching a single movie literally dozens of times) but the drive-thru game was even worse. Then Stacey came in and spiced it up.

Kelsey: Welcome to McDonald's, may I help you?
Stacey: Do you have a menu?
Kelsey: [hands her imaginary menu]
Stacey: [leafs through imaginary menu and ponders]
Kelsey: [impatiently] May I take your order?
Stacey: No, I haven't decided yet [continues to peruse menu].
Kelsey: [fidgets]
Stacey: OK, I would like a fish sandwich, and I don't want any tartar sauce on that, and I want fries, and a Coke...
Kelsey: OK, that'll be one doll--
Stacey: I'm not done yet! And [rattles off impossibly long list including "three sundaes -- two chocolate and one caramel"]
Kelsey: [Laughing] OK, that'll be $8.55.
Stacey: [Counts out a five, three singles, quarter, quarter, five pennies verrrrrry slowly.]
Kelsey: Please pull up to the next window for your food.

At the pickup window, Stacey pitched a fit about various aspects of the order -- "I asked for two chocolate and one caramel and you've given me two caramel and one chocolate" -- cracking up both me and Kelsey and making the game a lot more fun.

The boys, as usual, played computer games on PoindexterNet (yes, he named it after himself, but he named the computers themselves "Computer 1" and "Computer 2", and I am demanding he change the name of at least one of them to be after me). Constantly. For, like, 8 hours a day. Finally Stacey decided to try out "Unreal Tournament", and the next thing I know Poindexter's wandering around, lost, alone, upstairs because she's playing with her husband downstairs.

I go down there, and catch her saying, "Dear, I'm just going to kill people. I can't go looking around for flags and kill people. I'm not a do-it-all kind of girl."

She rode my dirt bike around the block a few times. She liked it.

Brent, unbeknownst to me, washed a bunch of dishes on Sunday morning. He is an angel.

Lee smiles constantly and the only time I saw him get upset was when someone tried to wipe his runny nose. I was holding him up so he could stand (his favorite activity, it seems), and said to Poindexter, "How come I like kids so much but I don't want any of my own?"

"That's easy," he said, "They're cute as the dickens, but they're really annoying sometimes."

Auntie Evelynne it is, then. :)

Had another trip to the salon today, so I could get another perm (three inches of hair growing left my roots looking very flat).

I had my brows waxed again, but got a little more adventurous this time, and man, I like 'em. I mean, a lot. I'm all excited about my eyebrows, which has never happened to me before. When I get more batteries for my digital camera, I'll take before-and-after photos. My MIL will be quite pleased.

If we do end up leaving this area, one of the things I will sorely miss (along with places like Kinkead's and the wonderful people I've met) is the Andre Chreky Salon. That place is amazing. It's in an old row house, with exposed brick, and the place runs like a well-oiled machine. It's always busy, yet there is always someone there ready to do whatever it is you need. And everybody is really nice and attentive. I always leave there feeling fantastically gorgeous.

Whoever Andre Chreky is -- and I think I've seen him around, looking like a random stylist rather than a bigwig owner -- he is one hell of a successful businessman.

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