Downtown Vegas, Fremont. The old 70’s look appeals to me the most. Bet and lost on Kentucky Derby. Blues lost last night. Bet on them to win for tomorrow. Boxing tonight. Dumb and fun stuff on the strip.

At first, I tried something very complex, and it was a disaster right away, so I flipped the pink, Speedy Carve over and started again with a simpler approach.  I need to learn how to mentally transpose images.  I have a much bigger piece of this carve and it's not cheap.  I watched a YouTube video this morning recommending a cheap, Dollar Tree eraser rubber material as an alternative.  I might hunt that down while I'm giving stamped prints a try.

Splodges of blue, black, and silver.  Washes off hands, roller, and stamp (and sink, and everywhere else I dashed it!).  This took me a while.  I had to cut the lawn midway because I heard it starting to rain and the grass waits for no one.  The pollen *almost* killed me.  Maybe next time...

Speaking of next times, I am going to build myself a screen and try making a printed t-shirt.  No, really.  I might forego hammering my fingers and buy one I can assemble at the local Mart just to get moving.  Thrash an old t-shirt of lighter color, and see if I can Mental Thermos it up.

Planted Arizona Sun, Beekeeper’s Mix, Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes, Red & Yellow Jelly Bean Tomatoes, Morning Glory, Early Wonder Beets...pruned and weeded. It’s time. We might be safe from frost.  Almost flipped out when the cups, hit by a wind gust, took a little tumble over.  I had 18 of them lined up on the edge of the deck when that happened.  I fished out those baby seeds and replanted them all over again.  Sometimes you have to do things twice.

Cracked my windshield, maybe last weekend when camping. Did a second, longer hike (4 miles of Missouri hiking up and down the hills among the hickory trees and rough rocky river bed is a long hike for me right now). Have to get better hiking shoes. Mine are crap. Also, my in-laws’ camper blew a tire and we all ended up on the side of the highway - utterly terrifying. People zinging by at 65mph inches from you. I sent the not-so-little boy up the bluff to wait on the rocks in the shade and gave him instructions to keep an eye on our camper down the road. The police arrived. No one moved over a lane. He said “...yep, most people are jackasses on the highway...”

Had to hoof it back down to our little baby camper and take it to its storage spot and it was a long day Sunday, so, probably picked up a rock that day.

I was a little bored yesterday and signed us up for a half marathon at Disney. Surprisingly, my wife just texted me back “Ok, fine.”

I printed off a 19 week plan. We’ve done them before but not by training and I have come to hate mile 9-13.1. There’s probably a better way.

With 15 seconds left, coming back from trailing 2-0 for 2 periods, a baseball style shot put the Jets out of their misery and the Blues take the series lead again! They’re playing the best hockey I’ve seen in years.

My wife is turning 40 and I’ve been wanting to make it special - something to remember - so, stretching it over the next week we are celebrating. Had an epic family get together yesterday and promptly hit the road at 10pm headed to Bristol, TN, for the Food 500 NASCAR race, a good 9 hours from home. Pit passes start at 10am and I think we’ll just make it to town by then if all goes well. Listening to sultry country music (“...you break things when you get mad...”) about to cross into Kentucky.

Totally garbage week. Not much salvageable except to be glad to have left TX early, stormy weather all around there and tough work, getting home to the family and this little book, which is so heartbreakingly written it is worthy of a first reading followed by a second.

"It's like trying to make a masterpiece with a screwdriver and a hammer and hoping for the best..."

My wife (above) trying to reassure me that making your first iced cake without a spinning table and sweet piping bags and the like is still going to make a really good cake.  Not The Spring Baking Championship great.  My first try.  

I woke up this morning wondering what to do with the blueberries.  They were not great no matter where I bought them from.  We are between seasons.  The ones from Sam's were granular as though they were frozen and the ones from the local grocery store were so tart as to pucker the mouth.

I would like to say that I did it on my own, but I had an extra set of hands (who washed a lot of dishes and held the bowl, and just generally reassured me I was not an idiot, which I need sometimes, given as I am to throwing in the towel when I get flustered - ref. country line dancing, playing the guitar, painting, and on).  

Here it is below - because anyone can make a cake out of various leftovers in the pantry and fridge.

On the left, cake batter cooling in the fridge.  On the right, cooling in the freezer, blueberries bubbled in a little Caro syrup.

Left to right...top to bottom...

• cut circles of parchment
• butter bottom of pans
• lay the circles in, butter the circles
• add some flour
• cover the pan, empty the extra out

Thicken up the blueberries with some flour.

Mix into batter.  So swirly.  Add to pans.  Smack the bubbles out a few times.

Then, into the oven.  350 until you can draw a knife out clean.

Cut the pointy tops off each cake with a bread knife and a steady set of hands or two; two is better than one, as is often the case.  Set to cool.  I put them in the fridge for a while.  My icing was thicker than a pair of Pentecostals engaged in a tent revival, so I let it sit on the counter.  You might want to cool your icing.  Your call.

I looked up a lot of cream cheese icing recipes, but I didn't have enough cream cheese to make any of them, so I went with this hybrid, which required some serious whippin' in the mixer:

• 2 sticks of butter
• 12 oz cream cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 10 cups powered sugar
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• the rest of the blueberry compote (mostly juice with a few stray blueberry pieces)

Get all of it into a freezer bag with an icing tip, but it was really not necessary and I pulled it off shortly after starting, opting to use the free-flow of the plastic tip-guide instead.  Bottom layer down, swirl some tubes, smear with flat icing knife or butter knife.  Top layer, repeat.

The sides were not easy and I know a fourth grader could have done a cleaner job just by the number of paper towels it took to clean the extra off the plate. Mind you, a spinning cake stand would have been very helpful, along with a square edge to smarten things up a bit.  My family is generally non-complaining about experiments from risotto to gnocchi, to baked goods bearing no resemblance to their title.  

And...complete.

I am presently speeding down a mountain in a mini-van with 4 coworkers on highway 81 on the way to North Carolina from Virginia.  Scored a few Nutella's at the down-home hotel this morning.  You never know when you might end up sleeping in the Atlanta airport.  Like maybe tomorrow night.  Bad feeling about this with all these Boeing 737 Max's being grounded.  The Nutella will sustain me.  And Truth by Shallou.

Let em live while they can
Let em spin
Let em scatter on the wind....

(hashtag <3)