DINKS

Clay and I are living the DINKY lifestyle in high form. DINKYs are those of us who are considered Double Income, No Kids Yet. These are the couples who do all of the traveling and eating out and concert-going and such that has seemed to define our summer. And thus why I haven't been blogging so much. In a nice turn of events, the problem has not been that I have nothing to write about, but that I have so much to write about that I don't have time to write it.

In the last month or so, we have been to two concerts (Cake and Blondie), one rockin' "white trash" party, one movie (not including the 10 or 15 Clay has Netflixed), numerous dinners, shopping trips, and more. We've been to farmer's markets and even to Indiana a few times. We've planned our next big trip. (VEGAS, here we come!) We've hosted a very spectacular house guest (thanks for doing laundry, Mom!), and we've still been riding our bikes some (ok, Clay has been riding a lot more than I have). We've rented our upstairs, finally. We've even managed to do some working, cooking, and cleaning along the way as well. All told, it kind of makes me a tired girl. But I LOVE it. I love the excitement of summer. The promise of those long sunny weekends.

So, that's where we've been lately. Where have you been?

While I'm here, I have to share a totally off-topic funny story on myself. Because I know you all love those. And because this is my blog, so I can be as off-topic as I want to!

This weekend was such a great weekend. Clay and I just kind of stayed in and hung out and took naps and enjoyed each other's company. We made dinners and reveled in our nothingness. Sunday night I decided that the best way to top off the weekend would be to make a cake. I haven't actually baked anything in months. We've been riding high on strawberry season and not having much of a reason to bake. Anyway, it was getting late, so I decided to just throw together a yellow box cake mix that I found in the pantry. Clay and I tossed around icing ideas. I knew that chocolate would go best with a yellow cake, but I've never actually made chocolate icing. I'm a pro at the good white stuff. So, after some debate, I decided to go for broke and try out the chocolate. My first thought was to just make white icing and add some cocoa powder, but my trusty cookbook had other ideas. I decided I was all in, and cooked up a batch of good ol' fashioned chocolate icing. The instructions had me boil the concoction, cool to lukewarm, then "beat to desired consistency", which seemed easy enough. Until I got to that beating part. I started with a thin syrup, and started beating. And beating. And beating. There was NO "desired consistency" on the horizon!!! Being the experienced baker that I am, I knew that the answer to runny icing was powdered sugar, so I tossed in a bit. And a bit more. And a bit more. When I had finally added an ENTIRE box of powdered sugar, I gave up and decided to glop the now oddly-textured yet somewhat thick concoction onto the cake. I can't begin to describe what came out of that pan. It was stretchy. I decided I might have re-invented Tootsie Rolls. Or chocolate taffy. I gave up and hacked off a couple of pieces. The icing strung all the way from the pan to the plate. I was able to eat half a piece before the texture totally assaulted my senses and I gave up. Clay defined it as odd, but edible. I left the whole mess on the cabinet and went to bed, defeated.

The next morning, I laughed at myself, and went to check out the sad remains. I touched the icing. It was hard. I mean, I thumped it. It thumped! Weird. I popped a lid on the pan and went to work forgetting about it. Monday evening came, and we couldn't let the cake get too far from our minds. After dinner, we did the inspection. Holy Cow. This is the best icing EVER! I've created a wonderful creamy thick layer of rich chocolate fudge right on top of this box yellow cake!!! It's a masterpiece which will probably never be able to be recreated, but we'll enjoy it while it lasts. Leave it to me.

As a last note, I thought you should know that it's 9:30, and Clay's asleep. Wanna know why? Because he's being DINKY without me tonight, and going to a midnight showing of Pixar's new movie, Wall-E . Yes, the movie starts at midnight. He'll be home around 2:00 am. I'd just like to note, for the record, that he is not always the bright one in this relationship.