Burning down the house

Valentine' s: the table was set with roses and candles and a pretty checked tablecloth. The groceries were bought. The pots were simmering on the stove and the chicken in wine and rosemary sauce, courtesy Nola, smelt delicious. Then the lights went out. Shit. Now what. 15 minutes on hold to City Power and I am supposedly the first to report the problem for our area and a technician will be despatched to attend to the problem.

An hour later, I give up on the idea of the perfect hebed mash and minted snap peas and blanched asparagus (a laughable undertaking for me anyway given my culinary leaning toward Cordon Noir) and James and I sit down to the chicken and a salad. Chicken is suprisingly delicious.

A few hours later and still in the dark. Go to sleep and Christopher cries out. Thank the heavens he did because James then wakes up and stomps about moaning that something stinks. I am thinking ah for pete's sakes- one of our cerebrally challenged cats has just taken a shit in the bath- go back to sleep and leave me alone.

James comes back from his stomping and lets me know that I forgot the stove on and that the power has come back on- the pot that I left on the stove (the potatoes that were to be herbed mash) has burnt through. I wonder through a smoky house and shudder at what could have happened if Christopher had not woken up and James had not wondered through.

This morning James tells me that he is very pleased that he did not have to eat whatever I had been trying to cook as he suspects by the smell of it that I had been attempting to cook a tyre.

The cake did not fare much better. Can you tell that I haven't done this in a while?

Funnily enough though- each cake piece fitted perfectly together to make a level cake and once iced all evidence of my lop-sided baking was gone.

Made me think deep thoughts- Valentine's thoughts about how 2 people- lop-sided people can come together and complement each other in the same way. While I don't buy into the whole Jerry McGuire schmaltz about anyone completing anyone else, I also don't believe that you find many complete people out there. They are rare and no doubt anti-social, because unlike the rest of us mortals- they don't need a balance, an anchor, balast, a rock, a light-house, feng shui alignment of their middle ear chakra, a wonderbra...or a drink.

Lipizzaners on Valentines: Taz and I took Christopher and Danika to a special love songs performance.

Today's treasures: getting caught in a downpour, getting drenched,  a cosy home that stinks of the tyre I tried to cook last night, changing Christopher and I into our gowns and eating lop-sided cake.