Sorry that I was missing last week. I was busy with new clients at work, a bunch of other events, and was exhausted from the prior week’s excitement.

Here’s what you missed: Eleanor turned two last Monday! Yay! We had a small party at my mom’s house for her on the Saturday before her birthday. The night before, Josh and I prepped. Josh baked the cupcakes and I built Eleanor’s birthday present. In case you were wondering, that’s how things work in our house. I’m the handy one, Josh is more of the cook, neither of us is great with the cleaning (but I’m definitely better).

These are funfetti cupcakes. Josh made them from “scratch.”

By the way, I decided that I’m going to start saying that I made everything from “scratch.” And in my head that will mean from a box, or pre-made frozen, or whatever, as long as I have to do any prep work at all before serving I’m calling it from “scratch.” Now, if my definition of “scratch” differs from yours that is not my problem.

So I thought that I would get this tricycle and it would pretty much be put together and I would just have to put the seat and handlebars on or something. But no, it came in all sorts of pieces. No problem, though. I like building stuff. I really like working with my hands. I kinda always wanted to be a carpenter, but I just don’t have the physical strength or stamina to have a job where I have to be on my feet all day.

So I got the thing built, and I’m all proud of myself, but then when I wheel it out at her party the handlebars are loose! Arrgh! I thought I had tightened it enough. It seemed really tight when I tried it. So we bring it back home and it sits in the living room for a day waiting to be fixed and when I go to fix it, wouldn’t you know, but it is perfectly tight. As it turns out, it was super cold at my mom’s house in the room where it sat all day waiting to be revealed. We suspect that the metal just contracted in the cold and that’s what made it loose. It sat in a warm room and like magic it expanded again and was tight enough. I think we’ll be keeping it outside on the patio though, so I guess we need to let it get cold again and then tighten it then so that it stays nice and tight no matter the weather.

Wow, was that story as boring as I think? Oh well, I’m done with this post! Tomorrow: the party!