Random stuff

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted last. Not that it doesn't feel like 20 years since I spent the day cooking, I just can't believe it's been only a week. I worked 4 days open to close this week which left me exhausted! I'm so glad to have the weekend off, and next week I'll be in New Manager Traning so I don't have to be at the store.

I made the Deceptively Delicious banana bread, and it's really dense but tastes good. I tried out the chick-pea cookies on my family who will eat just about anything, and I got two interesting comments: 'Are these cooked?' and something about 'steamed' cookies. I think the recipes are all very moist, so if you keep them in plastic bags they get a little 'steamed' texture. I still think they taste good, but for someone expecting a regular chocolate chip cookie, they will be wierded out. The same thing happened with the muffins when I left them in a bag, the outsides of them were a little sticky.

I also made a birthday cake for one of my painter's (one of the mullet brothers) 40th birthday. He asked for a butter cake with milk chocolate frosting. I didn't know a butter cake literally has a stick of butter in it, and I was already home from the store and several hours had passed when I realized I forgot to get butter. So I substituted it with applesauce. haha! I don't know if it tastes good because when he came by I was busy and didn't have time to stop and try a piece. He just took the cake and left! Didn't even buy a gallon of paint.

I'm headed to Houston this afternoon for Girls Weekend and the SCOPE walk. And I get to see Bean! For about 2 hours, but that's ok. He will be home next weekend. Even though I have to work it's better than nothing! I think the loneliness is hitting me so hard because I work by myself also. A lot of times I'll be at work, alone, looking for something to do. Then I work out alone (because I don't want to talk to anyone at the gym), and come home and hang out alone. Yesterday wasn't so bad because I had Dennis at work with me most of the day and we always get to laughing about something stupid. Plus we got a lot of stuff done and I feel good leaving the store for a week because I know I got everything done that I wanted to.

I also wrote my Assistant's yearly review and was able to get some stuff out that I needed to say. There are certain things he needs to improve on- unfortunately they are the big things like having a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, taking pride in the work he does (completing tasks 100%), and understanding how his actions affect the store's profitability. I was able to frame all of that in how it affects our customers, and if he doesn't improve, at least my manager knows that I've tried to tell him and he didn't listen.

Now I need to get started on my long to-do list for the morning: breakfast, work out, shower, surprise for Bean, pack for Houston, pick up prescription, make copies of pictures, get my nails done, clean up the house, and double check to make sure I didn't forget to pack anything.