Is it time for my nap yet?

I'm almost certain I was promised a nap.

Seeing as I haven't gotten one yet, I will warn you in advance of a disjointed post, because, truly, I cannot be bothered with logical transitions at the moment.

This lovely cake was my father's day present to my dad. Yes, it does seem like a very girly cake, I agree. But you guys, the ol' man loves icing roses. LOVES 'em. There is a legendary tale in my family of one birthday where my young pop received a cake box from the bakery with nothing but a dozen icing roses. No cake, just frosting. My mother tells me he ate all the roses off this cake first thing. I'm pleased he enjoyed it, and now that it has been delivered and devoured I can go ahead and say that this cake was the biggest pain in my rear end, and while all reports are that it was tasty, I'm not sure I'd use either the filling or the icing recipes again. Too fluffy, too soft, too fragile--particularly to survive a two-hour trek over the mountains to Weaverville. My nerves were severely wracked. But, gee y'all, didn't it turn out lovely?

It has been too hot here to do anything lately. Too hot for a walk, too hot to sit out on the porch with a glass of tea, THAT kind of too hot. In fact, to put this in to perspective, I killed a cactus this week. A Christmas Cactus I've had for years--I thought it would be nice to let it spend the summer on the back deck. Instead, one afternoon in the blazing Knoxville sun burned the center of the plant to a crisp--a pale, pathetic, scorched version of it's former happy self. I KILLED A CACTUS, that's how hot it is.

So with that my attention has been turned to inside projects. Lots of non-cooking cooking (can't be heating up the house too much). I've discovered the best hummus recipe of all time, whipped up some Lemon Walnut Pesto in Ricotta (great as a dip, spread, or tossed in hot pasta, though to be honest I could just eat it with a spoon), and rekindled a love for a sweet and sour red onion and poppyseed dressing that's gotten me to eat salads as a staple again. To be really and properly productive again, Matt and I have made some plans for a few more indoor projects, and today I've been scraping the last of the wallpaper paste from the downstairs bathroom. Just so we're clear, all wallpaper is here by banned from any home I ever live in, have lived in, or will live in, from now until my death,'kay? BLECH, I hate this stuff. Anyway, when Matt gets home the mirrors, sink, and anything else attached to the walls are coming down, holes will be patched, and moldings taped off. I'm painting this week, and marking this project off my perpetual To-Do list for good. Can't wait, it's been a while since we've had that sense of accomplishment! It seems like all our projects lately are in permanent flux...

My second project of the day, a massive refrigerator clean out, is calling me, and my blog entry has begun to run out of steam, but I promise to post more later this week--one of the dozen blog entries I write in my head is bound to make it to the page sooner or later... until then, have a great week, y'all! Keep cool!