My night has been a comedy of errors. Tonight was the night my friend came over to celebrate her birthday, which is tomorrow. It was all kind of impromtu, meaning we decided to do this a day or two ago. But I wanted to go all out because her husband doesn't... and well, lots of other personal things about her life that I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate me broadcasting on here. Anyway, today I decided to run to the store and get a few extra things to make her dinner special. I already had a cake mix and had decided to make the cake for her, just had to get the frosting. Or so I thought. After I came home from the store and started on the cake I realized that, though I had plenty of olive oil, I did not have any vegetable oil as the mix calls for. I immediately called my friend Carrie who lives across from me and she brought me her remaining supply. The recipe called for 1/3 of a cup, her bottle looked like it had maybe 1/8 of a cup, so I just dumped it all in and went for it. Later, after the birthday girl arrived, I was getting our lasagna ready to go (adding extra cheese and stuff) and pulled it out of the oven.... and dropped it all onto the door of the oven FACE DOWN. Yep, our dinner was spread all over my freshly cleaned oven door. Thank god it was freshly cleaned! We scooped it up with a sense of humor, thank god also for good friends who joke and then cheerfully eat your mangled food! She just kept saying, "I'm a mom, really, it's okay". Humiliated as I was, the food turned out okay and we ate our salad, bread and pasta with gusto. I thought to myself, "the cake will make up for it, at least I made her a cake". Alas, there must have been at least a 1/2 a cup of oil left in that bottle, or it was old or something.... that yellow cake tasted like cooking oil and chocolate frosting! Oh my, what a fiasco! I don't entertain a lot. I have a small place, limited cooking space and limited supply as far as dishware, etc. It wasn't always this way, but I still didn't entertain much due to space. My sister and I used to have parties when we lived togther in a bigger house and then apt, but it was much more beer, grilled meat on the bbq, chips, etc.... you know, young people food.... Now, well, I have higher standards for myself and my friends. I've had a few dates over or girlfriends or family, made a good dinner of chicken, pasta, whatever, but it's still rare. I think I know why now!!! Clearly I'm not paying enough attention or the fates are against me. I try to do something nice and it turns out laugh worthy. Or maybe they're just telling me it's worth the effort to do it all from scratch. Next time, even if I don't feel I have the time I'll do it. The end result is generally so much better. Besides, I LIKE cooking, especially when it's not just for me... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRINA! LOVE YOU, GIRL! COME OVER AGAIN, I PROMISE IT WILL BE A REAL DIN-DIN! LOVE AND HUGS.... Jenn