Post Party- good and bad!

Well, it was a great party – wish you could have been there! Nathaniel came home from his flight and planning of tomorrow’s flight (good boy!), and we enjoyed a marvelous dinner of pad thai with chicken and lots of veggies. The presents were stacked beautifully, the cake was flawless, and the kitties were on their best behavior.

(Slight snigger).

Which of these doesn’t belong?

In all reality, after running around all day picking out gifts (last minute shopper + world’s hardest man to shop for = disaster), driving between Pensacola and Milton (a good 45 minutes) and back, my two workouts, and making my massage (though I may not be training as intensely as I once was, I am still training. And my lateral quads are a constant reminder of that fact), and getting everything ready for The Birthday Boy, I was pooped.

But in the process of making said birthday cake, I discovered the best foolproof solution to avoiding the chocolate frosting and large bag of peanut M&Ms (they were for decorative purposes, I swear!).

Take one or two (or three) large samples of the cake batter. After that, your stomach won’t want to ingest anything else (as the cake batter, er, expands…). What can I say? I’m a sucker for cake batter, cookie dough, even bread dough. A habit that was developed as a young whippersnapper “helping” my Mom bake.

By the way, should you ever feel the inclination, the worst dough to sample (but best tasting!) in abundance is Vanocka (Czech Christmas Bread). There was one particularly grueling afternoon spent in agony on the couch as all the little balls of dough I “sampled” expanded in my stomach. Without getting punched down.

Nice, I know.

Recovery from my yellow cake batter feeding frenzy was spent wrapping Nathaniel’s presents. Yes, I did find a few things. Boxer shorts, of course. I’m a stickler for clean underwear. So out with the old, in with the new. And then there were two pairs of regular shorts (the boy only had one… and we live in Florida!), and two polo shirts.

Before you scratch your head in wonder, remember that he’s ridiculously hard to shop for. He’s particular about his books, his hobby is flying, and he’s not materialistic. At least with me – give me something fitness or triathlon related, and I’m a happy camper. Everyone knows that.

And then came cake decorating time. Sure, there were a few samples of the milk chocolate frosting, but most of it went on the cake. Scouts honor. Leftovers went down the drain – I didn’t want a potential midnight foray into the fridge to end with an empty, scraped clean container of frosting. Not that that's happened before....er, well, there was that one time...

So I can't be trusted with chocolate frosting.

Just because I’m a few pounds over my normal body weight doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. So the frosting was out.

And then, the real test: The Peanut M&Ms. Remember: I will race for Peanut M&Ms. But as I’m not racing this year, well…. Let’s not go there.

I dumped out the entire LARGE bag onto a plate, and sorted the differed colored Little Delights. Greens in one pile, blues in another. Yellow, red, orange and brown in the third. And very carefully, I traced a heart-shape in the frosting, and proceeded to decorate a giant M&M heart in the cake. Blue for the outer layer, green for the next, then yellow and red to finish. It looked great.

But I still had 2/3 of a bag of Peanut M&Ms leftover. And my yellow-cake batter tummy ache was wearing off. Disaster was imminent.

So taking a page out of Jen Harrison’s book, I dumped the remainder of the bag down the garbage disposal and er, disposed of the M&Ms. It was so sad. But I didn’t want to pull a George Costanza (Seinfeld) and eat out of the garbage. Cake dough? Yes. Disposed of M&M’s – well, if they’re in the bag…and near the top….

Although I did save 3 or 4 – just to “sample” and make sure they would be okay for the cake.

Yep, garbage disposal was a better idea.

I cannot be trusted with an open bag of Peanut M&Ms.

Later, Nathaniel came home, we had a great time and the rest was history.

And now, The Morning After: we’ve still got ¾ of a cake left! Very impressed with that fact, as the two of us absolutely love yellow cake with chocolate frosting. And the M&M decorations are still all in place.

In other news, wow – I am really sore! Holy Cow – I had forgotten what functional strength could do. My quads are sorer (believe it or not), my shoulders feel tired, and every time I squat down to get something, I’m not sure if I’ll be returning upright.

I was supposed to run this morning, and got up accordingly (right around 6). But something in my body suggests that I flip workouts around – trade my swim tomorrow for today’s run. I like this idea – and so do my quads.

The good? Great party, The Birthday Boy loved the presents and cake, and we had a great time together.

The bad? I am S-O-R-E. This starting over from “scratch” is harder than I thought. Sheesh! Who could have known that a little, unassuming functional strength routine could cause so much pain.

Just don't ask me to bend over to get anything off the floor - I won't be getting back up.

Oh well – better in my legs than in my stomach. No more yellow cake batter for me, I can safely say! Now the cake....