Post-Holiday Tinking

Happy 2009! May it be a better year for all of us. Yesterday, after sleeping in scandalously late (for me, 9 am qualifies as scandalously late), the mister and I went to a movie matinee. There’s not much else to do on New Year’s Day, right? Unless you’re a football fan, as is the mister, who recorded the Rose Bowl to watch upon our return. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and although it is a romance, I wouldn’t classify it as a chick flick. Even starring Brad Pitt (I just don’t get it: what’s all the fuss about? His Blandness is not what I consider gorgeous, a hunk, or even particularly sexy… I’m more of a George Clooney girl), I still wouldn’t call it a chick flick. It’s a thinking person’s romance, asking but not necessarily answering all sorts of big questions about fate, and timing, and the meaning of family, and the uncertain certainties of enduring love. It left us both in a pensive mood, but not in a bad way.

In that frame of mind, we were ripe for a little indulgence. Fortunately, there was puh-lenty of this decadent chocolate cake left over from New Year’s Eve.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking book, using a jar of my home-made Black Forest Jam (fresh sweet cherries bathed in semi-sweet chocolate: a 4-oz jar of undiluted bliss) for the filling between layers. The semi-sweet chocolate and sour cream frosting is pretty fabulous, too, and not terribly sweet.

Then I knuckled down to work on my daughter’s crewneck sweater, racing several inches up the back before calling it a night. I’ve just begun the raglan sleeve full-fashioned decreases, so the end of this piece is in sight – finished by this evening.

With all of my holiday knitting projects in their new homes, only this lone chapeau remained behind… too large but also too shallow to fit anyone I know. With a little judicious tinking and remedial knitting of a ribbed band for cuffing, it will go into my gift stockpile for next year.

Today the new washer and dryer are being installed, this time (we pray) with none of the problems we had the last three – yes, THREE – times the installers came out. Two weeks ago, I refused to return to the laundromat again although I was already running short of socks, so you can probably guess what I’ll be doing most of this weekend.