t minus 5 days.

It’s starting to get real. There’s a lot going on between now and Thursday. Regional Track meet. Softball. FirstHusband travel. Stuff. I need a little checklist for myself.

Two Days Ago: GYN pre-op appointment. Check.

This Morning: Hospital pre-op appointment. Check. No more supplements, no more prescription iron. Only Nexium for the reflux. And I can still take the B-12.

This Morning: Worked out w/Personal Trainer. Abs. Abs. Abs. Check.

Sunday Afternoon: Scheduled work out w/Personal Trainer. Abs. Abs. Abs. Check.

Monday Afternoon: Scheduled neck and shoulder pain relief massage. Check.

Tuesday Morning: Scheduled work out w/Personal Trainer. Abs. Abs. Abs. Check.

Tuesday Late Morning: Scheduled plastic surgeon pre-op appointment. Check.

Early Tuesday afternoon: Scheduled 5th acupuncture appointment. Check.
(I have NO idea whether this is doing anything.)

TMI: I’m supposed to “do a bowel prep” on Tuesday. If I recall, I have to drink something disgusting and stay home for the rest of the day.

Wednesday: Take an anti-biotic at 10am, 2pm and 10pm.

Wednesday: I’m not supposed to eat “anything substantial.” Supposed to “try and stay away from solid food.” I’m trying to look at it as a kind of fast. Hope I don’t get cranky.

Is chocolate solid food?

I should schedule stuff on Wednesday to distract me from food (and the thought of major surgery).

Wednesday Morning. Scheduled Cut & Color. Check. People will be standing over me. No roots in the hospital.

Wednesday Early Afternoon. Scheduled Mani-Pedi. Check. Seriously. A Mani-Pedi is REQUIRED for a hospital stay. Really. I’m sure I read it on the pre-op paperwork. I sure won’t be painting my toenails anytime soon. Better add a lip and brow wax to that visit.

Wednesday Evening. Scheduled “relaxing” massage. Check.

Thursday O Dark Thirty. Friend scheduled to drive me to the hospital. FirstHusband to get kids to school and meet me in pre-op.

Ambien prescription already refilled. Check.

I only eat chocolate when . . .

. . . I’m a little stressed out.

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Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!

If you’ve got time to hang out for a few minutes, check out what else makes me laugh: Pragmatic Compendium’s “laugh!” category.

Check out Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my previous chocolate posts.

Easter Bunny Cake

Growing up, my mom often made an Easter Bunny cake like this one for Easter.

Easy, not too crafty (thank goodness), I think I’m making one this year. Judging from the number of available photos on Google Images, I’m not the only one. Check it out:

Bake a cake, any cake, in two round cake pans. Mine will be chocolate. There is no reason for me to eat cake unless it is chocolate. Let it cool and then cut it like this:

On the serving plate (my mom always used a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil), CAREFULLY arrange it like this:

Then, frost and decorate! My mom always frosted it white and covered it with coconut shavings as a base. Dark chocolate cake with coconut – mmmm – just like a Mounds bar. But CAKE!

That does it. We’re making this cake.

Here’s a video and some more samples:

A Zooma Zooma Zooma Zoom!

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

Need more? Head over to Tasty Tuesday hosted by Kim at Forever . . . Wherever!

Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer

And I’m jumping ahead to Friday with my Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my previous chocolate posts.

chocolate strawberry bunnies

You may recognize the pink fingernails. I’ve posted videos from this lady before. She made chocolate Gobble Berries (turkeys) for Thanksgiving and spiders and ghosts for Halloween. Her level of patience is astounding.

Let me just state. My children will never eat bunnies such as these. This is way too close to crafting for me.

Besides, is it just me or do these bunnies look a little like rats? Their noses are way too pointy. Easter rats. No, that won’t catch on. Easter mice?

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my previous chocolate posts.

Please don’t think less of me . . .

. . . because I laugh out loud during episodes of “Scrubs.”

In this, it’s the guy’s response that gets me every time. Carla is his wife.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!

my coffee is boring now.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

s’mores and smears.

We will probably break in our new fire pit this weekend. And there will be s’mores.

I personally prefer what I call “smears.” Take a single “brick” of Hershey’s chocolate (I prefer special dark) and stuff it inside a marshmallow. Toast it to your preferred gooeyness and pop it in your mouth. If you handle it to much after it’s toasted, the chocolate smears all over – hence the name.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

pragmatic cookies

I’ve mentioned before that we make a boatload of cookies at Christmas time? Let me clarify. FirstHusband makes a boatload of cookies.

Last year, he was busy and it was up to me to make the cookies. So, I made a boatload of . . . cookie bars.

Cookie bars, while tasting the same as cookies, are much more pragmatic:

No scooping one cookie’s worth of dough at a time.
No more hours of switching cookie sheets out every 11 minutes.
No more removing cookies from a cookie sheet. one. by. one.
No more waiting for the cookies to cool on little tiny grates.
No more broken cookies.
No more!

I mixed up a batch of our cookie dough, slathered it on a cookie sheet that happened to have a short edge all the way around it, and baked it all in one shot. All the “cookies” are the same size and height for easy stacking and packing. This year, I’m perusing my collection of cookie cutters for some interesting shapes. I know that will leave cookie remnants, but we’ll just have to deal with it. Such a chore, gleaning the cookie chaff.

I’m baking tonight and tomorrow, so no photos yet, but check back! And I’m employing behaviors incompatible with eating cookies – while I’m baking cookies. I’m out of red wine, though. It will have to be Super Bubble.

I had to bake brownies for a party yesterday, so that’s the photo you get first. Oh, and one more pragmatic thing: I cut the brownies with a pizza cutter.

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

Want to learn cool tips and tricks from lots of different people? Click on over to Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

Would You Like Chocolate With That? Disney Chocolate Carousel

We haven’t gone to see any of the Disney resorts this year, I’m not sure if we will, but this is always amazing. Supposedly, this ENTIRE thing is edible.

The video doesn’t even come CLOSE to showing the detail. It truly is an amazing work of art.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

Would You Like Chocolate With That? a little joke.

This is one of my favorites:

A preacher visits an elderly woman from his congregation. As he sits on the couch he notices a large bowl of peanuts on the coffee table.

“Mind if I have a few?” he asks.

“Not at all.”

They chat for an hour and as the preacher stands to leave, he realizes that instead of eating just a few peanuts, he emptied most of the bowl.

“I’m so sorry! I ate all your peanuts!”

“Oh that’s all right,” the woman says. “Ever since I lost my teeth, all I can do is suck the chocolate off them anyway.”

ewwwww.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!

no thank you. you can have it.

That would be half of a tomato, filled with cottage cheese.

And topped with chocolate sprinkles.

And yes. She did eat it. CLICK HERE to see her reaction.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

Would You Like Chocolate With That? Chocolate Turkeys

FavoriteSon: How long did that take?

Me: Too long.

FavoriteSon: How long did she hold that there?

Me: Longer than I would.

But they’re cute. And they probably taste good.

I’ll never know. But I figure I’ll post this now, so if anyone DOES want to make these little cuties for Thanksgiving, they will have plenty of time.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate