Chocolate Cake Makes Everything Better

This was the weekend of frustration for me. Friday and Saturday it seemed like everything I touched broke, tried doing went wrong. I felt like nothing could go my way and given the strange combinations of hormones running through my body, I was going to cry about it. But I called my mom and complained to her instead, and she assured me that I needed to sit down for the rest of the night and relax, and that Sunday would go better.

I agreed, except I couldn't make myself sit down. So instead, I started making my favorite double chocolate layer cake - you know the kind from scratch that take about 2.5 hours to make - at about 7:45 at night Saturday. When I normally go to bed at 9:00pm. I knew it was my last chance to be a success at something. Before I get to the good part about the cake, I feel obliged, mainly for my own recollections, to share why it was that I needed to undertake such a huge baking task to feel good about myself. Things that went wrong to bring me to such desperation:

• Our 10-month-old vacuum, previously a fantastic vacuum, is dying a slow death, brought on from sucking dog hair. I'm sorry, vacuum, that you came before the dog, but she is going to last much longer than you and subsequent vacuums. Mostly - I'm annoyed that I already need to look into a new vacuum, and I'm REALLY annoyed that it is getting harder every time I use it to get this place clean. So, summary - house not as clean as I want it, pocket book on the verge of a painful purchase.
• Put a huge gouge in my counter top when a ceramic soup bowl fell because I didn't put it away properly.
  
• Went to the automatic car wash; soap did not come out once during the wash. Got a refund ticket.
• Came home to inspect just how dirty my car was and found tiny surficial rust dots ALL OVER THE CAR. IT'S 2 years old!!!! Looking into this issue starting NOW.
• Husband used the car to get 2x4's and left lots of sawdust and wood chips in the formerly clean interior. Shop vac would not pull wood chips from upholstry. Had to pick them out one by one to remove.
• Dog got into EVERYTHING. Including a pile of napkins that she shredded all over the kitchen in the 2.83 seconds I was not watching her on Saturday.
• Washing machine leaked during 1st load of the day. Afraid to wash more. Don't know what is wrong yet.
• This is beyond my control but our house is perpetually dusty from the work in the basement. I am starting to lose patience.
• On second coat of paint in the baby's room I ran out of paint with 4 feet of wall space left. The paint I am using only comes in gallons and costs $40/gal. Awesome, can't wait to buy another whole gallon just for that.

There are other things but this list is getting long enough. So now you know why I had to make that cake. After 2 trips to the grocery store for ingredients I didn't have (I couldn't even get my ingredient list right the first time!), the cake was ready at about 10:30 pm. AND IT WAS GOOD. I didn't make a huge mess, AND did I mention that it IS FREAKING GOOD!

nom. nom.

For good measure, I should say that today (Sunday) went much better, as my mom predicted We got up early, went to breakfast at Soumi and then took the dog to the golf course so she could run. She has been really good today. Then Marc worked really hard in the basement again, I did some more laundry without any major problems, made Marc a great dinner, gave the dog a haircut to manage her spring time messiness, demolished more of the cake, and scored a 5-gallon bucket of paint on SALE at the World of Wall because they are not stocking it anymore.

I like weekends that end on a good note. :)