I’m terrible at blogging these days.

Well except these “It’s Monday” posts. Those I seem to remember to write. With the full intention of posting more during the week. But then that never happens. This past week I had the excuse of (1) a horrendous rattling cough that I seem to have caught (2) PMS. But that’s not much of an excuse is it!

Anyway, Happy Halloween! My boys are very excited about this, and pretty much since the start of October the 3yo has been asking, “Is it Halloween today/tomorrow?” or “Can I go trick or treating yet?” or “Can I put on my costume today?”

He’s got a Spiderman costume this year. His first proper costume. Last year I put some overalls on him, bought him a cheap train engineer’s hat and called him, tada, a train engineer.

The 5yo has worn his pilot dress-up outfit (hat, jacket, headset) for the past two years, so he took got a new costume for this year. Batman!

 

 

Not their costumes but some hoodies with their favourite characters 

 A piggie “race” at the elementary school’s fall festival 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

Love is the Drug – Alaya Dawn Johnson

 

 

 

 

Watching:

Friday night the husband and I watched Independence Day 2. And hey, they blew Singapore up! I was trying to figure out why this movie didn’t work as well as the first one did – too many characters whom I didn’t really care about? A lack of back-story? Some way too coincidental coincidences? I loved that Goldblum was back but that was pretty much it.

 

Eating:

So the husband has his birthday on Halloween. And then tomorrow (Tuesday) he flies off early in the morning until Friday for a work thing in Chicago (well at least this year they did it AFTER Halloween!). So I decided to make his cake earlier, to let him eat more than just one piece of cake. And every time it is the same cake but different recipe – Black Forest. The first time I made the cake layers on Thursday night, it was a disaster. I made the mistake of thinking that a recipe by a food magazine would be flawless but it really wasn’t. I didn’t realize that the recipe I was making was a genoise (a sponge cake). I also don’t know why the recipe called for a baking time twice as long (same temp) as the one I eventually used from a blog.

As you might have guessed, the first genoise was tossed. It was completely inedible.

The second attempt, with a different recipe (you can find it here) was a lot better. The cake was light and airy! There was hope at last. After it cooled, I wrapped it tight and stuck it in the freezer. Because I had been reading that that’s how professional bakers do it, and somehow it both makes it easier to decorate and moister.

Drinking:

 Rooibos 

Cooking:

(no bloody clue)

 

Browsing:

50 YA Books from #NastyWomenRead (Bookriot)

Another from Bookriot: 100 must-read feminist books

20 audiobooks read by your favourite celebrities (Goodreads Blog)

Added to my TBR: One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun (via Word by Word)

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (via Booklist)

 

Last week:

I read:

Giant Days Vol 2 – John Allison, Lissa Treiman (Illustrator), Whitney Cogar (Colors)

Bollywood Affair – Sonali Dev
Re Jane – Patricia Park