What a Weekend...

So, I have to admit, this has not been the best 4th of July weekend we've ever had. It started out fine. Jon and I are babysitting my friend Morgan's seriously adorable kitten, Miles.

He is so playful and happy, it felt more like Morgan was doing us a favor by letting us hang with her awesome cat while she went camping. I know I would pick cat sitting over camping any day of the week!

Things got progressively worse over the next few days. Saturday night we had some old friends over. We had a very bizarre falling out with them a few months back for reasons known only to them, so there is still a little bit of tension whenever we see them now. The man in the couple is always right. It doesn't matter what the subject is or whether or not he actually does know anything about it, his opinion is always right and loudest and there is no arguing or discussion. He is right. As you can imagine, that is hard to deal with. I can talk about this in my blog because he is too good to read blogs, and if Jon or I tried to point out that blogs are a valid form of communication and many people love to read and write them, this friend's points would "embarrass" us because we feel the self absorbed need to keep our friends and families involved in our lives via internet. Jon and I suspect the real reason this friend doesn't blog is because no one would read his. But I digress... For this dinner I made a delicious lime cheesecake that I was going to serve with a strawberry sauce. I waited to make the sauce until we were ready to eat the cheesecake, because the sauce is best fresh and warm. The recipe called for 3 T of sugar. My tablespoon was dirty so I asked this friend, who insisted on watching me make the sauce, how many teaspoons were in a tablespoon. Oh my God, was that a mistake! He couldn't believe I didn't know that and made a huge deal and WROTE IN MY COOKBOOK IN PEN!!! (I NEVER write in ANY books!!! I know many cooks do, but I DO NOT!!!) that 3 teaspoons are in a tablespoon, so I would never forgot this absolutely common bit of knowledge again. Unfortunately, the only clean measuring instrument I had was a 1/4 teaspoon, so I put 12 of those in the pot. I thought it looked like waaaaay too much but my friend insisted (of course) that it was close enough. According to him, it was off, but only because some of my 1/4 teaspoons were slightly more and others were slightly less than perfect. After that I asked him to go join the rest of the group. It still looked like quite a bit too much sugar, so I pulled the T. out of the dishwasher washed it and measured 3 T from the sauce pan. Much to my surprise, there were an additional 3 T in the pan. "Wha...?", I thought, "Was my margarita an absinthe margarita?" So I remeasured several more times using both the 1/4 teaspoon, the tablespoon, and after much digging, a 1/2 teaspoon. Every single time my measurements were 2 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon, not 3! I have no idea what this means because even my Betty Crocker cookbook says 3 tsp = 1 T, but I have proof this is incorrect. Well, as you can imagine, my friend would have absolutely none of that and practically screamed how stupid I was. I even offered to bring the sugar and spoons over to him to see for himself, but he was right, and I was tragically and stupidly wrong. Jerk. Please, the next time you cook something let me know what your spoons equal because I'm wondering if my set is off, or if my new kitchen contains some weird time space continuum where 2 tsp = 1 T, or if I am right and friend is wrong. That sure doesn't seem likely according to friend, though. Fortunately, the sauce turned out great and friend mostly talked to Jon after that. So, while annoying, that was the not the worst part of the weekend.

On Sunday, Jon and I needed to run some errands. While I got ready, Jon and Ahmit enjoyed our new cable,

blissfully unaware of the horror that would greet us outside. Jon and I walked out to the car and instead of seeing the scooter parked next to it, there was just an empty parking spot. After a split second of unreality, we realized someone stole Jon's scooter between 10 PM Saturday and 4 PM Sunday. If you are in the Tempe area and see a scooter like this,

call the police. His scooter friends are confident it will show up in the next day or two in an alley or ditch somewhere, but all day yesterday and a few hours today were spent combing our neighborhood and surrounding area, and nothing turned up. We are trying to remain hopeful and everyone in the Arizona scooter community is on the lookout. Poor little scooter. I hope we find him soon.

On a much happier note, my parents are coming to visit! They are driving out in my mom's old car which they are donating to us (perfect timing :( ) and after a few days of hanging out in Tempe, we'll be heading off to San Diego!! Beach + no work + my family = FUN!!!

Hopefully your 4th of July weekend was better than ours. Until next time, be on the look out for a little lost and probably scared scooter.