The One About the Easy Bake Oven and Long Island Iced Tea

Laura’s Blog Entry

Well hello there! Welcome to our summer. We’ve been doing lots of silly things since Neil had been on vacation. He is working feverishly on the new record. I almost feel like I am holding things up with the vocals, but we’ve gotten a good bit of them done. We have two to redo – with our better microphone. And one song that is dead to me. But I’m not thinking about that one right now. Or ever. Maybe it will be like the thirteenth floor and we’ll skip right over “Song 4.” Just a suggestion.

Neil is also working feverishly on his little hobby project, but I’ll let him tell you about that. It involves an airbrush and Optimus Prime – GEEK ALERT!

For Mari’s summer fun she has started ballet training to go on pointe. It is a very slow process, with daily foot and ankle-strengthening exercises that she is doing without complaint. She won’t even be letting go of the bar the whole summer – so she is easing into it. Here are her spankin’ new pointe shoes:

She is also keeping herself busy with a hand-me-down Easy Bake Oven.

She and Neil found recipes on the internet to use instead of those obscenely expensive mixes they sell in stores. So far we’ve had to take the oven apart twice due to a badly formulated brownie recipe that actually makes searing-hot-chocolate-lava-that-overflows-the-pan. Want to see the hopes of a 10 year-old dashed on the rocks of life? That will do it. Tears and angst I tell you. She seems to be recovering, but you never know when the flashbacks are going to hit.

She did have success with teeny tiny peanut butter cookies.

For my vacation, I’ve done a bit of office organizing that I never get around to and loads of crafting, but that will be a separate blog. For my own kitchen disaster, I have done some serious cocktail mixing – trying to come up with an entry for the “How Much Do We Love” Podcast summer cocktail contest. The verdict: I stink at making up drinks. EPIC FAIL! So last night I decided to drown my sorrows and master the Long Island Iced Tea. I had to venture out to buy Tequila, Sweet and Sour Mix, and Coca Cola, but I summed up all my energy and made it happen. Here’s what goes into a Long Island Iced Tea:

OK so I have really crappy rum. Don’t judge me. I usually just use it for rum cake. Really. Oh and it tastes best served in my Kenny Chesney collector glass. Don’t ask.

Long Island Iced Tea

1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. triple sec
1/2 oz. light rum
1/2 oz. tequila
2 oz. sweet and sour mix
Coca Cola

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice. Top off with a generous splash of Coca Cola. Serve in a tall glass with even more ice.

Sip S-L-O-W-L-Y. I’m not kidding. Not for the faint of heart. I suggest you go to a bar and order one instead of making at home. Or come over here because now I have all the ingredients.

I sipped this, watched an episode of “Shear Genius” and did some crochet. Then we turned off the loud fan and recorded some vocals. It is soooo hot upstairs when it gets into the 90’s. But we suffer for our art. It has the best acoustics in the house.

Other than that, we’ve just been dressing up the cat:

Follow this chain of events. Neil takes Mari to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. Neil buys Mari an overpriced ice cream sundae in a plastic Red’s helmet. Cat gets dressed up. Makes sense to me.

And now I am off to dig into my stack of summer reading.