Guess who’s 23 years old today? This guy:
My suspender-wearing youngest son Jasper.
It was a pretty quiet day for him. I made him a nice hot breakfast, and later he tried to work on his mountain bike, only to discover it’s a lost cause. He still has an old “street bike,” but would like to get another mountain bike at some point.
It was also kind of a rough day. We were all so excited about Jasper getting this new job that started on Monday—but he has only worked one day, and he won’t be going back. He has some mental health struggles that make the situation difficult, and he and his boss mutually decided that he shouldn’t work there at this time. This is very disheartening as we all (including him) wanted him to succeed and have a more regular income.
Meanwhile, I was a busy bee this morning after having the best night’s sleep I’ve had in some time. After making Jasper’s breakfast, I blended and packaged all the chai mix I made yesterday. (And then a couple of orders came in!) Then I made Jasper’s birthday cake, a chai-flavored pound cake with chai icing (his request). I realize it kind of looks like a giant donut. Maybe I should have thinned the icing a little more . . .
I still had some grading to finish before my students arrived for class. Today we talked about process analysis and they all worked on describing how to make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich after watching me do it. I’ll be interested to see what they came up with for their homework assignment.
This afternoon I spent some time hanging out with the birthday boy and then worked on making spiced chai macaron batter. It’s been a pretty chai-filled day I guess. I was hoping to make macarons for an event tomorrow, but I committed the grave error of trying to bake two pans at the same time, and one whole pan ended up burned on the bottoms. Ouch.
I also pulled out my camera, as Jasper will be borrowing it tomorrow, and made sure it had two batteries that are fully charged. Then somehow we got to talking about Polaroid cameras, and I mentioned that I still had mine from back in the 90s. I have kept it despite not being able to get film for it.
Well, Jasper said he thought they were making film for it again—and they are! So I have ordered some and we will see if that thing still works. It still turns on—which is astounding to me—but I don’t know what kind of picture quality I’ll get.
For supper Jasper had requested a very easy meal—fish and chips, with a side of baked beans. We had invited Sammy but he had to work late today. We had a good visit over supper, and then an hour or so later Sammy made it in time for some cake and ice cream.
Jasper had a special gift to open from two of his sisters—something he’s wanted for some time. It’s a genuine World War II era trench shovel, still with its canvas cover. He was so thrilled. He gave us a detailed tour of all the features.
The real birthday celebration starts tomorrow. He and some friends are driving down to Austin tomorrow afternoon and then plan to spend Saturday in Galveston. Jasper is hoping to get at least a glimpse of the U.S.S. Texas. They’ll all return on Sunday evening.
My Midlife Menagerie 