My favorite long weekends are the ones that have the day off on Monday rather than the ones that have the day off on Friday.
When Monday is the day off, it’s easy to do stuff like “do your regular Saturday errands” and then “do your regular Sunday chores” and then, come Monday, you wake up and you don’t have to go to work! Oh wow! This is awesome!
When Friday is the day off, the revelry is front-loaded which makes “regular Saturday errands”/”regular Sunday chores” into something drudgerous instead of something part of the usual weekendly duties to keep the household going. Friday off is the “get paid up front”. Monday is the “reward after a job well done”.
Of course, I had one of those four-day weekends last week where both Friday *AND* Monday were off, and so I have spent the last week daydreaming about buying a lottery ticket and winning with it and then having four-day weekends for the rest of my life.
Which made Tuesday *REALLY* hard.
As such, I’m looking forward to the weekend before me. Even though, mostly, it’s just the usual Saturday errands and Sunday chores but there might be a game night nudged in there where we will be playing Lords of Waterdeep with co-workers. Given the vagaries of Waterdeep, that can handle 12 people (5 players and 1 facilitator per game) and if more people than that show up, we’ll probably need to have a table with additional games. I’ll see if I can’t pick up Fluxx or something for the third table Just In Case.
But the thing I’m looking forward to the most is a return to normalcy and being far enough away from the long weekend to no longer be daydreaming about winning the lottery.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
Current cheesecake theory:
Don’t use individual graham cracker shells for the cheesecake.
Use the springform.
Instead of a graham cracker crust, pour in brownie batter on the bottom and the cheesecake batter on the top.Report
Clearly, this theory requires a test.Report
If game night is not tonight, the test is scheduled for this evening.Report
Okay.
I bought the Duncan Hines brownie mix. On the back of the box, it had two ways to make them. “Cake-like” and “Fudgy”. The former required two eggs and a couple of tablespoons of water (and oil). The latter required one egg and a quarter cup of water (and oil).
So I said “let’s use Kahlua instead of water” and made the “fudgy”.
For the cheesecake, I used Bailey’s instead of heavy whipping cream.
Baileys and Kahlua is a mudslide, right? That’s my mudslide cheesecake.
I take it into work tomorrow.
I’ll tell you how it’s received.Report
A couple “this is the best cheesecake I’ve ever eaten”.
Two “wow, this is sooooo rich… maybe it needs a little extra note of sweet?”
So, next time, I’m going to do a drizzle of caramel between the two batters before I bake the cheesecake.Report
It hit me:
Don’t use cream cheese. Use goat cheese.Report
I’m not normally a fan of cheesecake – it’s a bit rich for me – but i do like the half-brownie versions. They cut back on the I’m-just-eating-cream-cheese-with-a-fork feeling.Report
The cheesecake that finally got out of beta was individual cheesecakes in those Keebler individual pie crusts *BUT* they also had pie filling spooned out on top of them. So it’s like eating cream cheese and pie filling with a fork.Report
I’m sorta known for the layered cheesecake.
Use two packs of cheesecake mix & divide it into thirds.
Layer 1: Plain
Layer 2: Mix with pie filling, blueberry or something
Layer 3: Plain.
A bit more time in the preparation, but let’s face it: It’s just putting it into the fridge. It’s not like you’re standing over a barbecue pit, or enacting some alchemy ritual.Report
I’ve seen recipes for one layered with pumpkin pie filling and I intend to try that someday. Love pumpkin pie but also love cheesecake, and I think the two would be good together.Report
My recipes, so far, all involve baking the cheesecake.
I wonder if the layering thing would work if you baked it…
Would you have to sprinkle graham crackers between each layer?
Would you add half of the blueberries to the middle layer and the other half of the blueberries to the top layer to make some kind of color gradient?
MY GOODNESS COULD YOU SPLIT IT INTO THIRDS WITH STRAWBERRIES IN ONE THIRD AND BLUEBERRIES IN ANOTHER THIRD WITH A PLAIN THIRD IN THE MIDDLE AND CALL IT A RED WHITE AND BLUE CHEESECAKE?!?!?!?
Crap. I’m going to have to think about this some more.Report
I had Memorial Day off, and this Friday is my regular off Friday. We work a 9/80 schedule. A lot of folks would take the three days we would work off, maybe the previous Friday too, and end up with a 10 day vaca.
Not bad.Report
I am one of those who forever sees “vacation” as a bank of “additional severance” due to job turmoil in my 20’s and so the “use 3 days of vacation, get 9 days off” trick is one that is near and dear to my heart.Report
I was that way too… then my company switched to “Unlimited” vacation – which amounts to the same amount of vacation your not taking right now.
But now our books are clear of the unused vacation liability.
I could, theoretically, change my habits… but then there are a lot of things I could do theoretically.Report
I don’t know what I’m going to do for sure.
I am not teaching this summer – first time in seven or so years – so I’m not staring down starting up with 2 1/2 hours of lecture every day and five hours of lab twice a week. Which is nice.
I do have some things I COULD be doing: I have a new class for fall to prep (have already started), a manuscript to finish up, and another manuscript to make revisions on (accepted with revisions, yeah!). I will probably wander in to the office later today and work on that, but tomorrow I might run out and do some shopping and just generally relax.Report
I imagine you will end this summer either saying “I am never going to not teach during the summer ever again” or saying “I am going to retire early”.Report
It will be a useful test, then 🙂
I didn’t teach in 2004 and I think, 2011. In 2004, my classes didn’t make in time (and I had to deal with a couple irate students who said “But I was going to enroll!” and I could only respond, “But you didn’t, and the deadline passed”) and in 2011 I wanted to devote it to research.
My suspicion, given my age and declining energy, is that I will come down more on the side of “Okay, it’s 60-and-out” (the youngest I could possibly retire) than “OMG, I have to teach summers in the future even if they don’t pay me very well”
I love teaching but the logistics get me down and the students who have major life-problems that wind up affecting me (e.g., having to do lots of make-up work) get me down.Report
I just started my vacation. This weekend, I’m in Budapest. That will be followed by Vienna and Prague.Report
Dude! Awesome! We want a full report when you get back!Report
Yeah, you just listed three of the four European cities I haven’t been to yet that I most want to visit (the fourth is Athens). I agree, definitely give us the full breakdown when you return.Report
I worked last weekend. Not planning on doing so this weekend. Going to a winery picnic on Sunday. Not sure about SaturdayReport
Smart. You miss the holiday rush and get a lovely weekend visit to the winery that won’t be too crowded.Report
Play Saturday night with one of my best friends and relaxing by the pool on Sunday. I better find a maternity swimsuit ASAP. Eh, who am I kidding. The bikini is the ultimate maternity swimsuit! I’ll just wear my one from last year.
I had the flu or food poisoning earlier this week, but life did not slow down for that. I want to binge watch something on Netflix Saturday and sleep in just enough to also take a nap around 2:00 pm.Report
I’m trying to catch a cat that somebody dumped so I can pet it to death.
My other kitty doesn’t know about my plans as of yet. She’s not likely to be enthusiastic.Report
We found that catnip does not work as well as the internet claims it will when it comes to introducing strangers to each other.
But perhaps it’s also because Momo is a jerk and just doesn’t like other cats at all.Report