Saturday Six

1. I am really bad at following recipes. This is, of course, due to my lack of attention to detail, my impatience and my overall excitement to try something new. I was attempting to make a cake tonight for Mother's Day only the recipe called for a 13x9 inch pan and I wanted the cake to be round so that I could sit it prettily on my cake stand. But I didn't consider that a recipe that's supposed to fit in a slab pan would be too much for an 8 inch round pan. So then I had to make two pans, which wouldn't be so disastrous except that there was a filling you were supposed to put in the middle of the cake halfway through baking, which can't exactly happen if your cake is now in two pans. Where is the middle? So instead I put the filling on top of one of the pans and put it back in the oven, only now the caramel is oozing over the sides, and I'm going to have to somehow figure out how to get it out of the pan and put the two cakes together. Why don't I just read recipes through thoroughly first?

2. So Rosie. I'm like months behind on weighing in about her leaving the show, but I have a question. Why did she announce she's leaving but then stay on so long? Once you announce you're leaving, doesn't the network just want you off the air? Or why didn't she have to wait to tell everyone until her last day? It just sort of seems weird to watch her everyday, knowing that she doesn't really want to be there anyway. At least, it seems weird to me.

3. I just got the sweetest email from Vanessa Craft, another Key Porter author, whose book, Out of Character, launched this month, too. It's now in bookstores and I can't wait to read it, but I'm waiting until Wednesday for her launch party, so that I can buy it there, and meet her in person and get it signed. If you go to her website, you can watch a trailer for her book.

4. Apparently, we're not supposed to trust sunscreen. Instead, we're supposed to stay out of the sun altogether. I get that the sun is bad, but it's like the first week of spring, real spring, with sunny days and everyone's happy and walking outside after being cooped up inside for six months, and now we're supposed to go back inside and watch the world from behind shaded windows? Oy.

5. This is the first year that I feel like a lot of my friends have babies, so it's particularly exciting that tomorrow is Mother's Day and I want to wish all of them a happy day. Since most of them have babies (as opposed to toddlers or teens, not as opposed to cubs or fawns), I'm not sure what they'll really get for Mother's Day - maybe a card from their husbands? Or maybe they'll get to sleep in or just not do any chores for the day (though I imagine breast-feeding is still a chore isn't it? And it's not like the husband can do it, though a friend asked me the other day, "if a baby sucked on the dad's nipple long enough, would milk come out?" I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but seriously, I don't know! I'm the girl who asked her husband today, "What's a breast pad?" and he, of course, explained it to me. As though it's common knowledge, or something.). ANYWAY, the point is that when you've got a newborn, maybe there never is a break, even on Mother's Day, but still, hopefully they (and you, if you're a mother) will be able to take a moment and realize just how much you've accomplished, and sacrificed and how special you are, just for being a mom.

6. I know the winners of the door prizes from my book launch party! Except, they're sitting in an email at work. So, the big announcement will have to wait until Monday. I can tell you, however, that the winner of the Yoli-Poli yoga bag was my dad, until of course I told my publicist that, and said maybe she should choose someone else. Sorry, Dad. (Although I do recall finding a yoga book in our basement when I was little Chantel, but as the saying goes, "If you were around for the trend the first time, skip it the second." So I think my dad will stick to golf instead.)