Peanut Butter Cookies Part III

I'm not sure what's driving this project. Do I bake cookies so I can write in the blog, or do I blog just so I can bake the cookies?

Whichever, I've been missing my cookies and my blog! It's been a couple of busy weeks since I baked or wrote. There's a lot to catch up on. In order to do that, I baked James' favorites for Valentine's Day. Now for the blog.

What I thought was a Superbowl headache on Feb. 1 turned out to be a sinus headache. I ended up sick all that week. No cookies for me! To my family's disappointment, I saved my strength for travel on Feb. 7.

That's when Denise, Renee and Linda and I headed south for five fabulous days in Palm Desert. It was a much-needed Mommy Timeout. The weather was memorable: COLD! And our furnace was out, so the comfort level could have been better. The sun did show up, though, so we finally got to hang by the pool. Other memorable moments:

1. Renee finding a huge, dead date roach under Denise's bed.

2. Renee finding a huge rocket-shaped pool toy in her own bed. No idea how that got there.

3. Our rain-soaked trip to Cabazon, followed by a syrup-soaked trip to IHOP.

4. The evening we enjoyed edamame, lemon drops and ice cream for dinner while watching What Not to Wear, The Bachelor and John and Kate Plus Eight.

5. Our red rental car turning black in the Blockbusters parking lot. Again!

6. Denise telling some guy in the Albertson's parking lot that we weren't really hookers (even though we were loitering near his car for no apparent reason).

7. Linda spilling her purse in the car. Twice.

8. Breakfast on the patio in the sunshine. Ahh!

9. My dad showing up for one day to shop for houses. (He lit the furnace pilot light, but it went out again.)

10. The football-sized lemon we "found" on a walk.

Despite the rain and my lingering cough, I had a great time.

Once we got home, real life smashed right into my face. There were four pounds of dirt on my floors, the kids had colds, my work email had piled up. And so on.

But home is fun, too, if not as lazy and sunny. Cindy and I met for lunch and got makeovers at Nordstrom. She was gorgeous and I didn't look like my dad in drag! Jamey, Mary and Ellis came down for lunch, a playdate and a dresser. And we got our new office furniture. That should have been a simple thing. You unplug the computer, move the old desk out and the new desk in. Then you plug the computer back in, right?

Not in this house. We now have a new, bigger monitor, a new printer (had to have one that fits in the new desk), a new wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, router (we obviously need Internet connection in the kitchen), and some gadget that will make our TVs talk to our computers or something. Hell if I know. What I do know is that James has been to Fry's at least four times in the past 36 hours and my office is a disaster.

I worked in the yard yesterday! Bulbs are coming up and I see perennials coming back. I think my jasmine is toast, and I really hope my Tom Thumb fuschia makes it. But it was great to get out there and dig in the dirt. I raked, trimmed, pruned, scraped up moss and tidied things up. I'm ready for spring.

Today's Presidents' Day, and Christian's on mid-winter break all week. So it looks like I'll be home with the boys for the next seven days. My challenge will be to work without having Ian watching TV constantly. I know what Christian will want to do: In the midst of all those electronics, an Xbox game found its way into James' cart. I'm so outnumbered.

I guess I could keep them busy by baking some more cookies. Ian informed me the other night that he's a "great helper chef," and they both love cookies. Turns out we all love cookies in this house--just for different reasons.