A sound-painting, cake-baking, Vance-hating Friday

Last night I learned that a “jerdode cake” is actually a “geode cake”. Sadly, this didn’t leave me any the wiser. Ottawacker Jr. did his best to explain, but with the best will in the world, he’s not as compulsive viewing as Crime Scene Kitchen. We were still talking about last night’s how over lunch. Apparently, this is where the isomalt comes in. I don’t even know what isomalt is. At least I know what Styrofoam is, though.
 
Today dawned bright and sunny – gloriously sunny, actually – and the temperatures dipped to around -18ºC. Bizarrely, I like this type of weather; the sun is good for the soul and you can dress against it. Ottawacker Jr. is off on his PA day, but has had to go in to the National Arts Centre for his dress rehearsal for this weekend’s Soundpainting performances. He doesn’t seem to bothered about it. He has Monday off too, as we have a provincial Family Day.
 
Spent a lot of the day catching up on last year’s finances (we use an accounting programme to track how much we spend on various things and how much I can claim against taxes: this is great, provided you remember to enter the transactions on a regular basis and don’t leave it till two months after the end of the calendar year). Mind-numbing stuff. But has to be done.
 
Ottawacker Jr. arrived back from his soundpainting performances covered in chocolate. Not sure whether this is a Valentine’s Day issue or a soundpainting issue.
 
And, then I read the newspapers, and the coverage of JD Vance’s most recent speech. My jaw dropped. This is the problem with putting intellectual dwarfs in the same room as adults. Trump, Vance et al come in and see a problem, think there is either an opportunity for taking advantage of it OR a simplistic solution. Normally, the only solution to this is a stiff drink; however, I am currently on Day 2 of a seven-day elimination diet, seeing if any of my arthritis is food-intolerance-based. It’s not much fun. But it is more fun than listening to those dimwits.
 
So, despite the elimination diet and the possibility of it being destroyed by watching it, the family tuned in to the finale of Crime Scene Kitchen, where the contestants had to go through an elimination round and then go directly into the final bake off. There were four teams left – but by the time they had made more or less successful versions of a Napoleon, there were only three. Home went the mother-and-daughter team Emma and Leslie, who had produced a Napoleon that looked more like a plate of mouldy cat food than a dessert. The final was a little harder to judge, especially for those without the ability to actually taste or smell the food (i.e., the audience). This is where the format falls down – because it’s all well and good being able to produce a nice-looking cake, but if it tastes like crap, what is the point? All of the cakes in the final looked amazing, though, so it was down to my own personal prejudice as to whom I wanted to win, which is just the way I like it. Luis and Natalie won. I was especially happy for Natalie, who had to overcome a serious handicap to achieve this victory: she’s around 3’ 7”, and could only just reach the counter top. A stellar effort.