Worship at the Chocolate Altar

Boy, what a lazy day here!

I woke up about 8 a.m. - actually fairly wake anyway considering some of the hours I tend to keep. I think I went to bed around 2 a.m. last night - quite early an hour to retire if one looks at my usual hours and sleep patterns. (I know - sleep patterns? You have sleep patterns?)

What woke me up at 8 a.m. though was the phone ringing and by the time I managed to get up and out to the main house to answer it, Mandy had already arrived. Phone calls that early in the morning, when the weather is crappy, when my son is still on the highway someplace, who knows where with his big truck, are a bit scary until I learn it is Deb, our next-door neighbor. She wants me to print out some information she e-mailed me yesterday so she can take it to church, print it out there and pass it out to the Youth Group for their upcoming program sometime in the holiday season I guess.

Coffee made, I sit at the computer, check my e-mail and a few other things. I try to read a few pages in the book I started reading last night then - "The Last Promise" by Richard Paul Evans. So far, it is pretty much a nice, fairly easy read and I hope it continues along in that direction.

Looking out the window this morning it looks not very inviting there. It's obvious by the appearance of the snow that fell over night there was also some sleet or freezing rain involved too because you can see the hard crust glistening atop the snow, on the vehicles all parked out front too. There's no evidence of the township plow having been down our road as yet either so no way am I going to venture out and see if I can make it out of town with my vehicle. I didn't lose anything anyplace that makes it imperative I try to manipulate a car on roads like this.

As the morning progresses - one by one, the rest of the family wakes up and ventures downstairs. My son calls to check in and let us know his progress returning to his home terminal from his trip this week to Denver. He was in Indiana then - about 30 miles from the Ohio line and anticipating he will be "home" around 9:30 this evening -provided the road conditions don't deteriorate any more. It's going to be a very short day off for him if he does get home by 9:30 tonight as he has to be back to the terminal by 7 p.m. tomorrow to begin this weeks' runs then. Hard work but it beats the hell out of unemployment!

By 11:30 I decided I needed a bite to eat so I fixed myself a scrambled egg sandwich which, in turn, had the affect of putting me into a need for sleep mode so I decided to oblige that need by going back to bed and then, proceeded to sleep most of the afternoon away. Well, I needed that big old snooze as I'd gotten the short end of the sleep component for the past three days in a row so was making up for lost time I guess.

This evening Mandy and Bill are to go out to dinner in State College with his boss and the boss's wife. Frankly, I think they are nuts to venture that far -across Port Matilda mountain and then up and over Skytop to get to State College. Port Mountain highway (Rte 322 here) has a reputation of not always being that nice to traverse in wintry weather conditions so let's hope they've done a fairly decent job of clearing it.

Mandy tried to slip off and go get a shower -alone - but alas, the power that is Maya wasn't about to allow that to happen. She hears the sliding doors to the shower and she's there, ready and willing - waiting - to hope in the shower with her mother. Good thing she likes bathtime isn't it? Sure is a switch from how a lot of kids her age can be about that subject too!

So she insists then on getting dressed - an outfit of her choosing - which this time is a really cute little dark blue print number, gathered skirt under a high bodice to which she insists on adding patterned knee socks in an aqua and pink color scheme. Ah yes indeed, she does have a "passion for fashion."

Then, her Dad decides it is his turn to lock himself in the bathroom which works for a while until suddenly Maya is banging on the bathroom door, hollering "Daddy, Daddy! Help me, help me, help me!" Finally, he opens the door and asks what she needs help with and she says "Open door, I has Pee!" Well, okay now! Sounds like a good need and reason to call for help to me!

Mandy and Bill by this time are ready to leave and now comes the crap shoot of whether Maya is going to accept their leaving the house and be nice or if she is going to go bonkers and ballistic with me, screaming, kicking, going into meltdown mode. One never knows how she's going to respond so I was on pins and needles for a little while when they left but seems now the storm is going to by-pass this house tonight as she cried very briefly, came and sat in my lap telling me how she needed "chocolate, Christmas chocolate" no less and that seemed to be the item that turned the tide there too -averting potential disaster here.

And for that substance, yes indeed, I am now and will be forever grateful!

Maybe this evening would be a good time to bake some more cookies - I've got my eye on a recipe that has a maraschino cherry buried in the dough and then the baked cookies are (which is a chocolate batter by the way) are dipped in chocolate, not once, but twice.

Sounds like it might just be the ticket to have something like that on hand for future use when "Mommy and Daddy" have to leave a certain little girl with me, don't 'cha think?

I hope so anyway!