Crazy Night

Ever have good intentions, but no matter what happens, nothing goes right? :) That pretty much sums up last night.
Friends of ours had their first baby come into the world last week. We were so happy for them, and I volunteered to make dinner for them. I had a wonderful grandiose plan set up. I would have a roast in the crockpot, make twice baked potatoes, make a beautiful chocolate cake in my new rose bundt pan, warm up some veggies, thaw out a couple dinner rolls, and voila! a beautiful meal. The best part was that I would double everything up & split it for Geoff's & my dinner. Yesterday morning, I put in the roast with some favorite herbs/spices. Check. Mixed up my cake mix & started the baking process. Check. Washed potatoes, so they're ready for baking for 2x baked potatoes. Check. Got dressed & ready for work. Check. Take out the cake - & head to work. Nope. The cake was not done-very liquidy in the middle. That's ok, I gave myself 15 extra minutes, so just let it cook. Nope. 15 minutes later still wobbly. Good thing I sprayed a lot of PAM into this pan. So, I turned off the oven & let the cake sit in a warm oven for 8 hours. Well, this means no baked potatoes, that's ok we'll just mash them up.
Fast forward to coming home from work. Geoff's on the phone on hold waiting to get some questions answered about his Bible software program that he wants to update. I start the potatoes. I take the cake out of the oven & it's cooked through!!! Yeah! I turn it over & some of it falls out. Maybe icing can save it - they'll never know it was supposed to look like a rose. I taste a tidbit of what still in the pan & ugh! dried out chocolate cake. No rose cake for my friends. :( Geoff's still on hold, and needs to take shower, so I take the phone & info & start a mental checklist of what I can make for dessert. I have a great recipe for white chocolate Macadamia nut muffins, so I feverishly start whipping those up with the cell phone glued to my ear listening to the tinny piano music. My tiny kitchen is quickly turning into a pig pen, but the dishwasher is full from this morning & I hadn't run it yet. Geoff is out of the shower & we have been on hold for about 45-50 minutes. He gets the cell & annoying music back. I start warming up some veggies & dinner rolls, mashing the potatoes. Ok, we need to leave in 15 minutes the muffins are baking & now it's time to cut the roast.
Alas! the roast has shrunk so much that we will look chintzy giving our friends 1/2 of it! That's ok, we'll have mashed potatoes & leftover from the fridge, but as I fill the container with the potatoes, I realize the container is big, so the amount looks small. Ok dump in all the potatoes. No problem we'll have something else for dinner, and I 'll worry about it when I get back. I pack everything up & of course someone finally picks up Geoff's call. It's time to go!!!! Geoff is told that he can purchase his software over the phone, not on the internet as he was told before. Since he doesn't want to give his credit card info over the cell phone, Geoff calls back on our home phone. My thoughts: We gotta go - everything is warm & ready & we're running late! Geoff's call goes straight to voicemail: 3 times in a row, so he gives up. So, we head out the door as I'm frantically wrapping a little outfit I bought this weekend in tissue paper. Sigh of relief.
After our visit with friends, we head back to a messy messy kitchen & dishes running in the dishwasher. Within minutes Geoff makes a phone call again about the software, it is purchased, & decide to splurge as we head out the door for a 9:00pm dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Funny thing was that we thought the restaurant would be a cheapy Chinese place, but no! It's one of the nicest ones on the area. Good grief!
(Christina - the length of this post is dedicated to you. :)