Unexpected Day off

Sometimes, good things to happen. Like today, for example, there was no attending scheduled to staff the Dayton VA clinic, so we have the day off. What a nice, welcome surprise that was! Especially since I was on call all weekend:) As far as weekend calls go, it was about as good as you could hope for. I got to sleep both nights and spent a fair amount of time at home with Charlie. I won't complain. Only three more weekends left this year...

Anyways, I'm trying to make my day off a productive one. First order of business was to catch up on some much needed baking. You see, I really love to bake. And I love to cook. And I don't get nearly enough time to do these things with my current work schedule. So, after breakfast I set to making some muffins. I STILL have pumpkin in my pantry that I stocked up on around Thanksgiving time, so whole wheat pumpkin muffins with dried cranberries it was. I really do like muffins. And not the ones that taste like cake and have no nutritional value. If I wanted cake, I'd have a cupcake with frosting on it, which incidentally I also baked this weekend.

You see, on Saturday night, after we ate our dinner of pork chops and asparagus (it was on sale for $1.99/lb!!!) Charlie looked at me and he said, "I really want dessert." That was odd, because I really wanted dessert too. So, we looked in the pantry and we found a boxed carrot cake mix and a container of cream cheese frosting that his mom had given us around Christmas time. It was perfect. We made 12 cupcakes and one 9" round cake and went to town. The cake is almost gone, I think I'll take the cupcakes to work tomorrow so that someone besides me eats them. Otherwise they will all go in my belly, and I really don't need that to happen.

The last order to productive baking business was to make granola. I love, love, love granola. In my yogurt with some berries, or just by itself with some milk. I hate granola that you buy at the store. Why do they have to make something so great so bad for you? It doesn't have to be! I keep mine simple - oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds. Heat up some vegetable oil mixed with honey on the stove, pour it into the oats mixture, mix it all around, put in on a jelly sheet and bake at 300 degrees, stirring every 5-10 minutes, until it's done (usually about 40-45 minutes). Once it's cool I'll mix in some craisins and voila - granola that is good for you and will last forever. Love it.

I also am going to need to work on my research project today. That makes me sad. I don't want to do that. But, alas, it has to be done. I have a stack of reading that I'm going to be starting on pretty soon, and OKAPs to study for. But I will make time for a run, because the sun is shining and it is above freezing:)

That is all for now, I'm going to go and be productive some more. New Orleans this weekend, though, can't wait!