There is rooftop seating at the Jolly Pumpkin and it is loverly but my Mouse and I decided to snag a table inside tonight. After walking downtown under a relentlessly sunny sky — no clouds *anywhere* — I was pretty much done done done, stick a fork in me done. I canNOT complain about the weather but I needed a bit of darkness for just a while before we began trudging back up the hill, facing the sun straight on as it headed on down toward the horizon.

Ice Cream Social night at Haisley School? Yes! Boy oh boy, do I remember those days. For a few years, as PTO treasurer, I ran the money for that thing. I sold tickets all week and spent the night wandering around helping out with various games and activities and collecting cash to stash in the “vault”. I had the key to the “vault” on a lanyard around my neck. At the end of the night, I would stuff all of that cash into big ziplock bags and the GG would bring an automotive vee-hickle around to the school to escort me home, even though the school is a quick walk from my house. (Note to any nefarious type beings: I do not do that any more and rarely have more than $20 or so cash on my person or in my house. Nothing else of value here either.)

The Ice Cream Social was not our biggest fundraiser. It usually made around $3,000, which was not a lot considering the number of people and amount of work it took. Nevertheless, I think it was just about the most fun. Walking home from downtown tonight, we had to snake our way through the Cake Walk. I will never forget the night I helped with the cake walk. First of all, parents were always asked to donate cakes or cupcakes for the cakewalk and also to sell. I am not much of a baker but I could usually manage to whip up a batch of cupcakes when asked. Nothing special though. Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker or whatever. Later on when I took over the money, I quietly slid myself out of that task.

Anyway. You know how a cake walk works, right? A bunch of people walk around in a circle and when the music stops… Actually, I don’t remember exactly how a cake walk works. But somehow or other, somebody wins a cake. Or a bunch of cupcakes. Or… Because this goes on all night and a bunch of folks win cakes and some of them walk the cake walk over and over until they win. I am here to tell you that I once helped my friend John hand prizes out through a classroom window and by the end of the night, we were throwing various cupcakes and pieces of larger cakes onto plates willy-nilly for the prize winners. We were running out of nice, neatly packaged products and he’s an engineer and I am a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-do-what-needs-to-be-done kind of worker, so we were making it up as we went and guess what? People were *still* lining up to be in the damn cake-walk and they didn’t seem to care doodly-squat what the “prizes” looked like. They just wanted to win. Me? One of the reasons I am not much of a baker is that whenever I *do* bake a cake, I usually end up throwing about half of it out because we just don’t eat a lot of sweet stuff around here. We *like* sweets. We just like them in small doses. So I cannot figger what people were going to do with all that cake.

Leaving the schoolyard tonight, we were walking behind a very tired looking little girl (Hello Kitty face paint!) and mom. They seemed tired in that happy way that I remember so well — we’ve had a good time but now it’s time to go home and take a bath and read a book and snuggle and fall asleep. Down time. My mouse and I turned the corner and had a little down time here at the Landfill, except that our downtime consisted of a little garden overview (Mouse), blahgging (KW), and a nightcap (both). Mouse’s latest play (I hope the link works (that’s Mouse in the poster)) is ramping up and she was sleepy but left to meet up with some others to finish up a few costumes and I suspect she will catch a second wind. So now, it’s just yer fav-o-rite blahgger and a few moe-skee-toes (and some Deep Woods Off).

G’night, KW

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