And by that, I mean it's my birthday, hee hee. In my family, it was tradition that the birthday boy or girl got to don the mantle of birthday brat, and not have to lift a finger.

So far, so good - Neil hasn't made me deal with Leah yet and I've been able to cheerfully work on responding to all the well wishes that filed in overnight. In this digital age, I do my best to practice the base courtesies; a brief 'thank you' to a status message is this era's equivalent of a thank you card. And, of course, it saves the effort of attempting to fill a card with banalities, which is even better.

And in preparation for doing no real work today, I baked like a storm last night. I did two loaves of rolled oat (one for us, one for my in-laws), a banana nut bread (and learned why sifting is key), and a chocolate cake. I'm still going to need to do the frosting for that today, but I suspect I can forgive myself that effort of labour. After all.. it's frosting. Who can call frosting work, really?

Prompt #2 is up for the Chrysalis Experiment, and deity has blessed me with the nucleus of an idea. I knocked out 450 words last night, and then started dithering; I felt like I was going off prompt. And then I reminded myself - this isn't 'My Summer Vacation'; I'm allowed to wander as my heart wishes. As I said to one of my best friends when discussing it last night:

Aaanyways, the only thing I'll say about the piece I'm working on is that I'm attempting to do it in the first person. I'm sure this will probably shoot me in the foot, but it felt like the right thing to do to me. And now? I vade!

<3