I feel like my days are getting longer, yet less productive.

Co-op starts this week, and the only thing I have come up with for a quick first lesson is how to "marble" a home baked cake and make a very delicious frosting that is simple and that everyone likes.

I want the first lesson to be that simple, so we can spend some of the class talking about what they want to learn to cook this semester.

I cook so much that everything seems stale to me.

If they come up with things they want to learn, maybe having to teach it will make it seem fresher in my eyes.

That, or I'm just an old crank, which is likely.

Either way, marble cake on Tuesday, with a simple hot icing that is quick to make, spreads easily and sets right up, and I know they will want to eat cake.

In fact, let them eat cake. Even if I don't feel much like a queen.


Today is:

Day of Nemesea -- Old Roman Goddess Nemesis defender of the relics and

memory of the dead from insults

Festival of Fire

Ganesha Chaturthi -- Hindu (Festival of the Elephant God)

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its

Abolition

Kirvis, Lithuania (Harvest Festival)

National Plumber's Day

National Spongecake Day

Permanent Press Day

Ride the Wind Day

Romania Liberation Day

Schuetzenfest (German Hunter's Festival)

St. Apolinaris' Day

St. Rose of Lima's Day (Patron Saint of Peru, Central and South America,

the Philippines, florists, and gardeners)

Valentino Day

Vertumnalia -- Old Roman God of the Change of Seasons


Birthdays Today:

Kobe Bryant, 1978
River Phoenix, 1970
Shelley Long, 1949
Barbara Eden, 1934
Mark Russel, 1932
Vera Miles, 1930
Gene Kelly, 1912
Louis XVI, 1754


Today in History:

On the feast of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, Mt. Vesuvius begins to rumble, 79
Visigoths storm Rome, 410
Edward I executes William Wallace, Scottish patriot, for high treason, 1305
Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his commentary of Tur Code, 1542
The first one-way streets open in London, 1617
Steamship service begins on the Great Lakes, 1818
Mexico declares its independence, 1821
Great Britian abolishes slavery in the colonies, 700,000 slaves are freed, 1833
Automobile tire chain is patented, 1904
Bryan Allan, in a Gossamer Condor, completes the first man-powered flight of one mile, 1977