Home free

So Keith has been out of town for the last two days and comes home tonight. I can barely remember any other time when he has gone out of town without me. I am always up and leaving him to go here, there and everywhere. So when this little trip came up, I got so excited about what I would do with my free time. Hurray! I could do anything I wanted, eat anything I wanted, accomplish any sweaty, annoying task I wanted.. So I watched loads of HGTV and Gilmore girls, made flan from scratch (astonishingly simple recipe at the end of this post), purged my pantry of everything that had already expired- some expiration dates were 2007!! Now I know that my grandma could beat me hands down on that. I'm sure she has things that expired in the 80s, but for someone who just started keeping their own house in 2006, it's pretty horrifying. I organized said pantry and it looks so beautiful! The only problem is that everything is exactly in its place and there is no room for anything else. So each time I find something randomly in my living room or bedroom that should be in my pantry (hey, I'm still new at this..), I freak out. And I'm looking at my grocery shopping list and having a little panic attack about where I will put the staples that I have run out of.
The other huge task that I accomplished was sorting through all of my clothes and getting them in the right place. Because of several trips and LOTs of laziness, I had accumulated quite a little pile of clothing on top of my dresser. Now the dresser top is visible again, my old, stained or torn clothes have been thrown away or put in Kitty's little house so she can rip them even more, my closet is organized and my drawers are full. What a good feeling.
Now I am surveying the house and I see a million other projects calling my name- sort through old mail and papers, take out the recycling, do laundry, straighten the living room, clean out the car so we can sell it, sweep the porch and replant the pots whose plants died..
I have one thing to say. COME HOME KEITH!!! I can't handle any more projects.


Frighteningly Easy Flan:
Mix together
8 eggs
1 can (14 oz) sweetened, condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a pan, melt down 1 1/2 C sugar until it becomes a thin caramel and turns golden brown. (don't stir until it is pretty well melted!) Pour this caramel in the bottom of a 9" cake pan.
Add the egg/milk/vanilla mixture.
Put the cake pan in a larger pan with some water in it and bake at 300 degrees for 70 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and flip onto a plate (with edges to hold in the caramel!) and let cool.
The end.