Ow, ow, ow. Too much of everything today. Too much heat, too much work, too much edema. I'm hot and tired and sore, and my house is ridiculously warm for it being after 10 pm. It's June in Colorado, and it was over 100 degrees as I drove home from Boulder this afternoon, across rural roads. That's just not how this was supposed to work. And it will be just as warm for most of this week. It was a bad day to have ovens on in non-air-conditioned homes, but I did it in two different spaces. I baked a gigantic cake (two different flavors of gluten-free mixes swirled in a 14" round) at home, and I ran the self-cleaning cycle at the condo in Boulder. It smelled too good at home, and it smelled so badly at the condo that it made my eyes water. The sad part is that I had gone there today specifically to make it smell better. After the last tenants moved out, something in the air was stuffy and sour, and it made the whole place smell like an unplugged refrigerator at a very old person's home. We never figured out the source, because there was nothing left in the house except an old doormat. I mopped the floors back to front, I cleaned the bathroom an extra time, and I sprayed Febreeze on all the honeycomb shades and in the cold air return filter (and I ran the fan for hours). Then after I made it perfect, I stunk it back up again with the self-cleaning oven. I left for hours (to bake the cake and dye my hair) and I had to come back early to air it back out again before I met someone there.
The person who has committed to rent the condo is coming from out of state. This person has never set foot in the space, but needs a place to land with a pet, to avoid getting a hotel. I took a few videos, walking through the condo, and texted them out, but still, the condo is being rented out on faith. So my new renter asked a friend to meet me there to walk through, and report back on how it looked in person. I arrived about 20 minutes early, threw open several windows, turned on a couple of fans, and sprayed one last round of Febreeze. Even so, you could still smell the oven just a little bit by the time the friend arrived. I 'fessed up to the source of the fumes, and then took her on a tour. I pointed at everything, made sure all the doors and drawers were opened, I walked her out to the garage and to one of the pools, and I answered all questions and volunteered a few things that she didn't think to ask. I'm fairly certain I passed inspection. The friend said that the place was super nice, and she shared that with my soon-to-be tenant. I was happy that this young woman was such a good friend to scout out the place to protect her buddy.
The cake I baked today seems pretty epic. I don't usually make such large cakes, not since I gave up wheat. This is a chocolate and vanilla swirl, in a brand new large pan. I lined the base with parchment, hoping that it would work as advertised and release easy enough. I was pleased that with the large surface area, the cake came out relatively flat, so turning it out on to a large cardboard round was easy, and I didn't have to trim it to make it flat. The worst part about the whole experience was not grabbing a fork and diving in. Thankfully, I'm not the one decorating this time. My foster daughter will be making it fancy for a mutual friend of ours. We picked out all sorts of colored sugars, pastes, and candles last night. I've seen her design. I am so looking forward to sharing pictures of it tomorrow. But not until then.
I didn't want to be the one to drive the cake over to the kids' house. As I said, I was (am) sore and swollen. But I sucked it up and took it over. My daughter was freshly returned from picking up a friend from the west coast who has come for an extended visit. I haven't gotten to see her since all the girls were in high school, so there will be lots of catching up to do. It will have to wait until we aren't all so tired we can't form sentences, because I'm fairly certain that's where all of us are tonight.
Picture tonight: just like her parents always do, my daughter brought back some pretty rocks from her trip. She gave me one that is shaped like a heart. I had to put it where I can see it on the porch, every time I walk outside. It's too cute.
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