I always make hot cocoa with milk. Granted, I also use the powdered stuff, and mix in a couple of generous shakes of cinnamon, but I think it's nom!

Mom's technique is to make it with condensed skim milk. She heats whatever chocolate (from Quik to baking chocolate) in water and when its hot enough she stirs in the can of milk. It prevents burning milk in the bottom of the pan (which was a major consideration when her children took over the job) and you can make it richer but not fatty by using less water.

It was pretty much the only thing we ever used condensed milk for. When we saw those cans come home in the fall it was pretty exciting.

that whole puppies thing is killing me.

I spent most of Saturday with this handsome gentleman and I'm 90% sure he's found a home with some pretty awesome people.

Condensed milk is/was a Jamaican staple. Don't know if it was skim, though. We used it in everything. My favourite was in Milo. Just put the Milo granules (before they reformulated to mostly powder) into a spoonful of condensed milk and spend half an hour sucking it back out. Mighty tasty.

In theory, we were to have it diluted in cereal during milk shortages, but fuck that noise.

I am watching some nonsensical SyFy movie with Juliet Landau (thank you, Amy) right now.

Kat, I love how all out you go for your kids' parties. I was just telling a friend of my sisters how nuts my mother used to get--but her thing was the cakes, and less with decorations and gifts. It's definitely a tradition that sticks with you as you grow up.

Oh, and clothes--she'd sew us our gowns for the parties. So we'd be in maxi dresses while everyone else was in jeans, T shirts, and runners.

Grace looks adorable in that picture. I'm not able to understand how these would have made much sense to me had I gotten my hands on them much younger than when I actually did. But look at them go! Hacking and cracking and Angry Birding.

My grandma and great-aunt were great cake decorators, but I remember how much trouble the head of the unicorn cake they made my sister gave them. Damn head kept falling off; they had to prop it up with toothpicks.

You want to hear little old church-going ladies lose their cool and cuss? (Mild, but STILL! Grandma! Aunt Alice! CUSSING.)

Have them try to prevent spontaneous pastry unicorn decapitation in a moving Chrysler.

I need an intervention.

I was up one night till three a.m., finishing painting the house banners for Ben's Harry Potter party. I'd made a Sorting Hat cake, and about fifty posterboard white candles, because we had a vaulted ceiling with big wood beams (we hung them with fishing wire so it looked like they were floating). I got a little nuts about it, but it was also so much fun.

Amy, that sounds incredible.

It was so much fun! He was five, so they all got glassed and lightning bolt temp tattoos and wands. Oddly, no one ended up with an eye out, either.

My other favorite was the Survive! Garvey Island! party we did for Jake when he was nine. We made a fake palm tree and had all these challenges for them out in the yard, and camo paint for their faces.

CRAP. The juniors were supposed to be gone all this week on their camping trip, which meant I only had two classes to teach and tons of time to catch up on grading...so I did some work this weekend but took it easy overall. Well I just got an email saying that the trip was canceled due to weather, so we have normal class all week. Not only do I not have extra grading time, I now have a week of class to plan! ACK!!!

So. Screwed.

Kristin, that sucks. I wonder if your kids could some writing with peer evaluation? Something simple even like: write about your favorite book, trying to convince someone else to read it? Can pass the essay to a fellow student, have them evaluate the review and whether they were convinced!?

If this was an extra week that would work, but it looks like they are going to reschedule the trip for some time in April or May, so I can't lose curriculum time this week. They were at the beginning of a project, so I will have them keep working on that for a couple of days and then shift gears mid-week, I guess. It's just a tad bit awkward because we only have this week until Spring Break, so if I start something now they will likely forget it by the time they come back. It will all work out, but ack.