Move along, nothing to see here . . .

Nary a stitch.

Not one.

All week.

It has been a weird week--I've spent a lot of time with other stitchers and I've spent an amazing amount of time planning stitching.

But I haven't threaded a needle.

Tuesday I spent three hours in the dentist's chair having molds made for the permanent crown that will cover what's left of the root-canaled tooth and having the temporary crown placed.  After that was over, I staggered home and spent the evening getting ready for our sampler guild annual social.

This involved baking a cake.

Our sampler guild has some phenomenal cooks. Absolutely phenomenal.  So I decided to do my fail-safe cake, which has accompanied me to many social functions. I have been baking this particular cake since it appeared in Southern Living in 1982.  We are talking 30 years of experience with this particular recipe.

Admittedly, I don't make it as often now as I did when there were hungry teen-agers in and out and about.  Dearly Beloved was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and doesn't need to devour vast amounts of cake. Large and lovely as I am, I certainly don't need constant exposure to a cake that contains a pound of butter and three cups of sugar. However, I have experience with making this cake and know all its ins and outs.

I thought.

Cake went into oven, looking as it always does, in the same tube pan I've used for the last forty years, lavishly buttered and floured so there would be no sticking problems.

Do you sense the Jaws theme coming up?

Cake came out of oven, nicely puffy and golden brown.  It was placed on the rack to cool for the designated ten minutes.

Then it was flipped over.

Half of it came out.

The remaining half remained in the pan.

With jagged, ugly edges.

There were emphatic Anglo-Saxon terms flung about.

So I sliced the pretty part into slices, placed them on an antique pressed glass plate, and took a partial cake to the social on Wednesday, where there was so much incredibly good food that no one noticed there was not an entire cake on the plate. Or if they did, they were too polite to mention it. So no stitching on Wednesday night.  (Please note the last time I had to make something to take for sampler guild, I burned the cheese biscuits, but the cookies I baked came out fine.)

In amongst all this, I was reading and printing out the first lesson for the Casket of Curiosities course.  It's actually and finally here!!!!  I am head over heels into the 17th century for sure!!!

Then last night I was doing the stuff I usually do on the week-ends--laundry and what minimal housekeeping I have to do to keep the Health Department at bay, so no stitching last night.

Because I have escaped my usual routine and am spending the week-end with Baby Girl. We are having a girls' week-end, which will include a viewing of The Avengers because we both really like big super hero movies.

And it has Robert Downey, Jr, in it.  And we both find him to be a force of nature which we must view.