TheBanyanTree: Go Ahead and Laugh - I Would If It Were YOU!!

[Kitty]

You *do* know how to entertain -- us if not yourself!!

I've had my experience with water balloons and regarded blowing them up and 
tying them as a trip to purgatory.  A minute per balloon and each, 
containing water, burst in seconds.  The kids had a ball; me, not so much.

But your story makes the use of water balloons so much more enjoyable! 
Sorry about the blistered finger.  I'll warn you now not to hold your iron 
and answer the phone at the same time....

Kitty

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam Lawley" <pamj.lawley at gmail.com>
To: "A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own 
*original*writings." <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2011 10:30 PM
Subject: TheBanyanTree: Go Ahead and Laugh - I Would If It Were YOU!!


> Several weeks ago I stumbled on a new recipe, somewhere on the internet
> while I was surfing blogs and looking for recipes!  This one was a 
> chocolate
> pudding served in 'chocolate bowls'!  The woman raved about how easy they
> were, and that they were something kids could get into doing as well!!
> There were photos to accompany the recipe - and yep!, there were children
> holding small water balloons, blown up, and then dipped in chocolate and 
> set
> out to harden.  *I* could do that!!!!!!
>
> But alas, all this time has passed and I haven't gotten around to it yet!
> (Not that I haven't spent hours and hours in the kitchen making things -
> just not those!)  But I'm having some chicks over this weekend for a silly
> jewelry party, and I thought it would be the perfect time.  I'm also 
> making
> a couple of different flavors of cupcakes so that I have somewhere to put
> the couple of different flavors of Swiss meringue buttercream frostings 
> that
> I want to try!!  (The irony here with all these desserts is that the party
> is probably going to bomb!!!  I didn't realize until this week that the 
> 2nd
> of October was THIS WEEKEND, and the consultant hadn't brought me any
> invites to give out that might have reminded so, I dunno how many will 
> show
> up..)
>
> Anyway, because I'm going to have to spend Sunday morning sprucing up the
> house, and my husband and I are going with friends to the local 'Seafood
> Festival' tomorrow, I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of time to get
> things made.  So I made the first batch of cupcakes last night and froze
> them, and then came home from work today and made the second and tossed 
> them
> into the freezer as well.  I'll pull them all out first thing Sunday 
> morning
> so they can thaw.  And then I'll make the frostings.  Each kind will take
> about 25 minutes in the mixer, but most importantly I want them to be
> 'fresh' since there are a dozen ways to screw it up!
>
> Also, months ago I'd been in a store and seen water balloons so I'd
> purchased them then to have 'em when I was ready.  And tonight I was 
> ready.
> Unfortunately, blowing them up proved to be a challenge I wasn't ready 
> for.
> Ever tried blowing up those tiny balloons?!  They're a PITA in the best of
> circumstances, but if one's mouth doesn't close correctly because one is
> dealing with their second round of Bell's Palsy in four months, then it
> makes blowing them up impossible.  I tried squeezing my lips together with
> my other hand but the squeeze also kept my lips shut too tightly to do any
> blowing and all I manged was to spray spit all over the balloon!  So I
> waited for my husband and asked him to do it.  He couldn't tie them - but 
> I
> could!, so we made quite a team!!
>
> When I had about a dozen blown up (they were small) and stashed in a giant
> Tupperware bowl with a couch pillow over them so they wouldn't float away, 
> I
> stopped him and told that was probably enough for the chocolate I had. 
> And
> I already had a plastic container of leftover chocolate from the last cake
> pops I'd made.  So far, so good.
>
> I wiped the balloons off (lest there be any lingering talc or anything on
> them [I remember something about that from the blog I read]), and then I
> dipped the first balloon.  I was twirling it when the balloon popped.  It
> liked to have scared the crap out of me, but worse - ever seen the mess a
> balloon coated in chocolate and then popped can make?!?!?!??!
>
> I spooned out the chocolate blob of balloon mess from the bowl, and then I
> proceeded to wipe down the walls.  Damn!  Must have been a faulty balloon!
> Or maybe it was blown up too big and stretched too tight!  I tried 
> another.
>
> And then stopped to wipe down the counter and my arms.
>
> Double-damn!!!!!!!
>
> Okay.  Was the chocolate too hot?!  No, I tested it and it was, at worst,
> luke warm.  So I had my husband blow up a couple of more, only smaller.
>
> Triple-damn!!!!!  Chocolate under the cabinets, on the coffee machine
> machine, my plants by the window, and splats all over the kitchen floor.
> And my arms.
>
> I hope you're laughing out loud as you read this and really, really 
> enjoying
> yourself!!  Please!!  Let the entertainment value of the story have made 
> all
> the frustration worth it!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Finally I yelled, 'screw it!!!', and went to find my shoes to go to the
> store and find another brand of balloons!!!!!!!  I'd taken a break and
> checked the internet... I couldn't find the original blog, but I *did* 
> watch
> two videos on YouTube - one was a 'grandma' who really needed to have
> straightened up the kitchen behind her, and another was a really hot 
> chick's
> really professional looking video!  NEITHER one though mentioned any 
> issues
> with balloons popping!!!  Bee-otches!!!
>
> So my husband went with me and we drove to the closest store to us - a
> Dollar General just down the street.  And they had water balloons!!  I got 
> a
> bag, and then got another bag of 'assorted' sizes from the party section,
> just to make sure I had options!!!  (And then, because we were there, we
> wandered around and found a few other things we HAD to have - including a
> pair of gardening gloves on the '50% off' rack, and a bag of fire ant 
> killer
> - this *is* eastern NC!!)
>
> Miraculously, the new balloons worked as advertised!!  Out of the eleven I
> dipped and set out, only ONE MORE popped!!!  (I'm sure the chick who comes
> to clean Tuesday is going to find chocolate in some pretty strange places
> that I'm sure I missed wiping down!!!)  I carried the pans to the fridge 
> in
> the garage and set them inside to set for ten minutes or so.  Then I
> *CAREFULLY* popped the balloons and watched in amazement as they shriveled
> right up and pulled away from the 'dish'!!  TOO COOL!!
>
> And then, because it was only nine o'clock, I decided to go ahead and get
> the pudding made.  I had to whisk the mixture in a pan for
> several minutes waiting for it to thicken, and several minutes is long
> enough for my little brain to wander and think about everything but 
> pudding.
> Like...... huh, wonder why there's that circle of crud on the flat-top
> stove of 'stuff'... I washed it down good last night and this must not 
> have
> come up!  Huh.  Wonder if I could scrape it off?!  Huh.... maybe I should
> try!?  Just stick up my pointy little finger and rub it on the stove's
> surface and see if I can clean it up while I'm stirring the HOT mixture on
> the same stove top BECAUSE I AM A DITZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> So now I have a blister on my fingertip.  And this is the SECOND blister
> I've gotten from rubbing my finger on top of the HOT stove!!!!!!!!
>
> Are you laughing?!/!?!  You should be!  Heaven knows that I would be
> laughing at you!!!!!!!!!!
>