Asa told me I was “sweet like a cinnamon roll,” so I have forgiven him for getting up at 5 this morning.  I had a lot on my mind and hadn’t fallen asleep until past midnight, but I’ll overlook most anything if you compare me to fatty sweets — and you’re three.

We baked a three-layer chocolate cake from scratch today.  After I’d sucked down my coffee this morning and used some toothpicks to keep my eyelids open, I asked Asa what he wanted to do.   “Bake a chocolate cake.”  It seemed like a fine idea and something that might possibly eat up the hours until nap time when I could crawl into bed again for an hour –what with forcing Asa to hunt and peck the letters for a “chocolate cake” on the computer and then choosing a good-looking cake from the hundreds listed on epicurious.com.

Here’s the winner.

We made the requisite supermarket trip, buttered and floured cake pans, decorated the walls with the electric hand mixer, and 10 hours later, here’s our version.

The bar-be-que skewers are to keep the layers from sliding off onto the other shelves in the refrigerator.  The boys thought it was pretty great — unstable or not.  I’ve no idea how long it’ll take going to take Asa to fall asleep tonight with all three layers of sugar coursing through his bloodstream.  I can hear him singing loudly to himself from the bedroom now.  “Fifty nifty United States!  From 13 original colonies!”

In the running realm, I’m back to training and looking forward to working hard to improve before Western States.  I need to work on speed, and hill climbing, — and running down hills, and core strength, — and nutrition.  You know, everything.  It’ll be a fun adventure for the next 3 1/2 months.  Let me know if you have any suggestions about training for downhills here in Flats-ville.  I think we might build a wedge to stick under the back of the treadmill.  Sounds sketchy, doesn’t it?

Wish I could share some chocolate cake with you.  Have good nights.

Food log: