Brownies and Bunco

Joe was out of town all last weekend giving me one of those two day chunks of time that are rare and oddly delightful.  Having lived with someone for the last twelve years, nearly ten of marriage and two as my mother would say "living in sin," I relish the occasional stretches of time by myself. I like it. Forty eight hours that I don't have to compromise or discuss or finagle plans with someone else, someone else whom I love and deeply enjoy finagling with, but I can be selfish and eat dip for dinner while standing in the kitchen in my underwear, which I certainly wouldn't claim that I did or didn't do this weekend. Certainly not. But it also flies by incredibly quickly, especially if you fill it up with plans, which I promptly did.

Friday night I ran a ton of errands and hit the grocery store for supplies, and then came home to an entirely empty house which I promptly filled with the smell of baking brownies and possibly the messiest kitchen I've ever created from cooking just one item. The recipe for Raspberry Cream Cheese Brownies, made special for my Bunco Girls Night on Saturday, were crazy delicious but I found myself using more utensils, bowls and tools than I normally even think about needing. Part of this was the fact that I was tired and slightly off my game, but mostly there were just a lot ingredients and a lot of required layers. I subbed out the raspberry jam for blackberry jam since that's what I had on hand, but they were rich and decadent and more like cake than brownie. Next time I might increase the cream cheese to brownie ratio, because who doesn't need more cream cheese?


Saturday I slept in a bit and then lounged around and read a new book that I get to write a review for on Blogher sometime in April. I had to finish reading it quickly so that I could write the review by Tuesday, so it was fun to have a bit of a deadline again, like a school assignment. I nerded out and underlined passages and beautiful quotes, took notes and sketched out my thoughts as I read the novel. God, it was fun. (Thanks for editing, Kristen!) Then the rest of the day was spent doing general house cleaning and prep for the ladies. Because 7 o'clock rolled around and the women began to arrive!

With appetizers and easy money in hand, my ten friends appeared, ready to duel it out for that glorious airbrushed Bunco Babe title or actual cold hard cash. Bunco is the silliest, easiest dice game in the world. It's simply an excuse to get together and hang out with each other, snack and trash talk, drink and try to win each other's money.  We really should make sure it happens more than once or twice a year. But busy schedules and kids and work usually keep that from happening. We twelve women sit around the tables and gamble and laugh and mock each other and ring the bell and it's a blast.

I might have lost my money, but the delicious lime rum daiquiris and the time to catch up with friends I haven't seen in months was totally worth the cash. I then proceeded to stay up until almost two in the morning, watching Pretty Woman for the 1,000th time, reading and catching up on 7 Days photo commenting.  Sunday morning came early and it was time to help my mother with some house projects, including cleaning out her closet. I'll be discreet, but it was an undertaking. We went through her very large, very full, very cluttered closet and after almost five hours it was nearly empty. That was a good feeling. I was happy to help her and left with a sense of accomplishment and a serious desire to clean out my own closet. So my free and easy weekend was filled with cream cheese, girl friends, rum, books, dice, Julia Roberts and a little closet charity. Not bad. What'd you do?