If she had the proper words to say,

Yesterday we were trying a new recipe. Lasagna made from scratch, but in the slow-cooker instead of the oven. All afternoon while it baked, I worried about whether the top layer of noodles would really get soft or not. Philip and I were discussing the probabilities of this, but I was in the kitchen, and he was in the living room.

Even as I was taking the lid off the dish, I was explaining why I thought certain little "points" of noodles might not be. Then I paused, realizing that he wasn't seeing what I was, and that he wasn't going to understand what I meant (or, truth be told, even be interested... because, really? What guy cares about the way in which his lasagna cooks, only that it is cooked, right?). But I stood there for just a moment, and then I said:

"Why don't you come in and look at this? 'Cuz this conversation is useless without pictures."

And we laughed together. :-D

I just pulled a Devil's Food cake out of the oven. I already made homemade Buttercream frosting for it, and I will frost it as soon as it cools. I've been craving this combo for weeks now, and it will be dessert for tonight.

In other news, I called Philip around noon, and this conversation followed:

Me: Hey, have you eaten your lunch yet?
Him: Yep, why?
Me: Well, I was just wondering if you could bring your lunch dishes home?
Him: Right now??
Me: Yes. Because I just unloaded the dishwasher from last night, and I'm doing another load right now with lunch and cake dishes, and I want to put your leftover dishes in there.
Him: (laughs) Hmmm.
Me: Because making fried chicken for supper makes a LOT of dishes in itself.
Him: (laughs more) I see.
Me: So... yes?
Him: I'd love to, but... I can't. I wish I could for you.
Me: (sighs because I knew that before I called, but I wanted to call anyway) Yeah, I know.
Him: (smiling in his voice) Sorry, honey!
Me: Well, since you're no help at all, I'm gonna finish up this load and get it washing then.
Him: Okey doke.
Me: I'll talk to you later. Love you!
Him: Love you too.
*click*

He emailed me (just as randomly as I originally called him) a few minutes ago to tell me how happy he had been to hear my voice today and how beautiful I looked last night (I wore a jammie that he picked out and that I hadn't worn in many months). I emailed him back, asking if he would be interested in "cake" tonight as well.

He emailed back an enthusiastic reply (*such* a guy!), and he also requested chocolate syrup with his "cake."

Goodness. *shakes head* I think we're in for a sticky night, but he promises he'll clean it all up. ;-)

So Philip and I were talking earlier in the car, and I have some thoughts on what we were discussing:

- the Hogwarts school motto is: "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus," which means, "Never tickle a sleeping dragon."

/side tangent: "Draco" means "dragon." *squeee* for my Slytherin homeboy!

- JKR seems to end up using nearly everything that she mentions. In particular, iffen she's gone to the trouble of creating a (seemingly) tiny detail, the chances are great that she's actually going to use it later.

- and she hasn't really USED this motto yet. So I'm betting that it actually MEANS something more.

- Philip suggests, "What if dragons are used to beat Voldemort?"

- "Could be," I surmise.

- in a different idea, I think to myself, "What if Draco is the real dragon she meant?" (I talk to myself in italics, I do.)

- and what if Harry isn't able to vanquish Voldy without Draco's help? I mean, as a Draco fan, I've always subscribed to the "he's really going to be on the good side in the end" theories, just as I have for Snape.

- and what if the reason Draco is able to fight so well is because of love? Because of Narcissa's love - not because of Lily's love for Harry, as has been discussed at length.

- because the way I see it, JKR has already used "Lily's love" for the plot in her story. We don't know all the specifics, of course, but we've already learned in Book Five that the reason that Harry survived had much to do with Lily's sacrifice in love.

- but a wrench would be Narcissa's love for Draco turning the story upside-down as well.

- and I believe it could.

- because I gotta represent my Greenies, yo.

The boys and I stopped by Runza for lunch today before heading to the commissary to do a little light grocery shopping. I ordered our meals through the drive-through so we could eat them in the car on the way to the base. When I pulled up to the window to pay, two women were working it. One I know fairly well, and the other I recognize but don't yet know her name. Our conversation then went a little bit like this:

Girl: So you must be getting pretty excited now, right?!

Me: Um... no, not really. Why?

Girl: Well, Philip's going to be home by this weekend, right? We're all getting pretty excited around here-

Me: (starting to smile)

Girl: -of course, we've been telling Ryan [the manager] that he won't want to come back to work RIGHT away. He'll probably want to take a few weeks before doing that, but-

Me: (laughing) I guess you've heard the same story that Ryan asked me about last week, huh? That Philip's coming home this weekend because he's got meetings to attend at the end of the month, right?

Girl: Yep. Why? (pause) ... Isn't he?

Me: Um, NO. No, his date hasn't changed at all from that which I told Ryan about 6 weeks ago.

The two chicks seemed a bit disappointed then, but finally the girl said, "Well, yeah. We've learned by now we shouldn't listen to anything that guy says, but this thing sounded so TRUE, you know?"

Some backstory: When the boys and I went to Runza last Sunday afternoon to get some ice cream, the manager Ryan (Philip's boss) came out to chat with us for a bit. In chatting, he told me a lot of things he'd "heard," and he also asked me the truth in a few other things - for example, a particular someone at Runza had been telling EVERYONE that Philip would be home on September 7th. Ryan said, "I don't want to get you or the boys all excited, but... that's next week, even!"

I told him that I'd not heard anything different at all from Philip about his return date, and that as far as I knew, it was still the same as when I had last told Ryan. I did tell him I'd check with Philip just to be sure. Ryan said too, "Well, at this point, I don't trust hardly anything that comes out of the guy's mouth - it's all bull."

The reason the guy was saying that Philip would be home? Because his name was appearing in the squadron on several training session rosters, and the training sessions were set to take place at the end of this month. Yeah - a very laughable reason.

Philip's exact response when I double-checked with him? "Tell Ryan that [dude] is an idiot and doesn't know anything about what is going on here."

I laughed.

I wonder what will happen next week. As far as Runza goes, it'll be a bit like things were after Jan. 1st, 2000 - you had all the crazies who'd proclaimed the world coming to an end, and then what? They had to show up at work on the 2nd and *know* that everyone knew they were full of crap. When Philip doesn't show up this weekend, I think it'll be kinda funny.

And I laugh some more.