My nose is broken.

Well. At least the smelling part is.

I baked 9 dozen gingersnaps today, and I couldn't even smell them. Fine. It was only 8.75 dozen. I can't roll them all evenly. Ok? To add insult to injury, they didn't taste right, either. It wasn't the spices. They were brand new. It's this broken smeller I have. I wish I had a warranty on it. I'd return it for a refund.

The electrician did get the dedicated outlets hooked up today. I so hope it helps keep the breakers from popping all the time! Thankfully, it's cool enough today we didn't have to have the air on at all, even with me baking. That was nice.

The hubster got the roller shade yesterday. Had it cut especially for the window. It's a tad on the narrow side, as we still get a little sunlight on the sides of the shade, but overall we're very pleased. We had a decent little rain earlier, but now the sun is out. So I decided to feel behind the shade to see, if it made a difference. It does. Yay! It was much warmer on the other side of the shade.

I think this will help a lot this summer. I'll miss the light that it blocks out, but I figure I'll still get some, if I leave the shade up in the morning and pull it down when the sun goes around to that side of the house. We decided to leave the mini blinds up in front of the shade. At least for now. Two layers should be better than one. Right?

Opened the sweetened condensed milk, so I could make the caramels this afternoon, and it was no longer off white. It looked like it had already been caramelized. Oh yay. Thankfully, Bugster was over at the grocery store and picked some more up for me, so I could get the caramels going. I'm sure I'll be wrapping them for a few hours tonight.

For anyone who makes their own caramels, I have a little tip. You know how they stick to plastic wrap and to waxed paper? Isn't that just so frustrating?? You don't have that problem? Hmmm. Must be something I'm doing wrong. Oh well. I did discover they don't stick to cellophane, so I highly recommend using it. The only problem is that you have to tape each little packaged caramel shut or tie it off on each end. They look superdeeduper cute, if you then tie them like a little gift with curling ribbon whether you tie the ends, or whether you tape the package shut and add the ribbon as a little decoration.

I am a bit frustrated with the spice drop cookies. They're supposed to be rolled into a tube shape in plastic wrap and refrigerated before cutting and baking. The recipe says to cut them 1/4" thick. Uh huh. Go ahead. Try it. Doesn't work. I'll be interested to see how many dozen cookies the doubled recipe makes, because there is no way it will make 18 dozen cookies like purported. Ha. I'll be glad to get 8 to 10 dozen out of it. We shall see.

So. I left my post for a couple hours, and I've come back to finish it up. Bugster came over and helped pour the caramels for me. Trying to pour them pretty much kills my neck and shoulders, so I was very happy to have the assist. They're cooling now, and I will try to get them cut tonight or in the morning and get them wrapped. From the little that was left on the wooden spoon, they taste really good, too.

I'm off to go finish baking the spice drop cookies and clean up my messy kitchen. I think I'll probably finish up the caramels in the morning. I have a feeling I'll absolutely crash once my head hits that pillow tonight. I just hope I don't dream about baking. I think I've had enough for one day. :)