Using found time

I like to be busy, but i can also appreciate quiet times. One of my favorite things is "found time" - unexpected patches of time that you can do with whatever you want because there is nothing scheduled. I was supposed to go to the Ren Fair today, but didn't (who gets stood up for the Ren Fair, for goodness' sakes? i would almost be upset, except that it turned out to be such a lovely day anyways) so i had a whole day of found time. With nothing scheduled i felt no pressure to get anything accomplished; somehow that meant that i ended up getting a lot done. I cooked myself yummy Hot Eggs Florentine for breakfast, did some laundry, washed the week's dishes, scrubbed the kitchen, cleaned, cleared and organized the spice shelf, read 2 Trixie books, showered to get warm (no heat yet; the apartment's 64 degrees which doesn't sound cold, but it is; especially if you have no control over it), walked through town to the Bead Shoppe (which was, of course, closed), went to the bank, stopped by the wallpaper store to pick up 2 free sample books (those puppies are heavy when you are walking home!) and ate lunch in the sunshine on my porch. I decided after the long walk that i was going to skip the gym today and really lazed about in the afternoon. I did some work on the massive list of cards to be made (lots of late October birthdays) and looked through my new sample books for inspiration. I spent a lot of time contemplating how nice it is to rest because you have nothing super-duper pressing to do, as opposed to resting because of sheer exhaustion. Around 4:00 my tummy grumbled. It was too early for dinner and i really wanted something sweet. I thought mayhaps i'd bake something for an afternoon tea. Most of you know that i LOVE to cook, but am less enamoured with baking; i really have to be moved to bake. Plus with the travesty that is my micro-kitchen in the apartment i rarely do either cooking or baking these days. But the mood had struck so into the tiny, but sparkly clean kitchen i went. Quickly i discovered that the fridge contained no milk, butter or eggs. And there was almost no flour, either. Hmmmmmmm... baking without those staples seemed near impossible, but i was not about to let the carefree feeling of the day be ruined by the realities of baking chemistry! Using recipes for cookies, biscuits and pizza crust i was able to cobble together a cinnamon batter-like concoction only to find that none of my baking sheets fit into the wee oven with which my home is equipped. In digging about i stumbled upon a mini-muffin tin that i forgot i owned and has therefore never been used. After 11 minutes the result was tiny muffin-shaped morsels that had a taste and texture like scones. Voila! I present Cinnamini Muffiscones With a mug of Chai and some red grapes, they made a very serviceable tea. Call to announce yourself and i'll be happy to whip up a batch for you!