Best Laid Plans

Who said "The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry"?  Well, I can't tell you about mice, but Teddy the hamster and I can sure tell you about ice cream...okay, maybe it wasn't the best laid plan.  It seemed like a good idea, though, at the time.  If you read my post, yesterday, you will know that because of all of the beautiful snow, I decided it was a good time to make ice cream.  Well, the funny thing about ice cream is that when you put it in an ice cream freezer it's actually supposed to freeze.  The instructions say if you're using the electric motor, that should happen in 20 to 40 minutes.  Well, son Rory and I started out hand-cranking it, but of course we got a bit tired, so decided to use the motor.  Now, one thing you have to know about me, is I am not a "fix-it-and-forget-it" kind of girl.  (Hence, my crock-pot ineptitude, but that's another story).  So, since the ice cream is completely hidden (gasp!) in a metal container, packed in slush, you have to take the top off to see if it is freezing.  Right?  Well, we started the ice cream freezer mid-afternoon.  Somehow, by midnight, the ice cream was no more icy than when we started.  I do not know how this happened, but I do know that Teddy the hamster was quite upset about the noise by this time, and was scratching at his cage as if to say "MAKE IT STOP!!!"  So, at 1:00 A.M., I finally went to bed, after having poured the ice cream down the drain because it mysteriously got little gray dirt specks in it, dumping out the bucket (boy, it was cold out last night!), washing the ice cream freezer parts, and wiping up the water off the floor.  I put the soggy towels in the washer to soak with the white couch cover which now has spaghetti sauce on it, because my sweet daughter got away from the supper table and went to see Daddy before I realized it, because I was preoccupied with the ice cream which we'll never get to eat..................(breathe, breathe,..)  Okay.  The good news is that I was able to accomplish all of this cleaning-up with hot water from the tap! Oh, joy!  While I was obsessing over the ice cream, dear hubby fixed the hot water heater!  Yay!  Just to let you know, I am not defeated.  I will prevail.  There will be ice cream one day.  The weather forecast is for c o l d  for the next few days, so the snow will be around for a while, and, hey, we have a half-acre of it to work with!  Daa, da da dum, dum, Daaaah!