Boudicca's Voice

A Whole New Meaning to "He Runs a Tight Ship"

PractiGal e-mailed me today about The Great Omnipotent One's meal planning and it reminded me of this story.

I think I’ve mentioned before that TGOO creates a spreadsheet of our meals before we arrive. It hangs on the refrigerator. It is broken out like a calendar and lists the meals for each day, all courses, including dessert. Under it, he lists out the ingredients and does his shopping off these daily chart lists. Also arrival and departure times are on this sheet, so he knows who will be for dinner and who will not. If my husband and I are having a date night, he writes it on there so he knows we won’t be there for dinner.

If one wants a day to cook, for instance, if my husband and I want to cook a meal for the family, you have to tell TGOO six months in advance. Once the meal spreadsheet is set in stone… it is in… stone. There are NO DEVIATIONS from the menu spreadsheet.

NONE.

EVER.

So at Thanksgiving Mo and Mo’s Beau called a night and my Better Half and I called a night, so there are two nights reserved for us to plan our own cooking. If we had tried to wait and called him, oh… let’s see… a month in advance and said, “Dad, I want a day to cook”, his reply would have been, “Nope. Schedule’s complete.”

You’d think he was running flight ops or something.

TGOO’s favorite dessert is Banana Pudding. The last two years, I’ve tried to make his favorite dessert while we are there in July. It is my Mom’s birthday on July 6th and she has a special cake I love to make for her, so we have that on her birthday. And TN, who is an August birthday, is in town and his favorite cake is this fantastic purloined Carrot Cake that TGOO makes… so that is made that week as well.

On July 4th TGOO also makes his Blueberry and Peach Cobblers. THE BEST, I swear they are.

So what are we talking here? On the 4th, Blueberry and Peach cobblers, on the 6th Angel Food cake with a decadent to die for dark chocolate fudge icing, on the 7th, purloined carrot cake… and throughout the week leftover desserts.

I forgot about the Banana Pudding.

TGOO called me the other day and said, “Did we have Banana Pudding last year?”

And I said, “Oh my God! Yes! I make that for you! But remember, we don’t make it the 4th of July because all the guests eat it all, so I have to make it before or after so you have leftovers…”

Yes, we plan when we make the Banana Pudding so all my cousins and extended family don’t eat it all. I think Banana Pudding has been eaten in its leftover state for breakfast before, but I’m not certain. Either way, there must be leftover and the one year I made it for the 4th, there was NONE, so now we don’t. We wait for everyone to leave or make it before.

So now he has brought this Banana Pudding ‘problem’ up… where to fit it. So I asked him to tell me when the desserts were positioned.

Cobblers on the 4th. Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting on the 6th. Purloined Cheesecake on the 7th. I am leaving with the boys on the 9th.

So I said, “OK, that is a helluva a lot of desserts at the END of our stay. How about we have it at the beginning?”

TGOO: Oh. We can’t do that. That’s taken. We’ll have it on the 8th.

Me: Dad, that’s a lot of leftover desserts and stuff… why not the beginning of the week?

TGOO: We’re having Cheesecake.

Now I’m realizing that we are starting to test the boundaries of his flexibility as… there is none… and just realizing we have forgotten the Banana Pudding off THE MEAL SPREADSHEET, which was made out SIX MONTHS AGO, is pushing it as it is.

So we talk a bit more about how my brother will be able to finish off that Carrot Cake single handedly as he loves it so much… and I slowly bring it back...

Me: So. Dad. Are you MAKING this cheesecake? (Sidenote: He makes a tremendous chocolate cheesecake.)

TGOO: No.

Me: Wait. So we are preferring a store bought cheesecake (Sam’s Turtle cheesecake) over my homemade Banana Pudding?

*Silence*

TGOO: You’re right. Scratch the Cheesecake. Banana Pudding on Sunday.

Me: You know Dad, it’s not a bad thing to NOT be so damn rigid. It’s OK to be flexible. It really is!

You know its this chicken and egg scenario, right? Did TGOO go into the military because his structure fit the profession so well… OR… did he become more the way he is while making the military his career. I’m opting for his structure fit the profession… but watching him run that kitchen like something akin to frickin’ flight ops scheduling makes me wonder…

Posted by Boudicca at June 27, 2006 09:18 PM | TrackBack