What is this, a center for ANTS??

I'm not baking for the 3rd Christmas in a row.  How depressing is that?  Some of you may remember the Christmas I went absolutely crazy with cookie boxes.  Each box contained 15 types of homemade cookies.  I was literally up all night baking at insane hours.  This year, nothing.  I did make a batch of Cooks Illustrated thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies today, my go to choc chip cookie.  I learned 2 things, 1. my oven is def off temp, I think it runs a bit hotter than it is supposed to, and 2. like everything else, baking is hard in Darwin. The humidity fucked with the dough and instead of thick and chewy, I got flat... and too crispy.   I kinda foresaw this happening, so I only baked half the batch and refrigerated the rest of the dough.  I hope this rectifies the problem when I bake the rest tomorrow.  I want to try baking a cake but I am scared.  You can't really refrigerate cake batter, but I don't think the humidity will affect it as much as the dough.  I am afraid the oven will burn the cake.  I guess it's time to get a thermometer in that piece.  Ughh, it's bad enough I am dealing with celsius, grams, and other bullshit, now this! Life is hard.

Speaking of cake, am I the last person on earth to learn about cake pops??  Omg, I did a google search on them the other day and now I am obsessed!  They are so fucking cute!  I have already been scouring Darwin looking for lollypop sticks.  Surprise, surprise, no luck.

Finally, it still feels nothing like Christmas (or the "Festive Season" as they refer to it here).  Trying to get in the mood, I was thinking of building a ginger bread house.  But just as I couldn't put popcorn garland on the tree, I can't have a cookie house sitting on my counter.  Or, as Jason put it, "The ants will be really happy to have their own little place to live."  We are leaving Sunday for about a month and I am so nervous of what will happen to the apartment.  First off, obviously I am afraid of what the ants will get into and how they will multiply.  But also, I am worried about the house.  Living in a rainy tropical climate, you have to always be cautious about things growing mold. Apparently, if we leave the place with no air conditioning or moving air for a month, we can come back and everything will be moldy -- walls, bedding, bathroom, etc.  Like you need more reasons to hate this place, lol.  So we are going to crack the windows and leave fans on low and hope everything is in tact when we get home.  I am betting ants and lizards EVERYWHERE!