Tried the same thing when my neighbor kept weird hours, just asked straight out and offered to help if she ever needed it. She brushed it off at first but later told me her son works nights and she leaves the light on so he knows someone's up.

Purple for personal is where I always lose the plot too.

I used to roll my eyes at the idea of a frosting that needed to chill and set before you could even use it, since I always just whipped butter and sugar together and hoped for the best. Then I made the mistake of trying that in July for my own kid's party, and the whole thing slid off the cake by the time we sang. The fix for me was adding a couple tablespoons of meringue powder and cutting the butter with a bit of shortening, which keeps it from melting into a puddle.