Ack! It's Raining.

Not what I want to see on a January Saturday.  It's not raining much, just enough to make a few rings in the birdbath, which is ice-free for the first time this year.  It's just over freezing and slated to plummet overnight into the single digits for the week.  Oh yeah, that's January in Wisconsin--38 one day and 8 the next.  Bah.

I get to go play with Porter this afternoon since DS & DIL1 are off working at a beer fest in Madison for the day.  (can't forget the bag of peels for Henny & Penny)  Woohoo, I get to play out in the slush.  Better wear my waterproof boots instead of the "fashion" ones.  No, not fashion ones like city girls wear (see the quotes?) but they're fake suede so they look a bit less construction site or tromping through the woods-ish than the others.  I wear the suede ones to work because they're a whole heck of a lot warmer than tennis shoes and I'm all about having warm feet.
 
Yesterday afternoon the sunset was really pretty seen through the bare maple tree.  The pictures aren't quite as vivid as it was in real life, but I still think it's pretty, don't you?

I saw a recipe for hot cereal on the Weight Watchers site the other day that looked like it'd be good so I thought I'd make it.  It's made with quinoa (keen-wah) and sauteed apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.  It's... okay.  It needs salt badly but it's still not very breakfast-y to me.  I'll eat it (because a little box of quinoa was five bucks at Walmart) but I think I'll give the rest of the uncooked quinoa to DS & DIL1.  I suspect we won't be eating it anytime soon.  It is cute with its little white tail when it's cooked... maybe if it was something savory rather than sweet...  We'll see.  Durwood bought a new WW cookbook at Cook's Corner yesterday (he had a 50% off coupon from something in the closeout room), maybe something intriguing in there needs quinoa.  We liked it with the roast lamb at Christmas dinner.

January 19--Mary Cassatt, Portrait of a Young Girl.  Summer was here.  School was out and Sylvie was all dressed up in her best pink dress and hat getting her portrait painted.  She liked Mme. Cassatt; she was a very nice lady who talked to Sylvie like she was a human girl not a dog or cat who didn't understand things.  Mme. Cassatt let Sylvie pose sitting in the cool grass not shut up in a stuffy room.  She even told Sylvie to pick a blade of grass and put it in her mouth just to give her something to do.  Sylvie tried her best to sit still and look where the artist told her to but she was tired of posing and she was sure that there were ants crawling up her legs.  She hated ants.

When DD was 2 years old she hated ants, was terrified of them.  She'd see a bunch of them crawling on the driveway and stomp from foot to foot screaming, "ants!"  I don't think she ever squished one.  Fun times.  Time to shower and get my day going.  It's 11 o'clock.
--Barbara