Vanquishing a Glacier

A couple weeks ago I was looking around in the downstairs freezer and realized that it desperately needed defrosting.  Then I remembered that we bought 5# of gulf shrimp from the shrimp truck and needed to make room for the nine 1/2# packages of succulent shrimp that is going to enrich our winter menu.  (they were taking up half of the upstairs freezer)  So just after I got up I went downstairs, lined a couple big laundry baskets with a blanket and beach towel each, and emptied the freezer, remembered to unplug it, and left the door open for a couple hours.  Once I was ready I went down with an extension cord and hair dryer, nabbed a screwdriver with a resin handle off the workbench and a wallpaper scraper from a shelf, and got to work.  I am eternally grateful that the freezer stands about two feet from the floor drain and I was smart enough to spread another beach towel (we used to have a pool; I have a garbage can half full of the things) over the floor of the freezer to catch the falling frost and dripping water.  Halfway through the operation I dragged the sopping towel over to the washer and sent it for a spin to wring it out (I thought that was a fairly brilliant way to get some of the water out) so it could soak up more water.  Then I neatly and organizedly (is that even a word??) replace all of the still firmly frozen stuff back in there, cleaned up the ice floes on the floor, and came upstairs.


I thought I was being so smart and went to Sam's and Walmart during today's Packer game thinking that there'd be not as many people there.  I was wrong.  I got all the stuff on my lists, even got one more Xmas gift closer to being done.  (Hooray!)  Once I had some lunch I went back downstairs to start work on the pink puppet.  I sewed the mouth onto one of the head pieces, sewed the head pieces together, and turned it right side out.  The mouth was way too big and there was no way I was going to pick out black stitches on black fleece so I tossed it and started over.  Much better.  I got the rest of the pieces sewn together and then it was time to come upstairs to make supper.


Man, did I make fabulous supper.  I thawed a piece of swordfish we got on sale in

November and 2 ears of grilled corn on the cob from last summer.  See, Weight Watchers made chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, beans, corn, and peas be zero points because they're "part of a healthy diet" which means I can put a little butter on a cob of corn and only "spend" 2 points instead of 5 points.  (Their reasoning for changing the points to zero is that it's a whole lot harder to eat six chicken breasts than six cookies so the zero points foods are self-limiting by sheer volume. Not a bad thought but I'm still peeved that they yoinked away seven daily points.  I'll keep working to get them back, don't you worry about that.)  I marinated the fish in lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and a tiny bit of dark sesame oil for half an hour, then broiled it for 6 minutes on a side.  The corn I wrapped in paper towels and reheated in the microwave.  It's nowhere near as tasty as fresh but it's got a can of niblets beat all to heck.  The swordfish was so filling we've both got half saved for supper tomorrow night.  The only part of the fish recipe that cost any points is the bit of sesame oil so my supper was a whopping 3 WW points.  Now I have to eat some ice cream just to use up my spare points.  Poor me.

December 10--Claude Monet, Church at Varengeville.  From a distance the church looked more like a rock formation than a building.  It was foggy which made the illusion more complete.  Roger and Eleanor had been on the road since early morning.  A traffic pile-up on Highway 78 had slowed them considerably so they decided to stop for the night at the next town, maybe take a walk to stretch their cramped muscles, get a decent meal, and set out rested and fresh in the morning.  A light gleamed through the thinning fog and they saw the church on top of the hill.  They followed signs and were soon in downtown May Falls which looked like the town that time forgot.

I'm happy with that.  Sometimes what comes when I look at the night's picture prompt surprises me.  Sometimes a tiny part of the picture or even something that seems totally unrelated pops into my head and I pin it to a notebook page before it skitters away and gets lost in the night.  I hung up the jingle bell wreath and door decoration yesterday.  Maybe I'll do more Christmas-ing tomorrow.  Or not.  Maybe I'll keep working on the pink puppet.  Yeah, I'll probably do that.
--Barbara