I Got Presents!

 



And it's not anywhere close to my birthday.  My friend, Lala, spent 2 weeks in Scotland last month and she got sweet somethings.  For me!  There was this padded envelope in the mailbox and look what was inside--a bar of "wool fat" soap that smells divine (not like a wet sheep at all), a wonderful sheep graphic fridge magnet, a teardrop necklace with tiny real flowers embedded in resin, and a card with the best picture of an astronomer on it.  I'm thinking I'll be matting and framing the card.  It makes me smile every time I look at it.





 

The only other thing I have to show you today is our supper.  I redid the freezer inventory this morning and thawed out the oldest meat, a pound of flank steak.  In a WW cookbook I found a recipe for soy sauce, cumin, and garlic marinated flank steak with oven-roasted asparagus and bell peppers on the side.  Happily ALDI had thick asparagus for $1.99/lb and I grabbed one of their 3-packs of bell peppers and supper was set.  Once the veggies are roasted you sprinkle them with minced chives so I kept a chive blossom for garnish.  Not that we're fancy people but it looked nice.


I had an appointment this morning, we had an appointment this afternoon, and I met a dozen of my 8th grade classmates for lunch (mm, pepper jack cheeseburger and fries) that was decidedly not WW approved but it's only once a month and I figure if I'm going to work to eat this way the rest of my life I can break out into a cheeseburger and fries once a month or so.  I've lost 32# in the last 6 months so I must be doing something right.  Right?  Right.  (she says confidently)

June 4--Claude Monet, Houses at Argenteuil.  Overnight the field was paved with poppies.  Yesterday it had been green with a bit of red-orange peeking out of a bud here and there.  Claire walked out of the back door of her house, across the lawn, and into the field of waving poppies.  It felt like diving into the sea.  All around her flowers nodded to the wind, the petals making a cup for the powdery purple center of each one.  Claire smelled the fresh bread from the bakery and her mouth began to water but instead of hurrying into the village she lay down on her back to watch the clouds scud by on the wind and see the red-orange poppies trace their dance steps on the blue sky.

Okey-dokey.  That's not too bad.  I awoke at 5:23 this morning to the music of a pair of cats celebrating their matrimony.  Yippee.  Tonight I might just close the windows and hope the sound of the air conditioner mixed with Durwood's oxygen concentrator drowns them out if they're in the neighborhood for a rematch tomorrow morning.  Cats.
--Barbara