More Good Eats

And this time I didn't have to cook it.  Tonight was the community dinner at DS's church and on the menu was Shepherd's Pie and Chicken Pot Pie.  It was too hard to decide which to choose so I had a small scoop of each with apple and orange wedges and a couple celery sticks (in Durwood's honor--he loved celery and I pretended not to like it so he'd make sure to leave a big piece of it in what he was cooking and put it on my plate just to hear me holler--funny what amuses people).  A couple of boys played dinner music on the piano, neither of them were concert ready but it was fun to hear them play and I was impressed that they'd do it at all.  DIL1 is in charge of the kitchen so I make sure to get to the suppers because she's so good at food plus DS, LC, and OJ come too so I get to have supper with my favorite people.

On my way to supper I glanced at my odometer and noticed that it said 98000 miles.  A landmark!  I hope my little red HHR keeps chugging along for many more miles.

This afternoon I met ACJ at The Attic for our bi-weekly writing date.  She brought her "word box" which she made out of an old wooden cigar box and decorated it up so we each chose three slips of paper from it and wrote for 10 minutes.  My words were "swimmer," "hailstones," and "yoke."  That last one was hard to worm into a story but I managed.  It wasn't great literature but most of the words went together pretty well and I got all three words in there without straining belief.  ACJ got her words in too and I liked what she wrote.  It's fun to stretch your writing muscles that way.  It pushes you out of your comfortable rut.  We spent the rest of the time working on our individual projects.  I'm halfway through what I hope is the last pre-agent, pre-publisher rewrite of my novel manuscript.  Fingers crossed.

On my way home I stopped at Camera Corner to get the last 37 compact VHS tapes and their DVDs.  On the weekend I'll write the names on the DVDs and probably watch some.




I had to return one of the workout shirts I bought at Meijer yesterday so I did that on my way home too, only I went back to the sale racks and found another pair of workout pants and a couple more workout shirts--but they were all on sale.  Really.  I realized yesterday that I'll be more comfortable going home in sweaty clothes that aren't cotton.  I need to wear miracle fibers that wick perspiration away so that I don't freeze on the drive home.  Plus I wanted them.  On sale!  Remember that part.  Don't judge.

Tonight I knitted a few rounds on the February Seaman's Cowl and cast on February Preemie Hat #2.  Both are patterns that don't require much thought or attention so they're good for mindless TV knitting.  One of these days I'll run out of these yarns and face the dilemma of either buying more or digging out other suitable yarns.  Yeah, I'll probably do that.  I do not need to buy more yarn, not this century anyway.  I have achieved what they call SABLE--Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy--so I don't really need to buy more yarn ever.  I probably will, I definitely will, but if the zombie apocalypse comes anytime soon, I'm ready.





6 February--Tropical Obsession. 

You have to dive Red Slave at dawn if you don't have a boat. And even if you do have a boat, dawn is still the best time because that's when currents run slowest. Red Slave is a collection of huts at the extreme southern end of the island and currents run strong, so strong that what anywhere else is a gray vase-shaped sponge grows in a flat fan-shape offshore of the Red Slave huts. There's a lot of detritus around, mute evidence of just how challenging it is to dive there. Broken fins lay where desperate divers flung them onshore anxious to lighten their burden as they staggered and struggled through the building waves to the safety of shore. If I wanted to dispose of something, this is where I'd do it.

I whacked my hand this morning, I think when I was snowblowing and shoveling or maybe when I was refilling the bucket of ice melt salt, but ACJ noticed that I have this huge nasty bruise on the back of my hand.  It hurts too.  It's crazy that I can't remember doing it.  And I have old lady hands.  I thought I never would.

It's supposed to start snowing overnight and keep snowing tomorrow.  There's a rumor that school might be cancelled again.  If it's too bad I'll probably cancel my trainer session but I don't want to.  I want to wear my new workout clothes--and workout with Megan.  Really.  I'm sore the day after a session but it makes me feel good.
--Barbara