Made the House Smell Amazing

I found a recipe for Loaded Chicken Bake on a website called The Skinnyish Dish through a friend's FB post the other day.  There's a base of cut-up Pillsbury biscuits, a couple cups of chicken stirred into cream of chicken soup, Greek yogurt, scallions, and a Tablespoon of Hidden Valley mix.  You bake it for 20 minutes then top it with a mixture of reduced-fat cheddar, more scallions, and BACON, then bake it 15 more minutes. It sounded amazing so on my way home from the Y I stopped for the couple ingredients I didn't have on hand.  It was easy to make and smelled great while it was cooking.  As an added bonus it tasted great too.  And there are 5 more servings left.  Score.



It's orange season so the oranges in the bag I bought this morning taste like real oranges.  Smell like them too.  Durwood and I got into the habit years ago of sharing an orange after supper and I want to get back to it.  Only now I get the whole orange all to myself.  Yum.  (how many times can I write "orange" in one paragraph?  lots!)



The clouds thinned enough yesterday morning that there was a faint shadow on the snow.  See?  We have now had 10 straight cloudy or mostly cloudy days.  Ugh.  It sure is difficult to be cheerful when it's so gray and dreary every single day but I'm trying.  Smiling helps.  The picture tells you how desperate I am for the sun to shine, you can barely see the shadow of the house.



There were over a dozen Mourning Doves lined up on the fence and retaining wall.  They were spread out enough that I had no chance of getting them all in the frame (and Mourning Doves will not cooperate when you ask them to close ranks) so here is a representative group of them.



I'm making progress on the Quabbin Cowl that I cast on the other day.  It's bulky yarn so it goes faster than the thinner stuff.  (well, duh)  I like the color, gray with a blue cast, even though blue is not one of my favorite colors.

T the trainer was in fine form today.  We did mostly arm work and by the middle of the half hour, my arms felt like noodles.  We did one set of lifts which worked my legs in each rotation but it was mostly pushups, lifting weights, holding a stick against resistance and other things that made my poor arms burn.  But I felt great when I was done and I'll feel even better tomorrow when I can barely lift my arms.  Doing laundry will loosen me up.

30 January--Barbara Malcolm, Three Cheers for Murder. 

Just before 7:00 P.M. that same evening Marlene was sitting behind the counter in her bookstore finishing up a special order for a customer when she heard the door open.  She looked up to see Lt. Len Graybow standing just inside the door.  He was dressed as he was that morning; in a nondescript brown suit, a rumpled white shirt and a muted striped tie.  His hands were in his pants pockets and he was wearing a slight smile as he began to walk toward her. 

“Good evening, Ms. Brownloe, I hope I’m not disturbing you.  I, uh, I just thought I’d stop in and, uh, see how you were.” 

Marlene frowned at his approach.  “Thank you, Lt. Graybow, that’s very thoughtful of you.” 

“Len.  Call me Len,” he said awkwardly.  “I’m wondering if you’d like to go out for a cup of coffee or something.” 

The question took Marlene by surprise.  She hesitated. 

Graybow quickly said, “Oh, I don’t mean anything.  I just thought we could get acquainted.  You know, sit and talk.” 

Marlene nodded.  Then she shyly suggested, “Well, Len, we could just go upstairs.  I live over the shop and I could make you some coffee or tea, if you’d like.  Then we could be more comfortable.  I mean, you could take off your tie.  I mean, you look tired and you wouldn’t have to drive anywhere.”  She stopped in confusion, blushing. 

Lt. Graybow smiled at Marlene.  “I think that’s a wonderful idea.  Are you ready to close up the bookstore?” 

“Yes, I’m only open until seven on Wednesdays.  I was just finishing an order when you came in.  I can close up now.”  She went and locked the door, turned out most of the lights and led Lt. Graybow up to her apartment. 

I worked on my agent pitch this afternoon.  I'm on pitch #5 and hope that it's the final version, but I'll let it sit for a few days, read it again, and then decide.  Gotta get it right.  Tomorrow will be a laundry day and I want to cut out a new dress to take to FL in a couple weeks.  I need one new thing to wear.
--Barbara