A clean slate...almost

It was a hectic weekend, even if I eventually didn't go to the rodeo or the stock show grounds. I still had a houseful with four extra adults and five extra children--which meant Jacob slept in my bed three nights out of four. By the last night I kind of got used to it and slept well, until he turned into a small-size octupus about five in the morning. Kids are by nature noisy, especially when you put five together, so there was never a dull moment. And then there were three dogs. Sophie got in their faces, wanting to play; Gracie, the big dog, growled and carried on though, out walking, she played with other dogs. Eddie, at ten lbs., sometimes was okay with Sophie and sometimes attacked--which was kind of funny since she weighs two and a half times what he does. She seemed unfazed by the rebuffs to her playful advances, but I was constantly shuffling dogs and locking doors so neither children nor dogs would go out unsupervised.
We had a good family breakfast Sunday--a sausage and cheese casserole (see Potluck with Judy, http://potluckwithjudy.blogspot.com), plus a potato casserole Christian had left from a breakfast meeting, and fresh biscuits. It was a chance to all sit around and visit, which we couldnt do the night before in a noisy restauraant. Soon after everyone began to pack up and by noon the house was peaceful and quiet.
Not sure what it is about suddenly having time, but it made me industrious. I did laundry and dishes, and then I dug into my tax organizer, wrote my thousand words, posted on Potluck with Judy,and found time to read. Did the same thing today, with time out for a pleasant lunch with a friend. We exchange a flowers of the month program for Christmas and then have a monthly lunch before getting our flowers. So I enjoyed tuna fish in an old church building and tonight I have lovely cut flowers on my dining table. I am on the home stretch of getting my taxes together, have 34,500 words on my novel, sent corrections off on my newsletter, and am about to go over once more my notes for the program I'm to do tomorrow at a local retirement community.
This afternoon, it was back to first-grade homework with a reluctant scholar who claimed he was too tired because of "the allergies." We whizzed through math but muddled through his reading--I made him read it three times, because he still stumbled over words. Then we did the spelling, and he had a hard time recognizing the words, which led me to say if you can't pronounce them, you won't recognize them when the teacher reads them and  you won't spell them correctly. Somehow at the end of the week, he aces the spelling test, but I always despair on the first day of a new list. We didn't even touch what he had to write about the book he read. After he left, I did a nice, relaxing yoga routine--don't know if it's tree or dancer or what, but I sure can't do the one where you stand on one foot and put the other foot on your opposite knee. Good thing I keep a chair there to hang on to.
The other day my neighbor said to me, "You don't have anything you have to do." I countered with the fact that I have a desk piled high with work to be done, and he said, "Those are things you choose to do." He's right, but I am so glad I choose to write, to blog, to read, to give the occasional program though it makes me nervous, to lunch and dine with friends. I even choose to do yoga, because I feel some sense of accomplishment at some of the poses I can do and I'm afraid of the consequences of inactivity. (I don't think tax organizers are a choice.) And I also choose to get Jacob every afternoon and do homework with him. I have chosen to build myself an entirely new life and career after retirement, and I couldn't be happier.
Do I miss the zoo and confusion of the weekend? Of course, but I'll see them all again soon.
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Stay at home and put nose to grindstone

This has been day one of my two-day stay-at-home and really work project. I got off to a slow start--slept really late, then fixed myself a better breakfast than usual, read emails, showered, did my yoga, and started a laundry. But about eleven, I settled down to sort my tax information. I decided with a long day in front of me that was the project I should do--it's one I just have to dig in and get done rather than work at in spurts. Either my accountant or I are psychic--his annual questionnaire arrived in the mail this afternoon. I'm not done, but I'm darn close--and glad to have it done.
I did sort of hate to stay in all day and work, since the sun was warm and cheering today. Temperature about where it should be, mid-fifties, though these days I always feel cold and welcome my flannel snuggie. I kind of wanted to join the cat in that wonderful patch of sun in the back room, which faces south.
Tomorrow will be devoted to a paper I promised to write for the Texas State Historical Association, to be delivered by good friend Fran Vick at the annual meeting in El Paso. I just don't pick up and go to far places like El Paso as easily as Fran does. The paper is on writing historical fiction for young adults, so it won't take much research--I can just write about the books I've done and the research for them.
But my two-day plan was pleasantly interrupted (actually I had seen it as a test of my self-satisfaction or ability to stand my own company or something like that). Melinda emailed about a birthday lunch for our co-worker (even though I'm retired, I'm still considered a part of the office in many ways and I appreciate that). So that's tomorrow. Then a friend called and said, "Can you have dinner tonight?" Both invitations pleased me, and we had a good supper and long overdue and much enjoyed visit over comfort food. We went to the Old Neighborhood Grill, down the streeet from my house, and I saw and chatted with several people I know, to the point I felt like a social butterfly. More encouragement.
When I came home I guess my brain was too tired for figures, but I wrote three and a half pages of the historical paper. Now I'm allowing myself to quit, read, and be lazy.

A theory recanted and some thoughts on indexing

Last night I whined that I wasn't liking the novel I was reading, principally because it had a male narrator, and I thought it was a gender problem. As soon as I walked away from the computer, I realized I really enjoy J. A. Jance's Beaumont series, narrated by a male police detective in Seattle. And I really don't like Stephanie Plum, even though every other reader I know is wildly enthusiastic about Janet Evanovich's series. So I've decided it's not a gender problem--it's the voice of the narrator. If the narrator is not someone I can identify with with, someone I'd like to sit and have coffee or a glass of wine with, then I'm not much interested in a whole book told in that voice. Fortunately there are a lot of cozy mysteries narrated by people I really like. I'm ready a Cleo Coyle Coffeehouse Mystery tonight, and I really like Claire Cosi, who knows way to much about fine coffee, espresso, latte, and how to make them. I gave up on The Hearse You Came In On, with apologies to the author. Maybe I'll see if my brother will read it.
We were ice-bound today. Well, it turned out it really wasn't that bad--wet in the morning and cold but not freezing, pretty dry in the afternoon, enough so that I got my garbage carts down my slanted driveway when I didn't think I could. But TCU was closed, so I slept late, fiddled around the house and finally got around to the day's chore about ten in the morning. I compiled an index of recipes for my cookbook, which turned out to be less dull than I expected and in fact a fascinating exercise. I broke the index into categories--breakfast, bread, casseroles, meat, poultry, and so on. That seemed logical to me. But where, for instance, do you put chopped liver (I got the excellent recipe from Carshon's deli)--in appetizers, well it is and it isn't; meat dishes, well not exactly that either. I've had it as an appetizer and also in a sandwich or even as the main course for lunch. And cheese sandwich souffle? Is it a casserole? I didn't have enough dishes for an egg and cheese category, so I put it in casseroles. And Jean convinced me to take some of the recipes--chili, beef and beans, and sloppy joe--out of casserole and put them in meat dishes. All in all, it was a puzzle but fun. It's done and off to the editor now. The proofed (twice) pages are ready to go back too, and I'll mail them tomorrow, if the world isn't frozen. Predictions are for a low of 27 tonight, and the streets are now wet, so the outlook isn't great. But it will get up to 44 tomorrow afternoon, and the world should go back to normal.
I spent the evening doing income tax stuff, which I really really dread. I don't have a calculator, so I use the one on the computer. Of course, there's no paper trail, so you can't trace what you've done--but when it showed I'd spent over $24,000 on utilities, I knew I needed to start over. I had already separated expenses into categories, but today the accountant's tax info form arrived, so I started on it and got most of the way through. But I know I need to go back and plug in holes, etc. But not tonight. Right now, I'm going to read some more about Claire Cosi and her coffeehouse.

Books, taxes, and naps

I finished the new P.D.James novel, The Private Patient, and while I know James is THE mistress of the British detective story, all I can say is it sure did end far away from where it began, although James connected it all neatly in the end. The first 40 or so pages, as I've mentioned, were devoted to exploring the character of the victim. But after she died, she became almost a minor player and we readers became enmshed in the lives of other characters. By the last third of the novel, it was fairly clear who was the murderer (although there was one other possibly credible suspect), but the way it worked out was a surprise. Would I recommend the novel? I don't know. I'm not a fan of British mysteries, and as Mary Lu said, it's not a book you can't put down. On the other hand, it wasn't a book I wanted to leave before finishing it (I have a real thing against doing that and only succumb on rare occasionas!).
I have started work on my 2008 taxes and separated everthing into categories, etc. Have done all my accounts, except my everyday checking account and, sorry, I just can't face that tonight. Another time, another day. After all, all those 1099s or whatever won't come in before the end of the month. And I've also made great progress on preparing to query a small press about my mystery--but I need some files from my office computer to do that and didn't want to go up there today.
I spent the morning finishing up taking down Christmas decorations, packaging them, etc. In the process I found tax stuff for '01, '04, '05, and '06. I can only hope '02, '03, and '07 are already in the attic where they belong. And of course I can never remember where I hid all the non-Christmas objects or where they go. Am still missing one black stoneware pitcher that has sentimental value. And I was afraid to take my grandmother's tureen down from the top of the wardrobe where I'd hidden it. Will wait for someone more sure of foot and hand to do that for me.
Charles and I had lunch at the Black-Eyed Pea--I love their veggie plates, though I think he cheated. He had baked potato (think of all the calories in the bacon and sour cream) and turnip greens, which I really don't like. I had carrots, corn, squash casserole, and green beans. I thought you had to choose five but when I hesitated over the fifth, the waitress said, "Seniors only have to order four!" I demanded indignantly how she knew I was a senior, and Charles laughed and said, "Because you are with one!" Then we went to Central Market, which always interests him though he doesn't buy anything.
And then I came home and had what I felt was a much-deserved nap. When I woke up I couldn't remember if it was Sunday morning or not and I'd just had my last sleep-in morning. Then I realized it was afternoon. I was so deliciously comfortable, with my feet wrapped around the very warm cat who was curled at the foot of the bed, that I hated to get up. But I did, fed the dog, and rode my bike. Fixed one of the dinners that makes Christian say I have odd tastes--pickled herring for appetizer, followed by braseola (the Italian beef version of prosciutto) dressed with lemon and olive oil, shaved parmesan, and watercross. Sooo good.
Which reminds me of a recipe Lisa taught me and I've been meaning to share: enchilada casserole that's the easiest I've ever heard of. For each person, take a corn tortilla and cover one side with green enchilada sauce (okay, you could use red), put it sauce side down in a casserole, top with cubed chicken, green chillies, and more enchilada sauce. Add a second tortilla, covered with more enchilada sauce and grated cheese. Bake until heated and cheese is melted. I can't eat a whole one--still have half in the fridge.
Gotta go. Sleepless in Seattle is on the TV.