Pollyanna

I've often thought of myself as a sort of naive Pollyana waltzing through life always believing the best is just around the corner. It occurs to me that my blog reflects that. Other people write caustic, controversial, revealing blogs--I could spice mine up with some of the day to day happenings of my life, but the things that come to mind might hurt or embarrass someone I care about or they'd amount to picking on/making fun of people I don't know. So I am writing this sort of calm, perhaps boring blog about what I do from day to day. For me, it's like keeping a journal. One friend, who is sure I am exposing myself to every pervert in the world, said she's just too private to share her thoughts. I kind of like sharing my thoughts.
This has been a wonderful lazy weekend. Got my Oprah Winfrey project completed--waiting for her newest book choice on Friday--and sent it to the publisher; then another project I thought was long gone came back to hit me, needing "reorganization"--took quite a bit of time, but I got it off too. And I went back to my mystery. I expected to have to read the whole thing over to get back into it, but that didn't happen. I picked right up where I left off, could see things that were supposed to happen next, and began writing. I think I'm writing the last chapter of the first draft right now.
But tonight, company, so I cooked today. Meatballs in red wine gravy, buttered green noodles, a wonderful casserole of Brussel sprouts and artichoke hearts coated with a mayo/Parmigiano mixture, homemade double chocolate cookies with ice cream (the cookies have two kinds of Ghiardelli chocolate chips in them--decadent!). I thought to serve homemade pesto for an appetizer but inherited a whole lot of cheese cubes and crackers from a happy hour at the office Thursday, so I've spruced that up with fresh fruit and some wonderful pecans boiled in maple syrup--a neighbor gets the pecans from West Texas and the syrup from his family in New England. What a combination. As a last-minute inspiration I put the whole thing in a ten-gallon hat dish Jordan and Christian gave me several Christmases ago, and it really looks smart--the nuts are in the top of the hat (the crown?) and the fruit and cheese are arranged on the brim. I know, however, that my guests are good liberals, so I hope they don't eat all the nuts and uncover the top of the hat, which says "Western White House, Crawford, Texas"! That's one of my two Republican sons-in-law! How did they happen to a yellow dog Democrat like me? But I love them both.