Weekends

It's Friday afternoon, and I'm tucked in for the weekend, except for a trip to the grocery tomorrow morning. Some weeks, I dread Saturday and Sunday because they can seem long and empty days to a person living alone, no matter how much work is on the desk--or elsewhere. But this has been an unusually busy week--I've had something to do every night, me, who is used to settling down at my computer after dinner. I did none of that. And my days were filled with meetings, work, obligations. So I'll settle in and do the two things I like best--write and cook.
Friends are coming for supper Sunday. I'll serve some really good meatballs--the large kind, not the little ones you roll by hand--with red wine gravy and buttered noodles, plus a great vegetable dish my neighbor's mother served me--Brussel sprouts and artichoke hearts baked in a mayonnaise/Parmesan sauce. I thought to make a fancy appetizer with my homemade pesto, but we had a happy hour at the press and lots of cheese cubes left over, so I'll freshen those with some fruit. And dessert? Ice cream--I think I'll serve it in coffee cups, because I don't have any small dishes that match the dishes I'll use--and homemade double chocolate chip cookies (Ghiardelli chocolate, of course!). Jordan said I better have some of those left over, and I will, but I think I'll freeze them for the trip she and I will take, with Jacob, to Houston next week to see Colin, Lisa, Morgan, and the new house.
But I also want to clear the decks so I can get back to my mystery. That means sending in my results from judging a novel contest--check! just did that; editing a short piece submitted by an author--check! just did that; doing a final reading of the Oprah manuscript and sending in it--I'm waiting to see what new book she chooses this afternoon. And I really want to finish the Sue Grafton book I'm reading. Then my desk will be clear for the mystery, although my conscience may send me to the office to get the novel I'm editing there.
I wonder if it's a sign of aging--and hope not--that I, who was always willing to go almost anywhere and didn't want to sit home, am now so delighted to have a long weekend at home. But next week it starts all over again--company Sunday, class Monday, out to dinner Tuesday and Wednesday!
A note on my non-gourmet tastes: had dinner last night in an upscale restaurant (a university dinner for a visiting candidate) and the food was too much--the sauce on my steak too rich, the chile in the chocolate mousse too strong. I adore chocolate mousse and thought ancho chile, supposedly light, might add a nice zing Wrong! the first bite was good but thereafter it got hotter with each bite. I quit after five bites. A dinner companion said she thought after this, she'd take her mousse plain, and I agree.