Housebound

I could get into this business of being sick--or semi-sick. As I wrote that, I realized that there are so many who are desperately ill that my light-hearted approach will seem heartless and, believe me, I don't mean it that way. But a today at home has been lovely. Walking pneumonia gave me all kinds of excuses for not doing things I didn't want to, like going out in a chilly rain. And it let me throw work to the winds and spend the morning leafing through my appalling collection of recipes, though that was kind of strange since I have no appetite. Still, several events loom on my culinary horizon and I was able to start picking possible recipes. This Sunday, I'll cook for Elizabeth and a friend--she has requested chili, and until today I'd have said the weather is too hot. But chili would be so good right now. She's brought gluten-free cornbread mix, and we'll have salad and guacamole with chips.
In mid-April, special friends are coming--the girl I grew up next door to and haven't seen in fifty years, with her husband, and we'll be joined for lunch by mutual friends from here in town. I want it to be a really special lunch, not overwhelming, light and spring-like, just the right dish. I'm working on it.
And then a few nights later, I'll cook the entree for a welcome-new-neighbor dinner for about twelve--vacillating between crockpot barbecue, chicken tetrazini, and a couple of other choices. I love going through recipes. One file I searched today is my "Entrees Never Tried" and as I went through I was heartless about discarding things I'd never cook. Reduced the file a great deal, a good thing since it was growing out of bounds. Too easy to snip something from a magazine and slide it in there. I have to think through whether or not I'd really cook that...and for who? (whom?)
Then there was napping, some sorting of papers on my desk, writing two guest blogs...oh, yes, I kept busy, didn't malinger in bed all day, though I did have a good nap. My biggest problem is that when I lie down, I start to cough. With 7-UP, cough drops, and some liquid that is supposed to help me sleep, it still takes a while. But, thank heaven, when I sleep, I do it soundly.
Tonight I made ham salad--so much ham left over--and ate a bit of leftover potato salad and fruit salad. They're both almost gone. Another good aspect to this: I've lost five pounds. But that, I know, will come back quickly.
And by tomorrow, I'll be ready to get back to the world. It's supposed to continue raining...oh, well.

Rain, blessed rain--and have you walked in my moccasins?

We are getting a lot of rain, the kind we need--slow and steady. Sometimes it dumps, and sometimes it's only a drizzle, but it's an all-day rain, predicted to get heavier overnight. We need it badly, and my yard and porch plants are soaking iti up with gratitude. And even though I find the thought of going outside depressing, I think the rain is peaceful and soothing. The dismal cast of the day hasn't dampened my spirits.
I've been feeling the effects of stress lately--lack of appetite, stomach troubles (I've probably chronicled those more than you want to know), trouble sleeping. When I mentioned the other night that maybe my stomach troubles weren't a bug but simply stress, my son-in-law looked at me incredulously. "Stress!" he exclaimed. "What have you got to be stressed about?" I laughed and said, "I can stress about being stressed." But it struck me that this is a man who knows me well and yet is amazed that I am stressed. I suppose he sees a worry-free life compared to his, He is building his career, supporting a family, raising a child, while I'm retired, I write at my own pace, I spend time with my grandchld, I cook a lot for friends, I don't seem stressed for money. What he doesn't see is that I have deadlines for my writing and work piles on my desk. Since I'm compulsive about doing things when they present themselves to me, I set my own deadlines and struggle to meet them. Time with Jacob is a blessing but not stress-free--like all six-year-olds he can be loving, lots of fun, but he can also be stubborn and difficult. Yesterday when he wanted to do something he blurted out, "I promise I'll treat you nicely"--a good recognition that he isn't always nice to me. Cooking for friends is wonderful fun for me--but it too is stressful, and I did three large (eight people) dinner parties last week. And yes, I'm more comfortable than a lot of retired single women living on a fixed income--but it's because I'm careful and I worry about money. I don't buy a lot that I would like to, and when I splurge, my conscience bothers me.
But what struck me most is that it reminded me of that old saying my mom used to quote, "Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins." We never know what lies behind the facade we see in others, and it behooves us to listen with compassion and care. Hard lesson to learn.

Rainy day blues--and a seminar

Rain today all day, varying from a light drizzle to a steady gentle rain. Not cold, but if the humidity is 95% and the temperature in the 50s, it always feels chilly. A good day to stay inside with a good book and take a long nap, but that's not what I did. I was at TCU at nine o'clock for a mass media communications career conference presented by the Society of Professional Journalists (Fort Worth chapter) and TCU's Schieffer School of Journalism. College students and others from all over North Texas attended--I'd say at least 175, and the keynote speaker, a woman I greatly admire, gave solid information on sending out your resume, doing the all-important interview, etc. From my point of view, I should have stayed in that warm bed an hour longer, but I admired the very practical information she provided. It's just that I doubt I'll be sending out any resumes soon.
Then the breakout sessions--on pr, broacast, online work, newspapers, visual communication, and magazine and book publishing--the latter where I was on a panel with Skip Hollandsworth of Texas Monthly and Bob Francis of Fort Worth Business News.
It was fun. There was a moderator, but Skip, a talkative and gregarious soul, did the actual moderating and kept things moving--blessings on him. The students were focused and responsive, anxious to talk about their varying goals. In the first session, most of them wrote daily--journaling, a couple of bloggers, etc. I was surprised that in the second session only one wrote with any frequency--a young woman who had a blog about what she and her children did. We tried to stress the importance of writing daily and of discipline.  I thought maybe the second session was less sucessful than the first, but as I left a young woman who had been honest in revealing her uncertainty about what she wanted, thanked me and said, "You really inspired me." That made my day, and I told her so.
Home to lunch, some odd work at my desk, a bit of reading, and that long nap the day deserved. Woke up so loggy that I haven't been much good all evening, but I did make the last spread for tomorrow's fundraiser.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty--perfect day for the thirty to forty people at the fundraiser, though I haven't cleaned the porch. I'll consider that in the morning. But today is muddy and wet, and I have dirty dogs. And a very clean house. I've worked hard all day to make the two compatible. My old dog is content to lie on his bed most of the day, although he refuses food if it's raining--haven't quite figured that one out, except that maybe he considers the rain a personal affront and his way of protesting is to refuse to eat. The young one gets bored and wants to go out every so often. Then she doesn't like it, especially if she's alone, so she sits by the door (under the eaves fortunately) and looks pitiful. Cross your fingers please that I can avoid muddy footprints until tomorrow evening.

Off days and gloomy weather

Do you ever have an "off" day? You're not sick, but you just don't feel right. I like to think of myself as the perpetual Pollyanna--always bright, always looking on the good side, seeing the glass half full. But yesterday my system was out of whack--maybe it was the scratchy throat and stuffy nose that Jacob gave me, maybe it was my stomach which was in turmoil all day, maybe it was that I drank coffee and didn't eat anything for an hour or more in the morning. Maybe you can never figure out what causes an off day.  But, oh my. am I a new person today, though it's been an uneventful day.
Highlight was supper at Sapristi's with good friend Sue Boggs--we split the tapas and I had a Caesar salad while she had roasted mushrooms--and wine. We talked so long the waitress came and added a splash of wine to our glasses, saying, "It looks like such a good conversation I think you need just a bit more." Courtesy of the house. Wonderful to have neighborhood places like that.
Rainy and cold all afternoon and tonight--the kind of day that makes you shrink into yourself. I got out in spite of it but am glad to be home. Sorting through recipes, loking for a good sandwich I haven't fixed before. Nice way to spend the evening.
Stay warm and dry, everyone.

Strenuous days, a five-year-old boy, and a rough dinner

I haven't been exercising lately because I had this puppy to care for, a full-time job that gave me plenty of exercise. But more and more she's getting self-sufficient. And I'm gaining weight and feeling the need (guilt?) to exercise. So today I did my yoga routine for the first time in two months. Not as bad as I expected--my muscles seemed to remember what they were supposed to do. Granted, I'm a little less flexible--not that I was ever very flexible--and my muscles quiver more in some exercises. But on the whole, I didn't do badly. I went from that to Sophie's first training session, which proved to be less hard on my body than on my nerves. I worried a great deal about being pulled down between the car and PetSmart, but I managed to control her efforts to run to every person she saw and we made it inside. Lesson was very valuable, from how to use treats to vocabulary. Sophie is, I think, part way through what she should have learned in this first lesson--for instance, she knows "sit" and "down" and I learned a super new technique for dealing with her jumping on me.
Jacob arrived shortly after I finished a hasty lunch--he was not in sympathy with my almost desperate need for a late afternoon nap. Woke me up to "love" on me and for several other reasons.  Finally he kissed me and said have a good nap. When I woke up it was almost six and suspiciously quiet from Jacob's playroom--he was sound asleep. I fed the dogs, started dinner, and then wakened him gently by scratching his back. He never wakes up from naps in a good mood but his bad, whiny mood took a while. Then he began to whine because I'd promised a picnic and it looked like rain; I suggested the porch; he cried and wanted his daddy. Finally he decided on the porch, and we carried our dinners out there, only to have him declare it was too windy. Back inside, where he spilled his dinner on the living room rug. Then he wanted to go back outside--carried our food back outside. Then he was sure there was a tornado coming, and we had to go inside. Long story not very short: I had a cold ground beef patty, salad was okay, he had 1-1/2 chicken nuggets, declared he couldn't eat the corn, and finished his meal with chocolate-covered raisins--half good half bad is my grandmotherly rationale.
Rain is in the air, praise be, and Jacob is obssessed with tornadoes, telling me about the ones he's experienced--yeah, sure--and predicting them outside. We have the weather channel on but it's hard for him to distinguish between videos of past tornados and anything happening here and now. He keeps wanting to go to the bathroom to hide but I have refused.
Writing the great American novel? What's that? I may get to read the John Grisham novel that I'm having a hard time with. My colleague Fred tells me it has a section about an inapropriate develpment project, relevant to my work-in-progress, but I haven't come to it yet and am finding, as I have before, that Grisham just doesn't captivate me. This one is The Last Juror.
In sum, a grandmotherly Saturday. Were my kids like this?
Most of the rest of my family is in Austin for a race of some sort--I can't sort out if it's an ironman or a muddy whatever, but I'm a bit sad not to be with them.

Some good writing, a long nap, rain and homemade pizza

Today was a holiday, even for me--no school for FWISD students, which frees me to my old schedule of working in the early afternoon and napping in the late. I wrote almost 2000 words and felt good about what I'd done--as opposed to yesterday, though last night I reread all that I had so far and it didn't seem that bad to me for a first draft. But I worked away this afternoon, and the ideas seemed to flow. Love that feeling. I took a late, long nap and then lay in bed, daydreaming--sometimes great plot ideas come to me when I do that. But I realized I smelled rain--my greenhouse window vents in the kitchen were open and sure enough,  the streets were wet. As I write it's raining pretty steadily--what a blessing. Yes, it's humid, but who cares.
Tonight I did something I haven't done in years--made homemade pizza. I'm not particularly a pizza fan, having overdosed on it in high school when we used to eat it cold for breakfast the morning aftre a party. When my kids were little I would spread dough in a jelly roll pan and section off parts, so each child could put on favorite toppings. But now when the kids suggest ordering pizza--or as Jamie often does, going to the pizza parlor which has sentimental value from high school--I either pack a sandwich or eat what passes for a salad. Make pizza nowadays? Never.
But Jacob announced he had a special recipe. You put it (I had to ask what and was told chicken) in the oven for 20 minute,s take it out, put pepper on it, and you have pizza chicken (piece of chicken?). I promised him we'd make pizza tonight, so today I pulled a sauce recipe off the web and let it  simmer so long I burned it--luckily it didn't taste but once again I'm scrubbing and soaking. Bought a Boboli 8" crust, cooked some lean ground beef with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Had Jacob spoon on the sauce, then sprinkle the ground meat, and top with shredded mozarella. I despise buying shredded cheese but it's a lot cheaper.
Result was pretty good--knife and fork pizza because it was piled so high with ingredients. We ate maybe a third, so Christian has good leftovers. Trouble is Jacob doesn't really like ground meat so he didn't eat much.
Now I've got everyone to bed except Sophie--and I'm dreading taking her out for her evening excursion in the rain. Hope I have to get used to that.

A gallery ofo photos and a rainy election day

Here are photos from the award ceremony Friday night. First, a very proud mom with three of her four children. Colin is holding the plaque though it's hard to see. We missed Megan, and she missed being there.

Me at the podium, with a strained and pained look because I'm speaking in public and I don't much like to do that. Joyce Roach said it was one of my best short talks ever--she failed to mention how I looked.

With my good friend, Jeannie, who is often my guardian angel. I have no idea what we were doing in the top photo--comparing our squash blossoms?

With longtime friend Joyce Roach, on the left--she's a fellow author, and we used to travel to meetings together all the time and had some great experiences. On the right is Melinda Esco, production manager at TCU Press and a good friend, who is terrific at her job.

Jamie, left, and Colin--two of the four lights of my life. Pictures are all thanks to Jordan Alter Burton.
A rainy day that started off with breakfast with an old friend and then two hours of telephone campaigning for Bill White--the mood in the local campaign office was upbeat and optimistic, and I was encouraged by all the people I talked to who were emphatic about voting for White. Then I found out it's a hand-picked list.  Still I think he has a better chance than the polls give him. I laughed at one answering machine message I got: "This is the queen. I'm not receiving subjects this morning, so leave a message." I wish I'd thought to begin the message with, "Your highness," but I wasn't that quick. I'll be glued to the TV tonight. Meantime, it's a wet, dreary afternoon--perfect for a book and a nap.
Later: well, it's over. The world looks glum to me: the Rangers lost, Bill White lost, the Republicans will take the House, and it continues to rain. White was gracious in his speech acknowledging Perry's victory, but I am baffled that so many vote with their eyes shut. I hope White's legacy of honesty, openness, and accountability will carry on in Texas and that he won't give up the fight. I want to urge him to stay on Perry's back. I think of the people I worked with every week at the local headquarters and want to weep--they were optimistic and upbeat this morning, and I grieve for what they must be feeling. From what I read we won't have Perry to worry about long--he's abandoning governorship to promote his book and then his eye is on the vice-presidency for 2012. I'm sorry. I can't be gracious in defeat--that gives me great worry for the country. I've had enough of election reports for the night.

Rain--and a persistent worry

A rainy day--the kind where you look like a wet puppy no matter what you do. Sometimes it was a light drizzle, other times it came down pretty hard. Either way it's welcome. The humidity was awfully high, so it felt muggy even though the temperature wasn't that high--and then when you came into air conditioning, it was cold. When I drove into VW's service bay everyone was cautioning about how slippery the wet floor was, and if I heard it once, I heard ten times, "I would want you to fall." I didn't. One service counselor was using a crutch--I waved my cane at him and told him we matched. Amazingly, my mirror was replaced within 45 minutes and cost $88, which wasn't as bad as I expected. I will now be more careful coming out of that narrow garage, though I do think having lived here seventeen years and never done that before is pretty good. This morning, with the mirror still broken, I almost veered into the fence on my side of the car.
I am terribly concerned about the wave of Muslim hate sweeping across this country. I understand that hate has unfortunately been a part of our history--of African Americans, of Jews, of the Japanese during WWII. It's like we never learn--or at least some of us don't. I worry about those Muslims who are good American citizens--for their safety, for their mental peace. And I am appalled by the minister in Florida who threatens to burn copies of the Koran on September 11--what a terribly inappropriate and dangerous way to remember those who died. I'm not one to wear those bracelets with WWJD on them, but I do wonder if those dedicated churchgoers in Florida really think Jesus would approve of the book burning. I'll be glad when Saturday is over--peacefully, I hope.
And I can't help wondering why this Muslim hate surfaces now, nine years later. Is it because some falsely accuse our president of being Muslim. That he's not doesn't seem to register with them. But what if he were? There's no law, nor nothing in our constitution, that specifies the faith of the president.
Oh my, sometimes the world really is too much with us!

Dogs, raccoons, and grandchildren--in that order?

When it rains, my dog shows his displeasure with me by dumping his food bowl off the step where I feed him. He did that last night, and when I went to let him in for the night, I saw a small gray animal--at first I wondered how my cat got out. But then an unmistakable face looked at me--a raccoon who skittered off into the night as I opened the door. I scolded Scooby saying someone would eat his food before morning. Tonight repeat of the same scene--it's been raining, and the food was dumped.
Spent much of today, in odd moments, making dips for tomorrow night. It amazes me how long it's taken me to learn some things. But lately I've scorched so many dips and things that this time I did everything in the double boiler--easy! I could let things simmer while I went about my business, then let them cool, rinse out the top of the double boiler and move on to the next dish. So my cooking for tomorrow night is all done. I didn't want  to have to cook all morning tomorrow and wear my back out so that I'd be a grouch in the evening.
Jacob arrived in a cheeerful mood tonight, and we had fun. Since last week, at brunch at a restaurant, he had literally snatched the bacon off my plate, I decided to make him a BLT. His mother assured me he would like the lettuce and tomato, but he didn't, ate the bread with mayonnaise and the bacon and a bunch of blueberries. He's gotten over telling me his mom says he can only have three blueberries--which she never said. Then a couple of hours later, he wanted pbj. Tonight I was determined he wouldn't stay up till midnight, as he had last week, so I was quite firm, which led him to tell me he was going to tell his mom that I am mean. Told me he didn't like to sleep here anyway. But when we cuddled, and I scratched his back, he said, "I want to stay here forever." The contradictions of a four-year-old continue to amaze me. But what fun!

The best laid plans . . . .

I knew the quote but wasn't sure how to spell the last word. Google at first told me that it was "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." No, that's not how Roberts Burns wrote it! I knew the words but wasn't sure how to spell the last word. Good old Wikipedia came through. It's "The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley." That's it--agley! A wonderful word. I like the quote in the Scottish dialect so much better--but that's me and my heritage.
Anyway, that's what happened to the best laid plans of my local family today. I had Jacob last night (thank you, he didn't go to sleep until midnight and then had the audacity to wake up at 8:15 and tell me he was tired!). Christian was to come over, we'd put my new booster seat in my car, and take a trial run--I wanted company the first time, but there was nothing to it--except Jacob pushed the release button on the seat belt at a stop light! I guess if he does that to me, I'll just pull over as soon as I can.
We were going to go to Central Market, where I had shopping to do and Jacob and Christian could play in the playground. Wrong! It rained all day sometimes lightly, sometimes quite steadily. And that's what did in the rest of the plan. Jacob was to come back to my house for a nap, and then I was to take him home and make King Ranch supper for everyone. Christian was going to dig at the site of their big sprinkler system leak until he had to go to work, and Jay would go repair the pipe. Susan would go with me, and we'd have a jolly supper. Not so! Rain ruined all the gardening plans, Christian got bumped from his job because the patio was closed and they didn't need part-time waiters, and Susan was busy with her mother who fell and broke her pelvis a few days ago--plus Susan's sisters and various other relatives had arrived in town.
So Jacob went home for his nap (note my sigh of relief) and I did what any sensible person would do on a gray, rainy day like this--I read and napped, ate meatloaf for supper (so good!), and that's all I intend to do the rest of the evening. It's that old thing about we need the rain, in spite of a wet winter and spring, and I am grateful,, but . . . .
A first for me: I never wear my hearing aids at home unless I have company (Jacob, Jordan and Christian don't count) but tonight "Celtic Women" is on PBS, and I could hear the soloists but not the background music, especially the violins. So I put my hearing aids in, and the sound is so much richer. That haunting, lilting music really speaks to me. I often have the TV on as sort of background noise, but tonight I find myself looking up from my book to watch the singers. Their rendition of "Amazing Grace" was--no other word forit--amazing. I also particularly love the woman who skips and dances while playing the violin--I can't even rub my stomach and pat my head at the same time and though I took violin lessons as a child, I was dismal at it (a tin ear) and surely could never play and dance.Maybe someday I'll get to Scotland yet--in the meantime, I go there in my mind and through programs like this one.
PS: I just discovered tonight that when you brush your teetch with an electric toothbrush whle wearing hearing aids, the sound is incredible! Like the first time I ate a crunch dill pickle with those things in my ears!
Tomorrow? More rain!

Ho-hum weather, a new restaurant and an experimental dinner

Today, the steady slow drizzle that so benefits our gardens was getting old. It was chilly and damp, though not really cold. I suspect we're in for a long spring of this, and I try to be grateful. But sometimes I long for sun. And about 5:00 tonight I got my wish--the sun was shiny bright, even though everything was still soggy and wet and the schoolyard across the street was filled with puddles.
Still the day was brightened by lunch with my friend Carol. We tried out a new restaurant, Cat City Grill (so named because of Fort Worth's old reputation as Panther City--too long a story to repeat here), and enjoyed it. I passed on the hamburger, though she said hers was really good, and had a spinach salad with gorgonzola, dried cranberries, and bacon. There was much more spinach than the latter goodies and the dressing was a tad sweet, but I still ate every bite. They have wonderful appetizers, like fried lobster bites--what a temptation!
Carol and I share a lot of professional interests, especially the history of Fort Worth, and she is reading a manuscript for me now. But we're also longtime friends, and she said a most interesting (and flattering) thing to me. When I was telling her about my renewed difficulty with open spaces, she said, "For me, it just makes you human." She said that she admired what I'd done and accomplished in my life but was glad to know I had a very human weakness. I laughed, demurred, but said, "Can I lean on you?" and she gave me a big hug and said, "Anytime." Aren't friends great?
Tonight I had an experimental dinner. I've really been trying to eat up the food in my freezer, and I came across a small portion of ground veal, left from I know not what. I sauteed it with some garlic, breaking up the pieces as I went, and then threw in sliced mushrooms, asparagus pieces, and sugar snap peas. When it was all almost crisp-done I seasoned it with salt, pepper, a bit of thyme, lemon, and a splash of white wine. Then I ate it out of the small skillet I'd cooked it in (oh, what would my mother say!). But it was so good. I may have to buy more veal! And I have very few dishes to wash.

Cancelling the world

I cancelled the world today, because I felt really rotten and didn't sleep again last night. I had lunch plans with Jean and Jeannie and dinner plans with Betty. When I called, each said, "Oh, thank goodness." (Does that tell you how much my friends want to see me?) Jean is having trouble with a medication; Jeannie is having bad allergy problems and besides that slipped on an acorn and took a hard fall--she was on her way to get x-rays. And Betty just got back from several days in San Antonio and had lots to do. It was a good day to cancel the world--rained all day, sometimes lightly but heavily around 5:30. More rain is predicted through most of the night. So I holed up in my house, went back to bed for an hour about 10 and again for two hours at 3, finished editing the manuscript I've been working on, and did odds and ends.
Before I retired, I might well have forced myself to go to work, partly out of a strong work ethic but also because I didn't like facing a day at home alone, without any human contact except the occasional phone call (Jordan called to check on me) and email, which really is pretty impersonal. I don't know if I've learned to like my own company better or if it's just that I felt so blah or what, but I welcomed the prospect of the day. Finished up several leftovers in the icebox, so I didn't have to cook--I thought about salmon cakes but decided to eat the leftover chicken spread--with a dab of the wine sauce, it was really good.
Tomorrow I have to get out--things at the office that demand attention, a doctor's appointment, and the grocery. But I have put all my social engagements (sounds busier than I am) on hold for three days. Kind of a good feeling. Since I have a clear desk, I may not start anything tonight, except a new novel.
Surely tomorrow will be a better day. At least, it's supposed to stop raining but will be cool.
I've been reading a series of Vineyard Mysteries by Michele Scott, and she gets my vote for having created a complex, interesting, and sympathetic gay man in the male protagonist's brother, Simon. He makes all the jutting hip gestures, worships movie stars and fast cars and designer clothes, calls the female protagonist Snow White, does all the terribly stereotypical things and yet comes across as believable and someone you like. And he's most protective of Snow White. It's a hard trick to pull off a complex character like that, and she does it well.
My favorite British mystery writer, Deborah Crombie, is not British, lives right here in North Texas, but writes about a Scotland Yard detective. She has a new book, Necessary as Blood, and will be at the TCU Bookstore Friday night. I hope to meet friends Weldon and Elizabeth to hear her brief talk and then go to supper. I rarely buy hardcovers but usually wait for the paperback. I'll buy this one in hardcover.

End of a happy weekend and back to work

The house is quiet, and the girls have all taken their children home. Megan had the longest drive--to Austin--but she reported in when she was about 20 minutes from home and said it wasn't nearly as bad as coming up Friday, which took her an unbelievable five hours. Jordan, Christian, and Jacob came by just before supper to pick up leftover food--taco meat, taco shells, refried beans--all those things I don't want. We went to Joe T.'s for lunch this morning. Christian had hoped to pick up a shift but he didn't, so he got to have lunch with us. I had "the dinner"--cheese enchiladas, small tacos, cheese nachos, guacamole, rice, and beans--but I didn't eat even half of it, and I was full. Sent the tacos, all of the rice, and some of the beans home with Christian. Still by the time supper came along I already had eaten 17 of my 19 daily points, so even though I ate modestly tonight I went 7 points over my daily allottment. I have changed my weigh day from Monday to Thursday--how dumb was that to weigh on Monday, just after the weekend.
We had a good happy morning. Everyone ate Jacob's "awful waffles" and the boys played with those inevitable guns--noisy and loud. Maddie sat at the computer for a long time with Jacob in her lap showing him something that obviously interested him, and Edie made his bed so it would be all ready for him next time he comes to sleep over. I cannot say enough about how good those girls are with their cousins. This morning I heard a little activity, got up to look, and saw Edie had Jacob in the bathroom, taking off his overnight pull-up and sitting him on the potty. Shoot! I can't get him to do that when I first get up. So after that quick look, I went back to bed.
Last year I redid the guest house at some great (to me) expense, and it tickles me that no one stays in it. Of course last night, I wanted all the kids in the house--Mel said the girls could go out there and watch a movie but I really wasn't comfortable with that. They watched the movie on their mom's computer at my desk, after Maddie sweetly said they didn't want to disturb me. They didn't--I loved having them across the desk from me. They ended up sleeping in the guest room where Jacob was on his mattress on the floor, and Mel climbed into the bed later, praying she said that Jacob wouldn't wake up at five; Megan moved the air mattress (with Sawyer) into the living room, so everybody slept cramped when the guest house stayed empty.
After everyone left, I finished straightening the house--they do a good job of cleaning up--and sat at my desk. To my surprise, I jumped into an editing project on my desk and have done 50 pages. It's a book of anecdotes about the oil patch days, and I'm enjoying working on it. A free lance assignment from Texas Tech University Press, which I much appreciate. So I'm feeling good tonight about making progress on the projects on my desk.Hmmm. Tomorrow staff meeting at 8:30. Back into busy retirement.
It has rained all weekend, and we are blessing the moisture. 3.5" yesterday and who knows how much today, though now it has slowed down but everything is very wet! Central Texas, where the drought has been awful, apparently got a lot of rain too and I read that Midlothian, south and east of Fort Worth, got over 8 inches yesterday! Feast or famine.

A rainy day and five energetic children

When I asked Scooby this morning if he was ready to go out and eat his breakfast, this was his response--crowding himself into the smallest space he could find by his bed. He's no fool--he knew it was raining. Finally about an hour later, he heard children and barked, and I was able to get him out, using a leash. He hates the rain, but with a houseful of children, he can't stay in--he's too excitable and energetic with strangers around. But it was indeed a rainy day, and there went plans for a zoo trip. Megan's boys, Sawyer (5) and Ford (almost 3) were out of control, noisy, fighting, wild--it was chaos. When Jordan and Jacob arrived (Jacob for some inexplicable reason wearing his pumpkin costume from last Halloween which no longer fits him), they decided they had to take their three boys somewhere so they went to Chucky Cheese--as politely as I could, I declined and refroze the hot dogs I had out for lunch. You cannot imagine how I welcomed the peace and quiet and settled down for a bit of work. But just as I was about to fix myself a hot dog, Mel and the girls arrived from Frisco. Mel shares my antipathy to Chucky Cheese, so we had hot dogs and a good visit. Maddie, our voracious reader, built a fort of umbrellas on the front porch and then lay on a towel on the concrete (how uncomfortable is that?) to read. When the Austin boys came back, Maddie organized them into an army with rifles over their shoulders (I forgot to mention they arrived with an arsenal and are very noisy about their guns, plus they swing them around so that I'm sure they'll whack someone or something, like my grandmother's tureen!). All of a sudden it was controlled--I told them I'd pay one dollar to the one who found my monitor, and lo and behold, Sawyer found it under the bed! I paid each of the four--Edie had declined the hunt--fifty cents. Then about three they all left for a play date with a friend of Megan's who used to live in Austin. Oh blessed quiet, I had a good nap and then fixed turkey tacos makings. Christian is off tonight--people don't eat on the patio at Joe T.'s when it's raining--so he came for dinner, but didn't go out with the girls. He played chaffeur.

The girls did finally pull all their cars off the street, and they have it all settled which child will sleep where, but I'll be darned if I know where they are all going to sleep. They've gone out on the town, and Maddie and Edie have gotten the little boys all ready for bed and are watching TV with them. That's all of them above though Edie kind of got cut out of the picture. We miss Lisa and the Houston cousins Morgan and Kegan. Now it's time for me to go say "Bedtime!" I honestly don't know what I'd have done with three little boys myself--I know I raised four children under four but I was a lot younger and had a lot more energy. The big girls love doing this. What a blessing.

All is quiet. Edie is snuggling with Jacob, and Maddie is reading to Sawyer. Ford is sound asleep--I just snuck in and gave him a kiss but he never budged. And Scooby and I are in our quiet hideaway in my office. Although it wears me out, I love having all of them here and a houseful of children. I love the hugs and kisses and, especially with Maddie and more recently Edie, the sense of camaraderie. I am so blessed!

Then again, off again rain

This morning it was sort of sunny when I woke up but there were dire predictions of storms to come, so I rushed--I really did--to get to the grocery before the storms began. It was sprinkling when I got there and apparently it really dumped while I was shopping, but it was back to sprinkling when I came home, so I only got slightly damp unloading groceries. Maybe it was the weather and the greyness, but I felt at loose ends. Did my yoga (not my best session but Elizabeth say not to worry about that), and then decided to tackle the shower stall in my office bathroom.

That's a story in itself. Two or three years ago--who knows how long?--I decided to clean out my drawer of financial information, etc. You know, you really don't need investment reports from 1985 of accounts now closed. So I carefully sorted some things into a bag to be shredded and others into one that could just could to the recycle bin. About halfway through the drawer, I got bored, put the bags in the shower stall (no one every uses it) and forgot about it except for an occasional guilty thought. The other night, when I got the TIAA-CREF folder out for Jim Chaffee, I realized that I had records in it back to the early 80s, so I went to get out the bags. Now I knew Scooby had been sleeping in there, but I was unprepared for the mess--the black garbage bags had disintegrated into small pieces, and many papers were already shredded. The shower stall was ankle deep in paper mess. This morning I spent over an hour cleaning out about 3/4 of it (tomorrow I'll tackle the remainder). There was lots of dirt and grit--when Scooby's coat is long, he brings it in, though I think some of it was kitty litter (unused, I hope) and I couldn't quite figure that.

By then it was lunchtime and I decided retirement meant weekends were for leisure. I avoided the cookbook and other projects on my desk and spent much of the afternoon reading Krista Davis' second novel, The Diva Takes the Cake. I an enjoying the novel a great deal, and my hat's off to her for the way she ends each chapter with a cliff hanger suprise, then begins the next with a digression--a letter to her syndicated column or a query to her rival's website, while the reader is itching to find out what's going on. A nap, and then time to cook dinner for Jordan and Jacob--sauteed flounder and salad for us, a wider variety for Jacob but he ate mostly green peas and blueberries. But we had a good time, and Jord and I had a good visit. They all leave, Jacob included, for four days in Jamaica Tuesday--he will happily tell us he's going to a beach.

Just before they arrived it began to rumble and thunder. When I fed Scooby he tried desperately to get into the house. I blocked that and told him to eat his dinner, but when I looked he hadn't touched it. So I let him in, put him in the office while we ate. After Jordan and Jacob left, it was sunny again--we got no rain out of that thunder--and I encouraged a reluctant Scoob to go outside and eat his dinner. Then I sat on the porch with a glass of wine and my book. It was a lovely night, cool and comfortable. I'm sure I've said this before, but my house is in an old neighborhood (my house was built in 1922) so there are lush green trees all around, and it's a real pleasure to sit there and just stare at the scenery. Calming and peaceful, which is what I'm all about these days. (Last night Elizabeth said I looked different--relaxed!)

A pleasant day. Who cares if I didn't accomplish anything. I did have a stray thought about contracts and emailed the controller--only to find she was working on Saturday. When I accused her of that, she said, "So are you, and you're retired!" I told her it was a stray moment.

Sushi and friends

Had dinner with good friends Elizabeth (Beth to the rest of the world but it's a long story) and Weldon at the Tokyo Cafe tonight. It's always too long between our visits. Elizabeth was a work-study student in my office some fifteen years ago, and we have remained friends ever since. When she began dating Weldon, I admitted him cautiously but a now as fond of him as of her, and they make each othe very happy. Elizabeth has developed a great careeer in specialized publishing (for accountants) and is now teaching yoga, including to me.We had a great visit, and I thank them for yet another after-the-fact birthday dinner. I tried to post the sushi on Weight Watchers and of couse the kind I had--Seattle Sunrise, with cucumber, cream cheese and smoked salmon in a soy wrap--wasn't listed. So I fudged.

Today was a top-down day--haircut, grocery, dinner--I put the top down on all my small trips, delighted that it now seems to work fine. (Please keep your fingers crossed.) I hate to leave it with the top down when it malfunctions because I'm afraid someone will steal my handicapped tag. Tonight when I got in the car, the temperature thing read 101--now I know that wasn't true! By the time I got home it was 89. A few minutes ago I started hearing a strange noise--looked out the window and it's raining, fairly hard. No thunder, no lightning, just plain steady rain. We have been blessed with first light rains early in the week and then an apparently violent storm that I slept through a couple of nights ago, complete with a tornado warning. We need it and welcome it, but Central Texas needs it worse. They're comparing this to the 1950s drought which prompted Elmer Kelton's award-winning novel, The Time It Never Rained.

Haven't down much constructive today, so I'm going to finish the cookbook chapter I stopped in the middle of.

From Down to Up

Today is a much better day and I regret the whiny post of yesterday. Biggest thing of the day is that about 3:30 p.m. I got advance copies of my cookbook/memoir. It looks good. (I tried twice to upload the cover and couldn't--maybe tomorrow the whims of the internet will be different.) I've thumbed through it, with some nostalgia, but not looked too closely. There has never ever been a book published without errors, and I don't want to find them in this one. But the pictures all seem to be there, and I'm excited about it. It should be in Barnes & Noble and other stores in a couple of weeks, but--blatant advertising--you can order it from 1-800-826-8911. $18.95 plus shipping and tax. I'm hoping the TCU B&N can sell copies Sunday at Books & Music in the Garden, and I'm trying to be creative about publicizing and marketing this one. Obviously State House Press is not sending me on even a Texas tour, but I hope to use the web (my attempt just now to post on Facebook was a bust!), emails etc. to get the word out. Some critics said only my good friends would buy it, and I'm hoping that's wrong--but, hey, I have a lot of good friends. And the recipes really are pretty good.
If the approach of rain makes you blue, as it did me last night, I think the actual arrival somehow clears the air, though it sure isn't cheering. We need the rain desperately, and it was gratefully received this morning, but I had to remind myself of that as I darted from car to door and back again several times. It never rained hard enough and I never went far enough to put up the umbrella, but I did get chilled and wet. First thing this morning I went for a haircut, and as she combed it Rosa said, "It will just fall anyway today." It held up pretty well through noon but then I developed that wet puppy look.
Charles and I had lunch at the Black-Eyed Pea today--a real treat for me, but I found he eats there often (all the waitresses greet him enthusiastically). Charles has a whole life I don't realize, mostly through his Unitarian Church, and it really is a blessing for him. We had a good visit, but he turned down my invitation to go to Central Market with me, said he gets too tired. I hate to see these signs in him. He's on oxygen now and carries a small tank with him wherever he goes--but go he does, and more power to him!
By the time we left the restaurant, it had stopped raining. I dropped him off, doubled back to Central Market, and hurried home to hibernate.
Overnight I made a decision about what I'm going to do about my novel, and then today got an email from an author who I promised I would blog about her book. So I have chores I'm looking forward to.
I was tempted to run out to Jordan's tonight to show off the cookbook, but once home I was too cozy to go out again (I did ride my bike four miles!). I'll go tomorrow night for happy hour.
Reservations are a bit up for Books & Music in the Garden, it's supposed to be a beautiful day, and I'm feeling more optimistic about it.

Rainy holidays

Jokes about Noah's Ark are no longer funny. We've had so much rain in the last few days that roads are awash, puddles stand in the schoolyard across the street, and the dog path, beaten by Scooby in my back yard, is a trough of mud. The Frisco Alters spent the night last night and brought their chocolate lab, Mozby, so there were two dogs--which meant that neither was in the dog house, both ran back and forth in the mud, and they were the dirtiest things I've ever seen. Jamie took Mozby around to the front porch, bathed and dried him, and he was fine. After they left, I thought I'd just bring Scoob in, towel him off, and make up to him for hurt feelings because Mozby had been in and he hadn't. Not so easy--he was the muddiest thing I've ever seen, and there seemed no sense in bathing him since he had to go outside again. I left him inside a while, had a heck of a time getting him out, and then had to mop floors, wash dog rugs, etc.--which involved figuring out why the wet Swiffer didn't work. But I did it. Now I have to think about getting him in for the night. The rain is supposed to stop tomorrow and then maybe I'll think about bathing him.
Megan and family were supposed to come for the weekend too but didn't make it--and this morning I was glad, because I heard on TV that the highway between here and Austin was undere water in places.
We gathered for Jacob's first birthday party Saturday--about 40 people and 15 kids, lots of scrumptious food, and a good time. Jacob loved being the center of attention, dug into his cake with both hands, was pretty much uninterested in presents (of which he got many!). His parents reported this morning that he woke screaming about ten last night--after the fact I diagnosed tummy ache. Too much cake and not enough dinner, except the pieces of chicken Maddie fed him.
I slept soundly last night. When I had teenagers at home, I loved those nights when they were all in their beds--I slept well with an easy mind. I guess it carries on, because even having one and his family in the house, I slept with a great sense of security. The rain helped. When Maddie finally got up she reminded me that I'd promised to buy her a Nancy Drew book, so off we went to the bookstore. She chose The Hidden Staircase, which I remember. To my delight she's a reader, going through as much as a book as day, as I did at her age. Edie chose three Dora books, because if you bought two you got the third one free!
Our festive Fathers' Day dinner lacked a little because two branches of the family were missing, but we had a good time. I fixed a turkey roulade, filled with green chiles, cumin, garlic, and feta, along with green chili rice and the marinated vegetables that the girls love. Maddie made the rice casserole but was hesitant about eating it because she doesn't like chiles. I told her she had to eat it since she made it, and she said "Okay, but I'm not eating the green things."
As always, at the end of the weekend, I'm so grateful for family. Oh, heck, I'm gratefull too for the rain, but what will I do about that muddy dog? Meantime, I've got to get back to work.