Long Sundays

It's amazing when a sunny day can do for your mood, much as I think I love a rainy, stay-inside day. Yesterday I was edgy, and I dreaded today, a long day with no plans. But I woke up feeling energetic and happy. Did a mountain of work (well it seemed that way) in the morning--finished cleaning out that filthy shower stall and sorting all the papers (most need shredding so now I have to find out where you take whole bags of papers to be shredded). Then, overcome with ambition, I cleaned out the catbox and the cat's bathroom, all of which made me rush to the shower, feeling dirty. I ran the dishwasher, put away folded clothes I'd been staring at, and generally put the house in order. One of the contributors to the cookbook sent me her bibliographic essay and biographical sketch, so I put them in place and then began editing one of the last chapters. "The Regal Women of the Garden of Eden" opens with a history of the Garden of Eden, a historic black neighborhood where almost all residents are descendants of Major Cheney--there were once 54 houses and now are ten or twelve, though the original homestead is still occupied. Some of the recipes reminded me of my mom, particularly seven-minute icing, in which she took particular pride. I liked it when it was fresh and soft but I remember when it sat, it developed a brittle sugar crust.

It's been a food day, although I didn't eat elegantly--my standard meal of tuna salad, hearts of palm and grape tomatoes for lunch and smoked salmon, pea salad (the rest of Jacob's peas from last night), and a bit of hummus, followed by raspberries for supper--an eclectic mix but pretty low in Weight Watchers points (tomorrow is my day to weigh). I didn't tell Weight Watchers, but I ate chocolate twice today.

I've had one eye on the food channel all day--partly because it's had lots of trailers for Julie and Julia. I've read the book, and I'm not much of a moviegoer, but I really want to see that one. My neighbor, Sue, has assured me we're going. But I'm also interested in the winner of the cookoff tonight for the next Food Network Star--the two finalists are both vital and attractive, their dishes far beyond my skills, but the woman is from a suburb north of Fort Worth, so I'm rooting for her. She also has four children under four (including twins) so I am in awe that she has developed such cooking skills while caring for such a family. I also watched three consecutive Paula Deen shows (parts of two while riding my stationary bike)--her food always looks so scrumptious, but I am appalled by her free hand with butter, cream, sugar, cheese, and sour cream. I wonder about her cholestorol--she always eats the dishes with such relish! I know the shows are taped and shown over and over again, but I did think in the third one I saw her face looked much thinner--no idea what order they were filmed in. Maybe she just changed her hairdo. Anyway, with her kitzy overdone southern manners, I do find her fun and charming--and I long to eat that way once in a while.

With the other eye, I've been reading The Diva Takes the Cake and enjoying it, though the diva in this one is a bit extreme. Still it's not one of those mysteries where I can see the ending coming, so I'm hooked.

It's been a long Sunday simply because I've had no outside contact, and I don't much like days like that. But this week I have to go into the office three days (yikes!) and I have lunch plans three days, dinner plans two. Plenty of outside contact. I tried to sit on the porch again with my book but it's a bit too hot. Our blessed spell of rain and cooler weather seems to be over.

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.