Week 34 - Earned My Sunday

It was another busy week, with quite an assortment of events, both good and bad. It was the break week between semesters so there was no water aerobics and I had big plans for all my free time. Yeah, right.

Monday night meant knitting at the library and I was starting a scarf for me, determined to not be knitting socks again. It wasn’t going well though. Despite having a host of patterns and fabulous yarn, I was using an old circular needle I’d found in the basement (source unknown) and it was tripping me up. Before the end of the week, I’d have ripped out 6 different starts with 3 different patterns and had to cut the yarn twice. So almost every night ended with more knitting frustration. Nice! Hobbies are supposed to be relaxing, aren’t they?

Tuesday I woke up to a normal day, or so I thought. I was looking forward to the cookout at Anne’s that night (a break week tradition for the water aerobics crew) that I’d had a big hand in planning. All was going swimmingly until, with no warning at all, I was projectile vomiting all over the bathroom. This was accompanied by the shakes and clammy skin. I immediately called in without an ounce of guilt (I normally am guilt ridden but the mess in the bathroom was proof enough of my inability to function) and went to bed. I was sick twice more during the day and slept for all but a couple of hours midday. No cookout for me – bummer. But by the end of the day, I was feeling better and able to eat some chicken soup so I chalked it up to a 24 hour stomach bug and called it a lost day.

Wednesday I met Helen after work for dinner and a movie – a rare event (seeing Helen more than the dinner and movie) to be sure. We ate salads at Panera, saw 500 Days of Summer, which was really good, and then closed down Starbucks. Thursday night was an Investment Committee meeting for the Library Foundation, something I was appointed to that I had zero interest in. Add to that that the chair is a blowhard who doesn’t listen and you get how much I was dreading it.

You’d think with the week I’d had, I’d be headed home Friday for some R&R. But No! I decided to be a responsible adult and do some yard work, hoping that it’d free up time later in the weekend for some quality vegging. So I headed straight home to prune the crabapple, mow the yard and trim the enormous yew out front by hand. Two hours later I was done, just in time to go to bed early so I could get up on Saturday and do yard work at Hansen House with Lorri for master gardener hours. That was two hours of edging and cutting back a huge forsythia that was choked out a magnolia. Good thing the cool weather was holding. From there I went home to grab a couple of hotdogs and relax for a bit, ripping out my scarf for the sixth time while talking to Connie.

That afternoon I headed to Lincoln to help my friend Susan paint her empty house (it’s on the market.) Now I had originally said I’d help with her yard but she hired someone to do that so wanted help painting, something I’m not good at and don’t like doing (there’s a reason I’ve been in my house 10 years and still haven’t done a second coat in the bathroom.) And for the record, the Just Saying No mantra from week 18 – NOT WORKING! The sole redeeming thing about going to Lincoln was I could go to the yarn shop and buy a new circular needle to, hopefully, end my knitting woes. It was good to catch up with Susan and the painting wasn’t all bad. Or maybe it was but I’ve blocked it out due to paint fume overload from priming the closet. Anyway, I got home after 7:00 and vowed to be done for the weekend.

Sunday was the wonderful day I’d clearly earned. I started knitting before I even read the paper (my normal Sunday morning ritual) and the needle had indeed removed the jinx. I spent the rest of the day knitting while watching PBS, interspersing laundry, dishes and the like between programs. I didn’t do much cooking but at the end of the day had more than twelve inches done on my scarf and felt relaxed, renewed and ready to face another week. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

Week 33 - A Fun Week!

The week started with the trip to the Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas to check out spinning wheels with Andrea. We left Wahoo at 7:30 to start the 4 hour trip, which flew by (it was nice to have someone to talk to.) Before we knew it, we were at the Topeka State Hospital to take pictures. What’s left of the Kirkbride is abandoned but we could drive all around it (OK, so I negotiated my way around some barricades) plus I got some neat pictures of the other buildings, and we were back on the road to Lawrence just 30 miles away.


What a wonderful city Lawrence is! Clearly their downtown never died. It’s 6 or 8 blocks long and every shop is full. It’s also a nice mix of stores – some geared towards college students but with just as many for us normal people. Besides the Yarn Barn, where we spent 2 hours and I got a mini spinning lesson (I’m not a natural), there was a huge quilt store that had every fabric imaginable – from brights to tea stained with imports from Japan thrown in too, a British shop, a gourmet store with lots of imported chocolate and a fun Asian noodle restaurant. And that was just in the 2 blocks we had time to explore! I’d love to go there and spend a weekend doing Massachusetts Ave. from one end to the other and maybe checking out the KU campus, which we never even saw. After a quick stop at Dunkin’ Donuts (another plus for Lawrence), we headed east to Overland Park to check out another yarn shop and hopefully hit Penzey’s.

The other yarn shop was nothing special and we just missed Penzey’s so we got back on the road home just before 6:00 with our bags of yarn (I only bought 7 skeins (enough for 4 projects) and 3 of those were on sale.) With only one stop in St. Joe at Dunkin’ Donuts, of course (Lawrence didn’t have lemon filled chocolate covered, which St. Joe always has – Yay!), we drove straight home, eating donuts for supper and arriving just before 10:00.

The middle of the week was uneventful, which was good because by Wednesday night, I was struggling to keep my eyes open at 7:30. I got 2 nights of 8+ hours though and was good to go.

Friday had a nice surprise. Mary and I had been talking about going to a movie and she suggested Friday after work. Since my only plan had been to food shop, I said sure and went to check the movie times. When I told her there were only 4:00 or 7:00 shows, she said, “Let’s leave early and go to the 4:00!” Now when your boss suggests something like that, who would say no? Since we’d be done so early, I convinced Nora to come so the 3 of us snuck out at 4:00 and went to Julie & Julia, which was lots of fun. What a great way to end a work week! Plus the 3 of us had plans to meet up Saturday morning to hit the Hillstead fiber garage sale so there was more fun to come.

Nora had errands to run so Saturday morning Mary and I met to do the sales, with Nora and the kids planning to meet up with us later. The Hillstead sale, for which I’d donated the 7 bags of stuff from clearing out my craft room, was mostly fabric (I’d been hoping for some yarn) and I showed restraint, spending only $3 and getting one charm pack and a few upholstery samples. We walked the entire neighborhood and I got a few CD’s and a Stone Mountain leather purse for $1.50! Again, I was aiming for restraint so was happy with my few purchases. Nora was behind us the whole way so Mary and I went to a coffee shop to relax while Nora finished. We then went to lunch where Mary had a blast goofing around with the kids. It was like there were 3 kids in the booth and it was fun to watch.

The rest of my weekend went well. I finally got all those things that had been on my to do list done and still managed to get my 2nd pair of socks finished. I also stashed all my new yarn, as well as all I’ve bought since I started knitting in earnest, on Ravelry. And I even did some cooking so I have food in the fridge for the week, which is a good thing because it’s going to be a busy week. Unfortunately I realized when I was changing my shower curtain and so had a different perspective of the toilet, that the trickle of a run had now become steady and later I found that the toilet is dripping into the laundry room. So, there’s a plumber in my coming week, which is never good, but maybe it’ll be my incentive to get the bathroom done sooner rather than later.

Week 32 - My Exploding Teeth

It was just an average week with the usual stuff, a bit heavy on errand running but normal, until Thursday. I was scheduled to get my crown put in, which I was looking forward to because the temporary one was not very comfortable. I’d had to delay getting the permanent one in because of year end and was sick of chewing being problematic. I went to the dentist first thing and after the seemingly endless adjustments – drill, install, bite, remove – again and again, the new crown was installed and it felt great. I paid my $300+ bill and joked with receptionist that I hoped to not see her again until my cleaning in October. I walked out with a smile, looking forward to chewing on my normal side at lunch.

The rest of Thursday was uneventful, and Friday was looking like more of the same. I had to be at the library after work to volunteer for the String Beans concert. I wasn’t sure what my job would be but I’d committed to get there ~6:00 and stay until the bitter end. It was blazing hot and I was hoping I wouldn’t be responsible for grilling the hotdogs the Friends were selling. Since I didn’t know when I’d get to eat, I started snacking on some caramel corn on the drive to Wahoo. I bit into something hard and remember thinking that I should be eating on the side with the new crown since that side would be stronger. I didn’t eat much since a hot dog was in my future and as I was roving my tongue around my mouth in an effort to remove the popcorn remnants, I soon realized that the hard thing I had felt was not an unpopped kernel but a big chunk of the furthest back tooth on the other side! What was that, about a day and half and another tooth had exploded? What were the chances? Was it bad karma from my smart ass remark at the dentist? Pay back for the massive dose of high fructose corn syrup in the caramel corn? Hell, the popcorn was a fund raiser for midget football. Were the football gods somehow pissed at me? I guess I’ll never know but damn! I headed to the library, knowing I’d spend the whole night with my tongue constantly working the new hole in my mouth. And that with a burned tongue from my Starbucks that morning.

There were plenty of volunteers so I was able to enjoy the concert, which was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast. I left before 9:00 and went home to shower and get to bed early in preparation for two days at home getting caught up. Luckily though my dentist had left a message saying I could come in first thing Saturday to he could slap some temporary dental goo over the sharp bits. Since I was out and about (I had planned on never leaving from Friday night until Monday morning), I ran a few errands then headed home to make a few phone calls and head downstairs to slog through more of my craft room. I ended up with tons of stuff to donate to the Hillstead’s garage sale (the deadline is Tuesday.) Sunday found me up at the crack of dawn cleaning up the kitchen and getting stuff done. Unfortunately my enthusiasm waned and I spent far too much time knitting so am ending the weekend with quite a few things still on my to do list. Tomorrow I’m up early for a road trip to the Yarn Barn in Lawrence, Kansas with Andrea. Nothing like some yarn shopping to make me forget about my exploding teeth. Sheesh!

Week 31 - Productive and Fun

It’s a good thing last week was so dull because this past week was a whirlwind, especially at the beginning. It was closing meeting week so I had to be at work early both Monday and Tuesday. Just having to alter my morning routine proved to be completely disruptive to my days. I didn’t get up any earlier, which probably made it worse. I just skipped breakfast and brought something to work to eat after I’d prepped for the early meetings. When you add that to working through lunch most days, it was a hectic week. But did I let that disrupt my social calendar? Not at all.

Monday night I knitted at the library, Tuesday night was water aerobics then book club (good thing I’d made my pie on Sunday night) and Wednesday was the movies with Nancy. We went to “Moon” at the Ross, which was good – I do so love a good sci fi flick. After a coffee and sharing more about her Europe trip, Nancy left and I headed across campus to where I’d parked. Now, of course, that took me right past my cats, who were out on the lawns enjoying the empty campus. So I called them so I could take an inventory since cats I rarely see in the morning come out at twilight. As usual, a few I hadn’t seen in a long time showed up but there was also a new face in the bushes.

I found a full grown, skin and bones cat that was not feral. I coaxed her out from under the bushes and she let me pet her, which meant she was either dumped or someone’s cat who got lost. Call me cynical but I vote for dumped. But she’d clearly been outside for awhile because she was super thin and her fur was ratty. I called Belinda, who lives in town and does TNR for Husker Cats, and she came out with a can of food and a cage. It took 30 minutes but we got her into the carrier and Belinda took her home so she could drop her at All Feline the next morning to be spayed and checked out. I agreed to pick her up Friday and foster her until we could find her a home.

Having just had 3 LONG days, Thursday was wonderful. I did the last of the meeting prep and began the big spreadsheet, which takes the better part of a day to add formulas and format. After 3.5 hours, I was toasty fried and left for water aerobics and a long awaited night at home. I watched more Mad Men and went to bed early, leaving getting the spare bedroom ready until Friday morning.

I finished the big spreadsheet before lunch on Friday and then headed to Cracker Barrel for fish with Layton. When I got back I started to get organized from having ignored all my regular work all week . At 3:00 I called it a week and left early to go get the cat. I had hoped she’d come out of the carrier and be normal but no such luck. She headed straight under the bed and I’ve only had glimpses of her ever since. But she’s eating and using the box so I’m calling it good. I go in there every few hours and talk to her but she’s still hiding. Hopefully she’ll come out soon.

Saturday was another busy day, although mostly for fun. I had a Friends of the Library meeting at 9:30, which went long of course, and I had to leave before it ended to man the library table at the county fair. I’d only been to the fair once in the 12 years I’ve lived here but didn’t have time to see anything because I had to leave by 1:00 to meet Andrea and Nancy for our Plattsmouth outing. We were meeting Melissa, Nancy’s new beekeeper friend who had been to my house this spring.


It took an hour to drive to Plattsmouth and we rendezvoused at The Chocolate Moose – a cafe I’d heard raves about. They were within an hour of closing for the week so didn’t have much of their menu but I had a tuna sandwich that had minimal (maybe no) mayo and capers and came with homemade sweet potato chips (what’s not to love?) and a side of cucumber moose, which I’d hesitated to order but it was amazing! It had tiny julienned cukes in a froth of sour cream and mayo that was flavored just slightly with dill and set with gelatin (I asked how she made it but she doesn’t share the recipe.) For dessert I had orange vanilla crème brulee, which was devine.

The restaurant was delicious enough to warrant driving back to Plattsmouth but the main street was another reason. Every shop was in full swing, unlike most small towns that have as many empty store fronts as not, and there was lots to do. We hit a couple of antique shops and decided to forego the used book store because Melissa had to be at the quilt store by 4:00. And what a quilt store! It was huge, had lots of people to help and was having an anniversary sale with fat quarters <$1. I bought 8 coordinating fat quarters (more fabric for the pile I’ll probably never use) and a Christmas scrap pack. Melissa’s family called so we parted ways. We had just enough time to stop at String of Purls, one of the yarn shops in Omaha.

We arrived at 5:20 and the store was dark. But they were supposed to be open until 5:30 so we tried the door and it was open. It had been so slow that the woman was trying to close early but she let us in. I immediately had to look up my neck warmer pattern, which I’d forgotten to bring or reference, on Ravely, which she let me do in her back room. Then I started looking for yarn, which is sorted by color rather than weight. I ended up with a Nora green acrylic blend for my neck warmer and a single skein of sock yarn that Andrea found for me for <$5 and in my colors. I’m done buying sock yarn now. Really! After we dropped Nancy at her car, Andrea and I headed to the fair to check out all the ribbons on her quilts and knitting. I also looked at the scrapbooks, which I didn’t know you could enter, and decided on the spot that I’ll be entering some of mine next year. I then went home to sit on my butt, watch TV and eat popcorn for dinner. What a fun, but full, day!

After my normal Sunday morning routine of reading the paper and then talking to Carolyn, I headed downstairs to start slogging through my craft room, spurred on by the idea of donating anything I don’t want to the Friends of the Hillstead Gallery’s fiber and craft garage sale. I made it through 4 totes and my entire craft closet before calling it a day. There are piles everywhere and the closet is still empty but I have plenty to donate and felt good about my progress. I spent the evening interspersing the chores I should have done rather than the basement with watching TV. It was a good week – full at home and work and productive and fun too. Yay!

Week 30 - Delightfully Dull Days

What can I say, it was a typically normal week, which was exactly what I needed after my whirlwind Rhode Island trip. I did the usual stuff - knitted at the library, went to water aerobics, etc. Otherwise I watched a lot of DVD’s, catching up on Weeds and Nurse Jackie and I started Mad Men season 2, knitting all the while with the fun corn fiber yarn I bought in RI. Yes, it's another pair of socks. Work geared up at the end of the week with prepping for the closing meetings that are scheduled back to back this coming week.

The only thing of note was that when I woke up Friday, my knee felt strange and I couldn’t straighten it all the way. By lunch time, it was doing its thing. I was going up the steps at Noodles and I got a sharp stabbing pain that took my breath away. Luckily the pain was short-lived but I was leery all the same. It “hitched” twice more on Friday so Saturday I took it easy. I did mow the lawn Saturday night because it hadn’t been mown in 3 weeks. I just walked very, very slowly and got it done without a problem. I then took a muscle relaxant and slept for 11 hours, which I also needed. Sunday my knee was much better but I still didn’t do much – more TV watching and knitting (I sense a trend here) - until I met Lorri and Sarah at the library at 5:30 to do some planting. Then it was back home to bake a pie for book club and get ready for the craziest work week of my year.

Week 29 - 'twas Quite Thrilling

After the busy weekend, Carolyn and I took it easy on Monday, sleeping in and then enjoying a leisurely morning. We headed to Bob’s for lunch, stopping at Gem Ravioli for some pasta on the way. It was another gorgeous day so we sat on Bob’s lanai and chatted over lunch then headed home for, you guessed it, pasta for dinner followed by Revolutionary Road – a total downer movie, which I knew because I’d read the book.

Tuesday was our day with Auntie Margaret. We had pedicures at 11:00 (it was her first one at age 87 and she loved every minute of it!), lunch at Corner Tavern and then took her to the beauty salon for a wash, cut and set. We then hit our favorite store, the Hack and Livery. I didn’t buy much, which was disappointing because it’s usually great for stocking stuffers, but we left with sour grapefruit candy, which is always a hit. We had put the leftover pork in the crock pot so had salsa pork over rice for supper. Frost Nixon was the movie choice that night.

Wednesday was the designated Sharyn day. She’d taken the day off and her husband was dropping her at Carolyn’s on the way golfing so we’d get an early start on our annual project – reupholstering Carolyn’s dining room chairs. Yeah, right. I’d woken up with a cold so Sharyn and I headed out for Claritin D (bless the chemist who created that drug!) and Dunkin’ Donuts to keep our energy up (hee, hee.) We sorted the project out and each took our positions. I was in charge of removing the old fabric (many, many staples) while Sharyn and Carolyn cut the fabric then stretched and stapled. I hammered the staples that needed it. Now you’d think with 3 able bodied women it wouldn’t take that long to recover 6 chair seats. Well, we didn’t finish until 3:30! As Sharyn said later, “At first it was quite thrilling,” which it was, but by chair number 6, we were toast and ready to be done. We did a fantastic job though and you’d think they were professionally done. We did some shopping and, too exhausted to care, ate dinner at Burger King before heading to Attleboro to drop Sharyn off. It was a long, fun and productive day. Nothing like friends to make tedious work tolerable.

Carolyn and I had another leisurely day on Thursday, which we both needed at this point. We did do some shopping in the afternoon but mostly just vegged. I ended the day by meeting my Uncle Ed and his wife for dessert. It was a nice day.

Friday was our big planned excursion to Tiverton to hit Sakonnet Purls, the best local yarn shop in RI according to the Ravelry gang. We were also hitting Evelyn’s for clam cakes, based on a recommendation from Guy Fiori on Diners, Drive Throughs and Dives. (Is that the right order?) We had planned on it being just us but Sharyn had taken the day off because it was her 32nd anniversary but Butch, her husband, was in a golf tournament all day so we headed north to pick Sharyn up to join in the fun. Sakonnet Purls is in an old colonial house (when I say old, I mean hundreds of years old.) The problem with this is that it was hot and humid and they didn’t have AC. At least we got there early enough to stand the heat but it also was dimly lit, which doesn’t help when you’re trying to select yarn. Add to that the lack of help from the 3 staff, which was all the more perplexing because we were the only customers so it was a 1 to 1 ratio. To be fair, one woman was attentive but didn’t seem to be the yarn guru I’d hoped to find working there. Despite it all, I still managed to find more yarn for socks plus a book and Carolyn bought the softest yarn ever for a scarf.

From there we headed to Evelyn’s, which did NOT have good clam cakes and had surly staff (was it the heat maybe?) The frosting on the cake to that dining experience was the shirtless fat man who sat down with his wife and dog at the next table and then lit a cigar! Now it was picnic tables outside but come on! Was he for real? We took a wrong turn on the way home (totally my fault) and ended up in traffic on the Mount Hope Bridge, which was a bit disconcerting because we were on the bridge for 20 minutes or so, feeling it shake with every passing truck. We then hit Wayland Square, only to find out the yarn shop and cheese store we were there for were both gone. So we stopped at Starbucks for a refreshing frapucino (sp?) because it was blazing hot by this time. We decided to hit one more yarn store that we knew was open on Hope Street. Well, this shop was everything a local yarn shop should be! They were uber helpful, the atmosphere was bright and it was downright chilly. Have I mentioned the humidity? Both Carolyn and I were looking for patterns and they cheerfully brought us entire binders full of patterns sorted by type to look through. Despite having bought out Sakonnet Purls, I still managed to find more yarn I couldn’t live without (Miazy yarn made from corn fiber that is super soft without being fuzzy) and a new sock pattern. Sharyn, who does crafts galore but doesn’t knit or crochet, even enjoyed it and scoped out future projects. We’ll get her knitting if it kills us! We did a bit more shopping, dropped Sharyn with a big hug and headed home for sweet potato ravioli for supper. I then met my old friend Janice at the Creamery for a mint chocolate awful awful (a cabinet in RI speak or milk shake for everyone else.) I’ve been friends with Janice since I was 12 and it always feels like we just talked even if it’s been a year.

Saturday was my departure day so after a hearty breakfast (Carolyn makes the best scrambled eggs ever so I had to have them before I left), I started packing. I’d bought so much that I needed to upgrade to a bigger suitcase. After repacking it, I got it down to 49.6 pounds by Carolyn’s scale. She picked up Matt and Aaron, which was nice because I at least got to say hello, and an hour later dropped me at the airport. I had a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis that I wasn’t looking forward to but it was fine. I found a chair, pulled up a table and then ate the lunch I packed, finished my book and started knitting a new pair of socks with my new Maisy yarn. Everything was uneventful and I got home at 1:00 and was in bed by 2:00. It felt good to be home.

Sunday was all unpacking, changing stinky litter boxes, watering plants and doing laundry. Now it’s back to reality and work tomorrow. What a fabulous week I had. Life is good!

Week 28 - Headed Back East

I’m here in RI trying to remember what last week was all about and, at this point, it’s a blur. I spent the week cleaning up from my 4th of July cookout and preparing to leave for RI. My flight was leaving at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday so every night had to be a model of productivity. I went to bed at 9:30 on Friday, all prepared to hit the road by 4:00 the next morning.

It was blazing hot Saturday morning – 76 degrees and humid at 4:00 a.m. I made it to the airport in good time and all went well. It was a teeny, tiny jet (the kind where the middle arm rests are up in the entire plane because the airlines know even skinny people can’t fit comfortably in those seats) but took off on time so it was all good. But then it was pouring rain in Detroit so we couldn’t get to our gate so just sat on the tarmac. Once we got in and I made my way from one end of one terminal, through the underground connector (what’s with the music and light shows they play down there?) and to the extreme other end of the 2nd terminal, my flight was already boarding. After a brief potty stop, I got on that plane. They kept announcing it was a nearly full flight but it appeared half empty to me. They shut the doors right on time and announced that there’d be plenty of room because there were lots of missed connections because of the weather but they weren’t waiting for them. While this meant I had an empty seat next to me, which was nice, how pissed would I have been had I been 10 minutes later? Big time! Especially because we pulled 20 feet away from the gate and then sat there for an hour and a half because a line of storms had shut down eastern airspace. Why didn’t they wait at the gate and make all those late arrivals happy? Only Northwest knows.

It was a very bumpy flight but I still arrived in time, albeit 1.5 hours late, for the planned Ikea excursion to Stoughton, Mass. John and his friend Eileen picked me up at the airport, we stopped to get Carolyn and offload my luggage and then headed out for a lunch of Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce. Ikea was fun, as always, and I managed to fill a bag with stuff – about half gifts and half for me. It felt good to finally start my stocking shopping.

Now I had noticed an exit for Taunton on the way up route 24 and so made my case for going home that way so I could stop and see the soon to be demolished Taunton State Hospital. My friends humored me and we took the exit. While the hospital was surrounded by the densest, black coated chain link fence I’d ever seen, it was totally cool. There had been a fire in the admin section of the Kirkbride but there was still plenty left to see. We drove around the perimeter and then I got out and took some pictures. I was happy to get to see it before they knocked it down, which had been delayed so I called myself lucky to have seen it at all.

After our scenic ride home, we headed to Oakland Beach for take out clam cakes and chowder from Iggy’s. It was so chilly by the water that I had to take shelter in the car or risk goose bumps. Quite a change from 76 degrees at 4:00 a.m.! After we ate our RI eats, John headed to Aaron’s room to put the armoir together while Eileen and I polished off a bottle of wine (Carolyn doesn’t do wine.) The conversation was fun and a great way to end a full day.

I had made arrangements to meet Deanne on Sunday morning since it was the only free time she had my whole trip. We started at Starbucks in Garden City and then went to brunch at NYLO, a fancy new hotel in an old converted mill in Warwick. The atmosphere and conversation were great but the food, which looked so fun – cheddared polenta with poached eggs and apple wood smoked bacon – was only so so.

When I left Deanne, I stopped at the market for fresh fruit and headed home for the Cuban themed dinner party Carolyn and I were throwing at 4:00 for all our friends. Carolyn had done the lion’s share of the work – shopping, cooking and cleaning – so my only contribution other than funds was buying and prepping berries. Sheesh! We had twelve people over, including Carolyn’s friend Peter whom I’d heard so much about but had never met. It was great to hang with everyone and the food, as usual, was great – cilantro lime pork, black beans and rice, grilled veggies and flan and berries for dessert. What’s not to like? And what a great way to end my week with anticipation of more fun to come. Life is good!