Catch Up Day

Oops - I've been - hmmm, how can I say this? ---Lazy?? And of course, busy doing mostly nothing! Laying about reading, watching tivo, looking thru the catalogs that come everyday! We were up in Portland for 3 days last week babysitting Miss P off and on. She was an adorable pirate for Halloween and apparently got into the 'dress-up' mode because she had on quite the outfit the next day!!! Wings, hat, sunglasses and sock monkey apron! Cute as a button - 'nuff said!


I worked on the dreaded pink quilt yesterday. I think I calmed it down by adding alternate squares of pink - it doesn't look nearly as RABID to me - but I don't think I'm ever going to like it! Good thing I'm giving it away and it's going all the way to NY! But I just get the feeling that this one is going to haunt me! It will probably end up in a collection as an example of my work - ICK! Hmm, could I label it with someone else's name???


Today I'm making soup. As you know - I'm not really a cook-type person. Yes, I make dinner when forced to! LOL! DH is a much better cook than I am - and I'm always telling him that - hoping he will continue to cook for me! I DO have 5 or 10 really good dishes that I make. We both love soup and bought 2 new soup cookbooks for our first Oregon Winter. We hear there is alot of rain - more about weather later! SO-O-O, the cookbook I was looking thru had a "meaty minestrone" recipe that sounded good. It suggested that you make your own beef stock - doesn't that sound innocent!!! Well, this will be a WHOLE lot more expensive than Swanson's Beef Broth! 4 1/2 lbs of beef bones [$12] - who knew! 5 spices that I really didn't use before so left them in NE - [$20 - really!!! who knew that cloves were $12 a bottle!!! Weren't they cheap enough that you could cover an orange with them to make a Christmas decoration???] 1 lb of stew meat [$4] and assorted veggies - the stuff cooks for 3-4 hours. You take out the bones, strain it keep the liquid and then THROW AWAY the rest!!! Really??? I'm only at 2 hours of simmering now - then the soup takes another 2 hours of cooking. Boy, that cookbook that starts with Campbell's soups is looking a whole lot better about now!!! LOL! I'll let you know if we deem it worthy of all this! BUT I am ridiculously proud of the fact that I'm making my own stock! Who knew I could do this??


If we have started 'winter' here, things are looking up! It seems to be less grey than it was over the summer - a higher ceiling, maybe?? The skies are just spectacular and there is blue sky sometime during the day. Being retired - I can usually take advantage the break in the weather.


At water aerobics here - we are in a wonderful pool with 25 foot window walls. Excellent to keep an eye on the weather during class! We were there a little over an hour yesterday - here's what we saw: grey overcast skies; hmmm, it's clearing; awesome bright white towering clouds going by; flocks of seagulls soaring around; grey overcast skies; pouring rain mixed with a little sleet(!); oops - clearing again, rain stops. And I thought the weather changed fast in NE!

Time to go stir the stock!