Month: January 2012

I was going to bring Mr. Fluffles in for grooming, but we just can’t afford it. It’s not so much the grooming fee, but the anesthesia. Mr. Fluffles has the groomer too terrified to work on him unless he’s unconscious.

I don’t blame her.

Ron gave me a pair of gauntlet gloves to wear, and after trying all kinds of different grooming tools, I finally found one that seems to work.

It’s a great device with two sets of combs, one fine and one coarse. It works extremely well on Fluffles’ undercoat, and I was able to get rid of several nasty knots today, especially with the gloves on for protection.

It’s defined as a watery meat and vegetable stew, possibly derived from the reddish mud deposited in mine sluices, and Ron said his father would have used the term to describe tonight’s supper.

It’s a real word for a real dish, ugly-sounding, but there are recipes for it that look pretty good.

I made a thrown-together, one pot meal tonight, giving Ron fair warning ahead of time: a little cooked chicken, a can of vegetable soup from Ron’s old Berkeley larder, a can of kidney beans, leftover brown rice, and a good handful of Cheddar cheese.

Altogether satisfying I say, no matter what you call it.

We did some errands in Falmouth, then took a drive to the harbor to watch the sun set.

We ended up at the BBC for pizza two-fers.

Made me feel like a teenager again, only this time, with a proper date, and someone I like very much at that!

We had about 7 inches of snow on Saturday. Today, except for a few patches, it’s completely melted. So, I was able to do some clean-up of errant ornamental grass fronds.

Due mostly to neglect on my part, my laptop died, and I bought a new Windows 7 machine on Friday and picked it up Saturday morning, in the middle of the storm.

It was Ron’s idea to get it on Saturday and even though the driving was horrible, he was right. It gave me the day to poke around with the machine, and Sunday was extremely busy: transfer station and cleaning and cooking for a Patriots playoff party with the gang.

Everyone brought something to eat: matzo ball soup, quiche, linguine with shrimp. I made a spiral ham, scalloped potatoes and an apple cake from an very odd recipe in an old cookbook: a box of yellow cake mix, 3 eggs and a can of Comstock pie filling. That’s it. No water, no oil.

Between laundry, cooking, shoveling and other chores, it was a very busy weekend. Sunday night I was exhausted and hurting from my shoulders to my feet.

Really nice meatloaf recipe – seasoned ground turkey rolled up with prosciutto or copacolla, cheese, spinach, red pepper, wrapped with bacon and served with a red sauce.

It was fun to make bagels, although I have to work on the shaping. They taste pretty good, but the bagel maven won’t get a sample until tomorrow, so the jury is still out.

Peter and I emptied the storage unit today. We had very few items in there, but they were all heavy: Robert’s old desk, which went to the transfer station; Emme’s toy chest, which went back to Edgewater; and the futon, which is now in the basement at Dixon.

It got to 60 degrees today, so I put Wilt Stop on the rhodies and the azaleas. Evidently it doesn’t work on hydrangeas.

Picked up more LED lights on sale at Mahoney’s. Switched them out on the cluster of trees in front. Hung the solar lights on the shed.

Just saw a couple walking their dog in the field – in shirtsleeves.

Put away the tree and the ornaments. Bought a floor lamp at Cape Pickers. We now have light in three corners of the living room, and interestingly enough, it looks bigger.

Ron has been off his feet for two days now, and it has made a big difference. We really overdid it on Wednesday and Thursday.

surgery