2008-03-29

After Morning Offering, Mick cleaned the kitchen and then set out on his round of weekend errands while I played with recipes, reworking a goodly number of them, and answering e-mail. Melissa and Gary both worked in the office all day.

I have started to spend some playtime reworking recipes which I have already collected but which I have never changed to bring into our usual format. That includes changing ingredients for healthier alternatives, simplifying or changing the instructions, sizing the recipe to feed a dozen people, adding herbs and spices or other ingredients I think would make the dish better and putting the recipe into a one-page, standardized format.

I recently realized how useless a lot of my old recipes are, because they have not been reworked. It is very satisfying, like solving a crossword puzzle or coming out in solitaire, to rescue an old recipe. And it pays off. Mick chose a new recipe and two reworked recipes this week for our menu.

I was not in a very gregarious mood today and kept leaving my e-mail writing in favor of recipes. This is not good of me - I have a huge stack of e-mail backed up to answer. But I did catch up with a few people.

Notably, I worked with Ian on some questions regarding the upcoming volume of collected L/L Research newsletters. I fiddled around with the title, with Gary’s help, until it seemed right and discussed other inner pages and possible cover art.

I dropped a note to Ruthie, a lovely woman in Florida whose path crossed mine years ago. She is a minister now, and love surrounds her energy like a lovely cloud. We have stayed in touch for close to 30 years now. She answered me almost immediately – which is the trouble with trying to catch up with e-mail - saying, “Your love lights up the world.” What a wonderful burst of energy that was!

I also caught up with Roberta, who also lives in Florida. She is now in her 90s. She was as active as anyone of any age until about five years ago. Then her world fell apart. A clever con man took her savings. Her teeth went very bad and caused her to lose her health before she got them removed. She has recovered her health, but since then her spirits have flagged. And she is all alone now, except for a daughter who lives here in the Louisville area, whom she never sees because of some issue between them. She tries for a happy voice as she writes her news, but is clearly having a sad time. I sent her my best love and encouragement.

Morris, Brenda, Dave and Rick had all sent good notes, which I answered before sailing back to the recipes. I felt like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar! But I badly wanted just to play today, and play, I did! I am only three recipes shy of having all my dip recipes reworked.

It is amazing, the change this rainy week has made. The crabapples are in blossom, suddenly. My redbud tree, the closest to my office window, is in leaf-bud. The forsythia is out! Happy Spring!

Gary spent some time up here straightening records in my office, archiving periodicals and filing away the records for the household, L/L Research and Jim’s Lawn Service. He also sent out the new issue of Light/Lines. It’s good to see my bower looking neater!

We had our meditation meeting early tonight in order to be able to see the U of L – U of NC game. It was a good meeting, with Gary, Melissa, Romi, Jim and I in attendance. Gary had a very good question for Q’uo tonight, on the power of mantras and affirmations. I look forward to editing the transcript. We turned out our lights and proceeded, after 8 p.m., on candle power. I wonder how many others in our area observed the Lights Out hour! What a wonderful way to alert people to our overuse of unsustainable power.

I enjoyed the game, despite U of L's loss. As Jim put it, the Cards won the second half by two. Unfortunately, they lost the first half in double digits! It was a good game and an excellent second half. And the Tarheels are a class act. They earned their victory.