2008-08-18

Pursuing the last item on my Great Office Clean-up list, after Morning Offering I finished making a scrapbook for our past year, August 2007 to July 2008. It came out well! And except for the facts that

1. The tomatoes for our hanging tomato plant have not sprouted
2. The gourd hanging is still in the process of being done
3. I have much of Papa’s Journals yet to read

I have finally demolished the list! Of course, the e-mail is way behind again, already. But it feels very good to know that my low-priority office work is virtually caught up, so I can clear my head for big projects in the fall. I’ll work on finishing Papa’s Journals in the evenings from now on.

After Mel and I had gone out at lunch for errands and to enjoy a first time at a new restaurant in Middletown, Pig City BBQ, we came back to hunker in from of my recipes database and choose recipes to augment the cooking Gary already plans to do for Homecoming 2008. After an hour or so of discussion and going off on different tangents, we settled on making:

• A rum cake for Friday night dessert and brownies for desserts thereafter.
• A huge bowl of fresh fruit salad for breakfasts over yogurt and granola and for snacks all day.
• Roasted garlic hummus Mexican layer dip and a cheddar cheese ball for late night snacks on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The rest of my work day was spent developing the actual recipes. Most all of our recipes are geared for 12 to 16 official servings, since that is about as much as we three eat in a week. They all need to be doubled for Homecoming. I got about halfway through the recipe adjustments before bath time.

Meanwhile Mel spent her morning painting the “desk” and “window seat” in my room – the quote marks are to indicate that I don’t use these items as a desk and window seat at all, but rather as a bedside table and a receiving counter for things brought upstairs – a lovely, clean white. In the afternoon she worked outside, treating the lawn for chiggers and putting a final coat on the gardening room door. The Homecoming attendees will be so grateful! Chigger bites generate a lot of discomfort with their amazingly persistent and sharp itching.

Gary had his Cracker Barrel server day today, while Mick accomplished a complicated day of mowing, gardening and chores for various customers. Then he went to Jefferson County Stone and brought back and spread another two tons of dense-grade gravel at the mouth and garage ends of our driveway. That project is now completed except for laying some stones on one side of the driveway.

Mick and I started to have a date after our bath, but old age got us. We could not meet in my room, since oil-based paint reeks. And in Mick’s room, propped up with many pillows, we both got cramps in the same place at the same time, fetched up groaning, and decided to reschedule our romance for a better venue and time! We had to laugh at ourselves! "C'est la vie, say the old folks - it goes to show you never can tell!"

Gary and Mel joined us for supper and an evening of watching the Olympic Games on television. It was Mel’s first visual look at the Games. In the cabin on Avalon she does not have a TV. She can get TV audio on her radio, so she has been listening to the diving, swimming and footraces. But it is hard to build good images of what is really happening from hearing the splashes and so forth during the contests!

Mick offered the closing prayer at the Gaia Meditation tonight.