A doughy day

Suzanne came to lunch and I made barley soup and pretzels again. Here the pretzels are, in their initial balls, formed into footballs and looking a bit like the poop of patients with severe liver disease, being dipped into lye, and finally coming out of the oven. Aren’t they beautiful? Unfortunately, they stuck to the parchment paper I baked them on, but after a while, the paper took on their character and became edible like the rice papers on those wonderful Asian botan ame candies.

I am nearing the end of organizing Tom’s finances, but it is incredibly frustrating, dealing with the banks and financial types. I dread every interaction with them. For example, Tom had an annuity, and I was trying to do whatever one does with annuities, and in order to do that, I had to fill out some forms they had sent me. One of the things the form asked was who the beneficiary was. I called to ask them who that might be, and they said they couldn’t tell me until I had filled out the form and sent it in!!!!!!! I pointed out that I couldn’t fill it out without knowing who it was, but they didn’t seem to see that this might be a problem, and just kept repeating that they couldn’t tell me till I had filled out the form. And this was nothing whatever compared with dealing with his bank! Grrrrrrr!!!