A Busy Day

Every morning, before I get up – actually, before I even open my eyes, I make a little plan for the day in my mind.  It is usually fairly extensive and precise.  On most evenings, I am disappointed because I have miserably failed in the carrying out of this plan.  Rebecca tells me that this is my own fault, because my plans are unrealistic.  On rare occasions, I actually succeed in my doing everything on my agenda, but not often.  

On a recent day, my plan was:

#1.  Get up early, make tea, take Margaret for her walkies, drink tea while reading the newspaper, and do crossword.

#2.  Garden for a while until Becca calls to say that she has finished preparing her sauerkraut and is ready to go garden shopping. 

#3.Go to Becca's, eat a Madeleine or two, and then drive to the garden store.

#4. Buy some nice plants and in particular, an amaranthus.

#5.  Come home and plant the nice plants.  Work on tidying on the rest of the garden. 

#6.  Eat dinner.

#7. Go to bed, and there read and knit until the wee hours, making lots of progress on my Eala Bahn.   This seems like a not too ambitious plan for a day, and one which a person could reasonably expect to execute. 

This is how the day actually went:

Task #1.  No problem – almost. I got up, but not really early.  Otherwise, successful!  Drank tea, read paper, did crossword.

#2.  Total failure.  Evidently, Rebecca was very successful in getting up early, because I was just finishing the crossword when she was ready to go.  So I rushed around to get dressed and go drink more tea with her, and eat my Madeleine.

#3.  Success! See #2.

#4.  Failure!  Her primary garden want was a particular sort of marjoram, and mine was a nice amaranthus. We went to the garden store, and were both foiled.  No amaranthus at all, and plenty of marjoram, but not the right kind.  Becca suggested that we try some other fabulous garden store in Ballard.  Ballard is miles and miles away and involves crossing a big bridge.  Both deterrents in my hate-to-drive book.  But….. we needed our marjoram and amaranthus.  We got to the garden store, only to find that it no longer existed.  Foiled again!  “As long as we are in Ballard, let’s go to Joanne’s Fabrics and get cable needles.  I’ve gone to three knitting stores and can’t find the kind we like.”  So off we went to Joanne’s.  They, of course, didn’t have the cable needles we wanted.  Came out, had a parking ticket.  Grrrr!   Becca knew of another garden store nearby, and suggested we go there.  Hurrah!  They had my amaranthus, but not her marjoram.  Becca pointed out that now we were near the U District, and could just go to Weaver Works. Surely they would have our cable needles.  So off we went, and, in fact, they did.  By this time, we were starving, and not too far from a vegan pizza place we had tried to visit on another failed shopping day.  Happily, it was open, and the pizza was terrific.  We also got ice cream floats.  Actually, I got a health food root beer float.  The root beer was so healthy that it was sort of cloudy white color.  Becca swore that it actually tasted like root beer, but in my mind, something white can’t possibly taste like root beer.  Unless, of course, it is root beer ice cream.  But whatever it tasted like, it was yummy.

#5  I did manage to plant my plants and do a little other gardening, but by the time I was done, I was knackered.  #6 had already been taken care of on our outing, so I fast forwarded to #7.  Unfortunately, there were no wee hours for me, and I skipped reading or knitting and went directly to sleep way too early.  A total waste of a lovely free evening.  Yet another day filled with unfulfilled goals!!  But a fun day after all.  

An economical day

A few week ago, Rebecca and I went on an outing to the restaurant supply store.  She needed some square storage bins, which only this place had, and I needed nothing at all.  I was merely the transportation.  Naturally, when we got inside this fascinating emporium, I discovered a raft of items without which I could not live.  When the man totted up my tab, I was horrified!  But I really needed every single thing that I has selected, so I bit the bullet and got it all anyway.  Of course, when I got home, I wondered, “Am I ever going to use these things?”  Not to worry!  I have used most of them already. 

My darling friends, The Twins were coming for dinner and Quiet Lenten Games, so I made a Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake.  That is the real name of it, and it is aptly named.  Since it is a British recipe, everything is a little different, including the required pans.  The new 8 inch springform pan that I bought was exactly right, and no other pan I had would have done – or so I told myself.  Actually, I think I was telling the truth, because all my other cake pans are bigger, and thus really wouldn’t do.  I had also purchased some parchment cake pan liners – 8 inch circles, naturally.  Those too are a thing no home should be without.  They saved me lots of time in lining the cake pan (another facet of most English cake recipes.)  The cake was a great success despite possibly having a bit of my thumb in it due to a carrot grating mishap.  I served the cake on my new little cake plate – purchased on another outing – also one where I needed nothing at all when I entered the store.  Well, actually I did need vegetarian soup powder, and when I couldn’t find that, I got the cake plate instead.

 

My dinner entrée was spanakopita.  I had not made this in many years, and remembered it as taking much of the day to prepare.  My original plan was to make a blitz version, but then I read over the recipe from  my ancient Time-Life Greek cookbook, and thought, “This couldn't possibly take that long to make.”  Well, it took quite a while.  I think that the bulk of that time was spent chopping spinach.  The spinach is displayed in my new mixing bowl from the restaurant supply store.  As you can see, it is the perfect bowl for that exact amount of spinach, and no other bowl would have done.  Also, the bowl is shiny and has beautiful contours – making it well worth the ridiculous amount I spent on it. 

There!  I have quite justified my shopping impulses very well, don’t you think?

An impoverished day

Horrors! My internet has not worked for five days!!!!! I can hardly stand it. I feel bereft! I miss my cyber-friends, something awful. Whoda thunk? Even non-internet things are impacted. I was finishing up a NYT crossword, and I realized that I would not be able to immediately see what Brian and Ryan had to say about it. That is a big part of the fun. Although they don’t know me, they are a part of my day, and there is a little blank spot without them. If you actually read this, you will know that I have gone to some dreary internet place to post it, just for you!
Becca and I went shopping today, and at Costco,I picked out two of my favorite movies (Casablanca, maybe the best movie ever made, and Meet Me in St. Louis) to buy. I always spend way too much there, and today I was trying to show restraint because I have had about three large financial setbacks – a dead tree, a friend in need, and an awful letter from the IRS demanding $700 more! All expensive, and all within about two weeks! Horrors again! So we were in line and nearly at the checkout stand when I decided that maybe I shouldn’t get the movies, and ran and put them back. As the check out man was starting, Becca reminded me to use the gift card which I had gotten from my job quite a long time ago- way last Christmas, or maybe even the one before. I kept bringing it to Costco and then forgetting to use it. Consequently, with the gift card, the total was far less than expected. She said, “That’s not much at all! You had better get your movies.” The man said, “Yes, you had better get your movies! You can get them and then come to the front of the line and I will check them out specially so you don’t have to wait.” And I did, and he did. So that was way more like a real Christmas present from Virginia Mason (my hospital) than the rasins and cheese which I would otherwise bought with it!
We also went to the Asian market with its mysterious and fascinating produce section. These vulgar looking things are some geoducks – a Northwest clam like creature, I think, and the lovely green things are some bitter melons.