Chique

Here's a view of Oakland from Alameda, early in the morning. A nice little stroll over for coffee.



I always thought the name of that horse was Cheeky (an appropriate name)! I remember that test all too well, although I wasn't there. The couch was that blue plaid pull-out thing at the farm, I'll bet. I remember the two of us sleeping in it, but not the three of us.

Friday I went to a school in Hudson, the last now until January. Then Friday night Bill Sandve came for dinner, first we've seen of him since he got back on Thanksgiving (though Mom and I ran into him and his mom in Kowalski's on our last shop). I had a sirloin tip I'd bought at Kowalski's, so I roasted that. I also had quickly whipped up a chocolate thing I found on the inside of a Baker's semi-sweet chocolate box (desperation! I had to do this before I went to Hudson, and no milk in the house, limiting my dessert possibilities), called fudgy brownie torte. Super easy, and very good. For vegetables I elected some leftover corn (our corn packets were huge this summer) and some brussels sprouts. And what Charlie has dubbed "false potatoes." This is pommes dauphine, a cream puff dough with potatoes, deep fried in globs. I'm sure I've mentioned them in these pages before. They were wonderful. And while I was messing around with the potato things, the roast, sitting on the hottray, produced wonderful juice, which I served as is. A fine meal. Bill's very interesting to talk to, of course. His next assignment will be in Afghanistan.

Yesterday after a brief visit to Mom, I went to work with Charlie. He's working on a house in the woods in the middle of nowhere west of town, remodeling the kitchen. The current part of it is putting in a bay window, so he mostly worked outside. It was cold! I stayed mostly inside, handing him stuff through the window hole and doing some cleaning up. It was cold in the house, too. The house is empty (the owners are getting it ready to sell), and they normally keep the thermostat at 50. We eased it up to sixty, but with the big hole in the side of the house it was awfully cold inside, too. I spent a lot of time in a folding chair wrapped up in a sleeping bag, reading, waiting for Charlie's next call for help.

Dinner last night was leftover sirloin tip, some leftover wedge potatoes (a kind of hashbrowns cooked in a pie plate), leftover brussels sprouts. Mercifully easy. It felt good to get the fires going when we got home.

Today I am trying to motivate myself to do Christmas cards. I've chosen a couple of photos to tack on, but the note will be short. Charlie's back out at the house in the country, but today he has real help, a schoolteacher who has rented out there off and on. They'll get the window in today. I just hated the thought of him being out there working outside in freezing cold, alone, where the cell phones barely work, and where no one is around. Most of the rest of the work will be inside, at least.

Appending a photo I just took on the deck.