Escape the Ordinary

Gainesville

We went car-shopping this afternoon. More like car-buying, actually-- Bill had done all his homework and then some, knew exactly what we wanted. And of course, he knew much more about the car the the available options than the poor salesman did...

We are getting a Ford Escape Hybrid. They didn't have one on the lot, so we drove a regular Escape to see what the size and shape felt like. We've put some money down and they will look around at the other nearby dealers to see if any of them have something close to what we want. We could have it within a few days, or it could take longer if they have to factory order it. I never get excited when things are left that loose, as I would just go nuts with impatience and frustration if it doesn't arrive as expected. So now we wait. More details when we see what actually shows up.

Speaking of showing up, TWO huge boxes waiting by the back door this morning-- one our Sony AV control box, supposedly fixed. (Total cost of parts, less than a buck. Total cost to us, over $2oo.) The other a big box of beautiful ONIONS from Sandy! Plus some other neat goodies, including an apron from Mom that suits Bill to a tee: "I Only Cook for the Cat." He laughed long and hard when he saw it. How very perfect.

I cooked with one of the onions tonight-- a rather strange, but strangely good Scallops Gratin. To my way of thinking, the scallops were cooked WAY too long, but they didn't seem to suffer over much for all that. I also made that famous Cukes in Sour Cream recipe, which I've made a million times, but somehow this time forgot you were supposed to rinse the things after they'd soaked with salt-- so the dish was extremely salty. I compensated for this by adding a whole lot more sour cream to dilute it out, which at least made it edible.

The scallops were from the freezer, as I did not get out to shop today. Didn't get the menus planned last night, and could not conjure up the proper frame of mind to do it today, either. If I had any sense, I'd do it tonight, but I don't. Instead, I wrote bills-- and set myself a new record: five bills paid in 15 minutes-- that's writing the checks-type bills, and getting them all ready to drop in the mail. And sipping a drink the whole time. The timer is my friend!

The TV room looks like a bomb went off in it, though-- Bill needs to do some carpentry work on the big media center cabinet before reinstalling the Big Black Box-- need some bigger holes in the back to make plugging/unplugging things more managable. So not only is the mailing box, the packing stuff, and the box itself in the middle of the room, we also have Bill's favorite tool box open and ready to go. Assuming I get to the Blessings tomorrow, I'll probably have to skip the TV room.

Can't say I miss the TV and all its minions all that much, except for baseball. I like to have it on while I cook, fold clothes, and perform other semi-brainless tasks. I don't much care who's playing-- just like the rhythm and pace of baseball space. Must have inherited this in the genes from both sides of the family.

Speaking of which, good job with the Nelda baby book, Mom. All kinds of interesting little tidbits and gems keep slipping in. So it was Nana who was keeping this-- fascinating! I'd assumed it was Cordie, but it does seem a bit out of character. You should be able to click on the picture of the poster to open it in a larger window-- then print that. If not, I'm sure either Marty or Sandy can easily make a print of it.

As for Lee and LoTR, (see Sandy's comment on my previous blog) yes, he was ahead of his time. Just for the record (I've probably related this before) it was the second book, The Two Towers, that he picked up at Mike's Bookstore, because he fancied the picture on the cover; despite the well-known homily, he DOES judge books that way. Of course, this meant he also read a lot of very forgettable stuff (we called it "word wooze" back then). He read quite a ways into TT before realizing it was a volume 2 of something, and then went ahead and finished it before going back to pick up book one, three, and The Hobbit. To my shame, I admit I didn't take it seriously until Norman read it and was impressed-- at which point I deigned to give it a try. Same thing with Bob Dylan-- both Lee and I were disdainful until Norman sat us down and made us listen to Blonde on Blonde. Thank you, Lee. Thank you, Norman.