The Shire (R)

Gainesville

This day started slow and ended slower. I stumbled around in circles and did a bit of this, a bit of that, and nothing but bits on the floor to show for it. Some days are just like that. I wonder if going in to the Lib twice in the same week takes this much of a toll.

Did not get out to shop, but not to worry: I had the Wednesday meal in the freezer. As I was starting thaw out the meat, Bill announced that his headphones had died and he was headed out to replace them. He could tell this would mess up meal time, so said he'd pick up take out. Oooookay. So much for my last gasp of doing something productive for the day. Meat back into freezer. He brought back some wonderful and reasonably healthy salads from Crispers.

Not to sell myself too short, I did plan the meals and do the shopping list for next week. It includes a holiday, of course, so I will do another shop on Tuesday in addition to tomorrow, so as to have fresh stuff for Wednesday. Mid-week holidays are especially difficult.

Tomorrow's meal includes French Onion Soup-- described by Barbara at last Wednesday's lunch. Since I'm blessed with 5 humongous Vidalias that need to be used this week, it sounds like a good plan. I got the basic outlines from her, and am trying to guess quantities from looking at another recipe. Here's my plan. I BEG the collective wisdom of Lotsa Flies to correct me.

Sorta French Onion Soup

2 TB butter
2 TB olive oil
5 humongous Vidalia onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup sherry
2 cans of beef broth
1 can of water
1 T fresh thyme (or 1 t dried)
Some french bread, toasted
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

In my giant L.Cr. pot, slowly carmelize the onions in the oil/butter -- about 30 minutes. Stir often.

Add the liquids, bring to a boil, add the thyme. Salt, pepper, etc. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Put the soup in broiler-proof bowls (do I HAVE any of those? I hope my corning ware ones are up for it), add slab of toast and top with swiss cheese. Put under the broiler til cheese melts and it looks like Onion Soup is spozed to look.

Okay: What's wrong with this picture, if anything?! Answers needed by tomorrow afternoon.

I also did some more work on the comics dups, and have now finished the C's. Need to copy them into the master Dup Pull List. (Sounds more impressive than it actually is. But every little bit counts.)

Today's mail yielded unexpected treasure: The River Falls paper's write-up on Mom. (Thanks, Sandy!) Bill was impressed by your local celebrity, Mom. Of course, they got a few details wrong, but what can you expect in this day and age? It's too bad they didn't try for color pictures-- the image on the deck would have been spectacular. And how dumb that they didn't show one or two of your cards. Examples of your current creativity would have nailed the story into the present. Even Bill was astonished to realize that the cards were direct scans-- he'd somehow missed that, and assumed you were taking hi-rez photos and putting them on cards. Direct-to-scanner art seems to be your own special invention.

I seem to be re-reading LoTR. Don't intend to read the whole thing right now-- just the parts that take place within the Shire. I have out every map I own of the Shire, and am following the journey step by step. But my plan is to stop (or at least pause) as soon as the company crosses the High Hay. We'll see how that goes.

I go off to sleep with elf song in my ears: O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!