The Charade

Gainesville

I admit it, I used Mom's Internet outage last night as an excuse not to blog. Now to see what I can remember of yesterday.

I got the house Blessed, I remember that; not often I manage to get that done on a Monday (my target day). Got the sheets and towels laundered too.

Had simple meal of cube steaks topped with blue cheese and chopped red onion and made a 4-Bean Salad to use some leftover green beans. Did NOT make the mashed fauxtatoes I'd planned, since I didn't feel like steaming up the kitchen. Steamy enough already. Once again, we got a very welcome evening rain-- the yard is starting to look like something located in Florida.

Today I'd planned to go across town to Fresh Market, but though I got up plenty early enough, I wimped out when it started thunder-storming. Ended up just going to the local Publix. Was going to get some salmon to try the cedar paper-thingies I bought a few weeks ago, but when I discovered they had some beautiful and very fresh tuna, I got that instead. Did it on my grill pan topped with an ad hoc salsa of tomatoes, Kalamatas, onion, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice. Very good! Cat especially was pleased. Picked up some ready-made tabouleh, and had green salad and sourdough bread.

Tomorrow the plan is to make White Gazpacho (something of a 4th of July tradition with us) and also have steaks (again on the grill pan, I think), a pasta/broccoli salad, deviled eggs, 4-Bean Salad, and something else I'm forgetting. For desert, I hunted up and down the Publix freezer aisle looking for vanilla ice cream in a paper brick shape-- I want to make rectangular slices and decorate them with blueberries, strawberries and rasberries in a flag arrangement. Everything is in rounded containers these days. Finally found some of Publix's house brand, but who knows how that will be? A silly idea anyway. We'll see how that goes.

Well, I've now got the hobbits (and Strider) to Weathertop, where they are under siege from the Black Riders. I can't leave them there! Now I have to at least get them to Rivendell, where they can be safe and rest for awhile. Then I can quit before the going gets REALLY rough. Right?? Actually, I think I go through this charade of self-deception every time I begin what seems like an untimely re-read. Somewhere in Moria I realize: Oh shit, I'm going to read the whole thing...

Glad to see that little Packer helmet amid my Twitter pals. Welcome, Marty! A limit of 140 characters works kind of like the timer. You soon learn that you can express most anything within that constraint. I look forward to the occasional Tweet about what you're up to.

Okay. Time to get the guys off the mountain. And you know? I'm going to be mildly disappointed when Glorfindel shows up instead of Arwen. Giving Liv Tyler a bigger part was one of the movie changes that I thought worked rather well. Hearing her lisping whisper of the elvish language was a highlight for me.