Perhaps A 70º Winter Day

6:46

6:47

6:56

6:59

I was up just after 6:00 and the sky has been changing every 15 minutes or so it seems.  At the moment, fog has stepped in, obscuring Tom's and Long Point, as the temperature reads 50º.  I know we are not the only area experiencing unusually warm weather for this  time of the year.  Still, I cannot help but dislike it and as a result, both of us are out of sorts.

6:59

7:00

Yesterday was a typical day for me, a busy one for Evie.  I went to yoga, another good class and skipped coffee for some reason.  I stopped at the grocery to pick up a few items because we were having Linda and Ron over for dinner.  When I got home, Evie had been busy, wrecking the kitchen, as she was beginning to prep dinner.  I quickly got out the dish towels, did up the dishes and waited on and off during the day, for more to come.  I am chief bottle washer, not cook.  We were having a chicken dish with loads of shallots, Dijon mustard, white wine and tarragon.  So she was able to get most of it prepped before our guests arrived.  Both of us wanted a special dessert, so Evie decided on a banana cream pie, with a recipe from the New York Times, which tweaked it a bit by adding cinnamon and brown sugar.  That took a few steps and was finally baked by 4:00, with soft peaks of meringue.

I, of course, was little help other than as a dishwasher/dryer.  I had leftover pork chops, mashed potatoes and sauerkraut for lunch, just as good if not better than the night before.  And, unfortunately, I was unable to get Netflix as there was either a problem with our Internet or with Netflix.  Later in the day, it was fine.

Thursday, Mid Afternoon

For some reason, once Evie had the shrimp cocktails made, the chicken prepped, the pie made, she decided to spruce up the upstairs bedrooms.  So while I relaxed on the couch, enjoying the surprisingly sunshine, the blue sky with puffy, summer like clouds, reading and listening to Julie Mason, Evie cleaned and dusted and organized the otherwise clean, dusted and organized bedrooms. Women!

Fantastic Four

Linda and Ron arrive at 6:00, to a darkening sky.  All four of us sat down to a cold class of beer, talked some before Evie got out the individual shrimp cocktails, with sauce, just like the restaurants used to serve from our youth.  It was a big deal then and tasted just as good last night. I wonder why we don't have it more often.  The shrimp cocktails were complimented by Utz chips and dip, much to Linda's delight.  Like Evie, chips and dip are her Achille's heel.  We have none left for tonight's cocktail hour.  Dinner was  great of course, the chicken and shallots, salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, roasted brussel sprouts, rice and rolls.  And of course, banana cream pie for dessert as we watched MSNBC's coverage of the Ashville town hall from last Saturday, when I made my media debut. They left around 9:45 and Evie quickly cleaned up the kitchen with minor help from yours truly, worn out from cleaning up the kitchen during the day.