Another Dreary, Gray Morning

7:37

It's just after 8:00 as I begin my blog.  I slept in until 7:30 which was nice.  Evie and I are sitting here listening to NPR with our coffees, wondering what to do with our day.  Probably nothing.  The duck hunters are out, however, oblivious to the weather.

Trumpeter Swans and Mallard

Yesterday was one of those nasty days where all you want to do is stay inside.  If it wasn't raining, it was sleeting until finally there was enough snow on the ground to turn our yard white,  We quickly got into our morning routine and Evie gathered what trash we had and I drove it to the
Transfer Station which had two-inch deep puddles of water from the rain.  When I returned home, Evie was busy giving our downstairs bathroom a deep cleaning.  I decided to make my favorite Turkish stew, kuru fasulye or white beans with onions and tomato paste.  I cooked the beans for 30 minutes in our pressure cooker while I sauteed the onions and tomato paste, a Turkish paste we found in a Middle Eastern store in Dallas.  Once the beans were done, I added them to the onions and tomato paste, added water, some Urfa, Aleppo, and Maras, again all spices from Dallas and simmered the beans for an hour and a half.

Mallards Braving The Sleet

The stew was not done in time for lunch so I toasted a bagel and enjoyed some canned sardines and watched another episode of my new series, Peaky Blinders.  I took my nap, did some reading and watched some TV the rest of the afternoon, with not a thought about going for a walk.  Evie, too, took it easy, not worrying about keeping busy or making dinner.

We looked forward, however, to cocktail hour and Evie had pulled the Saint Andre cheese out earlier in the afternoon  We had our Manhattans and cheese and crackers listening to NPR, then music, watching the sleet fall outside our front window.  Dinner was no worry because we had enough spaghetti and meatballs from Friday night for our dinner.  We loved our dinner even if it was leftovers and watched a couple of Colbert shows from the past week. We ended the night watching Off The Grid, a show which follows the building of a cabin or house in the most remote of places.  It was nice to be back in our routine.

Enjoy!

Saturday night by John Kenney I have heard that there are people who go out at night. Weeknights. Weekends. They go to restaurants. They go to shows. Sometimes both in the same evening. And no, I do not know how they do this. They do not change into some form of pajama-wear by 7 P.M. and watch half of a movie they've likely already seen only to begin convulsively yawning by 9.