I want to keep my toes in the water of the blogging world because I enjoy it so, but I am still in my mini-season of busy, so not much organized food creating is going on. I can, however, take a few minutes and whip out a post, since you might be interested in what I've been up to.
First, check out the yummy lunch I had with my friend C.J. recently. We went to Panera. I had sewn a bedspread for C.J. and she wanted to thank me by taking me out to lunch. I got to choose the venue, and I LOVE Panera's breads, so that is what I chose. If you look closely, you can see that I couldn't resist taking a bite of that pickle before remembering to pull out my camera. The sandwich is on wholewheat sundried tomato bread (sorry, I didn't check about the egg content, but it was extremely yum) The sandwich is called the Mediterranean Veggie. I just ordered it without the feta cheese. The meal comes with chips or an apple. The apples at Panera are so good! I don't know why I love them so much more than the ones at the supermarket, but I do. The lunch and the conversation were lovely.
In other news, I am having a garage sale Friday and Saturday of this week. I really do not have time to go through all our belongings, but we have accrued so much in 18 years of marriage and parenthood that there is plenty to put up for sale without really trying too hard. This is mainly an exercise in cleaning out and eventually donating whatever doesn't sell, so I will be pricing very fairly, which will take me a bit of low-level brainwork today, and high-level brawnwork moving it all out to the garage. would you believe we have 3 tv's to sell? And so much more . . .
Besides the garage sale prep, I have been helping my 16 year old son with a couple of pet-sitting jobs. The main purpose of encouraging the jobs is to teach him responsibility, of course, so one would think I am defeating this purpose by helping him, but when it comes right down to it, the poor guy cannot practically be in two places at once, and being a stay-at-home mom I am the default parent, so I'm stepping in where needed. We are not going to let the kitties starve. Also, I just want to oversee what he is doing a little bit -- I want the clients to come back from vacation pleased with a clean, odor-free home and happy cats. Hans doesn't really know how to effect the clean-odor-free part of that equation.
In two homes, a few miles apart, Hans is caring for a total of 8 cats -- 6 in one home and 2 in the other. He is also collecting the mail and tidying up after the cats. This whole job, with driving time, takes an hour to complete, twice a day, and school starts for him at 8:30, so I am doing the mornings after he gets to school. As I have been overseeing these jobs I impress upon Hans practical advice such as "Make sure you keep the housekey in your pocket. It would be awful if you locked yourself out,"
Well, I did just that yesterday morning! In the house with the 6 cats, all rescue, the cats are separated according to temperament. The little ole' lady cat, Butter, gets to go wherever she wants in the main part of the house (she is soooo sweet! I love her) Hunter, Romeo and Little Debbie Snack Cakes (yes that is really her name) stay in the laundry room -- which is really very nice, roomy, with a window and three cozy beds, water, food and toys. Finally, Dick and Jane stay in the garage -- also roomy, with the cars moved outside with windows and fans, food, toys etc. Yesterday I was wearing workout clothes with no pockets, so I left the housekeys on the kitchen counter. And sure enough, when I stepped stealthily into the garage so Dick and Jane couldn't slip out, I failed to check the bottom lock which was, LOCKED! So I locked myself into the garage, and out of the house! While feeding, watering and scooping for Dick and Jane, I simultaneously panicked and brainstormed what to do. I searched high and low for an extra key, to no avail. I considered opening the large garage door, but decided against it since Dick and Jane would then officially be out in the wild. Finally, I decided to climb on top of an upturned plastic tub and out the window of the garage. "Is the window painted shut?" I thought to myself,
No, it wasn't, phew! I perched my middle-aged self on the brick window ledge and, as I closed the window behind me, sort of slid/fell into a 5 foot tall pricker bush. Then, carefully pulling the branches of the bush aside, I escaped further injury. I say "further" because I could already feel the blood trickling down my left leg from where I had torn it on the bricks.
"Now -- am I locked out of the house itself?" I pondered. No, thank goodness, I wasn't! I went back in, collected the keys, re-locked the garage window, paper towel-bathed my leg and counted my blessings.
This has been chapter one in my sandwich eating-cat-sitting-garage-sale-week odyssey. If there is a chapter two, it will appear in a future post!
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