August Already?

Where is the year going? It seems as if summer just began, yet we’ve gotten through June and July already. And I’ve only gotten to swim once! WTF??? Oh, yeah, I’ve not been able to afford to open my pool this year L. I went today over to my friend Vicki’s and hung out with her for a couple of hours in the pool, and then awhile longer in the hot tub, until clouds rolled in, and the lightning started in the distance. I’m clearly out of practice with the sunblock, as well, because while I didn’t get burned a lot, there are a few red spots, where I somehow didn’t manage to get the SPF100 applied. OOPS! It was my intention to start my candida detox today, but there was a fiasco last night with my bedspread, which I’d washed yesterday morning and hung across the deck rails to dry, not realizing when I left to go to dinner that there was rain on the way, and so this morning, instead of fixing myself a nice, healthy, minimally processed & raw foods breakfast, I grabbed a Dr Pepper and a package of cheez/pb crackers for my breakfast and that pretty much set the tone for the rest of my eating. I did stop on my way home at Central Market and picked up a kohlrabi, a couple of potatoes, some fresh herbs, snap peas, and a couple of cheese options, as well as some meat for a few days. Tomorrow will be better. Last night’s festivities started with dinner at Angela’s, with Angela, her hubby, and Lissa. Angela made an awesome pasta salad, which converted me totally to being a pasta salad person! I’ve never been much of one, and frankly most of the ones I encounter have stuff in them that I just don’t like cold, if at all, like peas (love them, HOT), onions, lots of tomato. This was very basic, whole grain pasta, some sliced grape tomatoes, chopped fresh spinach, a bit of mozzarella thrown in while it’s all still warm, and tossed in warm, seasoned olive oil. And warm garlic bread to go with it! MMMMHHHMMMMM. And for dessert some kind of Breyers ice cream. It was sort of vanilla with chocolate shavings in it… After dinner we cut Angela’s hair and watched So You Think You Can Dance and an episode of Dr. Who. I think I vaguely remember seeing an episode of the Dr. at some point in my past, but I didn’t appreciate the British humor until I was grown and so I was sort of a Whovirgin. Loved it, but not enough to fork out the additional dough to upgrade to the package that would get me BBCAmerica, so I’ll just have to borrow DVDs. I talked to my BFF today. For all of 20 minutes. And of that 20 minutes, she was involved solely in our conversation for about 2. The rest of the time she was wrestling the toddler, or having a conversation with our #1 Boy, who is now 18, and frankly, capable of managing to realize that the fact that Mom’s got the phone held up to her ear, thus she is ON THE TELEPHONE HAVING A CONVERSATION, and not decide that he MUST have a conversation with her. The last time I actually SPOKE to her was, umm, 3 weeks ago. In the last 10 years, the longest we’ve gone without talking on the phone was a week, and now it’s been 3. It is beginning to piss me off that every time she has been in crisis, she has been able to call me and talk to me about it, and now that my world has all gone to pieces, I can’t get a return call for weeks on end, and when I DO get the call, I don’t rate 5 minutes of undivided attention. I’ve known for a very long time that in most cases, I am a better friend than I have. I truly thought, however that she was the exception to that rule. I mean, over the last several months, I have learned that 2 people that I thought were my friends, were, in fact, using me. I don’t think she’s using, or has used me, and perhaps the fact that I have no children means I don’t have a concept of what she has on her plate, I don’t know. Perhaps I’m being too selfish. Or not. I have always been the strong one that people lean on, and now, when I find I need someone to lean on, the one who has always been there, is not. I realize that I tend not to ask for help, but I don’t like seeming weak or needy, and when I am in that place, I don’t like the person that I become. She is whiney, and bitchy, and frankly unpleasant to be around. Since I don’t like being around people like that, I try not to subject my friends to her. And the quote for the day: There are seeds of self-destruction in all of us that will bear only unhappiness if allowed to grow. Dorothea Brande

Finally Getting Around

to posting about my house concert over the weekend. I hosted another show for Marc Gunn over the weekend. Originally, I had about a dozen or so people who were coming. I would have liked to have a few more, just because I wanted to make sure that Marc actually made money, though since it was his 2nd show in the area in a few days, I wasn't totally stressed or anything. A couple of weeks ago, I had 2 back out because they had committed to something before I scheduled the show, which they had thought was on Sunday, and it turned out was on Saturday instead, so I was down to about 10. 3 got sick, which took me down to 7, and then 1 bailed an hour before the show. *sigh* Bless Marc's heart, he played his heart out anyway. It was a good show, if a bit, umm, quiet, which is funny considering that there were 4 women in the audience, and 3 of us definitely are talkers!

I had baked a blackberry wine cake for Lissa's birthday. I was a little unsure about it, and very nearly screwed it up, because I didn't read the directions and put the butter in the cake instead of saving it for the glaze. I baked it in a casserole dish instead of a 9x13 pan because I didn't have a 9x13 platter to put it on, so it took about 35 minutes longer than the directions stated. When I started mixing the glaze (with another stick of butter), it looked TOTALLY funkified! The butter didn't cream at all, it sort of turned into these flakes that were all clumpy. Now the glaze recipe said "To Make Blackberry Wine Glaze: Mix together the confectioner's sugar, 1/2 cup blackberry wine, and the softened butter or margarine. Beat until smooth" Yeah, it never did get smooth, it just looked disgusting, so being the fly by the seat of my pants gal that I am, I decided to make glaze the way I usually do, but substitute the wine for the water. The sugar didn't completely dissolve, but it looked appetizing, and actually, once it went on the cake, you couldn't really see the glaze anyway. In the end, about 1/3 of it got eaten, I saved 2 pieces for specific people who didn't make it, and sent the rest home with Lissa.

On the upside, I made a new friend, Angela, who I've seen perfoming as a Drunken Damsel with Lissa, and dancing at the same studio I do. How cool is that? She's not allowed to dance right now, and I've not danced in months, but am going to try to get back to that this week. We stayed in here talking and giggling after we ran Marc out with our estrogen-fest. I think it was nearly 12:30 when they headed home! Fun times

One of my cats, who, at the last house concert in August was acting all orgasmic over Mike's sandal, was of course thrilled to have a houseful of people to pay attention to her. I think Lissa is her new best friend.