Blah. It's beautiful outside, but I am tired and need to work.

Yesterday I draped a cloth over the mophead and went around the first floor of the house, removing spiderwebs. We've got a lot of spiders this year. Tons. I wonder how many webs will return by Friday evening? I also dusted.** So far, I only feel a little plugged up. C-man cleaned the bathroom and took loads of stuff out to the garage and put the cover back on the dining room light.

He was unable to put the cover back on the light in the front hall -- I knew he would be unable, because I knew it was down because of problems -- and now I have permission to go to Menards and get a new light, which he and a co-worker will install tonight. Finally! Those two lights have been bare light bulbs in the ceiling for at least a year, maybe closer to two.

He also told me I could have a candle-buying fest at his work because they're all on sale. I thought, is this *my* husband telling me to feel free spending money? What is happening here? [He's not unworried about the economy, either, which just adds to the weirdness of him telling me that he's totally comfortable with me buying a new ceiling light and as many candles as I want, when the economy is a constant worry and we've got that kitchen and those old cars and . . . ]

I am torn about bookgroup's meal.

Here's what I have planned:

appetizers for arrival:
crackers -- regular and gluten-free -- with cheese and tomato-ginger jam
olives

salad:
wine-poached pears and crumbled goat cheese over greens

soup:
curried butternut squash

[come back to this]

dessert:
baked or sauteed apples, somehow carmelized or with caramel
polenta cake [no flour, only polenta cornmeal and ground almonds]

So. I almost think that is plenty. Is it plenty? Do I need a main-dish sort of course? And if I do, what will it be? I had thought of rosemary-roasted potatoes with a side of greens, black kale probably. I love roasted potatoes, they are such a treat because we hardly eat potatoes anymore (although you wouldn't know it by how many times we ate potatoes in September). But perhaps this is just blah. Or unnecessary. The thing is, I didn't come up with any good ideas for a polenta gratin, and now I've mentioned the polenta cake to Marikay, who likes it much better than my other dessert idea.

Oh, I did have one other savory dish idea -- a savory carmelized onion custard from one of Deborah Madison's cookbooks. Yea or nay? Too rich maybe? Or okay because the salad and and the soup are pretty healthy and veg-based?

One other note: I want the meal prep to be pretty easy. The appetizer is easy. The soup is easy. The salad is relatively easy, except for the fussy bit when I prepare the pears, because they are sliced out in a fan (I do not usually do composed dishes). The dessert will be relatively easy. So, if I do another course, I want it to be relatively easy, too.



**There's still the floors and the front entry and cleaning the kitchen, and shopping, and decorating, and of course cooking.

I am in charge of picking the next book for book group. I've had one eh selection and one great selection so far. I'm not super-concerned about picking a book that some people don't really like, because often the books some of us didn't really like bring out the best discussions. That was the case with the book we read for last week's get-together. Still, I feel some pressure to pick something that will resonate with at least some, and will at least seem like an interesting, thoughtful selection.

My current list of thoughts includes:

Astrid & Veronika, Kim Olsson
The Yiddish Policemen's Club, Michael Chabon (but, surprisingly, this won't be out in paperback until the end of April)
The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (a re-read, but this came up once and several people said they'd love to read it for book group)
Atonement, Ian McEwan (a re-read for me, but a good book and timely given the new movie)
something by Margaret Atwood (we've never read a Margaret Atwood -- I've only read two myself)

I'd love to do something funny, but the only things I can think of are either The Liar by Stephen Fry, or something by Tom Robbins. Both of those ideas could really turn off certain book group members.

If you've read any of these and either loved or hated them, or think they'd be great or lousy for a book group discussion, feel free to share your thoughts. Similarly, if you have something new to add to the list, go for it.

We're all in waiting mode here at work, because it has been 30 days since the close of the rebuttal period on the big rule package. But the bosses have instructed me *not* to call to find out about whether we'll get a report today (I would do this very nicely and ingratiatingly, of course, to avoid any chance of making the staff attorneys and/or ALJ feel harrassed and thus negative toward us). So we're just waiting and wondering.

The weekend was good. Book group was great! We laughed and laughed and shared and Lochlan told amazingly funny but raw stories about the process of finding out one has breast cancer, and we all giggled until we had tears in our eyes. And we ate peanut soup and sadza, and the dessert was Zimbabwean cookies -- we all agreed the recipe must have been from the time when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, because they were very prim little cookies, perfect for eating with afternoon tea. But yummy nonetheless. And we discovered that the South African wine I purchased was amazing. So, if you're the kind who likes to invite me over for wine, maybe I would go buy some for you.

Tea was also lovely, and the chocolate was very tasty. I must say, though, I continue to contemplate whether I am allergic/intolerant to chocolate. The evidence mounts but I ignore it.*** Noooo! Cannot be adverse to the chocolate! What would life be without chocolate?

Yesterday was grocery shopping, a playdate, and advance preparation for E-boy's valentines and other related projects. He saw a picture of simple mail tag art, and wanted tags for his valentines treat bags. So, I had to acquire pink construction paper (he'd used up all of his) and bright green ribbon, and then I handmade 20 little mail tags. This is easy if you're not being anal about the shape and matchy-ness of your little triangular snips, and I was very much not anal. The two colors sound odd, I know, but the treat bags he selected have bright green frog princes and pale pink hearts, so the tags will go perfectly. I am, of course, worried now that the school will frown upon E-boy home-baked treats as his valentines, but it's too late to back out. Finally, topped the day off by falling asleep during Pride and Prejudice. Turns out, I haven't outgrown my old preferences, the newer Jane Austen Masterpieces are just more my speed.



*** Yeah, yeah. Life pattern, what else is new? I hear you, but I ignore you too! (Big ;-) inserted there.) Ignoring is a useful tool!