My apologies...

for "dropping out of sight" since Thursday!

My wife was off this weekend, of course, that meant it was a work Saturday for me. To get ahead, I mowed on Thursday (5 hours between picking up sticks, etc., then raking what was too small to pick up, then mowing, then the clean up after). Friday I did the shopping for the week.

Saturday was actually the first "laid back" day we've taken in a while. We slept 'til noon, spent some time "together" (hard to do on opposite shifts) and then had time for a leisurely lunch before I had to leave for my shift.

Today we were up at 11, I fixed breakfast then we went to see "The Lucky Slevin". (Two thumbs up!) I had picked up 2 pair of shorts on Friday that didn't fit right, one at Sam's and one at Wal-Mart (my 34" Wrangler's didn't translate to 34" Izod, lol). Since it was on the way home from the theater, we exchanged the ones at Sam's.

A week ago I bought a copy of the "Silver Spoon" at Costco, having read a rave review in "USA Today" and seeing Jon-Marc's rave about the same cookbook. I took it to work on Saturday for my team leader to look at; he could be a chef anytime he wanted to, truly talented and loves to cook. He had told me earlier in the week that he hasn't bought a cookbook in 5 years; he has a whole wall full of them, and now he gets recipes from the net or the Food Channel. I didn't take it earlier in the week because it was raining and I wasn't taking a chance!

Garrett was impressed, he kept pointing out this or that and how logically the book is laid out; I had offered to get him a copy if he wanted, so Dottie and I hit Costco (across the highway from Sam's) so I could grab a copy before they sold out. (I don't know how the Thai cookbook ended up in my hands as well, but it will be nice since I bought a Wok the other day when I was there.)

Then on to Wal-Mart to exchange the other shorts as we worked our way home. Since she was with me, and liked a shirt I bought the other week, I ended up with two more of them plus another she picked, 2 more pair of jean shorts, and my 3rd new belt since I've been dropping weight.

We were home about 5 and I slipped my pizza stone into the oven to preheat and went out to try to brush and comb the matts out of our dog in preparation for bathing and clipping her next weekend. Dottie came out to help and Angel ended getting about a 1/2 scissors cut from her while I brushed and combed out what I could. After having Frankie around for the last few weeks she was delighted to have us to herself for an hour or so.

Brushcetta (Swanson's, sorry, not homemade, but really really good) and a salad for dinner as we finally sat down to watch "A History of Violence" (Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello, plus Ed Harris; take your pick, 'cuz I love them all). Before the movie was done Frankie was curled up on the couch with me; I guess we're finally family now!

She took her shower, I started another load of laundry and showered myself, and it's about time to go put that load in the dryer. I have to be up at 7 to take our Malibu to the body shop and pick up the rental car, hopefully being home before she has to leave for work at 9:30 so I can keep her out of my old Chrysler!

When I get home from there I think I'll be going back to sleep for a while...

While I've been jotting this all down (are you asleep yet?) I've been watching the best game show that ever was: "I've Got a Secret", the original with Garry Moore (Bill Cullen, Betsy Palmer and Henry Morgan; Bess Myerson is the 4th at the point they've picked it up again) is back on the Game Show Network at 3AM Eastern time. I remember watching some of them when they were new with Grandpa and Grandma Fritz, along with "What's My Line" and "To Tell the Truth", etc.. When GSN started running them I started taping them and watched every one; they kept "What's My Line" running but rotated some other shows through the other time slot. I'm glad to have Garry Moore back! If you have a recorder of some sort and can get GSN you owe yourself a treat!

Happy Monday, and once again, my apologies. It's going to take a day or two to catch up with all of you, but I will!!!

alan