A Week In The Tax Season
9:42 a.m. - 2006-03-18


Another rainy week in the California spring. Saw Joel and Jane at Jason's this week and talked over the upset at my church. Joel was disapproving. He said that you can't treat the church like a business entity because it is not (too many lawyers on the deacon board, I think) and it is unchristian to do so. I am wondering what will happen now that the pastor has resigned and the deacon board is chagrined. After this discussion, Jellie and I did the photo puzzles from the paper. Every Friday the Greensheet includes a little magazine which has a set of 2 photos on the back page. There are usually 9 or 10 differences between the otherwise identical pictures, and we try to find them all. Jason saves the insert for us, and it has become tradition to do the puzzle at the dinner table before dinner. It is interesting to me how the mind sees some things so easily and yet totally edits out other rather obvious things, like a lightswitch.

Jason's arm is much better, and he can now lift it to shoulder height. He was showing me this and I was showing him how I can now bend my injured knee back, and then we got to laughing at the two old crocks we have become.

I have only a few inches left to do on the cornmeal cardigan, but it weighs a ton and has become too bulky to carry around. I need to start another portable project. I also need to finish the other sweaters I have in the works. The white lace-collared child's cardigan just needs the threads sewn in and the buttons sewn on, and my white lace-edged pullover just needs threads sewn in and blocking. The two fabric stores in town are closing down and are in the middle of a huge close-out sale, so I don't have anywhere to buy buttons at the moment since the new super store they are merging into does not open until the 23rd. I can't put the button band on the cornmeal sweater until I have the buttons to measure. I have also been felting the purse Melissa gave me for Christmas, but today I had a minor panic when I was looking at it and saw that the strap ws missing. Oh no!! But I eventually found it tangled up in a piece of fabric by the ironing board, so I can now keep felting it. It will eventually be a Booga Bag. I need to get the kelly green cardigan on the knitting machine and start knitting it. To this end, I made a fast trip to the Lafayette library to get more books on tape. They seemed to have plenty of new ones so I got a nice assortment, including some creepy mysteries.

At work Sandy brought in a DVD and gave it to me to borrow. I can't remember the name of the movie (something about shoes), but it has Toni Collette (one of my favorite actresses), cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine. I am not a fan of Cameron Diaz (I find myself staring at her large nose and fleshy lips and wondering why she is considered so beautiful) and heaven knows she is not a sympathetic character in this movie until the very very end, but I really liked it. And the price was right.

In talking over Georgette Heyer books with Audrey, the journal lady, I found out that she likes 'Cotillion' the best. I don't even remember that one, and I don't own it, so I ordered a copy from Alibris. I also ordered Frederica, and a cookbook, 'My Mother's Southern Desserts'. I am very taken with James Villa's mother and also own My Mother's Southern Entertaining and My Mother's Southern Cooking. His mom sounds like a real pistol, I tell you what. I made her Southern pimento cheese for Christmas and it was well received.

Spring in California means strawberries and artichokes. The Trader Joe's is the only remaining place you can get artichokes you can afford. We used to get the big ones about 10/dollar but now they are about $3 apiece. But TJ's has a big package of the lovely baby artichokes for only about $2, so I have some boiling away on the stove right now. The bad thing about artichokes is that they are so good with mayo, and this is not good for the diet.

Let's see, what are my plans for this weekend? I have the usual mondo fun chores, like laundry, but I also have a big package of pork stew meat thawing on the counter, so I see a batch of chili verde in my future. And maybe some fresh flour tortillas.