A bit of the normal life

[fenchurch]

It's been a busy week, catching up with all the stuff that stacked up while I was in Idaho Falls. I finally feel like I'm on top of things here again and, of course, we've got less than a week before we leave for the next trip... flying down to Phoenix for rahirah and wildrider's wedding reception (and to visit rackham's aunt -- the one I've never actually met in person) and flying from there to SLC, Utah in order to visit Rackham's family for a few days before heading home again. Honestly, I have no idea how I'm going to pack for this... we'll only be gone for slightly over a week, but it's been hitting 90 in Phoenix this week while it's been snowing in Provo. Needless to say, we *won't* be getting by with just carry-on.

One of the things I did earlier this week was to clean out the fridge. Rackham hadn't really done much cooking while I was gone, so we had a lot of vegetables that were, well, not rotten but getting more than a bit limp. I was going to toss them in the composte bin, when I remembered a post by varina8 earlier this week about making vegetable stock! So I crammed everything into my crockpot, covered it with water and cooked it on high for about four hours and then on low for another 12. Mmmmm... smelled fantastic!! Then I strained out the vegetables and added a pound of stewing beef, some chopped carrots, celery and onions as well as a bay leaf and some barley. Absolutely wonderful! I'm definitely going to make my own vegetable stock again!

When I was helping my grandmother, I had to make quite a bit of Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice (she's on a soft food diet until she's a little further along in her recovery... and let me tell you, it obviously got old REALLY fast. I felt so bad for her... but at least I figured out she could have KFC's mashed potatoes and gravy, since she likes them even when she hasn't just had surgery)), which got me craving grits. And not the good stuff, like the bag I already had from Bob's Red Mill. No, I wanted Quick Grits! With butter! And salt and pepper! So, um, yeah... guess what I've been having for breakfast every morning since I got home. Mmm.... grits...

I'm in the middle of reading One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, which means I'm already running just a bit behind the reading schedule on plum_lovin. However, I had another one of those weird incidents that have cropped up from time to time since the accident. I thought I had never read the book before... to the point where I was shocked to discover I already owned a copy. And when I started reading it, everything seemed VERY familiar, but I still have absolutely no memory of the book... it's like the memory of it is unfolding as I read. Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure I read it between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2005 and I don't really remember anything from December of that year. I didn't have a serious head injury (the brain just got jostled a bit and the skull got hit a few times by something flying around the car, probably my cellphone), it's more that the stuff from that month never made it into long-term storage because it became incredibly unimportant. Still, it freaks me out a little whenever I run into one of those things I've forgotten.

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Have an excellent trip - give the brides a hug from me!

I feel very sorry for your grandma - soft diet can be very boring, although a good selection of liquidized soups can help, especially with a handful of grated cheese on the top.