Day One-hundred-and-seventy-five: One dish, two dish, three dish, more

Today was a food extravaganza. I first finished the olive bread by baking the loaves I made up last night. Then I baked the gingerbread for which I cooked the syrup while the olive bread was in its second raise. Not finally, I made a batch of vegan chocolate cupcakes using the last of the cocoa I brought with me.

During the less busy parts I researched and planned my evening menu and my shopping list for the items I needed to get from the grocery store. The basis for my menu was one of the dinner menus in Program for Reversing Heart Disease. Let's just say it was very instructional. Thank goodness I prepared alternative plans for the main course. While I only used three of the four burners, we wouldn't have eaten had my middle sister not come home and pitched in.

The main course became the polenta casserole instead of the eggplant lasagna. I allowed three hours for the food preparation and cooking. It took four and that was with my sister taking over the mushrooms and broccoli entirely. I still did the pea soup and the polenta casserole. I can't believe my sister's family all like gingerbread. My youngest sister's daughters wouldn't touch it.

While I used far more wine than it called for to braise the onions for the polenta, we managed to put away the remaining red and white that wasn't used in the cooking. My sister also has the ingredients for the eggplant lasagna but doesn't have the recipe. She will be buying the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook because the four people who ate some of it really liked it. I got the recipe from my oldest daughter's in-laws as that was one of the dishes they prepared especially for me.

We had a great conversation about parents, siblings, and children. (At least I think it was great. Three glasses of wine wouldn't have clouded my judgement that much.) What the wine did cloud are the conclusions we reached. But those kinds of conversations are less about conclusions than the feeling of camaraderie. Of course, more wine and less talk may have achieved the same result. However achieved, it is results that matter in this Life after Layoff.

Earlier this morning, after a breakfast of grapefruit and homemade bread toast, not my bread but my mother's, we played more Mystery Partner Euchre. In the third or fourth game, I was well on my way to winning, thanks to a four-point loaner I finally managed to deal myself without a bower turned up. Ultimately, I didn't win. My oldest sister, still younger than me, snatched my victory away from me.

I brushed the snow off my car when I went out to help my father do the same on his. This called for using one of the pair of three pair of gloves I brought. At the time the temperature was no more than ten degrees Fahrenheit. I was plenty warm for the time I was outside. Admittedly I did have my fleece vest and North Sierra jacket on, but I have not needed my silks. Nor have I needed my full sleeved fleece or the down gloves and scarf I bought to go on my first ski trip with Marilyn.

Tomorrow I drive to Columbus. I pick up my 26' chain, cleaned wedding bands, and corrected inscription heart from Diamond Cellar. My oldest daughter and her husband are supposed to be arriving at 11:00 AM. I don't know when we will be meeting, or where. After the Diamond Cellar, I will be heading to Marilyn's oldest sister's house, still younger than her. I both want to remember Marilyn's death, even revere her life, and not. I suppose with each remembrance I am healing. It is a much slower process and one with no end in sight, than I ever expected it to be.

Day One-hundred-and-forty-nine: Domestic Day on steroids

This morning has been just like I dreamed it would be, a nightmare of work but without the horrible feelings or ending.  Right off I did the dishes.  I started unloading the dishwasher only to realize that I had not in fact run it yet.  So, I quickly put back the things I had already taken out and added what I could.  Then, while really running it, I hand washed the remaining.

While they were drying I mowed the back yard, but only in one direction rather than cross-hatched like I normally do, and put my kitchen garbage and the clippings in the compost, along with the shredded newspaper and compromising documents.  Since I had noticed that the agapantha blossoms were all now seed stalks, I decided to cut them off and stuffed them in the green bin.  (Another reason never to take the compost from the recycling yard and agapantha seeds aren't likely to be the worst seeds in it.)  By this time it had started to drizzle but I decided to go ahead and vacuum out the Prius' deck.  It held off the serious rain until I had done so.  As I forgot to water down the compost, with its covering of paper, it is fortunate that I also did not put the cover on.  Now the rain is watering it down.  Hopefully I will remember to put the cover on before I leave.

Next I went inside and did the syrup for ginger bread and made two dozen vegan chocolate cupcakes.  Of course this required additional dish washing because I needed the mixing bowls and measuring spoons later today.

After a quick lunch of salad, a mix of the Fresh Herb Salad, green onion, garbanzo beans, radishes, and my flax oil apple vinegar vinaigrette, I took off for Whole Foods and REI.  After mailing the last of the Christmas Letters for which I had addresses, I remembered that I didn't have anything to hang the flyer with.  So, I turned around and went back to my house for the push pins.  Whole Foods approved its posting.  I almost wish I had a hammer.  It was not a cork board but one of those wood chip ply boards.  I also bought stuff from Whole Foods.

Then to REI for my Trekker Sleeping Pad and if I had stopped stopping there, I would have been home much sooner.  Instead I went to Macy's looking for a memory foam cushion.  They didn't have one but I did get a memory foam pillow on sale with a 20% discount on top of that and a 15% discount, if I used my Macy's card.  I didn't have my Macy's card and thought the card that Marilyn had was her card.  When I entered her SSN, there was no card.  (Yes, I still remember it.)  When I entered mine, it found one.  I don't know whether they have the right address or not.  I'm sure Marilyn didn't use her Macy's card since we moved.

As I was leaving Macy's my oldest daughter called to ask me to get some MandMs and a can of Fosters for the grilled beer turkey they are making tomorrow.  I went to Costco for them.  I'm glad I called back to find out which kind or I would have only bought Peanut M&Ms.  Since they wanted Plain MandMs, I got both, after I found them.  I had to walk all over Costco and ask a couple of people, unsuccessfully, before I found them.  However, I did find Beano.  A vegan diet that is heavy in legumes should use a lot of Beano.  The alternative isn't pretty.  Of course, MandM's and Beano aren't all that I bought.

Since Costco didn't have Fosters, Australian for beer, I stopped at Safeway.  There again I bought more than what I stopped for.

Finally back at home I mix up the Gingerbread and set the timer for 30 minutes.  While the Gingerbread was cooking, I completed the flyers by attaching the card holders.  I plan on giving my daughters a few, leaving me with nine or ten for posting across the country and in Columbus.  After I finished the flyers I realized that my timer should have gone off.  I hadn't started it.  The Gingerbread was done.  It may be dry but it doesn't appear to be burned.  Then I mixed up the whole wheat olive bread and whole wheat bread that I am baking tomorrow morning.

Some where in all of this, I fixed and ate my dinner.  Surprise, surprise, this leaves me with a kitchen of dirty dishes full circle back to this morning.

Still to go tonight, after this posting, I will vacuum the floors, which will require a decent amount of picking up, and clean off my HP laptop.  Today has been quite fulfilling, possibly the most so in my Life after Layoff.

Day One-hundred-and-nineteen: Running on empty

I like multiple meaning titles. The direct reference is to my Prius being on its last fuel gauge bar for the last week, but then I've only used it to drive locally, including going to Safeway twice today. The indirect reference is, at least today, not having a lot to write about. Oh well, a short entry every once in a while may not be such a bad thing. The only real problem is that it gives me fewer chances to weave in my tag line of Life after Layoff, at least more cleverly.

Yesterday I bought some Indian eggplant and used it to make some Gerson Ratatouille this morning. It was good to have some hot food, but I found out that Indian eggplant has a skin between the Japanese/Chinese eggplant and the more traditional eggplant. Now the traditional eggplant I know to peel before I cook it. I now know the same about Indian eggplant, but I ate it tough skin and all. Better, I just won't buy Indian eggplant again.

I also made some Food for Life gingerbread that tasted so good I ended up eating about half of it. This batch was too moist both because I used a measuring cup that didn't have a 1 3/4 cup line so I approximated. Then I probably undercooked it. Undercooking a cake-like food that doesn't have any fat or egg isn't dangerous, it could be messy though. It was cooked enough that the whole wheat pastry flour was done. I obviously liked it.

In case this blog has other readers than my direct family, I copying an email I wrote yesterday about things that have been occurring after I normally write my daily entry.

I've transferred my meditation guides to my iPod. This has given me new possibilities and I've been taking advantage of them. Tonight and Friday night I sat in the sky chair in the dark, well, as dark as it gets in a town. (Back in a canyon in Pacifica, it is darker than it ever got on a Fremont cul-de-sac but we never set up the sky chairs in Fremont.)

Last night it got so late, I did it directly in bed. It probably helped me sleep better.

But the reason I was inspired to write this email this late was the two very different night time sky chair meditations. Friday night the sky was very clear and I could see stars through the branches of the willow tree. It was meditative just to watch them. The only problem was that I left just one house light on. It wasn't distracting enough to get up and turn it off but I learned my lesson.

Tonight the fog had rolled in but with the street lights on Ranier, the "back of the" house lights on Glacier it was still quite bright even though I did turn off all the lights in my house. This meant that I wasn't stumbling around in the dark. When I finally came in, which has consistently been after about 50 minutes, I noticed how bright my supposedly dark house was. It is amazing how many LEDs I have telling me the time, telling me the temperature of the wine. I suppose all of the AC adaptors' lights are LEDs as well. Then there is my modem and router. I don't have any need for the night lights that I no longer have plugged in, even on moonless nights like this one appears to be.

At the end of my meditating, if that is really what it can be called, I thought of another series of topics for my Memories of Marilyn: "Company trips and trips on companies." We really did get a lot of travel in. I can't begin to imagine what we would be doing now. I'm falling behind in my travel.

Day One-hundred-and-eighteen: Motorcycle riding

I was going to make some Gingerbread to take in for my calling for Obama but when I got up, I discovered that I was low on whole wheat pastry flour. Any excuse that avoids work is a good excuse. So, I decided to ride my motorcycle to San Carlos and the phone bank I call from.

I was a little low in gas so I stopped and filled my tank for $9.00. I guess I wasn't as low as I thought but I didn't want to run out. It may also have been that the price has dropped. While mine cost a little more, I did see gas for $3.179 a gallon on my ride, San Francisco Bay Peninsula. Demand for gas has gotten so low that OPEC is meeting to reduce production and prop up the price. It will be my luck that all of this will take effect just before I begin my cross-country road trip.

I didn't keep track of my calling statistics today except for total calls. I'm entered into a drawing for leftover Obama/Biden campaign stuff because I made over 100 calls. Today I called phone numbers in three states: Florida, Minnesota, and Nevada. I guess New Mexico is more solidly Obama country now.

On the way home I stopped in at Whole Foods both for dinner and very little shopping, well buying. I actually did some shopping, as in I looked at some things that I had no intention of buying, at least then. I looked at their flour brands and prices. I want to compare them to Safeway's. I couldn't buy it then both because of all the other stuff I was buying and its bulk and weight. I was riding my motorcycle after all.

When I got back near Pacifica, I was glad that I had put on my winter gloves and by the time I made it home was thinking how my chaps would have also been a good thing to be wearing. I do intend to use my motorcycle more, not only because it is fun to ride, but also to start slowing down my use of the Prius, where ever and when ever I can.

I'll probably be up later tonight because I couldn't resist and had a Peach Ooh-la-long Honest Tea with my dinner. It was the first time in a while that I have had caffeine, well other than the amount I put in my chocolate cupcakes. It's not like I need any more stimulus in my Life after Layoff.

No epiphanies today, or at least that I remember, which is why I'm back to writing about the more mundane activities. I did like the quote from the Honest Tea cap so much I brought the cap home. It says: "It's not so hard to get rich as it is to know when you have gotten rich." - Josh Billings.

I did talk to one person today that was voting for McCain because he didn't believe that the rich should be taxed more. He wasn't rich and would benefit from Obama's tax break for 95% of working Americans, as would "Joe the Plumber." Correcting the tax code to better balance the progressive taxation to pre G.W. Bush levels is not socialism. Since 1979 we have increased the burden of supporting the government by $600 billion onto the lower 80% of taxable incomes and reduced it by that much on the top 2%. The 1913 Income Tax form didn't even tax people making less than $500,000, in 1913 dollars. (It was only one page to boot.) While I am in favor of everyone owning a piece of paying for the cost of government, I do think the burden should be a little fairer. Someone, and it will have to be the people with money, needs to start paying on the $700,000 debt that every U.S. adult now owes because of the U.S. debt of $11,000,000,000,000. (I've added in the cost of the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and (partial) banking nationalizations, since the money is already spent and authorized.)