The Visible Woman...March 21, 2004

Sunday, March 21, 2004

A Journal from Austin, Texas.
A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.

back to sociability

We figured when the remodel was over, we would get the house somewhat in order and start entertaining again. The house still needs much work but we are good as our word.

We have people over. Now our friend Marie made lasagna and brought it over to bake and dealt with making garlic bread, too, after we sent FFP and her husband to get some bread. But I put out appetizers (all packaged stuff you can get at Central Market but I had to pick it out and I made a salad with goodies like pepperoncini and calamata olives and yellow peppers that seemed Italian to me since we were watching The Sopranos.

Anyway, we got to show the room to people. Everything looks a little bare and odd to me in places. And closets and nooks and crannies still need to be cleaned out. But we can entertain if we put enough stuff away.

We will have to have some more events. But probably not too soon. We have lots of places to go out for the next few weeks.

Forrest framed by redbud blossoms and the awning outside his office.

JUST TYPING

We like to entertain.
To have people in to visit,
drink a bit,
eat a bit,
talk,
Watch TV.
It's nice when they come.
And nice when they leave you to yourselves.

Food Diary.

breakfast

a banana

lunch

Brisket, turkey, barbeque sauce with a big piece of wheat bread with butter, cole slaw, green beans and two bloody Marys.

snacks

some leftover chips and tapinade and cheese straws

dinner

appetizers: chips and tofu dip, little toasts and tapinade, some boursin and Sonoma Jack, cheese straws
a giant serving of lasagna
salad with olives and shaved paramesan and dressing and Roma tomato
Several (well, maybe four or five) glasses of red wine.

Today I
- ate like I was trying to erase my progress toward a leaner body!
- drank for the first time in a few days.

Time flies....

I could not dawdle today. No, if I wanted to have exercise, meet some friends for a gospel brunch, tidy up the house enough not to be embarrassed when people came over then I just had to get a move on it.

I got up, got the bed made and such and went to the club for a good bit of cardio work. Then I came home and buzzed around moving stuff around, assuring myself that I would be able to make the house tidy by the time our friends came over. We went to County Line on the Hill for the first in a new series of Gospel Brunches. We had lunch and some drinks. But when we got back, I dug into the cleanup and move around project. I even made the guest room look reasonable presentable, moving out boxes to storage and closing the closet doors on some stuff that still needs some sorting. My dad was already here when we got back but he was over visiting the neighbors. I got cleaned up in time to do a little bit of stuff on the computer and to talk to him a little.

Our friends who were bringing food came early to cook the lasagna and we showed the remodel to them. Gradually the other three guests showed up and we were busy, putting out apps, serving wine, visiting. I made a salad, got out plates, napkins, silverware, placemats and all that. You forget the relative difficulty of feeding only eight people.

We settled in at eight to watch The Sopranos and then some guests left and a couple of folks watched The L Word with us. I cleaned up a little after everyone was gone although I left some of it for the morning. I read the newspapers for a while and watched some more TV and, finally, went to bed. I didn't read or watch TV there, just went to sleep. As it turned out...I wouldn't have pleasant dreams.

Reading.

Newspapers.

The Life of Ernie Pyle by Lee G. Miller.

nothing

Thinking about Things.

Jeans.
I have some blue ones, various washes and some black ones.
They are all Levis.
They are all Men's 550 (actually just one pair of these...and they fit best) or 560 style.
They all have 30 inch inseams.
Some are 34 inch waists (which fit best) and some are 36.
I have twenty pairs of jeans.
Oh, my.
Surely I won't need jeans for many years.
Why didn't I notice, before the new closet, that I had so many?
It's true that I panicked a few years ago when I thought they were discontinuing the 560's.

(3259)

Exercise

recumbent bike	1hour
treadmill
ergonomic rower
water aerobics
chest, shoulder, triceps
leg, back, bicep
lower back
ab exercises	x
stretches
walking
tennis

Felt pretty good and strong. Also, with all the food, I absorbed the alcohol without much problem.

It's a Tangled
Web we weave...these
days of our lives.

One year ago
"It's weird. I'm retired but I can't find time for this journal. The changeover of WEB hosting, DSL, mail has taken time. I seem to be constantly busy. I want to do the journal. Or, at least, have it later. Go figure. I'm also not finding time for other things I need or want to do."

Two years ago
"Sometimes it is just good to be sad and get over it. We live the most charmed lives and it always amazes me that, having none of the problems of most of the people in the world, we can still feel so grim."

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