Middle Monday in March

[Harriet]

blessed, I've considered canned/bottled products. The sauce I'm trying to approximate is a thick one served over burgers, which stays on the bun very well. I would be able to have it here at home with my veggie burgers if I can manage it. The thickness of this recipe is okay, but way too dependent upon mayo to thicken. I'm thinking canned products would have to be cooked down so much. What do you think? Wondering if they are using cornstarch in the original.

It is the beginning of the Second Round of Focus on cleaning through our homes!
New thread is up and engines revving.

And no, it doesn't seem possible that we're this far through the year.

On the Desk Day front: Dreaded phoning, dreaded emailing, dreaded conferencing. Should this come before that, should that be postponed because the other thing is waiting, does the other thing require consultation, etc. I hear the Blue Danube Waltz in a droning monotony as we step (but two, three), step (but two, three

Brownies out of the oven, though!

[blessedw2]

the topping sounds so interesting!!! I will have to try it!
second round already! wow.

[blessedw2]

praying for your ds~ d lady!

[lucylee]

Twins, I'm pretending I'm snowed in and I slept through all the snow this morning! LOL! DS said it was really coming down when he took the kids to school -- we had a 2-hr delay, so this was around 9:30/10:00 a.m. I hate that I missed it but a cousin put a picture on FB and it was beautiful. The grass was peeking through, but it was pretty well covered. She has a huge oak tree in her yard and it was gorgeous.
DS was laughing; some days they are out of school all day and it never snows at all. Today, they waited two hours to go in during a "blizzard."

The wind WAS really fierce some places last night -- weatherman said gusts registered over 80 mph in a town about an hour north, but here, I don't think we had much over 30 mph. I went out on the back stoop for a little while -- they had made so much of the way the temperatures were dropping so quickly, I wanted to be out there to feel it. My back door opens into my carport, but the landing, I guess you'd call it, is only big enough for the storm door to open out. (This was one of the poor planning aspects on my part that my dad did not correct.) OTOH, it is pretty well protected from rain and wind, but I stood there awhile watching the storm, and then I thought -- if that wind should happen to throw a limb up here and blind me, or I get struck by lightning standing here, I'd feel really stupid. So I went inside. It was really muggy though, even at midnight, when it first started, and I did go back out after the rain stopped and it felt nice.
I came back in, switched the from ac to heat, and got in bed.
* A lot of people around here lost cell service, too. That is concerning when that is the only phone, but mine said "SOS only" at the top where the signal bars are, and the internet was still working.

Anyway, I did not shower before bed, and that threw my whole morning off. I am sitting here now in the t-shirt I slept in with pj pants that just ripped in the thigh when I looked under the sink, and fuzzy socks. I'm trying to decide how soon I can take a shower and it will still "count" for tomorrow morning when I have my teacher group at 11:30.
Plus, I woke up just feeling really anxious... just a generalized "off" feeling. I wish I knew I could find a trusted counselor who would make me feel as happy and confident as your dd's does her, LadyM.
I finally got out of bed when I got a text from a local reporter who is doing a story on my former high school principal. He was something of a legend and she has already done a two-part story in our weekly newspaper. Apparently there is a part three -- she wanted a "sentimental or funny" story from me. I didn't really have anything to tell her because luckily, I avoided the office for the most part. I did tell her how much he supported our teachers and we all had a healthy respect for him.

After that roused me up, I got busy with some DPC of my own --
* confirmed with insurance office that I can deposit the check they sent in my own account and then contact the roofer
* contacted the roofer
* called College Town ticket office to find out about spring game tickets for dbil
* talked to ds for almost two hours, mainly because of anxieties. It's kinda sad, but kinda wonderful, when one's adult son can serve as a spiritual advisor to his 64-yr-old mother who is undergoing a sort of spiritual warfare. I wish I were the more mature person, spiritually, but when I am struggling with issues of faith, he certainly has good insights.
* called doctor to get refills of Paxil (bout time, y'all are thinking? No -- I'm not out -- just got last refill the other day so need to get it renewed before 60 days.) Doctor must be pretending he's snowed in (out) also, because his office was closed an hour before his regular closing time! It's good I've got 60 days to get in touch with him! (He is notoriously hard to reach via phone.)
* called lady who is in teacher group who doesn't do texts or emails to tell her about the meeting tomorrow

In the midst of all this, I did get some laundry done, and my back is killing me right now. I guess it's just the lifting and bending?
I also addressed a birthday card to my uncle, and it will probably arrive late because his birthday is Wednesday and I'm not going out until tomorrow!

Our schools will have spring break next week. The softball games tonight were cancelled, thankfully.

And now Harriet tells us we're on the SECOND ROUND??? And I'm still wandering in and out of the computer room looking at these photo envelopes and stack of scrapbook pages. SMH...

[blessedw2]

mom rested 10 minutes and I found her trying to crawl over the Sara steady

[Twins' Mom]

I went down the street and visited with dfriend M and reminisced on dear Ruby. She will be cremated and M's dnephew, will fashion an urn for her. I shed a few tears - still feel weepy on the subject. My go to when mourning dogs is Julio Inglis singing "to all the dogs I've loved before." Most the lyrics transfer. So many I've loved over the years, and cats too. It was good for me to hang out with her, I hope it helps her as well. Those first few days without a loved dog are so hard.

Our chili is about ready. Cold out, still getting snow flurries.

[CathyS]

For all of you cross stitchers out there... the project I have been working on for a long time (probably close to a year) just needs some back stitching to finish it!! am so happy to be "thisclose" (pinch your fingers together) to being finished.

My next project (that has been sitting patiently waiting for me to come back to it) is on black Aida cloth. (Frederick the Literate is the name of the pattern, so I refer to this project as "Fred".)

[Harriet]

Cathy, I had just said in A, C and N that I thought you were about to find a "finish"! Yay on being "thiiiiis close".

Oh, Twins', I'm realizing I neglected to say how sorry I am to hear that Ruby passed. Condolences to her folks. Was it Mystery, I think? who remembered we'd heard about many walks with Ruby.

Weather - we had a stormy reminder that anything can happen. We evidently lost a tree, (bam!), but we think it fell within other trees beside the house and probably an old one without many branches left. AND then later there was a big instantaneous flash of light from the south windows followed by a big POW, so we believe somewhere close, a transformer blew. Not our closest neighbors, so still don't know. We had no thunder, no lightning - this was a one-note jolt.

[CathyS]

I've posted a question over in the Husband/health thread in MO. I'm really worried about something and I don't think I should Google, so if anyone has an answer, I would really appreciate it.

[lucylee]

Dmom just told me that the wind tore the door off the storm house at my grandmother's house, a couple miles south of me! That's pretty fierce -- it's one of those doors that kind of lays slanted on the ground. Lots of limbs down there, also.

The roofer called me back and said he would try to be by here some time later this week and show me some samples.
I so hope I am making the right decisions with this. I am really kind of freaked out about the whole thing. I have prayed about it, of course, and this man is well-recommended, and makes a good first impression. I think I told you, the company is family-owned, third generation... but somehow, I feel disloyal to my dad's choice of roofer (who is going to be doing my dbil's next door). And WHY do I feel disloyal when I have SEVEN leaks and one in particular he tried twice and failed to fix before handing me off to a vinyl siding man??? And his recommended siding man couldn't fix it either???
Of course, my contractor couldn't fix it either!
I did not talk to the roofer today about the dormers and how much trouble they had been -- I wish I had. We discussed the satellite dish, the tv antenna, vents, diverters vs gutters over the bay window and the front steps... but I didn't bring up that I would like some sort of assurance that he feels confident he can do the flashing correctly around the dormers. SIGH. I hope I have prayed enough.

On top of all this, I am still slightly anxious re: dh's cousin...
and feeling a lot of self-recrimination about things long ago... (Have y'all seen that meme that says: MY BRAIN: "Oh, you're trying to sleep? Let me bring up everything you've done wrong since 1975."
Talked to my mom... she wanted to talk about all the things she did wrong in her youth. I guess that should be helpful, but not especially so.

I need to eat something but I am not very hungry.