Sunday

I slept in on Sunday morning. It was almost 6:00 AM when I woke up. I got a cup of coffee and worked on the Blog post. When I got that done, I cooked some soft boiled eggs for my breakfast.

Then I shaved and showered. I got dressed and got to work. First were the Sunday morning chores. Then I started cleaning the house (it’s about time!)

I quit at 10:30 AM and got dressed in better clothes. My cubicle buddy Michelle picked me up just after 11:00. We headed out to Wyandot to visit our friend and co-worker Vicky, who was in the hospital after having her baby.

Mother and child are both doing fine. Yanessa (the baby) has incredibly long eyelashes and an amazing amount of hair for a newborn. Her only problem is that, so far, she has no inclination to eat. I explained that, being Puerto Rican, she probably has no interest in milk. If they would just try, say, mango juice or rum, she would be fine! (Why am I the only one who can figure these thing out?)

We stayed and visited with Vicky, Daniel and Yanessa for about an hour. More visitors showed up, so we said our goodbyes and headed back. Michelle dropped me off and then headed back to her house and husband in Waterford (another hour’s drive).

I changed into shorts and t-shirt and finished the house cleaning. I started the last load of weekend wash. I was just going outside to cut the back grass when the telephone rang. It was my daughter Melissa. She filled me in on the progress of their preparations for moving back to Michigan. She’s had an awful lot to coordinate but if all goes well, they and their stuff should arrive here (hopefully on the same day) next weekend.

We talked for a while and then said our goodbyes. I went out and got the mower from the shed. I cut the grass and checked to see if the cut was even (if you remember, it looked a little off after I changed the blades). I still couldn’t tell for sure, so I suppose it can’t be that bad, LOL!

I came inside and it was about 5:30 PM. The first thing I noticed was the TV (that I left on) was silent. So, I checked the phones and the Internet. Damn! Everything was down. So, I called Brighthouse and got a recorded message that said there was an area-wide outage. Sigh…

I started dinner. It would have been a good day to grill, with lower temps and less humidity (for a nice change), but I am tired of grilled food. For some reason, I was craving spaghetti and meatballs.

I so went out and snipped a handful of basil and oregano. Back inside, I made a marinara sauce. Please note: The following instructions were NOT from a recipe. I just made them up. So, follow them at your own risk!

I peeled four big cloves of garlic using he two aluminum bowls trick (that really does work, BTW). I minced and sautéed them in olive oil. When they were golden, I added a 28-ounce can of whole tomatoes and squished them by hand. I rinsed the can and added the extra water to the pot. I stripped some of the oregano, cut up some basil and threw all that in as well. I topped it off with a lot of sea salt and a generous amount of fresh cracked black pepper. I brought it all to a boil and then let it simmer.

I minced half a yellow cooking onion and put that in a bowl. I added in a pound of ground chuck, a handful of grated Parmesan cheese, a handful of plain breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and an egg. I squished all that together to mix and then made the mixture into meatballs (each slightly bigger than a golf ball).

I browned the meatballs in a skillet with olive oil. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. When the meatballs were browned on all sides, I stuck the oven-proof pan into the oven for about 15 minutes to finish cooking.

Meanwhile, I cooked a half a pound of spaghetti (two big servings). When the meatballs were done, I put them in the reduced marinara sauce to get happy (everybody into the pool!)

Note: I normally leave a kitchen towel on the hot handle of the skillet when I take it out of the oven, as a reminder. This time I forgot. So, when I needed a bit more room on the stove, I grabbed the handle to slide it around. OUCH! I ran my hand under cold water for a while, then soldiered on.

I plated half the spaghetti topped it with some marinara sauce and two meatballs and topped that with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan. I ate my dinner and it was worth the mess that I had to deal with afterwards!

The TV came back on during dinner (Thank God!). So, I watched a taped show waiting for Mountain Man at 9:00 PM. I checked and the leftovers had cooled sufficiently. So, I put everything in the fridge, hand washed the few items that required it and started the dishwasher.

My friend B___ called and we caught each other up on our week’s activities. He was amazed that the wiring on the trailer had disintegrated and suggested they may have used aluminum wires instead of our copper ones.

After we hung up, I started watching Mountain Man. I dozed off during the episode and woke up just as it was ending. I had taped it of course, and thought about watching it again. But, I decided I was tired and would finish it another day. So, I went to bed.