Friday, January 09, 2009

в кухне


Church must have done me good. Tonight and last night I did not leave work feeling as though I had been run over by a truck. Thank you, Jesus and Holy Mother Mary.

There seemed, nonetheless, to be some weird configuration of the planets this morning. While this afternoon we fielded the usual mix of the timid, the frustrated, and the confused (it IS a help desk, after all), this morning all of us seemed to get very frustrated, angry, cranky, and grumpy people. It was several hours of non-stop negative vibes. I was very happy to go to lunch and get lost in a green chile cheeseburger and reviewing my Russian textbook.

I figured going over the text we used last spring might be a good idea before plunging back into it twenty-seven days from now. It is certainly a lot easier as review than it was trying to digest so much radically new material the first time around. The fact that I have used CDs, vocabulary lists, grammar books, phrase books, and dictionaries in the meantime undoubtedly has helped. Alas, the very cute and nice Russian bellboys at the New Orleans hotel are not available for me to practice Russian with.

The past month has involved several rounds of tidying and cleaning. Thursday night I dropped off a trunkload of clothing that was getting out of my closet and - I trust - on to the bodies of homeless folk. It has been windy and chilly of late, though last night I came home and it was 70 degrees upstairs and I had left the heat off all day.

Tonight I pre-cooked ground beef, hot Italian sausage, onions, and garlic. Tomorrow these will be joined by two kinds of mushrooms and tons of tomato-y goodness plus spices, to simmer for hours and become my signature spaghetti sauce, in the Neapolitan style with lots of fennel seed to give it a noticeable overtone of licorice (which I adore in any form). The Dinner for Eight group will meet at my house tomorrow evening. While at Whole Foods I ran across some ladies passing out samples of their pasta and flavored butters. One was clearly Italian (by her accent). I asked what sort of pasta she would recommend for a heavy meat sauce such as I am making. She went for the rigatoni with rough surface to pick up the sauce - and so it shall be.

All that and brunch and La Rondine tomorrow midday. Whew. Glad I am not preaching this Sunday.

This is all pure piffle, of course. I am not up to profundities or rants tonight. Ready for bed.

Hope y'all are heading into very nice weekends.
--the BB

3 comments:

Jane R said...

The moon is almost full, honey. This may account for the cranky people.

And for the cat who jumped to the top of a very, very tall bookcase reaching nearly up to the ceiling.

Paul said...

... and the bishop jumped over the moon.

Yes, lunar time, and She is so lovely.

David@Montreal said...

Paul
your piffle was delightful
and here's hoping both the Dinner for Eight and your week-end's memorable.

David@Montreal