It ain't much

I got nothing done this weekend.
OK. Not entirely true. But close.
I did manage to pull together the stuff I need to take to the tax guy next week.
I also cooked.
Grilled pork tenderloin with onion reduction and tangy Asian slaw.

Yum.

It was awesome.

I also got a haircut. It looks OK. But I am glad I have a lot of fast-growing hair.
I have really thick hair and while she was layering it, she thinned it out more than I like.
And the top layer is kind of short so it is a little puffier than I like.

But really, it is not that bad and it grows fast.

So. That's all I got.

Go pluck yourself

The manfriend and I went out to dinner last night after I got off work.
Nothing fancy, we just went to an Irish pub that we like that is not too far from his place.

So we go in and get a table.
The waitress comes over and takes our drink order.
A few minutes later, she brings us our beers, looks at me and says "You have really nice eyebrows."

Um... thanks...

That is probably just about the oddest compliment I have ever gotten.
But it's a compliment, so I will take it.

Not a big leap

It's leap day.

Not a real holiday, but fun to say nonetheless.

Leap day.

leap of faith

look before you leap

lovers' leap

take a flying leap

They showed a segment on the news this morning of women buying flowers for men. I had not heard of this before as a leap day thing. But whatever, maybe it is.

It is also said that leap day is the day when a woman can ask a man to marry her.

Don't worry. I have no proposals planned today.

The biggest leap I am taking today is getting myself out of bed and off to work.

Super soup

Here is that potato-leek soup recipe, as promised.

The recipe there makes a LOT. You could probably cut it in half and still have plenty.

I just like to freeze the leftovers.

Anyway, that's all I have today since I really didn't do anything but go to work.

Mmmmmmm... chocolate and rum

My drugs are all gone and I am pretty much back to my normal self, such as it is.

What better way to celebrate than with a cake?

I worked part of Sunday then went out to dinner with the whole extended family for my uncle's 50th birthday. So no cooking on Sunday.

But on Monday, I was in the mood to chop, whisk, mince, dice and sautee. Plus all those other cooking verbs.

I made a big pot of potato-leek soup (recipe to be posted later when I finish typing it up) to go into single portions in the freezer.

For dinner I made grilled burgers with a side salad and baked sweet potato fries with a spicy barbecue sauce. Yum.

For dessert?

Chocolate-rum cake with homemade whipped cream and raspberry puree.

Damn!

I have made this before and it is really not a tough cake to make. It just dirties a lot of bowls and a few pans.

But it is like a restaurant dessert.

Other than that, I did not do much with my one full day off work.

I slept late today, leaving myself a little time for photo work on the cake pictures and pulling the recipe together. Then off to work.

The rest of this week I have some chores to do at home and some cards to work on for some Internet swaps. I also need to see about a hair cut.

Exciting, I know.

Back on my feet

I know I have been lax in posting here. I can blame it on the sick thing.
Which seems to be mostly gone now.
Thank goodness.

So, time to get back into the swing of things.
I even made a real dinner last night for the first time in a couple of weeks.
I told manfriend I wanted to cook something simple.
I made roasted rosemary potatoes, steamed broccoli and a quick chicken piccata.
It was soooooooooooooo good. It was just what I wanted.
And, no, sorry, I did not take pictures to post on the other blog.
I was trying to get dinner cooked as quickly as possible since it was 9 by the time I got home last night. Next time I make it, I will take more time.

As for work, it is going OK. Busy as usual. I also am working a sixth day this week.
But it should be an easy day since Sundays are pretty quiet.

So, that has been my life for the past week or so. Sleep, work, sleep, sleep, work.

Maybe the weekend after this one I can get out and do something more interesting.
They just opened a new modern art wing at LACMA. That would be something fun to do.

OK. Sorry to be so boring. I am off to get ready for work now.

My battery power is at about 73 percent

Normalcy has almost returned.

I still have a bit of a cough. You know, that cough that lingers for weeks after all the other symptoms have long since left the body.

That doesn't mean I got much done this weekend.

I was actually pretty lazy.

The energy level is just starting to return. I still get tired quickly by simple things.

But I did manage to sweep and mop the floor in the living room/dining area yesterday. That was my big achievement, complete with moving the furniture and cleaning under everything.

I feel a bit guilty that I have not cooked anything in days.

Adding water to Trader Joe's miso soup mix does not count.

Manfriend came over Saturday after I got off work and grilled some veggies and a steak and made artichokes.

It was nice that he took on most of the cooking chores that night.

He doesn't cook much, but he can work the grill just fine.



Sunday I had stamping (that is my card contribution above) and, before I got sick, had signed up to bring the main dish for the lunch part of the gathering.

I was thinking Thursday that I might be too sick or tired to go, or at least too sick or tired to be responsible for making the main course.

But I decided to just do something easy.

I made the mushroom-sage bread pudding that I made as a dinner side dish a couple of weeks ago. But this time, to make it more of a meal, I added diced ham to the mushrooms and onions while I was cooking them.

I did most of the chopping Saturday night and stuck everything in the fridge.

Sunday morning, I cooked the mushrooms, onions and ham. Then I mixed the milk and eggs and put it all together and baked it. It went pretty fast having it all chopped ahead of time.

Seems like it was a hit. Most people went back for seconds.

But when I got home that afternoon, I was exhausted.

Basically I sat and stanped for 4 hours. But I was just beat.

So I napped.

Then we went out for dinner.



This week I will work six days (Mon-Sun) to cover for someone who is helping with Oscar pages.

So I sure hope the energy level is up by then.