A1A South

I was rushing around the kitchen last night like a Cheetah on speed trying to get all the predinner cooking done. I had the kiddie table set up in the kitchen for the children to eat at since I’ve grown weary of picking food outta the carpet in the dining room. I had placed the groceries (i.e., raw ingredients) on that table along with my purse earlier that day. Somehow I knocked the purse to the floor and didn’t notice it. The out-of-place bag was brought to my attention when I tripped over it while carrying a dozen eggs. I recovered my balance, but the eggs landed on the floor. I said some naughty words that guaranteed that I wasn’t going to get a visit from Santa, then kicked the offending piece of leather across the floor. I mopped up the worst of the carnage, then got back to cooking and didn’t think of it again.

Not until this evening, in fact. I was taking an overflowing garbage bag out of the trash can when I noted a brown something behind the trash can. I moved the trash can out. There was my forgotten purse, sitting wide open, with the contents inside of a plastic plate that had gone over the top of the garbage bag and had landed, instead, in the purse.

So, I removed a turkey leg bone with a few strips of meat left, some smashed taters, and mushy fruit salad. Oh, THAT’s gonna leave a mark. I think I may be shopping for a new purse soon. VERY soon.

The immediate SwampFamily arrived home today for the Christmas dinner.  SwampSon smoked a turkey.  Not Thanksgiving, but an anonymous store-bought turkey.  Thanksgiving is still attempting to stalk magnificently around the yard, but his tail feathers are getting a bit tattered. It is hard to get a good stalk on when the tail feathers are all tatty. At sunset, Thanksgiving stalks back to the pen he shares with a rooster or two who want to share the safety of the pen at night and a turn at the ever filled bowl of food.

It was wonderful having both my mom and little brother here. It had been about 35 years since we had last all had a meal together.

I made peanut butter blossom cookies for SwampMan today, something that I absolutely cannot eat.  But I absolutely love them.  They were sitting in the kitchen on a plate, all warm and peanut buttery smelling.  The Hershey kiss on top was soft and delicious looking.  Must. Resist.

Some of you that know me know that my resistance to Things That Are Bad For Me is a little, well, uh, underexercised.  Yeah.  That’s it.  Take, for example, my job.  I barely cover my expenses with my salary, but let myself get guilted into continuing to do it.  I could earn more money, which I badly need, by doing just about anything else.  Like what?  Well, I think I would earn more money spraying for roaches for a pest control company.  I hate them things.  It would be pretty satisfying to go home at night knowing that because of me, somebody will not have a roachburger at the local fast food restaurant.  Maybe I should look into that.  But no doubt my employers would try to talk me out of it by telling me how sad it would be for the children who would, no doubt, in reality be ecstatic at my departure.  It is just that my employers would have a hard time getting some other sucker in there for that low a salary.

If I can’t even walk out on a job that is bad for me (and giving me frowny wrinkles), what sort of resistance am I likely to put up to warm, delicious cookies that will give me severe intestinal problems after they’re ingested?  Except maybe this time they won’t.  Maybe I’m cured.  Maybe that whole gluten intolerance stuff has gone away.  Maybe just three cookies won’t hurt……

I’m supposed to be cooking and wrapping and cleaning today.  Too bad that I’m sitting in front of the computer, tapping on the keys and periodically doubling over in pain, hoping that I’ll be back to “normal” in a few hours.

Maybe the dressing and gravy on Christmas day won’t affect me.  Maybe it’s just the cookies…..

I think you can safely picture me running around in circles and screaming.  Yep.  That’s me.

Mom’s latest surgery (lymph node removal) went quite well.  We had to leave for the hospital @ 5 a.m. yesterday morning.  Since I didn’t want to wake up both grandsons when I was going out the door at 4 a.m., I spent the night.  Heh.  SwampMan got to take care of the grandsons and take them to class with him.

Mom had a different anesthesiologist this time, and she was not sick at all in the recovery room or at discharge.  She refused any pain pills.   Instead of being basically unconscious (and sick!) for several days, we were sitting on her bed late last night laughing and telling jokes.

I had an eye appointment with the optometrist today, so I set off for home early.  Mom got up at 5 a.m. and fixed breakfast for us (I TOLD you she was feeling pretty good this time) before I left.  Getting up at 5 a.m. is Mom’s version of sleeping in.  She and my brother usually get up at 4 a.m.  That whole morning person thing skipped me entirely.  Mom keeps the thermostat at her house set at somewhere between summer in the Sonoran desert and the fires of hell, so my sleeping for the last couple of days was almost nonexistent.  I can’t go outside and feed because my dilated pupils react to sunlight much like those vampires that burst into flames when the sun comes up.   This would be primo naptime opportunity, but I can’t go to sleep because the (insert really foul expletive of your choice here) roosters have all decided to crow probably because I haven’t fed yet.   SwampMan and the grandsons are off on some sort of Secret Mission today.   I need to clean and decorate, too, but everything is a big ol’ blur.  The optometrist told me that the blurry vision would wear off in about two hours.  I hope so.

I haven’t really done any Christmas shopping yet.  I’ve taken a lot of time off for work (unpaid), and won’t have any cash coming in until mid January IF I go back to work.  Aaaaack.  I wonder if I can give out I.O.U.s for Christmas if they’re wrapped really pretty?

The kids in SwampMan’s class kept breaking the 7/32 drill bits used for predrilling holes for drywall screws used in their small wooden projects (drywall screws being cheaper and smaller than wood screws).   SwampMan cut the head off a 6 penny nail and put it in the drill for them to use instead.  It works very well.  Don’t make the mistake of touching it, though!