Thursday

At 7:05 AM, I was at the St. Mary Mercy outreach laboratory, getting my blood drawn. I may or may not have mentioned this but since I have been in and out of hospitals since I was 20, the veins in my arms SUCK! So, I was not surprised when the one in my left arm fizzled out and she had to draw more blood out of the right arm. Maybe someday I will tell you about my experiences in the Intensive Care unit when I was young. Then again, maybe not... Anyway, I got to work, with bandages and gauze pad on both arms. Nobody asked, but I decided, if asked, to tell them I cut myself shaving, lol!

Thursday was another picture-perfect day. I got a phone call from Sadie down in Virginia just after 10:00 AM at work. She said she had just finished talking to the surgeon and Luanne's operation went well. The donor ligament fit just fine. Lu will be in recovery for a couple hours and before she goes home tomorrow (she will stay in the hospital 23 hours so it's still considered "outpatient surgery!") they will already have her in therapy, at least once.

So, I emailed my kids, copied my brothers and then called my Mom. At lunch, I imposed on B___ to go to Lowe's and picked up some metal sheeting, nuts & bolts and lock washers to fabricate my mulching plug. I think I will work on this Friday night, when it's supposed to rain.

When I got home, I changed clothes, emptied the dishwasher and then went outside. I concentrated my leaf-gathering efforts to under, around and beyond the concrete pad where the sailboat and the trailer sit. I stopped there, as the leaves now extended over the top of the sand box. I watered the hell out of that pile of leaves, and then added the remaining 40 pound bag of cheap top soil (to aid in the composting).

To estimate the number of bags I need to get it to a "vegetable garden" I measured the sand box. Its 5 feet by 8 feet. According to my calculations, I will need approximately 15 more bags of top soil. <groan> It's not the price (its cheap) but the weight! That's over 600 pounds of store-bought dirt!

I came back inside after taking a photo (you'll see them all in a collage of "raised-bed gardening" when I'm done). It was 7:40 PM, so I started dinner. I'm already tired of leftovers, so I made a Pasta Pascal.

I saut�ed four minced cloves of garlic in olive oil and butter for two minutes. Then I added one chopped medium onion and cooked it for two more minutes. Then I added in three leftover tomatoes I diced (recipe calls for four Roma or "plum" tomatoes, BTW), 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil, and salt and pepper to taste. I reduced the heat to medium-low and let it simmer.

Meanwhile, I cooked some spaghetti (recipe calls for angel hair pasta, BTW - I just didn't have any on hand) until it was al dente. Then I drained it and tossed it with the tomato mixture and ate it.

Result? So-so. Tasted okay, just pretty bland for a main dish. It would have made a great side dish for, say fried eggplant.

I decided to clean up the kitchen in the morning and went in to watch TV. This time, I actually stayed awake until I shut it off and went to sleep.