Monday

As I said, I forgot to set my alarm clock. So, I was a little late. I got there just before 8:00 AM, though.

At lunch, I went home and noticed a Postal box on the porch. Since there's no mail today (President's Day in the US), it must have come Friday or Saturday.

I opened it up and found the two books Lu said she would send me plus a cute Valentine's Day card.

So, when I got home after work, I called to thank her. We chatted for a while and caught each other up on the latest happenings. The constant rain down there is messing up their half-mile driveway and giving the goats hoof rot (yuck).

I posted two new poems and two new photos.

Around 6:30 PM, I made dinner. If you remember, I need to use or lose my mussels tonight. Immediately, I ran into problems. All my shallots were bad! So, I fine-diced a little bit of a red onion (I figured they were the mildest onion taste). I sauteed them in some olive oil while I minced two cloves of garlic. The garlic went into the olive oil as well.

Now this is the first time I tried making mussels. I know that after you steam them (or clams), any that don't open are dead and you must discard them. But, while I was scrubbing them, I noticed a few were already open. Does that mean they are bad? Are they just frisky? I dunno... But I threw them out anyway (better safe than sorry). If anyone knows for sure, please let me know.

When the onion and garlic were ready I added one of those small bottles of white wine (maybe a cup or cup and a half). When it was boiling, I added the mussels, covered the pan and cut up some parsley. After eight minutes, I took off the lid and, using a slotted spoon, pulled out the mussels (they were all opened, BTW) and put them in a big bowl.

I whisked in two tablespoons of butter and added the parsley. I cut off three slices of that "Rustic Italian Bread" I love, topped the mussels with my newly-made sauce and carried dinner into the bedroom. You could also put the mussels on top of, say, linguine (which I considered). But, I just ate the mussels and dipped the bread into the sauce. OMG! Delicious!!!

Man that was good!

Just after I finished dinner, my friend B___ called. We also caught each other up and then hung up.

I watched the Olympics until bedtime. I did various things during the couples figure skating (I must admit I like the racing better). I think it's because I don't know, and so don't get, the finer points of lifts and turns. I do know if you fall down, you fncked up, though. That I get...

I did doze off and on later in the evening (not taking a nap is a detriment to watching the Olympics) Finally, I gave it up, shut off the TV and went to sleep for good.