New Year’s Day

I woke up just after 7:00 AM on Tuesday, New Year’s Day. I will have to practice writing “2013” but it seems like I just got used to writing 2012!

I took a cue from Carla, who had gathered up old clothes to donate when I was down there. So, I went through my closets and dresser and took out everything that doesn’t fit me anymore (and there is a LOT of stuff that doesn’t fit). I’ll drop the bag off at Goodwill on my lunch hour this week.

I ate the other biscuits and more of the sausage gravy for breakfast.

I went in to check on a measurement for the frying pan clock and saw a problem. It was almost a half hour slow! I noticed it was off yesterday, but I thought I just set it wrong (there’s no numbers on it, just hands) and reset it. I suppose I could buy a new clock mechanism, but for right now I am not going to tear up my kitchen for a clock that doesn’t keep the right time!

At least I got a clean wall out of it, LOL!

I swept the kitchen floor and vacuumed the living room rug. I finally decided which graduation picture of my grandson Carl I wanted to frame so I did that and rearranged the shelves in the barrister bookcase. I also framed Riese’s latest school picture.

Then I took down the Christmas decorations, put back the stuff I moved to accommodate them and finally watered the bay leaf tree.

I called B____ to wish him a Happy New Year. Then I shaved and showered and got ready to go to the Brother’s Party. I left here about 2:00 PM and got there at 2:35. Well, I say I got there but, although I easily found his street, I couldn’t remember the house! I finally stopped in front of what I “thought” was the right house and called. Sure enough, I was right. So, I pulled in the driveway and went inside.

Kathy and Joe greeted me and then Kathy went downstairs in the basement to bring me up a present: A whole shoe box filled with various antique apothecary bottles! They are trying to create a little more space in their house and she knew I have started collecting them. She put them in the closet under my coat so I wouldn’t forget them.

Then Jim and Coletta came, bringing my brother Carl with them. I was shocked and dismayed to see Carl using a walker again (he was just using a cane when we went to Hannah’s). He said he had hurt himself somehow, but didn’t know how and was in a lot of pain, despite going three times to a chiropractor.

With Coletta’s back and knee problems and Carl and my recent spinal fusions, half of the six remaining Goerlichs in this generation are falling apart. Kathy and Joe are doing okay due to an exercise regiment (Kathy walks a total of eight miles a day, while Joe works out on their elliptical machine and walks four miles with Kathy later on) and so is Jim (but it sounds like in his case it’s just pure luck). Note: I was gonna say “dumb luck” but there is nothing dumb about my brother Jim.

We noshed on two different varieties of the Pillsbury Crescent Rolls covering a ball of cheese appetizers: Smoked Gouda and Asiago. I went back and forth over which one I liked better, but decided it was the smoked gouda (then again, I like everything smoked!) Kathy also put out some cheese spread I forgot to get the name of, (where's Jake when I need him?) with butterfly crackers her grandkids love and some gluten-free white cheddar crackers Coletta brought.  The spread was great on both, but I think I liked the butterfly crackers better (I’m just a kid at heart, LOL).

We all chatted about new stuff and old. Eventually, Coletta and I moved into the living room with a tastefully trimmed tree and a fire in the fireplace, to be joined later by Jim and then Carl. Kathy and Joe were putting the finishing touches on dinner.

The dinner bell rang (figuratively) and the first course was a mini salad bar. I put some lettuce, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and Greek salad dressing on my plate. It was excellent, but when Kathy brought Carl his salad (he was, of course, playing up the crippled kid thing), I noticed I’d overlooked the cucumber slices, croutons and black pitted olives. Damn! There was also some crumbled Bleu Cheese as well that I deliberately passed on (I was going Greek, you see – but the black olives would have been nice).

Then came the main course: Lasagna with garlic toast and green beans as the side. Kathy was beating herself up about the lasagna being overcooked (I know that feeling as I do it myself) but, honestly, it was delicious. I couldn’t figure out what the green beans were seasoned with (sesame seeds? Black pepper?) I don’t know. But, they were damn good as well.

When we were all stuffed, she brought out dessert: low fat and regular cheese cake, fresh mixed berries and two trays of cookies. I nibbled on some cookies (too full to eat cheesecake, although it looked fantastic).

Being German, I had some of the Springerle cookies (white, anise-flavored cookies made with a special rolling pin that imprints a design). These were store-bought as Kathy can’t find her rolling pin and no one know what happened to my mother’s. And I had some pfeffernusse (a messy, powdered-sugar covered German cookie I love as well).

Please note: I learned several things tonight that I did not know! One is that the furnace that I always was told “exploded” when I was born, filling the house with oily soot, did NOT explode! It merely burped and the same furnace I grew up with was the culprit that sent my still pissed-off brothers out to eat frog legs for Christmas dinner while Mom and I laid in the hospital.

And, two, in my Mother’s genealogy pursuits, she learned she was, in fact, 7/8th  German! My father apparently jokingly referred to her 1/8 English ancestry as her only shortcoming, although my brother Carl claims it was her saving grace (he apparently has some sort of bias towards German women).

I finished off my dessert with another cookie that Kathy does always make: a Kifli, which I learned was a Hungarian cookie made with nuts. It was excellent, so I had another.

I switched from coffee to tonic water, mindful of the long ride home! You really don’t want to be finding a McDonald’s open in the “D” to take a p*ss this late at night. Joe had called me earlier in the morning to ask what it was I asked for but they didn’t have last year: Club soda or tonic water? I asked him not to make a special trip for me and he assured me he had to go out anyway. So, I told him tonic water.

Now, I know it’s a stretch, but the British were onto something. If you drink enough quinine, you won’t get malaria. Hence tonic water was born. So, I drink it, not only because it has a strange, sharp taste, but also so I don’t get malaria. And, I haven’t yet!

I noticed it was after 8:00 PM and then I realized I was the only one in the house who had to go to work in the morning. So, I said my goodbyes while Kathy fixed a care package for me of two pieces of lasagna and some garlic toast. I took that and my box of jars and headed out into the cold.

The trip home was unremarkable as traffic was rather light. I got home just before 9:00 PM. I filled in most of this post (with the help of both Carl and Joe for names and correct spelling issues). I got my stuff ready for work in the morning and then went to bed.