Great weekend

We had a really nice weekend, and we hardly did anything, but that's the way I like it! When I got home Friday night, Bob suggested that we go out to dinner, and we ended up at Cinzetti's, an Italian buffet-type restaurant. I had a couple of plates of some really excellent Caesar salad, a little fried zucchini, a little pasta Alfredo, and a little of a potato dish, and that was basically it except for a few little pieces of dessert--a cannoli and a small molten chocolate cake. Oh, and bread. They have this wonderful, light garlic/cheese bread, and I had a couple of pieces of that. It was more expensive than most places we go lately--with tip, it ended up being almost $50, and we only drank iced tea--but it was fun, and we hardly ever do that anymore. And I didn't overeat, which is such a temptation at a place like that.

This was Bob's weekend off, so on Saturday we slept late, then Bob went out to the golf course to hit balls and I went to Panera for lunch (another Caesar salad!), and sat and read on my iPad for awhile. I got involved in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series over the weekend, and read the first three books and part of the fourth. Then I ran a few errands and went home, and spent the afternoon and early evening reading, and went to bed early.

On Sunday we slept in (again), did laundry and went to Schlotsky's for lunch. My Dad called in the evening and asked if we were watching television--there was a tornado warning for our area, but the sirens hadn't gone off. I scooped up Dinah and my purse, and we headed for the basement. Dinah wasn't happy--she likes the basement if it's her choice, but she doesn't like to be confined down there. It rained really hard, hailed a little, but the tornado didn't materialize. It's always kind of fun to retreat to the basement, I think. I don't, of course, want a tornado, but it's something different, and it's kind of like camping. It makes me remember when I was a kid and we spent most of the summer in the basement, since we didn't have air conditioning.

Bob found a weather report on the radio, and I was perfectly happy snugged up in the bed down there with Dinah and the iPad. Bob went upstairs to scope out the situation, and called me (!) to tell me that it was hailing, but that the tornado warning was apparently over. So we went back upstairs and had ice cream for dinner and watched "Bell, Book and Candle."

The end.

New Book: A Box of Stars

For the past couple of weeks I've been putting together a collection of the monthly essays that I used to do for the front page of the journal. Bob had been encouraging me to do that--and to do a compilation of blog posts--for a long time, but I just hadn't done it yet. Formatting for ebooks is a lot of work, and I've been spending my evenings doing that. But I finally finished last night. Now I'll start thinking about another one.

Buy "A Box of Stars" at Amazon

It is also available in multiple formats at Smashwords.

Randomness

How hard it is to change someone's impression of you -- in our office we don't have vending machines, but we have an "honor" snack box that a company brings in periodically. You choose what you want, and put your money in a slot in the box. A couple of months ago one of the guys got something from the box, and noticed that it (a candy bar, I think) looked like it had been nibbled on. He pulled stuff out of the box to look inside, and said it was full of mouse droppings.

He sent an email out to the whole company about what he had found, and he had the office manager call the vending company. A few days later they came in with a replacement box and taped a note to the top of it apologizing, and saying that the "situation" had been resolved. But that's been a few weeks, and as far as I can tell, no one has taken anything out of the box. No one is going to take a chance on eating something that may have been contaminated by mice.

It's sort of like hearing something about a person that makes you think about them differently. I always believe that people deserve second (or third) chances, and that everyone is capable of redemption. But it's hard. You have to be careful about the impressions that you leave with people, because sometimes it's impossible to change them once they're ingrained.

Household Gods

God of Salt
Goddess of Clock
Goddess of Tea
Goddess of Stairs (invoke before descending)
Goddess of Cats That Come When Called (not generally available)
God of Lost Spectacles
God of Beloved Housepets
Goddess of Grief
God of Toast (see also, God of Margarine)
God of Absent Loved Ones
Goddess of Pie
Goddess of Socks (mischievious)
Goddess of Candles (in charge of carrying intentions to Heaven)
God of Sleep
God of Bread
Goddess of Unspoken Resentment
God of Uncomfortable Silences
Goddess of Spices
God of the Lottery (elusive)
Goddess of Heartache
God of Toddlers Learning to Walk
Goddess of Fertility
Goddess of Kitchen Gardens(includes Minor Goddesses of Herbs, Vegetables, etc.)
Goddess of Tears

See also, Angels.

~ Willa Cline

March Photo-a-Day: March 13

"A Sign"

I just happened to see this sign in the lobby when I went out to check the mail. It was taped to the mail boxes. I'd much rather see a "Found" photo than a "Lost" one.

March Photo-a-Day

March Photo-a-Day: March 12

"Fork"

Hard to think of a way to take an artistic photo of a fork. This is a photo of the inside of one of the drawers at work, with a cardboard box filled with plasticware. We go through a lot of it. I suppose it's not too "green" of us, but I have something of a phobia about using silverware that other people use and may not have washed thoroughly, or even if it's gone through the dishwasher. I have my own stash of a fork and spoon in case we run out.

March Photo-a-Day