You know how it is . . .

when a collection of words gets stuck in your head and you keep hearing them even when you don't want to? Kind of like an ear-worm only more internal?




See, MJ and RW very kindly invited us to share their Christmas Day dinner, and on the way out to their beautiful home in the country, we passed a field full of geese. A field full of a flock of about five hundred wild Canada Honkers.

Click to embiggen. My little camera couldn't fully encompass the flock. This is the uphill section of the party, but there were about twice as many downhill as well. those gray smudges on the further slopes are geese.

I got out of the car and attempted to sneak up on them for close-ups. It made them nervous, and a flurry of flight ensued. But they stayed in the field.

The grass was gray with grazing geese.

Arrrgh! It's not poetry. It won't let me make it into poetry. Every time I try to wrap words around the experience, it starts to alliterate in a disgustingly obvious manner and it's frustrating the wahoonies out of me!

The dinner was superb! I finished off the last of the left-over roasted carrots today for lunch. A beautiful beef roast cooked on a bed of vegetables, served with salad and finished with gingerbread for dessert. It was so tasty!!

We visited our friend in the hospital briefly. Oxycodone makes people really goofy. I can't IMAGINE taking it for recreation! He was having trouble getting both eyes and his brain to fix on the same thing at one time. At least one member of the trio was constantly wandering away. Quite soon we left and let him go to sleep.

The hospital has had a great idea. There's a big dry-erase board fastened to the wall at the foot of his bed, and the nurses keep track of his stats on it, as well as in their notes. They have listed the doctors on his case, the medicines he is taking, the treatment scheduled for the day, and made a list of his goals for the day. (Get a shower! Walk the length of the hall twice.) and they check things off as they happen. With all the drugs he is on, this is a wonderful confirmation of pertinent data that the patient can access for himself. I remember hospital stays when I remembered things that didn't happen (I don't think the doctors came into my room wearing hazmat suits) and lost things that DID happen. (Either that, or someone slipped into the room while I was asleep and ate my entire dinner. I never did remember eating it, but there was that dinner tray full of empties.)

Several folks have kindly asked about the cats. Squirrel still lives in secure isolation, except for evenings when she comes out under DH's protection. Pepper still thinks it's great fun to slap the crap out of Squirrel at every opportunity. It's a rotten life for the poor kitty. Anyone want a sweet, playful, affectionate kitty who has been spayed and had all her shots? She's just too timid for our household.

And the magic Cat Genie self-cleaning litterbox is a wonderful thing and we think the world of it. The cats won't have a damn thing to do with it. Oh well.

since I got a KitchenAid stand mixer for Christmas, I went out and bought flour and yeast today. I think I'll start with Rye bread because it's SUPPOSED to be dense. Tonight, I'll be checking out recipes. Tomorrow, I'll give it a try!