(2) Sat Nov 01 2003 17:23: Today I dragged Ernestine Boonstoppel out of bed and took her to Super Saturday. At lunch, she asked "Isn't this Saturday meeting just for young sisters".

Funny, when I was young I thought Homemaking Meeting was just for old ladies. Ernestine thinks I am young. Hah.

That said, really, all the cutsie crafts and cooking classes really were more useful for the newlyweds. I think it would be a very hard thing to have an Enrichment calling and keep trying to think of ideas to keep such a spread of ladies busy, and in truth, Ernestine was only one of a couple of senior citizens there. (The others were there with their daughters.)

I watched the cooking demonstration, which was about "cheating." They used prefrozen bread dough to make rolls, breadsticks, and monkey bread. I don't know if I could ever bring myself to do that. I made one jar of layered soup mix, which I gave to Ernestine, and then I just worked on my scrapbook. I had a big audience, so I think I wasn't the only one who didn't need more crafty holiday decorations.

Then we had lunch, an event at which I shine. Thank heaven lunch isn't just for newlyweds!

Sun Nov 02 2003 18:42: Grammar book done, back to the scrapbook. I did a couple of pages today, but I am still in 1988. I'm thinking it's about time to put it away for a while and work on the Christmas presents for Jonathan's family and my kids. I did not want to do that. I wanted to be done by now.

The pictures I took of apple bobbing at the church fall social are so precious I'm going to have to make a scrapbook page of them even though they are not my kids! Well, they are sort of my kids. Drew Smith, Caryn Ledbetter...

(1) Mon Nov 03 2003 21:18: I discovered my recipe file box has one divider for "Appetizers" and one for "Hors D'ouevres" Huh? What's the difference?

The Hors D'Ouevres divider in my box is empty. I don't think I even noticed it was there before.

Tue Nov 04 2003 10:19: I think I'm going to try a new recipe today--for Oven Barbecued Swiss Steak. It sounds good, doesn't it? I am considering doing it in the crock pot instead of in the oven. Therefore, after I teach my class, I will go to Green Frog Market and hunt and gather provisions.

At some point this week, I also need to go to Target.

(5) Wed Nov 05 2003 14:58: Sigh. My weblog is forty-second in a Google search for "Jabberwocky." I feel like a second class citizen.

(2) Wed Nov 05 2003 21:01: I found a handout from a miniclass my mother taught in Homemaking Meeting on how to make non-weeping meringue topping for lemon pie. She claims that it will keep for a week in the refrigerator and the bottom crust will never get soggy.

As if. She never had a lemon pie last more than a day in her life.

Sat Nov 08 2003 11:23: I have finally heard from my old friend Dieter Merkle. I was worried when the wildfires entered his neighborhood and the news media said everyone had to be evacuated. His house burned clear to the ground. The fire was so hot that even the cement foundation slab was melted in places. He lost everything except what he grabbed to take with him. Hmmm. What would I grab if the house were on fire? I'm thinking scrapbooks, but we have too many of them now!

(1) Sun Nov 09 2003 12:03: I am working and working at the genealogy. I have to check 50,000 names (by hand) and then hand merge them where the lines cross. I would have thought there was software to do this, but nooooo. On the other hand, considering the GIGO principle, it's probably just as well.

I have found numerous mistakes from the Ancestral File.

Mon Nov 10 2003 21:11: After spending most of the day on my dead people, I have made it to the middle of those whose first name begins with "C" and who don't have a surname. Thirty-seven lines go back to Charles "The Bald." He is where I left off. I'm getting a headache and can't do any more.

This Monday/Wednesday class is really taking the starch out of me. It's been a hard semester. I hope it gets over with soon.

(1) Wed Nov 12 2003 13:19: Are body and soul still together?

(2) Wed Nov 12 2003 20:03: It's finally happened. I was talking to Tonks and I called him "Danny." I think he knew that I meant it in a loving way.

(6) Thu Nov 13 2003 15:02: A side effect of the grocery workers' strike is that I have to actually plan. It's out of my way to go to Green Frog Market, so I have to arrange my schedule to go, keep a list for when I do go, and all that efficient stuff. I'm not sure that I'll go back to the chain stores once the strike is over. At Green Frog Market, one pays top dollar for the meat, but it is unbelievable quality and hardly any fat at all. I wonder how it would work out, price per edible ounce cooked, if one were to compare? I'm beginning to be convinced that in buying cheap meat one pays for more than a fair share of fat.

Besides, as Sumana says, how can anyone object to a market called Green Frog?

Froggy went a'courting and he did ride uh huh.

(2) Fri Nov 14 2003 22:43: I spent the entire day on genealogy, and cleaned up the records of people with no last name all the way up to Maud. Some places it was really a mess. I should have done yard work, but didn't feel up to it. Gretel kept me company all day, but she really, really wants to go to bed now. (She gets a puppy biscuit before bed.)

Sat Nov 15 2003 17:33: Reaching point of desperation. Preparing Sacrament Meeting talk. No good.

Sun Nov 16 2003 20:23: The Sacrament Meeting talk has been survived. I asked the Bishop if this lets me off the hook for a year or so, something like jury duty.

The rest of the day I did genealogy. Sharon White agrees with me that I should just delete the no-name people. What's the point of having them on your chart if they are just going to be a blank? I really need to get back into scrapbook mode, but there is so much to do on this genealogy. I had been spending every Wednesday night at the library, but now I have about a year worth of checking before I can do that again, and I miss it!

(3) Mon Nov 17 2003 21:16: My students wrote the first part of their departmental exam today. The prognosis is dismal. I came home and took a nap and worked on genealogy. I have made it to the middle of the Ts, no last names.

Tue Nov 18 2003 20:55: Exams. Paper grading. Genealogy. I've made it to the middle of the Abbotts on the printout. Lots of mixed up links and duplication of names. Children married to their grandparents. Aaaargh.

(1) Wed Nov 19 2003 14:32: My car wouldn't start. I called the AAA for a jump and then took it to a repair place and begged, "Pleasepleaseplease can you install a new battery right nownownow?" They did, and I thought that was so sweet of them. They said the old battery was not only five years old, it was the wrong size for the car. I'm glad it didn't go out on the trilobite hunt!

Gretel was very concerned about the way the tow truck driver was messing with the car. She is very protective of the car, and she didn't like to see a stranger opening it up and doing strange things to it.

(1) Wed Nov 19 2003 14:37: I had a "discussion" with the cashier at the AAA office. I asked for a Los Angeles street map (for Rachel) and she said, "What city?" It really irritates me when people around here act like such provincials. They think everything south of the Grapevine is LA. I repeated that I wanted a map of Los Angeles. Sheesh. If I wanted Irvine or Encino I'd have asked for it.

(1) Fri Nov 21 2003 15:37: Today I was going to pull weeds, but when I went to see what Tonks was doing he was injured, so I had to spend the morning taking him to the doctor. There is only a small window of time every day when I can do hard work, and that took it up. Arrrgh. My yard is getting weedy again.

After I dropped him at home I went to the teacher lab and laminated my recipe cards. It will take a couple of hours to cut them out; this will give me something to do on the way to San Francisco.

Tonks is a very lucky kitty. He had a chunk taken out of his eye, but just the eyelid, not the eyeball. It could have been a lot worse. He had a big antibiotic shot and a pain shot. He's running a little temperature. He will have eye ointment twice a day and an amoxycilllin pill twice a day. That ought to go over big.

(1) Sat Nov 22 2003 18:32: I drove to Los Angeles to attend the sealing in the temple of my friends Cindy and Aaron Hubble. It was insane. There were a gazillion weddings going on, limos, stretch hummers, people taking pictures, and adding to the madness, a very big crowd of people from the singles ward were putting up Christmas lights. They were in lines of five people, each with a pole, stringing lights high into the trees. I wonder how they will get them down. They also had some of the biggest, tallest ladders I have ever seen, and lots of coolers full of stuff to drink.

Afterward I took Rachel to lunch at Earth, Wind, and Flour and we talked about politics and world affairs. She took home a lot of leftover food.

There is a frost advisory out for tonight. Goodbye, brugmansia (for the rest of the year.) The Sunset book says, "Expect unattractive winter appearance." Their evaluation is correct, Captain. The radio meteorologist said it is going to be fifteen degrees in Frazier Park. I believe it. I had to stand out in it at the rest area, throwing up into a trash can and I think I will never be warm again. I have my nightgown in the dryer, however.

When I was a kid and we were sick, or cold, my mother used to warm up a blanket in the dryer and wrap us in it. She had a quilted satin bed jacket (made by her Aunt Clarice, I believe,) which she always heated and wrapped around our frozen feet. I want my mommy!

(6) Sun Nov 23 2003 15:01: Do I want to go to work tomorrow and spend eight hours grading writing profficiencies? Sure! I'm also looking forward to a nice cozy weekend getaway at the Bates Motel.

Mon Nov 24 2003 21:28: Leonardw wanted me to make some of Mom's recipes for Thankgiving. I made a commitment to make consomme madrilene, red cinnamon apples, and the dinner rolls. I thought I had the consomme recipe, but no. I had to fake it, but it turned out pretty good. I'm going to carry it to SF in an ice chest. I also made some vegetarian consomme for Sumana's consumption--the recipe was on the Net. It was expensive to make because of all the fresh herbs and the leeks.

I know I don't have the cinnamon apple recipe either, but I'm sure I can fake it too. I may have bought too many apples, and Xochitl found them in the grocery sack on the kitchen table and rolled a few of them down the hall, so they might be bruised. Therefore, I guess it's lucky I got a lot of them!

The crescent rolls, I feel confident about. I need to remember to take my rotary cutting mat to SF. It's what I use when I cut out rolls, cookies, pie crust...

I was kind of hoping to make a pecan pie, but Leonardw is making desserts from Martha Stewart. I'll have to make pecan pie for Christmas. I haven't made one since the time I used nuts from a pecan tree I planted when we lived out at Comanche Point.

In other news, everyone in my Tuesday/Thursday class passed their writing proficiency except for the boy who didn't show up to take it. We are not going to discuss my Monday/Wednesday class.

(1) Tue Nov 25 2003 13:54: Quote from Leonardw: I made the first two tartlet shells today for the pumpkin flan. That Martha Stewart! She gives me a recipe for four pastry shells when the flan recipe is for eight. No wonder she's in big trouble.

In line at Young's. A produce bag burst and spilled sugar snaps all over the floor. The customer (to the cashier): "We've had a little pea accident."

I ran a whole bunch of errands today. Two banks. Took Doris Jackman's mixing bowl back to her. Haircut. Mailed the boxer shorts pattern to a Scrabble friend in Washington. Got the car detailed. Got my blood done. Bought forgotten groceries. I am done for. I was really planning to do some yard work today, but I don't have what it takes, and I think I will go take a nap now. The poor black zinnias can stay until after the holiday.

Thu Nov 27 2003 13:14: I am at Leonard and Jeff's house in San Francisco. It's an Eicler, like Aunt Jeuney's old one in Sunnyvale, but two story. I've read --somewhere-- that these houses are considered collectors items now.

The cats are afraid of us. Miles doesn't remember that I'm his friend. I have my rolls going in the bread machine, and there are smells of cooking wafting from below. I am grateful for my family.

(3) Sun Nov 30 2003 20:11: Back from San Francisco. The kids are gone and I am alone again. Gretel doesn't know what to do, and Tonks sat and waited and waited and finally asked me where John is. He was disappointed to hear that John had gone away.

It's COLD. I froze all night; it didn't help that my down comfortor was (is) in the dryer. In the wee morning hours I got up and went looking for a cat. Found Xochitl curled up in the living room, so I brought her back to bed and that helped.

Word is out that Brett Haney has cancer. I hate cancer. I wish it would go away.

I have spoken to Mark Handy about getting the water heater fixed.

Today I came home from church and there were kids eating my tangerines, so I set the dog on them. They didn't know that the dog only wanted to kiss them, and they were suitably terrified. I hope that makes them think twice next time they go to steal fruit.