Weekend continues...

When one is no longer employed, it can be difficult to determine when the weekend commences or stops.  Appointments can be a "heads up", since most of them occur during the week.  I did get some good news by phone last Thursday: my long term disability has been approved!!  Plaidman went to the mailbox on Friday, and I think he must have missed a day or two because it was stuffed.  He brought in a ton of stuff, most of which went directly to the recycle bin.  But he wasn't sure he'd gotten it all, because a) it was dark when he was there, and b) he didn't use the stepstool we keep in the car for the purpose (the mailbox is up over his head).  So he went back mid-morning on Saturday, and found my first disability check.  And of course that was the only thing in there, since Saturday was Veterans' Day and there was no mail delivery.  I'll take a moment here:
     Thank you for your service, Thomas Paul Devine & may you rest in peace, most excellent father-in-law and infantryman.
You are missed more than I can say.

     Thank you for your service, Cameron Eiseman Cherry; may you continue to be our family's guide & light for many years, Cadet of the Army Air Corps.

Plaidman's younger brother served in Viet Nam, repairing tanks.  His son has seen service as well.  Last I heard, the two of them are not on speaking terms.  I salute them both, and pray they'll reconcile their differences soon -- Viet Nam vets aren't getting any younger.
Okay, that moment stops now before I get weepy.

I have started on the final segment of the Mi Kara "capelet", which is very pretty in it's cabled red tweediness.  However, I really thought the thing would be longer, more of a short poncho than an elongated & elaborately cabled cowl.  So ... the length is disappointing.  I'll finish the ribbed turtleneck, try it on, and see if it's something I might actually use.  I do have a lot of tops with rather open necklines; I guess I could extend the "season" for those tops with the red capelet.
We've hired a sitter for our aged kitty, so when we go out of town we can just contact her & she'll come in to feed him, change the litter box, and give him some loves and attentions while we're out.  I hope this works out well.  Surely it will be better than putting our little old man in a cage at the vet's!  I still can't get over how stressed out the poor little beastie was after being boarded for a week.

We had EJ and her recently acquired hubby come stay with us for a few days.  We'd gone over to American Freight and bought a queen sized mattress set, which fits Disco's bedframe.  Disco had the mini-Keurig set up, with a selection of K-cups and some disposable coffee cups.  So the newlyweds had their own little apartment downstairs.  We took them out to Bicentennial Mall, which they found pretty interesting for the wall of history all around it.  We also cruised through the Farmers Market, where I got a large head of purple cauliflower.  One night we treated them to our favorite local Chinese buffet, they loved it.  The next night we ate at home, with homemade black bean dip, roasted cauliflower & Yukon gold taters, and smoked pork chops.  EJ liked the dip so much she was trying it on everything.  Danny is a little less adventurous with food, he'd never eaten roasted cauliflower before but discovered he liked it a lot.  One of the perks of having only a few folks to feed is trying new things without having to make enough to feed an army.  I was kind of surprised when all the roasted veggies disappeared -- that had been one huge head of cauliflower.  And roasting hard veggies like taters & cauliflower is so easy: Pre-heat the oven to 350°F, prep by washing & remove any "poorly" bits, chop the rest into slightly larger than bite size pieces,  smash a few cloves of garlic & dice, dump all in a large mixing bowl, add some seasoning (I used a garden herb mix, little salt & pepper), drizzle lightly with EVOO, stir to cover all with seasoning & oil.  Spread in one layer on a large rimmed baking sheet, pop into the oven.  It will take about 40 minutes for your veggies to become fork-tender, but pull them out at 20 minutes to stir & turn, then back to the oven for another 20 minutes.  Couldn't be simpler, and they come out fragrant & tasty.  The purple cauliflower did turn quite dark, but retained a lot of the purple and looked nice with the golden taters.  As to the bean dip, it was delicious but somewhat thinner than I liked; this was the first time I'd made it so I will try to remember to drain more of the liquid off the beans before mixing.  Again, a simple recipe, just cooked black beans, cumin, cilantro...and something I can't recall right now.  No cooking required, just use either the blender or (we are so cool this way) a small handheld blender stick in a plastic bowl.  Disco was in charge of the blending, having learned her lesson about not using the stick blender in glass or ceramic (she cracked the ceramic pot on the last crock pot, while it had hot food in it!!).  She also cooked the smoked pork chops, although not quite as "crispy" as usual because guests.
And can you believe neither EJ nor Danny had ever eaten smoked chops before.  Well, folks, you just have to look at other offerings in the meat dept of the grocery store.  Explore a little.  Heck, I've even eaten calamari, something I swore I'd never touch, but it was beautifully cooked: paper-thin and seasoned, like a seafood chip!  We don't want to think too much about what it is, and one may have to already have one's mouth "set" for this dish, rather like with frog's legs.  Tasty, if one doesn't think too much of where they come from.