The Draft...Dinner...And Books!

We had carry in pasta last night while watching the draft. I realized last night that my understanding of the draft is very different from Den's. Also my participation in the draft did not bring me closer to Den but only reestablished our basic differences. While I thought I was asking key questions...I realized I was annoying him...in a huge way! He had a huge print out of names and was actually making notes for the fall...wow, Den!

My key questions ran along the lines of...

Why is that man carrying a baby?

Who hands them the right hat?

Who gets to sit on those big leather sofas?

And...

Why don't they let the draftees finish college! Duh!

So...I am over the draft and it should not ever be a national holiday.

Dinner last night...the simplest and closest Italian restaurant to us is called Giordano's. The food is consistent and really good. I ordered the Tour Of Italy...which included Chicken Parmesan, manicotti in red sauce, and Fettucini Alfredo. There was enough of everything in my dinner to feed a family of four...at least. It is someone's lunch today.

You also get a really yummy salad and tomato bread...oh my!

Books...

Not totally sure that I love this book ( sorry if I led you wrong, Ti ) but I cannot stop reading it. It's transfixed me on what can happen if you don't monitor your children. I read long into the night and will obsessively finish it soon. Mean teens, bullies, a total lack of empathy for those less fortunate...this book has it all. The cover makes it seem so sweet and innocent but it is anything but...and the drama doesn't seem to ever end!

What I will most likely read over the weekend...I absolutely loved Eight Hundred Grapes.

Or maybe this one...

 

So...another quiet self imposed exile kind of weekend looms before us but that's ok...I only really want quiet in my self imposed exile. And I am at the nadir of my Big Chemo treatment. Nurse Debbie...who understands my terrors probably more than I do...explained what nadir is and then I looked it up, too. It's just my body at its lowest point about 10 days after treatment...and I think why I feel so tired and even weak for a period of time. It makes me scared but Nurse Debbie says it's normal and it's ok. I hate it when my platelets are low and when my bone marrow acts up. Stuff I never thought about when I had a normal life. Normal meaning body hair, going out, and not being so needy. I hate being needy!

But...

I trust Nurse Debbie and Nurse Ronnie ultimately. Even when they are giving me that painful Neulasta Shot.

So...I am out of here until Monday!

Hugs,

Patty

 

 

 

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Food! Shoes! Books! Kitties!

Sloppy Taco Day!

It's also the first day of the draft so Den is trying to convince me that it is a National Holiday! Thus...Sloppy Tacos...or perhaps Sloppy Pasta...dinner is on a "to be determined" status. Sloppy Tacos...this is a dish layered with traditional taco stuff...beans, meat, cheese and chips...baked and served with...OMG...more chips and lettuce and tomatoes...traditional taco stuff...everything we use will be organic...instead of sour cream we use Greek yogurt...and basically there will be zero calories by the time we eat it...hah! Sloppy Pasta will come from Giordano's. Den doesn't feel like chopping today. Giordano's pasta is really good and in my self imposed exile it gives us a break from dinner prep since I have not been out to dinner in ages...I know...I know...there is no reason for me to exile myself...every week my oncologist tells me to take Den to dinner but I just can't...the no hair and hat thing just keeps me in exile. Sigh!

 

Yesterday we had salad for dinner because we had Weggieman's Fruit Tarts for dessert. This is a Den-made salad because every bite fits on a fork. Usually we only use dressing that I make but on this salad we used a tomato dressing that we can only find at Barnard's...it is so delicious. The lettuces were local and the tomatoes were from Lancaster...the bread is a miche from Wegman's...organic and delicious!

The tart! It is delicious and ours looked just like that...the crust is crisp and sort of like a cookie. Yum!

Shoes! I love summer shoes!

These are all from Urban Outfitters...I am seriously thinking about the pink ones! In my self imposed exile shoes are a comfort!

 

Books!

Now reading this...started off really dramatically...a wealthy San Francisco family has a small Sweet Sixteen party for their daughter when a tragedy occurs that changes their lives forever. Oh how I totally love books that change lives forever...

I have changed out my second book about a zillion times...I was reading this but then it got too creepy sexually. I am discovering that my Catholic school education and my mom hanging out with nuns is affecting me now. Am I becoming my mother?

So...I might try this...

Or maybe not...sigh!

Today Roxie has decided to be my closest companion...she won't let Lucy near me!

Lucy remains puzzled!

The sun is shining! I need to shoe shop!

Hugs,

Patty

 

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Discoveries...

I have recently discovered that Den and I have differences that I was never really aware of until he started doing some dinner prep. One of our big differences is salad prep...I always tear fresh lettuces in random sized pieces. Den loves to chop them into edible manageable bites. His salad presentations are amazing. Everything is symmetrical. He halves tiny tomatoes...he slices avocados into tiny bites! His salads are precisioned bites of precisely cut veggies! This is why he disappears into the kitchen for hours...he is very busy chopping and dicing! I should have taken a picture of last night's salad but I was too hungry and mesmerized by it...but I will tonight. These salads are a must see!

Books...

Just finished this book and I loved it! The Nantucket bits and bobs are the best...other than worrying about getting Lyme Disease it makes me want to be there hanging with the locals. There is a huge deer population on Nantucket! I also learned that there are other books in this series...in addition to the one I am reading. This is a beachy cozy mystery stand alone...I don't feel at all lost by reading the latest one. I want to read them all!

I will be finished with this one today. I want more! It's a perfect book for gloomy rainy days.

This is my version of The Cat In The Hat! She loves wearing my hats.

Hungry for this...it's called Sloppy Tacos...from TastyCookery.com...I will make it with organic ground chicken or bison and organic everything else...it just looks so yummy to me!

 

Den is off to Home Depot for more basement shelves and possibly a new refrigerator...I am staying home with the kitties...reading while it rains. He will stop at Weggieman's for yummy stuff and lunch. I crave seaweed salad...I have no clue why and Weggieman's makes my second favorite one...I just love the crunch of it! Yum!

Have a great day!

Hugs,

Patty

 

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Rainy Days...

Today is yet one more rainy day! Den has his monthly lunch with friends...I don't have lunch with friends...but it's ok...I can't even imagine going out yet...I just can't.

This book has captured my attention totally...it's just really good. A daughter disappears for a month...her stuff is still in her room...her bathroom untouched...her bed not slept in and no one notices that she is gone? Blame it on an elderly father...once a world famous reporter who is now losing his memory. Plus there are all kinds of great Nantucket touches...restaurants, shops and beaches. This book crept up on me and I can't put it down.

So...that's my day...and it's really ok...just sort of waiting for the rain to stop!

Hugs,

Patty

 

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Over The Weekend!

Over this past weekend...

We had tons of rain and drizzly weather...there was no deck sitting or outside walking but there was lots of catch-up TV and reading. Den cleaned on Saturday and made our inside world fresh and nice...I dealt with Nuelasta pain...I made Den one of his fave chicken dishes...and we cleaned out the refrigerator! I love emptying the refrigerator!

Books...

I finished The Garden Of Small Beginnings and The Girlfriend over the weekend. Loved both of them in totally different ways. "Garden" was just delightful...sweet, clever, endearing. "Girlfriend" had highly dysfunctional mean spirited characters...but came together as an addictive reading experience!

I had the best talks with my sister Paula about this book...she lives next door to her 4 busy grandchildren so her days are always full but she was so into this book that she left it open on her island so that she could read pieces of it when she walked by! I told her to pace herself and read it slowly but that is not happening! It's so much fun to talk about fantasy characters...seriously!

Right now I am reading this in a real book...it's a really good mystery that takes place on Nantucket...

And this on my Kindle...

this one is kind of creepy...a husband literally knocks his wife out...she is hospitalized and unconscious...he is a total dysfunctional jerk. Oliver is his name.

New Books!!!

All descriptions are from Amazon...all books are from Edelweiss except for Final Girls...I have a copy of that from Dutton Press as well as an ebook from NetGalley!

The Someday Suitcase...

Readers who loved The Thing About Jellyfish and Goodbye Stranger will find a mysterious magic and unforgettable friendship in The Someday Suitcase, written by the critically acclaimed author of Rules for Stealing Stars.

I loved Rules For Stealing Stars.

the PARTY...

In this stunning and provocative domestic drama about a sweet sixteen birthday party that goes horribly awry, a wealthy family in San Francisco finds their picture-perfect life unraveling, their darkest secrets revealed, and their friends turned to enemies.

Can't wait to read this one!

Posted...

From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, comes a humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, and the failures of communication between kids.

Here And Gone...

Here and Gone is a gripping, wonderfully tense suspense thriller about a mother's desperate fight to recover her stolen children from corrupt authorities.

Final Girls...

“The first great thriller of 2017 is almost here: Final Girls, by Riley Sager. If you liked Gone Girl, you'll like this.”—Stephen King

The Wildling Sisters...

An evocative novel in the vein of Kate Morton and Daphne Du Maurier, in which the thrill of first love clashes with the bonds of sisterhood, and all will be tested by the dark secret at the heart of Applecote Manor.

Today is the kind of day when I just want to curl up and read!

Hugs,

Patty

 

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