I spent a lot of time at home this week (or, rather, left the house even less than usual), so when it came time to get ready for a Friday-evening dinner gathering, I almost wished I could back out — inertia. Luckily, I didn’t (I’m not crazy, after all), and I had a really nice time with smart and funny people. And I got to make the rhubarb crisp pictured above. I had the rhubarb in the freezer (I can’t remember if it was from the garden or the farmer’s market), so I just used the really simple recipe from the old Betty Crocker cookbook (I wrote it down here). A winner.
And then, today, I had lunch with my friend Alex and new friend (I hope!) Ann, who came from the internet. Or somewhere around the Mall of America, but that’s not really as funny. We met at the Seward Cafe, because that’s one of my favorite places to eat, and I’m also a little bit bossy. (I am a little bit bossy, but actually I just have a shortlist of places I like to eat and will always suggest, in order to avoid the whole ‘I don’t know, what do YOU think’ rigmarole.)
I had a buckwheat pancake with some ‘deluxe’ on top (plain yogurt and sliced fruit), and it was so good that I will show you this picture of it, even though it’s a terrible photo. Alex commented that the pancake looked like something I would make at home, except I would have cut the slices of fruit more thinly and arranged then more carefully (I also would have alternated the fruits instead of grouping them). I am predictable.
You can see Alex’s miso soup in the background, along with the tahini toast I said she should get (as a helpful suggestion, not in a… bossy way). Ann got Mexicali eggs, and everybody enjoyed their food and we sat and chatted and had a good time. Meeting new (awesome) people might be my current favorite past-time. It was particularly handy that Ann’s been reading twelve22 for a while, so she sort of knew ahead of time what to expect (maybe? I might make her fill out a survey to find out how my projected blog persona compares to my actual self. I mean, I might ask her.) — but meeting people in real life gives one the opportunity to tell the same (interesting! funny!) stories that one’s friends have already heard repeatedly.
Anyway, it was good for my brain to have some social time the past two days (although I did have a really nice week, despite its relative solitude). I thought I’d be able to post pictures of my bedroom by this weekend, but I still haven’t bound the quilt, because I get bored just thinking of hand stitching the binding. But perhaps I will bring that to my parents’ tomorrow and finish it while we watch the Viking’s game.
We were talking about my house at lunch today, and I said that I’ve been having ‘nightmares’ this past week about people coming over to visit. The house is so far from its norm, due to this whole overhaul process, and I haven’t bothered to take my mop bucket downstairs (it’s in the bathroom), because I keep meaning to try out the new floor polish I got (fancy!). See, I can’t clean, because I have to clean first. Here’s another item for my list of ‘Things That Wouldn’t Have Occurred If I Weren’t a Home-Owner’: dreaming that I’m wearing ice skates in the house and thinking, ‘Oh, this can’t be good for the hard wood floors!’
Your “gentle suggestion” that I get tahini toast was a good one! Haha.
Such a true comment about the inertia of being home alone. It’s hard to get out, even when you know it’s a good idea.
I’m wishing my quilts in progress were at the stage to be stitching down binding during the game tonight, I’ll probably be cross-stitching instead.
I understand the nightmares of people seeing your place in a state of disarray. Last week we replaced the carpet in our bedroom with laminate flooring. My husband’s car was also in the shop, so a coworker-friend gave him a ride home. And he came into my ridonculously whacked-out home – with all of the bedroom stuff in various places and no carpet, just a bare concrete floor, and it was just terrible – to say hi to our dogs. Oh the shame!