In the kitchen (again) - Chop and Cook

Chopped - All the veg for roasted veggies (Mr. Spock did the acorn squash, I did the rest). Plus some sweet potatoes for...

Cooked (me) - Candied sweet potatoes! And rice pilaf with white & wild rices, cranberries and raisins. Tomorrow I'm toasting pine nuts and chopping parsley to add to the pilaf.

Cleaned - dining room and library (Mr. Spock), and the guest bath (me), and sheets and towels for the guest room (me).

Also on the agenda for tomorrow: Delivery of rental items, picking up turkey and pies, roasting the veggies and making the stuffing.


Had dinner with my mom, stepdad, BigSister, her husband, and their two kids. Her children are gorgeous. Really, really, really beautiful children. My niece is 13 and justlikethat she's taller than me and looks like a grownup. Her face (always cute) suddenly transformed and is now an adult face. I just can't look at her enough.

My nephew is 10 and loving science fiction, fantasy, and "funny books". He'd read all of CS Lewis, The Hobbit, The Tale of Despereaux, Holes, Alan Mendelsohn the Boy from Mars, but he'd never read McKinley or Card or Adams. So I rifled my shelves and gave him The Hero and the Crown and Robin Hood (I can't find the Blue Sword - who the heck did I loan that one to???); Ender's Game; the original Hitchhiker's trilogy (I'd have given him all 5 but I only have the last two in first edition hardcovers); Freak the Mighty; The Boggart; and The Lathe of Heaven. I told him that if he likes them, he can keep them and I'll buy him more by the same authors (and new copies for me), but if he doesn't like them I want them back.

Muffin Man had a ball playing with his cousins and showing off for them. I had a ball watching them all together. Remind me why I live so far from my sister?