It Begins

I have been so industrious the past few days. It's like I am on speed. (Do they still have speed? Maybe they no longer have speed since there is now a Starbucks on every corner?) I don't know. But since we have arrived home to Taylor Manor after months away, I have been on a cleaning/reorganizing frenzy. I could have my own reality show. This whole ordeal started before we left to spend the winter in the desert. I made a list of tasks that needed to be completed before I died of old age. Number One was My Mom's Cookbook and this lovely task was finished just before we left for the winter. Okay, so I had to have the tomes delivered to Indio, but the check-mark was on that task. Finished! There are still so many things that need to be done around this house, but I am determined to complete them while we are home through the summer. I started in the north corner of the house on Saturday and am working my way south. One room/closet/cabinet/drawer at a time. The feeling of having completely organized rooms - devoid of any crap - is fantastic! Martha will probably be phoning me this week. I went through the drawers in our upper laundry and discovered a drawer full of beach towels. Beach towels? We live 50 miles from a beach and there is never even one day a year where one can get in the water without needing immediate aid from a lifeguard due to the frigid temperatures of the water. I found a rag-thin beach towel from a hotel we used to visit in Taiwan in the 1980's. (I just googled the hotel and it is still in business!) I also disposed of chew toys and dog tags from Our Old Dog Snickers. (I loved that hound, but he has been gone 6 years. Don't even get me started on what I will eventually do with his ashes or I will cry.) The three drawers in the laundry room have been reorganized and repurposed and I now have a "gift wrapping center".I told you Martha will be calling!

Sunday was spent in the back entry hall - a teeny space between the garage and the kitchen. Goodwill will profit from all the coats that have been languishing (unused while we are enjoying the sun) in this rarely-used closet.

Today I started-in on our CDs. Eeeks. This is a task that has been on my list for months. My list says: MOVE ALL MUSIC TO iTUNES. I have been putting this job on the back-burner since I bought my first iPod - years ago. I suppose we own far fewer CDs than most people as I really cannot even recall the last time I purchased a CD, since for many years now all music has been purchased via iTunes. I am going to estimate there are about 200 CDs to move to iTunes. I would estimate about 80 of these CDs are opera. I would also estimate you are probably shocked to learn we have so much opera music in our collection and that we both really love opera. It's true. Blame it on my high school German teacher. He took our class to Tristan und Isolde (1973?) and I have been hooked since. My Driver has also come to love opera, though we both enjoy Italian opera most.

Feh, probably Martha will not be phoning after all. Let's face it: I am a nerd.

We did leave the house this weekend. Dinner on Saturday night at McCormick's with Nancy and dinner Sunday at a new wood-fired pizza restaurant with Kathy, Woody, Mary & Steve. The pizza was very good, but our service was horrid. It took forever to get a table, longer than forever to get a drink and the wait staff was ridiculously bad. No napkins or cutlery until we asked! I am giving them the benefit of the doubt because they have just opened. I hope they get their act together - they keep their wood-fired pizza oven between 700-800°. That's some serious pizza.

Our local grocer was having a special on fresh Sockeye Salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska. Limited quantity. Fabulous quality. I arranged a small bank loan and bought a very small filet and DT grilled it to perfection tonight.

Doesn't this just make you want to eat salmon?

The salmon was served with grilled asparagus spears and a lime wedge. That was it - just a perfect meal. Tomorrow, our lives return to normal... i.e., DT returns to Eugene for a long day of TrackTown12 meetings and I will remain at home, between trips to Goodwill.

LEO UPDATE: Since I left Los Angeles on Thursday, Leo can now clap and say DaDa. Genius. We used facetime (iPhone version of Skype) tonight. Leo LOVES facetime - or maybe he just loves to chew on the phone? I sang his favorite songs (this week he loves Sing a Song of Six Pence and Eensy-Weensy Spider) and after I "snapped off his nose" - we had a screaming contest. Then Leo clapped for me and said DaDa several times. Lisa had a video tour of our new gift-wrapping center and laughed at our miserably small CD collection.

Until my next update, I remain, your purged correspondent.