Baking and Books

Hello, Amanda,

Beautiful flowers! Place them for me. Are the petunias on the right side of your driveway? Is the coleus out back? Regardless of where they are, they are beautiful. Thanks for sending the pictures.

I stopped at the supermarket after school to catch some sale items that I normally don't stock but will come in handy for guests--brownie mix, corn muffin mix, tortilla chips, salsa, salsa con queso--and some house stuff so I can continue on my cleaning and organizing frenzy. I was out of my favorite toilet bowl cleaner, needed light bulbs and a light fixture for my closet (the one I cleaned out on Sunday). I'm waiting for the brownies to bake (dessert for tomorrow night with K; the rest for the boys on Saturday) and will then bake the corn muffins that are ready to go (to accompany chili). While I stay close by the kitchen I am writing and sipping a vodka with pomegranate ginger ale. Yum. At some point I suppose I may make dinner--probably quick blackened shrimp for a Caesar salad. When I get my place guest-ready, I'll take some pictures so you can see it for the first time. I'd rather, of course, you see it in person, but we'll let photos do for now...

So I wonder if you decided to bake those muffins after your pita pizza, and enjoyed a cup of tea and some reading. I just got an Amazon order in yesterday--an Artist's Way morning pages journal and an Elizabeth Berg I never read, We Are All Welcome Here. The Meg Wolitzer I started at the end of the summer is good, but didn't grab me enough before the interruption of school. I'll get back to it another time, but I think I'll table it for now. I read the first few pages of Berg and liked it. But, as you know, I love EB. Besides her details ("We lived in a small town, far away from city lights, and our skies were inky black and so thick with stars it felt as though somebody ought to stir them."), she's one of the nicest authors I've ever met. I follow her as I do Ellie. I think, after my baking and cleaning, I'll take a night off from political TV. Instead I'll curl up with EB and some herbal tea.

Talk to you later.

Barb