A good day for chili

Today was wintery cold--in the low 30s all day with snow flurries off and on since last night. Fortunately we've had no accumulation yet. We still have to finish cutting back the garden and winterizing the house, so we are far from ready to deal with snow!

I had to attend a meeting in Madison this afternoon, so Les, Allegrea and I rode together, leaving Mark and Luciana on their own for a few hours. I typically hate meetings and endure them with gritted teeth, but this meeting was about as pleasant as a meeting could possibly be. We were in a room full of wonderful AR people, we had delicious vegan chocolate-chip cookies, and there were cats and dogs roaming around. If there were animals at all meetings, I wouldn't dread them nearly as much!

Les dropped me off at home, after the meeting, and as we pulled into our driveway, I noticed the most beautiful little snapdragon blooming in the front garden. It's a volunteer from last year, and I was so thrilled to see it--the bright happy flower poking up through the fallen maple leaves. I ran into the house, put my stuff down, grabbed my camera and headed back out to try to get a pic of the flower. I knew I would forget if I waited. Because I didn't have a coat on and it was cold and snowing, I was just trying to do a quick snap-and-go. Perhaps I would have gotten better pics if I were warmer and more patient, but I got one decent shot (out of the 6 quickly-snapped shots I took).
Mark had been busy in the kitchen, while I was gone, and made a big batch of his award-winning chili. It smelled fantastic, but wouldn't be ready yet for a few hours. The kitchen was completely wiped out, as it always is the couple times a year M. cooks. I love the chili, though, so I don't mind the after-meal cleanup. It was warm and delicious and we all (including Hunter) enjoyed eating it. He made enough to freeze, so that will cover a meal or two while I'm in the hospital or at home convalescing. That leaves me 10 more days to come up with the rest of the meals that they will need over my several week lying-around-being-worthless phase.

My dad came over this weekend, and with M's help got our new 'birthday' toilet installed in the second-floor bathroom. We've already greatly enjoyed it. It's so nice not to have to plunge the flipping toilet at 2 in the morning just to get a bit of toilet paper to go down. This works perfectly. What a great gift! I think that might me another sign that I am undeniably old. I have received a toilet--a TOILET-- for my birthday and am thrilled about it.

Last night (Sat.) was our date night, and M. planned a birthday outing for me with the money I got from my parents-in-law. As always on these outings, I didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. We started out with dinner at Buraka--the East African restaurant we love. We then went to the Bartell Theater to see Hamlet, my favorite Shakespeare play. Othello is a pretty close second. The play was about three hours long and was very well done. Everything we have seen at the Bartell has been top quality, and this was quite enjoyable. It's M's favorite theater, because he can take beer in and drink while he watches the performance. I was really tempted to get a Mimosa, which they were selling, but was afraid it would give me stomach issues, and I didn't want to take any chances on ruining the play. It sounded really good, though, and now I keep wishing that I had one.

We had a wonderful night. The ride home was a little stress filled, as it was snowing pretty hard, quite dark, and I worry so much about critters on the interstate. We made it home safely without even a single close call. We got home at around midnight, to a herd of cats who let me know in no uncertain terms that I was quite late for their bedtime treat. Dogs are so much more forgiving and less hostile about things like that than cats are.


M. announced that he had to plan such a fabulous night out just so he could be mentioned in my blog. He claims to not be mentioned enough in the blog. Well, duh! It's not like he's a cat! So, here you go hon... look at all the paragraphs with your name in them. I won't even whine about the fact that I am not mentioned on your blog. Not one single time. Nope, I won't go there. ;P

We will be having another Petland protest next Sunday at 1:00. For those of you in the area, I would love to see you there. It's one hour, spent in good company, for a good cause--time well spent!