Pensées and other thoughts

The bad cat Thisbe is staring at me with love in her eyes.  She just hurled on the sofa and is asking forgiveness.   That sofa was around when God was a boy.   We're actually thinking of having it reupholstered and  put it back in the living room.  It is an old down-filled Dunbar that we bought years ago ($65) at a house sale in Deerfield, Il.   You are forgiven, Thisbe.

Yesterday I trekked through the Braintree Mall with a 12-year-old young lady, and the term shop til you drop was never more apt.  I was dropping.  She was still raring to go.  We arrived home with lots of parcels, including 2 pieces of cheesecake from (natch) The Cheesecake Factory, and a whole bunch of stuff from The Body Shop til you drop.

I  barely had energy to make lentil soup garnished with homemade croutons and kielbasa.   Tasty.  Today was  Turkey Day - 1, and I did the cranberries, the pumpkin tarts and prepped for the vegetable and the dressing.   Cooked up two kinds of tacos for dinner.    The guest said that they are better than restaurant tacos. I do a whole rigamarole with reconstituted pepper, black beans, red pepper and red jalapeno,  8  garnishes, the whole nine yards.  Now I am yawning, but well situated for the morrow.  We have a mildly ambitious menu, so I should be able to cope.  Now it's bedtime.

I'm reading two of my manuscripts on my Kindle--you email them to your Kindle account and they load them onto the device for chump change.  It is really easy to find typos on the Kindle.  I bookmark them, and then do a scan on the MS as I go thru the bookmarks.  Works like a dream.  Highly recommend.

The formerly orange cat can also be described as kumquat.  This is not the cat who vomited on the couch.  The cats are happy with a new catnip plant.  Many nibbles. 

We are feeding the poor starving squirrels.  Our oaks produced NO ACORNS this year.   A friend brought me a bushel basket of them from New York.  We also bought corn and have been throwing out stale bread.   And the pumpkin has been chewed up royally.  An opportunistc mouse has taken up residence under the front porch to partake of all the sudden delicacies.  I love it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.  Tomorrow I'll have a photo of a cat wearing glasses . . . and cattitude.  Can you wait? 

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I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing

Never, ever, under any circumstances eat at The Cheesecake Factory right before trying on clothes at Nordstrom's. You will need a larger size, and the sight of yourself with three extra pounds of food will cause definite trauma and suicidal thoughts.

Ye Gods! So I bought jeans anyhow, and I hope they aren't too big tomorrow. I ate three chicken tacos and S.O. had basil pasta with chicken. The tacos came with beans, rice, salsa, and guacamole. Yum! The beans were pleasantly spicy and of course salsa and guacamole are to die for. It didn't seem like a lot, but then there was the bread, ooops, and the wine and I had to come home and take a nap in front of the food channel where I totally zoned out.

Thisbe, with a mournful meow, woke me up. "Where's my food, you slothful owner?"

Tomorrow I'm taking treats for a Christmas get-together. Mini-cheesecakes, cheese straws, spiced nuts and Martha Stewart's cranberry shortbread.

We didn't eat cheesecake at the Factory. We had a big cheese cake Thanksgiving, and I've got the mini-ones in the fridge for tomorrow. Topped with fresh cranberry sauce. The red looks so festive.

Tonight I whipped up a huge batch of raisins and other dried fruits for some fruitcake cookies. Recipe is from Bon Appetit and it looketh good. Nice and boozy with nuts and none of that citron or icky green stuff. Home made candied orange rind. Yowza! The recipe makes 9 dozen cookies, so I'm taking to some new neighbors, the folks next door, a kid in Chicago and my friend Diane. That still leaves a few dozen for the home front.

Poets and Writers has an interesting round table discussion between four literary agents. I'll query a couple of them. And now, well, off to bed, like any sane person. We watch the original Grinch tonight and the San Francisco ballet's Nutcracker. Definitely in a Christmas mood.

Remember, no trying on clothes after pigging out at The Cheesecake Factory. No one wants to see a blimp in the mirror or all those unsightly bulges. Is unsightly always the modifier for bulges? They're never beautiful or bountiful or breathtaking. Always unsightly. Yeah, they are.

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Yesterday At the Mall

Coming back from Andover, and passing South Shore Plaza. I needed or thought I needed a new handbag. Used to buy them at the Coach Outlet in East Hampton and now we, alas, don't go there anymore since friends are gone.

Thought a reasonably priced straw handbag would be cool. Didn't see much online. A Douney and Bourke caught my eye Macy's web site, but I thought I better check it out.

The mall was mobbed, a circus. They must have been giving away free makeup at the Mac counter. Sale handbags piled up in a big higgelty-piggelty mess. Big icky handbags. Guess was the worst. Way too much chrome, chrone and gold and silver. I already have a gold bag, thanks. No Douney and Bourke bag like the one I was eyeing. Saw a couple I liked that were, shall we say, out of my price range. What was the old saying, champagne tastes on a beer budget. That's moi.

Ventured out into the mall. Even more people, almost chaotic. Strafed through a shitload of stores, no suitable bag. Filene's Basement a total bust. Lots of cheap ugly stuff that looked like it had been made for the Basement. They do that, you know. Make up stuff strictly to sell at outlets.

Waylaid by cell phone kiosk people, and then "natural handcream" guy. We all know I've been planting all week, and must confess planting without gloves. Had not groomed nails except to scrub. Hands looks like hell. Clean would be the best you could say. The guy takes my hand. Don't know if he visibly shuddered or not. These hands cook, scrub pots, dig in the soil, clean house. They haven't seen a professional manicure for years. I tell him, "sorry" and race off. Slink by the kiosk on the other side coming out of the Basement. In Boston, "Basement" always means Filene's.

Off to Lord and Taylor. After Macy's an oasis of calm. They have the Dooney and Bourke bag, but I decide it's too small. Straw bags must be out of style, like tailored blazers. The stuff you find out when you go shopping. The clerk, nice and helpful, shioot, I could have been at Nordstroms they were so helpful, said Kate Spade had some straw bags, but they had sold them all.

Find a cute leather bag for less. Sort of powder blue. Goes with summer clothes, right size, price is right. Get all kinds of discounts. Yay! Price is even righter, and another 15% off when I pay the bill. Practically giving the bag away.

S.O. ostensibly napping in the car is reading the car manual. When all else fails, read the manual. Or RTFM as we used to say in IS. Wish I had a dollar for every hour I poured over the IBM manuals. COBOL, operations, CICS, VSAM, DL/I. I used to know lots of cool stuff. Make those big blue mainframes dance. Yup.

Discovered there's a Cheesecake Factory at the Mall. I have never ever been to a Cheesecake Factory because there is always a 45 minute wait. Once on a rainy Monday at 5:00 p.m. at the Natick Mall there was a 45 minute wait. People are leaving with lots of doggie bags. Big bags. Place is a pig out factory, not what I need, I think ruefully, remembering lots of clothes for skinny 18 year olds. When I was that age, I had hardly any money to buy clothes. Maybe 40 - 50 dollars a month. We all wore black suede loafers. And other clothes, of course. Shame on you.

New idea for a novel. Just kind of came to me. Weird. Maybe I should go shopping more often.

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