Monday, Monday 3/6/23

 Hello and Good Morning,

How are you?  It is a sunny day here.  Still chilly (just 32), but sunny and, at least for the moment, it looks as though the winds have died down.  Today I will be playing catch up after having Friday off.  I know a ton of emails came in for work, but I have not yet looked at them.

The trip to Ikea on Friday was nice.  Not as long as I would have liked...and next time I will go solo and leave Fletch at home.  I wanted to wander a bit more through the Marketplace section - so many great kitchen finds, but he was anxious to get in and get out (where's the fun in that??).  But, I did find the wine glasses I wanted as well as some new kitchen tongs and a fun set of dish towels that I will send down to Leslie to brighten her day (all slices of fruits and veggies in bright colors).  Please keep Leslie in your thoughts and prayers...my best friend...another cancer diagnosis...tomorrow is her 2nd chemo treatment.  She is a trooper, but this is more than anyone should need to go through.

Back to Friday...we also stopped at an Asian market where I found the Japanese eggplants I wanted.  And then we did have a very nice lunch out.  It definitely was fun to have a different day than my usual Friday conference calls!

Dee and I did meet up on Saturday to knit, chat, sip coffee, laugh, solve the world's problems, etc.  If only we ruled the world!  The balance of the weekend was filled with both pleasure and chores (a little laundry, changing out the tablecloth and napkins, sweeping the kitchen, etc.).  I read, knit a little and stitched some.  A good balance of things.

Sunday morning as I was fixing coffee and thinking about making breakfast I glanced out and saw two Red Winged Blackbirds at our sunflower seed feeder.  I'd been hearing them for a couple of weeks and seen one or two on the ground.

Not the best picture taken through our back door, but you can see the band on the wing of the one to the right.  (The yellow object is a kayak hanging from our patio ceiling - LOL).

Thanks to all the cooking I did last week we have a ton of leftovers in the frig.  Some dinners for this week are already made!!  Last night we had some of the leftover stew I had made in the crock pot.  (There is yet more left for another meal!).  The only thing I made to go with it was a new recipe for Mushrooms with White Wine and Brussels Sprouts.  

I used this recipe but skipped the heavy cream.  The mixture looked so good at the point where I should have added that, but I decided to keep it lighter.  Very tasty.  I did use a mixture of cremini, oyster and shitake mushrooms.

While the sprouts were roasting, I looked out and the moon was already up!

Almost full - the app on Fletch's phone said it was 98% full.

Last night we watched Genius - highly recommend!

And, that's a wrap for me.  Time to pour another cup of coffee and dig into the work emails.  Wishing you all a wonderful Monday.