scattered weekend notes

1. Movies watched: Hot Fuzz, Coming Soon, Star Wars (aka Episode 4) Revenge of the Sith (aka Episode 3).

2. Ice creams eaten (by me and others): malted vanilla "with stuff," salted caramel, homemade strawberry, madagascar vanilla, magic brownie, milk coffee, and many others that I have forgotten.

3. Books read: I finished Mutants in the hospital waiting room, and I started Paradigm of Earth this morning. I learned a lot from the former. A lot!

4. I made a demi-cassoulet. Or, if you prefer, I made a long-cooked casserole that involved white beans, duck confit, and boudin blanc. (I did not line the dish with pork rind :P, and I forgot the bread crumb topping). It was pretty darn good for a first, half-assed try :)

5. A nice if odd coffee house patron slipped me and my companion a note, thanking us for talking in low voices. Considering some of what we were talking about, he probably appreciated it more than he knows.

6. I missed most of the rain for being indoors. Which is good, because my umbrella died on Friday on the walk to the hospital, and I also lost my gloves last week.

7. I found a new, tasty, friendly fish and chips place.

8. If you wrote anything here in LJ this weekend, I probably skimmed it.

9. I met G.'s urologist on Friday. Young, a little scattered, but I think really concerned about getting him back on his feet. I was also re-impressed by the Davies center staff, who took good care of G., and me, too.

10. It was good to get out of the house, even if public transportation was somewhat balky with me (hello Sunday schedules). It was good to have people over. Thanks to all of you.

More soon.

Hospital Food

I promised tales of hospital food, so here you go.

Davies Medical Center is pretty modern in most respects, but their hospital cafeteria is best described as quaint. The morning nurse told me that a lot of the staff likes to patronize a certain nearby sandwich shop that I'm acquainted with, but it was raining hard all day and, as I noted earlier, my umbrella had just died. But I couldn't wait until I got home to eat (for migraine control purposes, among other things), so I decided to check it out.

The cafeteria is in the basement and consists of: a grill (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, garden burgers, grilled cheese). A hot line with two entrees and two sides, and also hot dogs. A salad bar. A small breakfast area with dry cereal and such. A lot of vending machines, including a freezer machine with frozen, microwaveable foods.

This is so retro! It's also the smallest cafeteria I have been in in ages. Fortunately, it was also not very crowded.

I had the baked pasta with sausage, tomato sauce, and mushrooms. It seemed the safest bet. With yellow rice, and peas and carrots. It made me smile.

(no subject)

Oh, and I forgot the flower!

I bought a potted pansy on Saturday.

I was at the grocery store, which is usually not the best place to buy potted plants -- they're not always in the best of condition, you know. Plus, it's still January. It's too early.

But, I figured, I had time to kill, and it couldn't hurt to check out what was available.

I made it all the way to the last, lowest corner of the plant racks when I spotted it. This pansy...oh, it's so hard to resist the jokes, because this pansy is fierce. It's red and yellow and black and absolutely striking. (Pansies usually come in purple, or yellow, or pastels.) I hate to say "it spoke to me," but, well, it kinda did. I took it home. It's on the porch, awaiting repotting sometime this week.

one more

I may not sound it, or look it when you see me, but yes, I am rather emotionally worn down from the last two weeks of caretaking. I've been taking care of myself pretty well, I think (and other people have helped -- thank you again), but my equilibrium is kinda shot at the moment. I'm back on the emotional rollercoaster of life :P