jimsjournal
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Enjoying days off -- 11/24/01 |
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I left off yesterday's entry as I was about to prepare food for my youngest and a few of his friends... as it turned out I fed dinner to Sean plus seven of his friends... and Jennifer as well, although she filled up a plate in the dining room and then ate in the kitchen, keeping me company as I began preparing dinner for Matt (Nancy's brother) and Tammy (Matt's fiance) plus Nancy and myself. The teenagers had (per my son's request) boneless chicken breast marinated in spiedie sauce (which I had cut up into pieces but I skipped putting the pieces on skewers) plus a large bowl of corn plus an even larger bowl of rice pilaf plus a large loaf of Italian bread.
I made pasta with a vegetable tomato sauce (sautee chopped up onion and green pepper and red pepper and celery and zuchini garlic in olive oil, then add cutup green beans and carrots, and then two large cans of diced tomatoes plus a can of tomato puree... and some basil and parsley and oregano and garlic powder and a little fresh ground pepper and three or four large sliced mushrooms).... served with a salad plus some slices of Italian bread topped with olive oil, sweet basil, finely chopped tomato, red onion, red and green peppers, and a sprinkling of shredded cheeses (parmesean and romano) and baked in a 400 degree oven for ten or fifteen minutes... Matt had a soda, Nancy and Tammy shared a bottle of merlot and I made major inroads into a bottle of chianti... Of course we sat at the table for a long time after dinner, sipping wine, talking, having coffee and cookies (Nancy had baked some peanut butter cookies)... Jennifer joined us for coffee and dessert... Jennifer helped us clean up and then she left for work... Sean's friends left and he came down and joined us around the table... I guess we finally went to bed around midnight.
This morning a dozen of us met at a Bickford's restaurant for brunch... after which the New York State folks headed off for home... I kept Nancy company while she did some Christmas shopping... We came home for a while and then set off again for some late afternoon errands... which included visiting a Staples (an office supply store) so Nancy could pick up supplies for school (Those of you who do not have a school teacher in the family would be startled to learn how much money teachers spend out of their own pockets on materials for their classrooms)
I'm planning on getting up very early Sunday morning, hoping to get on the road by dawn to go over to New York State and see my brother and, hopefully, my cousin Carol. It takes almost four hours (with one pit stop) normally, but this is the end of a major holiday weekend so I expect lots of traffic... that's why I want to get such an early start, to see if I can cover as many miles as possible before traffic gets too heavy.
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