This was the first week of nerd camp for the boy - electronics in the morning, web design in the afternoon. I got enthusiastic text messages like, "I blew up a light bulb!" and "I did my first flash animation!". And the food was acceptable. He stayed with his dad during the week, coming home for the weekend, and will do it again next week. We tried to download Adobe Flash Player to our mac so I could see his animation but for some reason although it seems to install we can't find the actual program on the hard drive. Too much I don't know about the computer. Probably something to do with the OS being outdated. I don't think I could upgrade this thing if I wanted to - not enough memory. One of these days when I'm not spending money for anything else I need a new computer.
I found a website that has a new crockpot recipe every day - http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/. I have a 25 year old crockpot that I do use from time to time, but sometimes I think I need a smaller one. I was surprised to see that they don't seem to make round ones like mine anymore - they are mostly oval. I guess if one wants to cook a whole chicken that would work better. I used it yesterday to cook meatballs in sauce all day. Now that the back room is fixed up and it's much nicer looking in the back of the house, I invited friends from my last few jobs over after work for a "my life is better now" party. I worked evenings all week and last weekend getting prepared - Saturday I bought 3 pounds of ground sirloin and made it all into meatballs (baked, not fried), then froze them, and bought 4 pints of different ice cream flavors from the local dairy. Yesterday I dumped the frozen lumps into the crock with tomato puree and sliced garlic and frozen crumbled basil from last summer and just simmered all day. Mmmmm. Monday night I boiled eggs and fried bacon. Tuesday night I cleaned up and bought a folding table and ordered rolls from the Italian People's Bakery. Wednesday I made onion soup dip, cut carrots and celery, peeled and boiled potatoes, bought lunchmeat and cheese, made potato salad, peeled the eggs and deviled them. Thursday I left work early, picked up the rolls, bought ice, got everything out (or so I thought), put meats and cheeses on plates (cats can eat turkey right through Saran wrap, did you know that?), set up the gluten table and the non-gluten table, lit citronella candles (futile), iced down the sodas, sliced tomatoes and onions, etc. We made a little fire in my tiny charcoal grill and had s'mores, some with dark chocolate for those who like that icky stuff. The two Chinese co-ops had never had them, nor the PhD from Kenya, so there were some lessons in marshmallow roasting. We pigged out on meatballs, lunchmeats, devilled eggs, chips, soda, s'mores, ice cream, onion dip.... only after they were all gone and I was cleaning up did I realize I never put out the potato salad or the bacon. Guess I know what I'll be eating for a while. The bread shoes from the last post were also featured as a supporting player in the meatballs. Now that it's all over I can get back to watching DVDs of The Wire. Man, that's a good show.
Monday night daughter came home late and crying. Had been told that skanky ex boyfriend had OD'ed on heroin and she couldn't get hold of him (apparently still cares). Tuesday night she didn't answer my text messages or answer her phone, and didn't get home on time. I tried to get hold of her with no luck. Friends hadn't heard from her. Then I pulled up the last cell phone bill online and started calling people she calls a lot, trying to locate her. Was she mad at me? Was she overreacting to the OD story? Had something bad happened? It was hugely upsetting. No one had been able to get her on the phone since the afternoon. After an hour of this, I called the police (it was midnight). I could understand her ignoring me if she was really in a foul mood or rebelling, but not ignoring everyone else. Officer came, took a report, said he would post it so anything related to accidents, hospitals, etc would be in the chain. Finally at 2:30 she called me. Had fallen asleep in her car with the phone on vibrate. Had gone to the cemetary to be alone (was she sitting? was she drinking? doing something else? says no, but...) and fell asleep. Interestingly, one of the numbers I called from her phone bill turned out to be skanky ex-boyfriend, who sounded perfectly fine. Huh? Finally got her home, called off the police search, went to bed about 4 am. This little paragraph does not even begin to convey the way I felt. She was very apologetic, didn't intend it to happen, totally unplanned, etc. Found out next day the the OD was a hoax perpetrated by somebody with a grudge who had no idea it would not hurt the person it was intended to, but hurt someone else who was a friend. She read him the riot act the next day. Man, talk about stressful. I don't ever want to spend another night (or any other time) like that.
After all that, I need an unplanned weekend. No obligations, no to-do list. Other than going out to see Hellboy II, that's what I'm aiming for. I need some destress down time and I plan to get it. There are enough leftover meatballs, potato salad, ham and turkey, and deviled eggs to last a while, and maybe I'll even indulge in a can of Coke. Oh, and the gluten-free brownies one of my friends brought. Other people go out and get drunk or stoned - me, I drink Coke, but not after 4pm so the caffeine doesn't keep me up. What a wild woman I am.
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