I plan, along with several friends for mutual support, to give up chocolate for Lent. That means I only have seven days (plus a few hours) to eat up these malted milk balls! I had bought them for decorating my Super Bowl cakes, but didn’t use that many. DH doesn’t even want to know these are in the house, so it’s up to me alone. I shall accept this assignment and perform it diligently, mon capitaine!
From my refrigerator, you can see why I need not cook for about a month. I have the BEST leftovers! The best is the chili, the dark stuff in the rectangular container, but I’ve got more meatballs and, especially, what you can’t see, is some great fresh veggies in the crisper. The little plate shows two of my appetizers, both of which are no longer leftover.
One of the virtues of hosting the party is choosing the menu, which in this case is all stuff that I love to eat. So, whatever I can’t send home with my guests I am sure to enjoy.
Here’s a quick picture of the second pepper from our garden. It ended up in the All-Day Pork Loin Chili that I made for our Super Bowl Party. I can’t believe it, but I was so busy that I didn’t take ANY pictures of the food! It was an awesome menu, though. It included Maple-Glazed Meatballs, Cheddar-Stuffed Mushrooms, Spinach Artichoke Party Cups, Festive Franks, Sweet and Salty Super Bowl Brownies from yesterday, Chocolate Avocado Cake, and various chips, dips, fruit, fresh veggies, and, ultimately, way too much food. Most of the attendees were family and most of the dishes were enthusiastically received. I’ll reflect further on that in the future. Note, however, that green food is always a tough sell. 
New Orleans Saints — booyah!
These are two of my most prized possessions: MontBlanc Meisterstruck instruments. The black is my mechanical pencil and the burgundy is a discontinued fountain pen.
I just reconnected with a Twitter friend after over a year or maybe almost two, which reminded my how fast time flies. Answering his question about how things are going I realized that my MontBlancs are metaphors. This friend handcrafts fine fountain pens of exotic woods and other materials. I used to delight in writing with my fountain pen, mostly in my journal. Nothing (well, nothing involving a writing instrument at least) rivals the pleasure of watching my thoughts fill a page of heavy-weight paper, flowing freely from a finely-tooled nib in a rich color. But writing with a fountain pen is a complicated process. One cannot store a fountain pen filled with ink for a long time. So using it usually involves changing a cartridge or pulling out a bottle of ink and filling the pen’s well, which can be a messy business. I rarely carry a fountain pen in my purse, so using it requires sitting quietly at my desk at home.
But sharing news with this friend highlighted that I hadn’t used a fountain pen in such a long time. My life has sped up, my attention has been more fractured, and my writings have become more temporary. I use my mechanical pencil almost every day. It’s still a beautifully-crafted tool, hefty in weight and pleasing to the eye. But it’s for a faster-paced life with little leisure for the sensual pleasure of fountain pen writing.
Sad. Maybe this summer….
I have a picture for today after all! It’s the much-anticipated consumption of the home-grown green bell pepper, the skinny one in front. Sadly, this recipe was a disappointment. I should have realized it didn’t call for nearly enough seasoning for ground turkey, which can be pretty tasteless. I substituted brown rice for the millet, which affected texture but not taste. At least the pepper itself was lovely, tender with just the right resistance. The parts drizzled in olive oil were the best.
My fever is gone, finally. Drugs and naps are amazing things.
Based on a silly and transparent internet quiz, apparently the Austen heroine I most resemble is my favorite, Elizabeth Bennet! OK, I admit I could recognize the quotes from each of the novels so *perhaps* I *unconsciously* skewed the results. In reality, Pride and Prejudice edges out Persuasion by barely a hair as my favorite Austen novel. Apropos of nothing, I really miss teaching British Lit.
OK, going off the interwebitubes to fight this fever. No original picture today.
Okay, so pretend I posted this last Sunday, January 31. DH took the picture, which I uploaded and meant to post right away, but I started grading again and went to bed about 1 a.m.
This jolly crew, pictured at the Uva Bar in Downtown Disney, is the core of the LA fan contingent of Buzz Out Loud PLUS our visiting dignitary from Brazil aka Rafa (far right). Next to him is phatemokid, then darthweef, me, jtv4k and LoveMeDeux. Our group included various spouses and offspring and friends, too. A great time was had by all!
Look what our garden grew! And neither the bunnies nor the birds nor the doggie got it first.
I was planning to make Stuffed Peppers (well, pepper) but forgot to pick up a sweet potato. Maybe tomorrow.
Today was the first day of Spring Semester. Kinda crazy…. I lost a lot of students from my roll sheet, but gained more for a net of about three more than last semester. This is puzzling because the administration added another section of American Lit, three of my seniors graduated early, one student moved back to China, and one student transferred to another high school.
This photo is of the sum total of the grading I must finish from finals, including five sets of essays, plus one short answer final, plus four sets of short answer sections with three questions each. Ugh.
I just returned from a lovely retirement party for a teaching colleague. I’m jealous that such stacks will be behind her. Okay, enough whning. Time to hunker down and git ‘er done!
 | Kim on All My Grading |
 | Amanda on Replacement Lumix |
 | Rogue Tess on Replacement Lumix |
| Amanda on Replacement Lumix |
 | atomiclulu on Same Shot, Different Day |
