The Week in Review: Hodge Podge

This week was supposed to be cold and windy and rainy. It is 61 degrees and calm and cloudy at 7 am. Not exactly a hardship. We had mostly sun, no rain, and even temps up in the 70s, walked on the beach every day except when we went to Corpus and walked in the stores and on Friday when the winds were over 20 mph. We were driving through sand drifts on the beach. We soldiered on and made it to the bars in Port A.

Talked with Jean Villa and Tony Boyle in Detroit area, Cyndi in Milan, Shirley in Clare, Roger up north, Mark in NY, Priscilla down the road. They are all awash in snow and wind and icy cold. We are worried about all our northern connections and want you to button up and don't slip and fall on the ice. You guys are having some seriously scary weather.

We keep hearing about how much people are enjoying their Wii games and Wii fit. We played with Steff's on summer vacation, bowling and golf and tennis. It is so real, I got sore just like I was playing golf. Yesterday when we got to Bernie's Bar there was a crowd of a dozen plus Winter Texans playing Wii Bowling and drinking. Just like the real game. Lots of hooting and hollering going on. It was fun just to watch.

I can't talk about poker.

I made an amazing food discovery recently. You know those flat, round frozen Steinhower Sizzle Steaks in grocery stores? I had some to use up and Paul suggested we stir fry them with broccoli and get some egg rolls. Good idea. I cut them up when they were still frozen and was alarmed that between the thin top and bottom layer of real beef slice there was something white about 1/4 inch thick. Strange, but I threw it all in the pan and it all turned out browned and looked like regular meat. It was tender and tasty and even had a normal texture. ??? A mystery but excellent for stir fry.

I had a kitchen incident while stir frying: the oil in the frying pan was just heating when the tin foil box fell out of the cupboard over the stove top and hit the pan handle, flinging oil all over the kitchen floor and stove and counter top. Lucky it wasn't hot yet, but what a mess. I was pissed. Paul threw rugs over it so we wouldn't fall and a good wash with dish soapy water took care of it. When I got over my mad, a few days later.

We ran out of strawberry freezer jam this week. Decided to make some and picked up a big plastic box of strawberries, Driscol, at Sams Club. Expected the usual hollow, dry and tasteless berry. So very wrong, they were huge and jucy and tasty. The jam is excellent. They were from Florida. My mom always said the berries in Florida were more flavorful when they had a frost on them. Whatever, I approve. We ate a lot of them too, am thinking we can blame Paul's rash on them.

That appears be all the boring minutiae that I can remember. Oh, I really, really, miss all my wonderful, intelligent, women friends in Michigan. Wish you were here. Actually, I miss my friends who are in Florida too, but am happy that they are someplace warm. And my OK friends, one is sick and the other in in Tulsa.