Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004
10:54 p.m.

A quick update before I climb onto the couch under a wool blanket and one of Mom's homemade quilts. It's been a busy day.

Mom and Dad came over this morning and visited with us -- my cousin Heather is staying here with her beau, Lionel -- and they all went sightseeing around noon, and took Everett along. I stayed home and worked for a couple hours, and just as I was about to call it quits, Karen stopped in on her way home from working with her "lady." We ended up having a glass of wine upstairs with my neighbours, and then we both headed over to Mom and Dad's -- she to pick up her daughter, I to bring Heather and Lionel back here for supper and to spend the night again. Oh, and Everett too.

I hadn't planned ahead for having Heather and Lionel stay at my place, but they did take me up on my offer so I've given them my bedroom and am camping out on one couch while Everett is sleeping on the chaise longue so he can be in the same room with me. We all thought we'd boil during the night as the new neighbour upstairs, newly arrived from Mexico, has control of the thermostat and she is finding the Okanagan cold. Tonight I went around and virtually closed the heat registers so we ought to be more comfortable.

Since I didn't do any advance planning, I had prepared for meals that I have been wanting since arriving here, and those are the groceries I had in the fridge. So last night, when we got back here just after five, I made sweet 'n' sour tofu 'meat'balls, brown rice, and spinach salad for supper. Heather and Lionel bravely ate it and pronounced it "surprisingly good." Well, what are they gonna say?

Tonight, I fried up the leftover rice and made egg foo yung to go with it. That was a new dish to them, too, but they managed to consume it graciously and pronounce it tasty.

Tomorrow I'll go buy some meat and potatoes and make them a meal closer to what they are accustomed to.

Heather last night: "I'm going to whine to Auntie Grace: 'Do you know what Kathy made us eat???' "

***

Me last week, in the throes of the swollen eyelids and patchy skin: "Don't you notice that I am looking kinda homely these days?"

Everett: "No, you're beautiful!"

Consistently, he says this. I wonder at what age that perspective normally changes. He'll be 12 in a couple weeks.

Still, it's endearing.

email: