HOUSE ON FIRE

My house smells like it has been on fire because I put sweet potatoes on to boil and let them go dry while I've been on the computer. I set the timer but forgot to turn down the heat once they came to a boil. On a better note, the green beans with ham, onions and garlic that I am also cooking got turned down so they are simmering away nicely and when I finish this I'll add some red new potatoes to the pot. I cook a good meal about once a week and usually share it with someone. When it is cold I enjoy having something going on the range and today qualifies as one of those days. The rest of the week is to get warmer.

I'm doing a week of Bible study on the beatitudes at 9 a.m. this week so I have to get up and out earlier than usual. This morning it was a challenge since it was so cold last night.

Speaking of sleeping, I have been having the weirdest dreams lately. One night I was trying to ride a motorcycle. It was cold, I wasn't properly dressed for it and I had a hard time starting the thing and had to keep asking for help. The next night I was driving a semi in Chicago. I do drive in Chicago and always get around quite well but a semi--come on. Saturday night I got badly beaten up by a bunch of women all beautifully dressed including hats. Figure that one out. Last night I was visiting with a friend of many many years whom I have not seen in many years and she was dying and the whole thing was bizarre and convoluted. Anyone who likes interpreting dreams could have a field day with these. Fortunately, my days are much better than my dreams.

HOW COLD WAS IT?

It was so cold this morning that I didn't want to get out of bed. The cat slept under the covers and although she climbed out earlier this morning she either layed on top of me or next to me--mostly wanting me to get up--and she kept me very warm along with the down covers. The good news is that the sun is shining brightly and my new garden room is surprisingly warm and pleasant. I had tea and toast there and a little read. I will probably return there when I finish this.

This was a good week. I felt surprisingly better and wanted to live again. I went to two movies in the same day and loved both--"Music and Lyrics" with that wonderful Hugh Grant and "Daddy's Little Girls" by one of my new favorite film makers, Tyler Perry. Both chick flicks but very entertaining none the less. "Music" had some great lines in it which is surprising for the genre and Grant and Barrymore actually do the singing in the movie and were very pleasant. The Perry film has one of his great messages (sermons) in it which I always love and think that the world needs. Valentine lunch and valentine dinner--it was a great week.

In case you wonder why my house is so cold, I do have a perfectly good 3 year old heating system along with my air conditioning. I learned that it costs twice as much to run the furnace as the air conditioner and since I love cold air I scrimp in the winter for cool in the summer. It works out perfectly fine and actually I require heat only occasionally from a well placed heater. I have never liked forced air heat--somehow it is never really warm to me--so I love sitting in front of the rays from a heater. I have an electric radiator heater in my bedroom which is perfectly safe if I need nightime heat. I guess my love of burrying myself in the warmth of "covers" as we always called them goes back to my childhood when if it were really really cold we would spread a heavy coat on top of all the covers for warmth. Now I don't even own a heavy coat.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I can't think of anyone who would read this who isn't experiencing cold this weekend so I hope you all find someone to snuggle with--even if it is the cat. Peace and blessings.

FRIDAY NIGHT AT HOME

I had a full day today and a pretty big day yesterday so I'm glad to have Friday night at home. This has been a pretty good week, one reason being that I think I passed a kidney stone last Saturday night that had layed me low for two weeks. I slept a lot and suffered a lot but all is well that ends well.

We have had pretty days most of this week with temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. I realize that is a lot warmer than a lot of you have had. It is really nice to have some weather that isn't in the 80's for a change.

As you might have gathered by my previous post, I really gloried in the Colts Superbowl win last Sunday night. I went to a party where everybody rooted for the Colts and only 2 of us there were from Indiana. As I have probably commented before, I am a fair weather fan when it comes to all sports but maybe that's o.k.

I am going to a tea with my mother tomorrow which is dress up with hats and the whole smear. I like dressing up so I will enjoy it. I always liked playing dress up as a little girl and remember hauling out old curtains to pretend that I was a bride. Tomorrow I will be able to wear my own clothes from my own wardrobe. Yes, I own hats.

Have a good weekend everybody.

AS DAVE WOULD SAY

As my fellow hoosier, Dave Letterman, would say, "How about them Colts?" There was no disappointment at the party that I went to and only 2 of us were Hoosiers.

CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG

When I'm at home on Friday nights, which seems to be a lot more of late, I like to catch some of the weekly news programs on PBS. At 9 p.m. I like to watch the McLaughlin Group but I used to detest Patrick Buchannan on any show which he appeared. I thought that he was such a big mouth lefty. Lately he has been cracking jokes and making even liberals like me laugh. He seems to have moved somewhat middle of the road, less argumentative or something because I find myself enjoying the old fart. (He may be younger than me.) Have I changed or has he?

MOLLY IVINS

Yesterday we lost a wonderful journalist and political commentator, Molly Ivins. A Texas girl, she wasn't beyond satirizing fellow Texan George Bush and I believe we owe his nickname, "Shrub," to her. She will be sadly missed by her loyal readers. She died of agressive inflammatory breast cancer.