Sunday Dinner, August 10, 2008 & Some Rambling

Glory be, here it is time for Sunday Dinner again. This week has been full of activity, however, and for once it does seem like the time was marked as it should be. When I'm busy every day it seems like the days are measured more deliberately than when I just piddle my time away.

Since Jessica had surgery yesterday and is taking it easy at home, I don't think she, Jason and Emmy will be here for Sunday Dinner. So that leaves me, Lamar, and my sisters Cecil and Ducky, unless someone else drops in unexpectedly, which would be fine.

I have a small smoked pork shoulder, more or less a ham, baking slowly in the oven. It should be perfect for 4 hungry people and may even yield enough for some leftovers. I'll let it cook until it's tender, then let it cool and refrigerate it overnight.

When I get home from church tomorrow afternoon I'll put it back in the oven to reheat and peel and quarter some potatoes to roast in with the ham. While the ham and potatoes are cooking I'll cook some purple hull peas that I have in the freezer. I'm thinking about making a small pan of homemade buttermilk biscuits to round out the meal.

So there you have it: baked ham and roasted potatoes, purple hull peas and biscuits. If we have more than the 4 people I mentioned for dinner I'll cook some extra potatoes, peas and biscuits.

What's for Sunday Dinner at your place? If you'd like to participate just share your menu/plans in the comments.Just in the interest of keepin' it real here at Diane's Place, I guess I should confess that after posting my menu for last week's Sunday Dinner we ended up going to Jonesboro to eat at Cracker*Barrel so I didn't cook after all.

It was hotter than a two dollar pistol outside and I didn't have to cook. Works for me.Speaking of the weather, we're enjoying a welcome respite from the unbearable Arkansas heat and humidity. It's been in the upper 80'sF with lower humidity and we even got a little rain on Thursday morning. Some surrounding areas got a lot of rain but we barely got a good shower.

We have a good chance of rain overnight tonight and all day tomorrow. My poor rose bush and other plants and flowers desperately need a good soaking. The forecast high for Sunday is in the mid-70'sF which is almost unheard of for August and a welcome blessing if it materializes.

Thank you Lord, for your blessings!Speaking of blessings, (are you noticing a pattern developing here?) Jessica is sore but doing well. She's staying home and taking it easy. Jason is taking care of most of Emmy's needs since Jessica isn't supposed to lift much or put any strain on her incisions and stitches.

Of course Emmy doesn't understand why Mama doesn't like to be used as a jungle gym right now since it's always been fine in the past, but they're dealing with it.

Jessica's doctor released her to go back to work as soon as she feels up to it. She's supposed to use common sense as far as lifting and bending, etc. In other words, if it causes pain, don't do it!

I won't be keeping Emmy for the foreseeable future, at least until Jessica goes back to work and/or Jason gets a job. According to Jason's job and his new hours I may not be keeping Emmy then. We're all praying for Jason to find a good job, and soon.I'm still feeling kind of, "eh" most of the time. Better at times, worse at times, mostly according to my blood sugar levels. I've felt icky all day today but I'm feeling a little better as I type this. My blood sugar was well over 200 this afternoon and I could really tell it was high even before I tested for it.

Still no word from my doctor on the fasting blood glucose test I had done last Friday. I meant to call my doctor's office about it on Friday but I had Emmy all day and it slipped my mind. If I don't hear anything Monday I'm definitely going to call them.

If me being on medication to help regulate my blood sugar will make me feel better, I am so there! Bring on the drugs! I am so tired of feeling draggy, jittery, sluggish, sleepy, achy, headachy and exhausted, I could just scream! And today my eyes were giving me trouble and I know it's because my sugar was too high. My sight was so blurry I could barely focus on the words of a book I'm reading.

Sorry, rant over.I'm sure some of you can relate to the next situation I'm going to ramble about. Ever have one one of those days/weeks/months when all the appliances and/or electronics in your life suddenly decide to die all at once?

First my mouse went to that great mouse trap in the sky. I was right in the middle of mousing and it just quit. No wheezing, no coughing, no warning at all. It just died. Belly up.

I knew I had a spare in the closet in here, behind Emmy's playpen where she naps when she's here. So, I had to move her playpen and dig through the clutter in the closet to find the mouse.

But at least it worked after I plugged it in.

A couple of days later my computer keyboard just quit working right in the middle of a comment I was typing on someone's blog. I did the usual things trying to coax (threaten?) it to work again.

First I turned it upside down and gave it a good whack or 3. Nothing.

Then I turned it back rightside up and beat on it some more. Nope.

Then while muttering under my breath I wiggled the connection where it plugs in the back of the computer. Uh uh.

That sucker was dead as a mackerel.

So I dug out another keyboard. Out of that same closet behind Emmy's playpen. If I'd known the keyboard was gonna die too I'd have gotten the spare keyboard out at the same time I was retrieving the spare mouse!

But this time I wasn't so fortunate. My spare keyboard was a spare because it had water spilled in it and I'd had to replace it with a new one. I just threw the wet keyboard in the closet on the offchance that after it dried out it might work again.

So much for that theory.

Do you realize how hard it is to do anything on a computer without a functioning keyboard?

As it happened I was going to do my monthly shopping that very morning so I bought a new keyboard and while I was at it I bought a wireless mouse.

Can I just say, I LOVE my new wireless mouse!

The new keyboard.....the keyboard....NOT.

I let Jessica talk me into buying one of those curved jobs. I was all thumbs. And toes. And elbows it seemed. My fingers simply would not find the home keys. I hit keys by mistake that had me typing in Russian script and then I hit a key that hid my bottom task bar and all the top tool bars. I almost never figured out how to undo that stuff!

Well, that wasn't going to work. A couple of days later when I went back to Wal*mart to do my grocery shopping I took that keyboard back and swapped it for a standard keyboard. This one is better but it has a bunch of keys that I have no idea what they do. I have the book that came with it but unless I hit one of those extra keys by mistake I'll probably never investigate their uses.

Why does everything have to be so complicated?

I'm still getting used to this new keyboard so I'm having to backspace a lot and it's slowed my typing down. Not that my nickname in typing class was ever "Lightnin' Fingers" to begin with.

On the other hand, I cut the cords off the two dead keyboards and Emmy thinks they're the best thing since Jell*o. She carries them around and plunks on the keys and sings. I guess she thinks they're mini grand pianos, only without the sound. I even gave her one to take home with her so she has one here and one at home to play and sing with.Well, if you've read all this you're probably bored to tears so I'll cut this off before I ramble any more.

Y'all have a great Sunday. May God richly bless you, and may you have enough to share is my prayer for you all.