Doggie visits and grocery lists

Today is the birthday of Texas, most commonly called Texas Independence Day. It celebrates the day on which 59 Texas settlers officially signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, declaring their independence from Mexico and creating the Republic of Texas. Of course, it wasn’t that easily done. War followed, as did the fall of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, so it was April before Texans (Texians as they were then called) prevailed. But it’s a day to celebrate our heritage and the great history of our state. There’s a huge temptation for me to insert a political statement here, but I will resist.

Sophie celebrated with a guest tonight. She’s used to human guests, loves them, but tonight Marj brought her rescue pup, Remy. Remy is a bit bigger than Sophie, though younger I think. At any rate, Sophie often tries to discipline the few dogs that visit, but she didn’t do that to Remy. She did, however, completely lose her cool, racing from one end of the cottage to the other while Remy looked completely puzzled. We locked them in the yard for a while, but I was truly afraid Sophie would bring down my fabric screen doors with her jumping, so we let them in. Remy was well behaved; Sophie not so much so, but she’s so irresistible.

After a while Sophie decided she needed more attention and she needed food. She began her routine of barking and growling at me. Jordan said I had to do something, but I told her every time we do, it reinforces bad behavior. So we waited it out. Soph would quiet, then flare up, then quiet. Now, at nine o’clock, Remy has gone home, and Sophie is ignoring that dinner she wanted so desperately. Somehow food for her is connected to attention. She’s now quiet and perfectly content.

An ordinary day—work, grocery store, nap. But this evening, before and after Marj’s visit, I explored recipes and came up with several I really want to try. A cream of chicken soup, from scratch and not out of the can; a lentil soup; roasted pears; dried figs reconstituted in red wine and served on a cheese board. I know it’s weird, but an evening of exploring recipes and planning a grocery list really delights me. These days I put aside a lot of recipes because it wouldn’t be practical to try to cook them in my tiny kitchen with my limited facilities. But the challenge just adds to the fun.

Watching the weather on both coasts and worrying about friends in line of the storms. In Texas today, it was nice to have sunshine and moderate temperatures, after our week of cold, wet rain, but I worry about those inline of what are being called monster storms. If you’re in either area, please take care.

Looking forward to the weekend. Hope it’s a good one for you.