Mom and Martha (one of her BFFs) arrived at 11:00. Gave them the grad tour. They declared the house to be "neat as a pin." (They didn't look closely at the baseboards.)
Ate lunch downtown at the bakery. Had a turkey club with jalapeno sauce. It was flavorful without being hot. Yum! Then we all had a piece of cheesecake. How could we not after staring at the pastry case all through our meal?
After lunch we came back home and collapsed into the recliners...the women did anyway. Hubby ran off to the bedroom for a nap and to avoid all the girl talk.
We chatted for the next several hours about Girl Stuff - families, babies, sewing projects, charity work, church affairs, cooking, hair, makeup, and of course, men.
Went out to a late supper at a Cajun place. We all had seafood lasagna. I was underwhelmed. Won't order that again.
Packed them off for home around 10:00 pm. A long day, enjoyable, but was glad for it to be over.
Chelsea, age 17, hasn't been acting normal lately. She's been having diarrhea and didn't eat anything for two days. That's not good at her age. Bought some really stinky food for sick cats and she ate a little bit of that. 
Journaling:1.) Classic car show with Mr. Hotdog, Cindy Lou and Pooter 2.
2.) Saw some cool little remote control airplanes. They fly 80 MPH. Local air shows every Sunday 1:00 to 4:00.
3.) Then lunch - bacon, eggs and toast with a Belgian waffle for dessert.
4.) Then naps.
5.) Drove to the state line to see a historic monument. Turned out to be a hulking piece of concrete deep in the woods in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes. Took some photos to draw later.
6.) Then to Spearsville, Louisiana to eat at Hollis Seafood - boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, stuffed crab, frog legs, and a cinnamon roll with ice cream for dessert.
7.) Made it home in time to see the fireworks show at the stadium. The show was timed to some cheesy patriotic music on one of the local radio stations.
Journaling:Nana, Poppy and I went out for Indian food tonight. It was a first-time experience for all three of us. I am so turned off by the smell of curry I was prepared to just pick at my dinner and eat a ham sandwich when I got home.
It was all wonderful and I scarfed down everything placed in front of me.
PAPAD - A lacy, fried tortilla chip thingy made with lentils and black pepper. The dipping salsa was bright green with a cilantro flavor. There was another one that looked like soy sauce made with tamarind.
TEA - Made with cinnamon, ginger and two other spices I didn't catch. Wonderful change from ordinary iced tea. Could have drunk a gallon of this stuff.
GARLIC NAN - A soft bread that looks like a pizza crust. The owner told us it was made by sticking the dough to the side of the oven. The hot air across it made it puffy.
BASMATI RICE - Long grain, fluffy and delicate. I've never seen this type of rice before.
PALAK (SAAG) CHICKEN - Chicken chunks with spinach and other spices. It was an evil dark green and looked for all the world like dog poo. Poppy tasted it and declared it to be "complex" with flavors. I could taste cilantro and about five other flavors I couldn't identify.
The waiter explained that all the entrees on the menu listed as "curried" didn't necessarily contain curry. Curry in Indian is the equivalent of "gravy" in American and just means the dish has a stew-like consistency.
The waiter asked if I wanted my dish mild, medium or hot. I just shrugged and told him to pick. He picked medium. I took the first bite and it was so spicy hot it took my breath away. My eyes watered and nose ran. It was good but I don't think I'll ever order "hot" Indian food. Whoa!
The name of the restaurant was Amruth which is a Sanskrit word meaning, "Nectar of Immortality with Magnificent Flavor."
Aptly named.
All the journaling down the right-hand side of the page is the story of The Goat Woman copied from the museum's website. You can read that here.Dee and I spent two hours sketching this. She's as much a detail addict as I am. That was way too long. After two hours we just quit and went in search of lunch.
Smackover, Arkansas is out in the middle of nowhere. We asked at the front desk if there was anywhere we could go for lunch. The only three places were truck stops with day-old fried chicken. We didn't think we could handle that so we made do with stuff from the snack rack in the gift shop. Vienna Sausage is a second cousin to fried bologna, but I was desperate.
I had hoped to get four sketches done today for the sketchcrawl, but it was 1:00 pm, I was fading fast, and I only had one sketch in the book. I took a few minutes to warm up on some speed sketching with the brush pen and sketched the remains of our meager lunch.
I have *got* to quit getting so zenned out on details. My brain is happy but my back screams that I've been sitting in one spot too long!
Journaling:Miz Dee spied this old telephone in the Horseshoe Cafe exhibit that she wanted to draw. There were actually two phones but I opted for just one and other stuff on the shelves. There was a table and chairs in there so we settled in to draw.
Part of the exhibit was an audio tape of the sounds of a cafe: low murmuring voices, the clink and rattle of dishes being cleared from a table, and a guy coughing. Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough.
After a while I felt like I was sketching in a TB ward. The tape looped about every two to three minutes and the cough started to drive me nuts. "Get that man a Ricola!"
This is one of those instances where taking the time to sketch an event will permanently imprint it on my brain. Had I merely taken a photo and continued on, I wouldn't have experienced the dreadful repetitive TB cough. Yep, I'll remember that and this day for a long time.
The lighting in the museum was dark and moody and after squinting through the gloom for four hours my eyes were beginning to ache. My spirit was willing but my body wasn't able. It's hell getting old.
At 3:00 pm I closed the sketchbook and told Miz Dee I was done for the day.
Journaling:Cranberry Glazed Pork Loin
- Slab o' pork loin w/ cranberry, apple & BBQ glaze
- Yukon Gold mashed taters -n- gravy
- Greek seasoned French-cut green beans
- Sourdough garlic toast
- Salad with lettuce, tomato, croutons, cashews, and Ranch dressing
- Pepsi
It was Experimental Cooking Night at our house. My sister sent me the recipe and I've been planning, discussing and dreaming about this meal for days.
Hubby inhaled it without taking a breath, then started talking about all the possibilities for leftovers.
It was a big hit!
Journaling:Hubby wanted a Chef Salad for supper tonight so I put some eggs on to boil. Realized later there was only enough lettuce for one salad so I heated up some leftover spaghetti and took two of the eggs.
Hubby looked at my plate and said, "All you're missing is the fried bologna."
"Fried bologna? What???"
Then I got it.
Oh.
When my sisters and I were young, my mother, who is NOT a cook, would make weekend suppers of macaroni and cheese, boiled eggs and fried bologna. She fed a family of five with one small box of Mac -n- Cheese, four boiled eggs, and three pieces of bologna. There were leftovers. No wonder we were all so skinny back then.
After we all grew up we looked back and realized what a horrible combination of food this was for a meal. We ate this fairly often too.
Now it's a running joke with us.
"What are you having for supper tonight Sissy?"
"Oh, I don't want to cook. Probably macaroni and cheese, boiled eggs and fried baloney."
=============================
The slice of bologna was cut in half and when fried would curl up into a football shape. Everybody got 1/2 piece except Daddy. He got two halves.
(pointy arrow to white spot on bologna)
<--Shiny grease highlights
"Still Life with Cat and Pickles"
Gouache
Ink and Watercolor
Journaling:Hubby and I were out running errands and arguing (or discussing) about what to eat for supper. He wanted a Sonic burger (Yuck!) and I didn't think I could stomach that.
I had suggested a local burger joint where I could get a good fish sandwich. He agreed and we were en route when we spied the Long John Silver's catering truck. I loves me some Long John Silver's.
Our little town isn't big enough to support a Long John Silver's store, so they send their catering truck up from Louisiana (I thought; Hubby says Texarkana) to hit all the little towns in southern Arkansas.
They show up unannounced and set up in the parking lot of a vacant store. Word gets around fast when they arrive and usually there's a huge line snaking around the parking lot. If you don't get there quick they run out of food. Usually I don't make it in time. Victory today!
I love the crumblies.
It's probably a good thing I don't get to eat LJS except two or three times a year.
Journaling:Hubby caught a stomach bug at work Tuesday. Barfed up his dinner Tuesday night and stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday night he was feeling better and went back to work Friday.
Decided he wanted a chicken fried steak from our favorite restaurant for supper tonight. Not a good idea to dump all that grease on a tender stomach, but he would not be dissuaded. It all came up a few hours later like I figured it would.
He laid in bed moaning, groaning and yelling like he was birthing a baby.
He is a big baby.
Sometimes he should listen to Momma.
Nothing but clear liquids for him for the weekend.
Journaling:This is the last of the Chocolate Orange I got for Christmas from my mother-in-law. I was going to sketch it and write the story and had everything arranged to draw. Then Hubby came up behind me, snatched the last slice and took a bite.
"Hey! I was gonna draw that!"
"Oops, sorry" as he lays the half eaten slice back on the foil.
He trots to the kitchen and returns with a Snickers bar which he flings on my desk.
"Here, draw that."
"But it doesn't have a story!"
"Well, what's left of the chocolate orange really has a story now."
He had a point.
Arrived safely at Nana's house this afternoon. Went out for Chinese for supper. The place was deserted at the height of the dinner hour. Thought that was quite odd. There were a few tables with soccer moms and tots, but the large dining room was mostly empty.
Journaling:An off-hand comment by Raena got me to reading all the labels in my pantry. Discovered almost everything in there has MSG in it, even things I wouldn't have suspected. I use a lot of flavor packet thingies and they are the worst culprits.
MSG doesn't seem to affect me but it makes Hubby's bedtime miserable - sleeplessness, bad dreams, restless legs. After eating Chinese his night is shot. I didn't realize I was feeding him so much of it at home.
All the foods we eat are just basic ingredients with a few spices. Need to figure out what the combination of spices are in those packets so I can make my own mixes sans MSG.
I have no knowledge of spices much beyond salt, pepper, onion and garlic. Need to find out how to use stuff like turmeric, cumin, marjoram, thyme and celery seed. And paprika. Everything lists paprika as an ingredient.
But mainly I need to rid the pantry of MSG. It causes obesity in mice. Squeak!
Journaling:The cats have gone on a hunger strike. They refuse to eat their formerly favorite stinky flavor "Rotting Fish Heads in Garbage Can (Classic Pate')." My philosophy with finicky cats is to wait 'em out. Eventually they will eat it and be happy.
But Chelsea was very vocal about her displeasure with the menu. She would sit at my feet and YOWL all day and night. "Momma GET UP! and put something else in the food bowl! DO IT NOW! YOWL! YOWL! YOWL!" She worked herself up into a lather about it yesterday and that's not good for an antique cat.
OK! OK! I caved and went to Wally World today. Got the nasty cheap stuff, different flavors of the usual stuff, and some really expensive stuff.
So far this evening they have eaten the "Dead Shrimp in Fetid Backwater" and "Putrid Cow in Hot August Sun with Barley and Garden Greens." I'm guessing the Garden Greens are added to keep their breath smelling nice. Um, righhhttt....
Cheezburger the Porch Cat will get the remaining cans of "Rotting Fish Heads" as a treat. He normally only gets dry kibble.
