Busy and slow

It's been a busy week, 
but a lovely slow weekend...

The Diva's challenge was to use Knightsbridge and Tipple... duo tangle. It was fun and it was interesting to see where it went. 

Have I learned my lesson?

I'm a planner. Ask any of my friends. I'm pretty good at it. 

This weekend was a fun little trip to Calgary, 3 hours south. Friday after work was the PERFECT drive. Sunny, warm, golden fields and trees just turning to autumn colours. I had cobbled together a new "Drive" playlist and the music was LOUD.

I got to the airport, suffered louts at the gas station (2 cut in front of me in line!) and went to pick up my friend, whom I adore. She's everything I'm not - tall (!), always gorgeous, relaxed, and always in the moment (while I'm always looking ahead..). I love how she sees life beautifully. She is a tad disorganized, however, and so I had NO idea what flight (I'd been given a time only... and no, didn't have any more details). In the end I had the wrong time, wrong airline and wrong originating city. 

I wasn't annoyed, but I was a wee bit impatient. 

Here's where the humility comes in. After we finally connected, I realized: I had lost my parking card. So it was $25.20 to pay for the day. Grr. We had a lovely evening talking over supper and watching Brene Brown's TED Talks. Then I lost my hotel room card this morning.

Now I'm home. And I left my laptop power cord AT the hotel! Good grief. I never do these things. So either it's early-onset dementia, OR I'm supposed to learn something. I hope I have. This lack of focus is driving me crazy!

Last night and this morning I finished off the Diva's latest challenge. I LOVE the colours. I love the simplicity of B&W zentangles, but I'm always drawn in by colour. Always. 

I took Diva's and LeeAnn's wonderful suggestions for how to use colour - so I wet the tile and dropped watercolour pigments on top, let it dry and then started the tangling! This has been a wonderful lesson...

Time to shut down the computer (to save power... another friend will return the cord to me tomorrow)

What's for supper?

I call my cookbook "But I JUST Fed Them Yesterday!", and no, that's not a joke.

I am a competent cook. Not a great one, but a good one, with occasional flashes of brilliance. To be really good, I'd have to think about food more, but to be completely honest, food is wonderful when I'm hungry, but not that captivating if I'm sated, which is most of the time. Wine, on the other hand... but that's another post!

Today is a lovely serotinal September day and when I got into my oven-hot car after work, I immediately thought that this was the right day for my favourite hot-day meal: Lemon Spaghetti.

I actually saw this meal made on TV. It might be the only recipe I have from a TV show! But it is perfection on a hot summer evening. We paired it with a Gray Monk Pinot Gris - fruity, slightly effervescent, a beautiful background note to the pasta, fresh lemon, parmesan and the fresh green of basil. If it were colder, I might think of adding a grind or two of fresh pepper, but not on a beautiful hot day like today!

Fresh Lemon Spaghetti

Squeeze about 3 lemons for about 1/2 c fresh juice.
(Zest one of the lemons first)
Finely grate about 2/3c fresh parmesan cheese
Chop about 1/2c fresh basil.

Boil 1 lb (package) of spaghetti or spaghettini according to the directions on the package. Drain and put back into pot.

Drizzle about 1/4c GOOD olive oil over and stir.
Add in lemon juice, parmesan and basil. Stir well. Serve.


Since Matt and Tara and Alex were all here for supper, we barbecued a strip loin steak and cut it into thin strips to add a little protein, and added some sourdough bread.