Rumble

There's a thunderstorm passing through the area. Every so often we hear what could be rain, lashing against the house, but it's very brief. Too bad -- we could use the rain. At least it's relatively cool -- about five to ten degrees less than normal. In two days, we'll be about two hours north of here, attending my wife's family's reunion, and that seems to be a blistering hot day, three times out of five. One is rainy, and one's nice. We'll be staying in a hotel, partially because the house (its pretty small) will be very crowded, and partially because I'm still just a little on edge about those stairs. I told my wife that while I don't routinely hold onto handrails these days, I notice that I usually stop and glance to see where they are. She told me that she tends to carry things in the hand that's away from the railing, for the same reason.

Yesterday was my big baking day -- not all that big, I suppose; I made about four dozen cookies, which sounds like a lot, but it wasn't all that big a deal. Three of those will go into the high school tomorrow as a snack, and I'll also be making mac and cheese -- home made, using the recipe that's worked very well for us every time I've made it. We really like it. Though I have to admit, if you like the standard Kraft Mac and Cheese, you might find ours a little more aggressive. If you'd had the cheese the last time I made it, you would really have thought it aggressive, as there were little shards of glass in it from when the tray exploded on me. Tomorrow, I'll be cooking in two aluminum foil pans -- cheap ones, so that I can leave them at school. We're supposed to have leftovers tomorrow night, but what with this and that, we're really just about out of them. I may bump the schedule up and make a grocery run tomorrow. I've a hankering for Taco Salad again. We had some this week and it was really good. I suppose if we had it every week, I'd get tired, but not so far. Its easy and tasty.

I've been reading Team of Rivals again. I had gotten into it about eight months ago but only read about three chapters before starting to lose track of who was who, where they were from, all of that. I'm reading more slowly this time, and making little notes in the book and on an index card. I am enjoying it. Also glancing through the copy of Understanding Baking that my mother gave me for my birthday. I like that book. Its both reasonable and, in a bakerly way, inspirational.

Speaking of inspiration -- when (and if) we put the room over the garage, we're thinking maybe we'll put solar panels there. If they can be used as a secondary power source to charge the hybrid van we hope to get around the same time....