Monday surprise...

Isn't it nice to start the week off with a surprise?  I was sitting here feeling down in the dumps and first the mailman came in.  He's always cheerful and even though he didn't bring any envelopes with money in them, I did get a new Current catalog, which is fun to look at, even if I don't order anything.  And then, my clients Cari and Linda from Taste of Philly came in with their 2009 bookkeeping - and this adorable cookie jar!  It's that strange green color that I love - and, it has sugar cookies in it...  It was so nice of them - and it really brightened my day.  And I have eaten practically half of one of the bags of sugar cookies from inside.  Yikes! 

I had good intentions to eat responsibly today: I made fresh mozzarella and tomato salad for lunch and invited my friend Richard to stop by on his way to his afternoon job.  He's busy for a retired guy!  It was good, but I had left out the Bermuda onion because they can be a little overwhelming - but it really needed the onion.  I used Newman's Own oil & vinegar dressing - which was very mild - so it needed more spice.  Next time.  Why the vegetables for lunch, you wonder?  Or maybe not.  Anyhow, Saturday before last after the movies with Tim, we went to my favorite barbecue place in the world for dinner.  They have this great fried dill pickle appetizer and I love it!  Anyhow, their special is to pick two meats and two sides - that's dinner.  Well, they have great fried fish, which I always order, and that night I picked fish and chopped pork barbecue.  I was starving, so I ate the fish first and my fries; the black-eyed peas were still hard, not mushy like they are supposed to be.  Anyhow, when I finally had a bite of the pork, that's when I was suddenly consumed with the realization that I was eating cooked flesh.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but it tasted so weird to me - and normally I like it.  This from the woman who always buys kosher hot dogs!  I am not really a big meat-eater anyway (not like my husband who would subsist solely on meat) and I couldn't eat another bite of this.  I took it home for Aggie & Monty (waste not, want not) and they liked it, but well after being completely grossed out by the barbecue, I have once again given up eating meat.  About fifteen years ago, I gave up eating meat for about three years.  I did eat fish - but nothing with a face.  I guess fish have faces, but I tried not to think about it and it's hard to know a fish personally.  What set me off back then was reading Diet for a New America about the mistreatment of farm animals.  I have never eaten veal - for that very reason - but after reading that book, I couldn't eat chicken or turkey.  Even when I started eating meat again, I couldn't cook a whole chicken or a turkey because it looked like a bird!  I mean, at least beef doesn't look like a cow.  So anyway, I'm back to avoiding meat.  I'm making a big pan of homemade macaroni and cheese for Thanksgiving.  Just think, if the Pilgrims had made mac & cheese for dinner all those years ago, the market for turkeys this time of year would be next to nothing.  Turkey futures would be down, but pasta would be up.