Family Dinner

Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.
-- Samuel Butler

Friday, September 21, 2001
One year ago: Styling
Two years ago: Food Frustration
Three years ago: Lee Press-On
Four years ago: Work Ethic

This afternoon was an errand day with Jack. We went to the library to return Jack's library book, then continued south to the Discout Grocery Outlet. This is one of the chain (or is it just affilitated stores of independent ownership, like United Grocers or Red Apple?) that we liked in Bellingham, located in downtown Burien, a southern bedroom community that is almost entirely unknown to me.

We did some good shopping here. I was nervous writing a check, because I couldn't find my current drivers' license -- my old one was accepted without a blink, though, and I found my new one in my purse later in the afternoon.

I think my recent concentration on food is partly due to world tension making me uneasy, but mostly it's part of my tendency for mini-obsessions and getting deeply into things that attract my attention. I want to eat (and feed the rest of the household) inexpensively yet well. This seems sensible when no money is coming into the house at this time.

Our other errands were stopping at Safeway to buy tickets to the Puyallup fair, and getting charcoal for Jack to burn in his smoker.

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Tonight my sister M---- and her two boys came to dinner, traveling by bus. I'd marinated a pork roast since last night, basing it on a recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking that's supposed to make pork taste like wild boar. I think this was overpowered when Jack cooked the meat in the smoker, though.

The pork either shrank down amazingly in the smoker, or it wasn't as big as I thought it was. There was barely enough for each of us to have a small serving, with absolutly no seconds or leftovers. Darn! So much for my wish for abundance. I think everyone was full after eating bread, veggies, pear chutney, and so on, though.

After we ate, we walked over to the Junction and visited the Husky Deli for ice cream. When I'd mentioned this plan before dinner, my nephew J--- exclaimed "oh good! they have my favorite flavor there: root beer ice cream!" But in the event, he chose a single scoop of "banana split" in a cup.

We played a few rounds of Boggle when we got back to the house. M---- is a whiz at this, but she practices daily with a similar online game she's currently addicted to. H--- played too, and J--- was allowed to use words of only three letters. But next time, I think he should follow the four-letter rule. Much giggling and hilarity when we turned up the letters and all sorts of profane words were there. They are words, though, so legal for the game. Then I gave them a ride home.