Osprey of Leave

I know I say it with monotonous regularity, but I am tired! Madame Day, and I totally was not feeling it, but she was, which is what counts. She wasn't at her best, though. She had a lot of trouble getting in and out of the car, and the discussion of her lack of a checkbook, how to pay for lunch, no the cafe won't let you pay with your phone, what to eat for lunch, etc. etc. took up more time than usual and most things had to be repeated several times. I thought she looked tired. Maybe she stayed up too late watching the Weather Channel! She has a daughter in Florida who tried to call her when we first arrived. Madame couldn't hear her at all because of ambient noise. I suggested we sit down so she could focus, but she opted instead to call back later. I hope that worked out all right. She asked what I was having, and I said I was thinking of another honey chicken salad. I was hoping she'd get one too, but this week she recoiled and said, "No! I don't want to eat chicken." So she decided to get her usual lettuce salad. I pointed out that last time she got that, she told me to remind her not to do it again, because it was too hard to eat. She ordered it anyway. After eating some of it, she said "Remind me not to do this again! It's too hard to eat!" We've been doing this long enough that we have a lot of these little loops we go around. By the time we got out of there, she looked very pale and tired. I fear we overdid it, but later this evening she called me--"to see if this phone is working"--so I guess she's okay.

I managed to sprint to the grocery store before the Sparrowhawk needed the car to go to the gym. I got all the things I need to make that dinner (I hope). Then I started cutting up pot roast. Oy. It was so hard to cut. Too many bits of sinew and whatnot. I felt quite faint from my struggle. I was also texting at intervals with Queenie. So far, it was just raining a lot. The Duchess showed up and said that the dock is out and the boats are put away!! Okay, I take back all my carping. They are miracle workers. I hope to hear eventually just how they did it!

I had a giant bowl of tidy meat bits, and decided not to use the last hunk of beef, because I was just too tired. Even I have my limits. I chopped up and sizzled a pound of bacon, and then browned ALLLL the meat in the bacon fat. That took a long time. Meanwhile I was chopping carrots and baby potatoes. I put all the stuff into two giant pots and added beef broth, some leftover wine, thyme, rosemary and pepper, and the chopped fennel. It's been simmering for nearly two hours now, and tastes pretty good. I really wanted to get the jump on that. I'll put it on the back porch (yes, it's time for the back porch fridge again! Not quite time for the back porch freezer yet--that comes later) and then finish it off in the morning. I just hope it will serve 30 people. That's a lot of people.

Tomorrow: bread, cake, salad. Tonight, I am beat.