40ish & Beyond Parents

is quickly descending on us! Do you have anything planned? Will your weather be good for outdoor activities, or more conducive to curling up with a book?

Our weather is supposed to be fine, as in no rain and certainly not really cold. My weekend is going to be "the usual" with house chores and yard work and probably some loafing too. Tonight a friend is joining us for dinner. This is a guy that Enrique knows from running, he is alone in the world (although he does have a few other friends) and lives a very basic life including no car. Enrique takes him running somewhere about once a month, and we take him out to dinner or have him here to eat a few times a year. Yesterday he called Enrique and told him that today is his 69th birthday and he didn't want to spend it alone, could we get together? I heard about this last night, fortunately I had planned something for dinner that makes plenty so no problem. So Enrique will pick him up and bring him here for dinner, then take him home afterwards. I may try to go buy some cupcakes for a "birthday dessert"...I do have some cake mix here and *could* make them myself, but I don't need 18-24 cupcakes beckoning to me so better to just get a package of 4 or 6!

Other than that, no social activities planned for the weekend. Gardening, yes. I'm still plugging away on getting the winter crops in. Yesterday I declared one of the tomato plants "done for the season" and pulled it out, I want to put some beets in its place. And as usual there are lots of to-do's to be done **sigh**. I've been putting off the task of vacuuming out the heater vents with the shop vac and testing the furnace, but need to get to it. I know that one of these days it will be time to turn the thing on, so I'd better be ready.

Tell us what you're doing this weekend...

Well, it's going to be a fairly quiet weekend here.No planting planned-though I do need to do a bit of winterizing in my flower beds-the roses must be covered & leaves mulched around them to help them survive the winter.I got my Spring Bulbs in awhile go, I have already gone over the lawn twice with the mower to mulch the leaves that fell.(Usually a once-a-year job-but we had big winds the other day & they blew down more of the Oak leaves than usual, so I had to do it again.)

Mike's shoulder is healing slowly, his pain in it is less than I guess it was for the entire summer, so we are taking this as "A Sign" that this time it is healing properly.He also found out that he has Rheumatoid Arthritis-so when the shoulder is further along-he will begin medications to try to stop the progression of that.

I think the weekend is going to be fairly mild (not warm like Elspeth has-but milder than freezing in the daytime!)-& no rain, so maybe Adam can get his Mule out & go around the trails again.

We are facing a month of multiple appointments-so the weekend is a good time to relax with one another.I have knitting to do, a good book to read & if all else fails-I could do housework?

Nora

Our weather is not bad...we had a 'chinook' blow through - blow is the word, as today we are having quite the wind, it is supposed to get even stronger this afternoon, so 'they' say on the news. But the sun is shining and it's not so cold. That is pleasant enough - as we savour every nice day of semi-warmth before the real cold and winter arrives.

I am taking a small break from an intense preparation for the main course of a meal for our dinner party tomorrow. It's far from being a difficult dish...mostly it is basically stewed chicken but it's a lot of chicken pieces for 12 people and I had to brown it all in the pan first. Nevertheless, it's in a big pot now with a rich white wine/chicken broth sauce and it's pretty well cooked - it will just need to be reheated tomorrow. It's recipe I found in an Italian cookbook...as our meal has an Italian theme - suggested by Ray who began thinking about our hosting such a meal for a few friends, after his enjoying the meals he ate in Italy. This recipe is called "Chicken Cacciatore" (translated Hunter's chicken, I believe)..but it's without tomatoes as other recipes by the same name I have made. We are serving it with cooked fresh pasta (but bought not made...too much hassle right now...and easily bought so...!). I'm making leafy green salad, a green vegetable, and having a couple of appetizers available and oh yes, we have a vegetarian couple at the dinner so I made a big dish of eggplant Parmigiana (which took me two days to prepare due to a miscalculation on my part, by not properly doubling the tomato sauce for it, since I made a double amount of eggplant. I had to go and make more sauce the next day!

I am now going to make Tiramisu for dessert. I've not done it before, but hey, I've got a recipe...just follow it, and it should turn out, eh? I sure hope so. At least I can make that today and have it sit overnight in the fridge.

Tomorrow it will be make the salad, cook the noodles, cook the vegetable, make the appetizers (bruschetta and melon with proscuitto). I can't believe how tiring though it has been to do only what I've done to now. Have I reached the point where at my age I have to think of somewhat simpler meals for dinner parties? Or have people help out and bring a dish? Does anyone else here feel that making a big dinner is almost exhausting?

I do like to cook. But maybe it's just me who is running out of steam at this point.

Anyway we are having 10 people come for dinner tomorrow. Then on Sunday we should expect our children...as per usual, whomever can make it. But it is my third son's birthday today, and so we will have a little birthday celebration on Sunday for him.

By Monday I will be getting my things ready for my flight on Tuesday.

Maybe I can rest on the three hour flight to Toronto!?

That's what is happening here with me.
Shirley

Nothing exciting here - we are going to get a new convection microwave as the timing is good and the price even better due to the culinary class ds17 and I are taking; we get 'points' so then we get 15% off (and it's a floor model so it's already like 30% off). Otherwise nothing major - it's to be in the low/mid 70s; unheard of for this time of year. DH wants to mow; I need to get to the grocery store. I also have the latest Marple series on DVD for evenings as I didn't catch it while on PBS. I want to make some cookies and read some, but that's about all that's planned.

Sue

This weekend is supposed to be nicer than the past few, upper 50s Saturday and lower 60s Sunday with sun. However, I have to work tomorrow. I told them I would come in from 7 to 12. Not sure how I am going to get myself in that early, but it means I will still be able to go out for my weekly lunch with Neil and run errands in the afternoon, if necessary, when I get home <g>. Since the mountain of work that had management telling everyone that they had to work this weekend has not shown up yet, I am not sure why they are insisting that we work at all on the weekend, but I guess the idea is to get caught up with what we do have so we can spend all our time on the major project once it shows up...which could be another week or two if Marketing and BlueCross follow their usual schedule for providing information <sigh>.

Sunday is going to be a day to relax and enjoy the nice weather. For me that probably will mean sitting outside for awhile with my knitting enjoying what may be one of the last chances to sit outside without my hands getting too cold to knit... The Warming Families/Land's End hat project is not moving along very quickly on my end, so I hope to get a couple hats made this weekend if I have a chance. I've only finished 14 hats since I received the donor yarn in the middle of September, and there is still lots of yarn that is supposed to be used up by the end of the year. I can still use it for charity knitting, but the deadline for the challenge is December 31st.