Saturday, Oct. 16

Had trouble going to sleep last night, so I slept late this morning, until around 7:30. Did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast (breaking my resistance band in the process...it just snapped in two like a rubber band, whacking me on both arms).



Didn't do much else for the rest of the morning, except play on my office computer. Mother came over around 11 a.m. and prepared two baking dishes of Parmesan potatoes for the oven. While she did that, I prepared a beef roast to marinate all day and overnight. The recipe called for slitting the roast and inserting garlic and onions, and then pouring vinegar over it. It will then be cooked in a broth of strong coffee.



After a lunch of leftovers, Mother and I watched the 1950s version of "War of the Worlds" on DVD. Then, she went home to dress for a Master Gardener indoor picnic this evening. I put the Parmesan potatoes in the oven around 3:45, so they'd be ready by the time we left for the picnic at 4:45. Each Master Gardener was assigned a specific dish to bring to the picnic, according to the first letter of their last name. We fell into the veggie assignment.

The Master Gardener at whose home we met has a mansion of a house (tall columns on the porch and all). To get there, we traveled on a narrow country lane (paved), past a privacy gate, and up the winding road to the house.

The house stands on a hill overlooking a large lawn and acres of wooded areas, in autumn colors. Two sisters and their husbands (all retired school administrators and teachers) actually share the house, which is amply large for the two couples.

The sisters are the Master Gardeners, but as with all of us, not much is growing at this time of the year under the drought conditions our state is experiencing. But there were some plants, and I took a leisurely stroll on the grounds taking pictures before the picnic began.

The meal included pulled pork (prepared by the hostesses), two potato dishes, including ours, green beans, black eyed pea salad, a spicy rice dish, and two Jell-o salads. Only one person brought a dessert...Karo pecan squares.

The hostess had set up tables on the front porch, and though several people took their meals to the indoor tables, we chose to dine outside, where groupings of plants, pumpkins, and baskets made for a pretty fall setting.

The food was served buffet style on a large granite topped kitchen island. A huge ceramic turkey, pumpkins, baskets, leaves, etc., adorned the center of the island. Colorful fall motif paper plates and napkins added to the festive mood.

During the meal, we were told that one of the hostesses and her husband had recently gone on an African safari, where the husband killed 30 trophy animals. So after the meal, we were invited to visit their trophy room. It's a relatively small room, no bigger than our den. But in it, the walls are hung with the heads of various exotic deer, a water buffalo, and a zebra, to name a few. On stands, whole mounted animals silently snarl at visitors. Included here was a huge baboon.

This man has also killed domestic animals, like a buffalo, and a couple of varieties of hogs, as well as a cougar and a mountain lion, and a couple of bears. Leaning up against one wall were several high-powered rifles, including an AK 47. Raised the hair on my arms.

By 7 p.m., we were ready to thank our hostesses and come home. I'd recorded our favorite football team in play while we were gone, and we watched the game as soon as we got back. Unfortunately, an injury that took our main quarterback out of the picture, several crucial turnovers, a couple of iffy touchdown calls in favor of the opposing team, and a weak defense on our part, all contributed to a significant loss.