Friday, April 1

Today is Shih Tzu's 17th birthday. Happy Birthday, Shih Tzu!

It is also April Fool's Day, as evidenced by our local newspaper...the entire front page was taken up with two April Fool's Day stories. A huge headline announced "Monster Emerges" about our fabled river monster, which the story claimed had been caught this morning just before daylight. The story also claimed that biologists had attached a tracking device to it so they could follow it's travel in the river. A huge color photo, taking up fully half the page, shows the monster being hoisted out of the river by a crane. The monster looks like an enormous serpent.

The second feature announced that our county is now "wet" (meaning alcohol can now be sold here). It tells readers that during World War II, with the men away at war, the women voted our county dry. But just after midnight this morning, the men retaliated by meeting behind closed doors and voting it wet again.

I was up at 7 a.m. this morning, but skipped my exercises in order to get ready to go to the medical clinic for fasting lab blood work. This is a follow up test to see if cutting my cholesterol medication in half corrects my slightly elevated liver enzymes.

My appointment was for 8:30, but I arrived shortly after 8 a.m., hoping the nurse would be free to attend to me sooner. She was, so I was out of the clinic and back home by 8:30.

Hubbie fixed poached eggs and toast for our breakfast (I know, I know, eggs equal cholesterol, but I just couldn't face another bowl of cereal this morning). Afterward, we went to the hydroponic farm for both grape tomatoes and slicing tomatoes. I'd reserved three cartons of red grape tomatoes, but only two were available. The third was a yellow variety. I decided to try them, and they are delicious...slightly sweeter than the red ones.

Mother came over mid-morning, and we put together a recipe of baked beans, using rinsed low-sodium canned pinto beans, turkey bacon, lots of onions and bell peppers, both regular and spiced mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, brown sugar substitute, low-sodium beef broth, sodium-free seasoning, pepper, and paprika.

After that, we spruced the house a little for company tomorrow. I was bothered by stains on the den carpet, made by Shih Tzu when she couldn't hold it some early mornings before Hubbie could take her outside. So we went in search of pet stain remover, since what we had on hand doesn't work. Started at the WDCS. No dice. Went to a veterinary clinic. No. Ended up at a pet store, where we found a product that does a great job.

Later, for supper, we sampled the potato and macaroni salads, along with the baked beans, and grape tomatoes. The beans were so good that we had two helpings of them before deciding we probably hadn't cooked enough for the family gathering tomorrow.

So after supper, Hubbie went to the store to get more canned beans and another bell pepper, and we put together another recipe for the oven.

This evening, we watched the 2010, PG-13 movie, "Our Family Wedding," a comedy that stars Forest Whitaker. Trouble ensues when an African-American family and a Hispanic family meet the prospective bride and groom. Once the families accept the inevitability of the marriage, they then try to plan a wedding. Nothing can be agreed upon, and everything goes wrong. Can love win out?









My appointment was