Friday

First came T.O.P.S., of course, and only Julie and Bobbi showed up. As for the weight, my home scale read 127, a one pound loss, but the T.O.P.S. scale read 127.5, a 0.4 gain. Weird, but I'm not concerned. I had prepared a quiz, which I gave to the two members, then we discussed their answers.

SO-FI had sent me an email to the effect that they were having a takeaway breakfast for residents. It was a promotion for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but I didn't have any money with me. I was surprised that it was pretty lavish. Not only was plenty of good coffee offered (that's all I took), but they had Danish, bagels, and a few other things. I invited Julie to have some--why not?--and she took a bagel. When I said I didn't have any money with me, she put something in the pot and said, "This is from both of us." Holy Hannah, it was a twenty dollar bill! I would have dropped in maybe two bucks and, frankly, I'm not happy about reimbursing Julie ten dollars. She also gave me a homemade DVD--Helen Mirren in The Queen. A friend of hers had recorded it and she said she didn't want it anymore. I really don't care for docu-dramas when so much actual footage of the queen herself is so available. I feel the same way about books; I want to read factual or fictional, not a hybrid of both. BTW, I asked manager Bianca for two apples, saying I would make applesauce, and she gave me six of them--great! 

Asked Julie for lunch on Tuesday and called Noreen for the same when I got home. They're both coming and if I can think of somebody else compatible, I'll ask her, too.

Breakfast late, of course, then I took a bus to the transit center and went across the street to a little shop I like. I bought a blouse and looked for Margarita glasses, but didn't see any. I'm determined to make them from scratch with the recipe Jim gave me.

Got home about 4:00 and did a kind of not-really-up-to-me chore. Some of the neighbors have gotten in the habit of letting their dogs play unleashed on the big grassy area between my building and the next. It's not permitted there, of course, but they do it, anyway, although there's a dog run within the compound. The dogs had been playing with stuffed animals there and, of course, managed to split one open. The result was that tufts of white stuffing were scattered all over the grass.  That was unsightly, so I went out with a bag and spent fifteen minutes picking it up. Took it and the squirrel it came out of to the dumpster. Met Gordon on the way and we had a good chat. He's exactly the same age as Ellen, just turned 58, and is an aspiring musician. He plays classical guitar, among other instruments, and performs daily dialysis on himself at home. Really neat guy.

Jim emailed me "thank you thank you thank you" in response to the tax board info I sent him. I'm not sure if he called Michelle, but should hear from him soon. 

I'm trying to think of something to serve for dessert on Tuesday. Both Julie and Noreen are members of T.O.P.S., so maybe I should go with some kind of fruit compote. On the other hand, they might want to deviate from the straight and narrow on occasion, as I do, so maybe a blueberry buckle. What I don't want is to have any left over, so may go with my old standby, homemade pudding. Hmm...