Friday*

Weight: slight gains both at home (+.03 to 128.6) and at T.O.P.S. (+.07 to 129.4), were inconsequential and I'm okay with them. Breakfast at 10:00, then I walked to The Market and Wal-Mart for a few items. At the former, I saw a large display of cucumbers that were nine for ninety-nine cents. Could I resist? Certainly not! 

Once I got home, it occurred to me that nine is a lot of cucumbers and these are extremely large. What to do? Why, make crystal pickles, of course; in fact, I made a recipe and a half, although that took only four of them.  Ironically, I'm not a big fan of cucumbers, but I'll try to find a way to make them more likeable. Looked up some recipes and will also try palming off the cucumbers to others. Used my mandolin on them and the onions (for a very thin slice) and now they stay in the freezer a few days, then can be served. I never met anyone who didn't like them.

I was a little hesitant to call Jim, considering his mood last week, but I did after dinner. He told me he had been fired, which didn't come as a surprise. What was a surprise was that he said he had taught at the college for fifty years. I could have swore he had told me he had been employed at another school elsewhere. He was in somewhat better spirits than he had been last week and is, I had assumed, going to his friend's for his birthday on the twenty-ninth. That's good and so is the fact that, when I mentioned Greg wanted to have us over for lunch, he said he'd like that. Must inform Ellen and Greg. I asked him for lunch today, our usual, and yes, he'll be here. 

Diane emailed me, asking if I wanted to go to a show at that same college where Jim was axed. "These Shining Lives" is the show and do I want to go? As we used to say when I was a kid--three guesses! It runs from the 26th to the 30th, so we'll decide when later.  

Aside from all that, here's another wonderful picture of the Ventnor pier from Sean Gleason, my pal on Facebook. Actually, I've never laid eyes on the guy and probably never will, but I love his (usually taken at dawn) pictures of my hometown:

                                  

* Okay, that's the end of me trying to find a "matching word" for the days of the week without repeating myself. It was a dumb idea in the first place and I'm reverting back.