Monday

Slept well, not actually getting up until 6:00. After breakfast, I looked up a recipe on how to prepare boneless, skinless chicken breast in the slow cooker. Found a good one--simple, but nicely seasoned--and I started that off before I walked to Smart 'n' Final. There, I got two pounds of carrots, tangerines, and a few other items, then stopped at The Dollar Tree (now The Dollar Twenty-Nine Bush) for more solar lights. No bus service yesterday, which was good for me, as I walked there are back and got another three miles in. 

Stella texted me, asking if I could meet her at the botanic gardens, then go to lunch at Cajun Kitchen. I told her there was no bus service, and she suggested I ask a friend to take me, or use Uber. No, thank you very much, we'll do it another time. In the meantime, she texted me several pictures and a video of the gardens.

I tried a slice of the chicken breast when it was done and, oh, mama, that was about the best I've ever had--moist, tender, and perfectly seasoned. I put it in the fridge to have for dinner and ate my turkey breast sandwich for lunch. After, I scrubbed and trimmed my carrots and slow-cooked them in the broth sauce I had left over from the chicken.  

Watered my flowers, put the solar lights in the ground and went next door to check on Suzanne's patio plantings. They didn't seem to need water, I guess because it's been so cloudy and cool. She'll be home today, not sure what time, but probably late and I'm going to the thing at the museum, so may not see her until Wednesday. 

Continued reading my niece's hundred-and-some-page family history book.  It's interesting, if a bit--well, sugarcoated. She also included a fair amount of historical and explanatory additions, much of which I skipped over. The book reminds me somewhat (but it's better than) the one Suzanne's niece wrote about the women in their family.  All her female relatives were "inspirational" (whenever I see or hear that word, I assume illiteracy) and candidates for sainthood.  Joan editorializes quite a bit, often injecting praise for her parents' patriotism and assuming all know the military is a noble undertaking.  Quite a contrast to this book, which I'm now reading:

Anyway, I'm enjoying much of Joan's; I guess it's just as well the sturm und drang I remember isn't included. 

A bit at loose ends--yes, I should have been filing or pulling weeds, or something, but I didn't feel like it--I walked over to the shopping center in the late afternoon and bought Fathers Day cards--five of them, for my sons, grandsons, son-in-law, and Greg.