Company Girls Coffee 110212

Lots of coffee needed this morning. I managed to stay up considerably later than usual last night, partly because of a television show (Elementary - love Jonny Lee Miller), partly due to cleaning in advance of having dinner guests Saturday.

Half a dozen coeds from the university at which I work are coming for dinner. Faculty and staff volunteer to host students, who are randomly matched up with hosts. They even have a "reunion dinner" for everyone who participated on campus during the second semester.

These kinds of events may be why our alumni are pretty passionate about staying connected to and volunteering for the school after they graduate.

So, cleaning...the condo is generally pretty neat, but it is the "extra" cleaning, the kind you do when strangers are coming, that takes a bit of time. That is exactly why I try to have guests over every four to six weeks; it makes that extra cleaning easier when it is done fairly regularly.

Last weekend I made two different soups for the freezer, one chicken with wild rice (broth based, not cream based), the other vegetable beef barley. One is stovetop, the other crock pot, so they cooked more or less simultaneously. The challenge was making room for twelve individual containers in the freezer. Pumpkin soup is up next, once I chop up and cook the pumpkin. It's the chopping that is the difficult part.

Half day of work today, then off to the grocery store for dinner supplies. We're having an italian country stew (crock pot recipe), a green salad bar and hot whole wheat rolls. The guests will help to make dessert, an easy apple crumble served with frozen yogurt.

After the grocery run and a couple of other little things, it's off to the quilt shop for a sewing machine computer lesson. It's been so busy I haven't had time to play with my new toy, though I have read the manual almost all the way through. The parts I've not read concern the embroidery module, which we won't get to for at least the next couple lessons.

If you have the time, please send up a prayer or two on my behalf. On Monday I've a scan that will show whether a worrisome, mysterious spot on my lung has grown in the last six months. A life-long nonsmoker, the appearance of a spot, no matter how small, is disconcerting.

Have a great weekend!