Overwhelmed. Dont' know where to start tonight's post.
I will revert to LISTing
Today's accomplishments :

• Selpt in! Only 'cause i had to w/humungo hang-over.
• took long bath
• checked in on Grama
• Drove to Kingston, hanging on to steering wheel tightly as I thought I might hurl at any moment. Super Woozy.
• 11:30AM Dentist for 3 replacement fillings for celebrity-type smile (and perhaps improved health w/ less mercury amalgams in mouth!) Certainly a celebrity-style bill at four hundred and seventy six dollars! The nitrous helped my head very much but I was still quite out-of-it.
• Picked up headset for new cell phone (and nextdoor to cellone- a pint of my favorite Tangerine Peel Chickel- not easy to eat w/ half of mouth but I managed!) which I ate in the parking lot of Adam's while reading Cornelia's book. Another murder! Awful and exciting all at the same time.
• Went in to Adam's for my game birds- A hundred and ninety-two dollars worth! I was going to shop a bit more but I felt that was enough expenditure for one day and remember, I felt like SHIT - (I'm spelling out the money in case callum reads this- his eyes won't go right to the money part...)
• Straight home after that.
• Callum had had to move stuff on my desk to get his IP phone to work- so he can have super-legit homeoffice for telecommuting! I started doing other stuff to oganizzzzzzzze my office and started to feel better.
• Grama was snoring., never got dressed. She's been feeling badly.
• Gas company called and instructed me how to turn on gas tank and relight pilot lights in stove. A little scary.
• Called the car guy and confirmed my appointment for the 92 Jetta's month-late inspection- plus wheel bearings, rotar, caps, plugs, air filter and the ever-present VW door-handle debaucle.
• A few more minutes at my desk. Returned a few emails for next food styling job and concurrently came up with a recipe story to pitch: harvest desserts -Almost started working on it but was called by Callum telling me he saw my cat by the compost pile.
• Finally, Stokr had returned after almost 3 weeks missing. I coaxed her to the barn and fed her and cuddled with her for a bit. Then I locked her in so I could get some more work done. But alas. Grama was a bit stinky.
• I could feel my day slipping away from me.
• Showered Grama; washed her hair and her back. Dried between her toes and lotioned her up. As much as I hate doing all this for her I love to do it for her.
• Back at desk and realizing it's the 31st I had to pay some bills on-line. I managed three transactions and then out to kitchen.
• Swept the floor which was disgusting. Cleaned the top of the stove. NOT easy. I mean the full monty: oven cleaner, brillo pad, sharp knife and spatula to scrape off caked-on and baked on crud. My Dad had the audicity to say I missed a spot and about how he did it last time and we should have better scrubbers etc. I just wish he would say 'thanks" once in a while.
• Emptied stinky flower vases and cut the stems of the gladiolas and rearranged them.
• Cooked purple potatoes and kale that Graziella had brought the other day. If I don't cook this good stuff it will just sit there.
• Made Grama a plate with leftover sliced london broil. She ate in her room.
• Started a load of laundry (but forgot to start the machine so there it sits and now Bob is showering so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
• Callum clocked out and cooked burgers in the barn and forgot to call me when they were ready and forgot that I was cooking the sides. Miffed but hungry, I joined them and made them eat their starch & veggies.
• Short session with the cat and decided to let her roam in the barn while I sorted all the shit from last night's cookout at the tipi. It was dark, we were drunk. Everything was shoved in baskets and totes. I made quick work of it though and CAllum is washing the dishes and emptying coolers.
• 
  
• On my way back to the house with olive oil and heavy cream, Bob caught me just outside the garage and noted how "we" should weed the stream flowers before the weeds go to seed which would be any minute. I put the food down and weeded for about 20 minutes. They pulled easily as it had been raining; the stalks swollen with water. I deadheaded the lupine and primroses and trimmed off dead fern fronds. It was rewarding and I'm glad I took the time. And I was wearing white, well-off white. It's awfully close to labor day.
• Fed the cats.
• Gave Grama her pills and some cold medicine.
• put dishes in the dishwasher, did a few items handwash, wiped counter, checked the litter box, left a note for dad to light the oven pilot which I had forgotten.
• it's never fucking ending around here.
• Back at my desk, I had to print out yet another layout- turns out I'm styling 2 stories on the same day. I'm going to charge EXTRA. Salsa Cruda and SMashed Potatoes- should eb fun regardless. Fine Cooking's Web master asked me to do 2 on-line videos for working with puff pastry and phyllo dough! ANd they also just added a possible demo gig (to represent the magazine) at a resort in February.
• Last nigth I designed a newsletter for Warren Kitchen and set-up an account with Constant Contact to manage the email list. It's 8:30 now and I want to go to bed BUT I will spend a few more minutes on this computer. Maybe YOU will get the newsletter sooner than you think!
• the clock is wrong on the front page just so's you know.
  

Thanks for listening!
ADios.

My first Post. Many thanks to those who have lit the intellectual fire under my ass and inspired me to get my own blog going. Actually,

it's more been more like a smoldering flame but just recently, enough things have happened to fan the flame- it has burst, shooting high, wide and bright, like freshly-airbrushed orange and red licks on a Harley gas tank.

Special thanks to my blonde blogging muses;

• Beth Humprhey, pictured here at last year's b'day @NWHC-we celebrate this year on Sept 7; stay-tuned), Actually- Beth, I must call you out on this; I've never seen your blog. However, you have ritually insisted I should get one going; write a little bit everyday. Thank you.
  FYI Beth has saved all my letters I ever wrote her and given them back to me for not-so-fictional biography fodder. Let's just say they are under lock-n-key until the time is right!Check out this FABULOUS artist www.bhumphrey.com
• Courtney Pyle, bon vivant, travelouger and non-western antiquities expert (I'll wait to post a link to her blog-not sure what the etiquette is...)
  
• Cornelia Read, author extraordinaire, www.corneliaread.com . I'm reading and immensley enjoying her book "A Field of Darkness"
  

Though they are not related, except by hair color and knowing me, they each embody the power of open journaling; sharing travel tales, vivid visuals, humour, and wit right along with self-deprecating emotional tail-spins and plain 'ole pain.
Courtney and Cornelia's blogs are worth emulating; light-hearted-descriptive narratives, poingant prose, and Nat Geo quailty photos -or aptly funny researched google-reference pics. BUT I'm sure whatever is going to come of this; out of my head and my eye, will be purely "me."
It will take a while before I reach their heights. For now, I will try and write complete sentences and spell things right.
Beware: I will still use CAPITOL letters and ...s, and dashes for emphasis. I will try not to use too many exlamation points or unecessary words. Strunk & White still has a place on my desk. I'll give it a going over if I really get into this free-writing thing. I've been lucky to have good editors work over my recent pieces: "Make Room for Basil" and "The Finer Side of Upland Hunting and Target Sports in the Hudson Valley".
At this moment I really should be doing a cooking class schedule email notification...and spending a little time with my new husband. He's just back from BASS FISHING (see photo of last year's catch) at the neighbors and kibbutzing with their college-aged son, Elliot, about HOME-BREWING. (see photo of FIRST batch)
But I'm really enjoying this (20 minutes so far) and I hope to keep it up. I aspire to use the phrase "Dear Reader..." or some such nonsense IN THE FUTURE ...
I know I can't stop this blog yet because I have many more muses to thank and rave about. What do you call a male muse?
Over-n-Out. Jessica