Dinner with friends

Tonight Justin and I hosted our friends, Judy and Michael, for dinner, guinea pigs for a new recipe Justin was trying. Since Justin was working late it fell to me to pick the chicken from the bones of the rotisserie bird I’d picked up the day before. Not my favorite job but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In advance of his arrival home from work, I had gotten as many of the ingredients he needed to use ready for him so he could throw his casserole together quickly and get it into the oven. He had stopped at Publix to get a bag of salad and also got some bi-color sweet corn which went perfectly with his chicken and dumplings.

For dessert I had made a cherry chocolate cake, using the cake mix Jacquie had given me as a joke after my failed cupcake episode. I happened to have a can of cherry pie filling on hand to use, plus two eggs, and a teaspoon of almond extract. Very good, nice and moist, and it turned out! 

We had a nice visit with our friends, with tonight being the only ‘free’ one for a while. Wednesday I have a church meeting, Thursday is Bible Information Class, on Friday Justin and I are going to his friend, Raymond’s, wedding, and Saturday is the baby shower. Sunday Judy leaves for the LWMS Convention, going in advance to visit some friends before the Convention gets underway in Dallas.

Justin is pretty much over his cold but he has nicely shared it with me. In fact, he told on Sunday that he knew I’d get it because he licked all the door knobs in the house. Oh, that rascal! I didn’t go out for water exercises due to my cold but did go out at the end of the class to sign a birthday card for our friend, Randy. His birthday is tomorrow and we are having a cake to celebrate his 79^th year. Some are staying for lunch with his wife and him, but I am not sure if I will order lunch at all. This month’s menu for the dining room lunch is not all that appealing to me, but the others like the choices. Wish I could order a burger or hot dog instead!

It was good to see Nancy W. today, after not seeing her for a couple weeks. Justin and I did drop off some clear soup from Koko’s the other night but only to hand it to her through the car window. She didn’t want me to come into the house and get germy. I got germy elsewhere, I guess (the door knobs!). She started out with bronchitis not long after Linda left, which became pneumonia. And then the antibiotics she was taking messed up her digestive system and made her quite ill, so she had to take probiotics to get it under control. She lost about 10 pounds in 4 days but imagines that will come back now that she can keep her food down and in. When Linda was here, we had gone shopping at Wal-Mart and Nancy picked up what she needed to prep for her colonoscopy. Once she got sick, that test was put on the back burner, so now that she is feeling better, she still faces that test. Poor kid (she is my sister, Lynn’s, age).

Justin’s underling and friend, Ray, is getting married Friday, as I mentioned. Justin and I used to hang out with Ray’s mom, brother, Jesse (Justin’s friend and former roommate), and him on a regular basis. The wedding and reception, small scale, is being held at The Hilltop Restaurant, which is owned by his mom’s fiancé. This is the same young couple who lost their belongings in a house fire not long ago. Now they are trying to get on their feet and we wish them all the best going forward.