1. I really needed a few days off!! I knew I needed a break, but not really how much until I spend most of this Very Long Weekend sleeping. And that's when I wasn't reading. The last two mornings in a row I fell back asleep and didn't even wake up when Philippe came up and waved coffee under my nose.
2. We looked at the weather forecast and decided to drive up to Vermont on Wednesday night instead of going from the City to our house on Wednesday and then to Vermont on Thursday. Wise Move! Indeed Southern Vermont was in a snow band! Indeed we woke up in Vermont on Thursday (late) to a quiet and very snowy, and still snowing, world! Indeed it was difficult moving P's no-snow-tires Volkswagen from the driveway to the barn so the plow guy could hit the driveway. So there's no way we would have made it to VT on Thursday and we would have been quite stuck alone at our house all Turkey-day. Jola took a great picture of snow in Columbia County on Thursday morning, but it was all melted by our return on Friday night.
3. I love a couple of snowy days in Vermont, but SHEESH IT'S COLD UP THERE. I really don't know how I survived my teenaged years with those winters. I guess I thought everyone lived that way. But it was in the single digits on Thursday night. Bitter cold. I wore two sweaters every day (hey at least I was warm!) and broke out my down jacket for out-doors. And a hat, and a scarf, and mittens. Which have now been put away, because it's 50 degrees in New York City. We figure 10 degrees cooler for Columbia County, and 20 for Vermont. Which is usually about right.
4. Actually, if we had been snowed in in our house in Thanksgiving, we would have had turkey to cook. Since we go to a family friends' house for Thanksgiving, there are never turkey leftovers the next day. And as lovely as the dinner is, I think half the point of Thanksgiving is having warm turkey sandwiches (with cranberry sauce and gravy) the next day. So in my (wise) craziness, I made P buy me a tiny turkey, and some celery for the stuffing, and cranberries. Which we cooked Friday night, ate with gusto with a Loire Cab Franc (see #7 below) and enjoyed heavenly Hot Turkey Sandwiches the next day. Toasted wheat bread, dark-meat turkey warmed up in the oven in foil, the last bits of stuffing ditto, and lots and lots of gravy poured over. So delicious that Philippe is now with me all the way on the subject of Turkey Leftovers. But it was much nicer to have a proper Thanksgiving with family and friends, first.
5. An extension of thought #1 above: now that I've had a little teeny vacation, I feel much more equipped to handle the Home Improvement Project du Jour. Which is replacing the formica countertops and horribly mislaid wood floor in our kitchen. The quick makeover will be with terra-cotta-looking porcelain tiles for the counters, framed in wood (and the addition of a small counter to fill the Giant Gap between the sink and the stove, which will also be tiled and which will have a Giant Sliding Bin to hide the garbage can! I am so my mother's daughter in this -- I hate having a visible garbage can, especially in a kitchen with enough floor space to create a good hiding place). And the wood floors will be redone with #1 grade pine in proper lengths and varied widths, with proper flooring nails, finished properly with several coats of poly and no stain. (The previous owners of the house, who we call the "Why bothers" did the floor with 1X6-es of the basic knotty grade, in 12-foot lengths, nailed with nails slightly larger than brads, then stained it and did one or maybe two coats of poly. 5 years later, it's like a springy trampoline with protruding nails and a very worn finish. Sigh.) The addition of the new cabinet also means we will have to repaint all the other lower cabinets so they match. I'm thinking a crackle paint, with a dark undercoat and a cream finish, although I know that means painting the things 3 TIMES. But it means we can tie together the cream-colored upper cabinets (which I am still convinced I can get away without painting!) with the cream walls (which will be repainted, the same color they are now and we like them but they are banged up) and the trim (which will need to be repainted after we replace the baseboards that we have to tear off to do the floor. And the window needs to be repainted, because the Why Bothers didn't know my cardinal rule of painting: Primer is Your Friend). Not to mention the fact that, while the cheery red trim matched the oh-so-much-less-cheery red formica, with the More Classy Terra Cotta the red will have to go. So some browner shade of red will be in order for trim, and maybe also the underneath of the cream crackle?. . . .
6. Before Thanksgiving, the mere thought of this job so overwhelmed me that I basically banished P and our friend Steve to do it on weekends in Decmeber when I had to work anyway. Now, while I am sort of glad that I don't have to deal with the mess and all that, I've gotten on board fully and have even snowballed the project (for example: "Why not give a little sanding to the dining room floor while we've got the machine rented and redo that one, too! Hey, while the joint is getting stunk up and we have to leave the heat at 60 for a whole week to dry the floors, why not go crazy?!") And the crackle paint idea, and all. Yeah, give me Four Whole Days Off and let me rip!
7. I absolutely adore good Loire Cabernet Franc. I am so in love with the Filliatreau Grande Vignolle Saumur-Champigny 2004 right now that when I had some wine hidden downstairs in the neighbors apartment for P's surprise birthday party (it was last Sunday; it went swimmingly!) I kept thinking about it and wanting to go swipe a bottle. In the interests of minimizing Suspicious Behavior I restrained myself, but it was hard. We had some Joguet Chinons, various cuvees, from 2003 this past weekend as well. I think the Chinons were better in 03 (I remember finding the 03 Filliatreau a bit too fat) but anyhow I'm all about Loire Cab Franc. Completely off my cru Beaujolais at the moment.
8. With the impending Floor Redoing, the fridge upstate is going off-line. Which means the contents of its freezer Must Be Eaten. Or at least the contents of our (smaller) freezer in Manhattan must be emptied to make room. Guess I won't be cooking much as we eat the rest of the summer's Zucchini Soup, lots of frozen chard, and tomato sauce galore. Which in a way is good, because we tend towards "out of sight, out of mind" with the freezer. Now we have no choice but to use it up.
9. Wow, I really needed a vacation. I didn't even have the energy to can last summer, which is why I have two freezers full of tomatoes. I think I've needed a vacation since, say, July? Note to self to finish booking planned February break (Yay, dopey beach vacation! Cat Island, here we come, with a few bottles of champagne and several dozen paperbacks in our luggage!)
10. Hopefully work will get less demanding this month! And, oh, yeah, did I mention that when I was cranky and exhausted I exempted myself from Home Improvment for the next two weekends? So, it looks like weekends will be rest, a little work, and Holiday Baking for this girl. Good thing I have lots of thing pre-made in the freezer so I don't have to cook dinner at the same time. Well, that worked out well, didn't it? ;->
