Three Beautiful Things 04/24/18: Good Dental Visit, Yakkin' at the Depot, Steak and Onions and Mushrooms

1. The only thing I don't like about my regular cleaning appointment at the dentist is finding out I might need more dental work done on down the road. I age. Root canals age. Crowns age. Infections worm their way into different places. I don't have any work coming up in the near future, but some slightly ominous signs exist of possible problems later. We'll see. Otherwise, I enjoyed having my teeth polished and admired Kathy's care and precision in removing what had built up on my teeth over the last six months. My mouth felt clean and refreshed as I left. I think the contrast between dental practices today and what I experienced forty to fifty-five years ago is so stark that today it's a pleasure to have my teeth cared for. I feel none of the dread I experienced when I was younger.

2. The Deke and I hopped over to the Hill Street Depot in the middle of the afternoon and made a wish list of furniture and other things we might want to add to our life when the remodeling that resumes on Wednesday is finished. We dreamed out loud about some trips we might like to take some day -- we dream about the Great Lakes and we want to spend time exploring some areas in the southeast USA. I enjoyed a couple of Hill Street's very tasty Dark and Stormy cocktails, made with spiced rum. Brett sauntered in and joined us for part of our visit to Hill Street. It turns out he's been thinking about writing the Kellogg version of The Spoon River Anthology for many years, but just hasn't put words on the page yet.  At my request, Brett updated me on what's happening with his five brothers and it was fun to learn what has transpired in their lives over the years.

3. The Deke asked me if I'd cook up some onions and mushrooms to go with the little sirloin steaks I had thawed out. I was happy to comply and decided I'd like to cook up the onions in bacon grease, so I fried four strips of bacon and then cooked the onions until they were almost done. I transferred the bacon and the onions over to the stovetop grill and cooked up sliced mushrooms in butter and moved them over, too. I got more grease out of the four strips of bacon and fried the steaks and served up the steak pieces topped with bacon strips with a mess of onions and mushrooms on the side. We enjoyed our meal a lot.