1. Christy texted me this morning, asking me to drive her to Kellogg's eye clinic where she had a 10:00 appointment with Dr. Miller as a follow up to her cataract surgery yesterday. I figured the checkup went pretty well when Christy came skipping out of the exam room -- and I was right. Dr. Miller reported that the surgery had gone very well and Christy can expect her vision to continue to improve in the corrected eye. She sees Dr. Miller again next week and then, in early June, the surgeon in Spokane Valley will treat her other eye.
2. I wasn't expecting to have a blast this afternoon, but the forces of mirth were on my side.
I went to Kellogg's voting site at the Elks, cast my ballot, and, as I strolled out, Cas swung open the door of The Lounge and invited me to join him for a beer.
Kellogg voters faced one measure on today's ballot and Bob wanted to help me wind down after I'd had such a stressful (ha! ha!) time voting.
I was happy to wind down in The Lounge outside of business hours. Bob and I yakked over beers for a while and suddenly Mike Groves popped in and it made me think Debbie would love to know I was at The Lounge so I texted her and she suddenly appeared. Tracy had arrived a little earlier and then Darren A entered The Lounge.
I had never met Darren. He plopped down next to me, yakked with Bob for a bit, and then he and I got to chewing the fat and for some reason he mentioned that he was from Orofino.
I mentioned that Mom's brother, Uncle Bob, ran West's Gun and Tackle Shop in Orofino for about 9000 years and Darren smiled broadly and told me that when he was a kid, he bought his first rifle from Uncle Bob and later bought his second.
It also turned out that Darren's grandparents lived two houses up Michigan Ave from Grandma West, on the other side of the Erbst's house. This led to us yakkin' a bit about Norm Erbst and his downtown bar, The Sportsman, and Norm's son, John. It was fun. Had we had more time, or had I been thinking more clearly, I would have mentioned that I'm connected by my Aunt Lila's first marriage to the Baugh family. I looked at Darren's Facebook page and learned he is FB friends with our cousin, Derek. It would have been fun to know how well Derek and Darren know each other. Darren and Derek were not at Orofino High School at the same time -- Darren is about eight years older -- but they could be acquainted in any number of ways.
Needless to say, we had a great matinee party at The Lounge. Debbie and I returned home ecstatic that we'd been a part of this spontaneous enjoyment of some afternoon delights.
3. I arrived home and wanted to keep the momentum of euphoria alive, but not by drinking any more beer. No, my hope was that Lemony Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts Sprinkled with Panko and Scallions might help us keep riding the crest of a really fun day.
My hope was realized.
I dashed straight to the kitchen, pulled a HelloFresh bag out of the ice box, and went to work (or was it play?).
I trimmed and with a knife shredded the packet of Brussels sprouts.
I quartered the lemon.
I chopped the scallions.
I melted a hunk of butter and browned a packet of panko and the white scallion parts.
I put water on to boil and cooked a packet of spaghetti. While it cooked, I removed the browned panko from the pan, wiped it clean, and then cooked the Brussels sprouts.
When the spaghetti was cooked, I kept out a cup or so of pasta water and drained the pasta.
Into the Dutch oven I'd used to cook the spaghetti, I poured a packet of Parmesan roux and the cup of pasta water. I whisked and cooked this for a couple of minutes and then added a packet of cream cheese. Once the cheese melted, I put the drained spaghetti back in the pot and added the softened Brussels sprouts, a packet of garlic herb butter, a packet of shredded Parmesan cheese, the scallion greens, and squeezed the four lemon quarters into this mixture.
I stirred all of this, combining all the ingredients, and let them cook briefly.
Then I divided the lemony spaghetti between two bowls and topped them both with the panko and white scallion mixture.
I loved cooking this dinner.
Cooking kept my spirits buoyant and Debbie and I both loved the meal and succeeded in keeping all the good vibes from The Lounge alive.
After dinner, Debbie went next door and had a superb visit with Christy and we topped off this fun and feel good afternoon and evening by watching an episode of Monk focused on the murder of the oldest living man in the whole world.
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