Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 01-15-2024: Back to the Gym, Brilliant Use of Leftovers, Cocktails with Sen. Howard Baker

1. Christy had an appointment at 9:00 at the clinic in Smelterville. It's in the same building as the Fitness Center. I stayed home Saturday and Sunday, so it felt really good to get back to exercising this morning. The cold snap is loosening its hold on the Silver Valley a bit and I welcomed that -- it's kind of odd how having it be 5 degrees outside can feel pretty good after a few days of subzero temperatures! 

2. Back home after working out a bit, I warmed up leftover beef barley mushroom soup. I didn't eat all that we still had. On the spot, Debbie had an ingenious idea. Why not combine the rest of the soup with the leftover Bloody Bull mix, the rice we have in a container, and the last of the chuck roast and serve it over pasta?

So, that's what I did.

I combined those leftovers in a pot, boiled some penne, poured the mixture over the pasta, and PRESTO! --we had a delicious dinner. It took all my willpower to resist eating about twice as much as I did, not for nutrition, but for indulging the pleasure of how wonderful this meal tasted! I did resist and will enjoy what we have left for lunch tomorrow. 

3. Debbie and I return to programming dealing with Watergate often. Tonight, for the nth time, we watched the last two episodes of the documentary series, Slow Burn. I like the way this series focuses on how the secondary, behind the scenes figures helped shape the Watergate story. The second to last episode of Slow Burn focused on the work of the teams of attorneys working is support of the Senate Watergate Committee. The last episode focused on the team of attorneys working for Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, and, after he got canned, Leon Jaworski. The last episode also focused on Elizabeth Holtzman, a first year member of Congress from New York, who was on the House Judiciary Committee, and her reflections upon and insight into the Committee's process of arriving at their decision to forward the Articles of Impeachment to the full House of Representatives. 

In the course of watching tonight's episode, I casually mentioned to Debbie that I once had drinks with Howard Baker. 

"You what? We've been married for 26 years and you've never told me this before!"

"I guess not. Yeah -- Howard Baker spoke at North Idaho College in February of 1974 and I was one of the students invited to join him and others over drinks -- I think it was at Templin's, but it might have been another place where the CdA Resort is now."

I don't remember anything about the conversations during that social occasion -- nothing more than I got to be a part of it. 

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