1. As a way to kick off the celebration of Carol's birthday, Christy, Carol, and I ate breakfast at the Brooks Hotel in Wallace. I don't really know the story of the Brooks Hotel, but I did hear the word "remodel" and I thought I heard "new owners", but whatever the story, it's a handsome, well-appointed cafe and we all enjoyed our orders a lot. I ordered a half order of biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were so light and the gravy so well made that I could have eaten a full order and probably not been uncomfortably full.
2. Carol assigned me to bring baked beans to our 4th of July family dinner. The baked bean recipe I decided to use was easy to assemble and the pot of beans stays in the oven for 7-8 hours. I started the oven baking tonight and after about three hours or so, turned off the heat and left the beans in the oven. I'll get back to more oven baking in the morning.
3. As the second part of Volume 1 of War and Peace moves forward, combat breaks out and, on purpose, Tolstoy writes about it and describes it confusingly. Yes. I struggled to picture exactly what was going. I realized that Tolstoy was creating in my mind as a reader something approximating the chaos and confusion of these battles between the French and the Russians and Austrians. Taken together, the booms, smoke, cannon balls shaking the ground, the bursts of rifle fire, adrenaline, the sight of wounded soldiers, and more make it nearly impossible to know what's going on, which side has an advantage, and what to do next.
It's chaotic, confusing, frightening.
It's not a heroic or romantic picture.
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