Saturday Morning Coffee

Welcome, friends! I see the early morning thunderstorm didn’t put off your visit. And I’m glad, for now the sun is shining and the coffee hot, even if the ground is still wet. 

I actually feel that I accomplished something this week. I can’t point to a specific thing, mind you, but I don’t feel like I wasted the week by being lazy. Maybe I was lazy and just didn’t feel lazy. I’ll leave that to the philosophers.

I finally purchased a new pair of running shoes. Do you remember my original blog logo? Were we friends then? Let me see if I can find it. Anyway, I was still running in those shoes in May. Well, technically I can still run in them, but I’m cautious after the entire rubber sole split from the upper back in September. Yeah, I’ve been running on glued shoes for months. You might recall the cross country team gave me some money towards a new pair. Apparently I waited for the right moment, because when I went shopping, I hit a huge sale. How huge? Huge enough that I was able to get a pair of shoes that I wanted (rather than had to settle for) and a new pair of shorts (because my metabolism is starting to slow) and only spent $7.50 of my own money. Huzzah!

Oh, I found my old logo, and here’s the shoes/shorts I bought. Not only do the shorts fit, they also serve as safety gear!

I made progress on some personal projects, and tried not to wast time on social media. I did not always succeed in this latter effort. I fell down a rabbit hole of a Twitter thread as PETA tried to argue against eating meat in general and bacon specifically. It did not end well for PETA, in my opinion.

I also continued to clean house. I know, it’s been forever since we started and your probably wondering when we’ll finish. No clue, but I did sell some of my old stuff on a local Facebook page. In cleaning, I sorted my change from our Charleston vacation and found not one but two old German coins, both from 1950. I’d love to know the story about how they ended up in my change, as they’re not easily mistaken for American currency.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I went in for my fitting for July 4. Remember, I’m helping out at Tryon Palace as a Loyalist? I’ll be portraying a cloth merchant, and really, if your able, you should come see me with my monarchist tendencies on full display. Don’t worry, it’s all an act . . . well, maybe not, lol.

Smokey wasn’t feeling well earlier. I think it had something to do with getting into and eating an entire honey mustard sauce from Bojangles. He’s feeling better now, though, since yesterday he just couldn’t leave me alone while I tried out a new recipe: Eggplant and Lentil Stew with Pomegranate Molasses. He kept trying to eat tomatoes, even though he hates tomatoes, and – due to my absentmindedness – got into the lentils. Of course, he didn’t eat any; he just knocked some on the floor and batted them about for a bit. Like most stews, this one is supposed to taste better after giving time for flavors to meld, so I’ll actually be reheating it and we’ll eat it tonight. The smell is amazing, though, and here’s some pictures of the process:

No, the Moxie isn’t in the recipe, but maybe it should be?

And here’s Smokey, perched on the back of my chair:

Yesterday Krystal and I went shopping, but our purchases are a secret for right now. Just keep your eyes peeled for a new weekly feature!

What have you been up to? Any plans for July 4 (if you observe/celebrate)?