From a personal notebook, written this morning: The hum of the laundry machines… the sight of the Teenager ™ looking like a superstar in his shades and hip hat… the Sunday paper strewn about the living room… my impossibly fuzzy cat grooming herself on the wood floor… the promise of chicken salad sandwiches for lunch… all of these things, in this moment, give me a feeling of contentment and, well… pleasure.

I think this is a fine - and especially appropriate - sentiment to hold with me as I carry on through the 2007 calendar year. What about you? Is there one overriding goal or theme for you this year? I’m not talking about resolutions… just more about a general tone. Anyway, the artist is Genvieve Gauckler, whose work I discovered when I chanced upon this blog, which I found when I was doing my daily check-in with the Moleskine folks. I’ve already been to Japan and Australia and who knows where else, and I’m still in my jammies. I haven’t even had my coffee yet. ***** It’s Friday. I love Fridays. Work is generally low-key (today should be interesting; we’re having a new server installed and won’t have access to our network or our machines all day) and there’s no better feeling, for me, than coming home knowing I have a couple of days stretching out in front of me. Of course, I tend to waste a fair amount of time on those days, but still! That Friday vibe of I’ll get home, I’ll throw together a decent dinner, we’ll open a new bottle of wine, no one has to get up early tomorrow so we can stay up etc - nothing could be finer. I leave you with a photo of one of my “inspiration” boards at work - it’s less about getting inspired and more about remembering why I’m doing what I’m doing, what it means, and how I got there: Happy Weekend!

Thanks to everyone who wished OJ a speedy recovery; he’s on a couple of medications but should be fine. He’s certainly behaving like himself. According to the vet, OJ - after being on IV antibiotics for about 8 hours - suddenly started meowing and complaining and behaving very differently from the cat that was brought in (but very much like the cat we’re used to). We’re glad to have him back, even if he has weird shavey spots (paw for the IV and chest for electrodes). Tonight’s dinner is Mom’s Lasagna, a B family favorite since the late 70s. It became a Christmas Eve tradition in the house I grew up in by the time I was about 10 years old - it would have been unthinkable to have the holidays without a several-pound lasagna made by my mother. Even though we don’t practice the tradition in my current household, I still make this lasagna a couple of times a year. The Teenager ™ and Jim especially love it. So… here’s the recipe. As always, it can be converted to vegetarian or vegan recipe, and I like to use organic/local ingredients whenever possible. Mom’s Lasagna SAUCE: 1 # turkey Italian sausage 1 clove garlic, minced 1 T basil (dried) 1/2 t salt 1 28 oz can whole tomatoes 2 6 oz cans tomato paste 10 oz large lasagna noodles (whole wheat is OK) FILLING: 2 eggs 3 C ricotta cheese 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese 2 T parsley flakes 1/2 t salt 1/2 t pepper 1 # mozarella cheese, thinly sliced Brown meat slowly; spoon off excess fat. Add next 5 ingredients + 1 C water (I always forget it). Simmer, covered, 15 minutes; stir often. Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender; drain and rinse. In a separate bowl, beat eggs; add all remaining ingredients, except mozzarella. Layer half the noodles in a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Spread with half the ricotta filling, add half the mozzarella, and half the sauce. Repeat. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes (or assemble early and refrigerate,in which case you would bake for 45 minutes). Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Here’s the wine I had with dinner - the first glass since Christmas night: I don’t know if I’m just a total wine, um, slob or what, but I really like this particular bottle. Lots of berry, but not too sweet. Tonight it’s knitting and season 5 of 24. I have the day off tomorrow. It’s all good.

Poor OJ the Cat has Feline Infectious Anemia and that’s made him pretty sick. Of course, he only just started seeming sick at 7 PM last night. We took him in to the emergency vet, they said he was constipated, they gave him a laxative, and sent us home $150 lighter. He still hadn’t pooped this morning, so back to the emergency vet it was… and a round of bloodwork uncovered the real problem. He’ll be staying there for 24 hours so they can administer the drugs and monitor him, and will be transferred to our regular vet tomorrow. We hope to have him back by Tuesday, but recovery will take awhile. I feel guilty - all four cats are indoor/outdoor; we’ve been pretty casual about their care (mainly because they’ve been so damn healthy!) but, as vets always tell you, being less than vigilant about their maintenance too often ends up in a quite sick animal and a large amount of money being spent on his care. I hate it when we learn lessons the hard way. They’re all going in to get everything updated this week. If you guys, my friends, could cross yr claws for OJ, that’d be cool. I got a little weepy speaking with the vet on the phone this evening. I wasn’t a cat person growing up, but living with these guys has made me into one.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty dang good, considering we’d spent New Year’s Eve eating Chinese takeout, playing Scrabble, and drinking sparkling cider as opposed to killing a couple bottles of wine and eating flourless chocolate torte (which might have been what transpired had we not all been battling this incredibly resilient virus). I was very productive in the Food Preparation Department: I made turkey stock (and turkey noodle soup from part of that stock) from the 30th’s roast pastured turkey. I made muffins from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, using some neglected, spotty bananas that’d gotten lost in the holiday shuffle. And I made bread - you know, the staff of life and all. When I buy bread, I buy whole wheat bread; when I make it, I’ll occasionally make wheat, but the family clamors for the homemade white bread from The More-With-Less Cookbook, my standard recipe for many years. [The cookbook was a staple in my mother’s kitchen when I was growing up, and it’s a true classic - frugal without austerity, simple without boredom.] I highly recommend baking bread entirely by hand - you get some exercise and a little meditation, and the end result is divine.