Thursday Night

While setting up this blog yesterday, and posting my first post, it occured to me that I needed to get off my ass and actually do something at home. Of course, "The Apprentice", of which I'm unashamedly addicted to, was on at 9. So, I had to really kick butt!

After walking and feeding the dogs, I went downstairst to finally start some laundry. Of course, Russell's tools were all over the place due to his recent plumbing/electrical project. He realized that I was going to put them away, and came to help. This is because I'm a little scatterbrained when it comes to putting things away. So, we worked together and got everything ship shape.

During this interlude, I found what I thought was a muddy rock in his camping gear. I almost threw it away, and he said WAIT! I brought that for you. Hmmmmm... interesting present, I thought... a muddy rock. Well, it turned out to be a piece of 18th Century "Slag". Russell found it while on a troop campout near Lake Vesuvius in Southern Ohio earlier this fall. Of course, initally, I didn't really understand what slag was, so as he cleaned and cleaned and cleaned it off, he explained it to me. There used to be Iron blast furnaces in Southern Ohio well over 100 years ago. During that time, surrounding forest was clear cut in order to fuel the furnaces. Slag is the by-product from the production of iron and steel.

After we finished learning about slag, I started a load of laundry and then went up to get the kitchen ready to cook dinner. This meant clearing away more tools and parts from Russell's recent installation of a new garbage disposer and new pipes under the kitchen sink. I washed up a few dishes that had been lingering and then began preparing our dinner of pork chops, brussel sprouts ala Chef Lisa and cornbread! I'm not a very efficient or imaginative cook, but it was a good meal if I do say so myself.

At this point, I'm going to insert my "daily whine"! Just as dinner was about ready, there was a knock on the door. No biggie, right? Our "caller" was one of the parents from the scout troop coming to pick up the rest of the Christmas Greenery that the troop is selling. He had been over night before last, and knew that we have 4 large dogs. Last night, he didn't bother to call first, and he came onto our side porch which was dark, and knocked on the door. The dogs went out of their minds. We managed to get them calmed down enough so that Russell could get out of the door. I heard the man say... "sorry, I guess I should have called first...." and I thought... yeah, you should... ! What an idiot. Grrrrr....

After that, we actually sat down just in time to watch "The Apprentice". Later, I put the laundry in the dryer, we walked the dogs one more time, and then settled in to watch the evening news. I was content and pleased... it had been a very productive evening! How astonishing! LOL!