Sunday, November 21
A & J arrived, with E in tow, and the five of us piled in the car and went to Trader Joe's. On a Sunday. To the only TJs in the tri-state area that sells alcohol. It was a madhouse, and they sold out of the Two Buck Chuck in both Shiraz and Merlot varieties. We got a couple bottles of the Cab, which people agreed wasn't as bad as they expected it would be. We naturally got a whole lot of other stuff; there was plenty of time to browse the aisles since the lines for the cash register wended through them all the way to the back of the store. Paid, loaded, drove, and then it was time to peel and clean three pounds of shrimp for dinner. G and C came over as well, turning the evening into a nice little party. I made green chile jack shrimp, which came out okay, considering there were some scaling issues I hadn't accounted for. More time spent thinking about side dishes would have paid off, I suppose, but I don't think anybody went home hungry. There was a salad and some asparagus and besides there'd been all those cheeses and crackers from TJ's beforehand. Guess it was ok. I'd made a peanut butter pie with a chocolate pecan crust earlier, and white chocolate whipped cream for on top, and that was everything I'd hoped it would be. I don't think anybody even realized it was sugar free. B cranked out the espressi and cappuccini and macchiati, and everybody had fun playing with the whipped cream dispenser.
Oh, and at some point between dinner and dessert, we moved the counter up from the garage. The counter is in. The counter is in. THE COUNTER IS IN!
We've got to take the sink out one more time and rout out the cabinet frame a little bit so it sits in there properly but basically the big kitchen progress bar just lurched a huge chunk to the right. All there is left to do is take out the sink, rout the frame, install the false front panels, put the sink back in for good, and finish the woodwork: staining, cutting and routing the trim, installing. A little touchup paint and that's it until we put the shelves in the dinette end. Which may happen soon or may never happen, and I'm kind of okay with it either way. We have ample storage at this point so it's really not such a crisis.
House is fairly tidy, garage is significantly emptier, dishwasher's splashing happily, the feng shui around here is just buzzing.
11:02 PM
