And in other news...

Today was the beginning of the apocalypse. (kidding) But really, look at this shot from 12:30pm and tell me you wouldn't have wondered. It was so dark I had to turn on the lamps in my living room. Then it poured rain...for all of maybe 15 minutes. Then it was bright and sunny later in the afternoon. Funky.

After trundling off to the ceramics studio for a wee bit of glazing this afternoon, I met my friend Sam for an early dinner at the new Chelsea branch of Uncle Nick's on 29th & 8th which opened in July. Yummmm... I managed not to actively hurt myself, but it was a near thing as I left stuffed to the gills after a combo dip platter (Tzatziki, Tarama, Melitzanosalata & Scordalia) and an "appetizer" portion of bifteki saganaki that was huge. Quoth Sam, "THAT'S the appetizer size?!" He ordered the only tasty rendering of pastitsio I have ever seen. Yum.

Tomorrow, I'm off for a day trip with Le Engineer to wander all over PA, ending with dinner at a restaurant he wants to visit in the Delaware River Gap area. Apparently, the restaurant has been there for decades and there is a salt lick in the back yard which attracts (unsurprisingly) a lot of deer, so there is scenery for the diners. (Yes, it's basically an excuse for us to spend the entire day together -- sue me.)

We had a talk tonight about Stuff and I am continually amazed that he's such a...nice person. Don't quite know how to describe it, but pretty much everything he said tonight reinforced why I like this guy. I'm happy and just gonna go with it, without worrying at it like a dog with a bone.

This mellow mood is probably also helping me with the cleanliness thing, as I always mutter that my apartment is like a Rorschach test re: my state of mind. Witness my living room, which I have managed to still keep it fairly tidy, and also to keep up with my shredding. See?? This corner was formerly invisible, as it was buried under a mountain of paper, dishtowels, and all sorts of other crap.

In family news, next Saturday is my new great-nephew Nicholas' baptism so I get to see if he is a little more interactive yet (doubtful) but I will love seeing everyone else, including my youngest niece, who will be flying back from San Francisco, and possibly my soon-to-be great-niece, whose future name escapes me at the moment.

My brother-in-law -- who is really like my second dad, since mine died when I was 13, and he married my sister when I was 6 -- may finally be persuaded by his doctor to eventually get a hearing aid, which will help things tremendously, as it is very isolating to be unable to hear conversations around you.

My dad was deaf in one ear (I was a bad daughter -- or maybe merely too young -- and always had difficulty remember which ear...oops) but he never had a problem telling people that he couldn't hear them. Not so with my bro-in-law. Sigh.

The doctor thinks he may also be showing early signs of Alzheimer's. While this may sound horrible, it's actually good news, as we had all been worrying about this for the past several months, but he would never discuss it. So that fact that the doctor is preparing to run some tests is actually progress, since this means he's at least starting to deal with the situation, whatever it may be. This is a great relief since there are new medications which may help, it could simply be a chemical imbalance, and of course, the damn hearing aid. (Sorry... worry + frustration = crankiness)

Since he sometimes forgets to eat, my mom is showing her concern by (a) offering to make his favorite dish (chicken & snow peas) the next time I visit (I visited last weekend & will try to go up twice a month) and by (b) yelling about how my sister should be nicer to him -- heh (ah, the magic mom decoder ring...).