Oh, and Kit, I made your Faux Cheese Danishes with puff pastry yesterday. I’m not sure of the best way to form them, but they taste pretty good

Now I think you are all caught up with my schedule.

On Sunday we went out for dinner at the only Indian food place between here and Spokane. They only recently added meat to their menu. I didn’t care much for it but the kiwi seemed to really enjoy his. I suspect he’s been deprived too long. The only meat available was chicken or fish. And the chicken in my dish seemed not to be cooked with the dish but added at the end. No lamb. They had no Vindaloo on the menu. No Tikka Masala, no Korma, no Tandoori. And the Naan seemed like it was done with whatever they make Papadum with only thicker and fried in a pan. The one good thing to me were the Samosas. Then we get home and find out that Green Bay lost Grrr.

I have been working part-time at an audiology office filing and such. On Sunday, I got a call to come in for a full day on Monday as the office manager was going to be out. So, I worked my first full day on Monday and one of the audiologists was out sick to boot. I survived and get to do it again this Monday and Tuesday. Then again for a full week in February when the office manager is on vacation.

On Monday I also took Shasta to the vet to be spayed. She was so happy to see me on Tuesday morning when I picked her up. She probably thought we had abandoned her. She’s back to running around all over the place but wants to chew on her stitches now and again. She’ll get them out maybe by the 1st.

And last night I made (New England) Clam Chowder for the first time ever. I decided I wanted to put corn in it too because I had this great crab and corn chowder somewhere that was really scrumptious. The kiwi didn’t like the corn in it and we both thought it needed to be a bit thicker but I think it came out pretty well. We pulled one of my breads from Friday out of the freezer and had that with the soup. I had way too much soup The recipe below is what I adapted from a recipe I found online:

CLAM CHOWDER

INGREDIENTS:

* 3-4 slices bacon, diced
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 rib of celery, finely diced
* 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
* 2 diced Russet potatoes
* 1 small can of corn
* 1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 2 cans (approximately 7 ounces each) minced clams
* 3-4 tablespoons flour
* 2 cups half-and-half
* 1 cup whole milk

PREPARATION:
Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucpan. Remove bacon to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain. Add onion, celery and garlic to bacon drippings; sauté until softened. Add potatoes, corn and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes.
Clam chowder recipe serves 4.

Mark did surgery on the Roomba last night¹ and it’s all charged up. It had a test run this morning and now seems to be working just fine. Shasta likes to follow it around. She doesn’t seem afraid at all. Casper used to hide under the bed in the other room even for the Roomba.

Now I need to get some tunes on and get organized to bake bread I also need to do a few household chores. Perhaps a trip somewhere to frolic in the snow is in order too!

¹The Roomba has been dead for the last year and a half. It wouldn’t hold a charge. Mark finally bought a new battery only to discover that that wasn’t the problem. It needed a new mother board which he just purchased on eBay.

Saturday, we went skiing - my first time in Montana! The skiing was great but I was pretty tired out. Then we came home and watched the Patriots game. Yesterday I lounged around most of the the day and then baked a bundt, pound cake to try out my new bundt pan. While I was in the midst of making cake, a friend came over bringing Chinese food and the movie Omega Man (with Charleton Heston) which Mark and I had never seen.

Oh, and before I forget, Kit is trying to raise money for the Special Olympics by jumping into freezing cold water. If you want to donate money, you can do so here, at her fundraising site. I’m hoping to be there to video the event so as to provide incentive to certain folks to donate :D.

Today, I have to work and so does Mark. There are lots of birthdays this time of year. Paul turned 71 on Thursday. Doug is 41 today and Phil, Scott and Scott have birthdays tomorrow.

2007 started out with the sale of our house in Daly City (it was a year ago at about 6:00pm that we packed up the last of things at the house) and now we’re here in Missoula. Happy New Year everyone! Let’s hope 2008 turns out better than I think it will.