Orchestrating Lunch

"Do we have any lunch meat?" Sweetie asks. That is the start of his orchestrating his traditional Saturday lunch.

His regular workday lunch consists of brown bagging whatever leftovers are around, with the once a week treat of buying lunch at the hotel thrown in. What day he buys lunch differs from week to week depending upon the menu (it's a plate lunch deal, you get what they fixed for that day).

Saturdays, however, are a cat of a different color. First there is the traditional question about meat. Then there is the never ending quest for other fillings -- Swiss cheese, sweet bread and butter pickles, mayo, tomato, the proper knife for the condiments versus the proper knife for cutting the tomato.

There is also the soup. Time was that he would open a can of bean and bacon soup, add water, and be done with it. Now, the flair that comes from his having been a chef, combined with watching too many cooking shows these days. The chopped onion, browned in bacon grease, the splash of wine, the minced celery, the fact that it must be warmed in the "right" cast iron skillet.

All this for soup and a sandwich -- two cutting boards, 3 plates, a pot, two bowls and multiple utensils. Plus the fact that he cooks like a chef, e.g. , he cooked, therefore he does not have to clean, and he slops stuff everywhere. (Why is this not true when I cook, that someone else should clean?) Is it any wonder I don't ask him to cook dinner?


Today is:

Balloon Ascension Day

Choreographer's Day

Dotty Day

Feast of All Fairies -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day, Panama

National Apricot Day

National Static Electricity Day

Positively Penguins Day

Stepfather's Day


Anniversaries Today:

Connecticut becomes the 5th US State, 1788


Birthdays Today:

Dave Matthews, 1967
Mark Martin, 1959
Crystal Gayle, 1951
Jimmy Page, 1944
Joan Baez, 1941
Susannah York, 1941
Bob Denver, 1935
Les Paul, 1915
Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick), 1914
Richard Nixon, 1913
Chic Young, 1901
Gracie Fields, 1898


Today in History:

Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople, 475
Seven hundred Jews are burned in their homes in Basel, Switzerland, 1349
The first sighting of manatees by a European (Columbus), 1493
Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in London, 1768
The first hot-air balloon flight in the US lifts off in Philadelphia, 1793
Income Tax is introduced in the UK (to fund the war against Napoleon), 1799
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral, 1806
The Daguerrotype photo process is announced at French Academy of Science, 1839
Thomas Henderson makes the first measure of stellar parallax, of Alpha Centauri, 1839
The Astor Library opens in NYC, 1854
The first hostilities of the Civil War, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 1861
The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow, 1880
New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts, 1894
The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated, 1916
Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain, 1923