It was grey and overcast most of the day yesterday, and this morning I awoke to more of the same. While Lin assures me he was stuck in a torrential downpour Monday afternoon not too far from the house, we still haven’t gotten any rain in our neighborhood. Looking at the radar, it appears it will be slipping right by us again, though I can hear the rumblings of thunder and there is occasionally a brief bit of cool damp breeze that blows through. Actually, I don’t much like the way the sky looks at the moment. It looks like hail weather. Also, it’s so quiet outside, as if the whole city is still asleep. It feels oppressive and a little spooky. The breezes, when they are strong enough to be apparent, are nice. I turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows. Always nice to get a chance to air out the house a little.

Last night I made baked chicken for dinner, and it wasn’t the usual chicken. Lin decided to buy some organic, hormone and antibiotic free, grain-fed, “fancy” chicken (thighs and legs). I wish I had cooked it in one of my usual ways so I could have better judged if there was any difference between it and the chicken we usually get, but I had to go try a new recipe (baked it in milk which made a perfect gravy). It was fabulous, but now I don’t really know if it was the chicken that was different or the fact that I cooked it differently. When we go grocery shopping next, I’m going to get some more and try baking it the way I usually would (rubbed down with oil and salted lightly). While I think my new recipe would make just about any chicken turn out great, I suspect the organic chicken actually was better than the average stuff. For dark meat, it was extremely moist, and there wasn’t much about it that was “dark” at all. Had I de-boned it after baking, I think it would have passed for breast meat, and it was very meaty too. The best thing about it is the fact it isn’t all that much more expensive than the cage-raised, chicken pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. I’m glad to see the prices on organic foods coming down. I’ve always wanted to go more organic and natural, but in some cases, it’s been prohibitively expensive.

I’d love to get started on the housework today. This week’s Hotzone is the living room. I can’t very well do much of anything as far as cleaning goes until this storm passes though. The lighting situation in the living room is in sad shape, and it’s so dark in the house right now you’d think it was still night-time. It’s difficult to dust and clean when you can’t see the dust. I don’t really mind. A morning or day off would be nice. I’ve been doing really well on sticking with the new housecleaning system the last few days, and it’s starting to show. It’s just going to take time. We’ve had three years to get the house into this cluttered and dusty state. I can’t exactly expect it to be fixed in a few days … or even a few weeks … but I am happy to be able to see the progress at last.

OK, funny story … Sunday when the laundry was done, I took the time to iron my new towels and all of Lin’s shirts, as well as make certain all the buttons and hems were in good repair. Come Monday morning, Lin puts on one of his polo shirts … not one of the nicely pressed linen ones. I ask him why he didn’t wear one of the ones I had ironed. “They looked too nice. I didn’t want to mess them up.” I had to laugh. You see, I am not big on ironing and usually do it on an as-needed basis, meaning if he wants to wear a shirt that needs ironing, I will iron it moments before he puts it on. I think it shocked him that all of his shirts were perfectly pressed. This has never been the case, not in all the years we have been together. That’s going to change. I found that if I set the ironing board in front of the doorway between kitchen and hall, I can watch the TV while ironing, which makes being stuck in the kitchen doing a whole lot of ironing not quite so horrible and boring. And yes, I was really proud of myself when I looked at how great Lin’s shirts turned out. I do wish he’d stop buying linen shirts though. They are awful to iron.

It’s starting to get really stormy here with lots of lightning and finally a bit of rain. I think I’ll make myself a cup of tea and go sit on the porch and enjoy it while it lasts. Damn does it feel GOOD to get some rain here at the house!