Anticipation

'Tis the season for anticipation. Little kids are anxiously awaiting Santa. Nervous parents are anticipating lay-offs, plant closings and credit-card bills. GM and Chrysler are anticipating $Billions in loans.

My major anticipation right now is waiting to hear from Maureen. It appears that Gannon Chandler Patrick is going to make his appearance in Maine today, so I anticipated flying up today or Sunday. I checked, and the usual fare of $307 has jumped to over $800! OUCH! So I'll have to wait until after the new year when prices come down into my budget range. Besides the weather in Maine over the next few days would probably result in flight delays and cancellations (anticipitating a foot tonight with all sorts of cancelled flights), so it's best to wait.

In any event, I just thought I'd share a few of our anticipations...

We've been trying to find places in Kentucky that sell lobster rather than having the shipped here from Maine at $50+. Well, we were up in Lexington on Friday the 19th, and Meijer's (major local grocery chain) actually had Canadian lobsters for $9.99 a pound. ANTICIPATION - Barry getting ready to dig in. All we needed was a can of Glade "Clam Flats" room freshener to make it seem like Maine!


We've done a load of baking this year as well. I made 3 large and 2 small tourtières -- traditional French-Canadian pork pie -- and we've already eaten the small ones. Two of the large ones will be going to Paducah for Christmas -- we'll share one with the crowd there, along with some MOXIE, and Rick will take one up to Carbondale when he goes back to law school. That way he won't have to survive on Ramen noodles!



I also baked some Polish filled-cookies. They're made with cream cheese and flour, rolled and wrapped around fruit filling. We tried a can of apricots, some minced dates, strawberry jam, and (just for Barry) prunes! We both agreed the strawberry jam ones ran too much (but were delicious), and the prune ones were ok, but not our favorites. I for one could eat the date ones 'til the cows come home! The cookies themselves are quite different from "American" style cookies, in that they are not really sweet, just a hint of sweetness, and boy do they go well with a cup of hot tea!

Finally, seems we may have been adopted by another cat. We can't let her in because Ramses would have the hissy-fit from hell, but we're feeding her daily now, and she's going after the moles which have taken over the lawn. Hey, if she earns her keep by attacking and devouring moles, she's welcome! She hissed at Ramses and he backed off, so maybe he's determined that she's a strong "Kentucky Woman" -- we'll see.

I just called Maureen, and it looks like it won't be too many more hours.

ANTICIPATION!