Last Friday Ed and I had two couples for dinner. I served roast lamb, Greek salad, Greek potatoes, and the guests brought dessert. Toni’s husband Ted, a former international banker, now retired and also compromised verbally because of a stroke, made flan. Well, I served it. I’ve had flan at Indian restaurants where, desperate for a dessert, will order anything. It was as good as any I have eaten at a restaurant but flan can’t compare to, for instance, pie or ice cream or lemon with prune topping (okay, I’m being difficult). My aces go-to person for everything, Nadine, brought flourless raisin cake. I’m taking the rest of it to my sis because any kind of cake every day is not good.

I cleaned on a constant for three days before the event. Nadine often says I shouldn’t work so hard because no one notices. But, I informed Nadine, that if I didn’t clean for company, I would NEVER clean. Of course there is the day to day that I do, but we have lots of glass, the floors are never ending and, even when I pick up tufts of cat hair by hand, they always need a vacuuming. I steam cleaned the tile. And I had to get rid of a lot of paper clutter. Since I was on a roll, I even did under the master bed where Chewy hangs out and is, two days after a cleaning, a furry field of hair. And I did a laundry. Some of this stuff didn’t need doing for the company, but when I am cleaning, nothing gets left undone. Here’s the rub, after the guests left around 8:30 p.m. (the event had started at 4), the clean-up took 3 hours. Nadine doesn’t help because she has a bad leg. Her kneecap was removed some months ago and she can’t stand on it for any length of time. She helps enough, just not like before. I didn’t walk, I didn’t bike – these things wear me out and I had to save my energy and time for the cleaning. After it was all done, I remembered I had to put the trash out. Ed was already in bed and it was near midnight, but I did it. It was a day late because of the Labor Day holiday. I had also changed the bed and the nicest thing ever after a whirlwind of work is to get into a clean-smelling bed.

But the dinner went well. The guests were terrific. We had great conversations which translates into politically incorrect political and irreligious opinion. They only left at 8:30 because, Nadine’s husband, Mickey, who is deaf and also has trouble seeing, couldn’t read lips any more and once one couple gets up, usually the rest follow.

Nadine has now planned a lunch at the Lazy Dog (new place) for Toni, Sonia, Fatima, herself and me. I love these women. They are a hoot and a half. It’s on Friday when Ed will be at the Chamber of Commerce for the afternoon, instructing visitors to please spend money and then leave as soon as possible.

Today I had a 6 month checkup with my internist. He said my sleepiness and fatigue was not due to low thyroid, that all my blood work came back perfect. My blood pressure was 116 over 64. So he suggested I stop taking all vitamins and “detox” and then re-add one at a time. He said sometimes one can overdose on vitamins. What a thought. Anyway, I will do that. And he said I do a lot and I wasn’t Wonder Woman so why was I fussing. “Bite your tongue,” I said. I have already slowed down, compared to my norm. Anymore and I’d be dead.

Speaking of which, I had one of my now rare middle of the night hallucinations two nights ago. I awoke, looked left and blinked – a mystical symptom that meant I was dying, so I woke Ed to say goodbye. Mostly I “come to” before bothering him, but not this time. He was not amused.

xx, Teal