For Clanky & Catz, my recipe or sugar cream pie:
1. Go to Marsh grocery store.
2. Buy a sugar cream pie.


I love to cook, but hate to bake so I usually buy my desserts.


Today two friends took me out to lunch and fought over who would buy my lunch. Haha.
Then BP & LP and I went to a discount store and bought a recliner/rocker/game chair/thingy for LP's bedroom.

I made chicken and new potatoes for dinner.

Yesterday we went to St Elmo's Steakhouse in downtown Indianapolis for my birthday dinner.
I had good wine, their famous shrimp cocktail, filet mignon and bread pudding for dessert. It was very expensive but a very nice dinner and we had a good time. My sister who went with us told us that she's been there several times and she's seen Mario Andretti and some NFL coach in there.

Oh, they make their own shrimp sauce with freshly ground real horseradish and man, oh man that stuff was POTENT and cleared out my sinuses. When I took the first bite it was like the hot stuff went directlythrough my gray matter and ended at the very top of my skull! Whewy!

I also bought myself a B-Day present: My own plaque to put up in my backyard, certifying it as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat. I will take a picture of it this spring when I put it up and there is something in bloom.

We had a really nice Christmas. About 2:00 we drove to my sister Jane's house and hung out, opened presents and ate around 6pm. She's a wonderful cook and put on quite a spread: turkey, ham, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberry stuff (ick) homemade yeast rolls, and her famous homemade noodles (it's an Indiana thing). For dessert I brought pecan pie, sugar cream pie, tiramisu and ice cream.

After dinner and clean up we played cards--poker, and a game called "Pass the Shit"-- and we were home by 11.

Today I got up and went to Panera Bread for coffee then out shopping for a few things: batteries, scissors and Thank You cards. I also had to buy these adorable Christmas cards that were half price. I'll put them away for next year but will probably forget where I put them.

Then I hung out and watched Dreamgirls for the first time--I bought myself a present of the DVD for $10. I'm glad Eddie Murphy didn't win an Oscar for his protrayal of Jimmy Thunder Early, cause he wasn't that great. Every time he said something he sounded like his Donkey from Shrek voice.

Jennifer Hudson was quite good though. Overall, I thought the movie was too long and rated about a C. The songs' lyrics were really bad--sounded like an amateur wrote them.

But there were cameos by John Lithgow and John Krasinski from The Office. Oh, and Jamie Foxx did a good job--as did the guy who played CC--Effie White's songwriting brother.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm going out for a great dinner with BP, LP and one of my sisters.

A few weeks ago, Linda, one of the women I usually have lunch with, told the group that she lost one of her diamond tennis bracelets. She wears three bracelets on her wrist, and while out Christmas shopping she must have lost one. She listed five or six shops where it may have fallen off. She was heartbroken because it was not only expensive, but it also had sentimental value.



Flash Forward:

Yesterday I was sitting in the living room reading the newspaper and i went back to the Classifieds and the FREE column (lots of cats, a half breed puppy, and a piano this time). I glanced down at the Lost & Found column and there it was: A BRACELET FOUND IN THE VAC OF KOHL'S. CALL & DESCRIBE.
I called Linda and left a message on her machine that she ought to call this number_______,and describe her tennis bracelet. It was a longshot, but hey.

That afternoon she called and was thrilled--it was, in fact, her tennis bracelet!
So, I did my good deed for the day.

It's weird, because very seldom do I read the classifieds, Free Items column or Lost & Found. It must have been Synchronicity, Serendipity, Fate, or one of those things.