It's only May 5 and our highs all week are going to be in the early 80's. That's OK. That's getting us ready for the hot summers we have down here. I can tolerate the hot summers just fine. I always tease my friends up north and say words to the effect of "Hey, I can always just turn on the fan or the air conditioner when I get uncomfortably hot but in winter I'm comfortable. NOT shoveling snow."
My mom and I have an uneasy truce established when it comes to regulating heat and air downstairs. (She never comes upstairs.) I am menopausal and she is 81. When I sit down to dinner every night I am usually hot because I've been running around, and Mom sits right next to the air conditioning vent. We have worked out a way of shooting most of the cold air on me and I drape a blanket around her. I really just need to put a fan downstairs that can blow directly on me when I am down there working, and the rest of the area can stay a comfortable 78-85 for her. It's a balancing act.
I just watched 5 minutes of an Owen Wilson movie and as I type I am hearing his nasal voice saying every word. Disconcerting.
I made a big pasta salad last night and although Michael had to work, when he got home he ate a huge bowl of it. Usually my pasta salads are pretty bland. Since I have stopped eating pasta and bread [wheat products cause digestion issues] I am making pasta salad more spicy. I used elbow macaroni -- the traditional pasta for us -- and added mayo, fresh lemon juice, a little sesame oil, chopped red onion, diced cooked asparagus, diced pepperoni, diced jalapenos, lots of onion and garlic powders, pepper and salt. As he was eating last night I asked him if he liked it. "Needs more pepperoni. Needs more everything," was the response. "Well, tomorrow you can jazz it up any way you like," I replied. He is like Bruce. He likes spicy, complicated flavors.
Michael fixed himself scrambled eggs the other day and added lots of chopped onion and tomato. Hey, whatever -- healthy veggies are great.
When we moved in here 10 years ago and got the yard professionally landscaped we planned two flower beds out front that would be replanted twice a year. In winter we can keep pansies. In summer, we put summer flowers like impatiens. I also put a lot of flowers in pots on the front patio. It gives me great pleasure to see flowers all around the house in the summer. I have not been able to get any flowers yet this spring except the one pot of impatiens and I am itching to get my yard looking more pretty. The azaleas are mostly done, and the roses aren't in full bloom yet. I have to wait until Michael could go with me to help me carry stuff and load it in the car. He promised to go today. I told him his Mother's Day gift to me can be the gift of LABOR. He is fine with that.
Michael had a delivery last night to a Hampton Inn near here and when he finished and came out a guy asked him to jump off his car. Michael said sure, and opened the hood of his Buick -- which he has had for only 6 months - and he didn't see a battery. He said it was a very weird moment. He had to Google it but realized the battery is under the front seat somewhere. Very bizarre. Nobody in our family has ever driven a Buick so it's a learning experience. His car doesn't get great gas mileage but it doesn't get awful mileage either. It's a solid car, a good car for him, for now.
I watched a movie the other day, The Judge, and I don't know why it didn't get more attention when it came out last year because it's a Terrific movie. Robert Duvall got nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, and he deserved it, but Robert Downey Jr. was terrific and he should've definitely been nominated. I cannot imagine why Steve Carell got nominated for Foxcatcher, a role where he showed almost no emotion whatsoever. Robert Downey Jr. was FAR better in The Judge.
Oh well. Oscars are always political, which is disappointing...