Not so Bloody Sunday
2004-10-12, 12:39 p.m.

Day 50 - Anniversary milestone

50 days without a cigarette!! Wouldn't have thought that possible not too long ago. Now, I can look forward to Nov. 30th being day #100.

It also appears as though the wiff has joined the quit. Noticed our lone ashtray in the trash can during the day Sunday. Asked the wiff if that meant she was joining me in quitting - and I got a positive response. So it looks like setting a good example and patience has succeeded. Took 50 days, but I'm still glad I never resorted to the nagging, negative reinforcement model. Maybe that example will be followed too.

Wiff & alcohol status: Friday evening - no drinking. Spent an almost pleasant evening. Never talked much, but no ones head got bit off.
Saturday - I got up way late (after 8) but we still actually spent time at the same table sipping coffee. Still felt some tenseness, so I went out and checked what's left in the vegie garden. Beets can come in anytime now, and I'm letting as many hot peppers ripen as possible before we finally get a frost. That's all that's left growing, except some garlic & rhubarb. Everything else is pulled and rotting in the compost heap. (But not the tomatoes. Those get tossed in the trash so the fusarium wilt doesn't get transferred to the compost)

Weather was predicted to be rather lousy Saturday, so I started mowing the lawn, figuring I'd settle for getting the front yard done. Ended up doing the whole yard. Never did rain either. While I was mowing, the wiff mixed herself a drink, then thought otherwise about it. Apparently placed it in the fridge and headed out to some friends house not too far away. Saw the quickie note she left when I came in from mowing about her headed out to visit friends.

She got back in about 1/2 hour or so, at which point I asked her what she'd like for lunch. Told me she already ate & I could have what ever leftovers I wanted. She grabbed her already made drink out of the fridge, I had lunch.

Heard a bit about how her friend is doing (old hockey parent buddies, so I am kinda interested), how her kids are and how that whole part of the world is going. Not the most riveting conversation ever conducted, but we managed to get through it pleasantly enough. I had a hankering to make some habenero hot sauce to preserve some of our gardens bounty. Made up a short shopping list, added some general purpose items and some stuff to finish off dinner. Headed to the store, got what was needed & headed home.

Well, the wiff must have done some double time drinking while I was gone. She was buzzing and headed down hill fast. She was planning on braising a chuck roast for dinner. She managed to do it, but I think she was using the handles of the braising pan to hold herself up. I thought the effort of stirring the veggies while she was giving them a quick searing was going to knock her over. I mostly kept my mouth shut and made sure things like oven doors were open, and I was close enough to catch things if needed without being noticeably in the way. THe roast finally made it into the oven, the wiff went into the family room and collapsed, after fixing another drink.

I finally got to make me some hot sauce. The first recipe made enough for 4 jelly jars, ~8oz each. Have 12 habaneros in the batch, so about 3 per jar. One jar didn't seal, so I tried a bit. Has that distinctive habanero taste, but is not "rip your head off hot". All in all, not a bad batch. The 'other batch' only made 1 8oz jar of sauce. It also has 12 habaneros in it. This might be the "rip your head off" kinda of sauce I've been looking for. I'm letting it mature a bit before I crack the jar open. It's only good for a year or so after opening, so I want to wait till I have ample opportunity to use it before I break the seal.

Wiff went downhill fast. Roast was done ~7:00 ish. Pulled it out, fished out the veggies and set the roast aside for carving. Got everything done up - minor miracle she got her plate dished up & into the family room without dumping it. We were about 1/2 way through eating when eldest son (Z) arrived with his girlfriend in tow. This was an expected visit, but we the plan was to get dinner in before they arrived. Minor inconvenience, they had already eaten, even after we asked them if they'd like dinner with us.

By now the wiff is pretty much 3 sheets to the wind. Carrying on like Z was her long lost lover (well, not that bad, but obviously fishing for a little affection from our son). Finished up eating, I went out to the kitchen and cleaned up the dinner dishes. When I get back out to the family room, poor J is sitting there all by herself watching some grisly operation on the Discovery channel. Turned out to be pretty cool, we had a fine time watching & commenting while the wiff kept Z trapped out in the garage for over an hour whining about her current state of affairs. Tears were involved (from the wiff). Once they finally got back inside, the wiff disappeared for a bit. I got in very few words with Z. Asked him if he recognized the condition his mom was in. I told him it's been that way 5 of the last 6 nights (Friday was her day off apparently). He understood, and realizes this is a pre-existing condition that we're gone round & round on before. I don't know what all the wiff said to him, but I'm assuming there was a request of confidentiality from the wiff, so I didn't ask. Plus, the poor kid is taking 20 credit hours, working part time and still trying to wedge in a few hours with his girlfriend every now & then. He really doesn't need this crap to worry about too.

Not So Bloody Sunday

Go figure. Sunday was too weird. Did the morning paper routine. The wiff was checking out the grocery store adds and notices some nice meat sales at one of the local stores. Round roast, buy one, get one free (1/1), split chicken breast 1/1, Kielbasa 1/1, and whole pork loin 1.99/lb (normally 4.29 or so). Had a bunch of other stuff going for real good prices too. Made a list and headed for the store. Bottom line: $186 grocery bill knocked down to $110 because of the shoppers club savings. Plus we're half way to a Coy Wire bobble head doll on store credits, woo-hoo!!

This was after the wackiness that was Saturday - her spilling her sorrows onto our son (poor kid), and even moving to the guest bedroom when I got in bed that night. Got to watch football Sunday afternoon - both games, not just the Bills game. Wiff was actually talking to me, directed questions, complete sentences for comments, acting rather civil the whole day. I was rather confused by the 180 degree attitude shift.

Long enough for now. I'll finish these thoughts in the next post.

50 days down, I'm speechless.

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