Rain Out, Tide In

Slept in this morning, longer than I'd planned to, thanks to losing an hour last night! I got up just in time for Brunch With the Beatles. "Songs That Debuted In the Spring" was the theme today; wish more had debuted in the spring from their later albums, but we did get "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Had Banana-Peanut Butter Pancakes and half a grapefruit for breakfast, then called Mom. Mom was in a pretty decent mood herself. The weather down there had never gotten as bad as here. They hadn't had half the rain, or any of the flooding.

She's not terribly happy with my siblings at the moment, though. First of all, Anny was supposed to have taken Keefe to see the new Tim Burton Alice In Wonderland on Friday. She canceled him to go out with her boyfriend instead. Keefe was really upset, and Mom wasn't thrilled, either. Anny's always been like that. Give her a man, any man, and she'll drop everything to be with him, including prior engagements. Whatever she's into is more important than other people.

Not only that, but Anny was supposed to have driven Mom up here for the baby shower on Saturday...and now she says she'd rather take her boyfriend and her sons. Rose tried to offer Mom the use of her GPS to get up here, but Mom would rather use a map. She's always complaining that Rose is condescending to her. I think Rose just doesn't realize how computer-literate Mom is. (Mom knows computers pretty well - she's taken classes at the local high school. She just doesn't like using it that much.)

After I finished with Mom, I pulled out my Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and general spring decorations. I compromised with the St. Patrick's Day stuff - it won't be up for long, so I just put up the St. Patrick's Day cardboard hangings instead of the Easter ones and put out the rest of the Easter stuff now. The Easter hangings will go up later this week or early next week, after St. Patrick's Day.

It was still pouring when the Beatles show ended, so I called Dad for a ride. This became fairly embarrassing an hour later when the rain ended, and it was merely cloudy, damp, and a bit cold. It's not even windy anymore. Dad said he didn't mind. He had to take my sister Jessa back to school anyway.

Maybe it's just as well. Work was a madhouse today. I have no idea why. Maybe people are in panic mode over the flooding in the area. We had lines going out the door and not enough help to fill them. Not to mention, I had no relief. I just barely got out on time. Jodie drove me home.

(And speaking of embarrassing, I found my trash can half-way down the block. I should have brought it in on Thursday, but I forgot...and then the weather got bad. I did retrieve it after Jodie left.)

I was greeted by the most wonderful smell. I tossed together two large beef ribs, a can of diced tomato, a bit of barbecue sauce, a bit of brown sugar, a bit of mild salsa, and some water right before I left for work...and it was wonderful when I got home. The meat on the ribs was so juicy, it almost fell right off the bone. The tomato stock was flavorful and just spicy enough. I added sauteed collard greens and leftover mashed sweet potatoes to one of the best "fast" dinners I've had in a long time.

Felt so good after dinner, I went out for a quick walk to run some errands. One of the advantages of Daylight Savings is more daylight hours...and thus, I can run errands later. I headed to the bank first to deposit my paycheck in the ATM machine, then went to WaWa for milk.

I wanted to treat myself to an ice cream novelty at WaWa. Mom used to let us pick a frozen treat when my siblings and I would go to WaWa with her as kids. Thing is, most of those frozen treats are either too sweet for me or fattening as heck, and my old stand-by the Froz-Fruit Bars are either gone or not sold in this area. I settled for what seemed to be a Hispanic Nestle Strawberries and Cream Bar - the package was in Spanish. Tasted like a frozen yogurt bar with big chunks of strawberries.

I enjoyed my walk. The night was cool and cloudy, but the rain seems to be gone. It was great to see all the grass and flowers shooting up where there had been over a foot of snow a month ago! I even saw a few open daffodils.