Indoor Garden Party

I awoke to that freezing rain I mentioned last night. It went on for most of the morning, then changed to rain for an hour or so before ending all together. I decided just to avoid the weather and spend the day inside, doing chores I put off during the holidays and running the many DVDs I either got for Christmas or bought for myself.

Started with the Chia Herb Garden my sister Rose gave me Christmas Eve after breakfast. On one hand, they turned out to be pretty easy. You just wet the dirt "sponge," put it in the earthenware pot, sprinkle seeds on, make sure it has lots of water, stick a plastic sign in that tells you what herb it is, and cover it with plastic.

My problem is, my apartment doesn't get a lot of sunlight. That's why I only have one plant in the whole place, and that's been getting skimpy lately. I put them (and the other plant) on top of the refrigerator. I just hope it isn't too cold there. My refrigerator is directly across from my front door.

I went online, then had a peanut-butter and apple butter sandwich for lunch while finishing up the Woody Woodpecker and Friends cartoon set. Even as Woody was at his height of popularity in the late 40s and early 50s, his boss Walter Lantz was adding co-stars. The most famous Lantz star to appear in this time period was the adorable Chilly Willy, the mischievous little penguin. The girls and I loved his Arctic-bound adventures.

After lunch, I started some bread. The Sally Lunn bread hadn't really worked out very well. All it did was fall apart, and the extra bread I stashed on top of the refrigerator just conducted penicillin. I gave the rest to the birds and started Molasses-Oat-Whole Wheat Bread instead.

As the bread rose, I ran The Five Pennies. This is one of Danny Kaye's occasional dramatic roles. Here, he's Red Nichols, a famous bandleader and coronet player from the 20s and 30s whose orchestra once included such big-band-era luminaries as Glenn Miller and the Dorsey Brothers.

While it was nice to see Kaye perform with Louie Armstrong again (their "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" is a delight) and he's a lot of fun with the little girl who plays his daughter early in the movie, it ends up swimming in melodrama. A pity, since the emphasis on family gives it a more cozy and real feeling than many Hollywood biographies of this type, a far cry from Hans Christian Anderson.

After The Five Pennies ended, I finally cleaned up the pile of boxes in the back room. I really don't need every single one and all of the packing peanuts and tissue paper and bubble wrap that came in them! In fact, I just kept two sturdy blue boxes that my WebKinz Lauren sent from Amazon.com came in. Trash will be going out tomorrow; recyclable boxes will go out Monday.

I went downstairs to check the mailbox - and the weather - around quarter after 3. Yes, the last part of Sailor Moon Season 2 had arrived. The porch was a bit slushy, but not nearly as icy as I'd feared. The path going to my apartment was pure slush, but the roads were very dry. I was able to pick up the DVD set without incident.

I finished up Sailor Moon and worked on crocheting for a bit, then made Turkey Burgers with the last of the Farm Market cheese with an escarole salad, baked sweet potato, and steamed broccoli for dinner. Ran two Bowery Boys movies, Private Eyes and Paris Playboys, while I was doing the dishes.

Oh, and the Molasses-Oat-Whole Wheat Bread came out nice and dark and chewy...and looking more like bread should.

I am going to try to at least get to the Oaklyn Library tomorrow, before the next round of bad weather hits.