A huge step forward....

Dear Friends and Family,
7:55 and I'm writing early tonight. Friend Sylvia came today at 9:30 and worked non stop all day creating magic and tons of trash. Our poor garbage can is over stuffed the they just picked up the trash this morning. Let me tell you this woman knows how to get things done, like wow! As I write this evening the kitchen has now been totally purged with cabinet space for everything important. Every can, straw and fork is in its proper place and it all makes perfect sense. Not content to just make the kitchen perfect and usable the whirlwind moved on to the freezer in the garage. We actually found items there from 1994 but also found many useful things some of which we are sharing with our neighbor who is raising her 5 grandchildren and a few things we retained for my use while we have a large supply of frozen walnuts and almonds which we are giving away to those who might use them up. To say I am tired this evening would be understatement and all I did was stand around and watch. It is so wonderfully gratifying to have so many useful items move into hands that need them, to find the few things I really need and to see the mounds of trash out of the way of my living. Sylvia has performed an extremely helpful service to our family and to me personally.
I'm hearing great reports from some of you who have dug your bread makers out and are starting to make bread. So far I've heard from Nanette in Tracy, Marilyn from the Rocklin area, Lois who lives next door and a couple others who I can't remember right now. I have a couple observations based on my prolific bread making experiences. 1) buy good yeast, best in a little jar that says especially for bread making machines, put it in the frig after you open it the first time. 2) be extremely careful about measuring, any deviation could through the balance off and result in less than that perfect loaf you are trying for. 3) use room temperature water, if you use tap water that is cool then make the last 1/4 cup warmer to offset it. 4) avoid the temptation to use the fast bake option where you get bread in an hour, better to let it do it normal 3 to 4 hour thing. 5) avoid the temptation to open the lid to see how it is doing. 6) remove the loaf right after the beeper sounds and oil it down with olive oil or some kind of oil, keeps the crust a bit softer. 7) as soon as it cools a bit put it in the frig in a big plastic sack but leave the sack open a bit to allow for the moisture to escape. 8) keep the bread in the frig at all times or it will go bad fast. 9) remove the little mixing arm from the loaf or your knives will suffer when you try to cut a slice. 10) enjoy enjoy. Kohls has a really nice bread maker on sale right now for $71. I saw it last night and drooled but I was there for shoes and my bread maker works perfectly. For extra fun I add some flax seed which seems to make the bread softer to cut and munch.
For a snack Sylvia mixed some raspberries with a bit of non fat cottage cheese from Trader Joe's this evening. It was great. We found bags of berries that had been frozen for who knows how long but they were still good and thawed out perfectly. We also found a huge tub of frozen lemon juice from when Nan used to have Dana ship her lemons from Houston and we would sit and squeeze the juice. So glad to discover that as I love to flavor my big glasses of water I drink while working with a shot of lemon.
For lunch Sylvia baked a potato, warmed a baked pepper and included dinner rounds. The weather was perfect and the lake was still and beautiful. We sat at the table that Steve and Nikki provided on the back deck and had a relaxing moment with excellent food. Then it was time to pick up her majesty keanna from school. She and Sylvia played a card game which Keanna has been learning and then Nikki arrived to whisk her away.
What an excellent day with so much accomplished. Thank you Sylvia.

The shoes worked perfectly this morning and it felt good to have comfortable soles between feet and street. However the walk remained work, I was disappointed. I thought the shoes would take all the effort away, bummer.

Just want to say that there are good days and bad days and many somewhat in between. This has been an excellent day!

love to all,

Tim