The Most Incredibly Busy Pre-Back-to-School Week

A long time ago, I remember that we were able to travel during the week before the start of school. What happened? This past week, I worked the second week of my job at www.olio2go.com and got DD1 to all of her field hockey practices, except one. While we waited for Ernesto (Hurricane? Tropical Storm?), we had time slots at both the high school and elementary school for schedules and gym clothes and lunch checks, etc. Don't forget those all-important visits to the school nurse to sign in the controlled meds: ibuprofen and the inhaler. Add a lunch, field hockey game, sports meeting, and soccer party, and I think we crammed enough into the week.

And...Yesterday was DH's birthday. He took the day off and drove kids around while I went to work and out to lunch. Hmmmm. To make things more puzzling, his parents bought him two horizontal striped shirts, while I picked out two vertical striped shirts. Think about it!?

On the Olive Oil from Italy front, we reviewed inventory status, and in the week ahead, I'll be placing orders to make sure we have enough stock for the holiday season. And, I'm working on some text for a promo piece and for the web site. Redesign coming soon! And, I found out that some of our oils (www.olio2go.com) won awards at the Los Angeles County Fair. I really only expected California olive oils at the LA County Fair: Titone, Frantoio Franci Frantoio, Gemini and Tenuta Di Capezzana.

I made "my" pasta salad using Tenuta Di Capezzana for the soccer party last evening, and it made a luscious improvement to my usually great salad. It's a recipe I copied from Cappuccino’s in Newport, Rhode Island, back in 1988. Does Cappuccino’s still exist? The salad is made with radiatore pasta, sun dried tomatoes, celery, scallions, bacon, red bell pepper, black olives, blanched broccoli, garbanzos, cherry tomatoes, basil, OLIVE OIL, lemon juice, and a bit of low fat Hellmann's mayo. My friend, Jeannette, is a bit of a gourmet, and she thinks this one is pretty good. It's even better with top-notch (top shelf?) olive oil.

Oh, and about that pizza dough from The Italian Store mentioned in the last posting. It was the best pizza dough ever. They sell it frozen, and when I go back I'm bringing an ice chest so I can transport six balls home to my freezer. Each makes a great pizza. My favorite is to add fresh tomatoes, basil, and black olives--a generous loop of olive oil, and some cheese, and bake it on my pizza stone. Less than 8 minutes to a great pizza.

I can start learning and practicing Italian. The CD set, Italian with Michel Thomas, arrived today and it is going on the front seat of my car, ready to keep me off the cell phone during my commute. (Might that be possible?) I really need Mapquest to come up with a selection akin to shortest drive, that says best cell coverage along this route. Right now, my coverage drops out three times over nine miles.

I didn't get much knitting done this week, but I do have photos of the Tahki Donegal Tweed back, in need of blocking, and the Mably Stripes. My goal is to get back to the stripes during the Notre Dame game this evening.

My LYS (local yarn store) Uniquities in Vienna, Virginia, mailed the Plymouth Yarn cabled vest pattern that I ordered. You may have seen it in the Plymouth ad toward the front of the Fall 2006 Vogue Knitting. I keep telling myself that as soon as I finish the back of the Mably vest, I can search the stash for the right yarn for the Plymouth vest. (I'm still hoping VK will post a correction to the pattern!)

Good news about Uniquities. It looks like my new job is nicely placed for an easy jaunt into Vienna. It won't be so out-of-the-way for me.

Maureen and I made a visit to the hospital today to see our little friend and his parents. His meds seem to help a lot, and his body seems to know what to do with the chemo. I am in awe of his parents and how they are handling all this. His Aunt Jen visted and she's obviously his favorite aunt. We bought a few little presents, transported cards from school, and brought yarn and needles to Mom. Mom picked up the knitting bug quickly. She must have had four inches of a scarf done in just a few minutes. We hope it gives her some satisfactory peace during her hours of w a i t i n g in the hospital.

School starts Tuesday!