Making Hot Soup on May 15th

Yes, Hot Soup.  It is cold and wet around here and I have time to make soup because my boss decided I could go home 4 hours early today.  I don't know if it was a "passive-aggressive" retaliation, but whatever it was: I took the suggestion and ran.  G says employers can't actually send people home early, if they are scheduled for a certain number of hours, without their consent.  So, I could have refused.  I was tired of wearing the heavy yellow rain gear.  I think he was just being nice.

I made the Tomato Kale soup from Love Soup.  It has vegetables in it that are Atkins friendly, except for the potato and optional beans.  I added the potato but not the beans (which have protein so they may go in later).  I had "the" omelet this morning and tuna (with mayo) and a large green salad for lunch.

I have lost 4 pounds.  The only time I am really hungry is in the morning.  And.  While G is eating a large wedge of the absolutely delicious Rhubarb Custard Pie I baked yesterday with homemade crust.  I tasted about 2 teaspoons of it.  Very, very good.  I made some rhubarb sauce with Splenda and orange juice to spoon over yogurt for one of my lunches or to have with whipped heavy cream.  Heavy cream is on the YES list of foods.  (the Splenda in the packets tasted good but the loose stuff for cooking is nasty)

Yesterday I also cooked a pound of good bacon on the panini grill.  The house smells like bacon but the strips came out flat and crispy in less than 15 minutes.  That's three sets of strips in 15 minutes. I managed to eat three fried eggs and 6 slices of bacon for breakfast yesterday and wasn't hungry (really) until 7 pm.  I gardened, cleaned and visited a friend who kept offering me crackers and cheese.  I said no several times.  I said yes to gin and seltzer with lemon juice.  At seven, I had meat loaf and the tops  off the over wintered kale in my garden which were thinking about going to seed.  I steamed them in one of those Glad steam bags.  Delicious.  I will NOT be having that much bacon again.  I will limit myself to two strips, warmed up, with 2 eggs.  It's so difficult to get the eggs just right.  I like the whites completely cooked with runny yolks.  I had to throw away eggs that were too cooked in the middle.

G and I noticed a female cardinal at the birdbath today and then saw the male.  He was under the birdfeeder getting seeds and then he joined her in the oak tree and and fed her some seeds.  G's uncle told us they mate for life.  It looked like "love" from where we were standing.

My garden is enjoying the rain today.  I planted beet seeds, kale seedlings, bok choy seedlings, calendula seeds and seedlings.  I had intended to plant more onions but I kept forgetting that I "intended" to do that.  I also repotted 12 Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes into larger pots.  I gifted my friend with 4 Mortgage Lifters, 4 Early Girls and three Ace green pepper seedlings. (She gave me a Pilates book to read (and return), Yoga cards, a Veronica plant (we dug it out of the front yard) and a baby violet she started for me.  We were project buddies in our Master Gardening Class in 2002.  We enjoy gardening, laughing and drinking gin and vodka.  Together.

G is watching TiVoed shows and I am going to iron the five shirts he wore last week.  I am starching them with liquid starch that I am mixing with water and shaking up in a spray bottle.  Working great.  G doesn't look wrinkled at the end of a long workday.  Then I am going to read my book as it is seriously overdue.  This going home early is pretty fantastic.