Things I Did This Week

• Went to the Big E. This year I had the time to go into the Storrowton Village area and had an interesting discussion with the volunteers who were doing some hearth cooking in the house built in 1824. Didn't buy much, though I did get a set of cool needles (Spiral Eye) that are threaded from the side of the needle. Managed, by some miracle, not to overeat.
• Visited a site that I plan to use for my February event.
• Went to the first night of my pottery class and had a fairly miserable time. Every other newbie managed to make a beautiful pot, but mine looked like something made by a 7 year old (no offense meant to the 7 year olds out there!). I really don't like the wheel.
• Found out that I'm going to have to take on a bunch of responsibilities from one of the departing (laid off) co-workers. Of course, I have no idea how to do any of it, and she didn't have the time to create any sort of procedures manual, and any mistake could cost the company a lot of money in fines, but hey, nobody's worried (except me).
• Volunteered at Foodshare for my work unit's volunteer day. We re-bagged half of a pallet of carrots, and 1 1/2 pallets of onions. It felt good to be able to help them - they get absolutely no state funding and yet are responsible for feeding people in Hartford and Tolland counties. They rely completely on donations. The carrots came from Michigan and the onions were from Canada.
• Ate at Peppercorn's Bar and Grille in Hartford - a farewell lunch for another laid off co-worker.
• GOT 2 BOTTLES OF ORZATA!!! Assuming the finances work out okay, we can have Blanche Poree at Simplefare!
• Met C &L at their CT storage unit and returned the tables and benches they loaned me for Acorns & Pearls. By some miracle I managed to fit them all into the car.
• Was gifted some lovely pottery from C&L and will probably use all of them for my upcoming event. More importantly, I got to spend some time with them.
• Checked out the Aldi's grocery store in Vernon. They have some very good prices on basics like milk, eggs, flour, sugar.
• Met the parents for dinner on Saturday, and then went with them to visit Grandfather G. at the nursing home. Looks like he's going to be there for awhile longer.

Later today is a surprise potluck birthday party. I'm bringing bacon cups, which have just come out of the oven. Yum!