Just Put Me in the Kitchen

What happened today was we went to Home Depot and bought large pieces of pressure-treated lumber to frame the firepit we're building in the backyard and while there bought some new light fixtures for the upstair's rooms. While Jim put boards in place and dug trenches I was installing the light fixtures - I touched the wires together, they showered sparks into my hair, I screamed and Jim ran upstairs (turned off the power) and took over. It smelled horrid, and I did end up putting one up - I'm not that easily detered.

Of course, no project is ever complete without at least 2 trips to Home Depot, so went back to return a fixture that was faulty. We stopped at Carl's Jr. on the way home to get hamburgers - so perfect to eat hamburgers when working on home projects. Got home, and my burger was so disgusting that I threw it in the trash along with spitting out my first bite. It was squished and stale and tasted of plastic. I totally pouted and just drank some wine for dinner, coldly comforted by the words of a sommelier I recently interviewed - he said, "Wine is international food." Viva der vin. I explained to Jim that besides this burger being truly horrendous I've been reading Ruth Reichl's "Garlic and Sapphires" which describes amazing cuisine - haute and basic - in such delicious detail that I can practically taste the truffles, black bass, short ribs and melt-in-your-mouth sushi. Yet, I've been completely uninspired to plan and then cook a meal of this caliber right now. Perhaps it's the summer indifference to being comforted with food, to employing cooking as a past time, I am not sure. But after that absolutely abhorrent fast food I am longing for a delicious gourmet meal, specifically planned and lovingly made.

Tomorrow we go out to my parents' to work on phase two of the lake landing area - last weekend Jim and dad put in the stairs up from the lake, now it's time to build the dock and the ramp. I'm thinking about how they work so well together, similarly grunting and joking and measuring then remeasuring as though of the same buildy mind, conferring on specs in low voices and anticipating next steps that I am not so needed. Instead I move rocks to frame planters and line pathways, plant things in the ground, and make sandwiches and pack coolers to bring down to the lake for the workers. I'm thinking tomorrow that I'll plan something, shop and be specific and loving and picky and cook up something delicious - and do this with my mom. She appreciates what this all means, she's the one who taught me it all in the first place, and maybe sometimes I even feel like I get to teach her something when we're in the kitchen together these days. Plus, I'm less likely to set my hair aflame in the kitchen than while doing manual labor, and I like my hair, so cooking it is!