Two Orders of Chicken

Today's not-so-favorite moments included . . .

. . . walking through an outlet mall. All the ads make me want to buy things I don't need, and I don't like that.

. . . straining my back putting Anna in the car. I don't think it was a serious strain this time--just an annoying one.

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . the power coming back on after last night's wind knocked it out for about ten hours.

. . . Anna dozing off in the sling. It's sweet to feel her little body snuggled against me.

. . . eating chicken nuggets for lunch with the kids. I'm not sure they qualify as real food, but sometimes (in Nigella's words) they're "just, perversely, what we want." The same goes for corn dogs.

. . . reading this month's book group pick while I iced my back, and for another hour after that (you know how it is with good books).

And another thing . . .

. . . I made another attempt at roasting chicken tonight. This time I tried a recipe that required me to crank my oven up to 500 degrees. It never occurred to me that an oven could get that hot (but not hotter, apparently). I liked the recipe's flavor (I omitted the lemon, since I didn't have one on hand), but I don't like the way it raised the apartment's temperature ten degrees, even on a cold evening with the windows open (it also mysteriously generated some smoke, even though my oven seems clean and nothing was burnt). I may make the recipe again, but never in the summer time.