Oh! The excitement of it all!!

Today has been a good day... I can slowly see some of my old routine coming back... very slowly... except I still have a houseful of guests, a bed in the dining room, I have yet to return to work and I have two more dogs over.

I was up early cooking breakfast for my husband as usual, but also handing out granola bars to the other house guests who were too late for work to stop and eat some eggs and toast.

Butch (the dog) and I took our morning walk around the neighborhood while it was still cool. Everyone is busy cleaning up the debris, putting the uprooted trees back in the yard, cutting up the downed trees that are destroyed and, for one unfortunate home in my neighborhood, taking the neighbor's tree off the roof and getting a new roof.

... as a side note... this poor house also had another of the same neighbor's tree on its roof three years ago during Katrina and got a new roof then too. If it were my house, I'm pretty sure the neighbor would not have any more trees, because he would have woke up this morning to the sound of my chainsaw in his back yard.

And today... I actually got in the car and went somewhere! For the first time in a week! Many of the roads are blocked due to high water and down trees, but I made my way to the Outback burger place and found it open with a limited menu, so I enjoyed some fast food for lunch.... yes, for the first time in a week.

The small neighborhood grocery store was also open (without any national guard troops stationed at the door like the other larger stores) where I bought toilet paper, diet coke and one loaf of bread. The store did not have one cold thing for sale, no eggs, cheese, meat, fruit, only can items and paper items, and then had limits on the quantity that you could purchase. But I am thankful for the diet coke and the one loaf of white bread (no variety to chose from), because I was out of both and the grocery situation is a lot better than it was after Katrina.

Another wonderful thing that happened today was that I found myself alone in my house, but my joy was short lived. Just as I was settling in for a nap... you guessed it...

I am still cooking for a crowd. Dinner tonight is pork roast, baked potatoes, left over black eye peas, Broccoli with cheese, cornbread and Squash casserole (I got the recipe from Harrington House). There might be some chocolate chip cookies involved, depending on how energetic I feel without a nap, right now, it is not looking very promising.