UPs and DOWNs

One of XE's favorite readers said she missed my UPs and DOWNs posts.  She likes being able to read about what other people like and dislike about their days.  OK.

UP!
1.  I still have my mother's silverware, and I'm using it now.  It's been sitting in my cupboard for years.  I tried to give it away to a couple of my offspring, but one didn't like the pattern, and t'other didn't want to haul it across and pay duties on it.  Well, now i'm using it and really enjoying it.  I love the weight of it--the heft--and the balance (can't remember using flatware with such user friendliness for a long time.)  It's all polished, too.  Guess I'll have to bake a cake soon, since there's a sterling silver cake server, of all weird things.  There's also a small carving set, the knife blade of which is stainless steel, which means it'll be good for carving butter when it's time for the State Fair (which DC doesn't have, I don't think).  But maybe it'll be perfect for slicing up a meatloaf, which graces the table here at Chez XE rather regularly. All in all, it's nice.

2.  I had poutine for lunch today at Biddy's (former name for the restaurant at the Dupont Circle Hotel).  It's a Canadian specialty, and a perfect dish for a very cold day:  french fries, cheese curds, and gravy.  Biddy's version has gruyere cheese curds, and the gravy is left over from their roast beef with little bits of roast beef mixed in.  Just love it.  Whoever put this together is a genius!!

3.   Went to the dentist this morning, and I didn't die.  I like my new dentist, too.  He's a cutie and seems quite competent.

DOWN:
1.  The reason I polished the silver, etc., is because I was thinking of selling it.  I really have never used it, and I could use the space even more than the $.  Alas, due to many factors--beginning with the Hunt Brothers' failed attempt to corner the world's silver market years ago that eventually resulted in modern young people's lack of interest in registering for silver when they get married and having formal dinners afterwards--used sterling flatware, even if it's "never used," and not part of a giant, complete set (12 place settings with all the odd spoons, etc.) is now worth just what the silver content would bring.  In this case, that would be not enough to put in your eye.  So, I'm using it.

2.   Few people shovel their sidewalks here when it snows, and it's doggoned slippery to walk!  A friend's 87-year-old mother fell and broke her pelvis.  Ouch!!   Let us all also pause to remember Katherine Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post, who fell on the sidewalk and hit her head in Boise, Idaho, in July, 2001.  No ice involved.  Within a few days, she was dead and buried in the cemetery across the street from her Georgetown house.  Those falls are killers!  May she rest in peace, along with Richard M. Nixon, JFK, LBJ, and other DC political folk with whom her newspaper interacted. 

3.  It's gonna be a little warmer here tomorrow (maybe in the 30s), but that also means we'll get
more snow, probably.  It always warms up to snow.