Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and Nuclear War

I had to make some Emeril's Essence today to put on our ribeye steaks for Valentine's Day. All was going well, till I had to put in 1 tablespoon of black pepper. I have a magic pepper mill, you see. It's doesn't take too terribly long to grind a quarter teaspoon. But when you try to work up to a whole teaspoon, it seems like no matter how hard or long you turn it, you never reach the teaspoon. It's as if it knows that an important milestone is coming up and it doesn't want to reach it. So I had husband twist the mill for a while. And we went in spurts, dumping it out every quarter teaspoon or so and measuring the pepper. And I'm not kidding you, by ten minutes later we had increased the size of the pepper granules but we still hadn't reached the tablespoon mark. However, I decided that in the matter of measuring pepper, almost is good enough.

Last Friday was the sixth-grade dance. I have a bruise on my arm from pinching myself so I wouldn't CRY when the music started and Janey ran off to do the line dance with all the other kids. It was the same song that Beulah had danced with her class to three years ago. And I tend to get emotional when I watch performances anyway, but I was just overwhelmed with feeling like my little girl is growing up. She was one of the few girls who wasn't wearing makeup but she had a good time.