Made 8 quarts of chili on Saturday because I had soaked to many beans and had to do something. Then made a pot of potato-corn soup off the cuff since the potatoes needed to be used. Very good and unrepeatable! Grocery shopping in the midst, then computer and reading until we went out to supper - around the corner. A wonderful event because I was able to understand enough of the conversations to not feel left out.

One of the results of my environmental poisoning is auditory processing disorder (APD); I often have so much trouble processing that it seems as though everyone is speaking a foreign language. So it was fantastic to be a part of the event rather than just a silent attender.

It was special because our hosts were new friends, met on the street, but the father of the husband, we discovered, was an old friend (40 years) of Rob's! Wonderful conversation - geology, history, canoeing, music, and more. The husband is a musician, wife a lawyer for aboriginal people, mother a nurse, father ? and another guest helps anglophone groups in Quebec get funding for special projects. A totally delightful evening!

Today was laid back - Quaker Meeting, then business meeting, then home for lunch and do nothing - read paper/book/stuff on internet and, simultaneously, - SHOCK!!! - the super bowl "it's a cultural event" . "It's NOISE!" So he turned the sound down. We have closed captions because I understand next to nothing auditorily on TV.

Chili for supper, of course. Most of it went in freezer.

Ahh! Winter in Montreal. About 9 pm the sirens went and we had to dash out and move our vehicles for snow removal - otherwise they would be towed. So I had about a four block walk home when I finally found parking. There were signs up but I had not noticed them when we came home earlier. In the process, Rob flew off the top of the stoop and landed on his back - without breaking anything! Now he is in a hot bath.

As my 84 year old friend is fond of saying, "Life is fraught with hazard."