It's been two years since Peter Steele left us all here behind without his presence, humor, and beautiful music (well, without NEW beautiful music).  I felt it only appropriate to get my butt moving this morning and plant something green in his honor.  Mom had given me a couple stems from pussy willow plants she has in the back yard which she had sitting to root.  I put one along the line of plants/bushes along the back of the yard near the fence line, one to the right of the porch out front (where everything seems too die, let's see how this works), and two to the left of the wall by the garage.  While I was out there I gathered up some weeds and brush to fill another garbage can, and scooped the landmines from the back yard, but I did not find the motivation to go to Home Depot to get things to fix the flower beds and snag the yearly mulch supply.  I do have to keep reminding myself it is still a wee bit early to have all that done for the year.

From there I headed in and started making my meatballs and sauce.  I had bought the things I needed to make this earlier in the week as my supply of frozen sauce is depleted.  Best to do this now before it gets hot, right?  So, the house smells awesome and I'm sitting here typing this (hungry while I wait for the spaghetti to cook for tonight's serving).

While in between steps I somehow managed to stay motivated and moving.  As a result the pantry cabinet was fully emptied, things to be given when collections for food kitchens come around (see below), and reorganized.  Apparently, at some point I must have feared that there was going to be a global shortage of beets and/or cranberry sauce because I certainly have enough to get by!  In the midst of this I filled a second garbage bag (one had to go out after the eggs and meat trays filled it) and hauled that out as well.

So, the food collection for the postal service is on May 12th.  It's a good thing to do, but I also get to make the guy who drives me crazy carry all of this stuff.  Muahaha.

My reward for all of this?  I also mixed up a tastefully simple pomegranate blueberry margarita mix.  What can I say - I was trying to clear space out of the pantry!  Perhaps it will be frozen enough to enjoy a glass tonight.