Leah's Journal

15 May 2003

I have been sufficiently chastised for my failures to "blog". Deservedly, too.

Life has been busy if not very exciting. Last weekend was another Navy one for me. I was so proud that four of my junior Sailors have been advanced to Hospital Corpsman, Third Class. HM is a competitive rating; it's not easy to "make rate". It is amazing that four of them did. Much of the weekend was devoted to training so that the other enlisted will have a good shot at advancement. It becomes more and more difficult to get advanced the higher up the advancement ladder one goes. Passing bi-annual advancement examinations with a sufficiently high score is required.

I have invited two friends (?) from work to have dinner at my little apartment on Saturday night. One of them, Joan, had plans to spend the time with her challenged sister, Monica, that night. I told Joan that Monica is welcome, too. Monica's developmental level is that of a teenager, 14 - 16, so I think the evening will go just fine. Valerie, the other person, took care of my two cats during the three weeks that I performed active duty at Bethesda in March. She will extend herself again during my Memorial Day trip to Houston for both the twin's graduation party and Margaret's photo exhibit.

I found a great deal on beef tenderloin and bought enough for the group. I worried about how I was going to cook them since my broiler smokes up the entire apartment - no time to clean it at this late date. So, I did a practice run after seeking recipes in my ancient Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I did a version of Steak Diane - a really scaled-down version because I simply sauteed the meat in butter for three minutes on each side. It was perfect, tender and moist. For dinner preparation, I will add some lovely red wine to the saute' pan and concoct some sort of a mushroom sauce.
Fresh asparagus, also a great buy at $.99 a pound, will be a wonderful accompaniment. Margaret has advised me of mistake-proof preparation for that. I thought that oven-roasted potatoes would be nice. Margaret also said that Felicia is a champ when it comes to oven-roasted potatoes, so I will call on her help, too. I don't want to make a big deal out of this get-together but since I rarely invite others for dinner, or for anything else for that matter, I find myself getting nervous. I hosted a dinner party once. As far as I was concerned, it was a disaster. I was a wreck and had a terrible time. Saturday presents a much smaller event so everything should be okay. Dessert is going to be simple - Lemon Sherbet with fresh blueberries. Actually, Kruschev (bad spelling - was head of Russia during the sixties) was served this by the Kennedys during a State dinner - maybe it was lunch. It is a lovely, light dessert.

My grades from last trimester couldn't be better and I am so pleased. On May sixth, we started the Spring/Summer trimester with only one subject that is compressed into two, three-hour classes a week for eight weeks. Microeconomics for Health Care is the challenge for the next six weeks. I think that this is doable but we haven't really gotten into any formulas yet.

Posted by leah at May 15, 2003 02:25 PM