he seafood soup that I was talking about making came out excellently. It was extremely rich, so I didn’t end up eating very much of it, but maybe that’s just me, because Art and MrJames loved it.
     I had intended to make a crab and shrimp soup, using MrJames’ salmon soup recipe as a starting point. Right off the bat I screwed up, grabbing imitation lobster instead of crab, and undeveined salad shrimps instead of deveined. Ooops. Well, that was quickly fixed — Art and I deveined the shrimps, and we both like lobster, too, so no big deal there.
     
     On Mary’s advice, we sauteed the shrimp and lobster first, in butter, with some garlic and pepper, and just a teeny pinch of lemon-pepper. (Apparently, you want to heat the frozen shrimp first, or you’ll scald the milk before you get the soup up to temperature.) Meanwhile, I put a gallon of milk, a whole box of instant rice, and three cans of cream of shrimp soup in a pot to start warming. We added in the shrimp and lobster and let the whole thing simmer until the rice was tender. We ended up with a thick, rich soup that was quite delicious, although in the future I think I’d use only two cans of shrimp soup, as, like I said, it came out a bit rich for me. Also, the rice ended up drinking up almost all of the milky broth over night. MrJames said that when he makes his salmon soup, he pre-cooks the rice first to prevent that from happening, although doing the rice in the milk made for some really flavorful rice.
     All-in-all, not too bad for an experiment. It certainly bears repeating!
     For tonight, though, I’m thinking I’m going to make a beef roast with onions, carrots, and potatoes, and biscuits to go with. I had thought about getting a hold of my folks and going up there for a visit, but I’m dog-tired and coming down with a cold, so I think I’m going to stick to home after getting my errands done.
     Meanwhile, at work, we should have our remodel done today. We have two rooms, and the remodel will make the larger room entirely non-smoking, and the smaller, separate, room entirely smoking, as well as putting a mix of booths and tables in each room. We’re all looking forward to this, and hope it helps to increase our business. (I’ve only been telling them to do this for two years, now. Pfft.)
     Job hunting continues to turn up exactly nothing for me. I’m getting discouraged. I mean, good lord, I don’t suck that much. If I don’t turn anything up by spring, I’m going to have to take a waitressing job. I just really don’t want to have to go back to waiting tables for a living. I’m too old and cranky for that shit. In the meantime, I’m going to have to start looking into ways to go back to college or something. Somebody, somewhere, must want to give me some college money. I could get a student loan, I’m sure, but even on deferred payments and lower interest rates and whatnot, I’m not sure I can afford a loan. I guess we’ll have to see what I can turn up.
     Yesterday, I also had to take Jazz to the vet for her re-check on that sinus infection, and some vaccinations. Jazz got vaccinated, I got vaccinated, and the vet got vaccinated, too. Yaay! Jazz wiggled around so much, even with me trying to hold her still, that I got poked with the needle, and the vet got the whole damn needle jammed into the web between her thumb and fingers. I apologized all over the place. That looked like it hurt.
     Also, the vet told me that poor Jasmin is getting fat. Like owner, like dog, I guess. So, on the vet’s advice, Jazz is on a diet. (Grimmy, too, as Jazz ain’t the only one around here getting pudgy.) Also, as it’s easier to be more active than it is to eat less food, I bundled up this morning and took both dogs for a walk around the yard. My back yard is about 255 yards around, and we went around it five times, so that’s almost a mile. I figure if we walked around it eight times, that would be a mile, but it’s snowed quite a lot in the last week, and by the fifth time trudging around through the snow, I was huffing and puffing and panting and the dogs were trying to make a break for the door each time we passed it. So, we’ll start with five times around, and work our way up. The dogs were also much better behaved on the leash while in our own yard than they are trying to take them down the road. I wonder why that is — more secure in their own territory, and so not as nervous/excited and pulling so much, maybe?
     I’m toying with the idea of taking them around the yard a couple of times every time they go out potty, but that would get to be a pain in the ass pretty quickly, and no one wants to exercise when it’s a pain in the ass all the time. All that bundling up and getting out leashes and so forth just to go out and pee . . . probably too much hassle. I guess we’ll just stick with the walking for now, and see how that goes.

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