Paperwork makes the world go round. Or at least my world.

I'm taking a break from paperwork. Ugh. Is there anyone who actually enjoys it? I love the feeling when it's all DONE, but the process is worse than a root canal. I know whereof I speak, since I've had a number of root canals over the years. One very recently. Today I finally received the crown for that tooth. Along with a little filling for the tooth next to it. And the confirmation that I did indeed break another molar on the other side of my mouth last week. *sigh* I know I said I really, really like my dentist but I didn't mean that I wanted to continue seeing her every week indefinitely.

I won't get all the paperwork done today. I'll be happy to finish half of it.

But let's talk about happier things.

Like food. Food always makes me happy. I made banana bread last night and a fresh batch of granola this afternoon. I'm still getting the hang of this oven but at least the bottom of the bread wasn't black this time. A nice dark brown is wholly acceptable (shoot, who am I kidding? the black bottomed bread was eaten and no one bothered to cut off the black stuff first). Also made Cuban pork last night so you know what we had for lunch today :-)

Also enjoying some fabulous salads with lettuce from our friend and our garden, along with green onions and whatever else Ivan feels like throwing in. At lunch today it was some beet leaves for their color.

After making this batch of granola with real maple syrup I decided next time I'll try using some fake syrup I recently found at Walmart. I just hate to use the real stuff for anything other than homemade pancakes. I'm down to my 3rd container (of four) of real maple syrup and I don't see how I can stretch that another two years until we go on furlough. I've tried making granola with honey but I prefer the maple flavoring. Has anyone had any experience using something like Mrs. Butterworth's with their granola? Or do you have any other suggestions for what I can use as the sweetener?

Ivan went to a concert last night. (Andrea and I were too whooped.) Anyway, it was a gathering of choirs from all over the country. Choirs composed of senior citizens. Ivan said some of the music was rather painful, but he enjoyed seeing so many elderly folks obviously having a great time and giving it their best. He decided that the director makes a huge difference. The best choir by far was from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. Their director was quite spiffy as well as very energetic and enthusiastic. Isn't his mustache fantastic? We knew about the concert because a friend told us. The only advertising was a small ad in a local paper that few people read. But the choir members didn't care. They made up the audience, cheering one another on and providing plenty of applause. The concert didn't start until 9 p.m. and was still going strong when Ivan left after 11 p.m. Everyone stays at the same hotel each year and they have a blast just getting together.

Another thing that makes me happy is passing along the funny stuff. I know y'all like to laugh so if you haven't already read Boomama's post the other day you should know it left me with a side stitch from laughing so much. And this post by DeeDee is hilarious! When I visit Deb's blog I make sure I'm sitting on a flat, level surface and am not drinking any beverage that might be spewed through my nose. Because not only does Deb write very funny stuff, she has lots of great photos and graphics to illustrate her point, as was the case with her post about Truth In Advertising. If you are the lone blogger in Bloggyville who hasn't stopped by to see Pioneer Woman, you really should read about how she finally got the cover photo for her new cookbook. Oh my word, that woman can tell a story!

And there are lots more but I'm running out of time. If I don't get back to the paperwork I won't even get half of it done today. Hasta luego!