Hey

The family drama from last weekend took an unexpectedly bad turn. A family member that we thought was just fed up and had run off ended up killing himself on Monday. His wife, his kids, and his grandkids are expectedly a mess.

It hasn't been easy for the rest of the family either, since they're all pretty close. And my father in law, as of this Saturday, he'll have burried his parents and three younger brothers.

Needless to say, cooking efforts have been less than stellar (we had Hamburger Helper last night and take out tonight) and I'll take any excuse to slack on my cleaning duties. Although I did do about four loads of laundry last night. I had hoped to try the scallops with citrus-braised endive out of the Bouchon cookbook this week, but I've given up hope. I did already do the salt step with the endive (to remove bitterness) but I fear they're going to die a slow death in the fridge before I get around to the actual braise. Because I just do not feel like getting two cups of fresh OJ out of the oranges in my fridge right now. Hell, I'm in such a low funk that I might even throw all my lovely Calphalon non-stick in to the dishwasher just to get it out of the sink right now.

So kids, it might be awhile before I'm back here. Hopefully some time mid-next week. And I am still rockin' the diet as best I can, sans excercise. I've lost 10 pounds already, and hopefully I won't put too much damage in that since I want to be down 15-20 by the time we got to Vegas.