Finally The Weekend

The week is finally over. For me it seemed endless. I can’t remember what happened Monday (or maybe I just don’t want to.) Oh, but it’s over now. It almost makes me want to buy a bottle of champagne, just to celebrate it being done. Have you ever felt like that at the end of a week? It’s not as though anything so serious or terrible happened, it’s just that the damn thing just seemed to never want to stop. Why aren’t weekends ever like that?

The snow has come and gone, leaving persistent little patches of white here and there. It was the perfect kind of snow – not so much that I had to dig my car out or worry about the roads, but enough to make the trees hang a little low and frame my winding path to work in crisp black and white. It made me happy, actually. Funny how little things like that can change your mood.

This weekend I have been entered into a chili cook-off. I have never been a part of such a thing, always linking them to state fairs and cowboy hats. If I had one I would probably wear it.

I don’t have a special chili recipe. I honestly don’t think I have ever cooked chili for dinner that didn’t come out of a can. My favorite chili is Amy’s Organic Vegetarian, if that tells you how much I know about the stuff. But my sister asked if I wanted to enter one and I said yes and now, despite my initial reluctance, I am very much looking forward to putting together a ribbon winning chili. Apparently there is a woman who wins every year and I plan to beat her. Never mind that I am competing against my sister, her husband and half the congregation of St. Paul’s Lutheran church. I am going to win.

Tonight it’s supposed to snow again. I haven’t seen the geese on the ground since last week. I guess that they got the memo that winter, late as it may be, has finally arrived. It’s a good time to stay inside and cook a chili.