Uh-Oh

      The past weekend was busy.  Lovely, too.  I did a bunch of laundry, got a fair amount of housekeeping done (even vacuuming!), cleared the back yard vegetable garden plot (once the site of the big hackberry tree) and planted several tomato and pepper plants my niece had left over from her garden around the sage plant that survived last winter (and has flourished), weeded the front yard flowerbed with Tam's help, added a couple bags of dirt to it and planted some wildflowers.  Even made a kind of vindaloo/pot roast* using my roasting pan on the grill for Saturday dinner and Sunday leftovers

      It was a lot of stuff.

      I woke up at 1:00 this morning in no little pain from my right knee, with a full bladder and not lot of hope that I would be able to walk to the washroom.  I did manage, and staggered into the kitchen afterward for a couple of acetaminophen pills.  Woke up again at 5:00 and thought, gee, where's my knee brace?

      Location unknown.  I went back to bed for an hour, until the cats came to my room and demanded breakfast.  Coffee, toast and a half-hour of ice has me feeling a little better, but it'll be a day to use my cane if I have to walk.  Still in pain (aspirin next) and not walking well -- and my cane routinely lives in the back of my car, where it's available if I need it at work but awkwardly distant just now.

      At least I got the garden planted.  Fresh tomatoes were a real treat last summer and I am hoping for more this year.  But oh, that knee!  It's stabbing at me even as I type.  I thought I was safely past this.
_______________________
* A big slab of inexpensive beef, marinated overnight in balsamic vinegar (plus a touch of white vinegar) and tamari with garlic, ginger, togarishi, fresh-ground mixed peppercorns, Indian spices and a few other things, then slow-cooked in a covered pan on the grill, fat separated and broth added back, and turnip, celery, carrot, mushroom, canned diced tomatoes, canned chilis and shishito peppers added over the course of several hours of cooking.  It's tasty and fall-apart tender -- and, for the chap who snarked at turnips in e-mail, they are far more flavorful than potatoes would be and add texture, going in first and cooking down nicely.  On Saturday, I served the meat sliced with the vegetables on the side and broth over all; Sunday, I sauteed more carrots, celery and shishito peppers, added the leftovers and cut up the meat for a lovely thick stew.  The grocery had huge briskets for $3.99 a pound (!) and I am tempted to buy one, freeze it in quarters, and make versions of this stuff for a month of weekends.