After my greatroom workout, where Griffin occasionally joins to show me his moves, Jason shows me how to download from my streaming app. I still manage to screw some of it up, but I believe I have my arms and shoulders routine on there for an attempt at the gym this morning.

Kat’s setting up for some morning Zentangle. I’ll give this a shot, along with her and Kayla, especially since no straight lines are required. Following Kat’s instructions, I make six quadrants on my little white card, then start to fill one in with little crescent shapes. Just over and over and over. And it’s actually, surprisingly Zen. Lauren joins in. She and Kayla, already familiar with the process, do their own thing while I’m filling my quadrants with wavy lines or little circles or triangles as Kat instructs. It’s quiet and relaxing.

A very nice bridge between cardio and writing.

I get another couple hours work in on this stay-home day. Kat, Kayla, Lauren, and I think Colt, head to the grocery for additional supplies, and the makings for lasagna.

By the time I shut down, we’re well supplied, Griffin is again Pool Guy with his dad. I believe I’ll have a Bellini and sit out to my daily bask with BW.

Kayla makes a couple pretty charcuteries, and yum. Others come to bask and enjoy. Colt eats two hot dogs, happily with the find of yellow mustard.

Time to check out the kitchen to find everything I need to make a couple casseroles of lasagna. I end up hunting back in the secondary kitchen, find a chef’s knife, the big pots.

I peel a bulb of garlic; Kat minces. I go out and cut fresh rosemary from one of the lovely bushes; Kat chops. Lauren grates parm for those who like it sprinkled over their serving.

Now to figure out the stove. After a few failed attempts, the garlic sautéing. Lauren opens the wine I’ll use for the sauce. She and I have a sip, deem it good.

The tomato paste comes in tubes. Interesting. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze some more. Our shoppers bought six tubes, in case. I use five, and Kat finds a rolling pin to get every drop out of the tubes. She’s also crushed the onion flakes to make a powder. In go the spices, the herbs, the wine.

Stir, stir, and looking good.

I use cottage cheese instead of ricotta because I prefer the smoother, milder cottage. This comes in small cups, and they bought the store out. Empty them all into a bowl and mix that with the mozzerella Kat’s shredded, add some pepper and basil. And into the fridge it goes.

Time for another Bellini, alternate basking with checking sauce and stirring, adjusting the heat. Lauren sets a pretty table; Kat makes a pretty salad. And we do all this in an unfamiliar kitchen with unfamiliar tools.

A couple hours of this, and I taste the sauce, deem it good. Lauren backs me up. Now I study the lasagna pasta. It comes in small boxes as it’s half the length and maybe half again as wide as what we get at home. Set the big pot onto boil. And boy, that takes awhile. Finally adding the pasta which almost immediately begins to break apart.

What the what!

Kat reads the box, which says it takes 20 minutes to cook. That can’t be right! Then the oh shit bulb flashes on. You’re not supposed to boil this pasta. Good thing our shoppers bought several boxes.

Start layering the two casseroles, and feel fine when I see my proportions are going to work out. Top them with sliced mozzerella.

We thought we’d preheated the oven. However. Everything is symbols, and when you press a symbol, the display’s, naturally, in Italian. We use a translator, but it’s still not getting as hot as we want.

Jason comes in, adds his thoughts. Lauren’s slices bread, and as instructed, butters both sides, sprinkles with garlic powder and basil. How will we figure out how to work the broiler?

It’s taking longer than planned. People are hungry! I keep turning up the heat, watching the oven. I finally hit on it, and we have lasagna. While it rests, we try to figure out the broiler. Oh, and the top shelf of this oven is actually a pan, removable, not a slide-out rack.

Out to the table with the salad, then with the casseroles while I watch that bread like a hawk. And finally, out to the table with the bread. Griffin doesn’t want salad, and is given the task of taste-testing the lasagna. The boy is very fond of his nana’s lasagna. He takes his first bite. And it gets multiple thumbs up. Whew!

And despite oven and pasta chaos, it’s a damn fine meal. With about a quarter of one casserole left for somebody’s lunch.

Lots of clearing up, and a lazy glass of red for me.

We’re going to play double-deck Hearts. Kat opts out to knit. It’s Lauren’s first game of Hearts, so instructions along the way. We’re only playing to fifty. Now Kayla is a shark at Hearts—just like her nana taught her—but the cards are against her. It’s a pretty lively game, certainly a noisy one. Kayla tips over, and Jason wins by not taking a single heart throughout the game.

Time for bed!

Warm this morning, and the waterfowl are noisy. A couple of boats cruise by, and here’s the ferry about to dock in Torno. We’d planned—some of us—to walk down and explore today. But Kayla, the responsible business manager, remembered today’s payroll. If she finishes her work, we’ll do that exploring. Otherwise, there’s tomorrow.

Nora