A nice Charlotte Lee/Clayton day

I slept well last night, and dreamed I was singing in a concert. I guess that's because my singing voice (or possible lack thereof) has been on my mind so much lately. I got up about 8:30 and headed downstairs to see who was up. I was surprised that Lee was still in bed. But Clayton was up, and had made coffee. So I got a cup and headed to the den to escape the little kitchen TV and read for a bit while Clayton messed around on the computer.

When Lee got up, we decided to go to Original Pancake House for brunch. I LOVE the OPH, and always want to go there when I come to Charlotte. There are a couple in Atlanta too, but I hardly ever go to Atlanta any more. Sadly, there aren't any in Greenville. Their old-school French-style mushroom omlette with sherry cream sauce is just one of my reasons to keep on living.

Before that though, we made a trip to the Farmer's Market for fresh produce for the party tomorrow night. The market was pretty quiet today, it being the 4th and all, but there were enough sellers there to find what we needed, and there was some really nice produce to choose from. I founds some beautiful eggplants and scallions, so decided to make a greek eggplant dish that I do for dinner tonight, adding the caramelized scallions just because.

I also told Lee I would make potato salad, since my mother's is so good, and he says his isn't that good. Well I found out why. No Duke's mayonnaise, and no celery. Hello. Everyone knows potato salad has to have celery for flavor and crunch. It surprises me how many people seem to have such an extreme aversion to celery. Then Clayton was trying to tell me what kind of vingar to use in the dressing. Finally, I was like "Why did you ask me to make it, and then try to tell me how to do it?" After that, they said I could put what I wanted in it.

After brunch, and a stroll through Home Depot (the downtown one here is quite posh, and has apparently taken over the pre-fab fag furniture market since Bombay Company went out of business), we came home. I was pretty tired. I'm still getting tired faster than usual, and I had done a lot more walking around than usual this morning.

While Lee was at the store getting the rest of the stuff for the cookout, I rested for a while, then put the potato salad together. I hate making it, but I'd rather make it than eat storebought - ew. I also put the eggplant together and got it ready to bake for dinner. So I was happily buzzing around in the kitchen, but I think I overdid it a bit today. I'm pretty tired. But I do love to cook for people; and they're having folks in tomorrow. So it's all good. All I am doing tomorrow that I know of is making the baked beans.