Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 1:30 a.m. in "The City."

It's not often that Mary has a kitchen failure, but when she does, I sometimes have a hand in it. In this case, her failure was our Saturday night dinner, pizza, as pictured below.

While the picture shows an appetizing pizza, the reality was less than we'd hoped. All the ingredients were there, her execution was solid, but the pizza? Oops! The vegan pepperoni that she made previously was fine. The red peppers, fine. But it went downhill from there. Her usual sauce was only so-so, The crust, well let's just say that's where my part of the failure came in.

In the early evening, we made a run to the big-box everything store for some groceries and sundries. But before we left, Mary asked me to make the dough for the pizza. I did, but since we had so much whole wheat flour, at Mary's suggestion, I used that without any all-purpose or bread flour. My only defense? Mary said I should use the whole wheat flour and follow the recipe that is in her Veganize It! cookbook. I did, but that's where the downhill run began. The rise of the dough was off. The stretching of the dough was off. The taste? Well, let's just say that cardboard is/would be more appetizing. In addition, Mary's usual tasty pizza sauce was bland. There was not enough hot sauce nor other spices that could/would have made it better. Oh well, live and learn.

Earlier in the day, for lunch, also at Mary's suggestion, I made cucumber salad to go with sandwiches that were made from Mary's vegan extraordinary beest. Both the salad and the sandwiches were very good.

After our tasty lunch, Mary went back to work on her index and I adjourned to the great outdoors to put the final coat of paint on our vegetable pots. I think they turned out great. The colors were Mary's idea, and in this case, her choices were excellent. Here is a picture of them, one in each of the six colors she chose. I'll fill them later today and then hold off the transplantation of the veggies into them until Tuesday when the NWS is forecasting temperatures that are not below freezing. Right now, the veggies are in the cold frame in the back forty.

But enough about failure. With the pots ready, I'll be able to transplant the tomatoes and peppers on Tuesday. We have a good supply of Dairy Doo™ and soil, so the actual potting should go well. In addition, I successfully replaced the broken glass in the top of the cold frame too. Mary made solid progress on the index, so that's all good.

Sports news was interesting. Prior to the 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby, Mary and I made our choices for which horse would win. I chose a horse named Irish War Cry and Mary chose Always Dreaming. Her horse won the race and mine, while an early pre-race favorite, must still be out there running in the mud.

The news in baseball was only slightly better for me. The Cubs were solidly drubbed by the Yankees by a final score of 6 - 11. The score is not indicative of how bad it really was. The loss leaves the Cubs in a tie for 1st place in the NL Central with the Brewers @ 16 - 14. The Cubs play on national TV tonight @ 8:05 p.m.

The Tigers also snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a loss to the Oakland Athletics, 5 - 6 to keep them solidly in 4th place in the AL Central with a record of 15 - 14. They play the Athletics again this afternoon @ 4:05 p.m.

In better news, my beloved Red Sox hammered the Minnesota Twins 11 - 1 to stay solidly in 3rd place in the AL East, also @ 16 - 14, well behind the surging Yankees with their record of 19 - 9. The Sox play the Twins again today 2:10 p.m.

The Caps eked out a win over the Kane County Cougars, 1 - 0, on Girl Scout Night @ the Fifth/Third Ballpark. The win finds them in 3rd place behind the South Bend Cubs and the Dayton Dragons in the MWL East division with a record of 18 - 11. The Caps and the Cougars play this afternoon @ 1:00 p.m.

We did watch a movie on The Hallmark Channel last evening that was thoroughly enjoyable before I came up to bed and Mary watched C-Span. I listened to the end of the Cubs game and the start of the Tigers game before I drifted off.

Today, I plan to do as little as possible except for playing with the girls. I should also start reading my latest book which I have been carrying around for several days. I just seem to have too many other distractions. Mary will continue indexing, hoping to achieve a completed index later today. She will still have some final editing to do, as will I, but that should give her/us enough time before we travel later this week.

The current temperature is 42° under clear skies. With the wind, it feels like 37°. Today's high is forecast by the NWS to be 48° under sunny skies, but the overnight low will be 32°! We should see the lower 60s by Wednesday. The cold temperatures should finally be over after that.

The sun will rise today @ 6:30 a.m. and set later tonight @ 8:53 p.m. In between, we'll take the morning safari with the fur-children. Ciao.