Thunderstorm and Hollandaise Sauce

We had an actual real thunderstorm this weekend! It was fantastic--rain, wind, thunder, lightening--the real deal! I think I heard it had been 150-some days since we had any rain. I know that most people who live in places that have real weather would despise me for complaining about this, but it really does get a bit boring to have sunny moderate weather all year long. I mean, it's great, but I miss the seasons! Sure, gloomy cold gray February in Indiana sucks, but spring is so much better after you've had a real winter! And, I seriously miss a good thunderstorm. So, Friday night was very exciting!

One of the best parts of rain in L.A. is the day after. It is actually clear. When John and I were driving Saturday, we both sort of exclaimed that L.A. really is quite an amazing-looking city; it's just covered in smog 90% of the time! Ew! It kind of made me think, actually, about the big storm we had, which I find exciting and powerful but does come with its inconveniences (everything floods in this city if too many people spit at the same time!) and even fear for some. Yet, it's exactly what the city needed, and it just stripped away so much of the garbage and impurities clouding the whole city. It made me think of storms in our lives and that sometimes the cleansing God knows we really need is not pleasant and almost never "convenient" but is so necessary to bring out the beauty of what He really has for our lives. Of course, the metaphor breaks down a bit when John points out that filth is all now in the city drinking water! Still, a good thought.

Hollandaise sauce. Why don't I believe books when they say things are hard to make well? John's favorite food (or at least one of his faves) is Eggs Benedict. I had never had it until I decided to try it at IHOP when we were engaged. So, first of all, one has to question my wisdom at supposing that IHOP would be the place to try anytyhing for the first time, but really the problem was that I had gotten food poisening the day before. It hadn't hit yet, though, so I didn't know. While it wasn't the eggs benedict that caused the disgusting and horrible display that followed later that day, it was the last thing that went in before it all started and, therefore, the first thing to come back up. That's another story of which I will spare the details, but the point is that I haven't been eager to try eggs benedict again. However, I know how much John loves them. So, I decided this past week that it is finally time to try them again, and I will make them for brunch Saturday morning. These plans always sound so good in my head! Do other people have filters that actually catch some of the ridiculous thoughts before they get acted on? I see packaged mixes for hollandaise sauce and read books that say it is hard to make the sauce well, and I think, "Well, that would be a wussy way out to make it from a package! The only things in life that are worth doing are hard! (And really, how hard can a sauce with a few ingredients be to make?)" Jump ahead to me asking John to keep the effort in mind while he's scraping up lumpy, weird-looking sauce. It actually tasted ok; maybe we should have just eaten it in the dark! Oh, and I ruined the egg-poaching pan we had! Do normal people have thoughts like, "Oh, they sell packages of this sauce for a reason. I am more concerned with this all coming together for a pleasant eating experience than with proving I can conquer all things."? Just wondering.