Victor is in Chicago.  Once upon a time, a business trip for him meant an at-home project for me. Something messy, borderline-destructive… Infinitely fun. But times have changed. Now, it means an actual dinner for two instead of the chili dogs I used to make for myself while Victor was away.

Yep. Chili Dogs.  Dietz and Watson old-fashioned skin-on hot dogs and Hormel canned hot chili with beans.  Shredded cheddar cheese and raw onions. Who says I don’t know how to live?!?

My home-improvement projects are much smaller in scope, nowadays. In fact, today’s project was somewhat-cleaning up the shavings from a huge stump-grinding in the front yard. Actually, it was more talking to neighbors and playing with their dogs as they walked by, but I did get a bit of work done.

And then it was time for dinner. I planned ravioli for tonight, knowing that Nonna would not be overly-receptive to Chili Dogs à la Tim. And I even brought up a jar of Victor’s pasta sauce. I added cubes of leftover beef and let it simmer a bit – and then broke out the fancy plates.

5pm dinner is a little early for candles, but we did have a nice meal. We cleaned our plates and Nonna got biscotti for her dessert.

And now we can settle in and await the call that the plane has landed and Victor is on his way home.

It’s actually kinda nice not having the panic of thinking I won’t be finished by the time he walks in the door, although I miss making those great messes!