We LOVE my chili!

One of the interesting side bits with Uncle Ira has been his newfound honesty. It's quite childlike in that he is without guile. I will give you an example (after all, that is why I'm here). His sister came by to visit with him. He told her that their brother would be coming by with his wife at 3pm. His sister watched the clock and was sure to leave at 10 minutes til 3. When their brother and sister in law arrived, Uncle Ira told them that he had explained to the sister they would be there at 3 and she left promptly 10 minutes before she knew they would be there.

Now, BBT (Before Brain Tumor), Uncle Ira would not have pointed out the obvious...that sister did not want to see brother and sister in law.

Also, I am the kind of woman who has never felt responsible for Uncle Ira's food intake. He is a grown man and can feed himself. I did not marry and get a job so that I could come home after 9 hours at work and make dinner for someone else. That being said, I do enjoy to cook now and then and he has always appreciated and enjoyed when I do cook. When I was learning to cook, he would choke down some really awful stuff and tell me how wonderful it was and he would take second helpings. But that was a long time ago, now I really cook...I chop, I slice, I use garlic and herbs and spices and I shop at the farmers market where I appreciate every little item I bring home and take sweet sweet care that it is the yummiest. ABT (after brain tumor), when I offer up leftover dinner for his lunch, he says "Well I should've told you last night but dinner was awful".  After I picked my chin up off the floor, I couldn't even respond. I was speechless. First of all, it was NOT awful. Secondly, he has never said that to me before.

Now, I have taken it in stride since the cereal episode. But still...this is lunacy.  Oh yea, the cereal episode. I bought him a new kind of cereal. He loves frosted mini wheats and they have a new kind with fruit in the middle. He had a bowl last night for a snack. I asked him what he thought of the new cereal and he said it wasn't very good, he didn't like it. This morning he ate a bowl for breakfast. He says to me "It's good now." I said, "How can that be?" and he says, "It's better this morning than it was last night". Well, I've been eating cereal for many many years and I can tell you, quite honestly, it doesn't get better with age. Nothing happened in the box overnight to make it taste better this morning.

I am thinking his brain is talking to his taste buds differently. That is the oh so obvious reason he is not crazy about my cooking.

Oh, I said I would buy some hamburger meat to make some chili and he says "you don't want to ruin that hamburger meat like that".  What? We LOVE my chili!

So don't think I"m not tempted to ask him questions now that his lying-ometer is out of whack. I know there is a small window before that survival-guile will kick in. But do I really want to know?