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Author Archives: Pamela
My Point is Ruined
Around the neighborhood.
I’ve been sitting on this half-drafted post for a day and a half for lack of time and now that I finally have time my point is ruined.
It’s been just warm enough to make the house stuffy in the evenings so I like to keep a bedroom window open at night.
A couple nights ago I woke up at 3am to the sound of a loud vehicle like a big truck idling in the street. After several minutes the noise was still there so I got up and looked and there was the new next-door neighbor’s moving truck which I guess must have just arrived after a long drive from California.
The noise when on for half an hour. I could hear voices. Insomnia issues aside, I’m not super precious when I sleep and can generally handle a little noise or some light or a flopping around spouse and barely notice. But this made me mad because it was loud, it went on and on and it was THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING. What is wrong with people?
After a half hour I finally got up again and shut the window and the noisy truck eventually drove away. But I never fell back to sleep so I was completely brain dead the next day and couldn’t stop thinking really mean thoughts about my new neighbors whoever they are.
Bob went home this afternoon to let the dryer fix-it man in (don’t have the final word yet, but seems to be simple and not spendy fix – fingers crossed.) On his way out the new neighbor ran over to introduce herself. He said she is super nice and grew up in the neighborhood and is glad to be back in the area. He said she apologized for the other night but their moving van broke down and they had to be towed 50 miles to get home and that’s why they didn’t get there until the middle of the night.
What a bummer. I hereby take back all those mean thoughts.
Posted in doing it wrong
3 Comments
Your Appliance Dies Today
Today’s harvest.
Did you hear it was kill your appliance day?
We didn’t either but both our dryer and our garbage disposal died late this afternoon. The dryer has given plenty of warning, it’s amazing it’s worked this long. It was a bargain model and we bought it almost 15 years ago but I think we can squeeze a little more life out of it.
The garbage disposal was a surprise. My tea infuser fell down in there but I didn’t notice until it was way too late.
Some lucky appliance repair guy gets a hunk of our money. Hopefully soon. Not hopefully about parting with our money but hopefully about having working stuff again.
The pumpkin patch out back is exploding. Normally my front yard patch is the enthusiastic one and the backyard produces one or two tiny dented treats. I should end up with at least two or three decent sized pumpkins this year.
This is a new dahlia. The photo doesn’t really capture the dazzling color.
I have a half-assed recipe system. I keep most of the stuff I like to make and the stuff I want to make in a binder. But I also have “recently clipped” folder. I had about 4 recipes that I really liked that I wanted to use again that I couldn’t find. I took the binder apart and threw away some of the stuff I clipped years ago and still haven’t made or stuff I’ve tried and was lukewarm about.
Then I made a few categories. I have tons of recipes in the category of: macaroni and cheese (wow, it’s amazing how many of these I have and I rarely make it because even though it’s a huge favorite, I put a big priority on being able to button my pants), risotto, paella, pasta (zillions of pasta recipes), dips and sauces and vegetables. I have other categories but I can’t explain my whole system in a blogpost.
Now my binder is organized but I only found one of the recipes I was looking for and had to go online and find replacement recipes. Looking for recipes online is a crapshoot. There are so many sploggy, stupid, terrible recipe sites online. I found a collard green recipe which is on the stove right now.
I need to go wash my dirty feet from the yard work.
Posted in doing it wrong, garden
3 Comments
This Is How I Do It
This is an ancient device I found when I moved computer cart for home improvement. I used it back in the olden days when I had a computer and telephone that had to be plugged into the wall.
I don’t have any knack for home improvement. I can see how a lot of it is just getting some practice but I hate doing it so much I don’t want to invest any more time into it than I have to. I was having a tough time wrapping my mind around how awful the windowsill looked after the first coat. I went online and looked up: Tips so your paint job doesn’t look like total crap.
I suspect it had something to do with drinking a couple of glasses of wine and then slapping on the paint as quickly as humanly possible. I didn’t find any tips that covered that precise set of facts.
In addition to the windowsill I had this small area on the wall where the paint looked wrinkled. I thought I could just sand it a little and then dab a little paint on it and it would look good as new. I sanded and it looked weird so I sanded more and then paint started peeling off in big strips. Obviously, that was the point when I opened the bottle of wine.
Then I got that patching stuff out and my putty knife and frosted the wall with it. There was more sanding but by the time I got the paint on it, it looked okay. I did a couple more coats on the windowsill and it looked less terrible.
By Monday the project was finished and I cleaned up the dust and put everything away. It doesn’t look too bad as long as you’re on the other side of the room and don’t put your glasses on.
Once I get the windowshade back on it, it will be good enough and at least it’s crossed off my “to do” list.
Here’s the basil from the seeds in my cracker box that I wrote about here.
The house next door to us turned into a rental about 8 years ago. The first tenants I barely ever saw. The next set were the ones with all the surly twenty-somethings coming and going and a mean barky dog and possible pathological lying. I can’t find the post to link to it. Ever since I had to move my blog I can never find anything.
Then we had the woman who just moved out.
A sign went up last week and a couple of days later was already gone. All I know so far is a Subaru with California plates and a loud child in the backyard.
This is everything I harvested today.
There has been no more sign of the mouse or mice and the traps remain empty. Good? Has he moved on? Gotten sneakier? Ran off to find his friends and bring them back? I thought maybe we could borrow the cat next door if it shows up again. Since he leaves his cat turds around the yard, he should at least do some work for me.
It’s Already Started
Another photo from Seattle trip.
I was out in the world gathering provisions at 10am and already the “it’s the end of the summer holiday weekend” crowd was out in full force, shoveling hot dog buns and giant boxes of beer into their carts. Trader Joe’s had a huge crowd of retirement aged ladies with sunglasses roaming through the aisles as if they were enjoying an art show. Also, TJs rearranged the wine aisle AGAIN. Normally I can stock my cart blind-folded. I don’t like to have to search around.
I’m working on my windowsill this weekend and that involves sanding so my computer needs to be moved out of here. I’m not sure if I’m going to set it up in another room or not. I have the laptop but my presence will be spotty.
Enjoy your weekend.
Posted in doing it wrong
2 Comments
Everything You Need to Know
From Seattle trip
On the way home from work I had to stop at the store and buy tampons, mouse traps and a 1/2″ drill bit.
Posted in doing it wrong
3 Comments
Best Dinner Ever, So Far
This is the best pumpkin I’ve got right now. One of two. The rest of the vines are going crazy with blossoms but I don’t see any pumpkins forming. The one in the photo is bigger than a softball but smaller than a soccer ball. I can’t think of a ball that it’s the size of.
The cucumber vines are going crazy with little cucumbers. In a couple of weeks I will be weeping about the over-abundance of cucumbers I have. I can’t wait.
I realized this afternoon that I haven’t made ice cream once this summer. Probably because it was only hot for about 5 days. I might make some next weekend just so I can say that I did. I have a lemon buttermilk recipe that’s delicious. I can’t the proper link right now.
I’ve taken a half dozen photos of this particular dahlia trying to capture the amazing color. This photo isn’t doing it either. The flowers are an amazing deep purple color with smoke on the water overtones.
My cooking magazine had a two page spread on “fool proof” pie dough.
Making pie dough is like trying to lose weight. You think every “fool proof” article is going to have the answer but after all is said and done, you have to do it right or it doesn’t work. This article didn’t have anything I haven’t heard before and the “trouble-shooting” section didn’t include any of my troubles.
“My pie dough is like sand no matter how carefully I measure everything and think good thoughts.”
My new dinner-plate dahlias are finally blooming. I don’t usually love the ones that look manufactured — but these are bigger than my head. It’s tough not to be impressed.
I’m working on the home projects. I’m fixing the wall in the shop so I can re-hang the shelf that fell down. It’s been really nice to hang out with my putty knife again. I wish all of life’s problems could be fixed with putty and a little sanding.
I bought some titanium anchor-tanker toggle whatsits that are supposed hold elephants if you use them to bolt your shelf to the wall. I think our wall is made of toilet paper and spit so it probably won’t work but I’m going to try anyway.
The big news is our amazing dinner we made tonight:
We grilled corn using Mark Bittman’s tips and couldn’t believe we’d never had such delicious corn before.
The other score was the Berriyaki Sauce we discovered at the market this morning. We were doing the rounds figuring out what we wanted to buy when Bob stopped at the River Wave Foods which we’d never been to before. She explained their products including this yummy sauce perfect for brushing on grilled salmon: our menu plan for tonight. We bought a jar.
It was so delicious it should have its own national holiday. Not too sweet, not too salty. Really amazing. I know what people are getting for xmas this year.
Posted in cooking, doing it wrong, garden
1 Comment
Mom’s Garden
Someday I’m going to actually write posts here again instead of posting a bunch of photos with breezy captions. I’m not really sure when that’s going to start so if you’re looking forward to it, no need to mark your calendar yet.
We were back in California last weekend for one more trip before summer winds down.
Figs = Food of the gods. If you’ve never had one outside of a newton, I highly recommend.
We had the family regular squash casserole plus another recipe that was basically a variation of this except with tomatoes, bell peppers and a white sauce. And grilled squash.
I don’t have a squash connection this year so I enjoyed every bit.
The view from Auntie and Uncle’s. That little building on the lower left is the school bus stop.
Posted in doing it wrong, garden, Orleans
1 Comment
My Prince
Guess who got married 14 years ago today?
That’s us with my parents. Look how young we look.
It’s pretty much impossible for me to look at photos of that day without making fun of Bob’s glasses and my doughy white arms.
But look how happy we are.
Oops. Updated to add: Photo courtesy of Aileen Wilder.
Posted in doing it wrong
5 Comments
Surprise
Look!
Yesterday while I was watering I decided to get rid of this chard plant that I intended to harvest when I was going to eat it. Then I never got around to eating it and it was almost big enough to be a shade tree.
When I pulled it out I found this hiding out.
Best moment of August so far.
Posted in doing it wrong, garden
4 Comments
