Category Archives: doing it wrong

This weekend I celebrated 22 years with my sweetie. I had a work meeting in Seattle so I dragged him with me and after my professional responsibilities were finished we had a terrific time goofing off for a couple days.

The skies were smoky but we got a little bit of rain on the day we left.

We spent an evening sitting outside watching Khu.éex', a Tlingit funk band.

We took the ferry to Bremerton. Our plan was to do a quick lap and get back on the ferry to return to Seattle but we met a man going to a reunion of the U.S.S. Turner Joy a naval ship that has been turned into a museum.

He was really friendly and fun to talk to so we ended up going to the ship with him and touring the ship. He was all animated showing us his bunk and where he worked and telling us hilarious stories of his time on the ship. We had a such a great time talking to him.

We also walked along the waterfront a bit and walked around downtown. We went to the Seattle Art Museum.

We took the train for the trip. Bob was dying to go to 13 Coins for an early dinner before we got on the train back home. Thirteen Coins is one of those restaurants where everything on the menu is heavy duty meat/fried/sauce but super delicious. We arrived a little after 4pm and the place was insane with people and groups everywhere. We sat at the counter and watched them cook which was entertaining. I wanted to ask how close they were to capacity — at one point the guy working in front of us had 5 pans going with omelettes and pasta and picatta — but they didn’t have time to chat.

When we left someone told us Ed Sheeran was playing at the stadium which explained the chaos.

Unless there is an unforeseen snafu, Book 3 will be out on Tuesday, September 4. I just got the manuscript back and I need the weekend to finalize it for publication.

We bought a head of cabbage so Bob could make coleslaw. I showed him how to use the food processor and, not comprehending how much this would make, he shredded the entire head.

We have several giant metal bowls and one of them was filled with shredded cabbage. You can tell yourself that it doesn’t look that terrible until you start eating it and you realize that one portion of coleslaw goes a long way and barely makes a dent. It’s not like ice cream where you have to force yourself to stop eating it.

The good news is we’ve worked our way through about half this week.

ICYMI: Simone Biles came back to gymnastics competition. Even if you’re not into gymnastics you should watch this floor routine. I lost track of elite gymnastics for a long time and then this podcast got me back into it. Well, and I guess the horrible scandal brought it back to my attention. The organization is still pretty turded up but the US has so many incredible athletes and better coaching style so big future ahead.

I also did a bunch of cooking last weekend after so many weekends of being chained to the computer. I made potato salad using potatoes from my garden. I made a peach pie and I made cornflake milk ice cream — that pie and ice cream taste amazing together. I baked bread. It seems like I washed about 10 million dishes so I’m probably forgetting something.

This weekend we are going to be gone. So those of you at the edge of your seats waiting for Sweetheart Braves looks like I will have to you right after Labor Day.

My favorite lemon cucumbers! For the first time in years, I have an amazing crop. I picked about ten this week and there are at least four more out there. I eat them like an apple.

Is late summer here or is September considered late summer?

I still think of summer in terms of the school year rather than the calendar. I love when it feels like summer is winding down. It’s darker when I get up in the morning and at some point, the nights will feel cooler.

I still have only had a few tomatoes. The plants out front aren’t doing great and the ones in back are on the verge but still not producing ripe fruit.

I have a couple of funny volunteers that are the only ones doing anything and enough for a snack while I’m out in the garden and that’s it.

My neighbor offered zucchini from a huge out of control plant, and I’ve wanted to try this summer minestrone with pesto. (no zucchini photos to go with this statement)

I’ve also been meaning to try more savory pies, and the food section had this tomato pie with pimento cheese topping. I’m not sure about it, but I think it would be fun to try.

The garden becomes overwhelming quickly. I’ve got potatoes that need to be made into a salad. And I intended to grab some beets and cook for Chlodnik later this week. I see three different spellings in my browser and I can’t bring myself to link to one of these lifestyle cooking blogs with 87 photos and long stories. It’s cold buttermilk and beets with dill and cucumber and really yummy to one person who lives in my household.

Another one of my favorite things about this time of year is the goldfinches in the sunflowers. They go nuts all morning long, flying around the garden and they are so pretty and almost like a cartoon bird.

Our toilet has been running for months and this weekend I finally tackled it. It’s not a standard flusher, but you can find a movie showing you how to repair anything these days. I did the video and put it all back together and more running. I ran around the house like Rocky. Until about an hour later is started a new noise: SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH! SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH! SPHSHSHSHSHSHSH!

After additional research and testing, I decided it’s time to bring in a pro. It’s ten years old, let’s just replace it.

My sister-in-law and I have the fun task of going through my mother-in-law’s recipes and cookbooks. That isn’t sarcasm. I am looking forward to it.

This is a preview from a cookbook she already gave me.

She is a big orange sherbet fan.

I am not. I love cold frosty desserts but I’d rather have nothing than sherbet.

I loved the annotation on this recipe.

I am still plodding in place on this thing: .

The meter is not reflective of the epic amount of work I’m putting into this. I am now waking up at 2am and fretting about it. At one point I came to the conclusion that it would have to be scrapped except then what?