Requirements

I have decided that Mister and I need a scullery maid. Just one, we can put a cot up for her somewhere. But someone needs to wash our dishes and it sure isn't gonna be us!

Just Me!

So Mister is off to NYC to hang out/pick up his little sister who will be spending a few days with us. (She has class on Saturday, but not Friday or all next week.) With Mister gone this means several things: One, I keep forgetting to eat and I'm too cheap to go out with just myself. Two, I need to clean the ENTIRE house as it's a complete and utter hole, as my mother would say. Well, and three, I need to study for the two tests that I have tomorrow, but who cares about that? Not me! :-P

Now one of the things that super majorly needed cleaning was our bathroom. Lordy, I wouldn't allow a homeless man to see the inside of that bathroom, it was that dirty. Add to this the fact that Mister trimmed his beard over the sink this morning after I left and I know this without him telling me (read: he left his beard all over the sink). That, and I never actually clean the tub (disgusting I know), and it was getting pretty bad and there was mildew on my curtain! That was a clear sign that I need to attack that.

I know that there are cleaners that can use that massive amount of white vinegar that I have, so I looked into it a bit, and most of them seemed to involve either straight vinegar, or vinegar, water and an essential oil. As my bathroom needs it that badly, I just used straight vinegar in a rinsed out spray bottle. I sprayed vinegar on the shower curtains, let it sit for 5-10 minutes and rinsed with hot water. On the one curtain that was all it needed (although I should probably take a sponge to both of them as they feel a bit slimey... ick). On the other, there were a few spots and the entire hem still needed some work. I discovered that the problem with the hem was there was a factory fold an inch from the bottom that I hadn't noticed when I first put the curtain up. So I unfolded it and sprayed. Rinsed with hot water again et voilà, it's beautiful. (We have clear plastic curtains to let the light in, so it's quite obvious when they're dirty.)

Tackling the bottom of the tub was a different story. What I wound up doing (and it worked beautifully) was this: spraying the tub with vinegar. Using a wet sponge, apply baking soda and scrub a bit. In the worst spots, it didn't even require any scrubbing. It just wiped off. The color of that rinse... ick. But hot water makes it all go away and now it's beautiful as well!

One of the few nice things about Mister being away is I can blast Gloria Estefan while cleaning. :-P A surprising side effect of that is wondering if the keyboard solo is actually my (fairly energetic) ring tone!

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Update: I've also now made 1 quart, 1 jelly jar and half of a jelly jar of applesauce. Super productive on the non-studying front!

Last Post for October! Household Updates

We had our first snow this past weekend! It snowed a little bit Friday night (it was mostly rain -- horrible, cold, grey rain), and Saturday, it snowed enough that we had our first snow plows. That's right, we had 2" of snow stick to the ground. It of course melted when the sun came out Sunday :-P. Apparently, there are hundreds of homes without power due to the snow. Say what? How can NO ONE have been prepared for snow in October? Seriously folks, it ain't hard. It's kinda a fact of life when you live in the north east US. If you tried to pull that kind of thing in Syracuse or Buffalo they'd laugh you out of town. But that's another story. Mister and I also only turned our heat on the day before any snow hit. We're just awesome like that. :-D

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I started working on the muslin for my wedding dress. Let's just say that I suck at pleats and measuring the amount of fabric required. At one point, I threw the thing down and told Mister I was done. When I explained that it was too big, he inquired further.

Mister: Well, how big is it supposed to be?
Me: Me-sized.
Mister: How big is it?
Me: (*holds out hands 3' apart)
Mister: You could fit two of you in that!

I'm pretty sure it's because I think it requires three inches of fabric to make one inch of pleated fabric, and it winds up only needing two inches of fabric. But that's just my suspicion. I'm now tacking down pleats and seeing what I've got left after that.

Thankfully, this is the hardest part I think... It's a pleated bodice that connects to a fitted waist, and a full skirt that goes to just below the knee. There will be additional tricksy-ness for the actual dress as I'm doing super cute things with... uh... pleats... (maybe I should rethink :-P)

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Basil and Pepper are cuddling in the kitchen currently and I may actually get more peppers. I kept meaning to bring Pepper in, and forgetting, and when Sunday, after the snow melted and I saw Pepper acting so happy I figured I'd bring him in. He has little pepper plants set! We'll see how this goes.

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Still haven't heard from L about the money she owes us. We forgot to call her last Friday, so I've reminded Mister to call her and let her know that we're filing papers tomorrow. (It was supposed to be today.)

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Bumped into a friend Saturday, as she was on her way back from picking up her sister at the train station. Wound up grabbing a meal with them, and while waiting for a table, it came up that my friend, M, had never seen Dirty Dancing. As this cannot be born, a movie night was had on Sunday after she got out of gamelan practice. Mister made his awesome Boeuf Bourgignon and we had goat cheese of some variety. M cannot have wheat, gluten, cow milk products, or chicken. Mister and I have rolled with this and we often cook delicious things for her (I made her cake for her birthday last week 'cause I rock ;-) ). Yet, every single time we cook something that we find quite obvious and simple (chili, beef stew, cabbage and bean soup, rice flour cake, etc.), she always seems quite surprised and shocked that we've a) cooked for her and b) found something delicious she can eat. Mister even commented to me last night: 'I think she doesn't really cook much or eat much variety...'. Which is quite probably true. I think what makes it perhaps different is that we're not going out and buying gluten-free wanna-be-wheat products or vegan cheese or what-have-you. Now, these are still quite simple meals -- I wouldn't call chili difficult in any sense of the word -- but perhaps it's something that she never thinks of? I dunno. Extrapolating with too few data points.

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Had another friend, M (too many Ms!), over Saturday night for cards, and the conversation turned to reed making. At which point he proclaimed that it probably wasn't too hard and he could make them. I immediately pulled my kit out and put him to the test. He managed to make a functioning (not perfect) reed in 30 mins, and snapped two others due to a) not soaking b) not sharpening the knife often enough or c) not appreciating the delicate nature of cane. I call that a success. He can work in my reed sweatshop ANY time! :-D

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Mister and I realized something last night: half of the reason why the kitchen hadn't been getting clean of late is because we kept trying to say it was this person's job or that person's job. When really, we work better when the two of us are in there, and not getting in each other's way. He was cooking and I was washing dishes, and washing what he needed, and cleaning the counter space that he needed -- when we both try to wash, or both clean, we wind up sniping at each other because we work quite differently, yet similarly in one way: we both are brusque and demanding when in work-mode. This has led to quite a few exciting fights.

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I'll also post today on school updates, as I haven't been posting much of late.

Schedule

Mister and I had a bit of brainstorming Saturday, and this is what we came up with.

Monday: clean out fridge, take out trash, buy groceries

Tuesday: wash floors

Wednesday: (no chores)

Thursday: clean bathroom, new towels

Friday: (no chores)

Saturday: (no chores)

Sunday: sweep floors, dust baseboards and surfaces, wash laundry, put laundry away

As we often have guests on the weeked, or go out ourselves, we wrote in a break. Wednesdays are also no chores because we get home late that day.

We also put together a basic rotating meal plan.

Monday: vegetarian

Tuesday: pasta and salad

Wednesday: breakfast for dinner (Mister's in charge)

Thursday: crock pot (I'm in charge)

Friday: roast chicken or casserole (I'm in charge)

Saturday: no plan

Sunday: soup or stew

We'll do a roast chicken twice a month or so because it's some of the best bang-per-buck options. Tuesdays are pasta because we have band practice, and it needs to be fast. Lunches will be leftovers, PBJ, fruit, trailmix, etc.

Victory!

I was approved for unemployment! I will soon be getting weekly payments. I only wish it was coming out of my former employer's pockets... (bitter? Nooooo...)

Mister and I need to go through and budget, but I feel that we'd be fine even without the unemployment. The only problem I have is I get super bored while at home all day. As I type this I have mucho cleaning to do (Mister's sister S is visiting for the weekend), yet I have zero inclination to do so. Mayhap I'll bribe myself with a mug of tea...

House Cleaning

Mister and I are not what one might call experts in keeping house. We're both fairly ADD, lazy, and after all, it's our own mess! But we've been eating out (or ordering pizza) for average one meal a day for a week or two. This is Not Acceptable to either of us.

Yesterday, Mister pinpointed that the kitchen being a mess was part of the problem, and cleaning it would solve many things (not the least giving us a clean kitchen). So with a will, he set to work.

Myself, feeling very discouraged by the kitchen, decided that it was time for me to tackle the Pile 'o Laundry, both clean and dirty, that was our bedroom. After four hours of work, we emerged victorious with a nearly clean kitchen and a nearly neat bedroom. It being 1am, we figured it was bedtime -- so we read until 4am. :-P

This morning, I woke up feeling like I wanted to do something. Heavens forbid that I work on the project of massive amounts of work, so I decided to tackle the pile of fruit that was growing sadder and sadder by the day.

The pear was a complete loss. Rotted clear through.

But the bananas became banana bread. The apples are becoming applesauce. The clementines are becoming marmalade. I consider this productive! It's amazing what a clean kitchen makes you want to do!

(There will be pics, but as I'm still in the process of making these, I'll post later.)

Plans and Minutiae

First order of business: shake this bad cold that I picked up last week. Did it happen before my two days off so that I could recover? Nope! Happened in the evening of my last day off, so that I could be nice and sick (and incomprehensible due to laryngitis) while at either of my two sales jobs. "(*cough hack) (*in a croak) Would you like to (*cough hack) try some lotion?"

Yeah. Loads of fun.

Items to get accomplished: clean the house. It was beautiful until we had a week of houseguests. And the LL gets really fidgity when thinking about the desolation our apartment MUST be in, and would like to know when it will be clean for the R.E. agent to show it. If the LL had actually TALKED to us about this, instead of slipping a note, I would have given the standard answer for showing a lived-in apartment: 24 hours notice before ALL showings. Period. No exceptions. It will always be clean, it will always be ready, and we will always be out of the way.

EDIT: Left a note for LL stating exactly that. Only without the "if you'd actually talked to us" bit. :-P And slightly less bitchy.

I really don't think I have any other specific plans to get accomplished other than what will fall under the umbrella of "cleaning the house". Kitchen, living room, and put laundry away.

Although, as an aside, it WAS really nice to see that my family had the same reaction to my LL's ridiculous rules and regulations: they wanted to flout them. And since they were normally noise restrictions, flout them LOUDLY. :-P

Holiday Preps

Just a few notes and pics of what Mister and I have been up to these past couple days (and so much of it tonight of course...)



Got around to pressing and starching that scarf -- what a difference it makes! Even though I KNOW it makes a difference, it always surprises me.



Free, on-the-side-of-the-road scarf has now been washed by hand and is drying on our window screens.



Just about half of a batch of dough waiting for pierogi filling (sadly, I ran out of flour, so these are 1/2 whole wheat flour...)



Lookit the cute lil' pierogi! Who's a nommy dumpling? You!



Me, with my ghetto sifter, making chocolate cake.



OM NOM NOM CHEX MIX. On a side note, it's really difficult to get them to crisp when you use too much butter...



Working on the first of five crocheted loofas. Luckily, I don't need this done until Monday or so.



Happy holidays folks, and may all of your preps be as tasty as mine.

Food/Meal Design

So as winter is coming on, I'm buying squashes at the Farmer's Market, and Mister and I had a spate of eating out for every meal, I figured it's time to go through what I'd like to be doing food-wise for the winter.

Pantry Items
Starch
-- rice (maybe -- Mister is less of a fan than I am)
-- pasta
-- oatmeal
-- any other grains in bulk that look good
-- tapioca
Protein
-- red lentils
-- brown lentils
-- up to five kinds of beans
-- split peas
-- nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios)
Other
-- dried fruit
-- quick meal foods
Canned
-- applesauce
-- pickles
-- tomato sauce
-- baked beans
-- canned tomatoes
-- stock
-- salsa
-- nut butters
-- jelly

Meat(in freezer)
-- two rings of kielbasa at all times
-- 1-2 roasts
-- 1-2 chickens
-- two pork loans (one cut into chops)
-- ground beef
-- sausages of several varieties for soups
-- bacon?



Misc.
Root Veggies
-- 2 dozen squash (have one a week)
-- potatoes
-- cabbage
-- parsnips
-- rutabaga
-- carrots
Fridge/Freezer
-- frozen corn
-- frozen peas
-- eggs
-- milk
-- cheeses (esp. cheddar, mozz., ricotta)
Other
-- bread
-- coffee
-- tea
-- sugar
-- flours/starches
-- breadcrumbs


So there's the food planning, some menu planning:

-- eat one squash a week
-- aim for casseroles/soups/crockpot/make-ahead meals
-- eat the things that I've made (*cough pickles cough)
-- minimize food waste
-- maximize food storage (without Mister's knowledge if necessary)
-- use less meat/dairy

Pretty Kettle

This is my new kettle. I got it for my birthday back in June, but as I loved my shiny red kettle, it hadn't come out of its box.

Then there was the day that Mister and I came home to a broken kettle. Come home to? How does that work? Damned cleaning lady broke my kettle. And then threw out the pieces so that I couldn't repair it. I, for one, am pissed. This is not the first time that we've come home and been infuriated by something the cleaning lady had done (her first three visits where she reorganized our furniture every time, or the time that she "trimmed" the rug pad with what looks like a key [and it's too short now!], etc.).

But! Pretty duck kettle!

Storage/Pantries

This is all of the "pantry" space in this apartment. Because of this major lack of storage, the tea and random stuff is stored on top of the fridge,



pickles, extra sauce, sodas (basically if it's sealed) are stored under the sink,



root cellar veggies are stored in a basket also under the sink,



and we have a fruit bowl on the dining room table.



I really, really would prefer proper pantry space, and frankly, I'm not above storing 3 gallon buckets in the closet. I just feel that Mister is NOT a fan of such things. I think I'll start small, with stuff that only I eat. I think that 7-8 of the cardboard canisters of oatmeal will fit in one of those buckets, so I'll get one of those filled, and keep it in my closet (of course, I'm not fully moved in...)

So my plans involving food storage for this winter are: bring my food stores from my old apartment (black eyed peas, lentils, rice), get a 3 months supply of oatmeal (1 bucket), incorporate pickles and applesauce into meals, get more storage for beans.

Laundry Day

Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought that today was laundry day. My LL is also doing all of her laundry. And won't be done until about 4:30.

Man, I am feeling so lazy today, knowing that I can't do laundry yet, but not wanting to clean...

Pillow

Since I was thinking on it, I put a pillowcase upon the pillow that I am going to use for Mister's kid sis. I did this ahead of time, because I love the way that I put pillowcases on. I'm not allowed to do it for our bed, as Mister grumbles about how uncomfortable he thinks it is, etc., etc.



Look at that cute, adorable, plump little pillow! You'd never guess that it had a King sized pillow case on it!



Here's where it's all neatly tucked in, and smoothed down. I don't talk about it much, but my first job was as a housekeeper with my best friend. She showed me how to tuck pillowcases like that -- and it really makes a difference, appearance-wise. Because I shake the pillow all the way down, it also plumps it, and tucking the end in keeps that lovely plumpness.

... I am overly proud of this, which is why I wrote this post. :-P