Little Things

It's funny, but even after years of feeling like you know yourself, you'll notice something new. Every time I put my kettle on, I have to line the duck up so that he faces squarely to one side of the other. He's never crooked on the stove when heating. I had never caught this in myself until my hand reached of its own accord to straighten the kettle after turning on the burner.

Holy Radio Silence Batman

Hey all, I know it's been a while. Two weeks to be precise. Have I been doing stuff? Not enough to not post. But it HAS been too hot to turn on the desktop in a room with little-to-no circulation. Hence, this post is on the iPad and boy does it suck typing on this thing when it likes to pretend I didn't type all the letters...

The flies that I cleared out of my kitchen are back, of course, so today has been the day of cleaning and disinfecting. I love running hot water in 100 degree weather.

Mister and I have been absolutely terrible at eating at home. It's been too hot for me to even think about boiling water for pasta dishes, turning the oven on, etc., and the gas for the grill is still in storage, of course (Mister mentioned this right about the time that he said that he hates my grill and we should get a charcoal one, yadda yadda).

In some brighter news, I have a new nephew! My stepsister went into labor this morning and at 11:01 am a son was born at 22", 6 lbs. 8 oz. I need to get a card in the mail...

Pasta Salad

Yesterday for dinner I made a huge batch of pasta salad based loosely upon this recipe. I used a pound of mezze penne, two handfuls of trimmed green beans, the remainder of the white beans from Mexican night, and one can of small black olives. The dressing was one-half cup of chive blossom vinegar, one garlic clove pasted with one tsp. salt, two tsp. Jack Daniels mustard all whisked together and with one-half cup of good olive oil streamed in while whisking. It turned out super tasty!

If you're wondering about the strange format of this recipe, I'm writing on the iPad and it's difficult to get things other than letters. :P

New Project!

I'm making a shawl! I'm pretty sure I'm going to wear it at my wedding... and every other day of my life! (I got over a year, I'm good.) Thus far it's about 12" across the top there.



It's hard to get a good close-up as between the yarn (merino lace weight wool, grey heather colored) and the density of the stitches it gets a wee bit fuzzy.

To give an idea of how much I have to do on it, each side of the shawl (it's crocheted top down) has a pattern of shells that increases by one each repeat. I'm on 7 shells, and I need about 25 per side. :-P

The pattern I'm using is called Fantasm and it looks MUCH crisper and cleaner in it's photos than in my creation! However, I'm not complaining as it's super fuzzy and cuddly.

Hot

It is hotter than hell out here these days. Now, I'm not gonna lie, this apartment is miles about the last in that it has great air flow, and that makes such a difference. Yesterday, Mister and I set the futon mattresses up in the living room and slept out there instead of in the bedroom. Aside from the jackhammers at 8am, it was a great situation with the breeziness of the living room AND away from the neverending 24/7 light of my neighbors that shines in my bedroom window.

(Ooh, a breeze just came through the house to me RIGHT NOW.)

The peas are completely dead. The fusillarium wilt or whatever did a job on it. My beans are middlin' (they have a lot of yellow leaves and I'm not quite sure why), the peppers are such prima donnas, and the tomatoes that AREN'T in cages are much happier than those in cages... but I've got blossoms on peppers, tomatoes and my vining critters as well -- so I should get some yields at the very least.

Mister and I are attempting to eat down the pantry. I find it hard, because I so much prefer snacks. I had to fight to buy cereal the other day! :-P In light of such decisions, we had mexican for dinner last night. Mexican rice (using some broth from the fridge and a hefty amount of adobo -- finally found a use for it!), beans (using half of an onion from the fridge) and tortillas and cheese (which we bought). I now have leftover rice, beans and tortillas.

I went to the Farmer's Market today and bought zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, grean beans (which I've already trimmed), a bag of salad mix (which I need to take care of asap), strawberries (which I've already eaten), cherries, blueberries and raspberries.

Since using the oven or the stove heats up the kitchen so much I feel that I should plan what I'm cooking today. I want to make some soda bread, I want to make some mini pies, I might make blueberry muffins, and I don't know what's for dinner yet. Hm...

Also Mister and I have undertaken a Project together. There is not one, but TWO nasty plants in my backyard (one is Trumpet Creeper and I haven't figured out the other yet, but it's main branches are 6" diameter...) that we want gone. I went out twice yesterday, and Mister once to go out and kill those plants. (Mister has no care for my herbs which makes me want to smack him with my knives.) We've gotten a lot of the green and branches out, and detached it forcibly from the garage, but we're no where near done. There are 3x as much green to remove as well as attempting to deal with the massive tap roots and other such pests.

In a similar note, I'm apparently allergic to something in the backyard. I know that it makes my hands itchy, so I wore gloves and a flannel going out the first time, and forgot the flannel the second -- I had hives all up and down my arms, so yes, I am allergic to something!

I Hate the Flute

No seriously, if I could kick one instrument out of life, it'd be flute. Why oh why did one of my budding-band-mates decide that Locomotive Breath was just the thing we need to be playing? Also, why do the only transcriptions for both the piano and the flute solos not cover the entirety of the solos?! The flute ends a good 4 bars before the end, and the piano ends at the repetitive part 45 seconds in (while also simplifying the part by eliminating grace notes and the like).

That and I can't even practice the piano part because I only have a midi keyboard with no speakers and Mister has not answered how the hell to get it to come out of the monitor speakers.

But yeah, I hate the flute.